I was always suspicious of religion's promise of paradise in the

hereafter. I figured though, that when we saw something much like paradise with our own eyes it was probably real. The years with Lawton Chiles in the Governor's mansion and Clinton in the White House were pretty good. We could laugh at the pitiful paychecks, the horrible spelling and general ignorance. We could deal with the unreliable tradesmen and downright crooked auto repair people. Then came the first Bush, 2000 and the second, even worse one. Slowly but surely paradise started getting weird, the ridiculous inflation in real estate, the condo boom with its cranes and noise. 9/11, the wars, the disaster of the 2004 election, the recession, etc., etc. Now this. The beaches we love are in dire danger and probably will be destroyed. Now they tell us that if the oil gets here they may have to shut down the power plants because they are cooled with seawater. That would be swell, no air conditioning, lights, fans or TV in Florida in the summer. At least I don't live in Tampa, where in addition to all that, they may have to shut down a major desalinization plant, creating a serious water shortage.

If only Monica had swallowed, if only Cheney had had his heart attack a few days before, instead of a few days after, the 2000 Election, if only 18,000 or so well-intentioned-but wrong-people hadn't voted for Nader here in 2000. But no, we instead get two wars, a wrecked economy and the oily geyser of death.

Swell. So it goes.

to do it. nt

Are you saying I am verbose?

main point.

of the 1990s was largely illusory, fueled by credit and bubbles, which would have eventually burst, regardless of who was in the White House. No, we wouldn't be involved in pointless wars, but the hyper-financialized economy would still have fallen apart. It's ultimately an unsustainable system.