The Big Bailout

How in character for the Bushies to all of a sudden get interested in the financial market mess.  They've spent months telling us everything was going to be okay, when they knew it was not, trying to get through the election without everything crashing.  Bad timing for McCain, who just last week was telling us the fundamentals of the economy were sound, and now a week later if we don't do what Bush says and do it now, the world as we know it will end.

Speaking of timing, isn't it a rather shocking coincidence that on Saturday Goldman Sachs, of which Henry Paulson was CEO as they were acquiring all the garbage in their portfolio, applies to become a bank; on Sunday the Fed approves their application, and on Monday Paulson asks for $700 Billion to bail out -- the banks!  His bank, among others, the number and names unknown as yet.   And everyone has to rush to do it without asking any questions, without anyone being able to question anything he does, and we'll pay.  Or we'll be liable -- it won't get paid in my lifetime.  This $700 Billion, of course, does not include the $1 Trillion (with a "T"!) to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, nor the earlier few hundred billion for the earlier bailout through the summer, or the Credit Facility loans the Fed has already made these banks, and which they won't tell anyone what the outstanding balance is.  

Somehow I doubt Ronald Reagan would recognize today's version of supply-side, trickle down economics.  But for $2 Trillion in bailouts of one sort or another, there should be a hell of a trickle coming your way soon!

 

Taylor's Birthday

Taylor's birthday, September 13.  She and the girls with her in the picture at top, Klea, Mina, and Gresa, went to the swimming pool at the embassy Saturday morning.  When they came back we had about a three-hour lull before all these other kids descended for cake and ice cream.  There were about a dozen, I guess.  These are the bulk of the children that play outside everynight.  The middle two kids in the second picture are Aera and Arges, Gresa's brother and sister.  They live directly across the street.  Aera calls Zeta Zay-baa, so we've started too.  

The bottom picture is just after all the little kids left at about eight.   The same group that went to the swimming pool spent the night.  We finally had to run them out the next day about noon. 

Ascoli Piceno

Ascoli Piceno is the capital of the Ascoli Piceno Province, and is a pretty good sized city.  Like all Italian cities, I think, it has its old central city and has expanded outward over the centuries.  These pictures are all within three blocks of each other.  The one with the flags is city hall.  We were there on a Saturday, on our way to Bari, so we didn't spend a lot of time.  Good thing, too, since we had our car issue Cindy wrote about and had a slower drive down the coast.

But Ascoli is an old town off the beaten path.  These two churches date from the 12th and 15th centuries, respectively.

Marche

One day we drove east/northeast to Morovalle, then east to Civitanova Marche, and down the Adriatic a few miles and back to Monte San Martino.  The top picture is of Monte S. Pietrangeli, where we went to an outlet store I think of Guido Nero -- after seeing the outlet prices I'm glad I didn't see full retail.  We left purchaseless.  The second picture is Monte S. Pietrangeli also, but from down in a valley.

The fifth picture is "countryside in Marche" pictures.  We saw lots of sunflower fields waiting for harvest -- all the yellow was gone and it looked like they were patiently waiting for the combine.

Middle picture is the main highway along the coast.  It varies, but runs probably two to five blocks from the Adriatic.  Fourth picture is approaching Civitanova from Morovalle.  Morovalle is where I bought my Il Gergo shoes at their factory outlet store.  Cindy got hers in Amandola, the same place we got lots of wine.  

Ambro

All pictures along the Ambro, where we went for a short walk after lunch.  A very pleasant place.

Santuario Della Madonna Dell'Ambro

These are all pictures of the Santuario.  Ambro is the name of the stream which runs by and joins the Tenno River not too far away.  In May 1000 the virgin supposedly appeared to Santina, "a humble young shepardess who had been dumb from birth.  Santina was endowed with the gift of speech as a reward for her devotion to an image of the Virgin placed in the hallow of a beech."  From the leaflet given out at the church.  People come from all over the world.

Amandola

Amandola is a much larger city than Monte San Martino, and is located in the foothills of the Apennines about 30 miles or so west-southwest of our villa.  It originally was a hilltop town, but has grown and spread down to the valley.  It seems to be a tourist destination both during summer for people touring the Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, and in the winter for winter sports.  

