$700 Billion Bailout A Shot In The Dark?

I'm not going to pretend I really understand what is going on with our economic health here in the US. I know it has something to do with lenders making financially suicidal loans to people who were either greedy, or weren't willing to understand what they were getting in to. I know the nation is in a dark hour and based on what the government does it could get a lot worse. I know I don't trust the government, especially congress, to do the right thing primarily because the "right" thing is a hard thing.

I'm not convinced the bailout is the answer. Do the american people really benefit from it? It seems to me it just takes the american people down the same road we'd be bailing the financial institution out of---spending money we don't have. And it's not just the financial institutions we'd be bailing out. We'd be taking on the debt of cities and towns that have over spent. We'd be bailing out labor unions and others.

And where did congress get the $700 billion figure? Did they do their due diligence to figure out what they're buying? ABSOLUTELY NOT! They haven't had the time. (BTW, why are they in such a hurry?) Apparently they pulled the number out of their... um... hat. Here is a quote concerning the figure from Forbes:

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

Well, $700 billion is a BIG number alright. But is it big enough? And if it doesn't work, how much more will they need in a few months?

I'm afraid we need to bite the bullet and take the correction now (Boy, I hope I'm prepared) because the alternative is Socialism. And, if that time comes it will be time for us to stand and rend our coats.

Brock & Melanie Preview

Today I had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of Brock and Melanie. The following image is one of my favorites from the day. I'll post a few more in a day or two.

Lance Armstrong Is Back

Lance Armstrong is back and is getting ready for next year's tour. The rumor has been out there for a bit, but here is a video that I would consider official. (Sorry, couldn't embed it.) For me, this will make the next year a long one; July won't come fast enough. I enjoyed the Tour this year, but seeing Lance return will get me to watch, just to see if he can do it. Question is, can he do it without George Hincapie?

Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac Bailout

Congrats, we are all the new proud owners of the mortgage industry and the debt that comes along with it. From what I've read, this was a short term solution to help the economy. In the long run, I see it as just another step toward socialism. So now I'm wondering, who do you think the government will take over next?

Sierra Designs Needs a Safety Lesson

When I was researching my book (i.e. hiking all over Utah. Hey it was a rough job but someone had to do it.) my co-author and I had to make sure we had helmets on every time we were on a rope. Mountaineers Press would not allow us to include any pictures in the book showing the unsafe practice of rappelling without a helmet. A few of the descents were small and we probably wouldn't have used helmets otherwise. Hopefully we did our part to propagate a culture of safefy.



Today a Steve pointed out this picture he found on the Sierra Designs web site that made me laugh. It's a cool picture, but I'm wondering if they are doing there part to promote safety. I don't know, maybe the tent self inflates into a raft when it senses water. Even still, I'd hate to be camped in the bottom of that canyon when the flood hits.

Alta Rec Triathlon

Yesterday I ran the Alta Rec Center Triathlon with my speedy wife. She only beat me by 12 minutes this time; it was 20 minutes at the Highlands Ranch Tri in June. Because both Julie and I were running the race and we didn't have a camera crew we don't have any action pictures. Here are a couple we took after the race.