Global inflation a problem, oil hits another record high on Friday!

Read this on the International version of the New York Times today:

“We were flabbergasted to see how many countries around the globe have inflation running in the double digits,” he added. “We found around 50 countries. And we probably missed some more where data are hard to come by.”

With heavily populated countries such as India on that list, they represent 42 percent of the world’s people grappling with soaring prices that threaten to crimp economic growth.

Oil prices hit another record high above $142 per barrel on Friday, while flooding in the U.S. Midwest, where much of America’s corn and soybeans grow, sent grain markets to record highs.

That will surely stoke already high food and fuel prices and hit emerging markets particularly hard.

India raised interest rates twice in June and economists think more increases are imminent after inflation hit its highest level in more than 13 years in mid-June.

Mexico’s central bank raised its key interest rate on June 20 for the first time in eight months. That surprised many economists, who thought Mexico would keep borrowing costs unchanged because of concerns that weakness in the United States, its top trading partner, would hurt the economy.

Given the widespread price pressures, it is little surprise that the Fed vice chairman, Donald Kohn, stressed that tackling inflation required an international response.

“Policy makers around the world must monitor the situation carefully for signs that the increases in relative prices globally do not generate persistently higher inflation,” Kohn said in a speech last week.”

Dodgers defeat Angels without recording a hit!

The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Angels 1-0 without recording a hit through 9 innings of play. MLB.com reports:

“The Dodgers have been trying to win without hitting all year and Saturday night they literally did.

They were held hitless by Angels starter Jered Weaver and reliever Jose Arredondo, but recorded a 1-0 win anyway with an unearned run in the fifth inning. It was only the fifth time since 1900 a Major League team won a game without a hit.

“The most bizarre game I’ve ever been part of,” said catcher Russell Martin.

Chad Billingsley lost the battle with Weaver, allowing three hits over seven innings, but won the war by combining with Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito as the Dodgers recorded their second consecutive shutout against the Angels in the Interleague Freeway Series.

“It was pretty magical,” manager Joe Torre said of the pitchers’ duel, and here’s the historical roundup:

Although by MLB rules it doesn’t officially qualify as a no-hitter because the Angels didn’t pitch nine innings, it was the first time the Dodgers were no-hit since Kent Mercker and Atlanta, April 8, 1994; the first time a Dodgers team won a game without a hit and the first time any team won a game without a hit since 1992, when the Indians beat Boston and former Dodgers pitcher Matt Young.

“We’ll try to win with one hit tomorrow and work our way up,” said general manager Ned Colletti.”

Dow Jones stocks suffer worst June since the Great Depression

Wall Street opens for trading tomorrow after a depressing week of losses that pushed the Dow Jones industrial average to its worst June since the Great Depression. The blue-chip index is at its lowest point since September 2006.

Investors are again contending with a relentless stream of troubling news from record oil prices to renewed concerns over the health of the financial sector.

“I think the market is trying to make a bottom, but the question is: Will it hold there or just crash through?” said Alexander Paris, an economist and market analyst for Barrington Research. “It feels just like the top of the technology bubble in 2000 – you know there’s something wrong, but it is hard to time it.”

The Dow closed Friday at 11,346.51, a loss of 4.2 percent for the week. The Nasdaq composite index finished at 2,315.63, down 3.8 percent. The S&P 500 index ended the week at 1,278.38, a drop of 3.0 percent.

Friday’s 107-point decline in the Dow left the index down 10.2 percent in June and on the brink of a bear market. The Dow has plunged 19.9 percent since setting an all-time high in October. Market experts define a bear market as a drop of at least 20 percent from a recent high.

“We are already in a bear market,” said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets. “Even the good ships get stranded on the beach when the tide goes out.”

Make me an Instrument of your peace, a prayer.

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console,
not so much to be understood as to understand,
not so much to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we awake to eternal life.

— St. Francis of Assisi

Always cherish and foster Optimism.

“Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes.”

……………………….Why it pays to be forever optimistic in life, as voiced by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

‘Solitude,’ a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Solitude
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

(Click Here to read about this excellent American poet.)

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.

Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.

Nice short prayers to the Lord, for Children :)

Thank you for the world so sweet,
Thank you for the food we eat,
Thank you for the birds that sing,
Thank you God for everything.

A Child’s Evening Hymn

I hear no voice, I feel no touch,
I see no glory bright;
But yet I know that God is near,
In darkness as in light.
God watches ever by my side,
And hears my whispered prayer:
A God of love for a little child
Both night and day does care.

— Anonymous

Dear Heavenly Father from above,
Look down on (Names of Children) with love,
Please keep them in your care,
And tonight hear their prayer.

A Child’s Grace

God is great and God is Good,
And we thank God for our food;
By God’s hand we must be fed,
Give us Lord, our daily bread. Amen.

— Traditional

God made the sun,
And God made the trees,
God made the mountains,
And God made me.
Thank you O God,
For the sun and the trees,
For making the mountains,
And for making me.

