Is that really the best way to go about it?

Ten years ago, I stood in my living room on the phone with my friend Sandy, staring in disbelief at what I was seeing on my tv. While Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson reported that a plane had indeed crashed into the World Trade Center, we watched in horror as another plane hit the second tower. I couldn't believe my eyes, and for just a moment, when we realized what was happening, I was happy that the towers still remained standing. But that relief lasted for such a short time, before I could catch my breath, I watched those towers fall, I could hear the tears in Peter Jennings voice as he took over the role of commentator on ABC News. It was true, the twin towers were no more, and America would be forever changed. This day, I believe is like a day so many remember in 1963 when John F. Kennedy was killed. The world was shocked, and the United States came to a virtual stand still. I remember the days after 9/11 when Americans all over this great country came together to pray, sing, and donate money to help the victims families. I remember American flags being flown at almost every home, and I remember solidarity as we sang our national anthem, and watched and heard the dead be memorialized.

10 years ago is a long time. It is a time that we remember, yet have forgotten. As I listen to the news today, and realize that America did change, but not for the better. In those few days, and months after 9/11 we were the strongest we have been as a nation since I believe WWII. We were truly UNITED. But today, we stand divided, and our enemy has won. They succeeded in turning us against each other, and into hatred.

Today I watched and listened to the news, and I heard about the church who was going to burn the Koran to remember 9/11.

I agree with the Christians in the country that say that our religion is being persecuted. That all other religions have rights, while ours are stomped on and taken away. But I do not agree with burning the Koran on any level.

I am appauled that a so called Christian would take it upon himself to declare 9/11 a day to remember our dead by burning the book of Koran. While I would rather be dead than to denounce Christ and take up the Muslim religion, I would certainly never burn the book that they consider holy, and I doubt that Christ himself would either.

Muslims and countries around the world hate us, and other Christians for that matter. Perhaps we should take a step back and realize that burning a book will not ever bring back over 3000 American lives that were killed on 9/11, and in fact could possibly start an even bigger set of unintended consequences that we cannot undo.

I say that this church do what Christ would do. Turn the other cheek. Stand up against this form of hatred. We all have free will, God gave it to us so that we may choose the path of our lives. Tell the world that we are not haters, and remember 9/11 in an honorable way. Tell the Muslim community that while we don't agree with them, or their religion, we do not hate either. For in hatred evil dwells.
Radicals in every religion are wrong. Of course with all that being said, I am still against the Mosque at Ground Zero, not the Mosque itself, just where it's to be built.

The little red arrow...and a small prayer

I do believe that I have made a turn somewhere that has lead me down the path of insanity. I was perfectly happy before I really understood the stock market. You know that wonderful place that holds all of our investments safe and sound. I am lol at that last phrase. Along with the rest of us, I have systematically watched our retirement plummet into the sewer system, never to be found again.

The markets are amazing. I watch them daily. I have become obsessed with getting on the computer and checking to see what the markets are doing. I have to say that nothing really gets me in a bad mood faster than seeing the infamous little red arrow in the down position. But to anyone who has any interest at all in the markets know that if it's red, it's bad. Lately it seems that disaster is around every bend, and red is the magical color that turns a perfectly good day, into a day of compulsive market checking. And the really fun part is that it goes down a lot faster than it will ever go up. So if you lose thousands of dollars in a 20 second panic on Wall Street. It will take you about 16 years to recoup it, and that's if there is no other market correction.

I miss my previous life of ignorant bliss. Those days were colored with Barney songs, and the Wiggles. Now I find myself actually listening to the most boring people on earth; market analysts on Fox News.

I must say that after listening to them since the big crash last Sept. I have learned a lot. Most are totally full of crap, and that perhaps, the stock market is a big conspiracy. I have a new found love for the movie Boiler Room. I think that the common investor has no real input in how the markets move every day. It seems that it would be better if we did, but it's the large hedge fund people that have a hold over our money, and they decide the fate of our retirement with one push of a button.

Well, it's Monday and the market outlook once again is a dim one, thanks to Japan's economy. Huh, I want to go back to not caring. Does anyone remember the days before "global economy?" Is there therapy for stock market junkies? The world is falling apart and I care about a little red arrow.

With a little good news at the end of my blog, I read a lovely post this morning about a man, his stolen wheelchair, and a sweet teacher who said a little prayer for him. To make a long story short, the elderly man had his motorized wheelchair stolen. When this teacher found out about it, she had a little sit down with the gentleman, and asked him if she could say a prayer for him. He agreed. So, in her head, she said a quick prayer that his wheelchair is found, and that God help him through this trying time. As the conversation ended, he received a phone call. It was the police saying they had found the chair at a crack house. She smiled and told him that she did indeed say a prayer, and sometimes, God answers them quickly.

So, with that in mind, maybe we should all say a little prayer. One for the economy, stock market, and what not, and maybe a few for the people out there who have nothing, and then have even less when circumstances beyond their control takes the very last of their nothing. Even though I have become a stock market junkie, this blog I read this morning, made me grateful that I have any money at all to watch.

