Cal Thomas’ website has been revamped and I don’t know what to think about the graphic below (compare it with the graphic at the top of this page).

More importantly, I visited Calcified Cal’s site looking for his latest column in which he excoriates senseless captialism, even as he continues to love Republicanism and loathe Democrats. Talk about disconnects. That’s almost as looney as Duhbya’s belief that Republicans will sweep the House, Senate and Whitehouse in the fall. Guffaw, snort, haw-haw, ROFLOL! Wait, a minute — maybe Diebold will make that happen. peace, mjh

Cal Thomas Official Web Site – ECONOMIC WOES

Some of the lust for bigger and better is human nature, but a lot is the result of consumerism. The Timex watch is no longer enough. We now must have a Rolex, though both accurately tell time. The adequate low-end automobile is insufficient. We must trade up to a luxury car with numbers and letters on the rear that mean nothing, but convey “status.” And the house we are living in, which would have been more than adequate for our parents and certainly our grandparents, must be upgraded to larger digs in order to impress, if not growing families, than enlarged egos. [mjh: I think that should be ‘then’.]

When none of this brings the promised happiness and fulfillment, we turn to drink, or pills, or counselors, or divorce court and seek significance in new things and relationships on what quickly becomes a personal boulevard of broken dreams. …

When wants and needs are confused, desires become entitlements and politicians are afraid to tell people what they need to hear. Instead they tell them what they want to hear. Anger and envy result, as well as frustration with a political system that was not designed to indulge its citizens in their lusts or subsidize their greed.

Who will tell us that unending and expanding prosperity with home values constantly rising and a citizenry always able to afford them is a fantasy that is bound to end in heartache for those who buy into it?

The economy isn’t bad. We are bad for believing that more is better and the most is best. We have an abundance of things, but a deficit of character. The economy is a false god, a golden calf. When this false god doesn’t deliver, we complain to politicians who are happy to accept our faith in them to give us what we want — if we will only pledge to them our allegiance at election time.