Nasty, Brutish, and Short

...and people want him to be president.

I sometimes wonder if I see a completely different angle on the world than just about anyone else. In the two days since the second presidential debate I have seen not one blog post on this subject. So since someone's gotta do it.

BROKAW: The three -- health care, energy, and entitlement reform: Social Security and Medicare. In what order would you put them in terms of priorities?

MCCAIN: I think you can work on all three at once, Tom. I think it's very important that reform our entitlement programs.

My friends, we are not going to be able to provide the same benefit for present-day workers that we are going -- that present-day retirees have today.

Allow me to express myself for all those people out there who haven't yet.

*ahem*
WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU WITHERED OLD BEEN-ON-GOVERNMENT-BENEFITS-YOUR-WHOLE-LIFE HUNK OF SHIT?!!

I mean really, What. The. Fuck? If I were an ageist dickhead, I might call this typical Baby Boomer bullshit. But McCain's not a Boomer, and this has the distinct stink of Republicanism and Libertarianism about it. McCain and his cronies have got theirs. He's so sorry, Mister or Madam Generation X, about the promise that has kept you working and paying into the system your whole life even while things like job security and pensions and respect evaporated, each looted in their turn in the name of almighty profit, but we just can't afford to keep it.

And now that we are approaching 40, what do we have to look forward to? Skyrocketing inflation, chronic underemployment, devastated cities and oh by the way the struggle for survival will now go on until the day you don't.

When the financial markets started to meltdown one of the common refrains was "Aren't you glad Nancy Pelosi stopped George Bush from putting our Social Security into Wall Street hands?" Damn right I was. Weren't you?