My closest friend works as a funeral director in a western state, and the amount of suicides and suspected suicide cases they get has been on a sharp upturn for the past few months. He suspects that many of these deaths have an economic tie.

I wish that these marauding fat cats would realize that it's not just dollars at stake here, but LIVES and livelihoods. This is what Joe Biden means when he speaks about the dignity people have when they are working, and the sense of dignity that a job gives to working people.

When you pull the rug out from under an entire segment of our society, this results in higher stress, decreased sense of self worth (not just monetary, obviously) and a bleak sense of the future. How are people in their sixties expected to start over once their retirement funds have been depleted due to Wall Street wheeling and dealing?

These rich bastards at the top have the blood of thousands on their hands- literally.

I understand completely what Mr. Keillor is talking about here. Before moving, I spent the first 26 years of my life in Colorado's 4th Congressional district, full of genuine, down to earth and hardworking individuals who are generous and charitable.

That being said, the 4th District is also one of the most conservative districts in America. It's current Representative- the atrocious embarrassment Marilyn Musgrave- was the indivudual who introduced the "Defense of Marriage Act" to Congress. In fact, her platform for election and re-election in 2004 (shudder) was little but a open homophobic attack. She has been utterly ineffective as a legislator, but pushed all of the right red-herring social issues enough to get two terms. (A great article in the current issue of Rolling Stone focuses directly on this).

So it is certainly hard to reconcile. I knew kind, sweet people who would give you the shirt off their back, but who also considered gays an utter abomination and thought that we should all just "shut up and go back into the closet"- or worse. The attack on Matthew Shephard happened less than an hour away from where I went to college.

And as a earlier poster said, there is vicious mean streak a mile wide that runs just under the surface of red state politics.

But- I am hopeful- and I think it is changing. The economy and the war (with all of its costs) are hitting people much closer to home than they did in 2004. Social issues are still evolving (though, as a gay man it feels like a snail's pace some days). So the "3 G's" aren't drawing the votes like they used to.

And as to the article, rural citizens might be hardy, but I think living in a large metropolis makes you pretty hardy too.

and it was rapturous. Until I finished it, The Stand was my job. I got up in the morning and sat outside and read all day. Then lay in bed and read until I fell asleep, then started over again the next day.

It's an incredible book. It addresses so many ideas and truths and makes them so accessible. To this day I remember details like "Baby Can You Dig Your Man?" and Frannie going on about how soft serve is mostly air, when she breaks down in the car trying to tell her boyfriend that she's pregnant.

His books have always been a touchstone for me and there are certain periods of my life that are defined by what King novel I happened to be reading at the time. I can't wait for the short story collection!

If you feel great, and better about yourself and your life- stay friends. If you feel worse, irritable or frustrated- stop.

This is a great rule someone once told me, and it goes for all relationships, not just friendship.

And- I'm sure someone has mentioned this old joke- If you loan someone $50 and you never see them again, it was worth it.

:)

Really breaks my heart that Pat Buchanan can't rile people up with his unabashed hatred of anything immigrant related, or his deep and unabiding homophobia.

I usually try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but fuck him. He's pushed an agenda of hatred and division his entire life and career. However, I can take pleasure in the fact that he's lived long enough to watch his party and bullshit agenda collapse in front of his eyes.

After the utter disaster the GOP has forced upon the American people for the last eight years, and intermittently for the past thirty- I welcome an Obama presidency with joy and open arms!

Yeah- heading back to Arctic obscurity where they belong.

After she returns to Caribou County, will someone please call Henry Higgins to give her some elocution lessons, and instruct her about gerunds, please? Her faux folksiness is so transparent that I want to barf whenever I hear her speak.

"Let's see who should we hire? ...someone who graduated almost dead last in his class... doing the least he can to squeak by relying on his daddy's reputation?"

Just like last time! :)

"Don't expect God to pour out His blessings on a nation that's shedding innocent blood."

Like the thousands we've killed in Iraq?

I guess Iraqi children don't count?

Or, the woman who spoke directly afterward, talking about how great it was that Sarah Palin's daughter had the CHOICE whether to have, or not to have her baby?

Irony much?