Fifty Or We're Falling Hard
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Gentle Ben had better get aggressive, and make a 50-basis point cut in the fed funds rate, or the market will plunge.
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She may or may not have been acting, but either way, when she sighed in New Hampshire and almost broke out in tears, and said how she feared that our country was heading from a bad place to a much worse place, she came close to expressing how many of us feel. Close but not quite there, because unlike the rest of us, she has a chance of being able to do something about it. The rest of us, Republican or Democrat, are going to have to sit by, and hope (there's Obama's word) that someone else can straighten out the mess, and really means it when they say that's what they want to do. On Twitter, a reminder from some Republican diehards from the south, of the supposed discourse we've had over the last five years about Iraq. "Cut and run" "Micromanage" It's all positioning, appealing to fear. Of course I don't want to cut and run. Nor do I want to micromanage.  Can we macromanage, or do we have to shut up and watch? Our president used the term World War III, he actually spoke the words, as an optional American-started thing. This is the horror that makes us feel like HIllary did that day in New Hampshire. In the sixties, the hardhats used to yell "America love it or leave it" to protestors. They had no clue about the country they were defending. Its strength is that you can love it, disagree with the people who run it, and not leave it. Even better, come Election Day, you can overthrow them, in a bloodless coup, and march down Pennsyvlania Avenue to celebrate. It's all right there in the Constitution. (But you don't get to hang the guy you overthrew.) Watching the Republican debate in Myrtle Beach, SC on Thurs night, the loutness of the Republicans was striking. First, the way they shouted down Ron Paul, who like HIllary, raised questions that most of us have. Why are we in Iraq? They laughed when he asked. Not only didn't any of them answer it, but none of them had the presence to realize that the majority of Americans who wonder the same thing might be offended by their laughter. I certainly was. When did dismissing an opinion you don't like become a proper response for someone seeking our vote? Any one of them could have said "I may not agree with Ron Paul, but please let him speak, and let him have our respect." Any of the others could have closed the deal in that moment. None of them had the guts to do it.  I also was struck by the gungho rhetoric about going to war with Iran. It was like one of those war movies where the young guys rush to sign up wanting to teach the Kaiser a lesson, or the Commies or whoever the demon du jour is. The movies almost always teach that war is hell, by the time the war is actually underway everyone wishes it were over. The way wars start is with spit and vinegar, vim and vigor, talk of pride and honor, but they quickly devolve to misery, futility, death, devastation. My generation learned that early-on, with Vietnam. I don't remember anyone thinking we should be there. I missed being drafted by luck. I thought for sure that my generation would never choose to go to war. I was wrong. But I didn't imagine that, after creating such a quagmire in Iraq, which we still haven't extracted ourselves from, we would be so quick to conjure up another futile war. War with Iran is a crazy, crazy idea. All evidence is that Iran has actually been trying to work with us since 9/11. Even if they weren't, as Ron Paul says, they're a third world country, no threat to us. That the Republicans would contemplate war with Iran, with such colorful gunghoisms (gates of hell, introduce them to their virgins), this is where HIllary hit the nerve. Could we be in for another four years of lunacy? Will those who object be called unpatriotic?  Could a Republican actually win this year? Who thought Bush could actually be re-elected at this time in 2004?  I heard on one of the Sunday talk shows that the reason Republicans don't like Ron Paul is they think he's anti-American. I've listened to him, if you take him at face-value, which I do, his ideas seem radical, unimplementable, but un-American? He's fervently pro-American. He says we should fix our own house, it's falling apart, instead of trying to control others (which doesn't work). How would we feel if our country were occupied by foreign troops? Would we do everything we can to expel them? (Of course.) Why should we expect any other country to be different? I've been saying the same thing since our invasion of Iraq in 2003. Ron Paul has the guts to say the madness is mad. He's the only one in either party who does that, though Obama comes close, and in her New Hampshire moment Hillary did too.  I want someone to win my vote by telling me how good I am, not how bad the other guy is. I see through it, I know the Dems don't want to micromanage, they don't wake up in the morning looking for ways to lose. I know they're not cowards. All this sloganeering has done is make us weary of ourselves. I want to get started fixing things, if not now -- when? That's the nerve that Hillary hit.
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Living to 100 is easier than you might think. Surprising new research suggests that even people who develop heart disease or diabetes late in life have a decent shot at reaching the century mark.
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Writing a song that touches the hearts of millions is hard enough.
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Meet the twixters. They're not kids anymore, but they're not adults either. why a new breed of young people won't--or can't?--settle down
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By Matt Krantz  It may seem odd to think of a 30-year-old hitting a midlife crisis, but old age comes on fast in Corporate America. Often by the time companies hit or approach their big 3-0, they're already showing serious signs of age.
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If youâre over 50, your night vision might not be as good as you think (so drive with care).
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It's a tough world, all right. Too bad it's not tougher. Right now Earth is looking pretty fragile as it suffers from increasing human punishment.
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Oh dear. Looks like so many people checked out the latest adult ringtones that the money people got scared. In Sex Drive Daily.
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Gabe: So I am the big two nine today. I guess I have one more year of youthful indiscretion before old age is upon me. It seems like birthdays are a good time for reflection and so I hope you"ll forgive me if this is a little mushy.
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Maybe you're saving too much for retirement. You may also be eating too many vegetables, spending too much time with the kids, exercising too regularly and doing your job too diligently.
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President Bush pledged in his State of the Union speech Wednesday not to reduce Social Security benefits for workers 55 and older. So what do you do if you're 54?
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NEW YORK  &#151; 50 Cent may be getting hip-hop's equivalent of a gold watch next week. Early reports have Kanye West beating 50 in their much-hyped battle of album sales: West's "Graduation" is on pace to sell about 575,000 to 700,000 its first week out, while 50 Cent's "Curtis" is on track to do 550,000, according to Billboard magazine.
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Somebody's been hitting the 57, because this stock is moving.
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The more we are losing our values, the more we are suffering from serious problems such as STD&#39;s (Sexual Transmitted diseases) and this has become a very critical social cause in our country too.
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Life & style: First it was '50 is the new 30'. Then it was '60 is the new 40'. But what's so wrong with '60 is the new 60', asks Angela Neustatter.
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Start 2005 richer and thinner. We can help with that first one.