Apocalyptic Grab Bag and Other Random Nonsense

Is the world over yet? I finally have time to see what's going on outside my bubble, and I find the financial markets collapsing, Tom Brokaw totally treating two sitting Senators like bickering children, my bank getting fought over like Solomon's baby, Nebraska turning into a dumping ground for unwanted children, Iraq and Afghanistan nearly vanishing as a campaign issue, the Republicans supporting bad investments by the government to make up for bad investments by companies and individuals, the Democrats suddenly looking like the party that's good for business, John Stewart practically losing it on the Daily Show when the President said Congress was off for Rosh Hashana, a female version of George W. Bush running for the co-Presidency of the United States, the words "maverick", "change", and "hope" potentially turning into the leading causes of alcohol poisoning in this country, the biggest news story directly relevant to my life being demoted to the news scroll (probably right next to the story of the child who killed a bunch of animals in a zoo), the National Debt Clock running out of digits, the aftermath of Ike strangely disappearing from the news cycle, gas shortages in the southeast, the Dow Jones down 39.4% from its peak just one year ago for an absolute point loss of 5700, Virginia possibly going blue for the first time since 1964, and.... now I'm exhausted. Maybe I should crawl back into my black hole. This world is scary.