Current Events

What a week that was! Head-spinning events around the world and around town. If things weren't so bad, we might consider this one of the greatest times to be alive. If things weren't so bad.

To wit:

• Another bad guy bites the dust, hard. Moammar Khadafy, fashionista and oppressor, is yet another Middle East despot to be killed by his own people. Nothing says, 'We love you and will miss you' like publicly displaying his half-naked, bloody, bullet-strewn body in a freezer in a shopping mall. Talk about a reason not to kill your own people! That said, a word of advice to other dictators on the run: Stay out of holes. They don't seem to be a good place to hide. I'm talking to you, Syrian President Bashar Assad and you, Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Stay away from holes. Because, you know, you're not the most popular guys around. And remember: What goes around, comes around.
  

• At long last, an end to a war. So, we're finally leaving Iraq. To our way of thinking, it's 4,478 U.S. deaths and a trillion dollars too late, not to mention the untold death and destruction in Iraq. At least we got the weapons of mass destruction we came for. Not. Yet another worthless, prolonged conflict. But at least it's over. One down, two to go. (By the way, have the spin doctors -- those creative minds behind the scenes who help shape messaging so we, the ignorant, uneducated commoners, can embrace whatever they're selling -- ever been as brilliant as the day they came up with 'weapons of mass destruction'? We think not. WMDs are now part of our lexicon -- and part of our fear. Too bad we bought it -- that there were WMDs in Iraq and that WMDs are somehow a valid reason to invade a country illegally. Thanks, George. Nice going.)

• Another war brewing, one far more serious. Are we witnessing the beginning of a class war within our country and possibly around the world? It certainly seems so. The Occupy Wall St. movement appears to be growing in intensity and purpose, as thousands of protesters are encamped in hundreds of cities worldwide. A recent Associated Press-GfK poll (October 22) revealed that the movement has 37% support among U.S. voters. More revealing is that the same poll demonstrated that 58% of those voters are 'furious about American politics'. While the protests lack a spokesperson (where are you, Michael Moore?) and a unifying remedy, it's only a matter of time before this situation escalates. Why? Because widespread, prolonged unemployment + strong corporate earnings + highly publicized, enormous bonuses paid to money fund managers + a government unable/unwilling to act = a recipe for revolution. Said more simply, beware when many people do not have money for a prolonged period of time. This has the potential to get much worse before it gets better. Stay tuned.
  

• Still no jobs program. Meanwhile, with quiet efficiency, our elected officials in Washington have rejected all attempts to put a sizable number of people back to work. Whether it be teachers, police, and/or firefighters, the Senate -- with an amazing confluence of Republican obstinacy and Democrat disorganization -- has killed yet another part of the Obama plan to create jobs. At least we're paying them for not delivering what's most needed. Wouldn't want them to have to suffer like those out of work. We wouldn't want that, now would we? No, of course not. Not having money is a bad thing and something we would never wish on anyone, much less those working on the Hill. A word of advice to Congress: Beware when many people do not have money for a prolonged period of time. How soon might you become the focus of the Occupy Wall Street movement? I'm just saying.

Speaking of fear, last week we postulated that religion might not exist -- at least in its current forms -- if we lived forever. Indeed, what need would we have for a belief and faith system that has, as its defining feature, the promise of eternal life in an idyllic place? Or the threat of an eternal life in a place of untold horror? We wouldn't. Instead, we might focus on how best to live this life honestly, honorably, and with grace. Peacefully, with others who have different customs, social mores and values. We might find a way to live without fear.

Ah, if only we lived forever. Which, by the way, we do.