I'm a loser. I admit it. Most of these states were fly-bys (often at speeds exceeding what I'd feel comfy driving at now). But still, these are the - admittedly Midwestern-centric - states that I've visited or at least drove through (if they're on the East Coast, I most likely just drove through them with the exceptions of Georgia and, overnight once a piece, Virginia and New York).
Caveat lector: I'm not sure how Louisiana ended up on this map. I don't think I was any part of any hurricane rescue...
One of the biggest, ahem, distortions of the McCain campaign that's ticked me off (but in a laughable sense) is that Obama is a socialist or that his policies are socialist. McCain knows that that isn't true in the least, but that hasn't stopped him and his campaign from attacking him as such - even though his running mate strictly "shared the wealth." It's just a stupid call, it's distortive, it's divisive, it's a bastardization of truth and of the work of governance. Let's just cut to the chase, eh?
Millenials, I don't know what to say... I was born at the tail end of the "Gen X" era, so it's not like I'm all that separated from this generation, but I can't help but feel that they are the most coddled and spoiled one ever. But then I have to consider that we are both products of the most divisive generation ever. Boomers were the first generation to not just defy their parents (who hasn't), but to openly and disrespectfully do so. Ayers was part of a generational seismic shift and merely spoke for his confused times when he said, "Kill all parents." Millenials are like the youngest children from that generation, and like most youngest children, they see more primarily than the others the hypocrisy of their parents, who ask us to trust them now that they've well broached the age of 35 and have left us all with massive debt (that we're still adding to) while burning resources at premium rates. Hopefully, that wasn't just a rant (that too, of course) but may give some perspective to this: "Gen Y" or "The Millennials" Gets Wake-up Call with Economic Crisis- ...and Have Little Faith Either Presidential Candidate can Halt the Economic Meltdown
Click here if the file above doesn't work. h/t to Eugene Cho.
Speaking of stuff and our wanton buying and wasting of massive amounts of ultimately and quickly disposable crap, I was thinking of what to do with that Jumpstart-the-Economy check that most of us will be getting in about a month or so and what to do with it. The design of this waste of taxpayers' future selves (and, yes, our children's and grandchildren's too) is to give us more money so that we may spend more money, so that our businesses will once again flourish and again, us with them. That would make a lot of sense... if you had a third grade education.
But neither our economy, nor businesses, nor international corporations work as simple as that anymore - if they ever did. But this is not the time nor the place to launch into another tirade about how our "goods" are manufactured overseas and how such a disproportionate percentage of the profits from the purchase of said "goods" goes to a small percentage of overly-wealthy executives who most likely won't funnel the money back to the US either. Yeah, not the time.
But this is what I suggest that we do (and I'm hoping to persuade my wife of this. Not that she'd be against it. I just haven't brought it up yet [the worst way to blog, btw]): Use those 600, 1200 or so dollars and start climbing ourselves out of debt. Because the money that is being thrown away on debt is really a cornerstone issue of why we are in so much financial trouble to begin with. Not only is our economy based on the theory and practices of consumption, but it has become a victim of consumption. Our monies and resources are being used up and spit out into the great flaming garbage piles of the world.
So, maybe, while we're waiting for that little bonus check to come in (really, a parody of what a losing CEO of a Fortune 500 would get in a dreadful year) we should contemplate how we can begin consuming (and throwing away, and polluting, and destroying our economy and thinking) less and how we can contribute more to a more sustainable (right, the buzz word right now) way of living and doing things.
A parked car belonging to Lindsey Millar of Bayonne, New Jersey, burst into flames one October afternoon; authorities reportedly concluded that a squirrel had gnawed through the insulation on overhead power lines, caught on fire, and fallen close enough to the car to ignite it as well.
I'm telling you people. The squirrels are going kamikaze on us. Although, to be quite honest, it sounds like something from the A-Team.
