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Been kinda busy reacting to the effect of what has happened, as far as the financials.
http://www.updown.com/member/host
I've turned a million into more than three....too bad it's not real money....but they do monthly payouts based on investor performance, and I'm in the top twenty.....

http://www.updown.com/top-investors

I'll be back later this evening to post a response to your OP, Will !

Clearly the biggest casualty in recent history from an economic standpoint is the middle class. The failed policies of Reaganomics (or as I call it "socialism for the rich") continue to demonstrate the true intentions of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country.  forget when Noam Chomsky coined the term "class warfare", but I can imagine no more apt a term for the direct assault on reasonable wealth distribution.

I'll admit that the first place I end up turning to when seeking a solution to any problem is education. Ignorance often can create a state of compliance, and compliance is something that benefits those that selfishly seek to control. Originally, mass education was intended to turn independent farmers into passive automatons of production, serving without question. The irony, though, is that it put in place the infrastructure to spread information to those wanting to learn very efficiently. If one were able to convince several higher ranking members of the government in charge of education that an ideal was worth teaching, it's possible that idea could trickle down (to use the enemy's own phrase) to many, many members of the coming generations.

The second route is labor. While labor doesn't have the same strength it might have in places like Europe, labor still has massive influence in the US, and it's in labor's best interest to maintain and protect the middle class. The upper class doesn't need to unionize, they already have. The lower class and middle class need organization in order to defend against the upper class. Why this war on the middle class has seemingly gone unnoticed in many unions is puzzling. Could some of the leadership be compromised? Or could it simply be that their vision is often simply too limited to what's immediately in front of them instead of the bigger picture?

What other fronts could this war be fought on? What other battles can there be to restore reasonable wealth distribution? .

The fallacy of the false dichotomy, the "Coke vs. Pepsi" lie that's perpetually parroted by talking heads (only interested in attention and their own bank account) and the politicians that are both slaves to the system and complicit in it's continuation, is one of the fundamental methods of control of the masses.

Oh? Have the Republicarats and Democans come to some "bi-partisan" decision about spending $700 billion that's not theirs to spend? Sounds like the latest barrage of stupid bs meant to keep them doped masses calm and, more importantly, compliant.

Gore Vidal's quote is so correct that it frightens me. There is one party, and it's the party of perpetual self-interest. What rational human being, outside of the influence of the Coke/Pepsi control, would possibly think that ideas like life-long debt and borrowing were correct? The US's number 1 product is debt. We are born owing our lives to the infernal machine, taught not to question, not to even think about trying to break free.

President Bush's speech was the same damned script he read for the Iraq farse. Even the Daily Show, a comedy show that somehow manages to be a last bastion of truth on television, managed to demonstrate the script was being used again.

It depends on what you're looking for. It's not steeped in depth, the characters aren't particularly complex (like in The Dark Knight), but it does respect the source material and is thoroughly entertaining. Not only that, but it sets up what I expect will become a trilogy. Really, that's all one can ask of a decent comic book adaptation.

I enjoyed it.

["American Political Monoculture".]

A respected friend with a healthy perspective on the problems inherent in American politics as presently structured,

....Yet, speaking of history, this conjuring of the appearance of opposition where none actually exists has been mandated by the American political system since the onset of the Cold War. The quadrennial political puppet show, highlighting not opposition but its appearance, is essential to keeping the captive-taking war machine running and to inoculating the American people from the viral knowledge that they themselves were first to be captured.... -James Carroll

....described the state of American politics, in a post on another forum as, "American Political Monoculture".

I have to agree that we are living the consequences of this assessment. But, before there can be change, it seems that recognition that this is so, would be the first step.

"The United States has only one party - the property party. It's the party
of big corporations, the party of money. It has two right wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican."
-Gore Vidal

If you have not thought of the two major political parties, in this way, now that they are on the verge of a "bi-partisan solution", to the current financial crisis, a proposed "bailout" with appropriations of tax payer funds to be borrowed and added to the $10 trillion national debt, swelling the total authorized to be spent on this "problem", to about $1 trillion, does this reaction by elected officials influence you? How?

Is our core problem in the US related more to a lack of actual political opposition, than because there is too much? Don't "both parties", encompassing what passes for mainstream politics in the US, believe in essentially the same economic and political status quo? Compared to Scandanavian and Western European countries, has the "American way", with it's lack of political diversity, served it's constituents better or worse than the politics and political choices have served, say, the French or the Swedish?

Do you suspect that President Bush's speech last night was an indication that it is past time to look into and to discuss these questions?

i wasnt impressed

I thought this movie was great and really lived up to it's hype. For those of you who are not familiar with this short movie....it is a must see. This movie is a great documentary about a young Rhode Island boy who strays away from the small town he grew up in and decides to make a move to the big city. Having been a straight edge kid his entire life, the city brings new life experiences and obstacles that he must overcome. His new struggle with addiction and ability to perform his job successfully in order make it to "the top" are two of the most prolific themes in this movie. I would love to see more from this rising star.

Just saw Ironman, I can honestly say it pretty good. Stay till the credits are over for a surprise. All in all I would see it in the theater but its definitely nothing to write home about.

I heard strangers is horrible.

I haven't seen it yet either. I'm curious