As to my comment: I have no problem with moving toward the re-distribution of wealth. Simply put, the super wealthy are TOO wealthy. How about a little of that money my way, so that I can reduce my work hours a bit to visit with friends, read a good book, play music, or maybe STOP, breathe – and perhaps enjoy the beach (the wind blowing through my hair) a little more often? What’s our life about? We’re on this planet for 80 years and then it’s all over (unless there’s a heaven that has a better economic system). Currently we work too long of hours for the corporate machine, retire for 15 years, and then die. What was that all about?

I’m not against capitalism – I know it’s a very necessary ingredient for an economy. However, the socialist Scandinavian countries’ citizens report the most personal happiness in the world. Our lives should be more than just being pressured to work for a greed machine. Realistically, this machine won’t ever stop unless the government (of the people) intervenes and seeks a better balance.

If Sotomayor has this imperfection you speak about in her judicial reasoning, it’s not going to do any radical damage to the country (after all she is just one judge working with eight other “perfect” constitutional judges). In fact it will probably skew things toward the balanced and good. It’s high time the Democrats “manipulate” the country for a while.

Personally, I think all of us need to sit down and be quiet for a while in the wake of the Bush debacle and give the Obama team at least a couple years to implement their policies – then judge. I have hard time watching Republicans comment and criticize during this first 6 months of Obama’s administration. Shouldn’t they be hanging their head low for a while after what just happened during the last eight years? I don’t know if they have much to add to the discussion at this point other than to be helpful, supportive, and willing to try things a different way. Let’s give the Democrats some time! However, that’s not good for political as usual and it doesn’t make for provocative press either.

I think the US needs to – and will probably be forced to (hopefully) – tip the economic money machine toward a more socialist bent in many of its arenas (such as health care and higher taxes on the rich) and avoid encouraging the unrestrained capitalism that got us into this economic mess in the first place. JG