There is cause for optimism, in a back door kind of way. I've come to the conclusion that we are now in an era of near-instant Karma.

The invasions and occupation/quasi-occupation of "Iraq" and "Afghanistan" started reaping results almost immediately, and proclamations of success are comical in their absurdity.

The bailout is a totally Wall Street gimmick, and the reaping of what has been sown will likely come surprisingly soon. It won't be fun, but one likely benefit is campaign finance reform. A housecleaning of the House is another likely benefit. The Senate too.

We're in something of a countdown. We are institutionally incapable of seriously and effectively reversing the effects of climate change, but we have to do exactly that in order to avoid extinction. We are institutionally incapable of creating an equitable economic system, but we have to if we want to have a functioning economic system. We are institutionally incapable of creating a national health care system, but we have to if we want to have a functioning society.

Barack Obama has shown himself to be a pleaser, a weak conciliator rather than a bold leader. Instead of being an agent of change, he will find change forced upon him. I don't envy the position in which he finds himself. He likely will be a one-term president, burned out by having to play catch-up.

This fits perfectly with what I have been wondering for some time. Politicians, pundits, activists, and various other actors on the public stage routinely appear on O'Reilly's show and others like it, knowing full well what they are getting into.

The reason for this is the seductive allure of TV. Attention, even negative attention, feeds the ego. Bill O'Reilly understands this in some visceral way, and it enables him to do what he does.

All the rehashing and rationalization doesn't change this simple fact. Bill O'Reilly is a con artist supreme. He fools people into going on his show, playing to their vanities. Then he pulls the string, browbeating them in the worst possible way. No matter how much he does this, the rubes keep coming, drawn like Junebugs to light.

The next time you get invited on Bill O'Reilly's show you might want to keep this in mind: You are making him rich, and you are making Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes rich. You do this willingly, and you get something for it - attention.

The only reason Sarah Palin gets any attention is that she was picked in a desperation move to be the running mate of an extremely mediocre presidential candidate. She was in over her head in the city council of Wasilla, and completely above her station as governor of Alaska. This became clear when she was interviewed during last fall's campaign.

Palin's ethical and personal problems have been catching up with her lately, and her performance as governor has been attracting increased scrutiny. She may well have been facing impeachment.

So, on to other things. Palin is supposedly writing a book, which may or may not make her rich. Such is the nature of the whims of fortune. The times, they are indeed strange.

I'm not sure the comparison is all that useful, except maybe to put "American" culture in stark relief. Michael Jackson was a child molester, and our entire mainstream media, including NPR and PBS's News Hour, gave him the coverage one would expect for an assassinated president. No comparison with anything alse is needed.

I felt sad when Michael Jackson died, and was surprised at my reaction. I was never a fan of his music, but could at least recognize his great talent. The sad thing was his descent into drug addiction, pederasty, and general weirdness. I suppose his decline is a matter of vague general interest in showing the perils of fame and hyper-talent, but that kind of study is for someone other than me.

The folly of our involvement in Afghanistan is likewise a tragedy that needs no comparison. "Americans" may be to some degree a gaggle of escapist morons, but I suspect the percentage of people mourning Michael Jackson is no more than 25 to 30, maybe even lower. When one imagines the archetypal cattle rancher or longshoreman, getting all blubbery about the King of Pop doesn't quite fit the image. No one where I work mentioned him even once.

We will reap the whirlwind on both "Iraq" and "Afghanistan" whether we mourn Michael Jackson or not. The real focal point of our downfall is in our power structure, a cohort of genuine psychopaths, who would kill their own mothers if it fit into their schemes.