So despite all the warnings we’ve heard about our doomed economy the last few years, only this last week is it officially in crisis. I’m no economist. I manage my family’s finances, but I don’t know from hedge funds and short selling. Every so often I flip on the Fox Business Network hoping some kind of financial savvy osmosis will occur. It hasn’t.

What I do know is shortly after we bought our first home in 2003 I started hearing buzzwords like, sub-prime, housing bubble and foreclosure crisis. As state above, I’m an economic idiot. My husband is too. When we got our mortgage in 2003 the lender laid out all our options before us. She explained the difference between adjustable and fixed rates. We made the mental note that she worked for commission. The more money she lent us the more money she would make. Our American dream and financial security were not her top priority and that was okay. We figured out how much we could realistically afford for a monthly payment, then found out how much house we could afford.

Rates were low. We could barely get an appointment with lenders because everyone and their gerbil was refinancing. The monthly payment with the A.R.M. loan was lower, but it would inevitably fluctuate depending on the market. The fixed rate payment was quite a bit higher, but it was just that… fixed. So common and sense had a conference call and we went with the latter. And honestly, I wish were a little more conservative with what we could afford. Between the new marriage, new baby, new job and single income factors it got stressful at times. Throw in variable property taxes and insurance rates and we definitely pulled some hair out. (I put mine in a heart shaped box and mailed it to Brit Hume. I really like Brit Hume)

Home ownership is a goal I highly recommend. When we decided to relocate a little over a year ago (thank God we’re not trying to do that now) we were pleasantly surprised with our home’s appreciation. (Our home was worth more, it didn’t literally appreciate us) But home ownership is a huge responsibility and the maintenance itself can be a huge source of stress.

Now the country is in the middle of a huge economic crisis cause in great part by the type of risky loan we passed up. And apparently it’s my problem (and yours… and yours… and yours). In my observation there are two types of people suffering from the mortgage crisis. There’s the hardworking, well intentioned people that just wanted a piece of the American dream. They were taken advantage of by predatory lenders and got in over their heads. I do feel sorry for them.

On the other hand, I think there was an epidemic of entitlementitis. I hear stories and see video of whole subdivisions of brand new homes that sit empty. The homeowners just walked away and often sabotaged the homes by drilling holes in the roof etc. There are communities in California that have to worry about West Nile virus now because they didn’t so much as drain the swimming pools before they left which cause a mosquito problem. That kind of behavior says a lot about those people. They show no accountability. I do not feel sorry for them. I kind of think they need to be taught a lesson.

Thankfully we know that this is all that baby eating, hurricane making, evil, war mongering George Bush’s fault. All we have to do is elect Barack Obama. He will wave his magic wand and a tornado of bureaucracies will whisk all our problems away.  Can we stick our heads in the sand until November?  Yes we can! 

When anniversaries of any tragedy roll around, especially 9/11, many discuss what are appropriate and inappropriate ways to spend them. Some will relive the grief all over again tomorrow. Some will long for a way to tune out of all media and ignore the day. Some will seek out some sort of public remembrance to participate in. I think I’ll go back to the clichés of living each day to its fullest, appreciating the simple things, remembering that there’s no guarantee of tomorrow and most of all remembering the souls that aren‘t here to do the simple things anymore. The morning of 9/11 started with thousands of simple, mundane activities which the victims had no idea would be their last. As I complete the tedious tasks I do every other day, I hope tomorrow I’ll appreciate that I get to do them at all. That I’m home with my kids because I have a husband that provides for us. That my kids are healthy and thriving and if they’re not I have access to American healthcare. That that weird smell coming from the fridge is because we have TOO MUCH food. That I have the right to express every idiotic distasteful thought that comes through my mind for the whole world to read. That if you come in my house without permission I can shoot you.

For those of us that were born here, do you ever think about the sheer luck that we were born here and not in Leningrad or Bei Jing or Pyong Yang. I do. Freedom should be a right, but unfortunately it’s a privilege. That’s it. No witty conclusion today.

