fun things first, then rage

Before I climb up on my soapbox and rant, I will try to use my “inside voice” and politely share a few things.

Thing #1 – You can read about why I wrote CHAINS on the Simon & Schuster website.

Thing #2 – Because Simon & Schuster is a totally excellent publisher, you can find a CHAINS Reading Group Guide on their website, too.

Thing #3 – Bookavore weighs in on the demise of the Minx imprint and how publishers might be missing an important segment of teen readers.

Thing #4 – I’m putting together my book tour presentation about CHAINS with Apple’s Keynote software and I am loving it so much, I want to dedicate the rest of my life to making Keynote presentations. Seriously. Ditch your PC and switch to a Mac. Today. (Thank you, Officemouse, for nudging me to get this software.)

Thing #5 – I went for my first post-race run yesterday and I have definitely aggravated my left ITB which in turn is tormenting my left knee. I have been stretching it gently many times a day since the race, but it is one stubborn tendon. Do any of you have experience with this?

Thing #6 – I would like Congress to pass a bill that allows Americans to “do over” the month of September. I am currently running a 700 billion minute deficit and I need some help.

Ooops, the rant is beginning. I cannot hold back any longer. If you aren’t in the mood, you should leave the room now.

::climbs up on soapbox::

Ahem.

Is anyone else worried about the lack of checks and balances on the authority of the Treasury Secretary under the proposed socialization bailout of Wall Street? And is anyone else as angry as me that the same people who don’t think we can afford – or should even consider – providing basic health care to all Americans because that would be socialist, are in such a gol-darned hurry to bail out the irresponsible greedy SOBS who were permitted to bring our economy to the brink of disaster?

And why does it all have to happen so quickly? When politicians want to make not-quite-Constitutionally approved decisions this fast, I get very nervous. And angry.

If you’re feeling the same way, please write to your Congressional representatives today. And don’t forget to register and vote!

27 Replies to “fun things first, then rage”

  1. My first period honors kids asked me about this on Friday morning. According to this week’s edition of TIME, the $700b bailout could pay for ever NBA, NFL and MLB team, buy them a new stadium and pay each player $191m for a year. That’s disgusting. My kiddos are getting extra credit for proof that they wrote Senate majority leader Reid, who just happens to be our senior Senator.

  2. If you’re feeling the same way, please write to your Congressional representatives today.

    Hahaha! Yeah, I feel the same way you do. I wrote to both NJ senators and the Congressmen from my home and school district (even though I’m registered to vote in my school district). I asked them if the government was going to pay off my 15 grand in student loans for me, since they’re so willing to bail out the greedy CEOs. Ugh, it makes me so upset. I’m only 20, so this is my and my peers’ money we’re talking about!

  3. I join your rant against so-called socialized healthcare while we’re practicing corporate socialism. I keep apologizing to my children for this horrible mess they’ll be dealing with for generations. Sigh.

    As for the IT Band injuries: I had the very same thing with my left hip and knee. Rest is very important but the best thing for me was a deep massage. I’d recommend getting one ASAP because the longer it goes on, the more you’ll compensate on the right side and get messed up there, too. I learned that the hard way. The other thing that works very well on a daily basis is this:
    http://www.colonialmedical.com/product.php?productid=16984
    (the 36″ x 6″ cylinder). Get on your side on top of cylinder and slowly roll between hip and knee. It can be painful but even a few seconds of doing it really stretches those tendons.

    Feel better!

  4. yes, I agree with your rant completely. (and so does everyone I have talked with, whatever their political persuation). Continued ranting ensues: I say, if a “bailout” is really needed, they should do what is done in bankruptcy court: pull back in million dollar salaries and “golden parachutes,” and other unnecessary expenditures on wall street for a certain period prior to the crisis (in bankruptcy court, these are called fraudulent transfers because the debtor knows bankruptcy is on the way, just as wall street must have known). Create a bailout account from these funds. If ordinary Americans are held accountable for their financial decisions when they go bankrupt (even if those decisions involve an uninsured individual undergoing necessary medical treatment), shouldn’t wallstreet be held to the same standards?
    Sorry about the rant. I will be writing to my representatives today, perhaps to request a bailout of my law school loans. 🙂
    –Lettie

  5. Once again, we see the result of self-serving politics, rather than solid government. Both Clinton and Bush propped up the Fed to create this disaster, which has led to an outrageous escalation of housing costs over the past decade, and now, it’s come to bite everyone in the butt. You’re right–we can’t afford decent health care, but we can keep the golden parachutes ready to unfurl?

