Rebate

And now another tax rebate just in time to save the economy, or save us from the economy going south on us, or would that be overwhelming us with debt and prices we can’t afford for things we need like fuel, food, utilities, and housing. We all know what a rebate is: a kickback for buying a product so the seller can make the deal and get his money. We get them all the time for everything from clothes to cars to real estate.

Warren Buffett warned recently that over the past 20 years “...the average American went exactly nowhere on the economic scale: he’s been on a treadmill while the super rich have been on a spaceship.” Would that rocket include our president who dances with swords at Saudi oil soirees, corporate CEOs who pocket millions for running their companies into the ground, and Wall Street gamblers laughing all the way to their banks with other peoples' money? And all this is on the backs of the middle class, or rather their labor and hard-earned minimum wages which don’t come close to covering their health care, college, mortgage, and much less, retirement.

So instead of busting the robber barons and the military industrial conspiracy, the president offers to buy off the people (not buy out, mind you) for another year with a penny-ante bribe, a token really, chump change, and make it sound like just the solution our economy needs: Give the people a few bucks so they can go out and spend it to keep the economy rolling. In other words, give us all some cash so we can go out and give it back to them, in Wilmington, Washington, Wall Street, or Wherever.

For the average middle-class household, this rebate might not even cover a month’s rent. Well, give us a break. Cut some costs instead, like oil, gas, electricity, cable, brokers, cereal, drugs, dentists, HMOs, wars, and countless other privatized government rackets. Give us our money back. Give us our lives back. Give us our constitution back. Give us an impeachment.

But Nero didn’t care, so why should Bush, as long as he gets to put on his oily robe and dance around in the desert on King Abdullah’s sword. It’s a tough job, being the fall guy for an oligarchy, day in and day out, but somebody’s got to do it. His mommy and daddy must be so proud of him, after all he’s been through. Whatever, as the president himself likes to say. The rest of us can just go eat cake.

Change

Don’t you love all these candidates promising change? It’s time for a change! We’re for change! Mitt Romney vows he’ll bring “change to Washington.” His supporters hold up signs that say, “Change begins with us.” Barack Obama pledges “change we can believe in,” while John Edwards offers “the change we need.” And Hillary Rodham Clinton harps on her experience “making change,” like it was nickels and dimes, or bread, or some other commodity, a product, something concrete in and of itself.

Change. What a concept. But, of course, this has been the promise ever since candidates realized that would have to be the foundation for any platform. Otherwise why run in the first place? Even Fred Thompson has said in public that “change has been a part of every election since the dawn of elections.” What else have you got if you haven’t got change, if you’re not going to change the way things are, the status quo, because, after all, isn’t that what you’re running against? Right? You certainly wouldn’t want to run against change, would you? “Don’t change a thing” just doesn’t cut it, does it?

G.W. Bush gave us some change, but his change came up pretty short for most people while it jingled for the special interests behind his self-serving charade as a legacy president. In the end, change may not have anything to do with the people voting for these candidates. Too often it appears to be only a change of partners up there in the parallel universe where these politicians seem to reproduce. And somehow that void doesn't seem to include our solar system. Talk about loose change.

Obviously, change is all around us, all the time. Everything is always changing. It’s one of the universal conditions of all existence, like the weather. And it seems to be a human obsession to change things, all the time, and not just the sheets, the oil, or the channel, but to work for change in meaningful ways at home, at work, even in ourselves, and often coined as “a change for the better,” so to speak, or sometimes even “a change of heart.” We’re always looking for change. We want it so bad that it has become a cliché, and by association the candidates all sound the same — banal. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Now, how can we change that?

Huckabee

Did Mike Huckabee actually claim today in New Hampshire that our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was not ordained by people but by God? Oh, by gosh and by golly, what is he smoking? Those Baptists must be some wild and crazy bunch. In general, it's painful listening to all these hucksters campaigning now, because it really tends to bring out the worst in most of them, especially when they profess their faith in the Almighty. But then, that's one way to measure them -- which one is the least objectionable, no matter how tedious and embarrassing it may be in the end. Speaking of which, yesterday in the Washington Post, George McGovern called for the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. The obvious question is what is Congress waiting for?

Lord

And then today a young man's Catholic funeral gave comfort to the those who sought solace with the Lord's Prayer as a common code of encouragement and strength in the shared loss of that son, husband, brother, and friend. How can such consoling impulses turn defensive then aggressive, in national politics, no less, and in some countries where people feel threatened enough to kill in the name of the Lord or Allah? How can one religion wage war on another? And why? Does the Lord command this? Does Allah? And if so, who hears it? Do you?

Religion

Would it be there are no gods, goddesses, angels, devils, heaven or hell, except in real life, and they are real people playing those parts for their own fun and profit? If so, then, what's most frightening is that apparently most people don't seem to get it. As a result, civil society has little hope of separating church from state, much less religion from science, and so will remain haplessly uncivilized. In the end, Armageddon will be strictly man made... and over what? God? Give me a break, or better yet, a joint.