Is anybody else really down about the election, Olympics... everything?

I just finished reading an article about how the Spears/Hilton ad is polling as a positive for McCain.

Last night I worked myself into knots over McCain mocking tire-checking as a way to improve gas mileage ... (I know how much doing that has improved the mileage I get) ... and because I read that the U.S. govt says if everybody kept their tires inflated and engines tuned up, we'd save 3 times the fuel that could be gotten from offshore drilling. And yet this concept of "personal responsibility" was mocked.

My feeling toward the Olympics? Something beyond apathy. Anger is more like it. Why are we messing around with this crap when we have hard working folks over on the j-board having to use food stamps to support their families?

I've also 'had it' with the pro-athlete Olympians, the cheaters, the writers who have no concept of history with regard to the Olympics... I'm really curious if I'll watch a minute of it.

Last week I read Germany is leading the world in solar power. Why not us?

I'm just down.

 

Yes.

 

Sorry, Lugnuts, but I cannot share in your pessimism. I have long since accepted that the vast majority of voters are stupid. The simple fact that people still argue over evolution or school prayer shows this. A man rising to become governor after saying that he successfully performed an exorcism shoes this.

Instead of wallowing in such depressing thoughts, I’ll take a vacation to a nice tropical island and lay on the beach. I’ll watch the Olympics for some of the soccer and to see some of the landscapes that I have visited. I’ll then take at least two more vacations before September ends and have a blast.

Yes times are tough for many people. I see it with some that are around me. However, I can’t sit at home and wallow in depression over what I should or should not do.

 

I fell that this country is just plain bat-shit insane, Lugnuts.

Check that - not insane, just stupid. Incredibly stupid. For all your reasons sited, and many more. The McCain thing just depresses me, and its not because I am in love with Obama, I am not. But the mocking thing about tire pressure irks me huge. If I were from another country and saw what we see about America, I would dislike this country, intensely. What we reflect is just so unlikeable.

I do take comfort that I have friends who are normal - as my wife and I walk our block, we have tons of neighbors who are completely enjoyable.

But the people in charge, the big shots? The news makers, politicians, celebrities, titans of industry? Despicable.

 

Instant karma's gonna get us.

 

You forgot the media, poindexter.

Pastor: Good for you, and I mean that.

But it's hard for me to take vacation right now and really enjoy it knowing some of my friends and family are worried about job security, feeding their families, etc.

Mr. Lugs wants me to start planning a family vacation for February. I started looking at airfare and hotel rates, and I just want to puke.

We just returned from a wedding, where we paid quite a bit for a hotel room. The last night we were there, we killed two roaches the size you could saddle and ride. When Mr. Lugs told the front desk about it, the response was, "Yeah, they nest in the trees. It gets bad toward the end of the week when we haven't sprayed."

I'll just stay home and wallow, thanks.

 

Nah, I'm good till the season opener, when Clemson exposes Bama's Swiss-cheese linebackers. Then my last bit of hope will be gone and I'll be right down in the sewer with you.

 

I'm enjoying the election coverage. Since I like both candidates, I'm excited about having someone new taking over in just a few months...

I could not give one shit about the Olympics. If I watch more than a couple minutes of it, I'll surprise myself. I'm interested in the Becky Hammon storyline and I'd like to see Hope Solo lead the US soccer team to the gold. I'll probably watch some of the short distance track events, but that will be it.

I care more about preseason football than I do the Olympics. So do the readers in most US cities.

 

This happens every election. I start out reading and watching everything, then I start to get burned out. I'm at that point.

Olympics? I might watch if there's nothing else on.

Thank god football season is starting up soon. Not only will I be busier at work (not as much posting, sorry America!), but I'll have something to take my mind off all the silliness.

 

I'm down about the space I'm running out of in my place.

 

Lugnuts, stop and consider that the reason we have the term "The Era of Good Feeling" is that a multi-year interval when things went pretty much OK deserved to be noted by history. Not going OK is the natural order.

But that's macro. Focus on the micro: take care of your family, then your friends, then your community. Hope that the macro swirls past your little patch without stopping.

And if that doesn't help, contemplate the absurdity that, in 2000, the reaction to a sustained period of peace and prosperity was, "I based my vote on blowjobs". :

 

Sometimes life sucks. Take a day off from work today and do something you've never done before. Really. Use a sick day. You get yay-many a year. Use one. Use it to relax your mind. Take a train trip. Get on Greyhound for a day trip. Go to the zoo.

Yep, life sucks.

But not always. Find something cool about it today.