In case my vast and loyal readership has not heard yet, I have decided not to return to Pittsburgh from Florida until I get $3 million per episode of the sitcom that is my life.


DAVE: I have to give Tom Corbett credit. He is paying back the natural gas industry for all of their campaign donations, and he is not wasting any time in doing it. Pennsylvania is headed for a tremendous and precipitous fall. I am seriously starting to consider a move. Even TEXAS has stricter environmental regulations and a tax on natural gas drilling. But not Pennsylvania. Nope. We're just giving it away for nothing. Only in America. And it won't be long before a state public education at a school like Penn State will cost $30,000 a year. Maybe higher. The republicans want to cut off as much government funding to the general public as possible. Do you know what happens in an urban area like Pittsburgh when the government stops funding programs that benefit the poor? Crime goes up. Way up. And I am a lot of things, but being an alarmist is not one of them. In our lifetimes, we are going to see protests in the streets like the ones in Libya, with the government and the "people" fighting it out to the death with their guns. Blood will flow, my friend. Blood will flow.

JIM: I, like far too many Americans, am too busy just trying to keep up with my life to worry about such big picture things before it is far too late. Stuck at work here until God knows when on a Friday night. Been here since before 8 am and not leaving any time soon. No time to do things like eat or sleep, let alone worry about the fall of society.

DAVE: Understood.

Unfortunately, I fear that I will find myself on the frontlines of the revolution when it finally occurs. I will be standing with the poor against the government, the police, the national guard, the army, whatever. A society, any society, that fails to care for its poor is doomed to destruction. That's even in the bible. And I stopped believing in god when Bush "won" over Gore. If there was a god, he would never have let that happen. Unless it was in his plan all along to watch us destroy ourselves and start anew. Maybe we are due. I certainly never even considered it. Until it became clear to me and others like me where we were headed. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania is in very bad shape. Our legislature is way too big, way too bloated, and way too expensive. But to protect their jobs and their benefits and their perks, they will cut programs to people who really need them. I need to get out of there. I love Florida. But this state is in pretty bad shape, too. 12% unemployment. No income tax, though. I should move to Boston. Or Toronto. But my life is in Pittsburgh. I can't imagine leaving. But I may have to leave for my own survival.