amy.stinson

For those of you who don’t know, Eli Stone is a show on ABC that has been canceled. The finale, aired on July 12, was also one of the most tear-inducing shows I’ve watched since “Touched by an Angel”.

Eli Stone is an attorney who has visions due to a brain aneurysm. He believes that God wants him to have the aneurysms and serve as a sort of prophet. Most of the first season featured George Michael songs and flashes of George Michael. The second season deals largely with the law firm’s decision to be more philanthropic.

Each show has been very good, and that’s why the cancellation is so sad. Some shows need to go away. This one does not.

The final show centers around two themes. One theme is Eli having a vision about a plane crash that involves someone he knows; identified by a briefcase found in the wreckage given by his legal partner. He has no idea who it is, but through a process of elimination, he is trying to keep that person safe.

This particular episode also deals with an atheist who is in need of a heart transplant and the parents of a girl on life support who will not relinquish the heart of their daughter because they don’t want their daughter’s heart spending eternity in hell. The show raises some very interesting questions with this issue and comes to some very interesting conclusions surrounding the parent’s idea of their daughter’s wishes and how we, as Christians, need to address the “unfaithful”.

What I like about this series is that it covered many ideas surrounding faith in a manner that while not necessarily pleasing to the conservative Christian crowd, still handles faith issues with integrity.

This show was a breath of fresh air among all the CSI/Sociopath/Shoot-em-up/reality shows and I will miss it.

Here is this week’s song:

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Here it is less than a generation ago when the Iranian public rose up against its government and decided that it preferred a strict Islamic based governance over the secular government ruled by a “shah” monarchy. I guess Iran’s people did not think that they should be careful what they wish for. After the overthrow, the women, who enjoyed a measure of freedom not seen in other Islamic nations, were covered and sent home. The children, who received wonderful educational opportunities both in Iran and abroad, were denied access to anything remotely western. The economy immediately dropped into poverty after the rest of the world (who had any money to spend) didn’t support the overthrow.
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For years I have been at the top of the rankings in the Google search engines using the keyword “Amy Stinson”. Well, that all changed when I made a changed to the rewrite engine, which ironically is supposed to help SEO, to a more “search engine friendly” format. I dropped to #11. Now I’m going to have to figure out how to claw my way back to the top.

Bummer, man.

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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.

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We have a land line with AT&T phone service. My gripe? I have Privacy Manager® to keep from having the pesky people who don’t feel they should have to announce themselves ringing into my house. To me, the phone is like my front door. If I want to look out the window and decide I don’t want to answer the door, it’s my door – my decision. Same thing with my phone.
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It’s been a number of months since I’ve written on this topic. I’d like to be able to say that it all turned out well, but it didn’t. The township ended up paying a $470,000 settlement to Doug Williams, since there were never any lawful reasons he could be fired, and he moved on to another job. The township remains deeply divided by this issue. Some people are angry he ended up leaving, some are angry over the payoff, others are angry at the board, while others are angry that anyone is angry at the board.

Now people are looking forward to the next elections where at least 2 board members who caused this chaos can be voted out.

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