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Afer 8 years of W, nation deserves good chuckle.

Posted By: Good times, too. As we saw at DNC...sm on 2008-09-04
In Reply to: My biggest problem with the 'pubs is you guys ain't - got no sense of HUMOR.

the dems know how to throw a helluva party. You're invited, so come on down.


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Nothing like a good chuckle.
x
Anyone over 40 years old has a very good chance

of having Down's syndrome child at birth.  


I worry more about Biden being President and Pelosi being VP. 


90 percent of Melanoma growths are curable.  Lung cancer is bad.  Smoking is bad. 


More good done in the last 4 days than the last 8 years!
I can't wait to see what next week will bring.
Why was the economy good until TWO years ago
nm
A nostalgic look at the *good ol' days* (2-1/2 years ago)

When people were speculating on how much the war with Iraq would affect gasoline and heating gas/oil prices.


Add to that the damage from Hurricane Katrina and think how it will affect everyone in this country in one form or another, not the least of which concerns oil.


I wonder how many people will have involuntarily transitioned from middle class to lower middle class solely as a result of the need to stay warm by the time spring/summer 2006 rolls around.


I wonder how Mr. Garcia (see below) feels today.  I found particular interest in how we tried to teach Hugo Chavez a lesson (of course, to the detriment of the American people) and how that little ploy came back to bite everyone but Bush and those of his royal ilk and can't help but smile at the irony of Chavez offering to help America's poor because everyone knows Bush doesn't care about them.  I guess the main question is just how many people ARE poor today yet were considered middle class three years ago?














The








from the February 21, 2003 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0221/p01s01-usec.html


As war threat looms, Americans pay at the pump

By Kris Axtman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

HOUSTON - Aurelio Garcia sits inside his Ford Explorer and waits for the familiar click that signals his gas tank is full. Normally, he spends his time at the pump reflecting on his busy day ahead. But today, as the digits climb higher and higher, Mr. Garcia is thinking about war.


It's necessary, he says halfheartedly, looking at the final bill: $26.70. We've got to get Saddam Hussein out of there.


While some consumers are grousing about Iraq as they grip the wheel, others, like Mr. Garcia, say they are willing to pay what it takes - at the pump or in the US military budget - to remove Saddam from power. But whatever their views on Iraq, Americans are finding that fuel costs are rising along with the prospects for war.


It's especially bad out West, with gasoline topping $2 per gallon in some California cities. And people who fly as well as drive get a double-whammy: $10 fuel surcharges on recently slapped onto each leg of many flights.


Various factors are at work, from low stockpiles at home to uncertainties in oil-producing locales as diverse as Nigeria and Venezuela. But experts say the politics and psychology of war are also playing an important role.


The price of gasoline began to increase immediately following Bush's State of the Union address, in which he hinted that we could be at war with Iraq in a matter of weeks, says Geoff Sundstrom, a spokesman for AAA in Heathrow, Fla. But the price increase, he says, stems more from fear of the unknown than from any real spike in demand.


Among the non-Iraq factors at play:


• Oil shipments from Venezuela are still lower than normal because of the country's three-month strike aimed at ousting President Hugo Chávez. The US typically imports about 13 percent of its oil from Venezuela, but has had to find alternatives as the strike stretches on.


• This is typically the time of year when many US refineries are brought down for routine maintenance. They may either be running at lower levels or not producing at all, forcing some areas to rely on reserves. Three Venezuelan-owned refineries in the US have shut down altogether.


• With meteorologists predicting a cold spring, many refineries are choosing to produce more heating oil than gas, again limiting supplies at the pump.


But overriding all this, in the minds of many - including commodity traders - is a possible war with Iraq.


That, along with cold weather, was cited by analysts as a key reason yesterday's government report on wholesale prices showed a 13.7 percent one-month jump in gasoline and a 19.7 percent spike in heating oil.


In my honest opinion, they're raising the price of gas because they need money for the war, says Carl Fua, speculating that the US government itself is manipulating prices as he fills his company truck with gas at a Chevron station near downtown Houston.


In Texas, regular unleaded averages about $1.60 per gallon.


