Two Dads are Better than None

The adventures of two very adorable gay men trying to become fathers in a crazy ass world

I am going to play armchair economist here for a second, but does anyone else see the irony in the fact that lower and middle class America has brought the economy to its knees from trying to be like the upper class? After growing up in the shadow of 80s excess, internet millionaires and the notion of "entitlement" from being hard working Americans, I find it interesting that all of the "no document" loans made have essentially crippled the world economy and no really knows where the bottom is. I am no economist, but I now have survived the dot-com boom, 9/11 and worked for both Freddie Mac and Countrywide, so I have an idea of what is going on. I have also traded and day traded for years, so I have an idea of what fuels the economy and here is where I see this going:

- The Dow will hit 8000 before 2010. Cash will be king and the market will make an overdue "major correction". It is the natural economic cycle.
- Credit will dry up for the next 2 years and without credit to fuel ideas, growth will be minimal. Imagine a GDP of less than 2% for awhile and you get my drift
- As the baby boomers come into retirement the next few years, the rules will change and the concept of "safe retirement" will be a misnomer. As they have done previously, this segment will shape the economic growth of the future simply because they will have the capital.
- I predict unemployment will hit 10% in the USA as college grads and poor retirees may compete for some of the same low paying jobs. There will be resentment toward immigrants doing jobs that suddenly don't look so bad. Remember, a paycheck is all relative when there is no money in the bank.
- Our entire economy will be reshaped from this and no one knows how "safe" the end picture will be. 1 Trillion dollars is a drop in the bucket for America. The real fear will be that the confidence in America has erroded too far. Imagine if suddenly the world said "You are too much of a risk. Your reign has ended."This is the path we are going down. We could become the Wal-mart discount seller to the world because suddenly foreign cash could snatch us up during a "blue light special" my friends.

These are purely my thoughts but as a someone who understand concepts like the world economy, how shorting stocks is critical for balancing the market, how the human psychology of HELOCs works, and how keeping up with the Joneses under the guise of "endless growth" has led us down the wrong path, I have to say that future (ie the next four years) is not looking too bright.

I hope I am wrong, but ironically we got into this mess from sending the following message to all levels of American: Pimp your life, live beyond your means, don't save for the future and live in the now. Your 401K, home and income will rise no matter what. Guess what America..you may have been wrong and as they say, "payback is a bitch." I am not a religious person, but I say this - God Bless America....and please hurry-! We are in for a bumpy ride.



This wealth map shows which territories have the greatest wealth when Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is compared using currency exchange rates. This indicates international purchasing power - what someone’s money would be worth if they wanted to spend it in another territory. For some their money will gain value when they move - others’ money will lose value. This facilitates the movement of some people, whilst severely limiting that of others.

A lot of people only see John McCain’s fashionable, glamorous blond wife, Cindy.

You know, the one that buys him the $500 shoes and says that you just have to have a private plane to get around a state the size of Arizona.

They don’t see the woman McCain dumped to marry her.

You know, his first wife, Carol.

The one that waited for him while he was being held captive, the one that raised their children by herself during that time.

And the one that was severely injured in a terrible car accident in late 1969.

You can read all the sad details here.

Carol was no longer attractive enough for McCain, I guess. Personal loyalty doesn’t seem to be his strong suit. Not long after they were reunited, McCain began running around with other women. In 1979 he met Cindy, carrying on an adulterous affair with her. Cindy was young, beautiful, and part of a family that was super-rich.

I guess Carol didn’t stand a chance. McCain even applied for a marriage license to Cindy while still married to Carol. That’s low. McCain’s friends, including Ronald and Nancy Reagan, were shocked by McCain’s actions.

Once married to Cindy, John McCain was able to use her vast wealth to finance his rise to the top. Guess Carol wouldn’t have been very good at that.

Ross Perot, who paid Carol’s medical bills, put it best:

McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’

‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’

Just thought you should know what kind of “honorable” man McCain really is.

I know that McCain married well and all, but GIVE ME A BREAK....he has enough shit already...don't give the whitehead the presidency too!!

When you look at this you have to wonder which candidate *REALLY* has more in common with the "Average American"...I mean REALLY!!!

