Snow Emergency

emerge Look up emerge at Dictionary.com
1563, from M.Fr. emerger, from L. emergere "rise out or up," from ex- "out" + mergere "to dip, sink" (see merge). The notion is of rising from a liquid by virtue of buoyancy. Emergency "unforeseen occurrence" is c.1631. Emergent (adj.) was first recorded c.1450.

An unforeseen occurrence indeed. The sky turns pink when the snow covers the ground. The albedo of earth is shrinking because the snow is dirtier and reflects less sunlight. Damn you Global Warming you get us even in the cold of winter.

The largest chicken producer in the country declared chapter 11 this week. I wonder why the news channels didn't really cover that one very big, I mean are those chicken worker jobs less important then the car makers? Maybe it was their name that held back business, Pilgrims Pride seems more apt for turkey then chicken. Chicken is our most efficient grain to protein animal source according to a cornell paper. I'm sure that why the Pilgrims were so proud.

Twin Cities ranked Best for Business

Yeah it seems MarketWatch.com has named the Twin Cities as the best place for business. I couldn't agree more even though I have never lived elsewhere cept for a short stint in Salt Lake. Every morning I wake up I say to myself - "self lets get this business done" and it's like a bowl of Blackcats goes off in my head, and the business just goes.

But I do tend to enjoy the publication Twin Cities Business, it's site aptly named tcbmag.com there was recently an article on the man who started Buca De Beppo, the family Italian eatery where on a date with a old girlfriend I met my future ex-girlfriend. Also the place for my brothers bachelor party dinner. It holds many memories for me and I imagine a fair amount of other twin citizens.

Society replicates Art

Last night I went to see The Dark Knight in the second run theater. I like the movie for all the awesome actions and watching a sixteen wheeler flip over, but I also like ti's social commentary. The Joker has a kinship connection with Anton Chigurh, even though one can be written off as more imbalanced then the other because of his makeup and laughter. But the release of the rules, the desire for freedom, be it violent and destructive yet freedom is still there. The motivations are much different for Anton is mostly a hired psychopath, where as Joker burns a pile of money.

The Dark Knight is a hero that that the city needed but did not want. I tried to reflect the message of anarchy and keeping up appearances, with the current economic crisis, my recent favorite topic. Warren Buffett is the Harvey Dent of today, the man with the plan. He is the hero that is wanted as he is referred to as 'The oracle of Ohmaha' yet should we really listen to the advice of one of the richest man in the world? Did his wealth become acquired by looking our for others? I doubt it, while coke was spreading it's sugar and citric acid around the world Buffets wallet was getting fat. But I will admit it sure tastes good paired with a dark booze. Where is the voice that we need, where is there people from the top saying that growth isn't always good.
Capitalism assumes growth is good, grow the market, grow the profit and spread the peanut butter down the income pyramid. When will someone say that sustainable capitalism is the new source or wealth. Many would contradict that without growth and profit you won't get those entrepreneurs with inventive ideas to risk the fallout without the huge reward. That may be so, but maybe people should look at markets less like upward shooting numbers and more like a ECG printout, up and down rhythmically flowing, sometimes allegro sometimes adagio. The growth is good but so to is the burn of those left at the end of the season. Lets call it ecological capitalism, but growth and retraction may not help your 401K the way that you want.

Someone needs to step up and question the system, when it fails and when it succeeds. Ron Paul is one who is, as well as Ralph Nader, both of these men I feel will go down at martyrs in a all consuming system, Nader more so then Paul. But I'm taking bets now on how high the unemployment numbers get, to the tenth. I think when it hits double digits is when we see real chaos. Unlike the depression we won;t have a dust bowl to make people hungry. To stay hungry helps people interact with the world. Maybe Obama can use the oncoming depression to jump off a new national health plan. Stem the tide of diabetes, so no to cheetos, to be all you can be-eat fruits and veggies, calories not salaries to keep hope alive.

The compassionate conservative should be replaced by the compassionate consumer. Consume what you need, not what you want, that will weed out those businesses that produce the excess and unnecessary Found On Road Deceased- Giant Mortuary. Where are the punk bands and angry country singers ranting about the bailout. Don't worry AIG still get so keep the logo on front of the most popular sports team in the world.

