What I hear

Well, it is apparent that this blog is not connected to anything of importance, so I will just use it to comment on stuff I see and hear.
In the course of my business I come into contact with a wide variety of people from all social strata and engage them in conversation.
This conversations are generally short and extremely interesting, as the people are passengers in my taxi and feel safe enough in their anonymity to express their own true opinions and feelings to a faceless entity in the driver's seat.
And the feeling overall, across the board, is that we are heading into a very rough time for America and especially California.
Nobody has any concrete ideas about how to counter the downward trend, but virtually everybody sees it.
Some just try to maintain the Positive Mental Attitude and hope things will work themselves out, one way or another.
Others are of the opinion that change is in order. Either through approaches such as the Tea Party groups, or more radical approaches like the Middle East is experiencing right now.
Everybody hates the government interference in our personal lives, especially the taxation, which has grown exponentially, and includes all the fees, licenses, fines, and whatever other terms of misdirection the nomenklatura care to use to disguise their blatant picking of our pockets.
Everybody knows somebody that has suffered personal loss at the hands of one or the other of our "governments" and/or the current economic "downturn".
Someone who has lost a job, a house, savings, retirement. Something major that is or will affect their lives in a fairly drastic manner.
This has them concerned. They see this as up close and personal, clear evidence that stuff is Happening in Their World, not just in the world of tv news or papes.
The Tea Party is one facet of the reaction to events and the course of history.
Unfortunately, they do not have the universal appeal needed to draw a majority of the populace together at the same time in enough numbers to create and/or lead change.
The galvanizing event required has not happened yet.
It will be very interesting to witness that event. Our own version of Tianenmen Square, Egypt, Libya and others.
I can't hardly wait.....