    Personally, while I see the need to keep our economy close to stable, I don’t see any reason why those billions can’t go directly to the homeowners who were compelled by the building, banking, and credit industries to pay outrageous prices for housing and to take out insanely high mortgages to afford it.

    Then again, if the government is going into business, how about buying a few dozen HMOs while we’re at it?

  6. Sigh.
    It’s just flat out pathetic.
    And both Dems and Repubs are at fault (from as much as over fifteen years ago.)

    It’s especially disturbing that nobody has stepped up and demanded (or even begun the process of….which I would think they have the power to do—)
    an investigation of all the CEOs who were “on watch” in every one of these institutions the past few weeks and not only fire them but FINE them and freeze their bank accounts.
    Hell, seize their (multiple) homes and see how they like being homeless.

    And remember that no matter what the vote is today….
    we STILL have hundreds of illegals flooding into the country every month
    we STILL have to pay 10 BILLION a month in Iraq
    we STILL don’t have any decent health care for the large percentage of working Americans (and their families) who need it

    Oh heck- the list is endless.
    Good thing I have to work til I’m 85 before I can retire or else this thing would never get paid off.

  7. ITB

    ITB – oh, that has been a major problem for me. Some of the things I learned from my physical therapist

    – keep a constant level of an OTC antiinflammatory in your body while you are in the throes of this.
    – freeze water in a Dixie cup and then after you run, lie down on your good side, tear down the sides, and run the ice quickly up and down from your hip to you knee, circling at the knee and hip as well.
    – you can massage the parts of your knee that are really tender – the trigger points.

    Good luck!

  8. Okay so the Bill failed and the sky hasn’t fallen…..yet.

    But now they are all running back and forth pointing fingers at each other like stupid little 7 year old rugrats who really need a good smack in the head and should be told to grow up.
    And the pathetic part is that (according to the news) a good number of these very same “leaders” took political donations
    from the very same institutions who CAUSED this crisis that needs to be taken care of.

    What happened to the old days when the Senator went to work and passed laws for the good of the common people and took home his paycheck that came FROM those same common people?
    Getting rid of the lobbyist system would go a long way towards getting this country back on track.
    Will it happen?
    I doubt it.

    It’s a shame that these guys used to be role models for our kids (right up there with sports figures until the steroid problem hit the news)

    No wonder our kids are screwed up.

  9. We’re reeling in Australia, too.

    You know what sucks? What happens on Wall Street impacts the rest of the world, too. It has a direct impact on the ASX, but there is nothing I can do about it. Who am I going to write angry letters to? It’s one of the reasons I get so mad when some people think that those outside the United States should have no interest in your presidental election campaign.

    http://business.theage.com.au/business/shares-recoup-some-losses-20080930-4qk1.html

  10. I’ll be in a distinct minority here, but I disagree with you on the bailout. The government has been forced to regulate fraud and greed in our past history and apparently missed the boat on market regulation, particularly hedge funds, selling short, and good loan decisions. (What were these people thinking?) Now I think they’ll have to do SOMETHING to restore confidence in the market. In the meantime, my retirement plan has taken a hit, the foundation where I work has taken a hit, and the rest of the world markets are sinking with us.

  11. We agree on more than you think.

    The biggest problem I had with the proposed bill voted down yesterday was the incredible amount of power it gave to the Treasury Secretary – with no oversight and accountability. He is one of the guys who got us in this mess in the first place. And where did he work before he came to Washington? He was the chairman and CEO of the investment firm, Goldman Sachs.

