Serrated Prose

At the risk of putting up a corny Thanksgiving ramble, I'm going to try to accentuate the positive things we have. So often we hear about horrors or the doom lurking just around the corner. Doom and fear sell. Humans crave it. We LOVE bad news. We all have experienced a touch of  schadenfreude , from time to time. To memorialize our recent fear, currently the conservatives are lamenting the "loss of America" to Obama's recent winning a second term as president. Somehow, America is now going to dissolve into the sea. Also, in January, is the "Fiscal Cliff," when all sorts of automatic spending cuts and increased taxes will be triggered -- a measure created because in 2011, the hard-core conservatives balked on raising the debt ceiling as has been done dozens of times in the past decade. So, they made a stand and found out that stomping your feet and just saying "No," actually has consequences: America's AAA rating was lowered to AA (by only on

The OWS movement is joyously celebrating it's one-year anniversary  with what amounts to a public party trying very hard to look like a protest. In short, one year later, nothing new. They still have no message except "Those guys have more money than we do," all under the dubious moniker of "We are the 99%," which does little more than prove most of the protesters skipped the Statistics chapter in math class. The sad part of all this is that they would have a point, if they had the mental fortitude to get organized beyond using social media to gather. OWS is really little more than an extended "flash mob" who shows up and then decides why they're there. In their confusion, they've decided to define themselves by what they hate: people with money. Like I said earlier, they'd have a point if they could actually formulate it in an intelligent way: The people at the top of the economic pyramid are becoming fewer while those at the bottom are

Wow, totally stunned. Not much to say here.... As one Canadian put it, "Congratulations, US. Welcome to the developed world!" I completely agree. It's time the US moved away from the social Darwinism model of "Survival of the Richest" and move to a more civil and just model. The law still needs tweaking and will be debated for years to come, but for all those out there who have been bankrupted by healthcare, this is a step in the right direction. For the detractors, here are some of the obvious arguments. And at the risk of pulling a "Limbaugh," I'll argue with myself: "How will we afford it?" We'll find a way. There are provisions in the bill for allaying the cost, but as we all know, costs are always at least double whatever has been projected where politicians are concerned. This is important, though. This isn't a mandate forcing everyone to have a widget in their shoe; it's truly a matter of life and death to some an

"Greed is good," said Gordon Gecko in the movie Wall Street. It's one of the most famous movie quotes in decades -- not only because it's got that alliteration thing going for it, but because Gecko laid out a very believable, solid argument for naked avarice. Greed and wealth know no party boundaries, but advocates of greed or something akin to economical Darwinism is espoused by the Republicans -- shamelessly espoused. They claim it to be the cornerstone of Capitalism, as a matter of fact. Not only do they champion "winner-take-all" mentality, but they tend to say that everyone is subject to this. Everyone wants more. Everyone will step over each other to make that extra dollar. OK, maybe I'm generalizing a bit, but the Republicans tend to be a more lockstep-message party than the Democrats (by a small, but measurable degree). But the championing of greed wouldn't be so amusing if not for championing the 2,000-year-old philosophy of Christianity a

What is freedom? Each political party tries its best to control us with emotional, empty words such as "freedom" and "patriotism." I'm sick of hearing about it. Critics of the Democrats say they're trying to "take away our freedom" by imposing national healthcare or increasing taxes. National healthcare takes away our choice to be irresponsible by forcing people to have healthcare and if money is freedom, then taxes indeed reduce freedom. That's the argument put forth by the Republicans and it appeals to my desire to have more money (but remember, everyone wants money -- even the wealthy). But more money doesn't always equal freedom. In fact, Americans have it pretty good. It could always get better, so, like I said, I'm not against having more money... but, as Americans, what do we need the money for? More stuff is always nice, but not necessary. What are the necessities money can buy? Food, shelter, and in America, healthcare. Healt