This Economy
Is there any reason to believe that this economy is going to get better any time soon? I happen to belong to a certain stratum of the socioeconomic pile where my talents and education would be misapplied to the flipping of burgers but, then again, are insufficient to otherwise make a good damn. I have glimpsed prosperity from time to time, but always manage to do (or not to do) something that leaves me holding my johnson. I'll take the blame for that, but it won't make you any richer.

The President is pulling for that huge tax cut, but it ain't gonna help me. It'll put more money in the coffers of people who are so wealthy that their income from stock dividends is actually worth fighting over. Senate majority leader Bill Frist even went so far as to call the present scheme of taxation of stock dividends "immoral," but that's because he's a very rich man who is given to making such judgements when it comes down to the bottom line.

Well, here's my bottom line: if Bush and Frist want to pledge $15 billion to fighting AIDS in Africa, fine, but don't go thinking that that's going to divert our attention from a $400 billion tax cut for the champagne-and-caviar set.