MORE SUGAR! MORE FOOTBALL! MORE ALCOHOL, STAT!


Okay, not really. Hasn't there been enough by now? Standing at the end of a tumultuous year, and facing the uncertainty of a new one, LOST yearns for optimism, but senses little reason to be. The President seems hell bent to up the ante in Iraq with the blood of other Americans, in pursuit of a victory which he is incapable of defining for the masses. Meanwhile, the Sudan festers, ditto Afghanistan, the Russians continue to backslide toward their old, totalitarian tricks (Hey? Isn't his Secretary of State a bona fide "Expert" on Soviet foreign policy? Too bad she's too busy spinning and covering for the Persian Gulf disaster her husband - I mean the President - created. The big 2 automakers left in this country are becoming the equivalent of Corporate street people; yet its hard to feel much sorrow or pity for anyone there; LOST couldn't help but notice how many consumers from the local COSTCO pulled big boxes of sh*T out of the warehouse this Yule - all of which bore the sidemark on the cardboard "Made in China" in at least two languages. Besides alcohol and weapons, are we making anything tangible in this country anymore? On a personal note, LOST's brother found work, but cannot see the positives yet - how do you make those who want to give in pick the towel back up?

Saddam's death made LOST think only of Lee Harvey Oswald; though the former hung on for much longer than the latter, it appears that both were silenced as soon as practicable, for essentially the same reason. Quite an ironic twist of fate that Jerry Ford - a quiet but apparently firm dissenting voice from the Preznit's course in Iraq - wound up passing on in such a way that coverage of his memorial services wound up diluting the ghoulish death watch for the Iraqi dictator. The Rove-cheney Playbook slump continues . . .

This new Congressional majority - if it holds (Keep getting better Senator Johnson) has its work cut out for it. First order of business really should be - public relations be damned - turning off the war spigot for all expenditures beyond the cost of getting them all home quickly. Then start digging into no-bid deals, the Cheney energy task force, the coziness that is the FDA, FEMA and the other screwed up Fed agencies. But every time someone like Harry Reid says "we're reaching across the aisle" or "we wanna work with the Preznit on Iraq" why does LOST pucker up a bit and think 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"?

May this be the year that we straighten the crap out, or at least begin that process, and sustain the effort.