It's hard to see how we can avoid facing up to the fact that we have three automakers who have far too much capacity to build cars that Americans don't want to buy.

The ultimate lie behind supply-side "economics" was that cutting taxes for the wealthy would lead them to invest in productive capacity. "Productive capacity"...

I call BS.

We are drowning in underused productive capacity here in the US. And in much of the rest of the industrialized world, for that matter. What there is currently a shortage of is income for the customer base, so they can buy the goods and services that underused capacity is capable of generating.

What we do need is the sort of retooling that will have the monster heavy industrial plants of the American Midwest reworked into manufacturing facilities for light and commuter rail, wind turbines, geothermal heat pumps, tidal and current generators, solar generation, and more. As well as begin laying rail, repaving roads, rebuilding bridges, and upgrading and decentralizing the power grid so cascading blackouts like those that have plagued the Northeast become nothing but distant memories. These will be the sort of high-value-additive jobs that let people buy housing, (redesigned) cars, and appliances, just to name three potential drivers of a strong economy. Then get the schools modernized - by a lot. And telecoms - we're an international also-ran in that sector at this point.

And anything else that will put people back to work. Then, national health, to take that monkey of employers' backs.

It's a start, anyway.

The state that once gave the US Lester Maddox is hardly a bellwether. More of an outlier if you ask me.

The issue is now officially dead. All you conspiracists have left is your fevered imagination. Could you please go quietly back to watching the "X-Files" and rationalizing the existence of a 9/11 conspiracy that was large enough to encompass the entire Federal Government, as well as much of New York City, the UN, Israel, the Trilateral Commission, the Illuminati, the Knights Templar, and the Rosicrucians?

Oh, oops, almost forgot Elvis and Judge Crater!

And while you're at it, go take your meds - we really don't much like you once you've stopped.

Notoriety and martyrdom is what they are looking for. Frustrate them, and do not play their game.

Bettie Page was not easily reduced to an image. The biopic, with a very strong performance by Gretchen Mol in the title role, showed her to have been a complex person all along. She overcame abuse and very limited options to become an icon.

And she was something of a sex-positive feminist before the term was coined.

Yes, she struggled much later in life. With the sort of help that can only come from genuine care, she stepped back from that precipice and lived what was, by all accounts, a quiet, "normal" life, and found what I can only hope was peace and happiness.

While she'd likely be a fine Senator (based on the limited information I - a Midwesterner) have, she was on MSNBC earlier this afternoon backing Kennedy.

We can not CFL our way out of this. We can not hybrid our way out of this. We can not economize our way out of this.

Not going to happen. You read it here.

And the population is increasing, and in the areas least able to sustain it without outside resources.

So...what then do we do? Sit around bemoaning our fate and waiting for the hammer to fall?

I don't think so.

What we need is redevelopment in different ways. Human nature isn't changing any time soon, we're effectively hooked on electric light and cooked food. No way we're returning to living in caves, spearing our wild food, hunting & gathering.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

So - my suggestion is we turn the engineers loose on it. As a group they love solving problems. Tell them where we need to be, what the goal is, and let them find the way. Do not, under any circumstances, mandate a particular "thing" as a solution. (See converter, catalytic...) Set a goal. The ways of reaching it will only improve with time, so the goal itself needs to move at a reasonable pace.

It may work, it may not. It's the only thing that has a chance, short of mass human extinction. And to those of you who think that is somehow a good thing: You first.

Bad writing by overly young hipster-wannabes lacking real life experience and perspective. (There is something to the fact that shows like The Sopranos and The Wire were headed by people with actual backgrounds.)

Incredibly annoying "elevator promos" covering the bottom third of the screen at random moments during programming.

An excess of commercial interruptions. (There is a reason HBO and their brethren have their devotees.)

Just plain dumb premises for shows.

"Actors" with a Left Face, a Right Face, and no brain behind either.

Viewers who reward mediocre drivel with ongoing viewership.

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And on NBC's "daring experiment", as someone dubbed it, I give Leno three months. The real question is, when his ratings crater, as they will, what's behind him as a replacement?

As for Letterman, by light-years the better choice in that time slot, he gets more like Carson with every passing year, and this is not a bad thing, And his guests, the smart ones anyway, are in on the joke. He could possibly carry a primetime variety hour. Leno? I dread the very thought.