Are you suggesting that there was no smoking, drinking, drugging, shooting, or abusing (not to mention idiocy) in the late 1960's when a great deal of wage parity was first acheived?

Are you suggesting that such things didn't exist in the soviet states?

I am not even sure you can argue that these things are on the rise?

I believe the constant light and scrutiny of society has limited many of the behaviors (especially smoking) over the past several decades.

New drugs have come into the market and proven popular, but mostly at the expense of othe drugs they are replaceing in popularity.

As to idiocy, I think that beast has always been with us, and we've all enjoyed the circus in our day, however I think in many ways the tenor of such things have become more subtle and more human in their drama.

You can be discontent, but your personal opinion and status doesn't translate to the world as a whole. And by most metrics, life for the average American is pretty good. Not as good as others, but definatly better than most, and that leads to a contented world view, which keeps the revolution at bay.

Bread and circuses are what the people want. And there is nothing wrong with that. You can call for revolution, but people are often unwilling to trade their bread in their hand for a promise of slightly more bread in the future, especially if your plan calls for closing the bakery.

Salon Letters pages are getting hard to read.

Just so much bile all around.

Hey everybody. Senator Clinton isn't the Antichrist. Obama isn't an empty suit. They are both capable intelegent hard working politicians, which is why were in this mess in the first place.

The staggard primary system is great if you have one emergent candidate with name, money, and charisma behind them. This year we have two. Oh well.

Tuesday we've got another set of primaries and and chance that likely won't come for one of these two to have a stong statement.

The sad glimmer of hope in all this? April death's in Iraq are high, the surge is breaking down, McCain will lose in November if the Democrats ran Joe Lieberman, well maybe not Lieberman, but you get the idea.

This constant fighting is exhausting us, and will lead to the shortest presidential campaign season in history (about what 3 months?) You all realize that both Obama and Clinton will have spent far more time fighting each other this year than they can even hope to spend fighting McCain. Do you think we can do 22 debates in 3 months? Maybe we should start having three way debates just to save time?

Yep, If it wasn't for this insanely unpopular war...who knows McCain might of had a chance.

Hurrah for us.

The cost of crude has risen faster than the cost of gasoline.

Refiners have had their margins slashed due to push back from the demand curve.

Cutting the tax, would allow the refiners to raise their prices to gas stations without depressing demand further.

Which is great for New Jersey refinery workers...but few others.

The current hike in prices is caused by a speculative bubble around oil. This bubble like all bubbles will pop in time and the price of gas will fall back again.

Although I am in favor or eliminating the gas tax (it is a sales tax, and thusly regressive) Senator Clinton and McCain's rationalities on the subject are just mistaken.

lets face it folks, nothing will be decided on tuesday unless Senator Obama eeks out a win in Indiana, or Senator Clinton pulls off a miracle in North Carolina.

Both are stuck in this until one can say, see I have won the other's contingent.

Hillary won't win New York without the African American vote in New York City, and Barak won't win Illinois without the blue collar vote in the suburbs.

Now, personally I think African Americans will be happy to stay home, or go back to the party of Lincoln if they feel the No Negros Need Apply sign has been hung on the White House...but I could be wrong.

I likewise think Organized Labor will back the Democrat regardless and will turn out (such as they do) for the Candidate in November, but again I could be wrong.

The problem is, neither one of these Candidates is breaking through. Senator Obama did in Wisconsin, but since then Senator Clinton has effectivly been able to block Senator Obama in the states she has decided to run in.

Right now, Senator Obama just needs to run out the clock, and Senator Clinton needs score some over time points.

Senator Obama won his cross overs early, now it's time for Senator Clinton to prove she can cross over, because just winning half the card will never be enough to win the White House.