Maybe Government is Targeting the Vulnerable Because the Vulnerable Are the Easiest Targets

This editorial, from a local newspaper in upstate New York, says it all in the first sentence:

If you are young, old, disabled, mentally ill, unemployed, poor or retired, you better rethink your lifestyle because government at almost every level is sending a clear message that there's not much of a future.

The second half of the editorial deals with New York state and local specifics, but the issues apply to pretty much anywhere in the US right now. Whatever happens in the debt ceiling debate, whatever kind of deal is reached, the resulting cuts are going to be massive, and the cost is going to be borne by those least able to bear it. In the words of Bob Baird, the author of the article linked above, it's obscene.

Veering to a more personal note... this whole debt ceiling fiasco, the meanness and cynicism of our "leaders" who are involved in the debate, combined with the summer heat and my own eleven months plus of unemployment, have got me in a lower mood than I have felt in quite a while. I just hope that after Tuesday, however this plays out, I can refocus, look forward to cooler weather and new opportunities, and concentrate on the many good things in life... family, nature (especially squirrels, of course!), life itself. I have been interested in Buddhism for some time, and may try to focus more on that interest. And I plan to get some more photos of Beebz, if she'll just stop trying to eat the camera every time I try to take her picture.