How Sad

October has started and historically speaking, I get depressed. After three years of psycho therapy, the best a therapist could come up with was "Sean - don't make major decisions the last week of July, the first week of August or the whole month of October." This is my month to be depressed and to not make major decisions.

I give that as a disclaimer to what follows because the following rant just might have something to do with it being October.

I'm very saddened with the direction national news is heading. TMZ is probably the only website I think is justified in carrying news about celebrity court proceedings. Yet today on CNN, FOX, MSNBC and various other news outlets was the story of Ms. Spears and her ex-husband's custody battle. Why? Is this a national news item? Does what happens there affect the rest of the nation? Anderson Cooper talked about the plight of abused children. I can see how that affects the nation as a whole. But the PRIVATE custody battle of a family is not any of my, or anyone else's business and doesn't affect the world we live in. Health Care, Immigration, Invasion in Iraq, Possible war with Iran, Global warming (if you believe in Global warming that is)... All of these things affect all of us. A custody battle does not. It affects only three small parties. The Ex-wife, the Ex-husband and the poor unfortunate children caught in the crossfire. Why do I need to know the tragic affairs of one person's life. I already have the burden of dealing with the tragedies of my life, why do I need to burden myself with the trials of other individuals? Grr.

My other Rant is a frustration with the political process. The 3rd quarter fund raising reports are out. I didn't hear about anyone else but Barrack. 30 million in the second quarter, 20 million in the third quarter. $50,000,000.00 WHY??? Why do we need $50 million dollars to wage a campaign in this country? Or more appropriately, why do we allow our elected officials to waste $50,000,000.00 on campaigning. That money could be used for so many other better things. Just a few that I have thought of:

1. A $250 bonus check to every active military person. It's not much, but it could pay for one more hunting trip with family, or a nice second honeymoon with the spouse or even be seed money to start a scholarship fund for the soldiers' children.

2. A few new state of the art high schools in low income neighborhoods. Let's let high schoolers have equal access to new books, new desks, and new computers. $50 Million could go to buy nearly 200,000 new computers from Dell. Which is better for the future leaders of America - an education with modern technology or a poster saying Obama in 08?

3. Cure Cancer. $50 Million dollars might not cure cancer, but I bet we could do a lot of research on curing cancer with $50 million.

4. Find Bin Laden. Start in Pakistan.

Those are just four suggestions I have. I'm sure there are others out there, but I'm willing to bet - anything is better than wasting $50 million dollars getting someone elected. What does that buy really? Balloons? Posters? 30-second spots on TV? I guess we could have that or we could help educate a cancer free America. I wonder which is more important?