A Child’s Prayer for Morning

Now, before I run to play,
Let me not forget to pray
To God who kept me through the night
And waked me with the morning light.
Help me, Lord, to love thee more
Than I ever loved before,
In my work and in my play
Be thou with me through the day.
Amen.

Day is done
Gone the sun
From the lake,
From the hills,
From the sky.
All is well, safely rest.
God is nigh.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I should die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take
God bless our family and our friends.

God Hear My Prayer

God in heaven hear my prayer,
keep me in thy loving care.
Be my guide in all I do,
Bless all those who love me too.
Amen.

— Traditional

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
May angels watch me
through the night and
wake me with the morning light.

Angel Blessing at Bedtime

Angels bless and angels keep
Angels guard me while I sleep
Bless my heart and bless my home
Bless my spirit as I roam
Guide and guard me through the night
and wake me with the morning’s light.
Amen

— Traditional

Prayer for Students

God of Light and Truth,
thank you for giving me
a mind that can know
and a heart that can love.
Help me to keep learning every day of my life,
for all knowledge leads to you.
Let me be aware of your presence
in all things and at all times.
Encourage me when work is difficult
and when I am tempted to give up;
encourage me when my brain seems slow
and the way forward is difficult.
Grant me the grace to put my mind to use
exploring the world you have created,
confident that in you there a wisdom
that is real.
Amen.

— Charles Henderson

Angel Blessing at Bedtime

Angels bless and angels keep
Angels guard me while I sleep
Bless my heart and bless my home
Bless my spirit as I roam
Guide and guard me through the night
and wake me with the morning’s light.
Amen

— Traditional

A Child’s Evening Hymn

I hear no voice, I feel no touch,
I see no glory bright;
But yet I know that God is near,
In darkness as in light.
God watches ever by my side,
And hears my whispered prayer:
A God of love for a little child
Both night and day does care.

— Anonymous

Child’s Prayer

Dear God most high, hear and bless
Thy beasts and singing birds:
And guard with tenderness
Small things that have no words.

— Traditional

Table Blessing

God is great! God is good!
Let us thank God for our food.
Amen.

— Traditional

For Happy Hearts

We thank Thee Lord, for happy hearts,
For rain and sunny weather.
We thank Thee, Lord, for this our food,
And that we are together.

— Traditional

Child’s Prayer for Protection

Angel of God, my Guardian dear,
To whom God’s love commits me here;
Ever this day, be at my side
To light and guard
To rule and guide.

— Traditional

U.S. Supreme Court “eases up” on big oil, shrinks Exxon Valdez Oil Spill damages ordered by lower court from $2.5 Billion to $500 million

Dreaming of the America that put ‘PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS….’

The following is an article found here, it was written by by Ned Turner at abcnews.go.com:

“While the Supreme Court agreed that ExxonMobil should be punished for the worst oil spill in U.S. history, it decided that the original fine was far too much, under existing shipping laws.

In a 5-3 decision the court reduced punitive damages in the case from $2.5 billion to $500 million, which means each of the people who joined the original suit against the oil company will receive an average of $15,000. Thirty-three thousand Alaskans had joined together, suing ExxonMobil to punish it for its negligence in the accident. Six thousand of them have died since the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989.

“A penality should be resonably predicatable in its severity,” wrote Justice David Souter for the 5-3 majority. Justice Samuel Alito, who owns ExxonMobil stock, did not take part in the case.”

Tennessee’s tax paying citizens could recover between $110 million and $250 million per year by requiring ‘combined reporting’ for corporations who currently use Delaware holding companies to avoid paying state taxes.

from Tennesseans for fair taxation: “Based on revenue estimates from 11 other states, we know that combined reporting could potentially recover between $110 million and $250 million currently being lost through tax loopholes.”

(Delaware is well known as a corporate haven, and thus, over 50% of US publicly-traded corporations and 60% of the Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in the state.^[1])

Brian , from Tennesseans for fair taxation, online at http://www.fairtaxation.org created the video below to help Tennesseans understand why they should write to their Congressmen and help to close the Corporate tax loophole that is robbing local taxpayers of money that should be helping to improve local schools and infrastructure:

Visit warongreed.org to read numerous recent articles about the current climate for fair taxation in America.

from Tenneseans for fair taxation: …”Combined reporting is an accounting method already used by 21 states representing over half the US economy. It requires businesses with multiple subsidiaries to file a single, unified tax return for the parent company and all its affiliates. In the process, it shuts the door to a wide array of corporate tax avoidance strategies with one simple, common sense change in reporting. Corporations can still shift profits back and forth between their various subsidiaries, but there is no long a tax advantage in doing so under combined reporting. Based on revenue estimates from 11 other states, we know that combined reporting could potentially recover between $110 million and $250 million currently being lost through tax loopholes.”

Matthew 25

Matthew 25:

“41 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ 44 Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ 45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.'”