Had to post a few of these since they were so funny. Sounds like something my mom would do:
 
My mom tells me to put her phone on "vibrator".
Tricia Evans, Arizona State University
 
My dad needed directions to the place I work, so to make it easy for him I linked the Google maps directions I looked up and pasted it into an email. He responded a few hours later that the link was too long to type into the address box.
Mallie T, UVA
 
I was in a very dimly lit restaurant with my parents and I asked my mom what time it was. She took out her brand new iPhone (which has the time displayed in huge digits on the screen) and used it like a flashlight to read the time on her watch.
Anthony P, Boston University
 
The other day my family was listening to my iPod in the car and my mom heard a song that she liked and said that she wanted it on her iPod. When I told her it was already on it she asked me "how far into it, like one hour?"

Jess S, North Carolina State

My parents' CD player wasn't working, so I took a look at it when I was home. My mom had been flipping CDs over "to hear the music on the other side".
betsy E, GA Tech

For the past two years, every time I've called my mom's cell phone it has rung all the way to voicemail. The other day I was in the same room as her when her phone rang and started playing some standard tune. I watched as she just looked at the phone and ignored the call. When I asked her if she was going to answer it she replied "Yes, but don't you have to wait until the song's over?"
From Matt B.

Last week my grandpa got a new camera that he was quite impressed with. When I asked him what the resolution on it was he said "7.2 pickles"
From Austin

My grandma kept complaing about how she couldn't get her new alarm clock to stop displaying 12:00. I went up to her room and took the sticker off of the display screen.
-Brett from Ohio State

I am the lamest person about updating my blog. My sister does it daily and I am lucky to do it, ohhh once a month...could it be because I have a JOB and spend all day behind a PC? Hmm..
 
Vacation - Our vacation to Destin was an absolute blast. Greg and I had to cancel our New Orleans leg ( thank you Gustav) and flew straight into Pensacola. My mom and Dawson rented a great house with a pool a couple of blocks from the beach. I know my mom had an absolutely wonderful Bday (and she deserved is). We ate, drank, hung out by the pool, ate, drank, went to the beach, ate drank, played games. Oh and did I mention we ate and drank? It was lots of fun and suprisingly 6 adults and 2 kids managed to get along well. It helped to have 5 bedrooms and 2 living rooms. It was great spending a week away from work and in hindsight it went by just too fast. We were there a week and I swear we were in bed by 9:30 every night. We had so much fun and I really cannot think of a better vacation for my family. We were not big vacationers growing up, mostly because a single mom can't really swing such things, so my mom made up for lost vacations very well. The house, food and company were all fabulous. I can honestly say that Destin has *some* of the nicest beaches I have every seem in my life. We are already talking about doing it again in a few years. (PS: Grandma may look topless in the pool, but I swear she was not...Dawson and Greg, well, that is a different story) : -)
 
Reunion - The week after vacation I had my 20 year High School reunion. People typically dread these things, but I was lucky enough to go to a very large high school (over 800 in my class) so a lot of us stayed in Texas or nearby in DFW. There was a party Friday night and a formal thing on Saturday. I had my buddy Todd fly in from Denver and Joey went with us too. It was like the three amigos and we were hell-raising 17 years olds again. It was great to see everyone, who had changed, who had not. Going to these events makes you feel old. You rememeber everyone's face and think " I remember when you put glue in your hair in the 2nd grade." Still we all had a good time and everyone asked why I didn't bring Greg (he didn't want to come).  I can't say I blame him..I had like 10+ years of growing up with these kids. It caused a nice pause for reflection. By Sunday I was spent and realized my old body cannot party like that anymore. Life is crazy how it all works out. It was fun! By the way, I am SOOO OVER hurricanes!!
( I included a picture of me from prom...yes, I  was a total goof, but weren't we all back then. II miss the carefree days of my youth! ) If you want to see the slide show, click on the titke for this entry

I found a bunch of old pics from back in the day and had them developed. Some were pre-digital camera, so forgive the quality.

If you like one, leave a comment on it. Click Pics on the right to see my albums.

From SouthEast Asia 99

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We are a committed gay couple of almost 10 years who are trying to start a family of our own. This is our story.

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