Note:  If you want coffee, don't ask Hillary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C9bkuJliMY

Is this who I want making me a cup of coffee at 3am?

Vote Obama.  The man knows how to make a damn cup of coffee.

Oh, I agree, Neil - that's one of the reasons I was so tired of people telling me to buy - I had a cousin who worked in home loans, and he told me this was coming.

It was no secret.

Allow me to present a historical anticdote as means of making a point.

A century ago, before the dawn of cars, people got around in horse and buggy.

The fuel for a horse was various grains - usually corn, rice, wheat - and the leading horse food companies were General Mills, Post and Quaker.

When the automobile came on the scene, these businesses took a huge hit, as less and less people were buying horse fuel.  And it was too late for these horse feed industry giants to get into the petrolium business.

However, around this time, Dr Kellogg was experimenting with giving horse feed to his patients, mixed with milk.  The patients (these were pre-Atkins, for sure!) enjoyed it, and it seemed to do them good, so....

Next thing you know, the former horse feed companies have had a century of successful business feeding us every morning with breakfast cereal.

Now...

There are a LOT of lessons in that one story about our future - it's true what Brother Truman said - the only new thing under the sun is the history you haven't read yet  - keep this in mind -

We are heading into a huge economic depression.  For many reasons - but most of all because a number of factors are happening at the same time - if there was just the mortgage crisis, if fuel prices alone went up, if the marketplace was changing due to new technology alone, if the world economy was changing, etc - any of these things on their own would lead the natual economic cycle to recession - but that they're all happening at the same time?

But there's hope.  Sure we're losing jobs to obsolescence in many sectors, but like the cereal feed companies before us, new industry - (Lead by the same tycoons!) will spring up in their place.  Sure, oil prices are insane - but it will just spur us - America is good at reacting to this sort of pressure - to come up with something new!  We went from horse to car in the last century - what's next?

We're in a tight spot, but history tells us that things have a way of working out.

Now - it would help things if we had a wise leader running the show to help navigate the ship - in my opinion, Barack Obama is the best candidate for the job - but I suppose it's up to each of us to reflect on the candidates, look at their records, their plans, their goals, their background, education, and experiences and decide who is best to lead us through these upcoming trying times.

Choose wisely.

Now - it would help things if we had a wise leader running the show to help navigate the ship ... it's up to each of us to reflect on the candidates, look at their records, their plans, their goals, their background, education, and experiences and decide who is best to lead us through these upcoming trying times.

This, I completely agree with.