Comedian Jamie Kilstein just sent out a message including a link to this YouTube video featuring Naomi Wolf, author of Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries. It's 27 minutes long, but it goes by very quickly, and what she's saying is extremely important. People of both parties and all ages know that this forced bailout of Wack Street is a total sham. It's easy to feel powerless - I know I often do - but at least take a minute to educate yourself on what's really going on and listen to the courageous voice of this superbly intelligent and well-spoken woman who is unafraid to call bullshit when she smells it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XgkeTanCGI
And here's the CSPAN video she references wherein Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) divulges that members of Congress were intimidated into passing the bailout:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaG9d_4zij8
I think the most insane thing about all this is that even though the bailout was shoved through with little or no fanfare, the markets still dropped drastically and have now bounced back, hundreds of points at a time. I've always wondered how it is that our entire economy is based on funny money - made up dollars that aren't really there. So the market becomes volatile and suddenly Americans are potentially forced to live in a police state... is this real? Is this what being human is all about? I realize and often rationalize that things have always been this way: there's the king and then there are the peasants. But how is it that we have been so failed by our government, created by the people for the people? Or have we simply failed ourselves?
I think about my mother, someone who "doesn't have time" to concern herself with what's really going on, someone who just blindly trusts that Sarah Palin is a "reformer." (At least the people in Philly weren't fooled.) My mother came up at a time when working people were taught that the rich deserve to be rich; she thinks CEO's make billions upon kajillions because they're just smarter and better than the rest of us. Which is precisely what the criminally wealthy rely on: that regular people feel as if they're from a lower caste. That they'll be too scared to stand up for their rights.
It seems as if there's a deadly paradigm shift happening right now; it looms heavy and strange in the air. These are times of crisis, but not in the way the leadership wants us to think. Look around you: when you walk down the street, how many surveillance cameras do you see? How many advertisements are constantly thrown in your face to distract you? How many blinking lights and flashy images? It's bread and circuses, except W. and his fear mongers are the clowns.
You know, because I'm a comic, I want somehow desperately to make a joke here. But it's just not funny. I care about humanity, and I feel as though we're losing our very essence. I said last night to Mark, while soaking in hot water trying to sweat out a fever, "There's no gratitude left in this world. Just attitude and the grr..." I realize that platitude would probably look best on a card starring Maxine, everyone's favorite crabby old cartoon lady. But it's true. I guess if the best I can offer the world is a lame quote that can someday be used on the Yoga Dogs calendar, so be it. I'm just trying to find some hope in this crazy mess we've landed in after 8 years of fraudulent rule.
I think about my mother, someone who "doesn't have time" to concern herself with what's really going on, someone who just blindly trusts that Sarah Palin is a "reformer." (At least the people in Philly weren't fooled.) My mother came up at a time when working people were taught that the rich deserve to be rich; she thinks CEO's make billions upon kajillions because they're just smarter and better than the rest of us. Which is precisely what the criminally wealthy rely on: that regular people feel as if they're from a lower caste. That they'll be too scared to stand up for their rights.
It seems as if there's a deadly paradigm shift happening right now; it looms heavy and strange in the air. These are times of crisis, but not in the way the leadership wants us to think. Look around you: when you walk down the street, how many surveillance cameras do you see? How many advertisements are constantly thrown in your face to distract you? How many blinking lights and flashy images? It's bread and circuses, except W. and his fear mongers are the clowns.
You know, because I'm a comic, I want somehow desperately to make a joke here. But it's just not funny. I care about humanity, and I feel as though we're losing our very essence. I said last night to Mark, while soaking in hot water trying to sweat out a fever, "There's no gratitude left in this world. Just attitude and the grr..." I realize that platitude would probably look best on a card starring Maxine, everyone's favorite crabby old cartoon lady. But it's true. I guess if the best I can offer the world is a lame quote that can someday be used on the Yoga Dogs calendar, so be it. I'm just trying to find some hope in this crazy mess we've landed in after 8 years of fraudulent rule.
