by Amy Stinson | Oct 20, 2008 | Musings
So what did you all think of Sarah Palin’s SNL debut? I think she’s got a great game face. I had to wonder how she liked locking arms with a guy (Alec Baldwin) who threatened to leave the country if GWB was elected (so much for “campaign” promises), but I was impressed that she was willing to do something unscripted.
What do I think about the choice for VP? I would have liked to see someone who is a bit more aware of things beyond Alaska. She’s undoubtedly politically smart, but does she know her stuff?
Time will tell.
by Amy Stinson | Oct 6, 2008 | Hobbies & Interests
I’ve been part of the team in the “V” part of the AV at church for several years. Last spring I was asked to put together the visuals for the Men’s Southport Great Banquet, so I did and got a lot of favorable comments. I was asked to do the visuals for both men’s and women’s this fall and got some nice comments, but the best one was from a fellow AV guy from another church. We were talking about tools and he asked me what I used, which is MS Powerpoint. He said that he had even more respect for my stuff because it was amazing and even more amazing because it was Powerpoint. I do a lot with transitions and photos, but the secret to running services using Powerpoint is in phrasing the words on the slides from a singer’s perspective, and knowing when to advance the slides. I advance 3 words before the end of a phrase so the singers know what is coming up next, which has allowed us to eliminate the music stands from the platform and keep the singers eyes up.
The only bad thing about Powerpoint is there is no room for improvisation, at least the way the hardware is set up at church. I’m looking to show the other team members how to do dual monitors so that you can run in presenter view mode. I think once they got past the “different” part they would really appreciate the flexibility of using presenter view.
by Amy Stinson | Oct 5, 2008 | School
When I started back to school in 2005, I was anxious to get done. I planned to CLEP the humanities, social science, English, and Math classes as I hadn’t liked school in quite a while. Well, it turns out that I liked studying for tests on subjects I had no background in even less. I was so nervous about taking the tests that I ended up taking all the classes, thereby adding a year to the process. (more…)
by Amy Stinson | Oct 3, 2008 | Musings
I’m a Libertarian-leaning Republican who has been watching this presidential selection process unfold with great interest. I’m pretty fed up with the way this whole system of government is evolving, but unfortunately Americans do the definition of insanity everytime we as a people stand before the voting machines and elect those who say one thing and do something else.
Enter Governor Palin. New kid on the block. Great looking. Not afraid to speak. Feisty. That’s not my beef with her. My beef about her during the VP debate was her reluctance to answer the questions posed by the moderator. There’s no doubt about it; the questions were not comfortable to anyone who has been defending this hot mess called Iraq, or who thought the financial stability of the country was just fine, but to literally change the subject every time something uncomfortable was brought up was not fair to the voting public. Yes, it is OK to defend Iraq from the perspective of the soldiers who have and are serving our country, and it’s okay to acknowledge the lack of knowledge about the financial crisis, but let’s get honest these things and just come clean.
Not that Joe Biden was that much more willing to let ‘er rip, even though the questions were geared more towards an antagonistic stance against the current administration. Could this be because it’s been a democratic led congress for the past 2 years? I don’t know. He was restrained in expressing his views, when that is clearly not his forte.
Note to Candidates: Main Street just wants transparency. Main Street wants to believe someone and not have its intelligence insulted by talking points.
by Amy Stinson | Oct 3, 2008 | Reasoned Opinion
Ok, I knew we were in a pickle when my brother told me with (presumably) a straight face (we were talking on the phone) that he was getting most of his background in what was going on in our country politically and financially by watching “The Daily Show”. Now I am definitely out of the loop since my exposure to TV is limited to what is offered across the airwaves. I don’t see non-network TV on a regular basis, but in this week that I’ve been staying at my daughter’s house I have been watching it every day. Wow! and here I’ve been limiting myself to the Wall Street Journal for my information. Straight shooting and no bias on “The Daily Show.” Yeah, right. Is there some truth to what Jon Stewart talks about? Of course.
So people ask – how did this happen? How did our country’s finances get to this point where the toilet is up? Is it really so hard to see? Remember back in 1986 when Congress passed the largest tax reform bill and Reagan signed it into law? One thing that the “reform” did was to drop the deduction on the interest paid on consumer credit for those of us who itemize our taxes. This lost deduction was designed to slow spending. Yeah, right. Shortly after that, the inevitable loophole was found. That loophole was to use the equity of one’s home as a personal line of credit, which at the time was limited to 70 or 80% of the assessed equity of the home and commonly used for home improvement. How many people took advantage of the equity of their homes to pay for consumer debt only to acquire more consumer debt on credit cards? Lots. How many times were people encouraged to leverage non-collateral debt against their homes? Lots. Not only that, various mortgage credit companies continue to act as though it’s business as usual, when it clearly is not.
Not everyone was able to avoid the temptation, and when the mortgage market “opened” to the place where people were able to borrow against “future” value of their homes – more then a home’s present worth – well who wouldn’t want to take advantage of “cheap” money? Moreover, many thought (rightly) what lender in its right mind would put its assets at risk by gambling on future values and someone’s questionable ability to pay? This led to a false sense of security. With the full approval (mandate) of Congress, lenders flattered the high risk borrower, and sold off the questionable loans to investors looking for a quick return on what was (apparently) perceived as a bottomless pit of growth, even as new home starts were slowing and homes were being foreclosed upon in areas of economic slowdown. To add to this hot mess, mortgage brokers working on straight commission who had no incentive to screen applicants; more than likely a huge incentive to fudge the numbers. In other words, there are no “victims” in this fiasco. People bought more house than they could comfortably repay based on flattery and the hope of repaying, and then borrowed against an over-valued home. Lenders led borrowers to believe they could repay while charging risky borrowers enough interest to make it worthwhile to the lender. Lenders, in turn, sold high risk debt to someone else until the whole hot mess collapsed. Don’t let anyone tell you this mess lacked oversight. There was plenty of oversight – by people who chose to look the other way.
Now we, as a nation, appear to be close to getting the opportunity to bail out the lenders and perhaps some of the borrowers if Congress can put their collective minds together and come up with something most of them can agree upon. Don’t make the mistake of believing this is a long-term solution. This is nothing more than a band-aid.