Frustrated and angry!

I must admit, that just a few short years ago I would have buried my head in the sand, and skipped along my merry way, in gleeful abandon. Not anymore. Forgive me but, I must go back in time for just a moment, to a more blissful, and peaceful existence.

Back in what I now term, "The good ole days", I watched Glenn Beck, mainly because he was on before Nancy Grace, and I was too lazy to turn the channel. I listened to most of what he said, and wrote him off as Mister Doom and Gloom. He freaked me out on every level, and I just couldn't take it. I later made sure that my direct tv was auto-tuned, and I skipped Mr. Sunshine altogether. While that did indeed make for a rosier picture in my head, it didn't make reality any less real, it just made things easier for me. That picturesque timeframe was a bit selfish on my part. The world as I knew it was falling apart and I had my head in the clouds watching great news stories about celebrities and other such things. In the mean time, things are really tanking, and suddenly, the light bulb goes off in my simple, little brain, as Mr. Doom and Gloom's words start infiltrating the layers of gossip type crap that I had piled on, so I didn't have to pay attention to life altering changes in America.

Ding, ding, ding, give the girl a prize for finally coming up out of the muck, and mush, and realizing that America is falling apart. I wish I could say that all of this is President Obama's fault, but that just isn't true. It's been going on for decades, and now we are suffocating on it. The only problem is that most of us American's don't realize that we are now breathing in nothing but carbon monoxide instead of fresh clean oxygen. That poison, that is filling our lungs and cutting off any real semblance of what is right and wrong, is political correctness. We designed laws in this country to prevent, any form of discrimination, when in fact, it did just the opposite. It does indeed impede rights, and in fact creates the very thing we sought to prevent. All the laws really did, was glue our lips shut. It didn't really take away discrimination; it just made people keep their mouths shut about it. Don't get me wrong, discrimination is ugly and wrong on every level. And I don't believe that we should allow it, but every so called group in this country now screams discrimination every single time there is any form of disagreement on a topic. We as Americans are no longer allowed to say, "Hey, this is wrong, stop it." If we do, we are labeled racist.

News flash, I really don't care, about your color, religion, sexual orientation, or sex, what I do care about is, telling you that you are wrong, if you are. I want to stand up and scream from the top of my lungs, and I want others to do the same thing. I want the days of my grandparents back, when you could do that. I want Ronald Reagan back, and others like him. I want someone to tell the idiots in Washington that we have had enough of this crap! I don't want a Socialist country; I don't want universal health care! I don't want to help people forever by giving them more and more money to sit on their butts to do nothing. I certainly don't want more government. I want our free society back. I want the place where you can be free to say that you don't want people coming over the border illegally, and allowing them to do it, by making laws to protect them. What about protecting the people in the country that really are Americans? What about those that came here hoping for a better life, who actually went through the channels and became citizens? What does us allowing illegal’s to enter say to them? That you went through all of this for nothing? That you studied, and learned our language and history, and spent years doing it, and all you really had to do was go to Mexico and walk over, and BAM, you now have rights? Bull-hockey.

All of that above was nothing, compared to what really ticks me off, and has my blood boiling. This mosque thing, now that has just plain pissed me off. Truthfully, I want to say NO WAY! I want to say it to the Muslims building it, to Mayor Bloomberg, AND to Mr. President himself! How DARE you endorse such a thing? How dare you bow down to them, by using their so-called freedom of religion! They can build that damn thing anywhere in NYC, but they want it there? You think that they are building it because they want peace? HA HA HA, they are laughing in our faces, and now they are going to have a big, giant, gold building to do it. It's like conquering the land, and building a castle on it and calling yourself king. Oh, but wait a minute, isn't that how nations are formed? By conquering, and declaring yourself victorious, and crowning you with a title, and a building?

Today is a very sad, sad day in America. All those people who lost family, and friends, will now have that scar ripped open, and be allowed to emotionally bleed to death. This is a travesty. It is a slap in the face to all American's who watched the news with horror that day. It is a travesty to all those that ran and survived that terrifying ordeal without really understanding what had happened, or why. It is a travesty to every person who lost their lives that day at ground zero, as well as the Pentagon. It is a travesty to those on flight 93 who fought their way into the cock pit to stop those Islamic men from crashing yet another plane, this time into the White House. They did that because they believed in right and wrong, and believed in this country, and they died for it. It is a travesty to all the soldiers and families of the soldiers who are in Iraq and Afghanistan who are fighting, and dying to save this country and those around the world from terrorism, while we sit here and not only allow them, but encourage them to build a mosque as celebration of a victory. I am saddened, and sickened. This isn't a political thing. This isn't about liberal and conservative, left wing, or right wing. This is an American thing. And this American has bloody well had enough! Mr. President, with all due respect, you are wrong, and I do believe that you know it.