Foreign News Item of the Day - 9/25

From Australia - The Sydney Morning Herald

Aussie Skill at Heart of Twitter's New Ploy

A BIG dollop of Australian-made ingenuity lies at the core of a new search technology snapped up by Twitter in a multimillion-dollar deal that is the social networking company's most expensive acquisition to date. More: http://tinyurl.com/44hqbpg

 

The State of Things Today

I'm really disappointed by a lot of things in the world today. I cannot even begin to put them into an orderly list. The issues we're facing as a society in general are staggering. We have massive unemployment, sky-high prices on everything from food to gas, people working all the time and having nothing to show for it. We've got lawmakers that we elected who are too busy playing politics to get down to the business of working things out. Then you've also got people off doing the most ridiculous things; like college students organizing a bake sale with prices based on ethnicity.

Where is the sense? Where is the good old fashioned common sense that used to keep things from running so amok?

It's absent in today's world.

And that is something I find completely inexcusable.

You see, I'm one of the people who is still trying to live my life to the best of my ability. I try to conduct myself with grace and class, and all I ask is that I be treated with a little dignity and a little respect. These are two things I always try to give my fellow man. And yet few people out there are willing to reciprocate. Everyone has his own agenda. Nobody is pulling together anymore. Things are spinning more and more out of control and almost everyone you see is doing something to make it worse.

The world is in the midst of another Depression right now. I don't care how many analysts disagree or how many politicians still want to call it a Recession, this is a DEPRESSION. Every country in the world is showing the stress of it. Even China has an economy that is slowing down now. The European banking crisis is something that I see as the biggest threat to any recovery we might be hoping for. Manufacturing, which is all but nonexistent in America today, is threatened by the devastating conditions in the countries where what's left of it is taking place. Millions in Africa are starving and the spector of poverty is rearing its ugly head here in America again like it hasn't been seen in decades. My mother and I were just talking yesterday about how it is a very real prospect that families may have to start keeping house together again just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. I'm talking about parents with grown children and grandchildren having to join forces to survive. It's already happening too. And in record numbers.

Then we've got a government that doesn't know what to do about anything because it is in disarray itself. Republicans and Democrats are too consumed with trying to fight one another to give any real effort toward getting America back on track. We've got tools like Boehner and Pelosi who claim to be leading parties but who are only in Congress because special interest groups paid for their campaigns in return for political favors. The issue of eliminating tax shelters for the wealthy is currently on the table and the GOP is calling it a class war.

Are they kidding? Do they know how it sounds to the average American who is just scraping by whenever they defend tax breaks for billionaires? Do they even care?

I don't think they really do.

I'm also very disappointed in Barack Obama. He's shown no guts whatsoever when it comes to getting things done. He's tried to practice bipartisanship with a GOP that isn't interested in returning the gesture and he won't call them out on it. He should take a page from Bill Clinton when it comes to balls and get out there shouting it from the rooftops that very little is being accomplished because the House Republicans are fighting anything that is Democratic authored. Yes, Obama has really let us down by trying to be nice to people who don't give a damn about it.

With another presidential election coming up next year, I am at a loss right now about how I feel when it comes to voting for Obama again. I can't see myself voting for any of the Republicans who are vying for the GOP nomination right now, but Obama isn't giving me any good reason to vote for him either. I had such high hopes in 2008. Eight years of George W. Bush had almost ruined the United States and a return to sensibilities associated with the Democratic party seemed to be just what Americans needed. Yet we haven't seen this return because our current president has been too busy trying to play politics with folks who have danced him around like a marionette. I say abandon this charade, call them out, and force Congress to work together on solutions to this mess we're in right now.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Politicians are going to have to stop the rhetoric and get down to being Americans. They've got to put their party ideals on hold and start making some progress toward getting this country out of the dump it's in. We can't be dependent on the rest of the world because it's going broke too! Someday soon everyone is going to wake up to a global crisis that will threaten our very ways of life. People can't keep paying out everything they make just to keep their heads above water.

What about retirement? What about our elderly who are worrying about losing their social security? What about our children who might not have a viable nation to call their own when they grow up? What about a healthcare system that is breaking down because it is too expensive and people can't pay for treatment they must have? What about all the tomorrows that are depending on the todays for their very future? What about it all?

I feel that the time is here for everyone to stand up and demand that things change. People as a whole have to stop fighting each other over everything from religion to moral values and work toward the goal of uniting our country on a foundation of stability caused by citizens who want to have that stability back again. I'm sick of all the divisive bullshit that is being allowed to tear us apart. We've got to have common sense. We've got to have respect. We've got to have tolerance. We've got to have education. We've got to have human compassion. If we can't achieve these tenents, we're doomed.

As Yeats said: "Things fall apart, the center cannot hold."

Think about it.

Peace out.