Weird Times

People Used to Be Much Shorter
Originally uploaded by sunasak

These are weird times. It feels like all the doors that used to be open and easy to get through are shrinking, like the one Tuba Boy is trying to go through in this picture. You can't just go out and get a good job, and if you do, it will go away to India. You can't safely save your money, because the banks mismanage it if you do. And if you have a job, you were probably forced to move from a pension to an IRA or 401K. This is, of course, all based on the stock market. Bye bye retirement.

I actually teared up listening to the news yesterday. We LET this bunch of goons get elected that have given all sorts of powers to big business. We sat and watched as things got worse and did not step in. We regular folks have just sat haplessly, watching OUR money get mismanaged and OUR country become a lame laughing stock.

I found it most telling that the reason that big bailout thing failed was that both the very conservative and the very liberal were totally against it, for different reasons that combined to make them work together. Interesting.

My personal feeling is that we have to be more parental with the doofuses in charge. If they screw up, they need to take the consequences. For too long we have made excuses for them, ignored what they are doing, pretended things will get better if we just wait it out, and bailed them out when they misbehaved. They have never had to deal with the consequences of their poor decision making and "me first" attitudes.

Too bad those consequences mean the rest of us suffer. I do think it is about time people in the US stood up and said, "I am mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more," though I think all the protests lately are making that point, a bit.

And if you are thinking of moving to Canada if the election goes the way you don't like, think again. They have some brilliant thinker up there who declared the average Canadian doesn't care about the arts, so he cut all sorts of arts funding. As thegenuinrely brilliant (as opposed to the sarcasm directed at the Canadian PM) Stephanie Pearl-McPhee points out, hmm, I wonder who makes that guy's pamphlets and who writes his speeches?

Good thing I have a perky wedding to plan. And Lee finally has work. But I can't ignore what's going on, and it is not good. I can't wait to see how the progressives get blamed for this one...'cause you know the wonderful and insightful conservatives had NOTHING to do with all this...heh.