I am outraged!

"AIG spent US$440,000 on spa, resort after bailout, lawmakers say"
The Financial Post

"Need a Job? $17,000 an Hour. No Success Required."
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF The New York Times

It's time I set up my soapbox again and let off some steam! Quite frankly I don't even know where to begin with all the news that continues to surface out of our economic situation. Let's face it, we ALL knew that corporate greed existed and it was excessive, but to this extent???

It really goes beyond anything that I can say or give my opinion on, I think most of us would agree, this is disgusting!

Care to read on ....

http://www.financialpost.com/most_popular/story.html?id=866284

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/opinion/18kristof.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

The Tipping Point

So this morning I went to http://www.youtube.com/ just for kicks, as I usually do. One of their latest top picks was this stare down video with Jessica Alba. Okay, so curiousity got the best of me, and I watch the video. It has a catchy tune, it has a good beat for my walks, and I end up trying to find it. I find it on you tube, and then start reading the comments (another thing I do for kicks), and see that many people were doing just as I was as a result of the stare down video. It brings me to this thought .... was her video on you tube, with over 3 MILLION views, the tipping point for the popularity of the song?

Malcolm Gladwell's explanation of his book, The Tipping Point: "I think the answer to all those questions is the same. It's that ideas and behavior and messages and products sometimes behave just like outbreaks of infectious disease. They are social epidemics. The Tipping Point is an examination of the social epidemics that surround us."

I'd like to see more positive tipping points. How's that for a challenge? What idea, behavior, or message could we spread in that infectious way? Think about that ...... I know I will.

Zero Tolerance and Don't Blame Me

I have three things to say ..... GROW UP .... GET OVER IT ... and stop pointing the finger in the other direction! When are people going to start being accountable again?????

Take for instance our economical woes. Yes, I will be the first to agree that there were less than "straight up" mortgage lenders out there that over-qualified buyers and "re-fi's". Let me say this, as a Realtor, shame on those of you in this industry who knowledgeably put your clients in those situations. Having said that, shame on you "general populus" who knew that it seemed too good to be true, but did it anyways. Like any wave it's only crests for so long, then ebbs into shore and then takes some shore back to sea. This is but a small part of our problem, but no doubt is a large contributor to it.

Now as far as zero tolerance goes .... I'll say it again .... GROW UP .... GET OVER IT! Like the proverbial hot coffee lawsuits against major food chains; are you kidding me? How could you not think that your coffee would be served HOT? Okay so old news, but the best illustration, don't you agree? It seems that "we" have become so intolerant of the less important issues in our lives, and "we", without a doubt, need to become more intolerant of other issues. Take the "in your face" sex sells that surrounds us. I'm an adult; yes, sex sells. But my eyes are not the only ones seeing this, and when 10 year old boys tease my daughter and her girlfriends by asking them if "they are going to have sex with each other" ... now that is something to not be tolerated.

That right there is my "zero tolerance". So "don't blame me" if I coming knocking on your door to talk to your son for behaving like that. How's that for the proper perspective!!!

What are people thinking?

So, I'm in a parking lot today. After some shopping I return to my vehicle to find the vehicle parked to my left, on my driver's side, is grossly crooked in it's space; so much in fact that it's rear end is IN my parking space. Did this driver think for one moment of the impact that they would have on the vehicle that they had so ignorantly crowded? I was stunned. I was disgusted. Sadly this is not the first time I've experienced this in life. Some years ago, as a first time mother, I returned to my vehicle with my infant in a carrier to not be able to enter my vehicle from the infringed upon doors. And this vehicle today that ruffled my feathers; it was a large over-sized 4x4. So I ask, why, since I choose to drive a mid-sized vehicle, do I have to be inconvenienced by you the driver of your over-sized vehicle, that ignorantly crowds me??? Perhaps as a child you were disciplined for coloring outside the lines and this is your vindication .....