...and then i snapped

My friend Sue is about ten years older so she has seen somewhat more of the world than I have. This morning we talked quietly at the sawmill about what is being called everything from Dealageddon to a clusterf**k because our credit rating was lowered for the FIRST FREAKIN' time since 1917. Of course the treasury department was quick to label that as "not true" since we can't have a big run on banks like in the depression because there's no money there. It's all on paper. Afterwards, I was reading the news and gasped at the thought of 31 military people being shot out of the sky by Afghan rebels. Because they hate us. Why can't the department of defense just back off a little on the kazillioning and take care of us at home. We could have a damn border all around the country and some much more "protected" air space than we now have. Think of it as the "great wall of America" instead of China. Those are 31 people who will not see another sunrise because we are constantly stirring things up in a war that cannot be won. Just.Like.Before. Ahem. Slow learners?

I don't know, but maybe it's good for us to not have that secure feeling that comes with having other countries expecting handouts. Much of the cost of the past few wars has been from rebuilding infrastructures that got blown away in the heat of battle. And yet nothing at all has changed. They still hate the west...and always will. European countries are also learning that all that high living by the royalty isn't really fair when the people have no jobs and are starving. Kinda like we feel.

I have no problem with the rich having their money whether they earned it day trading or got it from grandma. What I do have a problem with is their failure to pay a representative share of income tax based on their true wealth rather than the reduced rates that result from the sweet deal they have with capital gains and deductions. I wouldn't know a capital gain if it smacked me in the head with a hammer. I live paycheck to (almost) paycheck and work hard for the money. I don't appreciate being told by the government that has told me what rules to follow for years, has the nerve to tell me they can't afford me as a citizen anymore. I became an adult and paid dearly into their pockets for the big money I made during the eighties. I wish I had saved some of it for hard times. As my friend the little general would say "Grapes of wrath, sister."

What bothers me the most is that the entire crisis was caused by a heavy reliance on credit when banks were king. Once they started failing, the credit went away and people were left with nothing but an overpriced house that nobody can afford to buy and owing their first borns to a credit card company. Fortunately for me, I have avoided any more big money credit because I'm a poor risk. Go figure that one. I saw a lot of serious talk prior to the debt deal and our probationary status. That a gang of bible toting right wing wing tea partiers messed it up for everybody when it could have been easy makes me really angry. So, we do it the hard way now. There are many ways to cut "future" spending, beginning with paying what's already due and not making new commitments for the present. Like more military spending. Like lifetime salary and benefits for players in Washington. Like crop subsidies when farmers can and will plant their land to give the maximum yield if you'll just leave it to them. It's called gettin' back to the basics.

It's still hot as a you-know-what around here following a cooler day with rain. That really pumps the humidity up to steamy! The corn has about three weeks to live before it gets slaughtered and I can see Bambi and the silos again. It's like living in a box. I'm off for the day, going back in at six tomorrow, but for now...I have the house to myself. Let there be beer :)