The Economy, from a Local Perspective

On Saturday, Nov. 1st, I was tallying up the sales numbers here at the store for October.
October was good. October showed a big increase. Every month since opening in July we have had an upward trend.

Business was good.

Judging from that Saturday and the following Monday, it looked like we were on our way to an even better November... and then Election Day.

Not a single customer!

I didn't get too alarmed-I had seen the same kind of thing during our local Election Day back in August. Biz was very light on that day. But it bounced back the next day. So maybe it was just a local thing.
The next day I had one customer. Bought a pack of smokes.
Thursday was just as bad. By Friday I was wondering if I should even bother with opening the store that day!

It was weird. It was like this whole area of the county went into lock down. Even my regulars, who always stopped in on their way to work just kept driving by and never stopping. Maybe the shock was just too great. Maybe the natives were hunkering down, fearing the worst after the election. I had never seen this neighborhood so quiet and dead. It was creepy and unsettling.
I always had a slight drop in biz towards the end of the month. The last week of a month being the slowest. But this was the first part of the month. This wasn't right. Something was afoot.
It was bad enough to make me reconsider my plans for deer season, or at least scale them back some.

This slow to none existent biz continued into this week. By Wednesday it was slowly picking back up. But folks weren't much in a chatty mood- just pay for their goods and split. And more than one had put something back, after pondering it for a moment. Like that can of tomatoes or candy bar was gonna break 'em. Strange. I think I was seeing fear, or at the very least worry of uncertainty.

Finally, by this past Friday it appeared that the shock had wore off. Friday was a good day.
Today is opening day for rifle deer season. I'm up bright and early and will be opening for biz extra early with hot coffee and assorted pastries and sausage biscuits for the hunters. I've stocked up on freezer paper and other incidentals essential for deer cabins, I have plenty of bagged ice on hand for their coolers. Now we wait and see.
A good week during deer season will make up for that freaky "Obama Effect".
And we really need a good week!

Was it shock? Was it fear and worry that led to my worst week ever, sales wise? Dunno. Just throwing this out there.
Now, I'm off to open the store...and hope for a good day.

I for one, Welcome our alien overlords...

Well, now that we've handed the car keys to the drunk teenagers, looks like the head squirrel is itching to take the nation out for a joy ride-ahhh, ain't this cute?:

Obama to Use Executive Orders for Immediate Impact

("Hey! What's this button do?!"....Coool!)

"WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, said Sunday Obama is reviewing President Bush's executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule. He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own.

"There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set."-----------

"Obama's advantage of course is he'll have the House and the Senate working with him, and that makes it easier," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. "But even then, having an immediate impact is very difficult to do because the machinery of government doesn't move that quickly."

Presidents long have used executive orders to impose policy and set priorities. One of Bush's first acts was to reinstate full abortion restrictions on U.S. overseas aid. The restrictions were first ordered by President Reagan and the first President Bush followed suit. President Clinton lifted them soon after he occupied the Oval Office and it wouldn't be surprising if Obama did the same.

Executive orders "have the power of law and they can cover just about anything," Tobias said in a telephone interview."


Y'know, this past week I've been reading stuff like this, and the only thing that comes to mind is the old Richard Pryor bit about the old men in his neighborhood talking about the Hard Times- a patch of years so bad, they didn't even give them numbers-just called them Hard Times!

I fear we will be looking back at the Carter years with a certain fondness after this guy.

AN AMERICAN CREED

(Note from WTR: My fellow conservatives in exile, please feel free to swipe this and post. Let this be our guidepost and encouragement as the nation stumbles blindly into Change.)

An American Creed

I Do Not Choose to Be a Common Man

It is my right to be uncommon—if I can.

I seek opportunity—not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.

I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.


I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.


I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat.


It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, “This I have done.”

*By Dean Alfange


*Originally published in This Week Magazine. Later printed in The Reader’s Digest, October 1952 and January 1954.

The Honorable Dean Alfange was an American statesman born December 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was raised in upstate New York. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and attended Hamilton College, graduating in the class of 1922.