Hold on, the ride is about to get a bit bumpy

It's been a strange day. A day in which I actually agree with George Bush. A day in which I admire my own Representative, Tammy Baldwin, and my favorite Republican, Tom Davis, even more:
roll call for the bail-out vote
more here

(And we can only wish it was a bill to provide assistance to the Peace Corps volunteers....evidently they had to steal the name of another bill to get it through so quickly.)

I get that people don't want to use taxpayer money to rescue Wall Street. I certainly don't!

Here at chez-Nelson we've been living in our not-very-big house and staying (mostly) within our monthly budget. I've been a working mom, even when I really would have preferred being home for those first few years. I've been contributing slowly but surely to my 401(k) and the kids' 529s to keep our assets higher than our liabilities and save for the future. Living within our means. blah, blah, blah, boring, boring, boring. Suze Orman would be proud.

So why should any of my hard-earned, smartly-invested income go for a wall street bailout?

Because the alternative is much worse. And because we can't afford to see what happens if the banks fail and the credit market dries up.

See Dan Drezner and Paul Krugman and The Economist for more nuanced analysis.

Ironically, the conservative writers seem to be making the best points:

Megan McArdle
Larry Summers

Ironic because it seems that the House Republicans were the ones who voted against it.

Should we fly in a few economists to teach them about the Ted Spread?

They've got to be able to find 23 House Republicans who care more about their country than getting re-elected, right? (I think that is the number they need?) The Republican president supports this. The Republican Treasury Secretary supports this. The Republican presidential candidate supports this. What are the House Republicans trying to prove?

Yes, this sucks. But it isn't just going to blow over.

Can I go back to horse camp? At least the manure was used for something useful there...

Escaping for the weekend

Daughter D and I are headed here for the weekend for "Mother/Daughter Horseback Riding Camp." It was my 40th birthday present to myself.

I bet the horses won't care about sub-prime mortgages, corporate layoffs, bank failures or political debates. It will be good to turn the news off for a few days.

The Babe

We are hopelessly behind on Thank-You-Notes for the half of the family who celebrated September birthdays chez K&3D. I blame Kindergarten. Kindergarten has worn me out.

But son D got one of his favorite presents ever from my aunts: A Yankees Jersey. He literally danced with joy when he opened it. Danced. I kid you not.

How the son/grandson of a family of die-hard Red Sox fans became obsessed with the Yankees is a bit of a long story.

I blame Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth has a very interesting history. Many, many biographies have been written about Babe Ruth documenting this very interesting history. I know this because I have read every single one of them out loud to my son.

At the beginning, I tried to insert the words "the evil" before every mention of the "New York Yankees" in the many, many books I read. This worked for a few weeks, and it was a bit cute (in a twisted way that only a Red Sox fan will understand) to see my then-four-year old son refer to the team as "the evil New York Yankees" repeatedly.

But eventually, he turned five, and realized that Mommy was a) not reading the real words; and b) a bit jaded.

Finally, he turned six this month and ended up with a full-blown obsession with Babe Ruth. He was thrilled beyond words when he heard that the Yankees won their last game "in the house that Babe built."

We aren't trying to raise little replicas of ourselves, right? It's good when they show their own minds and opinions, right? Life would be boring if our kids only like what we tell them to like. Right???

...at least he hasn't stuck a McCain sign in the lawn. Yet.

Wake me up when September ends.

George Will has some interesting points today.

If the Republicans had nominated someone with even an ounce of financial sense, this election would be wrapped up. I would gladly put aside all my other issues and vote for the candidate who fully understood the global financial situation. Republican or Democrat. This crisis is that important.

Sadly, I'm not sure we have a great financial-whiz option with either of our two current choices.

I've been listening to both of them. McCain is coming across as someone who would make questionable decisions without fully understanding the facts. (The first thing we should do is fire Chris Cox? Really?)

To me, Obama is coming across as someone who has never really firmly grasped the workings of the world financial system. I'm hoping that someone as bright as he is could learn quickly. He does seem to be surrounding himself with smart people.

What a mess. Is it just me or does something momentously horrible happen every few years in September? Terrorist attacks, Tragic hurricanes, Financial catastrophe.

My apologies to Green Day, but next time - maybe you could write a song about July or February? Could we spread the wealth a little here?

Required Reading

As an economist-wanna-be, I found this article in the Times to be the best out there on explaining the activities of the week.

Read it and weep for your 401(k) account.

Finally, someone who gets it

It's been over 13 years since I lived in the DC area, but I still read the Washington Post on-line regularly.

This article by Sandra Tsing Loh on parents and public education is brilliant.

Ever since Palin came on the scene, I've been reading blog post after blog post mocking the "PTA Mom." Each author assumes that PTA moms are all stay-at-home women who like to bake cookies and think that running the PTA is their life's ambition. They feed into the stereotype that we are type-A overacheivers who have fallen off the career path with no outlet for our creativity except for building a better bake sale.

They don't get it. They don't get what it is like to be deep in the trenches of an urban, poor school.

We aren't volunteering because we have nothing better to do.

We are volunteering because over half of our son's class didn't eat breakfast and probably won't eat dinner. We are volunteering because the time we brought in oranges, half the class lit up with joy because they'd never seen an orange before. We are volunteering because one third of our son's class doesn't speak a single word of English -- Gee, ya think the teacher might need to spend a little extra time with those kids?

I think I might be developing a PTA-mom crush on Sandra Tsing Loh. Of all the articles I've read over the last month, she is the first one who truly gets it. At least from where I sit.

no intenet! and I survived!

Our modem has been dying a slow death. About a week ago, it stopped working, but sporadically gave us a minute or two each day of internet. Then, mid-week, it just died. Finally, today, someone from the cable company came out and brought us a new one.

It's amazing how much a complete lack of internet changes your daily life. I read books. Whole books. Read the "The Abstinence Teacher" at one sitting.

Despite the "no internet," it's been a busy week. Let's see...I turned 40; hosted a birthday party for 14 friends of my turning-6-this-week son; worked like a madwoman at my job; dealt with the usual school stuff...and more.

School is going really well for the kids.

One benefit of being in a low-income school in Wisconsin is the class sizes. Daughter D has 11 kids in her 3rd grade class.

One of the challenges of being in a low-income school in Wisconsin is that they can never predict class sizes accurately. (It's a very transient population.) Son D has 18 kids in his class - so on Monday, they are going to create a brand new class and many of the Kindergartners will move to the new class. I know everything will work out fine - whether he moves to the new class or stays in his current (fabulous) class, but this not-knowing stage is always hard. Bottom line is that he'll be in a class with less than 15 kids, no matter what happens. So that is good.

He's having a great experience though. His class includes many kids who don't speak English. There are a few kids who no absolutely no English. He is fascinated by this. So far, his main contribution to their education seems to be the teaching of what we would deem "bathroom words" - but hey, I guess everyone needs to learn those words somewhere.

I didn't have a problem with turning 40 on Monday. It felt like it was time to be 40. I'm at a very "40" place in my life. I have a job I enjoy, a husband I adore, healthy (and wonderful) children, a home that feels like a home, amazing friends and all the rest. It feels like 40 should be to me.

But, son D will be 6 on Wednesday. That just doesn't seem possible. Really - he was JUST born. Like yesterday. Really. He's 6?????