billytea-- 1968, wasn't Nixon a former VP instead of a sitting one? Or is that not what you're asking?

True, but the Dem candidate Hubert Humphrey was the VP at the time, right?

Pope says financial crisis proves money is an illusion. [link] .

However, as far as I can tell, he still considers the immaculate conception real.

I have been at the er since 10:30 this morning. Dislike the medical profession right now.

I feel comfortable lumping them all together, following the example of a convo heard in the waiting room:

Father: He ruptured my kidney. I broke his nose. It was a black/white thing. Blacks are much more racist than whites.
14 year old son: Some of them are cool.
Father: Oh, I love them!

Mighty white of him. And surrounded by black people at the time too.

I wish a spontaneous rupture in Daddy's other kidney. And some freaking help for from * doctors.

Uh oh.

NYTimes:

When the White House brought out its $700 billion rescue plan two weeks ago, its sheer size was meant to soothe the global financial system, restoring trust and confidence. Three days after the plan was approved, it looks like a pebble tossed into a churning sea.

Oh, we are so fucked.

So far, economists say, Europe’s response to the crisis in its banks has been mostly marked by denial and dissension.

From London to Berlin, governments are clinging to a piecemeal approach. The British and the Germans have resisted a broader solution, because they fear they will end up rescuing their neighbors.

As the problems in Europe have worsened, the crisis has taken on an “every country for itself” quality. When Ireland placed a guarantee on all bank deposits and debt last week, it angered neighbors, who feared capital would flee their banks to the safer haven of Dublin. Now, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Austria have all pledged to guarantee deposits.

“If you do this one by one, it destabilizes people’s deposits in other countries,” Mr. Johnson said. “It’s mind-boggling that the Europeans have coordinated so little up until this point.”

Waiting rooms are teh hellmouths of hospitals. ita's experience confirms it.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes, they are muchly appreciated!

Whoa. The Reserve Bank of Australia just dropped interest rates by a full 1%. That's quite a vote of no confidence in the world economy. A vote of much higher confidence in my mortgage, OTOH.

Daddy went on to call his doctor to schedule having his colostomy bag removed. Sometimes cell phones are TMI.

I'm imagining the world economies like menhirs at Stonehenge, and they're toppling, very slowly, like dominoes.

Oh, happy birthday, Sail!