Mr. Fua used to spend about $25 filling up; he now spends about $40. And his waterproofing company will no doubt have to pass that extra cost to the consumer. This price increase affects everything, he says, jumping into the driver's seat. It's the trickle-down effect.


Few see a government conspiracy, but all consumers are feeling the same pinch.


AS of Thursday, the national average for regular unleaded is $1.665 per gallon, according to AAA, the nation's largest auto club. States such as California and Hawaii are the highest, at $1.914 and $1.884 respectively - and at least 500 gas stations around the country are charging $2 or more for a gallon of regular unleaded.


Diesel fuel is also setting records, averaging $1.751 a gallon. At a diesel station east of downtown Houston, Phillip Borski tops off his truck's two 50-drum tanks in preparation for a day of furniture delivery. He's less convinced that the price increases are due to war jitters.


Everybody keeps saying it has to do with Iraq, but I think it has more to do with Venezuela, he says.


Even a minor disruption in deliveries from Middle Eastern countries could cause gas prices to spike even higher - especially in a protracted battle, says Amy Jaffe, senior energy analyst at Rice University in Houston.


We should be able to control prices for a period of time with our strategic reserves, but not if the war lasts for 6 to 8 months, she says. Indeed, crude oil inventories in the US are at historic lows, allowing for little flexibility.


The good news, say analysts, is that Persian Gulf countries have already begun to increase the amount of oil produced, and the US should see the result of that extra effort in the next several weeks.


Even with that additional oil prices may well jump even higher in a war. But panic, experts warn, would only worsen the problem.


We don't want people to look at gas the way the administration advised them to look at duct tape, says Larry Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Institute Research Foundation in New York. The market is ... too fragile for everyone to be topping off their tanks. That could create the very thing we're concerned about.


Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links






www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2003 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
For permission to reprint/republish this article, please email copyright@csps.com


Thanks for the chuckle s/m

The world (in my opinion) would be a better place if people didn't take themselves so seriously.  I don't care if I'm a "cracker," a "honkey" or whatever.  As my husband says, "call me anything just don't call me late for supper."


As for the "N" word, this area where I live has very few *B*lacks or Negros or African-Americans or Africans, and those few we have don't qualify as "N"s.  On-the-other-hand, we have a neighbor who is as "crackery" as I am and THEY qualify.  Not only do they have.....well, maybe not 50, but a bunch of cars up on jacks and several others in various stages of rusting plus numerous riding lawnmowers and every type of other junk you can imagine.  Taking advantage of freedome of speech.....we refer to them as N-white trash.  By the way, they also apparently don't feel the need to bathe either.  We see them in the grocery store from time to time and have to reach for a clothes pin to block our nasal passages. 


Thanks for the chuckle

O certainly needs no help from me; he is surrounded by the best and brightest advisors already.


 


Thanks for the chuckle....;)
xx
Thanks for the chuckle s/m
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who sometimes gets my tongue hung up on my front teeth.  LOL
Chuckle -- hey

get real you RAMAMBER how to spell yet?


 


Thank you for this chuckle!! sm
Mentioning Malkin and intelligent in the same sentence?  My sides hurt from laughing!!  Between her and the "other one" (Michele Bachmann), wow, these two are so certifiable, I can't believe they're allowed outside of a padded room!!
so he deserves to take over the

country and run it into the ground with his failed ideas about privitizing social security, attacking any country that he feels needs to teach a lesson, having super lobbyists as advisors, etc.


 


