This past weekend would have marked the 100th birthday of Lucille Ball. She is one of my all time favorite stars and to this day I watch the reruns and never get tired of them. Indeed, in these last days of the American empire her comedy is a relief from the daily depression brought on by the crumbling of our nation. It's getting so that to watch the news is to subject oneself to the horror of our current situation and the temptation to just end it all. Think of it. Twenty or so lunatics in Congress have led the country into financial disaster. To be sure S&P is a ridiculous messenger since it totally ignored the crap being marketed by Wall Street in the form of mortgage backed securities. S&P got paid for all those "AAA" ratings given to garbage, so who can really trust their judgment in financial matters? Still their opinion of the downgrade was rooted in political concerns and they were right about that. This is the "Tea Party" downgrade and I hope the likes of that rat faced Eric Cantor are happy of what they brought about. Then on Saturday we hear of the awful loss of American life in Afghanistan. There is no reason for Americans to be dying in that god forsaken country yet there we are losing life and treasure. It's insanity. Finally, we have a president who should not be in the oval office. He raised hopes and then dashed them. The problem is who possibly can replace him? So for my part I continue to watch the Lucy reruns that depict an age that was so much more comforting…………….and funny.