The Lord made me hard to handle so loving me would be a long shot gamble.

Today was a good day. I got my rebate check notice from the Department of Treasury that my check was deposited into my account. I have received quite a bit of advice regarding how I should spend it. My favorite recommendation was by Cool Tieds who suggested I go to a club, and "make it rain" a la Pacman Jones. Duly noted Cool Tieds, duly noted. I got to thinking about if every working American getting this check in the mail will actually do anything. My guess is the economy will slightly improve but not greatly. There are so many factors that are weighing us down. Here are a few:

It really comes down to two things - the war and gas prices.

1. How has the war destroyed our economy? There are so many ways where do I even begin? Basically, the federal government is going broke because the war is so expensive. The state and local governments don't have as much money because the federal government isn't giving them enough money. Therefore the state has less money to give to colleges, museums, parks, et cetera so everything that relied partly on the government has to jack up their prices. State governments have to raise taxes to recoup their losses and so people have less money in their pockets and are spending less money. It's a bad cycle.

2. Every business is affected by gas prices. Every single one. The cost of shipping goods is so much higher then it was even a year ago. Therefore companies have less money to spend on their employees. That leads to lay-offs and unemployment. If people are unemployed, they are not paying taxes. If the government doesn't get enough tax revenue, they raise taxes which leaves the rest of us with less money in our pockets.

There are so many other factors, the debt, the Bush tax cuts, but it all comes back to taxes and oil.

3. I absolutely love the song Bell Bottom Blues by Eric Clapton. It is how Blues music should be. By a British white dude? Oh well, it's really awesome.

4. I am busy updating my resume. I forgot how much of a pain that is.