I'm absolutely amazed at the insanity of the world right now, especially our president.
First, at the top of the news, is this whole Iraq thing. Here we are, sending tens of thousands of people to the middle east to force a regime change in Iraq. We keep hearing over and over again how Iraq is producing "weapons of mass-destruction," but get little proof other than some vague photos of what, quite frankly, could be anything.
Now zip over to the other side of the world, where North Korea has missiles capable of reaching at least the western half of the US, and on top of that they want to fire up their nuclear program again.
Now I ask you, which is more dangerous to Americans? Am I overlooking something really obvious?
My feeling is that going after Iraq is purely a blood-for-oil issue. On the surface, I guess I wouldn't have that much of a problem with that, as it's an important natural resource for most of the free world, but it isn't being called that. Shit, tell it like it is, I can take the truth.
Of course, the problem there is we've totally lost our fucking minds on the issue of oil consumption here. Why has our use sky-rocketed? Well look around. There weren't SUV's in every fucking garage ten years ago. Because they're considered trucks under the law, they're not tied to the same fuel efficiency laws.
And how many fucking soccer mom's need a four-wheel drive vehicle to get groceries and drive the kids to soccer practice? That's what pisses me off. It's not about utility, it's about status. A fairly nice Camry or similar car gets 30+ mpg and does all the same things.
Every time I see a Lincoln Navigator I want to follow the asshole home, smack them in the face, and ask them why they need such a big ass car to drive downtown on highways.
Go ahead and fight your war for oil, but call it like it is, and do something here at home to curb the use of oil. Don't wait for the auto makers to finally deploy fuel-cell, hybrids and other more efficient vehicles on their own.
Next issue... the economy. I'll freely admit that I'm no master of macro-economics. However, I read an interesting story in Fast Company today about being happy and how it relates to money. (For those not playing along, magazines like FC and Business 2.0 were established in the rich dotcom era, as big as a Sears catalog with ads. Since the bust, circa summer 2001, the magazines are thin and they've resorted to talking about psychological issues instead of the economy.) One of the main points in the article was that many social things contribute more to be happy than actual money does (getting married is like making $100,000 more a year, in those terms).
Still, all we keep hearing about from Washington is tax cuts and other things that economist genius and Fed chairman Alan Greenspan says will not help do anything but increase the national debt. What American is going to spend more money now, especially just because they made more money or paid less taxes? Shit, if anything, what I've learned in the last two years is that my ass needs to start saving more.
We don't need a war with Iraq. We need smarter use of natural resources, healthcare regulation, a smart budget, stable social security, a balance of untrampled civil liberties and meaningful law enforcement, you know... domestic issues.
Unfortunately, polls suggest that Americans are fine to just go along with the Iraq thing. What a shame. Nobody wants to think about it anymore.
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