You Too Can Understand The Debt-Ceiling Debate!!!

Marketplace Senior Editor, Paddy Hirsch, (successfully) explains the debt-ceiling debate in less than 4 minutes:



As one commenter explained, here's the rundown:

airport = economy
cloud/storm = debt debate
planes = investors
passengers = consumers
control tower = American government

Salman Khan, founder of the AMAZING khanacademy.org, explains the difference between the deficit, debt, and their effect on the debt-ceiling:

It's Not That Hard To Do The Right Thing

On Tuesday, I went into the Walgreen's on Clark and Monroe and noticed a dog outside. It was cute. It was tied up to the bike rack, luckily there was some shade. I go into "The 'Greens" and spend my usual 10-15 minutes looking for something but finding absolutely nothing. I leave and I still see the dog tied up. But this time, it looks sad, hungry and hot (at this point the shade was gone).

It was panting heavily.
No food.
No water.

Its owner was nowhere to be found. I get closer to the dog (it was non aggressive). It didn't have any dog tags (identification). I immediately thought, "this dog was left here by its piece-of-sh*t owner because (s)he cant take care of it anymore." I go back inside "The 'Greens" and ask them if they know whose dog it is or if they can announce it over the intercom. I talk to the Streetwise vendor as him and I are looking for police and trying to contemplate where this dog's owner is.

I call animal control - no answer.

I call the Chicago Police Department. After speaking to three different officers, I'm told that an officer is "on their way" though they could not provide an ETA. I had to get back to work -- I had a meeting to facilitate at 1pm. It's now 12:50. At this point it's been about 25 minutes since I first arrived and STILL no sign of the owner.

The police still hadn't arrived.

I'm starting to contemplate taking the dog home (though Payton would kill me).

Finally, the owner shows up.

It's a female (if it would have been a male, I probably would have kicked his ass). and I told her I called animal control and the CPD because the dog had no tags, no food or water and I couldn't tell if it was a stray or not.

"Oh, really? Hahahahahahahahahahaha. That's sooo funny!", she laughs.

I didn't find the humor in any of this. So I told her she may want to stick around to explain to the police as I am flabbergasted how this woman can spend 35 minutes in "The 'Greens" and not have a single bag in her hand. I leave to get back to work (at this point, I'm going to be late for my meeting).

Yesterday (Wednesday) morning, I ran to the McDonald's across the street from Walgreen's and the same Streetwise vendor sees me. We converse about the situation from the previous day and how effed up it was of that girl to leave her dog out there like that.

I go into McDonald's and buy a mocha coffee (love this thing!), two has browns and an orange juice. This wasn't all for me. One of the hash browns and the orange juice was for the Streetwise vendor for his help on Tuesday.

Infinite Loop

I come home, mentally exhausted from the work day -- 8hrs, 12hrs, it doesn't matter. It's all the same. I come home exhauseted -- ready for the routine: change clothes, feed Payton, start laundry, run, take a shower, cook something unhealthy on the Foreman, read some business topics, stream something on Netflix (still waiting on you, Limitless), waste time surf the web for no reason, play guitar, pay the occasional bill or two, layout my clothes for the next day (iron if need be), go to bed, lay in bed for an hour, not fall asleep for two hours, wake up, hit the snooze, hit the snooze again, Payton's meowing, jump in the shower, get ready, run to catch the L, arrive at work, deal with emails and projects that won't mean anything to anyone a month from now, decide if I should take my talents to South Beach, do work, contemplate the weekend, yearn for danger, come home, and do it all over again.

My life feels like an infinite loop.