Nothing much happened this week did it. Bo-ring. Well, not if you are one of the new jobless or homeless or about to be made jobless and homeless. This is happening so fast that I don’t have enough eyes or fingers to keep up with the numbers. The country is in freefall while most of us are watching unreality on reality tv.

Here’s a reality for you. A few weeks ago I visited a project that is providing education and some other place to be for homeless kids, many of whom are newly homeless. I said, IS. Pretty soon it will be WAS. Funding has been cut by government. Nothing can be more heartless.
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Goods news! Gas continues to drop. Bad news, the economy is going in the same direction. I had predicted that when the economy stabilizes, gas prices will settle and then move back up. Well, gas is now under $2.00 and might stabilize first. It has to. There’s no such guarantee for the stock market.

My guess is panic. Players had set a figure at which they would come back into the market, make a fortune and evereebodee would beee happeee. But somewhere in the run, someone yelled, “We are all gonna die!”. Panic and distrust set in, so no one knows where the bottom is.
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The market has rebounded a bit for the weekend because of Obama’s pick for the Treasury. I don’t know how long that bit of confidence will hold. The incompetence of the Bush regime doesn’t inspire confidence for very long. Time will soon have to be measured in B.B. (before Bush) and A.B. (after Bush), and the intervening 8 years as the ‘dark ages of stupidity and incompetence’.

Want some happy news. Well, here’s something to smile about. What do you think would happen if Bush had gotten his way and invested social security in the stock market? Now, doesn’t that make you feel better?

The popular call today is to allow the automakers to go under. But populism isn’t always driven by common sense. With millions being directly affected (read jobless and some homeless), the society will be thrown into major dislocation. There are social consequences if the automakers collapse.

Congress is perhaps handling it the right way. First stall. Then let them come up with a business plan. Strike anything that is self-serving, get extremely tough and should they balk, then let them face the consequences of their obstinacy. Then wash your hands like Pilate.

But I believe that unless the Big 3 are bluffing, there has to be a bailout. With the above terms, I would insist on jail for some. Listen, it shouldn’t be too difficult for any smart prosecutor to find questionable even felonious business dealings by corporate pirate chiefs. You don’t get to the top by being a saint.

And if nothing, Obama can repopulate Guantanamo with true terrorists.
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If there’s one group of persons who most qualifies for Guantanomo, it’s the Bush banana-republican regime. To show how evil (and I mean that in all definitions of the word) this administration is, Bush is reportedly working to set in motion laws to strip environmental protection from protected species and land, on behalf of rapacious development and polluting corporations.

These new regulations and I won’t bother to go into details, have attracted more than 250,000 comments since the proposals were first made public some 3 months ago. But true to form, Bush ignores public opinion. God guides him. Right. “On the 3rd day god said to Bush, go forth and destroy everything I made, for devastation is good”.
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A group of analysts from across the US Intelligence community (an oxymoron) claims that by 2025, nuclear weapons might be used. They claim this on the basis of failed states, terrorists, and tensions in the mid-east. My counter is that the first use of nuclear weapons in modern times will be by either the United States or Israel.

America continues to preach the propaganda that we are responsible countries, but facts sometimes get in the way of lies. For example, Bush was actually contemplating a strike against Iran but was warned off by American generals. Now, name me a leader in this world who is more dangerous than George Bush.
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Now for the “Are these people nuts or what?” category.
In vetting candidates is for positions in the Obama administration, one question is about gun-ownership. A simple question, yet gun-nuts are freaking out, drawing the conclusion that he will not employ anyone with a licensed firearm. Are these people nuts or what?

He already has army men on his staff, and it’s likely that they have gun permits. Look, Obama is much more subtle. If he had problems with licensed firearms, he would just do a google search and exclude the person from invitation. But then such logic escapes the National Rifle Association.
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And in South Florida, a teen commits suicide over a webcam, dying of a drug overdose while people watched and debated. This is not new. Apparently, previously in SoFla, a man shot himself in the head while online live.

There was a time when suicide was personal and private, but out came the extroverts who just have to make their misery our thing. Jumping off buildings, shooting themselves in public… as if we don’t have enough anxiety of our own, we know have to share your last moments.

The internet has become another source of this public sharing, and things we wish we never knew about people and which we ourselves wouldn’t share with even our best friend, are being put out there by people who want us to share ‘their pain’.

On the other side of the freakshow, there are those who actually watch in grotesque anticipation. Cheap thrill made even cheaper and impersonal.

Added to the mix of this suicide, we now have the father saying that the yout was “doing better” (no, he obviously wasn’t), and “He was a good kid” (debatable).

The icing on his verbal cake, “There seems to be a lack of control as to what people put out on the Internet… There’s a lot of garbage out there that should not be, and unfortunately this was allowed to happen”. I smell the opportunity of a lawsuit coming.

It might be just me, but I would wait until after the funeral, to see a lawyer.