Good one...

Like Rome Before the Fall? Not Yet

What would our "noblest traditions" be, I wonder? Having grown up in the shadow of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello I would hope it would be the dreams and hopes of our forefathers.

Where are they now? What would TJ say about the partisan bickering and stalemate?

Newt Gingrich has raised more campaign money than any other potential candidates for 2012. How's that for encouraging?

Obama in 2012 has started their machine- it will be based out of Chicago. Please read the history of Chicago politics wiki if you have not already.

On a lighter note... I watched the Notebook and the Hurt Locker over the last few nights. Wow, you weren't kidding when you said the Notebook was a crier, Steve. Thanks for that. When I was telling Treva the plot I was crying and laughing at the incredible pathos- the only way it could have been more is if the final scene was littered with puppies gasping for their last breath when the nurse enters the room. I won't give more away- the ending is hardly a surprise but anyway.

As for the Hurt Locker, I find it interesting that our more recent wars do not have the same branding as the past conflicts in say Viet Nam. There is no generational message or movement that coincides, of which I am aware. There is a resurgence of new folk music, which indicates a grasping at times that are more simple or a stripping away of conceits but I am not sure there is the same cultural shifting. Maybe it is happening and I can't hear it down here or I am too jaded to see the difference between hippy as a fashion versus a real belief set. I do see my fair share of hippies down here, don't get me wrong, but I have not seen any manifestos or any attempts at a real higher cause (get it, there is a pun in there somewhere). Maybe the fact that there is no draft so there is no equal sharing of the burden of war gives our current conflict a disconnectedness.

Perhaps this will all be uncovered later and I am the Mr Jones per Bob Dylan and just don't get what's going on. It wouldn't be the first time.