    Swift action does not necessarily mean proper action. Yes, we are all going to be deeply affected by this. My measly retirement fund went up in smoke yesterday. If the government is going to hand out money, I think it should go to the working families who are being hurt by the greed, not a bailout that will guarantee compensation and golden parachutes to people who have more houses than children.

    I think the Congress was trying to snow us by ramming through the legislation. Several of the very powerful elected officials were active participants in the deregulation of the financial markets. They need to bail out these broken companies to avoid the spotlight on the money they took from the lobbyists.

    When a house crumbles because it was built on a foundation of sand, you don’t prop it up and shovel more sand under it. You flatten it, and rebuild on rock.

    We need to be watching out for each other – all Americans – as we take our government and our economy back from the corrupt, evil-minded people who stole it from us.

  12. Yes, you’re right. We do agree on more than I first thought. And I have real concern for all of the elected officials who don’t have the faintest clue about how the economy works. Where are they getting their information? From the Treasury Secretary. Meanwhile, they’re getting swamped with mail from home telling them to do nothing. There HAS to be a middle ground here.

  13. I need some advice (please)…… My teenage daughter writes beautifully and her teachers are saying she should consider a future in journalism or writing etc. When I try to discuss this with her all I manage to get is “I hate to write”. Did you know from an early age that you wanted to be a writer/author? How do I cultivate such a gift without turning her away from it? You know how it is when you are a teenager, the more your mother wants you do something the less you want to do it.

  14. I have a strong opinion about this, so brace yourself.

    Leave her alone. Please!

    I had no idea I was going to be an author when I was in high school. I didn’t major in English or creative writing or journalism (though I wound up working at newspapers for years). But I found my path. If my parents had dragged me to this path, I can guarantee that I would never have become an author.

    There are countless ways your daughter’s gift can unfold. Please give her the space to let her explore them on her own. Fill your home with books, art, music, and good food, and keep the “You Must Be A Writer” pressure locked out.

    If she does become a writer, please don’t turn her bedroom into a guest room, because she’ll probably move back home to save money.

  15. The stage mother in me has been bound gagged and stuffed in the closet never to appear again! I am officially “backing off”. Thanks for your reply it is valued beyond belief.

  16. I have pretty strong feelings about this mess, too. My retirement funds have just about vaporized but I know in time the stock market will rally.

    No, I don’t think we should be bailing out the people who’ve been erecting a house of cards for the past few years- namely the banks. The banks have not been doing their job. They’ve lent to people without jobs, without asking people for down payments on new houses. We used to have firewalls between the S & L institutions, the commercial banks and the investment banks but with the deregulation of the banks, those firewalls were dissolved which helped contribute to this fiasco. John McCain was one of the people who supported deregulation and so is partly responsible for the mess we’re in.

    Without some kind of help, though, it’s going to be nearly impossible to get a loan. There are businessmen – honest, hard working people – who depend on loans. My friend Barry is in the construction business and without loans, his business would be in a straight jacket.

    I’m not sure what the solution is. The problem is complex and far-reaching. Perhaps we could just help out the people who put money down on loans and have jobs to help pay them back.

    And yes, why can we bail out private institutions while denying our citizens health care? Our government doesn’t care much about the little people (as we witnessed during Katrina).

    Sorry to ramble on.

    Stella

  17. Never dealt with ITB but I do have a severely screwed up ankle that has several torn ligaments and tendons. As well as a bone chip and a little bit of nerve damage.

    The thing I’ve found that works the best when it’s flairing up is to alternate ice and heat. Deep Heating ointment (it’s like Icy Hot but stronger and cheaper. My ankle is so trashed that I can’t even feel IcyHot on it when my ankle is wet. FYI I don’t recommend doing that because it will bring tears to your eyes normally.) When it gets really bad I also alternate Tylenol and Advil (or used to but can’t take NSAIDs any more due to drug interactions with Li). Because they affect diffent nerve recepetors you can alternate them every 2 hours as opposed to having to wait 4-6 hours. I wouldn’t recommend doing that long term and it can cause some stomach discomfort. I usually don’t/didn’t do it for more than a few days. Hope that helps.

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