The top picture is of the city gate and city square.  Next is the view from the city looking west into the mountains.  Third is an intersection in the oldest part of town.  Next picture is looking up the steps to the city square.  I'm standing in front of the doors to the church.

Bottom picture is at lunch at the Paradiso Hotel restaurant.

Monte San Martino III

These pictures are all from Monte San Martino.  Taylor in the phone booth and Cindy and Taylor by the chartreuse SmartCar.  They think SmartCars are so cute.  

The old road up to the city is not used any more so the grass is growing in it.  It has elevated pavers every few rows so donkeys/horses/people can get traction.

I don't know if this cat is as big as Winifred's cat Langston, but he's fat and lazy.

Election News

The only television from America we get is via Armed Forces TV, which has one news channel.  The news channel has many Fox programs, which means little news.  They may have CNN for an hour, Fox an hour, ABC an hour, back to Fox for two hours, and so on.  I very seldom turn it on.

The only other way of keeping up with politics is via the internet.  So thanks to you, Al Gore, for inventing it, because now I can find out things like John McCain created the BlackBerry.   Who knew?  

I thought ever since March Obama was going to lose, because I thought his campaign was a little lackluster and unfocussed.  Sort of warmed-over John Kerry, except for their determination to retaliate for all attacks, real and imagined, which I thought took some of the sheen off the postpartisan candidate image.

But Sarah Quaylin has changed my mind.  She's like Katherine Harris without the eyeshadow, only worse.  I just have to believe that the 10% of voters in the middle who decide who our president is going to be would not vote for Palin for President, and the more confused and addled and clueless McCain sounds, the more likely it is that she would be president within four years.  The obvious willingness of this pair to say and do anything to get elected is making Mitt Romney seem like a pillar of consistency.  

But we'll see -- it's hard to get a clear picture of what is going on from here.

 

Monte San Martino II

Two scenes from Monte San Martino -- the far right is the church in the little town square, and near right is one of the streets leading off the square.

Below are two pictures from the same spot looking down from the city.  Many fields had been plowed, which you can see in the background.  They don't use a lot of rubber-tired tractors because of the steep hills -- mostly tracked.


The bottom picture is from almost the same spot, but is looking more southwesterly toward the Apennines.

Swimming

Taylor in the swimming pool at the villa.  We were the only ones there.  They had one large apartment that would sleep ten-twelve, and another that would sleep six, plus ours that had our bedroom and a dbl. sofa in the living room for Taylor.  She wanted an action shot, and this one came out pretty good.

The middle picture is from the pool level looking down the valley toward the Adriatic, which is about 25 miles away, if you're a crow.

The bottom two pictures are fully zoomed in.  The fourth one is of the next hilltop town across the valley.  You can see it way in the backgroud of picture three.

And the last one is straight across the valley, a house way on the top of the hill.

Monte San Martino

Monte San Martino on top of the hill.  Le Marche Region is full of little hilltop towns.  About 500 live in this one.  Second photo is the place where we stayed.  I took the picture down in the valley about a kilometer away.  

The middle picture is in Monte San Martino looking out over the countryside.  The next picture is from our villa looking west to the Apennines just before sunset.  The last picture is looking almost the same direction, but from higher up in Monte San Martino.

We were in the southern-most province of Marche, Ascoli Piceno, whose capital city is Ascoli Piceno.  Marche is bordered on the east by the Adriatic and on the west by the Appenines.  It is mostly agricultural, wine, olives, grains, but has some industry.  Several shoe factories and outlet stores, at which Cindy and I were both able to find some nice Italian shoes.  Went to the Dezi winery in Servigliano and bought half a case of wine.  We actually brought about three dozen bottles home with us.  Wine buying here is sort of iffy for both quantity and quality, so I mostly only buy inexpensive everyday type wine, like that I mentioned yesterday.  Marche is home to Rosso Piceno and Verdicchio, I guess their two most well-known DOC red and white wines.  I like them both.  The lack of steady electricity is one of the culprits of iffy wine quality here -- electricity goes out and the bottles heat up.  Of course many restaurants don't have air conditioning so their wine stays hot.  I quit ordering red wine out because a lot of times it was so hot.  Everyone stores their wine standing up, even the two good wine stores that import directly from Italy.