A good day's sleep...

I slept a solid eight hours this morning, all praises due to generic Tylenol PM. I finally rolled out of bed about five, had some dinner (breakfast), took a run, went to the gym, and came to work. I feel great! It's like it's the middle of the day (at 2:30 in the morning), and my brain works and everything. I just finished Life on the Other Side by Sylvia Browne, and straightened out my fantasy football team. I'll probably get to work on my Italian grammar at this rate. If I feel this way every night, it might just be worth it. Let's see if I can stay on my schedule over the weekend.

I was watching Link TV earlier, while I was working on the daily reports. Mayor Ray Nagin was being asked whether he thought the slow Federal response was due to racism. He denied it, but I thought what he did say was interesting. It was something along the lines of "I don't think it had much to do with race... I do think it had to do with class." And I thought, what a relief: when do US political figures ever talk about class? It is a completely taboo subject in this country. I don't mean to suggest that the subject of race is at all dealt with forthrightly... but at least there's a semblance of a dialogue. Conservative elites have been absolutely disciplined in crying "class warfare" whenever the subject of class is raised, and as a result... it just doesn't get raised.

And the predictable result?

The wealth of the 400 richest Americans (the Forbes 400) totals more than $1.1 trillion -- an amount greater than the gross domestic product of Spain or Canada, the world's eighth- and ninth-largest economies.

The number of Americans "officially" in poverty (income $9,827 for singles, $19,157 for a two-adult, two-child family) is 37 million... about as many people as there are in Poland.

This country is totally split along class lines, with ridiculous amounts of power concentrated in a few hands - with corporate control of the economy driving more and more Americans into poverty and taking away the minimal social safety net built up over the years. All in service of an ideological agenda that should have been more than discredited in the Reagan years.

Shit.

At the same time (to return to my usual apocalyptic theme), we have the spectre of rapid climate change threatening not only Americans but people all over the planet - of course with the worst consequences to befall the poorest everywhere. And this is not even to begin to mention all the species that will be destroyed through habitat loss, whether through climate change or pollution.

Double shit. Triple fucking shit.