He DESERVES to be booed....
At the very least. The man is an arrogant war criminal. He is only in a wheelchair because he hurt his back...it is NOT a permanent condition. Spare me the feigned indignity!
LOL - I agree with you totally but this did give me a chuckle
Especially "Heck, let's just have everyone run for President of the US" as I'm sitting here picturing all the people from every country around the world applying. I say if Arnold Schwartenegger could not run then Obama should not be able to run either.
Well anyone who believes that garbage deserves
And the greatest majority of those come with NO NAME....false names, names they can't even identify the source. Wanna guess where they really are coming from?
the cattle industry deserves to go down why?
I guess no bailout for them, huh? I know a lot of people who run stocker steer and cow calf operations who work hard for the little money they get. Peronally, I enjoy a good burger or a steak and would HATE to see the cattle industry go down, plus, think of all the lost jobs, or are we only concerned with banks and car manufacturers?
Oh, pul-EEEZE. Any pres., Pub or Dem, deserves a
night out on the town once in a while. And of COURSE it cost $20,000! It's not like they can just hop on public transit with no Secret Service, and cruise on down to the local burger shop.
She gets what she deserves. Her husband is divorcing her, too. Her son wants her home. nm
/
The cattle/beef industry deserves to go down, but otherwise
x
anything olbermann, shlll for the left, deserves a reply...nm
//
we'd be better off without illegals..he deserves a commendation, not a civil suit...
++
For this you have to wait at least 3 years and 8 months , maybe 7 years and 8 mohths...nm
nm
I had a friend on Right Nation who went down there. SM
He lives about an hour away.  He did not gestimate anywhere even close to that. 
A great nation. sm

As an outsider, I could give you another perspective and one not nearly so dire as yours.  However, I also realise that my view is slanted as I simply adore this country and Americans in general.  In short, given the information at his disposal, George Bush’s decision to oust Saddam looks altogether reasonable--though, again, not necessarily right. To argue otherwise demonstrates both ignorance and bad faith. So what are we to make of the downward spiral of sectarian mayhem that is currently drawing Iraq into the abyss? The violence seems senseless to us . . . but perhaps that’s the point. Perhaps our enemies recognize that the great exploitable weakness of the American military is that, in the wake of Vietnam, the American public’s grasp of geo-politics runs only as deep as the lyrics to Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind.” This is a weakness every bit as real, and every bit as deadly, as a missile with a faulty guidance system or a tank that stalls in its tracks--and it will remain a real weakness until the American public is knocked upside the head a sufficient number of times to outgrow it. What the degeneration of the mission in Iraq indicates most profoundly is that one 9/11 was not enough to crack through the platitudes of the late 1960s--which are deeply embedded in the universities, television networks and editorial pages of major newspapers. There remains, in such circles, the delusion that the jihadists are ultimately live and let live types, that totalitarian Islam will eventually just peter out, that the principles of the European Enlightenment will simply dawn on a billion Muslims without us cramming them down their throats.This may in the end prove the deadliest error in geo-political judgment Americans have ever made. Members of the genocidally well-meaning baby-boom generation will likely go to their graves believing they “gave peace a chance,” having spared themselves the anguish of killing hundreds of thousand Muslims . . .  and likely bequeathed to their children and grandchildren the anguish of killing scores of millions. 


the nation really isn't interested

It's just a device used by the neocons to keep the attention of the stifled.  They know that the repressed loonies in the county slobber over anything pertaining to sex.  Just look at O'Reilly.  Nearly every night he has some story about prostitutes, strip clubs, girls gone wild -- he is complaining how horrible it is, yet they always have tapes behind him of half-naked coeds grinding away.  If it is so horrible, must we see the tapes over and over?


 


We are not a nation of businesses.
nm
I am with you, Shelly. Also, it seems our nation is
nm
I think it's a symbol of what our nation has become
Greed...from the top to the bottom.  You couldn't pay me enough to get me to go out on Black Friday. 
Obviously we are a divided nation.
Do not see how any of this will work. With no republican vote, that speaks volumes to me. Obviously cannot work together or see eye to eye with the future.
#1, The Nation is extremely partisan. #2.

Tillman didn't talk about why he went into the service to anyone.  We will have to assume that what his mother is saying is true.  Has the wife spoken out?  I would think if he told his deepest heart's secrets, it would be to her.  She was his high school sweetheart.  Here's a snippet from a Newsweek article. 


He joined the service just after a honeymoon to Bora Bora with his high-school sweetheart, Marie. He and a younger brother, Kevin, slipped off to enlist in Denver, where they could avoid publicity. Kevin, who gave up a budding minor-league baseball career, remains in the Army. Pat Tillman wanted no attention, no glory, for joining the rank and file. He didn't want to be singled out from his brothers and sisters in the military, says former Cardinals coach Dave McGinnis. Tillman apparently had made a pact with his family to stay silent about his service, a promise they have kept. They have gathered to grieve inside the comfortable family home in a leafy enclave of San Jose.


His was no simple case of patriotism; Tillman was never known as a flag-waver. His agent, Frank Bauer, told reporters he had suspected that Tillman might quit to teach or to practice law like his father, Patrick Sr., but not to join the military. Snyder, his college coach, said Tillman never used the word patriotism when he explained his plans to enlist. He just seemed to think something had to be done. When players asked why he enlisted, he didn't want to talk about it. McGinnis says there were reasons Pat said he had that he didn't want to divulge, and the coach respected his view and his right to make his own path. Tillman had always been different. When he joined the pros, he rode a bicycle to practice because he didn't own a car. He refused to buy a cell phone. A sports publicist at Arizona State once described him as a surfer dude.


It seems his mother decided the pact no longer had any merit.  Personally, I see another Cindy Sheehan, disobeying her son's wishes. 


Prayer vigil for our nation
I posted this on the Faith board but I also wanted to post it here just in case...

The North American Mission Board has started a prayer vigil for our nation before the election. If you want to participate there is a sign up and prayer guide at

http://ilivevalues.com/prayer

It's 40 days of prayer and then 40 hours of prayer at the end. Check it out! I think it will really do some good and if God's people work together and call out to Him together to heal our nation, He said He would hear us and do so!

Have a great day!

God Bless!

p.s. this wasn't meant to start a riot or to have a bunch of people who don't believe in prayer or God to get up in arms, it's just for those who would like to participate, so please don't go there. Thanks!

most pedophiles are found in the nation's
(nm)
How many pubs on this forum and in this nation
being a qualified candidate for VP and ready to step into the highest office in the land? This is not just about Palin. This is about a party who expects to be taken seriously in the Congresss, Senate, 2010 and again in 2012. So far, all we have seen these past 2 days is a GOP collective who cannot abandon the witch hunt and mob stalking of Obama long enough to address their own shortcomings.

The presumption on the part of these folks that they should be taken seriously by anyone except themselves in view of the fact that they can turn a blind eye to this kind of basic deficit in their party and the judgment of their leaders is LUDICROUS.

Palin may not be a front burner issue for much longer, but the shambles that is the republican party will be there for a long time....a very long time, if their own members cannot get off their high horses long enough to take a long, hard look at themselves.
If we claim to be a nation of laws, then
we need to BE a nation of laws. JTBB has said it all and said it well.
With our nation in dire straights
knowing that 79% of my compatriots are feeling optimistic about our future with only 14% expressing pessimism. What's up with that?

For me, its about FINALLY having our long-awaited closure and moving forward instead of backward. I'm sure some will say "it's just a poll" but when I see that sea of humanity gathering with excitement, enthusiasm and joy, with smiles all over their faces, DESPITE the precarious state of our nation, I know in my heart it is much, much more.

Those numbers help me keep things in perspective (especially when reading the posts of this forum) and focused on what's really important. I will take great pride in doing my part, to whatever extent possible, in becoming part of the solution, and not the problem.
Obama and the State of our Nation

Obama was VOTED in, not 'given' the job as President...You know, I cannot believe some of the things tht come from the brains and out of the miouths oif some indivuduals.  This is indeed a historic moment; that I am in agreement with, and I also agree that 170M for the Inaguration was excessive but I will tell you what I find even more excessive - the lying, stealing criminal former administration who ripped of the American people (regardless of political affilation) and basically thummed their noses at us because they felt and still feel they are above the law.  The former president  and his administration didn't give a durn about the economy and reputation of this country  do you truly believe that they cared whether you, your  husbands, sons and other relatives lost their jobs and homes?  Do you really think they were concerned about whether YOU have enough to retire on after dutifully putting away funds in your 401k?  I don't think so.  They gutted us and left us twisting in the wind; and while we worry about how we are going to pay the light bill and have enough to buy grioceries let alone our mortgage - they dine well and live like kings, their families and frineds in their inner circles do not have to concern themselves with such mundane issues...why would they?  Their gods are Franklin, Harrison, Grant, et al.WE PAID FOR IT and will be for years to come.


