Secret of life

I discovered life’s secrets, and I bribed it.

Let me keep my happiness I said, and I shall not reveal the key.

Let me live forever, and I shall not pass on the truth.

Let me live this eternal bliss, and you shall keep your job as the holder of fates.

Little did I know,

a gamble does not gamble.

Little did I see,

for you cannot escape darkness through darkness.

Little did I accomplish,

for the only secret is, that there is no secret.

The US economy is a giant being pelted by rocks and pebbles. Constant hits & scrapes, bruises and cuts have slowly bleed the giant to near death. Collapse is imminent. The giant is now on life-support. The medics have rushed to the aid again with yet another injection. Pointless, futile and postponing the inevitable...

Fed takes boldest action since the Depression to rescue US mortgage industry

By Damian Reece
Last Updated: 2:10am GMT 12/03/2008

Equity traders, being ever the optimists, decided to look on the bright side of yesterday's central bank intervention. London and New York did a jig after the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England pulled out all the stops to avoid markets falling into a pit of despair.

And who can blame them? When you've got state institutions as big as the Fed supporting markets then where's the worry?

The Fed, with its latest $200bn offer of cheap cash, has provided yet more state aid for errant hedge funds and another Washington-backed bail-out for Wall Street bankers. The Bank of England joined in again, further shedding any notion of being wary of moral hazard. But as the bail-outs are getting bigger, then clearly the problems causing them must be getting bigger.

The Fed has saved the day again, but it will only be for a day or so. It was Friday remember when it had to pump $200bn of cash into the system. Yesterday it was offering to lend a similar amount to try and soak up some of the toxic debt out there which has left the lending markets hamstrung. How much further can the central banks go to support a system that is so obviously broken?

Arguably, having come this far, Mervyn King and Ben Bernanke have breached the point of no return. There is no going back. The US certainly is now relying on its central bank to keep its most important credit markets open, its equity markets from plunging and bring a veneer of normality to financial life. Traditional supports, such as confidence in normal commercial debt repayment, have been knocked away as institutions are engaged in a desperate dash for cash.

We have not seen anything like it since the decade of the Great Depression. Melodramatic as that might sound, it is a fact but a fact that markets seem unwilling to accept. While the Fed is willing to slash rates and hope, and pump liquidity into the system, markets will remain optimistic. But it is a race to the bottom. The Fed hoping it reaches the finishing line first and restores confidence returns before a bank goes bust. But the spectre of a collapse is neck and neck with Bernanke and it's still anyone's guess which will win.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/12/ccom112.xml

The key to happiness from Jay Leno??

First read Jay's comments below. These are things we all seem to forget. I say we're cursed by being raised in this modern bullshit culture of materialism. We can't seem to find our happiness because all we are forced to see is what we don't have...

The more we have, the more we want.
the more we want, the less we think we have.
The less we think we have, the more elusive happiness becomes.

keep things in perspective


Jay Leno wrote this; ...It's the Jay Leno we don't often see....
"The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some poll
data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true, given the source,
right?
The Newsweek poll alleges that 67%of Americans are unhappy with the
direction the country is headed, and 69% of the country is unhappy with
the performance of the President. In essence , 2/3's of the citizenry
just isn't happy and want a change.
So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking:
"What are we so unhappy about?''
Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week?
Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer
and heating in the winter?
Could it be that 95.4 % of these unhappy folks have a job?
Maybe it is the ability to walk into a Grocery store at any time, and
see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?
Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic
Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through
each State?
Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe Motels we would find along
the way that can provide temporary shelter?
I guess having thousands of Restaurants with varying cuisine from around
the world is just not good enough.
Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all, and even send a helicopter to take you to
the hospital.
Perhaps you are one of the 70% of Americans who own a home. You may be
upset with knowing, that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of
trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment
to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family and your
belongings.
Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a
burglar or prowler intrudes, an officer equipped with a gun and a
bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack
or loss.
This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood, free of bombs or militias
raping and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90% of teenagers
own cell phones and computers.
How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we
enjoy, that are the envy of everyone in the world?
Maybe that is what has 67%of you folks unhappy.
Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world
has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S., yet has a great
disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed
people in the world, who do nothing but complain about what we don't
have, and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good
Lord we live here.
I know, I know. What about the President who took us into war and has no
plan to get us out? The President who has a measly 31% approval rating?
Is this the same President who guided the nation in the dark days after
9/11? The President that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession?
Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book
for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled, ungrateful brats safe from
terrorist attacks?
The Commander-In Chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there
defending you and me? Did you hear how bad the President is on the news
or talk show? Did this news affect you so much, make you so unhappy you
couldn't take a look around for yourself and see all the good things and
be glad?
Think about it, ... are you upset at the President because he actually
caused you personal pain OR is it because the "Media" told you he was
failing to kiss your sorry ungrateful behind every day.
Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have
volunteered to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom.
There is currently no draft in this country. They didn't have to go.
They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ''general''
discharge, an ''other than honorable'' discharge or, worst case
scenario, a ''dishonorable'' discharge after a few days in the brig.
So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69% of
Americans?
Say what you want, but I blame it on the Media. If it bleeds, it leads;
and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with
blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner?
The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They
offer what sells, and when criticized, try to defend their actions by
"justifying" them in one way or another. Just ask why they tried to
allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book about :"How he didn't
kill his wife, but if he did, he would have done it this way"...Insane!
Stop buying the negativism you are fed everyday by the media. Shut off
the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of your
bird cage.
...Then start being grateful for all we have as a country.
There is exponentially more good , than bad...
We are among the most blessed people on Earth, and should thank God
several times a day, or at least be thankful and appreciative.
"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding,
severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and
with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, ..."Are we sure this
is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"
Jay Leno
2007

