A rant:

Looking for a job right now is like buying a lottery ticket. ANY job, even very minimal part time jobs, have 40 applicants. And I'm talking about where I live, which is a pretty small, rural location. I've been looking now for quite a while, and it is just getting worse.

So what's a fella to do? I just keep looking, sending off resumes and making calls. But, here's the deal: they keep saying on the various punditry shows that things MAY get worse. Dudes, things are already worse, they are going to get DIRE. It is so indicative of how isolated the commentating class is from what life is like out here in the real world. The bubble that surrounds the political animals of this nation (we know THEY haven't got a clue) has grown to encompass the various mass media types who shovel the manure on TV, in the papers, and in magazines.

And ya know, except for the times around elections, they really don't even pretend to listen to the general citizenry any more. Be they "journalists" or "elected officials", they are all the same. And we don't matter.

If I sound a bit bitter here, I am. I think these lyrics from the Rolling Stones' Salt of the Earth still apply:

Raise your glass to the hard working people
Let's drink to the uncounted heads
Let's think of the wavering millions
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead

Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows
And a parade of the gray suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio