Blogtrek

Wow! What a day! A lot happened.

Pledge of Allegiance

Today the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because it contains the words "under God", thus making it an establishment of state religion.

To me, this is good news. I remember when the words came into the pledge first from a scholastic magazine that I read when I was in 4th grade. Congress passed it in 1954, and this was followed by bombastic words from President Eisenhower. I did not think much of it then, but during the years since I wondered whether those words were a violation of separation of church and state. I felt they were. I do not believe in a Christian God, and when the words "under God" are put into the pledge, to most people that means the Christian God, even if people intend it to mean whatever the person saying it chooses it to mean. So I feel that the court decision was appropriate. Further, I feel that people leading the pledge in government or public places should not say "under God", but I also feel that people reciting it can say what they want, or even say nothing.

But having "under God" stricken out by a court is good news. Now maybe they'll include in the pledge a word that got deleted long ago: "one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty, and justice for all".

The Economy

So Worldcom cooked the books. The stock market took a hit but recovered nicely. I have watched as the averages, such as the Dow, hold steady, then start a steep decline. The market does not go up and keep it up when good news comes, but it goes down when bad news comes. The investor does not have trust in the market right now, and the bookcookers of Enron and Worldcom don't help things much.

The economic signs seem good, however. Interest rates are low and are likely to stay that way. Unemployment is going down. Bonds are holding their own or going up slightly. People are spending more, and gasoline prices are still low. So what seems evident is that a negative bubble is forming. This is like a positive bubble, such as the one hitting the Nasdaq in late 1999 and early 2000, but one forming in a downward direction. The Nasdaq soared, then it collapsed in March of 2000, once people realized that all this gain was illusory. The same holds now, but in the other direction. Much of the loss of the stock market is unwarranted. Once the economy gets going again, and many say it will, then people will find stocks cheap and buy in droves. This will break the bubble and cause the averages to soar. They will eventually correspond to the long-term growth, which is about 5-8% or so for the next few years, at least.

Construction

Today they took out a large part of our kitchen floor. It was damaged by water when a valve under the kitchen sink broke. In two weeks they will install new flooring, but in the meantime we walk on plywood floors and may have to keep our cats in a room upstairs. The end result will be worth waiting for - a new kitchen floor. So it is with much construction in life. If something gets torn down, then when it gets rebuilt it is better than ever. Sometimes we need to tear things down to get out of the rut we are in.