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While I agree with your dislike of our current regime, I'm not convinced that the new government you're moving to has a better track record with regard to human rights.

You are absolutely correct in your unconvincedness. (I'll bet that word hasn't been used on the bbs before! ) However, there is a great deal more going on than the erosion (Erosion? Hell, outright destruction!) of civil rights. Bush's death count in Iraq is half way to Pol Pot's. Trillions of dollars of deficit spending will never be paid off.* Environmental destruction continues an unprecedented level.** He shows an absolutely blatant disregard for the morality of right and wrong.*** He attempts to force Americans to live by his religious beliefs.****

[OK. Stop. Deep breath. om mani padme hum. exhale... there, all better now.]

This is not an issue where I feel I personally have suffered (not yet, anyway) through any now legalized violation of my rights. I am taking a larger view. As the oldest member of this bbs, I have seen a lot of administrations come and go and I can tell you without reservation there has never been any previous one (in my 2/3 century lifetime at least) to match this one for sheer evilness and corruption. Never before have I been embarrassed to be an American.

So what am I doing about it? I don't know what to do. I'm just a single grumpy old curmudgeon whose only avenue of power is the ballot box, and even though I excercise that minute bit of power regularly, it appears to be totally ineffective. I cannot even remember the last time someone I voted for actually won an election. So I am taking the coward's way out and abandoning the mess for others to clean up. If they can, which I feel is unlikely.

I'm sorry.

tanstaafl.

*I anticipate that the value (i.e. purchasing power) of the dollar will decrease enormously over the next few years as the Fed cranks up the printing presses to make payments on the indebtedness. In 10 years an entry level automobile will still cost you what it does today: about half a year's gross salary for most people. But that salary will be at least three to four times the number of dollars it is today. My retirement income, which seems lavish today, will be poverty level in 10 years.

** Bush and his fellow flat earthers will deny the reality of global warming until it becomes profitable for them to admit it. Kyoto agreement, anyone?

***Can you say "Scooter Libby"?

****How about stem cell research, which might in the long run save as many lives as he has cost in Iraq?