Okay, I'm back for a moment. I wrote something that I wanted to post here.

I've been thinking about the fact that I think this country is in decline. Like the Roman Empire was in decline around 400 AD. The marks of it are everywhere. Hello, we just confirmed a man as Attorney General who sent these memos--"Much of the discussion focused on two memos. One, written by Gonzales in January 2002, asserted that terrorists captured overseas by Americans do not merit the protections of the Geneva Conventions. The other, addressed to him in August 2002, argued for a narrow definition of torture as 'excruciating and agonizing pain'." Why confirm him? "There's a lower standard, frankly, for attorney general than for judge, because you give the president who he wants," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, also appearing on "Today." When we are the aggressors in two wars overseas, when poverty overwhelms a significant portion of the population, when the rich get richer, when torture occurs at Guantanamo and Abu Graib, when we are dependent upon a resource we can't produce, when our infant mortality rate ranks 35th, yes 35th, (check it out here), when we have the highest incarceration rate in the world (here.), I think it's safe to say we're a nation in decline.