At what point will the financial crisis be bad for me?

So lately there doesn't seem to be anything on the news except this and that expert doing his best Chicken Little impression with regard to the US economy. When all of this started I shrugged it off. I was still under the impression that folks like me don't have to worry until it is officially a recession and I thought we still had a few months before that label can be applied. Well, to my surprise we had less time that I thought and they recently deemed these trying times an official recession. Now we're constantly being reminded of how bad it's going to get and how everyone is going to have to tighten their belts. So why haven't I?

I've been going back and forth a bit between viewing myself as within a protective bubble and simply viewing recessions as things that only target specific segments of the economy. I'm finally realizing that it's essentially the fact that I'm working in DC that I'm not feeling it. Funny that this is where it's discussed most, and yet the place where it's probably experienced least. Around here everyone works for the government. Well, unless we decide to shut down the government when times get tight, few of us within the Beltway are going to have to feel it as intimately as, say, Detroit.

I know it's rotten of me to think of things in these terms, but as one who is about to get his first real job, this recession couldn't have come at a better time. Just today Bernanke announced that the federal lending rate would be cut to between 0.25% and 0.0% and will likely stay there for a while. Given my desire to buy my first starter house in the next few years, things are going swimmingly!

On top of all this, gas prices are about 60% of what they were when I drove cross county this summer. I'm saving $30 every week just on gas. I'm sure I'm jinxing myself for writing all of this, but I'd imagine that the recession was going come around to bite me in the rump sooner or later no matter what I blog about.

Didn't Mobs Used to be Scary?

One more thing about the criticism the Church has received regarding its involvement in the passing of California's Proposition 8.

So there's this clip of a huge group of gay rights activists outside of the LA Temple protesting the Church. I was thinking about this and how it sort of parallels what used to happen 150 years ago. Given that our Church stood strong after rape, murder, and destruction of our homes, are we really supposed to be all that intimidated by a bunch of rainbow flag-waving gay rights activists screaming, "Shame on you, Shame on you!" Man, the anti-Mormon mobs scene is really losing its touch.

Check out the "mob" coverage here.

"This Just In: Mormons End Gay Marriage in California!"

This last week saw some pretty big political headlines. We received our first black president. The Dems increased their majority in both houses of congress. Mormons almost single-handedly funded the effort to thwart gay marriage in Californa. What?! I guess it's a bit of an exageration, but how did that happen? I was incredibly surprised and proud to hear that members of the Church put up somewhere in the neighborhood of 40% of the money to sponsor the campaign for proposition 8 in California.

While I was relieved to see this proposition happen, I growing more and more excited about the national perception I anticipate the America having towards the Church. Although they make up somewhere in the neighborhood of 1% of California's population, the members there did far more than any other individual group to protect traditional marriage in one of the nation's most liberal states, and in a larger sense, in the nation, because all too often, as California goes, so goes the rest of America. California is often on the forefront of what's to be expected in the rest of the country, whether it be music, style, or liberal thought. The fact that we were able to stifle this movement at the state level speaks volumes of the faithful members of the Church there and their willingness to answer the call that came from the Prophet and other leaders of the Church in recent months.

Many people, both within and outside of the Church, have criticized leadership within the LDS faith for their involvement in promoting legislation relating to moral issues. Generally these critics cite the separation of church and state and the the first amendment, which states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,"

It is here that many of these individuals stop reading the passage, for herein lies their entire argument. Reading a little further they would find very different meaning in the words:

"or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

It is on these grounds that the Church is fully within its rights to campaign or mobilize individuals for the support of individual legislation. While tax-free status is not offered to those organizations that campaign for individual candidates, religious organizations allowed to support the passage of laws. I don't see why they wouldn't. I see churches and other civic organizations as the lifeblood of our nation. It is from these groups that our morals are formed and we gain much of our identities. Morals are often emobdied in legislation. Not so much so with individuals. Individuals change on a whim. Laws are spelled out from the moment they are written until they are revoked or altered and are to be taken at their wording. This, I believe, was the intention of the Founding Fathers and they were right in thinking so. To limit their ability to teach morals with real life implications (i.e. laws) would be to deny them the capacity to instill true values in people. Morals are the business churches are in.

My heart-felt congratulations to all of the Saints in California and those who helped. I feel very sorry that I didn't look for ways that I could contribute. I see this as the realization of prophesy that the Church will be the lone steadfast voice promoting the family in the last days. Well done.

Elections and things

So November 4th has come and gone. It was the day's we'd all been waiting for for the last two years. Excessive pandering, promises, pundits, and Pallin have had me wanting to, well, puke for the last year and half of it. Maybe it was the fact that I was studying political science for most of the election cycle and so the inundation of it all brought me to the point of hara-kari. It was only the blissful fog of apathy that soon came over me that made it all barable. It was this same fog that erected a mental barrier that prevented virtually any knowledge of any particular candidate from gethering in my brain. I must have seen hours of Hillary Clinton on tv but I still couldn't tell you a single thing she stands for. I just didn't care.

Well, eventually I had to think about it a bit. If you can imagine, living in DC has made it much more difficult to ignore the political process than it was while I blissfully carried on in Hawaii. I finally started following bits and pieces of candidates platforms, though mainly I was watching how they carried themselves. Though for some time I've mentally alligned myself with political conservatism, both social and economic, I couldn't help but feel alienated from the Republican party. Pallin seemed like a whack-job, McCain seemed pretty uninterested in campaigning up until the last little while, and so many of the republicans in the news just look like jerks these days.

Looking at Obama I saw a whole lot of liberalism, but I also saw enthusiasm. I had to cringe a bit at the thought of many of his policies, but he just seemed more palatable as an individual. Going into election time, I had to make a decision. Given that I was registered in Washington State, there wasn't a whole lot my vote was going to do. Obama was ahead in the polls by 12-15%. My decision, then, came down to how I wanted to remember my alligance. It looked pretty strongly like Obama was going to win it all, so I had to think in different terms. When it came down to it, his social policies are not going to change a whole lot. Roe v. Wade is already passed and a heavily democratic congress wouldn't let that change even if McCain had been elected. Gay marriage is likely going to stay at the state level so that's also not a big issue. Tax policies might get screwed up under Obama, but if he inspires confidence in markets here and abroad then we'll be better off in the long run. And finally, although he is our president, other countries like him and are excited to have him. That means better relations almost regardless of his ability as a head of state. So, when it came time to mail it in, I circled the bubble next to Obama/Biden. Knowing that he would win, I wanted to be on board. I didn't want to be a nay-sayer who for the next 4 years denies accountability for the state of the country. I didn't just want to be on the winning side so I can say I won, because in reality, he's not what I want. I wanted to hold myself responsible for my president and the state of the country.

I don't know how it's going to turn out. It's an exciting time for our country. We're struggling a bit, but not the way we think. Compared to the rest of the world we're not starving, so much as just choking a bit on our filet mignon. Hopefully Mr. President Elect Obama can give us the heimlich maneuver we need. In any case, it'll be a defining next 4 years and I'm finally starting to be more hopeful. I've made fun of the hope/change tripe of the last year or so, but, as much as I hate to say it, I'm feeling it a bit. I've been lukewarm towards things for a while now and I'm looking forward to what we're going to see in the coming period.

God bless America.