If you look around and feel that, politically and culturally, things are really fucked up, eventually you have to look at people in general. I think people are getting more and more stupid every day.

Reading comments on news stories at various news sites, you can see what I mean. Take the rise in gas prices. People blame the greedy oil companies, Republicans, Democrats, the global warming "conspiracy," and my favorite, obesity. It couldn't be, you know, that people drive more than they used to, in big cars that get crappy gas mileage. That's crazy talk!

Two things bother me about this. The first is all of the nonsense peripheral "discussions" that come out of it, like liberals/conservatives are destroying the middle class. That's like my previous analogy somewhere that because of elephant, chair. People want to pin blame for everything on someone, especially politicians and corporations.

And that's the second issue that bothers me. No one wants to take any responsibility or action themselves. I perceive it as being so bad that I'm finding myself fall into my more idealistic feelings, to do something.

So gas prices are up, and you don't like it. What are you going to do about it? You can throw your hands up in the air and do nothing, or you can make lifestyle changes that save you money. It's not a hard thing to figure out. It's far more constructive than coming up with asinine theories in the realm of macroeconomics and politics.