Has America Gone Crazy the Last Two Weeks?

On a trip that included a leg in a Blackhawk helicopter, I stepped off a KLM jet at LAX Monday after nearly a day in the air and found that apparently, during a short 9-day absence, my country had gone insane. 

I was in Kosovo and largely out of touch with things happening back here in the States.  I had no Internet, limited phone connectivity, and access only to CNN.  This means that while I was gone I received nothing in the way of useful information.  So imagine my surprise at all the news when I returned home.

Maybe you were not aware of it, but apparently the United States government now pretty much owns General Motors. I’m going to say that again, because it’s nuts – especially to those of us a certain age (44) who always saw GM as pretty much the Cadillac of American capitalism. The government owns General Motors.  Let that notion roll around in your think-gourd for a few seconds. 

I’m not really clear on the technical political science term for this phenomenon, since at UC San Diego my major was Coors Light with a minor in failed relationships, but that sounds an awful lot like socialism.  (more…)