Downsize Me

Today Wachovia, fourth largest bank in This Fine Nation, let its CEO go, "sending the bank's shares lower on speculation that loan losses tied to the purchase of a big mortgage lender could widen" (Jonathan Stempel of Reuters). "Thompson will get severance equal to 16 months of his base salary, or $1.45 million, and get stock awards worth $7.25 million, the bank said in a regulatory filing."

According to my Most Trusted Source, for at least the past couple weeks people have been bringing their pets into the animal shelter in Laramie because they have heard the word "recession" on TV (most likely) and feel the need to "downsize." The animals may receive new homes, with responsible people who treat them like family, not commodities up for disposal at a moment's notice. Or not.

Jonathan Alter recently wrote in Newsweek (April 28, 2008): "But the ecosystem of political media has changed, with sound bites losing their authority. Consumers of news are less easily manipulated by the 24/7 barrage of bites and images (Hillary Clinton doing whisky shots, Obama bowling), which are dissected endlessly on cable. Voters are searching for their own context. The bad news is that they are often simply looking for their opinions to be validated..." I cringed when I read that comment, at the obvious and disgusting pretention that does not belong in a representative democracy. On the other hand, if you are willing to drop your dog or cat or ferret or guinea pig or rat or rabbit or gerbil or bird off at the shelter because you don't want to maintain the responsibility you took for caring for another's life, don't bother to vote for me. I don't represent you.