The Written Peace: Open Forum of March 10, 2005

The Dark Wraith Forums takes a news break to allow some wider ranging discussions should the desire arise among readers. For the past couple of days, the headlines here have focused on the stock market, which today saw the blue chips index rise again by about two-fifths of a percent, while the broader indices finished just about even with where they started. Patterns of stop-and-start volatility without significant overall gains tend to be a sign of greater portfolio risk. While some investors favor risk because it might mean greater expected returns, other investors tend toward the radical notion that actual, positive returns in their portfolios are most desirable. While The Dark Wraith Forums tends to avoid giving investment advice, few would take exception to the general rule that it is better to make some money on investments than to watch those investments go merely up and down in value. The Dark Wraith humbly and without any value judgments herewith points out that one political party has controlled both houses of Congress and the Presidency for more than four years, and the annualized rates of return on major stock index portfolios over that period have been anywhere from flat to substantially negative. It is left to the readers to decide whether or not this is a sign that economic policies of that ruling party are sound and effective.

As an aside, Alan Greenspan, in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the trade deficit and the falling dollar do not "overly" worry him. It would, of course, be cynical and unproductive to point out that Mr. Greenspan and the other Governors of the Federal Reserve Board are very wealthy people for whom the long-standing slow bleed of lower and middle classes is mere data on a spreadsheet. Surely, these powerful men and women who control the fate of the United States care deeply about those who are their lessers.

Surely, they do.

In other matters, the efforts to finish the distribution release of blogScream v. 1.0 are continuing, although they are being hampered by Blogger, which has become a standing scientific experiment in suspended animation. The release will come soon, possibly by the end of the weekend.

In another blogging matter, Ms. Julien of Julien's List has made a public request for a Webmaster for her blog. She is offering money. Although she did not specifically mention an offer of fame, as well, one can assume that being able to put on a résumé that one is a "Webmaster" looks pretty buff.

And finally, this evening, as a public service to readers, The Dark Wraith Forums wishes to set the record straight on events that have been the subject of scandalous, scurrilous, and downright hurtful rumors spread recently by irresponsible bloggers; to wit, the truth hereby sets you free:

Saddam Hussein was, indeed captured exactly the way the Pentagon said he was; all of those trees in the photos whose fruit and foliage were from another season were blossoming because the Coalition Forces had set them free.

American military forces kill and wound journalists to make America safer.

The minimum wage hike bill was defeated by Republicans who knew that working poor people would just go out and squander the extra pay on enough gasoline to get to work.

Scott McClellan gave Jeff Gannon day passes to the White House daily press briefings for two straight years only because he wanted to give a young, ambitious fellow a crack at the big league (of journalism).

The recent windfall profits being made by oilmen have nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that many of those good ol' Texas boys are former business associates of George W. Bush II. If Mr. Bush really were involved in the deal, everybody would be financially ruined by now like every other time he's tried his hand at actually running a business.

And finally, before her recent official trip to Europe, Condoleeza Rice told her tailor she wanted "low" boots to wear; it wasn't her fault the hard-of-hearing tailor gave her Ho Boots to wear, instead.

There. That ought to set people straight on a few matters.

The Dark Wraith awaits the expressions of gratitude for those clarifications.