The US Debt Ceiling and why it could be worse

I have been working on the floor again today I need to get it finished before I whiz away for a few days on a secret mission, leaving you all in suspense asking questions like WHY…. WHERE …. HOW …. WILL HE RETURN …. DO WE CARE.

It is rather ironic working on a floor today because I thought I might discuss the American debt ceiling and the present impasse of their political system. The reason for this is because one or two of my American friends are a little worried and concerned that America is looking a bit stupid. So I am here to reassure them that this is not the case, OK yes we might all snigger a bit but only because America is a huge super power.

You see it may be rather frustrating to live in a country that has sort of closed, but at the end of the day it is better to live in a country that is fairly tolerant of most points of view and allows the individual to do their own thing within reason and there is at least a degree of equality. Lets face it things like equality and tolerance are never quite as they should be even in the best of countries, so the USA is doing as good as any.  You see the alternatives are not so good, places like China, Russia, most of the Middle East huge chunks of Africa and loads of smaller places would I suspect blame the whites, the blacks, the Catholics, the Jews, the Christians, Muslims or Old Bert’s Dog etc and shoot them all or lock them up or have a bloody military coo or someone would just tell you to hand over everything or else.

I am sure there is plenty of inequality in the US but it is less than many many other countries. The hard bit in all this is that folks living standards in the West in general are probably going to drop with time, we have had a good time (well some have) but we have blown all the money now and so its back to crunchy dried ships biscuits, a glass of grandpa’s moonshine and growing veg in the garden, milking the goat and selling the goats cheese on Ebay.  And a pleasant trip to the office in the pony and trap.

It might be tough and hopefully your politicians will think country and not self, but somehow I suspect you will all muddle through in the end. After all most ordinary people in most countries are nice including your good selves     

So my friends in the USA yes you may be broke, bankrupt, insolvent, penniless, ruined and bust but at the end of the day you could live in Syria or the like or eating Old Bert’s Dog…

A picture tells a thousand words

I have drawn a quick picture which I think basically explains itself, you know the old saying. .. . . A picture tells a thousand words . . . . So I don’t really think I need to say much more about today except to add that Esmeralda will certainly take more care near ferrets, and George will be fine once he gets his hand out of the thermos flask.  Yes he could break it, but that might kill the stick insects inside and that is the last thing we need after today’s events.

Of course those of you reading the cheap paperback diary of Rob Z Tobor bought at Kings Cross station will not get to see my drawing, so I will just say it involves an angry swan and a plate of ice cream.   

Autumn, floors and the closure of a large place

Today was without doubt the most Autumnal day of the year so far, indicating that autumn really has arrived. Here in Britain that means that the temp in about 12C to 15c it is very very grey on account of the fact the sun is hiding behind a thick layer of grey cloud and it is also slightly drizzly and the hills are shrouded in a layer of mist. Still it could be worse……..

Anyway I was doing practical things at school today as the headmaster insisted or he said he would send me home to mark exam papers from this years new intake of pupils. So today I started to put down a new school staff kitchen floor to cheer it up and make it more colour coordinated… With luck it will be finished on Thursday and we can then play chess on it.

I noticed on the news this morning that the United States of America has closed as a result of a political stalemate in their equivalent of the House of Commons or maybe Lords (Congress). As it happens the real reason that American has closed is that it is broke, yes sadly the country has less money than a lonesome tuna fish in an aqua theme park which has now closed till further notice. But although broke America also has all the really scary weapons, so it will be OK because we will smile and lend them some more, it is always good to be friendly with the man with the scariest weapons. I could try waving my pointy stick, but I feel it will not have the same effect.

So all in all I have not had an exciting day and neither have folk in America, it must have been like the old days in Wales on Sunday’s before IKEA…..

China and sore thumbs

I have noticed that from time to time my blog has been read in China, there are a lot of folk in China, and it is a huge place with strange interesting cultures and strange interesting politics. You see China like all so called super powers has a paranoid political system. Now if you are reading this in China I am not being nasty because it is the same in Russia, America, Britain and Europe . . . .  It is the way of world politics.

The reason I bring this up is because I am the Slightly Eccentric Child of Cyberspace with a cyberspace based diary in several locations and it is interesting from time to time to try and work out who reads my diary and how easy it is to find my diary. So it was with great interest that I have noted that if I use a Chinese search engine to look for myself, I don’t appear to exist. Well that is not very nice. I now have to work out why the powers that be in China don’t like me, I am surely not a subversive dissident, well I don’t think I am, I have been known to grumble a bit OK quite a lot. Some think it is because my diary makes little if any sense in English and so in Chinese it might look WELL COOL, but in terms of rational reasoning with a good sub-plot where Mr Jones finally reveals he is in fact the very nice Steven Spielberg casing the diary prior to making an offer I can’t refuse . . . . . . . . Sadly NO.

I will say that one thing China is good at though is making stuff they do some seriously good quality products these days and I would recommend everyone wanting large volume and a decent price to consider some of their reputable well established companies . . . ... Do you think I might get a mention in a search engine now … OOOOooooooo go on….

I slightly singed my thumb today which for a short time was a bit sore but is OK now, I also did some scavenging and got four metal framed tables which are part of a cunning plan in recycling. What is rather annoying is at present on TV there is a program where a chap is making a super beach hut with recycled stuff. Fine but he turns up with bits of oak from the hulls of ships and aeroplane parts and old scaffold poles, now old scaffold poles are like gold dust in a place with no gold dust and a mad lady with a vacuum cleaner. So great, but us normal chaps have to run off with a large vegetable oil tin from outside the local takeaway and rusty tables with chipboard tops that need burning, resulting in a slightly singed thumb.

As the old Chinese saying goes . . . . . . .  Do not look at what you see, but see the possibilities of what you look at.

I am good at making up old Chinese saying . . . . . 

.