Stupid, mean or apathetic?

I'm angry and I'm hot. MY birthday is coming and I am old. We have no floor tiles, no sink cabinet. I'm crossing my fingers for Friday cause the carpenter is leaving for Italy on the 10th. I'd be incredulous but at this point I believe anything. It seems like many members of our culture are reaching for new levels of mediocrity, few have pride in a job, any job well done, or any act for that matter. The contractor makes mistakes but at least he cares about correcting them. Do many care about much?
I have a dinner date tonight with 2 friends, one who lives 5 minutes from me. Since she is off for the summer, I asked her to come over an hour earlier. She just left a message saying that she doesn't have any plans today but she's bored and looking for something to do so she'll probably just come at 7, as planned. She knows very well that I am slightly disabled, have no car and have been chained to the house all summer due to of contractor-sitting. We have ties going back 30 years, but I am questioning why I feel the need to stay tied to someone so self-involved.
I also ask myself why I read the papers when it upsets me so:
Newly disclosed tapes reveal mass confusion in the military on 9/11 undermining Pentagon claims of readiness. I don't even want to think about that. Or the situation in Israel and Lebanon which is getting worse everyday. Hezbollah seems more than willing to sacrifice all of Lebanon ( which will benefit Syria) while the UN grows more distant and ineffectual.
Today a German newspaper reported that one of the Bin Laden sons has been released from house arrest in Iran for the purpose of recruiting jihadists from Syria in support of Hezbollah.
D. Rumsfeld told the Senate that he had no time for public testimony. Maybe he should have avoided the lying and corruption that brought the investigaton.
Which will be interminable, you can bet.
The Senate approved a $453.5 billion Pentagon bill which includes $1.8 billion for a border fence. Most immigrants pay some taxes and all pay sales tax, yet the rich have hedge funds, trusts and deductions. Screw Al Queda and their ilk-we gotta protect ourselves from those dangerous Mexicans!
A bill in Cogress to raise the national minium wage to a livable level can only be accomplished if the very richest Americans don't have to pay estate taxes.
In addition to military spending in defense of a foreign civil war, billions are being wasted in gov't service contracts in Iraq every month.Crony, Bribe and Graft Inc, USA. And now, the Pentagon has ordered 11,00 troops to Afganistan, the 82nd Airborne. When I was a kid, I had a friend in the 82nd. He was sent to Vietnam then somehow ended up in Cambodia- where we did not officially have any troops. I've experienced many, many years of being lied to by the gov't but never as badly as now.
Bush's new plan for terror-tribunals allows hearsay and coerced testimony while denying classified evidence to defendants.
Can you hear the screams of the Constitution as it's being ripped apart?
Somalia, Congo, Sri Lanka; why are Africans less important?
Katherine Harris, unbelievably running for the Senate in Fla, had all her aides quit on her when she didn't tell them she got a subpoena in a defense-lobbying investigation.
The CDC says a 2005 measles outbreak in Indiana was due to home-schooled kids whose parents were wary of the vaccination.Really, you can't make this stuff up.
The Kansas Board of Ed ousted conservatives and decided that evolution theory and sex ed may be possibly more credible and relevant than intelligent design. How 21st century!
And of course, Fidel Castro, dead or not dead?
But here is my very favorite story, A Hong Kong banker two years ago agreed to pay $15.4 million for 8 years of private ballroom dance instruction ( that's about $5000 a day). She paid 1/2 than reneged on the deal suing for her payment of $7.4 mil. The instructors say breach of contract and are counter-suing for the balance. Gotta Dance!
The weatherpeople say that today is the last day of the 100 degree heat wave.
Three NY TV stations said that a "cold front" is arriving on Friday. Temperatures will be around 87 for the weekend. Brrrrr.