And I don't mean only financial loss.

Wall street financiers are getting fired... and folks seem genuinely interested in fixing what is broken.

I'm not so cynical to think that the US is unfixable. The Bush years seemed to knock some sense into 80% of the country... we'll have a whole generation that is skeptical of government, but not alienated, and hopefully more humble.

--
http://bexhuff.com
Of COURSE you can trust the US Government! Just ask the Indians.

rebatable on a sliding income level, with moneys "earmarked" for legitimate alt.energy/"green transportation" programs. At $1.50/gal, say, it would generate well over $200bn/yr (minus rebates), "incentivize" consumers and carmakers to conserve/"go green", and create (and fund) the necessary commitment to get serious about both CO2 emissions and movement away from a petroleum-based mass transportation system. Several times since the first "oil crisis" such proposals have been raised, but blown off because of lobbying by the usual suspects. Now, however, the climate - as it were - has changed, petrol prices are down, there is a raging fed. govt. deficit, and EVERYBODY is excited about promoting "new industries for new technology begetting new jobs". I'm surprised that somebody on the Obama team hasn't at least floated a trial balloon on this subject.

Look on the bright side. The dark ages were about 500 to 600 years. We just had a eight years.

Now we have a depression. What's on the other side of this depression is not known, but one thing is sure. It won't be what we had in the past. It won't be "globalization" either.

Ozymandias

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

http://mauberly.blogspot.com/

Oh, and today the US is planning to subsidize "distressed" mortgage-holders. Right, I all about helping people who through no fault of their own end up with the splintery end of the stick, but damn I get mad about bailing out (yet again) people and corporations who were greedy and made bad decisions, aided and abetted by the crooked banks.

Remind me why I should keep paying taxes... oh yeah, it's the law, and I like having roads and cops and firefighters and libraries and living in a civilized country and such, but damn, this nonsense makes me so angry.

Oh come now, Debbie Downer. What about the national do not call list?
That was good while it lasted, no?

We've been kidnapping and torturing people for decades. (Ask any trade unionist in South America about the CIA..) All that changed was we stopped seeing it as something shameful.