The United States of Paranoia

For years my weekends and sometimes weeknights have been spent playing in bands. For the past almost ten years, Buffalo Nickel was my main focus. The band provided me with many hours of enjoyment, some money and almost all of my time spent with friends i.e. the guys in the band. Buffalo Nickel has been on an extended hiatus for months now and had really been slowing down for more than a year. So I've spent very little time with friends in the past year since my peer group was my band.

My wife, Samantha, has been going out on Tuesday nights for the past few months to knit with a group of her "crafty" friends. She even started a blog to document their get togethers and other bloggable events. She encouraged me to take a night every week to go out with friends as well. Clinton, from Buffalo Nickel, and I decided we'd make Wednesday night our night to go hang out, drink beer, play music or whatever. It's been fun. I'm glad Sam pushed me to do that.

This past Wednesday we went to The Keg & Barrel near my house to catch up. We actually talked Mik into coming too. It was a nice get together. But the tone took a somewhat apocalyptic tone when we got into politics. Clinton is a political news fiend (see his blog.) I love that about him. I feel like I will always be up to date on the most controversial political issues when I sit down with him. He always sites his sources and gives countless details to fill me in on the whole story.. Granted, I do often feel a little afloat in a sea of information when we get into politics but I'm such a news-skimmer on my own time that I feel like I'm sitting down to a full, hearty meal of politics when I talk with Clinton.

This night we got into the future of America's economy and went into even scarier territory later. The fact that America's economic future is very unstable right now was not news to me. I was a Ron Paul supporter for many months for that very reason. Ron Paul was, and in my mind still is, the only presidential candidate who has spoken honestly about the current state of our economy and was the only one who offered very difficult but very real solutions to reversing the devastating path that we've been on. Hillary and Obama both want universal health care. In the long run, I believe that that is what I want for the country as well. But given our financial state right now I can't see how spending that much more money, that we don't have, is a healthy thing for our country. And of course McCain is happy with continuing a war that can't be won. Conservatives bluster so much about Democrats wanting a welfare state and that is exactly what we've been spending millions, excuse me, BILLIONS of dollars on in Iraq for all these years, and McCain would only continue that. So the economy is in the tank, I know.

So during this economic discussion Clinton painted a picture of America's future that was very bleak and sent chills down my spine. We talked about how buying gold is something that alot of people are pushing right now. The idea being that our printed money is going to be toilet paper in a matter of years and that gold will be the only form of currency worth anything in the near future. When Glenn Beck and Clinton Kirby agree on something that's when I start to worry. Clinton proposed that we're not so far away from pushing around wheelbarrels full of money just to go by bread and milk.

As far out as his vision of America seemed, I couldn't help but believe it a little bit as he pointed to the gas sign across the street at the Jr. Food Mart "Regular $3.27." We talked about how the gas prices are arbitrarily set by a group of the most powerful people and companies in the world. Supposedly there is not a shortage of oil in the world, as is claimed, but only a shortage of refinement which jacks up the price of gas. A business choosing not to refine oil could blame that decision on a lack of demand, in other words, they are trying to save money by not refining more than is needed. But for companies that are reporting record profits it is hard to accept that they are pinching pennies out of necessity. Out of greed would be more like it. And hey, why not? Businesses are supposed to be all about the money. That's what keeps a business going. So what's the big deal? Are they supposed to take a humanitarian interest in us "first-worlders" who are having to reduce our gas consumption and pay more for the products we buy? Every good capitalist would have to say "NO", right? But what happens when our government is actually in-cahoots with this group making decisions that hurt America. Why would they do that? What's the deal? This is where it got ugly... (To be continued)