The other day a friend of mine told me of an idea proposed by a man in Florida. Unfortunately, I don't know his name so I can't give him credit for this solution to the economic situation. This is his idea as I understand it.

There are approximately 40 million Americans over the age of 50 that are working. His proposal is each of these people be given $1,000,000. There would be 3 stipulations.

1. They retire from work at once.
2. They purchase a new American made vehicle.
3. They buy a new house, or pay off their current mortgage.

Step 1: Would open up 40,000,000 new jobs across the United States. This would go a long way to curing the unemployment problem. The situation could very well be reversed, we would now be trying to fill important positions. This would give rise to new positions for teachers and trainers.

Step 2: Just think about how sales of 40 million vehicles would effect the American auto industry. This could provide more jobs to help with unemployment as well. Plants would not be closing, layoffs would be stopped.

Step 3: The mortgages being paid off would put more money back into credit, freeing up more money that could be lent with the current changes for better regulations in place. New homes being built and sold would give a nice shot in the arm to the sluggish housing market to say the least.

So, for $40,000,000, not 787 billion dollars we could go a long way to fix the current problems.

I do have to put a wee little disclaimer here. I am over 50 and so is my husband. This whole idea was put forth by a man in his fifties. This may be deemed a conflict of interest, but we're all looking forward to a real stimulus check.

Every thing has a beginning, this is the beginning of my new blog. I had another blog before, but I can't remember where I put it, thus I'm beginning again. The other blog came about during a NANOWRIMO bout a couple of years ago. So, I do have a little bit of an excuse. NANO is a writing challenge occurring each November. It's a time when several thousand slightly mad writers try and write a 50,000 word story in 30 days. It can be done, I have finished it a couple of times. I won't say they were great stories, well the general idea of the story was pretty good, I'm just not too sure of my execution. I'll be doing it again this year, I'm currently searching the dark recesses of my mind for a new tale to amuse and frighten my readers. I'm a Scorpio, we love all things dark and scary.

I'm currently living in a town west of Portland, Or. Most of us say we live in Portland when we are talking to anyone because it's easier than trying to explain everything. People have heard of Portland, and after all this is the 'Portland Metro Area'. I've been in this area for nearly 12 years, I ran away from home (Boise, Id) at the age of 47. Yes do the math, quickly, I'm 58 years old, or young depending on your point of view.

I noticed something on the news today that particularly caught my attention. A group is starting their effort to recall Sam Adams who was elected Mayor of Portland last November. Mr. Adams was deemed by the voters to be the best man for the job. Mr. Adams is gay. There is a movement at work to recall him because he had a relationship with a young man of 18 a few years ago. The controversy is supposed to be over the fact that Adams lied about the relationship. The whole story broke a few days after Adams took office.

First of all let me be very clear on a few points.
1. I don't care about what Adams or anyone for that matter does in his bedroom.
2. I won't be voting in any recall election.
3. I find the timing of the news story suspect.

Why is it the people in America thrive on scandals involving our political figures? Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on President Clinton's little romp with Monica. It side tracked much of the business of the government for months. Here we are over 8 years later and this situation tells me we have learned nothing. Let the man do his job, if you are unhappy in 4 years, elect someone else. This country, including Portland, is in a turmoil, our state unemployment is at or over 12%. Isn't there something better for people to do than worry about a man's sexuality? Spend the money on something more constructive than a recall campaign.

The rant is over. We can now return to our previous activity.