| MORPHEAL'S COMMENTARY - February 19, 2009 - Old Age Meltdown, Afghan Disaster, Edu Failure, Political Clowns AND Fire Clinton |
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| Robert Morpheal, Bob Ezergailis, Morphealism (morpheal@yahoo.com) |
2009/02/20 10:43 |
DEATH OF THE 401K OLD AGE FINANCIAL PLANNER:
With savings interest rates, at best, halved from what they were, and
the chips down into the gutter, offering predictably unpredictable and
consistently poor results in their up and down bipolar swings of
irrational mood, we now see the untimely, sudden, death, of the so
It now would take much more money to generate the same steady rate of
old age income as the plans were originally based upon. Particularly
when we consider what it takes to secure that level of old age income,
in terms of types of investments, and their returns. How about a
percent or two on your money seem to you, in terms of your returns on
investments ? The 401K is now obsolete and the savings you need, even
though it is so extremely difficult to save anything at all in this
topsy turvy economic environment of repeated recession, depression,
crashes and unpredictability, are much much lager than they were in
the old 401K days. Those days are behind us and will likely never
return.
Now how do the old age financial planning pundits and gurus claim that
anyone can do it, even if they have the extremely elusive, steady,
average, paying job ? It cannot be done is the only genuinely true
answer. The scheme is dead. Most of the recommended investments lost
money, rather than gaining money. The initial investment is dwindled,
and in some cases very severely. The returns on investment wiped out,
in the larger proportion of self invested, financial planner, sold
into investment bondage and tumbling corporate shares.
any real alternative, for self investing, to make adequate old age
savings, in the current economic scenario ? None exists. There is
only the mourning of the demise of the promised old age paradise of
401K. For many unattainable in the first place, but for others the
dream that they struggled to reach to. The financial planners led them
on down the garden path to the chalk marks around the victim. 401K was
killer.
AFGHANISTAN AND NATO:
Mr. Gates has not committed sufficient United States intelligence
resources to Afghanistan to support a credible mission. Statistics are
clear proof as to worsening results. It is a war being lost rather
than won, by increased military aggression against an enemy that is
more intelligent and treacherous every day the war continues. It is
unwise for other nations to commit troops, unless the USA promises a
great deal more in terms of state of the art intelligence resources.
Ah, President Mugabe, to survive so many years, under as much
political pressure, necessitates an exceptional party. A leader of a
relatively small nation can only survive nowadays by being a very
adept clown, entertaining the USA and its nearest allies. Taken too
seriously he would end perished long before, remaining unseen and
unheard. So the party should have lots of clowns, as a symbolic
gesture to how politics plays out on the world stage. The whole nation
should celebrate these facts. Few of us are likely to survive as
long, having as long and prosperous a life expectancy as Mr. Mugabe.
We are not clown enough, or we are mice, compared to the one that
roars in Africa.
THE FASHION INDUSTRY HAS BECOME A DISPOSABLE FAD:
Quality, and thus value, has deteriorated, with relatively costly and
stylish garments not lasting as long as they used to last. So called
"everyday wear" often is more wearable. The problem undermining the
industry is excessive push for excessive conformity and uniformity of
style changes. To be "in style" means to throw away and never wear
again, rather than expanding the options of what can be worn to
include more creativity in an expanding wardrobe of high quality
creations. There are now too many things that are relegated to
unwearable in terms of excessively rigid social conventions about what
can and cannot be worn in a given situation. The restrictions becoming
so complex that only the most boring, uninteresting, styles of
garments, tend to predominant in a culture of ever increasing
sameness. Fashion that stands out and is seen, is less and less
prevalent in a society that is losing its freedom of speech and its
freedoms of association as quickly as it is losing its freedoms of
fashion. The two go hand in hand. Totalitarian nations tend to promote
drab uniformity among their prisoners. When fashion becomes prison
garb, as it has in many areas of life, including much of work and
commerce, we can discern that human freedoms are already imperiled.
When we look back at the more innovative eras we see that fashion
freedom goes hand in hand with freedoms of expression, cultural
freedom as such, and social freedom. Uniformity to changing fads is as
bad as unchanging uniformity of prison garb.
To adopt a style is less common now, in a world where the advertising
is aimed at promoting the brevity of a disposable fad. The latter
fact, rather than saving the industry is killing it. It is a
thoughtless deterioration of traditional values. We must remember that
fashion is ideally the most common art form, and one which allows
individual participation to an extent that no other art form does.
What we need is to return fashion to that status and function.
PRIMARY EDUCATION IS FOR WHAT ?
In Britain a report on the often lauded British system has panned it,
giving it miserably low grades, as to every key and formative area. It
is a report long overdue. The report is accurate. Primary education is
deserving of more insults for the absolute stifling cur and boor that
it is. It is more about killing natural curiosity and desire to learn,
in a culture geared to producing rigid, uncritical, cannon fodder and
disposable factory muscle, while destroying bright exceptions. As John
Lennon once wrote "they beat you if you are clever and they despise a
fool, a working class hero is something to be" and the beating
continues to destroy genius and talent. Children typically, unless
very ill, have the greatest desire to learn at the ages that they are
at in the primary grades. By the time they finish primary school, most
have had that beaten out of them. This is not a natural outcome. It is
a result of traditional pedagogy, and dysfunctional modes of
socialization, that have remained unexamined for far too long. The
20th century was unprecedented in its requirements for factory muscle
and cannon fodder. We saw two massive world wars, calling up nearly
every man. What might we expect from education in a world that insists
on dunging itself about with enginery of war and always fighting about
something ?
SECRETARY CLINTON IS AN IDIOT:
BBC reports: Hillary Clinton has warned North Korea relations with the
US will not improve until it engages in dialogue with South Korea and
ends its nuclear ambitions. Etc. Same old story, new secretary of
state.
Secretary Clinton has already indicated new regime same as the old
regime and making the same persistent mistakes. She has once again
attempted to bully what amounts to a struggling weakling on the world
playground. Now the bullied victim must stand up for itself, or be
even more embarassed than Clinton has already made it. This continued
childish circus disguised as diplomacy serves no one, and cannot lead
to any desired future. It only makes circus clowns of lesser nations
trying to save face. When will we see an American Secretary of State
chosen for skill in diplomacy, in terms of understanding human
behavior and its manifestations as society and politics, rather than
an idiot, further threatening world peace, and following the same
unenlightened and unprogressive programming of the ideology bound
past ? If I were President Obama I would fire Clinton on the spot for
complete incompetence and lack of political comprehension. The same as
the past twenty years of big bully on the global village block will
not suffice in the new era that the global village is now entering.
And yes, clowns are dangerous.
Robert Morpheal
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