The house of cards comes home to roost.

Now that the country is bankrupt, we've given it to the black guy. Remember Detroit? Good luck with that.

Regulation, Phil Gramm has recently explained, is now unnecessary. We have finally outgrown the Depression-era fad, clearing the decks to get on with history, that is to say, the next Depression. True, corporate executives (Commanders in Thief, some would say) have been giving themselves $39 billion in bonuses while losing $74 billion. But you can afford to bail them out, now that you've got no house payments.

Our leading Financial Citizens are working hard to rescue their economy while some near-Americans are whining about their 401Ks and other mental recessionary issues. But the bailout is misunderstood. Some say it's socialism, but it's not: it's partial, temporary, side-door nationalizing, not socialism. Sort of a temporary national socialism kind of thing. Anyway, it's proper redistribution of wealth – from those who lost it back up to them again. It's not Obamistic class warfare-spread-the-wealth-around socialism, just normal temporary side-door un-distribution, spread-the-wealth-up-national-non-socialism.

Republicans do re-distribute: they gave $150,000 of clothing to a hockey mom, to be re-redistributed later. And both parties have redistributed jobs – spread the jobs all around the world, in fact.

Obama will fix it. Or at least Larry Summers will. He'll give us change we can buy a candy bar with. On the other hand, if Big O wants to do big change instead of spare, he could convert us all to hybrid (socialist) cars. But why stop there? After all, the economy always grows into the ecology; if you want to save the earth, why not invest in carbon? Did you ever hear of a hydrogen footprint? Of course not.

It looks like the Spendo-Dems will bail out the auto industry if they'll agree to make "clean" cars, once again holding America (General Motors) hostage to the fuel-efficient hybrid mafia. This has Al Gore and his plug-in thugs written all over it. Next up: wind-powered cars – powered by the wind created by the car in front of you. A horizontal pyramid scheme.

If the Big Three collapse, a big three million jobs could be lost. But that includes the hot dog vendors and bartenders near the shuttered auto plants. I suggest a cut in taxes on hot dogs and beer. That would encourage growth in middle America, or at least its mid-section.

December 2007
When we watch our own country in steady slide into barbarism, we sometimes forget it’s one world out there, and Thatcherism destroyed Britain the same as her buddy did in US. I go all primed for better newspapers, only to find them downsized, tabloided and generally less informative than they were 16 years ago when last I trod here. Likewise shrinking is the national health system and the public schools. The only good news in the shrinkage department is that no one goes to church anymore, except immigrants, who are responsible for that bit of culture along with most good food and music. (Some churches have been converted to rock-climbing venues....!)

Meanwhile over in Ireland there are now jobs, which means not only do the blokes stay in country, but vast numbers of immigrants from greater Europe are on the scene. A French friend is teaching English to Poles in Galway - with his accent thrown in for free. One result of prosperity is more cars, to be followed by more roads, which will tear up and uglify the legendary countryside. Oh well price you pay eh? Unless of course you plan. Heaven forfend.

December 2006
Whidbey Island, Washington
The peace forces have pushed military recruiters back into a corner at the local high school - they've yanked their hall pass and the army must bivouac in the career center, where no one goes - who wants a career?! Women in Black meanwhile made front page in the paper for their vigil and transported 1,000 signatures to Washington in a round of peacemaking visits to represenatives. You go Rural America!

November 2006
Columbus, Georgia
22,000 rally at the gates of the School of the Assassins - this demo started a generation ago with 13 people. Today 13 cross the line into Fort Benning - 'twould be more but the penalties are rising. Pacifist churchies mingle with punked out youth in a festival of hope and life. One imagines a future without the "School," with thousands returning to commemorate the victory over torture pedagogy and the townies welcoming the peace troops for more than just their hotel and dinner dollars. Meantime, soldiers are being sucked out the back door by the governments of Latin America which, responding to the entreaties of Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch, are refusing to send any more troops to learn the repressive arts. So far; Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela.