(no subject)

• 07:36 Philmont Grace: For food, for rainment, for life, for opportunity, for friendship and fellowship we thank thee, o Lord. #
• 08:00 bit.ly/bHaMO Steyn: Britain policing humor. #
• 09:45 I went to bed an hour and a half early, slept the night pretty well, and still feel like I need a night's sleep. Urgh. #
• 09:46 I think... I need to do some gaming or something recreational. My soul is worn down from responsibility and work. #
• 09:48 @mcahogarth It's simple and easy to remember. It bugs my dad, though; it doesn't follow any formal prayer guidelines he knows. #
• 09:54 @cougrr That is not an easy question! There are lots of prayer forms for formal or public prayer, just like there are lots of poetry forms. #
• 10:25 @cougrr I just know it doesn't follow any guidelines he knows. He's the one who knows them all. :) #
• 10:56 @dantheshive Chocolate is fascinating. #
• 12:59 @fredthompson Considering what the Dems are doing to our economy, I think our attention is elsewhere. >.> #
• 14:12 @cougrr I didn't say I was completely blaming them... I'm saying what they're doing right now is horrible. #
• 14:34 @cougrr Trim back spending. Stop paying out subsidies. Let companies work their way through bankruptcy, with federal backing if necessary. #
• 14:42 @cougrr Federal backing means the federal government acts as the guarantor in a bankruptcy case so it can move forward. #
• 14:43 @cougrr It lasts exactly as long as the bankruptcy process does, and happens only as deemed necessary by the attorneys and judge involved. #
• 15:38 @cougrr The initial infusion of cash from the fed may have been needed. Right now, I'd rather people added to their savings accts. #
• 15:40 @cougrr Banks loan from funds invested with them - savings accts and CDs. Could suspend the payroll tax and ask people to put it in accts. #
• 15:47 @cougrr Repeal the CRA. There's a bank with no foreclosures on its loans, and under the CRA, the feds told them they "needed improvement". #
• 15:49 @cougrr Other than that, let 'em fail. If they make stupid loans, then the FDIC covers savings accts. The bank suffers, not their customers #
• 15:49 @cougrr And it's not like bankruptcy is the end of the world. Companies buy bankrupt companies and clean them up. #
• 16:02 @cougrr True. I don't think we can save everyone. And I doubt it's a good idea to try. #
• 16:03 @cougrr There are plenty of people in businesses and Wall Street who took big risks and new how dangerous it was. #
• 16:30 @cougrr I think it's better than having the government buy out businesses then micromanage and regulate them. Small business dies either ... #
• 17:49 Reality vs satire again: bit.ly/yGOVJ #tcot #
• 17:59 @cougrr Not everything will die off. Plenty of companies emerge from bankruptcy better off - take Wells Fargo, for instance. #
• 17:59 @cougrr And if we ease regulations, then new small businesses can enter the marketplace and grow. Maybe even become big businesses. #
• 18:00 @cougrr I'd rather have market churn than creeping corporatism. #
• 18:11 @cougrr Not all regulations are good, just like not all of them are bad. Check out CPSIA if you want to see regulations that kill business. #
• 18:12 @cougrr But I'm not convinced complete collapse was inevitable, even if the feds did absolutely nothing. We're not to Carter level bad yet. #
• 18:22 @cougrr Do you? #
• 18:36 @cougrr Okay, even if you take as given that the original infusion had to happen, what about what's happening NOW? #
• 18:47 @cougrr We can't. We can work on fostering a healthy atmosphere here, and then see if that spreads to others, as it has before. #
• 18:48 @cougrr What it comes down to is that our government is taking control of companies and issuing orders. #
• 18:49 @cougrr The only way this will be truly temporary is if people tell them to stop doing it. Or we'll never get back to normal. #
• 18:50 @cougrr Propping them up isn't healthy either.. they're called zombies. Not to mention government control means less freedom, for everyone. #
• 19:08 @cougrr Either it's painful rebuild, or slow and easily slide into nothing. I choose something over nothing, even if it hurts. #
• 19:08 @cougrr And I agree about the limit! Grr. #
• 19:30 @cougrr That is the problem. Our difficulty is mostly cultural; we ended up with the politicians the majority wanted. #
• 19:35 @cougrr thing is, the experts have pretty much shown they don't ahve a clue, either. If they did, this wouldn't have happened, would it? #
• 19:35 @cougrr No, but the majority needs to change. Our culture promotes self-indulgence and ducking responsiblity. Figures we'd elect the same. #

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National Poetry Month - More Rudyard Kipling

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

political foo: The coping classes

Forget the G20 mob, coping-class fury is about to reach boiling point

An article from Britain, about Britain.. but parts of it do feel quite familiar.