They won. Who woulda guessed?
The Minnesota Vikings actually won today, beating the Arizona Cardinals 34 – 10. Amazing. Recently, I’ve been saying things like, “Sorry I can’t come over—I’m gonna stay home and watch the Vikings lose.”
It’s five o’clock and the house is quiet. There’s a pot of coffee on, a fridge full of beer, and sports on every channel. It’s a fine day—except it’s something like 157 degrees outside and that pisses me off. I’m not a big fan of Indian summer; by October 9, I expect to be clad in flannel.
So far, I haven’t made it down to the Occupy Minnesota protests, which is sad since I’m such an ardent supporter. This weekend has been full of chores and work; today is the first chance that I’ve had to relax. By the time we could go, we’d have to be giving the kids their baths, dinner, and getting them into bed.
I will go. My wife and I have decided that it will be a good thing to attend as a family—and I’m looking forward to posting some of my own videos, photographs, and other “coverage” right here on this site. I plan on attending as both a participant and a journalist. So far, there have been no beatings or arrests, but I might wear my press credentials just to be safe.
"Occupy" protesters rallying in Minneapolis, Minnesota
To give you an idea of just how bad things are in this country, one protester named David Puthoff moved to Minnesota from California to teach English—and so far, all he’s managed to do is find work as a goddamned security guard.
“It’s been hard,” he said. “I feel like I’m never going to be part of the middle class.”
Yeah, it’s hard to be middle class when you’re wearing a tin badge and getting paid ten bucks an hour.
Meanwhile, Eric Cantor said in a speech at the Values Voters Summit in Washington that he is “increasingly concerned” about the “growing mobs” represented at the protests.
I’m not sure that “mob” is the correct term to use when one is talking about thousands of pissed-off-yet-peaceful American citizens who are sick and tired of working their asses off at jobs they hate for insultingly-low wages—all so they can live hand-to-mouth under a mountain of debt until they retire … and then, if they’re lucky, they’ll receive enough social security each month to eat dog food and live in a studio apartment.
Ron Paul, at least, supports the protests. Forgetting about Roseanne Barr for a moment, I think that I’d rather vote for Paul than Obama. Too bad, because even though he just won the Value Voter straw poll, he’ll never make it onto the ticket next year.
In other news, the so-called “supercommittee” is having a hard time coming up with a compromise. They’ve been meeting in secret for weeks now, drinking gallons of coffee and snarling at each other like wolves. The supposed idea is that they will be forced to come together and find a solution because the alternative is just too awful—painful across-the-board cuts to the Pentagon budget and a big slice of domestic programs, including Medicare, food stamps and Medicaid—but let’s not kid ourselves: the Republicans don’t give a shit about any of that. They’d gladly give up a little of their precious military budget if it meant putting a serious hurt on social programs that the poor, middle-class, and elderly depend on. I swear those bastards get a kick out of watching other people suffer.
I feel bad that I didn’t welcome you to the weekend on Friday—or even yesterday—but I’ve been trying to stop distracting myself with the Internet and get serious about my fifth book. I’m in dire financial straits and I’m hoping to write myself out of this terrible hole that I’m in.
Okay. It’s just about time to open my first beer—16-ounce tall cans of Busch Light, of course. No more getting drunk, though—I only had three yesterday. Moderation is key … at least, that’s what they tell me.
Here’s your wisdom:
