I wish the ends could meet in the middle

I am so tired of Conservative versus Liberal. Our country is being torn down the middle and both ends want you to live according to their standards. Neither end is interested in "live and let live," and I'm sick and tired of it.

Unfortunately, my wish for both ends to meet in the middle could make things worse. This is not a lineal situation, though it sounds like it is. Liberals and Conservatives are not on the left and right ends of a straight line, but rather on opposite sides of a circle. Consequently, to "meet in the middle" they could travel across the top of the circle to meet at the north end, or across the bottom to meet at the south end. North and south are not the same.

At one meeting point on the circle the worst of both extremes are reinforced, with government becoming more and more totalitarian. The government controls, or attempts to control, everything, including personal behavior. This accommodates the Conservatives tendency to regulate personal behavior - drug use, sexual practices, religious practices, etc. - and the Liberals tendency to want the government to be in charge of redistributing wealth and providing everything for everyone, with attendant confiscatory tax polcy. This is not the middle I wish for.

Instead, I wish for the freedom-loving aspects of both extremes to go the other direction and meet where personal freedoms are valued most highly. The Liberals can happily accept freedom of speech and freedom of (and from) religion and leave personal behavior up to the individual as long as it doesn't violate anyone else's freedoms. Conservatives can rejoice in the freedom of the market and lack of government regulation that stifles the marketplace, as well as lower taxes made possible by the reduction in government.

Why do I fear that we are heading to the wrong side of that circle?

I wish my god damned knees would work

I'm really tired of hobbling around on these old, broken-down knees. I wish they worked like they did when I was younger. Hell, I wish all of me would work like all of it did when I was younger. It sure would be nice to be one of those guys where everything continues to work right up until the day they die. Of course, that would have meant that I would have had to die at forty-five, so maybe that's not such a good idea.

I wish I were 21 again -

Oh how I wish I were twenty-one again. I would do so much differently than I did, or at least I would like to think that I would. Of course, that's just me fooling myself. Just being young again wouldn't mean that I would be able to change my spots. While I would like to think that I would be a more adventurous, fun-loving kind of guy, I would probably still be the lonely guy who didn't know how to relate to other people. The grass is always greener on the other side of forty.

I wish "green" would go away -

I wish that companies would get off the “green” bandwagon and just do their freakin’ jobs. The only reason that any company does anything “green” is because it improves their bottom line, with the vast majority of that profit coming from decreased costs and the small remainder coming from improved market share as a result of effective advertising of their “green” initiatives.

Take my word for it – there are NO companies doing anything “green” that is hurting their bottom line. If there is one, I sure don’t want to be a stock holder in that company, but more than likely any such company isn’t held publicly. That company will not be in business long if their green policies deduct from the bottom line rather than enhance it.

I know that we are a “catch phrase” society, but it really starts to get tedious. I bet the environmental whackos hate the fact that “green” has been taken over by the corporate types. Makes it hard for the greenies to look like the anti-business crusaders they would like to be when those businesses make it sound like they are in their camp. I guess I can’t blame business for jumping on the bandwagon if it might boost their cash flow, but I still would like to smack a few advertising people around.

I wish . . .

for many things, none of which are likely to come true. Elaboration will follow.