So much for promoting unity in our nation........... sm
While there may have been an UNOFFICIAL white caucus all these years, I believe the key word is "unofficial." Were blacks denied membership into this caucus based solely on the color of their skin? I rather doubt it, but I am certain that the black population would probably say they were.

I am all for equal opportunities when it comes to education, housing, jobs, etc., for all people regardless of skin color. However, forming special interest groups does nothing to promote equality. Rather it only promotes the reverse racism and devisiveness we are seeing here and will continue to see in the future.
Godless nation....hmmm...(sm)

Now that would be an improvement.  This country was not founded on christianity or any other relgion.  I agree that Obama was downplaying religion, but I also believe that that is exactly what he needed to do.  Bush turned this whole mess into a big "us against them" mentality...."us" meaning christians.  I believe Obama had to negate this idea by downplaying religion, thus deflating the whole notion that we are in a religious war (which is exactly what Bush wanted and subsequently turned it into.)


What I find really interesting is the idea that you insinuate that we MUST be identified as a nation by a specific religion.  Since we are talking about this in the context of politics, exactly why is it you feel we MUST be seen by the world as a "god-fearing" nation?  What would be the benefits of that?


Not quite- 2 years Catholic, 2 years Muslim. NM
X
If you are talking about the Obama Nation post...
it was written by a black pastor and it is his opinion. He was not hired by nor affiliated with the McCain campaign. There are several black preachers who do not agree with black liberation theology. There was nothing in his post about hatred. He said homosexuality was a sin..it is. He didn't say he hated gays...just that the Bible says the ACT is a sin..and it is. Just like lying, adultery, murder, etc. It does have the distinction of being the one sin that God classified as an "abomination." All the preacher was pointing out was that when Obama said there was nothing specific in the Bible regarding homosexuality...he was wrong. Again...there is no hatred in that post. He just doesn't agree with Obama's philosophy. Where you get hate from that I don't know....did you even read the post?

And by the way....sniping and cattiness must be your strong suit? You seem to excel in that area. Can you just drop the cattiness and sniping (as you asked that I do) and go figure, as you told me to do? Thank you so very much.
Our party's not the 1 who brought nation to its knees.
nm
haha - like half the nation is planning on doing!
;)
Don't you wish that me and half the nation which shares this view
x
American undeveloped nation by 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqW1-aA5aMg
WELFARE for the country as a nation, what a concept.....sm
a president with who is really fighting to find a way for the suffering folk, those that are down and out, or should we "just let them eat cake," Marie Antoinette? Now there's a leader who used her head, right to the chopping block, and it seems that the corporate raiders who raped this country into this mess were thinking the same thing, "Hey, I got mine!!"
Bush Breaks Nation's Promise to Veterans

This isn’t new (it’s from May), but it’s the first I saw it. I found it interesting but not surprising.  Our Veterans deserve much better.


The source is: http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.aspx?c=klLWJcP7H&b=727693&printmode=1


VETERANS
Bush Breaks Nation's Promise to Veterans


Appearing yesterday at the Arlington National Cemetery to honor generations of sacrifices by American servicemen and women, President Bush said, "At our national cemetery, we take comfort from knowing that the men and women who are serving freedom's cause understand their purpose and its price." Yet the reality has been that the administration that most recently has sent those men and women to fight for freedom's cause has failed for live up to government's age-old promise to "care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan."


BUSH'S 2006 VA BUDGET HITS VETERANS HARD: President Bush's 2006 budget proposal included legislation that would raise veterans' premiums more than 100 percent on prescription drugs and add an annual $250 enrollment fee for veterans who want care for conditions not directly caused by military service and who generally earn more than $25,000 a year. The administration has recommended these same proposals in each of the past few years, only to have them beaten back by Congress each time. The user fee would increase costs for nearly 2 million veterans nationwide.


WAR VETERANS EXCLUDED FROM COST OF WAR ON TERROR: Conservatives in Congress rebuffed an effort to include $2 billion in emergency money for veterans' health care in the recently passed $82 billion Iraq war supplemental. The president's request increased the VA budget a mere 2.7 percent (including the increased co-pays and enrollment fees), hardly sufficient to deal with an expected influx of Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans in the coming years. Nearly 28,000 soldiers who served in Iraq and were discharged have already sought care at a VA facility. Of the nearly 245,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan already discharged from service, 12,422 have been in VA counseling centers for readjustment problems and symptoms associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has said the budget circumstances are not "dire," yet Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Larry Craig (R-ID) was forced to increase the 2006 budget request by $1 billion. Dave Autry, a spokesman for the Disabled American Veterans, said, "Vets are owed a debt and the government has said they are eligible for health care. The government needs to pay for it. It's a continuing cost of our national defense."


BUSH WANTS TO SHUT DOWN VETERANS HOSPITAL IN HIS OWN BACKYARD: Veterans in Bush's backyard, near his ranch in Crawford, Texas, are protesting his administration's decision to close a VA hospital in their town. "It would be, in my opinion, a tragic mistake to shut down our hospital, especially during a time of war when tomorrow's veterans are in harm's way today," said U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Waco). In May 2004, then-VA Secretary Anthony Principi announced he would be closing three veterans hospitals nationwide and partially closing eight others. For his work, Principi was rewarded with an appointment to the chairmanship of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission.


VETERANS GROUPS SLAM BUSH BUDGET: More than 300,000 veterans' claims are pending before the VA, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and the number of claims pending for more than six months rose from 47,000 in 2003 to 75,000 at the end of March 2005. The deteriorating condition of VA health care has elicited plenty of criticism. The American Legion called Bush's budget "the wrong message at the wrong time to the wrong constituency." The Vietnam Veterans of America said the budget did a "disservice to those of us who donned the uniform to defend the rights, principles, and freedoms that we hold dear." And the Veterans of Foreign Wars decried Bush's decision as "especially shameful during a time of war."


No problem, sugar. Vote him into office. I'm sure the nation will
I highly doubt this man will make any difference. He's certainly eloquent and able to hypnotize the masses with his line of BS though. If only words solved problems.
An earlier poster stated that about 76% of this nation is Christian
This, proportionately, means that 76% of what you see, read, watch, or are "bombarded with" is at least 76% done by Christians (feel free to make the Jew media comment, but they get their Commandments in the same place you do).

Therefore, it can be taken away that there are Christians who do not believe the same thing you do. Do you want to silence them, too?
If this nation is to survive, it is no longer US VERSUS THEM, we have to find a way to .....sm
stand united, and when our representatives are proposing or propositioning or supporing something that is NOT supported by the PEOPLE, their constituents, then we have to make calls, write letters, fax, vote, ect. I believe this two party system is doomed and that it is antiquated, there is such an ideological wall between the two parties that nothing will get done with all the finger pointing, blaming, etc. The American people are wise enough to know what is good for them, what works for them (and I mean a majority of us, not "chosen few" of Wall Street, lobbyists, oil interests, etc)., the representatives have to come back to the people. So sick of the blame game and insults, if we love this country and "the American way of life" we had all better band together, work together, LISTEN to each other's fears and needs, and concentrate on now and THE FUTURE, the long-haul. Just my humble opinion, this is all getting old and tired, and such a waste of time and energy. Instead of insulting on this board, perhaps we can spend time getting in touch with our representatives' offices, and perhaps getting a broader base of support for the Independent Party (isn't independce what we are all about?) IMHO
The Great Recession. American a thrift nation.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1891527,00.html?cnn=yes

Sometimes we change because we want to: lose weight, go vegan, find God, get sober. But sometimes we change because we have no choice, and since this violates our manifest destiny to do as we please, it may take a while before we notice that those are often the changes we need to make most. We ran a good long road test of the premise that more is better: we built houses that could hold all our stuff but were too big to heat; we bought cars that could ferry a soccer team but were too big to park; we thought we were embracing the simple life by squeezing in a yoga class between working and shopping and took an extra job to pay for it all.

Now we're stripping down and starting over. A platoon of TIME reporters and pollsters fanned out to every corner of the country to measure — anecdotally and empirically — what's changed in the way we set our priorities and spend our money since the Great Recession began. Most people think the pain will be lasting and the effects permanent: only 12% expect economic recovery to begin within six months, half believe it will be another year or two, and 14% believe we are at the start of a long-term decline. (See TIME's special report on how Americans have adjusted to the recession.)

