I just heard on the news that the stock market went back to below where it was yesterday morning before the Recession ended ... Is it possible?

Holy creepers! I've gotta be lightening fast, it seems. Just yesterday, I posted my "the recession is over" posting and now, the free-fall continues. Is it possible for the economy to morph along with the president?

Recession is over? Then why is full-time employment still looking like it's somewhere wa-a-a-ay down there while I'm still in a free fall?

Those are my feet at the bottom of the cartoon above as the recession "ends" rather undramatically on October 29--exactly eighty years to the day from that infamous day when the Great Depression began--and now that same Wall Street says we're "out of it" on the basis of GDP growth of 3.5% and Commodities numbers 50% higher than their lows last winter. They (Wall Street tycoons and Government economists) seem to be in a parallel (inaccessible) dimension to those of us who fell through the bottom some time ago.

From a variety of sources, I've read and heard that the Commerce Department says GDP grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent last quarter, the first positive quarterly growth in a year, and the largest quarterly advance since the third quarter of 2007.

Wow!!!

Maybe there is some cheer among Americans who feel warmth in their homes (I don't!) and who are back at work full-time making a livable wage (I'm not!). Seven hours of part-time teaching per week at a Community College is certainly helpful, and the answer to many prayers, but for me ... the recession ain't over--only showing signs of some help in a year or two.

"Today's numbers indicate that the tough decisions this administration made to rescue the economy from the abyss were correct."

said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke in a statement.

"We're headed in the right direction, and even though there are still too many Americans out of work and still much work to be done, without the action taken in the early days of this administration, the pain families are feeling today would be much worse."

Maybe I'm being too critical. Surely both GWB and P-BO have done some remarkable work towards bringing this recession to an end (like the TARP, the ARRA Stimulus Package--which pays my part-time salary, incidentally--and "cash for clunkers," not to mention bankrolling GM, etc.) ... but still ...

The Labor Department reported today that first time jobless claims totaled 530,00 last week, although the total number of Americans currently receiving unemployment benefits fell 148,000 to 5.8 million, the biggest one week decline since July.

The official declaration of the beginning and end of a recession has traditionally been given to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which has not raced to make any such declaration. Its Web site continues to mark the endpoint of the current recession with a question mark. (Look over in the right-most column after clicking on the NBER link.)

Two points: That total number of 5.8 million includes millions, who like me, are under-employed--and the unemployment rolls do not include those who have dropped off at the end of the 26 weeks + (for some) 13 additional weeks thanks to P-BO. I know several right here in Ocean Shores who have no chance of finding a job at this time and whose unemployment benefits have long ago petered out.

Obama's War with Fox News, His Firm Stand with the New Haven Police and His Decisive Stands in Iraq and Afghanistan win Him the Nobel Peace Prize...?

Maybe it's because his campaign promises are in "Pieces" !!! -- and oh yes, where's the "peace" in having Fox News excluded from the pool of news networks permitted to have representation at an interview of one of his underlings?

Don't get me wrong ... some of his campaign promises were in opposition to my core beliefs, but weren't we supposed to be out of Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Iraq and petty party bickering by now? Granted, he got the Harvard professor and the New Haven Police officer to sit down, smile and have tea and coffee together--or was it a beer--but wasn't he saying he would sit down with the leaders of the world's problem children (spelled I-R-A-N and N-O-R-T-H-K-O-R-E-A) in that same Rose Garden by now?

Now THAT would be worthy of consideration of a Peace Prize ... in say, three to five years, not nine months after he had barely been seated in the Oval Office.

And where is his courageous stance for a Health Care Reform package that will provide all Americans with the most basic of human dignity ... FREE! If we can pay for a "public option" for our police--and for our roads--and for our military forces--and for fire departments in nearly every town in America ... why can't we push up to the bar and say "This one's on me!" as regards all medical needs for all Americans NOW? Hellfire, I have no idea why we haven't added prescription drugs and dental needs to the Medicare that we older folks "enjoy" even now.

When I see some of my fellow older Americans (excuse me, "Senior Citizens" is the PC term, I guess) with three teeth, a noticeable limp and shattered eye-glasses, I feel the same way I feel when I run into persons who have no medical insurance and are waiting in an ER at Grays Harbor Community Hospital with little likelihood of getting care ahead of those who are fortunate enough (by birth, by their job skills or by their age) to be worthy of immediate care.

Well, now that you've earned [sic] that gold Nobel medallion, really EARN it, Mr. Obama.

And to Think that "Wife Swap" was One of Richard's Favorite Shows!

Richard Heene and "Psychic" Sheree Silver in combined photo on the left.

According to all that is being revealed today, when Sheree Silver temporarily "lived" (as in the show, "Wife Swap") with "Balloon Boy," Falcon Heene and his dad Richard in their Fort Collins, Colo., home during the filming of an episode of one of TV's more popular reality shows last November, she observed that Richard "had the mind of a mad scientist."

But Silver, a psychic from Saint Augustine, Fla., says when she predicted in the show's 100th episode that one of Richard's science experiments would "blow up" in his face, she never dreamed he would involve Falcon in an elaborate alleged hoax involving the flight of a helium-filled balloon seen by TV viewers around the globe.

I have no idea where this crazy story will go, but it surely had my attention for most of that wild day and I still believe that my prayers were answered--hoax or no-hoax.

Hopefully, the issue can be put to rest without a felony charge against Richard and without Sheree's prediction being considered anything more than a wild guess--which any of us could have predicted under the circumstances.

Waiting for Richard ... Sweetheart Begins a New Life in Silver Spring, Maryland

Her Eyes Tell the "Whole" Picture! She misses her daddy, Richard--and, to a small extent--she misses me too ... I think!

I won't even try to describe her whimper--followed by a wail--as I walked out of the American Airlines Cargo Bay doorway the final time. And I had walked in and out of that door at least ten times getting paper work and such from my car. She "knew"!

But like so many things in life, her joy at seeing Richard on Thursday evening will surely make up for the sadness she must have felt in the blue kennel riding from SeaTac International Airport to Dallas and on into Dulles International Airport in Washington DC or thereabouts.

I must admit that her Aunt Nancy did a real miracle with the pink sweater. Sweetheart was always a "sweetheart," but now she really looks like one. The full picture (I cropped out an end table, doilies, statues, flowers, etc.) also demonstrated the differences between my OCD clutter-bin and Nancy's "Home-and-Garden" abode--Sweetheart's and soon-to-be Richard's new home in Maryland.

P.S.: A point worth mentioning--and entirely left out of the above was the joy Sweetheart experienced when meeting three new girlfriends (Nadia, Marie and Cathy) when she arrived in Maryland. A happier dog you couldn't have seen, according to her Aunt Nancy, when she leaped up on her new friends--who have equally fallen in love with her. This is truly a "Cinderella" story all the way. jtr

Miss ya, kiddo!

Okay, no doilies, but the statue of the cat will be a welcome sight for Sweetheart! And definitely NOT my OCD clutter-bin! (Click on the picture to get an "in your face" shot of her new abode--right out of Home and Garden.)