David Brooks writing for the NY Times today is my immediate source for those sorry statistics. I have read them elsewhere in other forms. It is clear that the social contract is continuing to disintegrate in Russia. That is really bad news for the rest of the world. Not only do we need their oil, but we also need stability in the nation that owns the largest inventory of nuclear weapons on earth. Putin, sadly enough, is not the problem. Unfettered Capitalism and a miserable case of disintegrating families seem to be at the roots of this collapse. The roots go deeper than that if you examine them. Russia is a third world nation without the social stability of religion, tradition or family to save it from its continuing decline.

Meanwhile I have just finished reading "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." This is a book I consider to be one of the most important self examination texts on earth today. Our efforts to maintain this society's wealth have cast us in a role around the world that I can hardly admire. The author, John Perkins has told his compelling story well. It is a story of profound interest to me because those chickens are roosting here today.

In one generation we have created a world in which huge pools of capital, created by the people here can flee our shores with impunity. Those pools of capital reside in Multinational Corporations. Those entities are now beyond the control of their shareholders, or even the nations in which they reside. They have long been beyond the more ephemeral codes of laws, ethics and morals alike. They are the tools of a new kind of Empire that has no national boundaries around it. It is an Empire composed of much of the worst in human nature.

I have never thought that granting corporations rights as if they were people was a smart solution to the problem of how to treat them under the law. Unfortunately it is probably too late to take back those rights. These corporations have grown beyond the stage where they need us any more. I read the "American Conservative Magazine" yesterday. It is interesting that I found five articles in that magazine I agreed with wholeheartedly. Nothing in the magazine was as disturbing to me as the fact that I was finally again reading the voice of conservatives that I recognized from my youth. These men and women are true honorable citizens of this great nation speaking with voices that have been cast out into the wilderness by their own political movement.

I do not agree With Pat Buchanan that the Schiavo case should have resulted in extended life for that poor woman's body. I do agree that there were serious issues of grave concern to this nation addressed badly by both the law and the media in that case. Unfortunately I do not think we can find a better mechanism to address these problems than was used there.

Family has to be the final arbiter, under the control of the state laws that apply. It should not be our national government acting outside of the law to force a resolution unsupported by law on a conflicted family in distress. I have to cling to the hope that families will more often than not agree on what to do when we are dying or stabilized in a persistent vegetative state.

I sincerely hope that all of us are leaving crystal clear living wills to help resolve such cases before they become so damaging to all concerned. It is clear that our responsibility as adults is to resolve such issues for our grieving relatives while we can. We must all take care to write a living will leaving no doubt what it is we want if such a tragedy should strike us down. That is the only satisfactory resolution for such cases.

I do agree that the Schiavo case was a really sad statement about how we deal with such issues absent clear instructions and familial agreement. Nothing, however, could be farther from the truth than the idea that we are a society in decline because of that case. I think the decline of our great nation is found more in the nature of our massive institutions that concentrate wealth and power than in our social or ethical restraints on behavior.

The people and families here are still largely moral at their core. The leadership in our political and economic institutions, unfortunately all too often, recognize no morality above their immediate interests. Nor do they accept any ethical or even many legal constraints on their behavior. That is our largest problem in this nation today and it is pointed out time and time again on the pages of that well written and edited magazine.

The article "Nuclear Option," is must reading for liberals, progressives or conservatives alike. "Party Crashing," is another piece that should speak to us all. "The Knock on the Door," is an honest man's story of our government run amuck at his expense. Leon Hadar's "Operation Iranian Freedom" is a further proof that a coalition of liberals, progressives and conservatives needs to be built to take back our foreign policy from the Neocons. William Lind, in "I Pledge Allegiance to the State," differentiates between Nationalism, Patriotism and Capitalism quite nicely and with great concern for our nation. Finally Paul Craig Roberts in "What "New Economy,"" gives us compelling reason to believe that the voice of conservative reason has not fled from the debate about Globalization and "Free Markets."

I can safely recommend that magazine to any and all readers. If you are too polarized to read it you have become part of the problem. If you are that polarized then you cannot find a way to help create solutions to the real problems that our nation faces at home and abroad. Meanwhile I hear my Wren tuning up and my cat has finally pushed me off of my chair. It is time for me to take up my own life once again. God bless and keep you all safe and well today.