Our nation is one of remarkable history.  Though a majority of our founding fathers would likely collapse to their knees in uncontrollable sobbing were they still alive given the direction our country has headed, America has been and continues to be a country of many firsts.  A pioneering destiny that refuses to relent even in the face of mass apathy, rampant corruption and international genocide, we are still able to break records and pave new paths.  Take, for example, our debt.  No, not our government's debt but rather the debt of us as individuals.  For the first time, at least as far back as the feds began tracking the relevant data, our housing debt has overtaken our housing equity.  That's right - American homeowners owe more than their houses are worth.

Since I'm sure many are unsure of exactly what that means, allow me to clarify.  If Joe Happyman has a house worth $300,000 and decides he wants a Porsche he can't afford, he can pull equity out of his home and get a loan using the house itself as collateral.  Now, if Mr. Happyman is duplicated a hundred million times and each one has withdrawn $150,000 in loans against their house, who's the one carrying that debt?  Oh yes, banks.  The same ones who have been quietly borrowing tens of billions from the government because they can't afford the debt they're carrying – our debt.  And now, the ultimate question: if we don't have the finances necessary to cover how much we owe to the banks, how're the banks supposed to be reimbursed?  Uh oh.  Did someone say "meltdown"?  I'd use the term "Depression II: Return of Building Jumpers", but I wouldn't want to be considered an alarmist.

This first, however, is one of many other symptoms of our rapidly deteriorating economy.  Throughout the Bush administration, we also finally managed to break not only a $2 trillion budget record, but also the $3 trillion mark.  Think about that – within a span of almost 8 years, we've nearly doubled our spending.  That is a feat of notable monument, a record not to be sneezed at.

The first time the government sanctioned a law to seize citizen's assets to hand them over to corporate interests.  The first time the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th amendments were not only ignored, but sanctioned in writing.  The first time a president cut taxes during a time of war.

And perhaps for the first time in American history, only a handful of its citizens actually care that any of this is happening.  Revolutions have defined our United States, ashes born anew from the likes of King George, North versus South, slavery, suffrage, voting rights, civil rights, Vietnam.  As a people, we have a lengthy history of advancement and progression, of cooperation en masse to topple inhumane and corrupt administers.  Yet here we stand, the most flagrant of crimes against the entire world unleashed not for a single year, not for even a "few" years, but eight insurmountably long and melancholy years.  We did nothing.  Even when given the chance to elect a new administration, we the people decided to flip off the world and reelect perhaps the worst pillagers humanity has ever experienced.

We are the byproduct of a carefully engineered society, one in which our strongest asset, that of our natural inclination to commune with each other, has been removed.  On every political and sociological front we battle with our neighbors, especially regarding the insignificant and always on a moral topic, an important distinction that exploits our systems of belief.

I guess I'm surprised that such a simple strategy, to divide and conquer, could be utilized so well against us.  But don't mind me.  Go back to sleep.