Autism, here there everywhere

I friend of mine showed me an interesting statistic concerint the prevelance of autism in Somali children living in Minneapolis. This article by David Kirby of the Huffington post goes into greater details. Since the rate is higher here then in Somalia some people think there must be a reason. The search for the cause will probably look for genetic or chemical influences. I think maybe people should more on how we live how we bring and raise young lives in this world, if children who play more outside are less prone to Autism as one study suggested. Television the downfall of america will be the title of some book in the future perhaps. I know I am prone to trap myself on the couch watching countless shows of which I have no interest.

The television has become the biggest form of advertising in this country, the shows that are popular influence our culture by wht is worn and what is said. I wonder sometimes that if the television was turned off, what would the effects be. If president obama recomended substituting one hour of TV watching to one hour of voulenteering would our country be any better, would we miss and long for our shows if they no longer existed. Because we almost feel that they are 'OUR' shows, people say I was watching my show last night to those friends familiar enought to know what they are talking about. There is not the question 'what show?' for my show is, my show at least in my head.

This idea makes me think about one of my favorite Jim Carrey movies, 'The Cable Guy' a splendid black comedy where Elliot Gould yells out in one scene 'I would have said schlong'. Well it's all based on the fact that Jim Carrey was raised in a home where the TV was a surrogate baby sitter. This is probably not unlike many homes in america today. In SOuth Korea that have internet addiction camps for shildren, prehaps there needs to be a similar thing for children of today.

Blackened Friday

Many may have heard of the deaths on friday, two men at a ToysRus in arizona that was supposedly unrelated to shopping, and then the temp Wal-Mart worker in Long Island. Now people think a worse sign for the economy would be people not shopping and consuming. For sales to go down would be the death prattle of the american economy. Nobody at the top wants a change in the power structure that they control.
But I think maybe americans as consumers are to ingrained to buy buy buy, that the behavior of shoppers refusing to leave the Wal-Mart store after the death is a worse sign. People won't stop consuming until they are trained not to, and for now we are trained better then canines to consume for the holidays. Shrinking Pocketbooks expanding Waistlines will be the headline of history as to the decline of american power.
Our consumption will be steadfast, but the desperate behavior of people on friday wanting to get the 'deals' is scary. Like a trained doberman going rogue. We no longer follow the proper training, but fight like mad to keep our consumption up.

The products are thought to be necessary to fulfill someones Christmas wish, no child mails into Santa a list topped off by hapiness, family, and friends. No it is gifts and consumption, sad but true. Now if you are familiar with the Suze Orman show, a financial guru who has dvd about getting out of debt and proselytizing on the financial empowerment of women. Well one segment of her show is where people call in with details of their financial status such as savings checking mortgage or CC debt. On light of friday's debacle I present can I afford it Black Friday special

Suze: Hello Monica and Burt in Long Island
M & B: Hey Suze, great to be here.
Suze: Great to have you two, now it says here you looking to purchase a 799.00 big screen TV from Wal-Mart?
M & B: Yes we are actually calling you from the line outside the store.
Suze: Now you have ten thousand in savings, 3 in your checking, and one hundred and eighty on your mortgage, is that right?
M & B: Thats right and we want to make more room in our den by getting those super duper flat big screen T.V's so we can sit on our diabetic rumps and watch commercials telling us to buy things in between shows.
Suze: Now how many people are ahead of you in line?
M & B: about 80 or so
Suze: and have you thought about how many TV's they will have in stock?
M & B: no... I guess we hadn't thought of that.
Suze: and do you have medical insurance?
M & B: Well we don't cause we are switching plans
Suze: Uh, oh well Bert are you confidant about your wrestling skills, because chances are that TV won't come without a fight.
M & B: That wasn't really on our radar, we just thought we would go straight for the TV and...
Suze: Now let me stop you there, the medical bills from the possible fight you will have will not be cheap, black friday has become black eye friday, so maybe if you do get the TV stop and grab some meat (hopefully it's a super Wal-Mart) and slap it on your eye buster, cause your going to need it, but frankly with the way things go now YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT.