Yes, I'm Depressed

So, my last post sounded (after I read it the next day) a little depressed, perhaps a little gloomy. So in the spirit of trying the cheer everyone up, I submit the following links, so that you can experience my renewed sense of optimism:

On the economy:

Paul Krugman interviewed in Newsweek

Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone

Jake DeSantis in the New York Times

Matt Taibbi in Alternet, responding to Mr. DeSantis

Joseph Stiglitz in the New York Times this morning

I could go on, but I'd hate to lose too many readers to suicide.

Then there's the wars:

Fort Hood soldiers

Karzai legalizes rape in Afghanistan

Iraqi insurgents don't see why they should stop

Okay, enough.

I do try to approach every day not as if it's going to be my last, but with a sense of "anything can happen, and it might be good." While this often leads to disappointment, it also occasionally leads to good news. For example, the Spanish are looking to try some of our prior administration's best and brightest for war crimes and crimes against humanity. With apologies to Monty Python, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" It was a good thing to hear about on an otherwise dismal day, at least as far as world economic news was concerned. The other good news was that the head of GM was forced to resign by President Obama, and the conservative pundits immediately went into full lathered-up mode, decrying socialism, nationalised industries, and other conservative bugaboos. Anything to piss off a Republican, is what I always say.

One comment on the above articles, though: interesting how Paul Krugman, who has been lambasting the current President way less than he ever did with former White House Occupant Bush, is suddenly the man to listen to. Why is it we never saw an article in Newsweek or Time magazine titled "Paul Krugman Says: Bush is Wrong"? Hmm......