Something in the Drinking Water -The End of Sanity?

I just finished reading the morning news. What a downer! Has the world gone mad? I would stop paying attention to the news except then I would become part of the problem - people who care only about themselves and their immediate families.

Minnesota's government remains shut down, and eventually will cost the state enough to more than balance its budget. After all, we mustn't drive business away from the state by increasing taxes. Eight years of a governor who boasts about no new taxes should mean that Minnesota would have no unemployment and be begging for workers and companies to invest in business in the state. Now would you decide to start up a business venture in a state with such an unstable government? I understand businesses are fleeing California because of its governmental instability. Get in line, Minnesota . . .

The Federal government stand on the brink of a great abyss while many legislators maintain nothing much will happen if the government runs out of money to pay its obligations. Using the family budget analogy that has been suggested in Minnesota as a budgetary model, I know what happens if you don't pay your bills. Mortgage foreclosure, they take your car away, shut off your utilities, and you can't feed your children. Nothing will happen if August 3rd comes and goes . . .

Europe debates austerity measures and people riot in the streets. Men like Rupert Mudoch and Grover Newquist wield more power than governments with illicit gross violations of privacy and pledges to control legislators' voting to conform to a particular ideology. Amoral corporations pay millions to lobbyists to protect their business goals. Corrupt dictators oppress their people. Drought forces starving Africans to flee to refugee camps in adjoining countries as their children die.

Meanwhile, extreme weather continues. and drought has done in crops in this country's southeast, fire rages in the southwest, the midwest swelters under tropical weather and the saturated ground from too much rain threatens trees and causes trains to derail. Makes me wonder if we the people elected a crew of ostriches to government positions of responsibility.

Or perhaps it is something in the drinking water - causing a large portion of the population to lose their sanity. Where is the EPA when we need them? What happened to the idea of the common good?