I guess you missed the part where the US lost its credibility by unilaterally going to war on false pretenses.

I would wager the US would gain a lot of credibility by engaging in less warmongering and trying to work WITH the other governments and peoples of the world to make it a safer and freer place.

While it looks like the current British regime is going down in flames thanks to backing Bush's debacle I suspect that Bush will possibly get his ass saved by some 'last minute discoveries' in Bagdad or Afganistan.

Just imagine how bad our current regime will look if he sqeaks by another election thanks to evidence that later turns out to be fishy or fake AFTER the election.

Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a 1984ish future where the main difference is that instead of 'big brother' we have big business.

any aftermarket versions available for my car???

you guys have waaaay too much time on your hands :D

WOW... is all I can say.

It's like we need an "Off Topic, Off Topic" board.

Great stuff here. Did not have to read any newspaper blab this morning.

Keep it up guys!

Rick, you have a very positive outlook. I don't share it. Niether does my editor, who is from India. And isn't Cork suffering from fairly serious unemployment? I don't see how the "rich get richer, poor get poorer" is going to resolve itself. Seems it's been running the opposite direction for all this time...

I'll admit it: it's possible my positive outlook is misguided - after all I just got back from a few days of hiking in Yosemite, and how can you feel negative after seeing such wonders? :)

But I think that even when I come back down to reality, and see that the 1st world and the 3rd world are growing both closer and farther apart - closer in a real working sense (corporate ties, travel, interconnectedness) and farther apart in a financial sense (we keep getting richer while they are either moving slower, keeping still, or actually losing ground), I think of this as proof - not of the fact that we will keep diverging forever, but instead that only so much pain can be inflicted before a day of reckoning must occur.

This has always been so. I cannot think of a problem that has existed from day 1 and remained unaddressed. The reason is that people can put up with annoyances, but always there comes a time when a problem becomes too great.

Many times these great problems have been fixed peacefully (or semi-peacefully). The Gracchi of Rome noticed inequality and began land reforms. The House of Commons in England voted away slavery and noticed electoral and financial iniquity and so enfranchised voters to greater and greater degrees during the 1800's. American men voted to allow women to vote, and then forced the enforcement of many existing laws prohibiting discrimination. South Africa, the Soviet Union.... All of these improvements were imperfect - and some remain tarnished to this day - but they were still improvements.

Some other great problems have been addressed by violence: The severe inequalities in France, Russia and China were overthrown by the people. The violent end of American slavery came, and at great cost. Franz Fanon wrote a book, and bam! within a short time the Europeans are out of Africa. I can think of no time when great problems persisted without end.

But still, doesn't today's world kind of....suck? Yes. We are living through a near repeat of the late 1800's; when old laws could not keep up with the power of the new corporations; when Robber Baron's increased their fortunes on the backs of overworked serfs and children. Because of this I believe our generation and the next are in for some tough times. But what happens then? After all the factories are overseas? After all the mid level computer managers live in Bangalore? Will they sit still and be content with pay measured in peanuts forever? Not likely. And after the corporations employ across the whole world, where else do they have to go? In 50 years, there will be no cheap labor - cheaper maybe, but not cheap. Even prefessionals will band together if CEO's keep it up. Today doctors are uniting against insurance companies (usually illegal today - as was collective bargaining of workers in the distant past).

If this is 1890, then 2040 seems a good bet for the increasing power of the people. Down the road from there? One world currency? One world government? Not in our lifetime maybe, but these too are now inevitible because of technology - why should someone make a profit off of currency fluctuations? or be able to flout Civilized (in the best sense) norms because he employs across an invisible border?

Think of the changes in our own nation. When I was in Yosemite, my grandfather was much on my mind as he had hiked the same area 80 years ago. He passed away this past summer just short of his 101st birthday. When I thought about the changes he saw in his life - from an agrarian California on the edge of nowhere to one of the largest economies in the world; the right of women to vote, the enforcement of racial equality before the law - I felt hopeful.

Maybe it was just the thin air.....But I hope - and on a good day I actually believe - that things will improve if we all do what we can....

Wow RickC, great post and my thoughts exactly.

If you look at the totality of history, things have been getting generally better but only due to the difficult strugle of an activist citizenry to correct problems.

Just look at how much the civil rights movement was able to achieve in only 20 - 50 years.

Change is never peaceful or easy.