Our institutions watch for economic vital signs. But maybe, for individuals, the sickness is what came before — the hallucination that debt would never need to be repaid, that values only rise, that bubbles never burst. When the markets collapsed, that fever broke. In our assumptions and attitudes and expectations, the recovery is already well under way.

Talk to people not just about how they feel but about how they're living now, and you hear more resolve than regret. Nearly half say their economic status declined this year, and 57% now think the American Dream is harder to achieve. And yet pain and promise are a package deal; even after all this, fully 56% believe that America's best days are ahead. It would be nice if it took something short of a heart attack to get us to work out, eat better and spend more time with our kids. But in the end, where we wind up matters more than how we got there.

Unlike any other downturn since the 1930s, this one has affected everyone, either the fact of it or the fear of it. Even when prosperity returns, 61% predict, they'll continue to spend less than they did before. Among people earning less than $50,000 a year — roughly half of U.S. households — 34% have not gone to the doctor because of the cost, 31% have been out of work at some point, and 13% have been hungry. At the same time, 4 in 10 people earning more than $100,000 say they are buying more store brands, 36% are using coupons more, and 39% have postponed or canceled a vacation to save money. Forty percent of people at all income levels say they feel anxious, 32% have trouble sleeping, and 20% are depressed. After a season of big news, of war and storms and swindlers, pirates and poison peanut butter, 43% are watching the news even more, taking the medicine even if it tastes bad because skipping it could be risky. (See the worst business deals of 2008.)

The calculus of life suddenly offers new equations. Insurance agents see clients raising their deductibles to lower premiums, or skipping collision coverage for older cars so that they bear more of the risks themselves. Twenty-seven percent have raided their retirement or college savings to pay the bills. Violent crime may not be up, but fear of it is: 40% of people say that since the downturn began, they are more worried about their personal safety. Gun sales at large retail stores have jumped 39% this year, according to the SportsOneSource, a research firm that tracks the sporting-goods industry, and shops are reporting ammunition shortages; they can't keep up with demand.

For all the reflexive analogies, this is not the 1930s, when Babe Ruth took a $10,000 salary cut (roughly what A-Rod earns per swing) and New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker told theaters to show only cheery films. And yet we're channeling our grandparents, who were taught, like a mantra, to use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without. Now, if you can make it, you don't have to buy it: just replace the lawn with a vegetable garden, eat your fill and then store whatever is left. Sales of canning and freezing supplies rose 15% during the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year. Cough- and cold-remedy sales are down 9% because you can make your own chicken soup; vitamin sales are up, maybe because you hope you won't need to. Common sense is back in style, meaning we're less willing to buy what we can have for free: bottled-water sales have dropped 10%. The 137-year-old Los Angeles public library system set record highs in circulation and visitors. And film and camera sales have plunged 33% this year, because who would want this winter in their album?

There's a natural longing to find the upside in the downturn. A college-admissions officer, watching families reassess their means and ends, suggests that maybe the insane competitiveness will recede. The yoga instructor says living more simply relaxes us, as if the entire country needs to slow its breathing. The buyer at the used-car lot feels both frugal and green: that hatchback isn't used, it's "pre-owned," and this counts as recycling. The discount shoppers view their task as a scavenger hunt and take a certain pride in finding the bargain, cutting the deal; 23% of us are haggling more, a profitable contact sport.

No one wishes for hardship. But as we pick through the economic rubble, we may find that our riches have buried our treasures. Money does not buy happiness; Scripture asserts this, research confirms it. Once you reach the median level of income, roughly $50,000 a year, wealth and contentment go their separate ways, and studies find that a millionaire is no more likely to be happy than someone earning one-twentieth as much. Now a third of people polled say they are spending more time with family and friends, and nearly four times as many people say their relations with their kids have gotten better during this crisis than say they have gotten worse.

A consumer culture invites us to want more than we can ever have; a culture of thrift invites us to be grateful for whatever we can get. So we pass the time by tending our gardens and patching our safety nets and debating whether, years from now, this season will be remembered for what we lost, or all that we found.
You lefties are so naive. Obama has plans for worse for our nation.