I've been mostly off work for two weeks. It has been a good time. I got to spend some time with folks I haven't seen in a while, get some hardcore writing done and, perhaps, best of all, completely lost touch with the American National News Cycle. The whole bizarre theater of the Fiscal Cliff played out while I was sleeping, drinking, writing and, oddly for me, playing video games.
Granted, I'm no Nero, but did Rome burn while I fiddled?
Apparently not.
I suppose a fair argument could be made for my activities amounting to sluffing off my duty as an American citizen, but I am adequately managing to control my guilt.
So congress pulled it out just after the last minute, apparently. Did any of you feel the urgency that we were supposed to over this deal? I'm honestly not sure if I suffer from some kind of political or financial fatigue, or if my instincts are sound and there was no emergency beyond a pile of journalists screaming "The Sky is Falling" in order to promote the foregone conclusion that it would be caught.
I honestly am beginning to believe that coverage of this manufactured event be handled by Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay.
I have read the news on and off today and am staggered by my own lack of impression on the major elements of the current news cycle, but what I've gathered is that one of the following things has happened:
- America has averted a major economic disaster.
- America has delayed a major economic disaster.
- Both sides of this political spin dance have failed to do anything but put a boogeyman in the closet and then look brave in his killing and dismemberment.
- There's a sale at Penny's.
What do you all think?