My Fellow Americans,

What would it feel like to turn on the news one day & hear the President making the following speech:

My Fellow Americans,

the defeat of the Iraqi regime has been completed. We have managed to put in place an incompetent, untrained government unable to end the civil war which has since broken out. The Suunis, formerly in power, are now the disenfranchised minority causing upheaval. The Kurds have nearly all the oil and are attempting to create a separate state (the nerve of those guys!). The Turkish are attacking from the north, you have refugee crisis' in Jordan, and the majority Shi'its, the more radical Muslims now in power, are teaming up with their brothers in Iran. Al Queda has moved in and terrorism is for the first time a real problem (where did they come from?).

Since it would foolish to spend more money on having our troops police a warzone, I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from Iraq. This action will be complete within 30 days. It is now time to begin the reckoning.

I have in front of me a list which will serve as a guide for all future American governments. We cannot afford to make any more bone-headed decisions based on ill-conceived and delusional notions of the American Empire running the world.

First of all, the American Empire has fallen! The day's of our cultural and economic superiority are over. Our war on terror has become a war on peace! Our misguided policies have created an economy based on debt, illusions of prosperity based on soon worthless IOU's, power based on lies, and false security based on fear.

Open your eyes!

Half the world hates us,
our economy is in shambles,
our precious dollar is being abandoned,
and freedom and security are Orwellian terms used to justify the encroaching police state!

Our financial markets are collapsing,
we borrow billions daily from foreign governments,
unemployment and inflation is on the rise.
the middle class is disappearing!

Our two party 'representative and democratic' government has been run by two families for almost 20 yrs (Vote Hillary 2008!),
Our education system is one of the worst in the developed world,
Our social security system is a Pandoras box waiting to open,
Our healthcare is unaffordable for the majority of Americans.

What happened to the most economically prosperous, culturally deemed superior, benign and loved world Empire?
It has followed the natural cycle of Empires, has been corrupted by power, and is now collapsing. How orderly this will happen, is up to us. So we need a change in tactics...

No more reckless unilateral foreign policy. We will work together with our neighbors and we will enter into negotiations before even thinking about bombing a country. No more needless spending on wars! We will turn those billions of dollars to improving our quality of living at home!
We will no longer pay interest to the private bankers for printing OUR money! Let them keep the Federal Reserve, but from now on they will be employees of the government, paid an average wage to work the printing presses. The money saved will be enough to provide universal healthcare and social security benefits to all!
We will scrap the electoral system, use traceable paper ballots for elections and bring back the popular vote!
We will work with with the UN, so mutual solutions can be found to our common problems.
We will keep on donating money to countries in need. We need a serious shift in anti-American sentiment.

And a note to all of you who think we should keep doing what we've been doing: Learn to speak Arabic, because you will be going on an all expense paid one-way trip to the heart of Baghdad. A reform colony is currently is being en set-up to provide an opportunity for all of you who think we should stay to be educated by the locals!

God bless America . Thank you and good night.

If you can read this, thank your parents.
If you are reading it in English, thank a soldier by visiting his grave.