[lbo-talk] note of apology

[Chuck Grimes]

I apologize for the personal rancor of my last post. I should have
ignored the impulse to write anything. That was early in evening before
the martinis' washed away any sense of proportion. I used to have a
personal rule not to post at night or when drinking. I used to read it
in the morning and see. 

Here is my problem. All I see and read is about the economy, the never
ending wars, the deliberate dysfunction of government, the greed of the
bankers, and the insane right wing. These are the proper targets, not
anybody on LBO.  

Meanwhile there are local issues in education that are ripping the
schools and the university to pieces, all over money. It's straight up
class war here. The job scene is just plain scary. I looked up the
combined rate of the state unemployment, no longer seeking, and
under-employed. This is called the U-6 rate, and its 17.7 for
California. The Dept of Labor gave national averages for the same
combination: August 16.8, September 17.0. Link to table here:

http://www.bls.gov/lau/stalt09q2.htm

So where is the Obama administration in all this? He was elected to turn
some of that around and so were the Democrats elected to Congress. More
and more people around here are beginning to realize we are not heading
out of the misery of any of those fronts. And it's getting worse as time
drags on. 

I went over Reed's article in the newsletter several times to figure out
why I prefer him to Michaels. The key difference is that Reed is in
political science and uses examples to illustrate most of his points. 

Maybe it's just me staring in the empty hole of not enough money to meet
stark necessities. This is a battle I don't know how to fight.

Anyway, writing about the diversity crowd seemed like it's own side
issue, the odd straw man or something like that at this point.  

CG