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= Muse wanted, Pittsburgh area. For details, check here: [link]
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= My OMP Portfolio (Model/Photographer Site): [link]
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You can see the flag-draped coffins [HERE]

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Journal Entry Begins Below:
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Wow!
I couldn't stop watching the final hour. It was better than a ball game, or reality tv

The DOW hit 8600 so hard, it bounced, then fell even lower -- over 100 points -- after the bell.

It closed at just over 570 down, and within about 10 minutes, had fallen to almost 679, almost 6 points below the intra-day low "bounce" point about a half hour earlier.

News writers couldn't keep up. Headlines which usually lag, were just laughable. Finally, they said "Fell below 9000" and waited out how far below 9000.

It's funny (in a sad way) that after looking at the graphs of the past 10 years, and the historial graph back to the 20's, the "low" point is probably going to be a bit above 4,000, almost definitely below 5000.

If you look, the last real "growth" was at the end of the Clinton years. Bush's graph is virtually flat, with the dip after 9/11 and the blip in 2007 cancelling each other out. It all seemed to start in the Regan years, and that is when I first noticed home prices (I was living in NY at the time) getting out of hand. Houses that sold for $60k 20 years before, were going for 700k. Where did all that "wealth" come from? No where, apparantly, and we are all paying for 20 years of greed, and averice of what can only be said to be "biblical" proportions -- with the devil keeping his finger on the scale. I kept saying you can't create that much money on paper, give it to someone to spend, and expect things to continue. We've had several "corrections" since, but only because the geographical areas moved across country. Now we are paying for it all. People robbed, stole, lied, cheated, and stole (worth repeating) on a scale that has not even begun to be imagined. The "trillions" of dollars that are said to have disappeared from pension plans in the past year, is *nothing* -- and worse, it *never* existed!! *BUT* we allowed *some* people -- executives, politicians, big business, etc -- to actually SPEND that money on themselves. The debt *always* has to be repaid. And we will be paying for a long, long time.

A "growth" economy ideal was the biggest fallacy of all. Growth can't be sustained. At some point, like a tumor, or a fungus, or plant, it collapses in on itself and dies. We can't expand beyond the limits of this planet (except in the movies). So "growth" is finite. Economics needed to be based on a steady-state philosophy, NOT a huge growth philosophy that fueled the dot-com boom, and where *most* of the "wealth" generated from the inflated mortgages got eaten up. Did you ever wonder *where* all that "start up" money came from? Well, now you do.

The current administration has been the most evil in memory, and rivals many cultures long gone and collapsed. They lied about the real state of the economy -- intentionally! They *CHANGED* how statistics were reported early on in the administration to give the illusion things were good -- or even getting better. They *STOLE* and committed fraud, and should be held accountable.

But, they are not the "original gangstas". They are accomplices after the fact, who covered it up to get the last bit of 'free money' for themselves, and let their corporate CEO friends bail out with HUGE compensation packages before the shit really hit the fan. Look who retired and got in in the past few years. Don't focus on those rats deserting a sinking ship, or who were left holding the bags. Look at the ones who put the holes in the boats, and handed out the bags.

I just couldn't believe what was going on, and am more convinced we have not hit bottom yet, nor are we near it. The more money we allow politicians to throw at the problem -- without throwing people into jail (get all the non-violent pot smokers out, and make room for the white-collar ciminals who put 10's of thousands out of their homes, their pensions, their businesss, ....) -- the bigger the problem will get. Money isn't the answer. I'm not sure what is, but it has to do more with the fundamentals of what and who are people, and what is society as a whole. Refinance debt -- don't play accounting games. *NOW* they say they can't refinance 80% of debt out there, because of the many layers of how it was packaged -- and aren't even sure who owns it all!

Oh well. I'm tired. Just had to say someting.

Scott
aka Bodyartist.

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Deviants I've Worked with: