Reply #55: Well said, dammit; that pretty much covers it.

[PurityOfEssence]

Lingering fear says that they might be able to weather it yet, but boy, it doesn't look good. Toss in some high gas prices, ongoing failure in Iraq, a stumbling economy and the internal squabbling of the reactionaries, and it all feels like ridiculous incompetence served up with a tangy sauce of monarchic greed.

It's going to be fun watching people jockey for survival, but there's going to be a bad taste in the mouth with the ongoing realization that these people can destroy the world and many of us extras in their grand opera.

This could get VERY messy.