Jerry Loggins

I was reading on the Time.com website that there was a fatal shooting last night in South Carolina.  A twelve year old boy was shot to death while trick or treating!  The person who shot him used an assault rifle and shot thirty rounds!  The assailant has been arrested and charged with murder and assault (he shot his brothers and father that were with him too!)  The assailant claims he thought the trick-or-treaters were robbers.  But the assailant was not even a resident of the house!  That excuse sounds wacky to me; I suspect he was high on something!  What a horrible tragedy.

Unfortunately I have been very busy the past couple of weeks so I have not been able to “keep up” with all of what’s going on with the big banks, and Wall Street as much as I’d like to be “informed” about the big mess.  I know that it is all going to effect each and every one of us in some way, so I like to be informed.  I guess I have some homework to do!  I did notice in yesterday’s paper that the government is going to be buying shares of some of the big banks.  I also heard on the television news that some people are concerned that this big bailout package is bringing our country closer to “socialism” which has been a big “hated” phrase that most people that I know think is a code word for “evil.”

So many people talk about how this country is a democracy, and yet I learned in school that it is NOT a “democracy” it is a “republic” which is different.  It would be very interesting to see or hear some news stories about THAT!

I was hearing that many consumers in Texas are still without their electricity after Hurricane Ike wreaked its havoc on Texas.  It has been two weeks!  I would hate to think what life would be like in this area without electricity!  I love the conveniences electricity brings to my life.  I love being able to just flick on a switch, grab a soda from the refrigerator, watch a little television, and be able to shower or do laundry if need be.  Without electricity, I would not be pleasant company for very long!  I need white noise to sleep - and that takes electricity!   If we have a power outage that lasts more than two hours around here, I go nuts!  I can only say that going two weeks without electricity would truly be a nightmare for me!  I feel bad for all those people who have had to deal with that situation.

Well Wall Street sure has been having its share of troubles lately!  I heard someone explain that there are two emotions that drive Wall Street - greed and panic.  We’ve been seeing a lot of that lately - in the extreme!   I own stock in several companies, and I’ve been careful to NOT see how their stock is doing.  In times like these I think it is best to NOT look.  When I bought the stock, it was with the intention of holding onto it until I am old enough to retire.  Hopefully by the time that comes around, the stock market will have settled down and I will have made a little bit of a profit.  The best advice I’ve ever heard anyone give about the stock market (besides buy low and sell high) is to never invest money in the stock market that you can’t afford to lose.

I was reading on the BusinessWeek website that there is being an investigation into the alleged corruption in the regulatory office of the Department of the Interior.  These folks are supposed to be regulating the oil companies, yet they were taking kickback gifts and accepting sexual favors from employees of the companies that they were supposed to be regulating.

I’m disappointed, but not surprised to hear that was going on.  It seems that just about everywhere you look nowadays, you will find corruption at every level of just about any company or government agency.  People seem to be “going to the dark side” and doing what feels good instead of what feels right.  Very sad.