According to the NY Post, Elizabeth Payne, 37, claims to have had an affair with controversial preacher, Jeremiah Wright, earlier this year. Payne met Wright while working as a secretary at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas. Since the affair became public this spring Payne was fired from her job, and her husband, Fred Payne, 64, (guess she likes older men) has divorced her.

Apparently Payne was busted when her husband found e-mail correspondence between her and Wright in February. Payne claims Wright said he would leave his wife of over 20 years, Ramah, for her. The NY Post article also claims Ramah met Wright when she came to him for marriage counseling with her ex-husband. Nice. Oh yeah, one more thing, Payne is a white lady. That’s right, (punny) America’s most prominent voice of black liberation theology had a white girlfriend 30 years his junior.

Now before we rush to judgement let’s remember Rev. Wright is a member of the clergy. I think it would behoove us to treat him with the same Christian love, respect, compassion, understanding, forgiveness and grace he so often preached about from his pulpit at Trinity. We should also restrain from citing these allegations as basis for generalizations about all proponents of black liberation theology. We should learn from the way Rev. Wright always judges each person independently based on character and circumstances and not by skin color. We also shouldn’t assume that any of these allegations are true until we have concrete, verified facts to back up these claims, just like Rev. Wright would do.

Thank God Rev. Wright set such a fine example of Christian love, so we would know how to care for him in his hour of need. Thanks Rev. Wright.

Sorry I’m late. I was in St. Paul cleaning up the broken glass from that ceiling that a fine conservative woman shattered last night. I wanted to get to it before Gloria Steinem slit her wrists with it. Not because I care about Gloria Steinem, but because I’m pro-life. By the way, I’m so glad that baby woke up after the speech, so Palin could lift him up so the whole world could see his beautiful face.

Now, for the last 4 days everyone (republicans too, shame on you) was so sure Palin didn’t know what she was getting into. She wasn’t smart enough, tough enough or experienced enough. They couldn’t get enough dirt on her, so they resorted to exploiting her children and downright lying. Last night, she simply defended herself with the truth and advocated her nominee, and did so with grace, humor and style. And this morning she’s called snide, on the attack and cynical. Instead of discussing what she did say they can only discuss what topics she didn’t address (like universal healthcare, thank your lucky stars she didn’t get to that Joe Biden).

Joe Biden also mentioned that she didn’t address the economy. Uh, the breakdown of how Obama’s tax hikes will cripple the middle class, even if they’re not taxed directly, was addressing the economy.

And Obama, if you question whether John McCain “gets it” (which I believe he does) you can’t argue that Sarah Palin doesn’t. I know you’ll try though. I’ll tell you what she doesn’t “get“. It’s the same things I don’t “get”. How the value of a life is determined on a case by case basis, even outside the womb. How keeping the poor crippled in the welfare culture will help their children. Why wealth should be redistributed without regard to who earned it. Why high profile equals high experience. Yes, please explain these things to us small town moms who don’t “get it”.

And what’s this bologna about “her speech was written for her”. ALL their speeches are written for them.

And you republicans and overgrown irish pundits that still doubt her don’t “get it” either. You’re elitist sexists just like the rest of ’em. Real America gets it and Sarah Palin gets Real America.

Wasilla, Alaska may be a small town. But America is made out of and carried on the backs of Wasillas. And when all the small towns with small budgets get together we’re going to beat the stuffing out of the Upper East Side and San Francisco. By the way, why does a small budget mean easier to manage. I would suspect it could be quite the opposite.

I know it‘s scary, the thought that America might be run by the stupid, incompetent souls that keep it running day after day. The people that grow your whole grain organic bread (I said grown by not harvested by), drive the trucks that deliver the laptop you use to read the Huffington Post and we’ll be the one’s that serve your 10^th cosmo the night Obama loses this election.

I also have something to say to Bristol Palin. Welcome to motherhood, congratulations! Keep holding your head up high. All you need to worry about the next few months is preparing yourself for the best thing that will ever happen to you.