Summer has come to Ohio

Months have passed since last I posted here and days are warmer now. Yet, I remain pessimistic.   Not about myself. Not about my family.   About my nation.

Some years ago an internet friend entered the Amusement Park chatroom at webmaze using the nic 'Helena Handbasket'.   I bring this up for two reasons. first: I admire how accurately Helena Handbasket describes the course George W Bush has set us on as a nation. and second: I intend to be chatting more with you, my visitors. With the momentum of a 51% election victory in Nov. 2004 at his back George W. Bush, ( with republican majorities in both the house and the senate and quietly nodding acquiesent from a largely conservative judiciary ) has felt free to further thrust this nation into a governmental mumbo-jumbo land where 'the truth' is edited for impact and 'the news' is generated largely by governmental press release.   Meanwhile; the 49% minority ( represented as they are by the democrats and a lone independent from Vermont ) stands impotent before this concerted effort by the president and his administration to reshape this nation in aborant ways.   Retirement's Unraveling Safety Net