making it up as we go

Getting ready for work this morning I told Bowser about my best friend's visit last night. I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle to keep me alive. If that ever happens, just pull the plug." So she got up, unplugged my computer and threw out my bottle of wine. She's such a bitch.





Speaking of getting ready for work, I was there again yesterday (and today..yawn) where the first business was attending the annual compulsory 3 hour meeting where, among other things, hospital officials come in to tell you to wash your hands and remind you that hospitals are very dangerous environments. By the time they finished lecturing us about MRSA, VRE, bird flu, tuberculosis, security threats, physical plant disasters and what not to do with the fire extinguisher, I was ready to leave and never return.

Worse still, was listening to my co-workers before the meeting and during the break. Everybody had watched or entertained for the Super Bowl the day before. Fox apparently made it a 12 hour long circus of Super Events by including Super Tuesday and Super-Duper American Idol performances. Those at the meeting not talking about the game were talking about the commercials and their favorite performers. It was depressing and more of the old 'We're number 1' shit you hear regularly from your co-workers. Once again I was reminded of why I never attend after hours office functions. I've mentioned a few times I'll only go to one of their parties if I'm paid overtime and it always gets a laugh - like I'm joking. Is it only me who works with a bunch of ignorant jerks who really don't seem to know anything at all and prefer not knowing?

Okay, it isn't everybody but the idiots are always the loudest, aren't they? Nevertheless, a lot of the quiet ones prefer not to know either. Considering the fact I happen to be employed alongside very well paid medical professionals probably does make a difference in that I'd expect a bit more compassion and understanding than I actually experience.

When are they going to learn that not only is the US not number 1, it's not even number 30? Neither the media nor any of the presidential candidates has mentioned this little fact. The country is going bust so fast that looking at the numbers could make your head spin. What we get is talk of 'economic stimulus' and to quote one of my favorite political writers, Barbara Ehrenreich, it's as though they're trying to make a porn film and not figure a way out of this mess. Do we really need stimulation when we're already fck'd?

To read about how we got here a weekend article from In These Times is very good. Called Killer Credit it pretty much tells all you need to know about exactly how far away from being number 1 or number 29 the US actually is at this point in time as well as what would have to happen in order to start a reversal of the current debt economy. When the bankruptcy laws were changed to be heavily in favor of the credit card industry it suddenly made much more sense for poor people to dump their home mortgage payments rather than miss a credit card bill. I think they'd bring back poor houses except for the fact it's cheaper for the government to let people live on the streets.. just so long as they don't sit, sleep or bother the shoppers who still have jobs.

Okay, that's enough for now. I came, I ranted (which is very rare for me) and now it's time to do something else.