My step-daughter said it best: “Never underestimate the power of a free ride”.

We’re very worried for our grandson who is about to enter the US Air Force Academdy. Also, our other relatives serving in the military.

I go from trying to be optimistic, to having a sick stomach – wanting to wretch. Excited about the new change – then bursting into tears of fear.

We live in New Jersey. I grew up here. It is a beautiful state and I love it. But it has become increasing oppressive to live here tax-wise, and it has a good share of corruption. My husband and I have a small business and it’s becoming more and more difficult to maitain it – after 20 years.

For the first time, I am seriously considering a move – Idaho, Wyoming, Utah sounds good to me.

Do you think Idaho accept her new tired and huddled masses?

Along with that is the rather obtuse paradox, where, if you bail out the banks or financial institutions, it’s not socialism, but if you bail out people, it is. If I’m not mistaken, actual people run these institutions. And it may be another misunderstanding on my part, but I seem to recall (and maybe this is old time traditional conservatism – where the hell did it go?) but isn’t one of the cherished tenets of conservatism supposed to be some abstract concepts like “free trade” and “no government interference”? And again, it goes back to semantics/linguistics and the trivialization of our “information society” due to a lot of things. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t necessarily think giving money away to anybody for nothing is a good idea. I just don’t remember the last time somebody spoke about it and actually followed through. The ultimate frustration in all this, no matter which “side” you’re on, is that there is no objective meaning in language anymore.

BTW, semantics is a really interesting subject and philosophy to study. A few authors (if you’re interested) are Wittgenstein, Montague, and (gulp) Chomsky. I know you probably recoiled at that last name, but when Chomsky is not up on his political soap box, he has quite a vast and interesting treatise on the subject, which in a nutshell, is the meaning in communications. Also, if you can hack it, delving into “Post-modernism” (POMO) might give you more than a few insights into the dire straits of our under-educated electorate and how manipulation on both sides renders the idea of Democracy as something almost quaint and kitschy.

But overall, you shouldn’t be bummed. Perhaps humbled, as you’re going to get served the same bitter brew and burnt toast that I’ve endured over the last 8 years. And let’s face it: Your candidate just ain’t offering much, just the same used car with a different sign on it. And his marketing people should have had their collective asses kicked out the door a long time back. And I’ll never for the life of me be able to figure the “logic” (?) behind his choice for Palin. It was either a crapshoot type gamble (something he has a reputation for) or a cynical ploy to attract women voters. Maybe drinking half a bottle of Bourbon helps.

But you should have some measure of hope, either in our forefathers thinking this out well enough to include in our form of “government” sufficient “checks and balances”, or in the basic malfunction inherent in our species, based on human foibles and other weaknesses of the human spirit, to make sure that the system doesn’t run that efficiently even with a majority. To look at it another way, even though Bush/Cheney nearly destroyed what remnants of the Bill of Rights remain, even in their lust for power and greed unprecedented in history, they still managed to screw up badly enough that they didn’t get everything they wanted. So there’s still hope in America, even if your guy loses.

Have a double Black Maple Hill and persevere…..

You’ve still got your friends in the blogosphere (although it’s not the same and folks can’t easily get together). I also think that the “blame Bush” trope still has legs, since he did “so much damage” yada yada. I don’t want the country to go to hell in a handbasket since we have to live here. I hope it goes well, but fear it won’t.

I moved to Austin in 1990 and you couldn’t get me to move away from here for anything.