Nation of Pharisees

Not like we weren't already pretty far down that road already, but we seem to have taken a few more steps: the Senate is poised to pass legislation to toughen existing bankruptcy laws -- something credit card companies have been pushing for for years but which Democrats have been blocking, until the last election -- that will penalize the poor and middle-class but exempts the wealthy and corporations.

A Christian nation, indeed. As Abraham Lincoln put it, "I tremble for my species when I think that God is just."

Oddly enough, many Americans think we ought to be invading other people's countries and telling them how to live.

One consolation is that, while 50.5% of voters voted for Bush in November, 49.5% did not -- and when you consider how our elections are determined by the massive amounts of PR and propaganda that shape public opinion, that indicates that a lot of people aren't drinking the Kool-Aid. I imagine that more Germans voted for Hitler.

As some of the Right's most loyal supporters are those most likely to be screwed in the new "sharecropper society," it will be interesting to see what happens in November 2006. Perhaps the red states will vote for the right to start eating their children, even more than they already are.

Note to Congress: just because people aren't very smart and don't have tons of money, that doesn't mean it's right to trick them and exploit them and imperil their children.