Yes, Someone Saw It Coming

“At a minimum, the mergers are creating a class of ‘too big to fail’ institutions – banks that must be bailed out, various presidents will inevitably tell us, to prevent a ‘domino’ economic effect.”

– Ralph Nader, The New York Times, November 12, 1995

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“The real concern that we have is that we have got and developed, in this country, a very serious ‘too big to fail’ problem, and that problem, we’ve just recognized now in the current situation, how severe it is.”

- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, NYT, October 16, 2008

Full article here by University of Florida’s Travis Pillow

Obama, on Finding a New Church

Great article on the Obama’s hunt for a community of Christians in D.C.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/01/obamas-to-searc.html

My Burned Out Heart

Matt, the cath lab (Vanderbilt Med Center) prep nurse took exactly 2 minutes and 32 seconds to shave everything from my groin up-with an electric razor. I’m as smooth as a baby’s butt. They needed hairless room to put all the electrodes and defibrillator paddles, not to mention the possiblility, remote, of having to go in through my sternum.

I woke up once during the procedure to an awful pain in my chest. That was a good thing, they said. The pain was proof that they had cauterized the right spot, about a centimenter long, in the left atrium. I vaguely remember asking if Matt was now inside my heart doing his razor thing.

Three small spaghetti sized holes in my right groin, with a little bruising is all that remains of the procedure on the surface. I won’t show pictures. I’m not leaking blood or have more than a couple square inches of bruising.

I was groggy from the sedatives, sleeping most of the afternoon, but waking up for a few hours for a delicious dinner from my sister, and a quick game of “Up and Down the River” with her daughter, Sarah, son-in-law, Dave, Nathan and Rhonda. I haven’t had any symptoms of flutter or fib all day or night so looks like they zapped the right spot. My only question as I waited for Dr. Whalen to show up was, “How many of these have you done?” His student resident was there so I asked him how many he had done on live patients. Chuckle, chuckle. “Thirty or forty” he said. They promised a 95% success rate. Looks like number 41 hit the jackpot! I’ve now got my old age heart problems solved early.

Thanks for your prayers and concern.

Novel Part 3: National Novel Writing Month

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

No super hero training school exists. Mom and Dad decided in fifth grade that I wouldn’t go back to public school. We lived in a small town of 5,000, but the world was getting closer. The internet came to town the year before, 1993. Mom and Dad hooked during my fifth grade. They knew that a lower profile was the only way to save me from the fascination of evil and touch hungry fans. We moved to Michigan. To the woods. To a place where Calvinism and Dutch puritanical instincts ran deep. Kent County. Neighbors take care of each other there. We found some good ones.

On a summer night that melted wallpaper, our neighbor, Gerrit Guikema, blasted his 12 guage into the night air. Shattering glass followed. Moaning and screaming came next. My dad picked up his pistol holster, carrying a Taurus PT 24/7 PRO, with twelve .45’s in the clip. Gerrit had intimidated a couple of goobers who had staked out our house. He said it was the third night. He didn’t trust them. He called the police, then fired his shotgun. At 75, Gerrit didn’t look criminal so the police let him go. The goobers? They had guns. Ex-felons. They were locked up for a couple more years. But who sent them? And what did they want? Simple! It’s always about money.