All we’ve been hearing and reading about is the great danger that the U.S. government might be forced to shut down if … if …

Such baloney. Every time the charlatans in Washington discuss the federal budget, we’re inundated with reports about hand-wringing members of congress decrying the fate of the unfortunate 800,000 government workers who “might not get a paycheck this week”.

But it never happens. There has always been a last minute deal cut so that those on the government dole are saved from that terrible fate. And it just happened yesterday, too … to the surprise of absolutely no one.

The media has headlined this farce for several weeks and has ignored – or swept under the rug – much more serious issues that affect Americans. How about the 800,000 Americans who become unemployed every month? From layoff day forward they’re losing all their paychecks, not just a week’s pay. And that’s finality. Those newly dismissed workers will join the 25 to 30 million idled who have given up hope of ever finding a job.

And what’s so important about the workings of our government – or any government – that could possibly require the employment of 800,000 civil servants? In an interview by Bloomberg, Boone Pickens was asked what he thought about the threat of a government “shutdown”. His answer was quite sensible. He said he’d feel a lot better if the government shut down for a whole year. We’re with Boone on that one.

Getting back to the problems of the unemployed being ignored by the media, no mention is ever made of the 100,000 youngsters that come of age and enter the job market every month. There are no jobs for them, of course, but so what? If those kids get desperate enough, they can always sign up for overseas deployment in one of our elite military units. The pay is good. And there’s also the promise of a college education – if they get back in one piece.

And that brings up something else that the media has swept under the rug. Too many of those unsuspecting youngsters don’t get back in one piece. Again we’ll refer to the December 11, 2007 report issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, announcing the actual casualty count in the illegal war in Iraq: 73, 846 dead and 1,620,906 permanently disabled – remember?

Did you bother to check out the Bureau’s website as we suggested in Art. 2 last week? Or did you not care? – as we predicted. Is it possible that Americans really do love the concept of warfare?

Shipbuilding. Revitalizing our shipyards would solve all our unemployment problems, would stave off the country’s imminent demise, and would save our youngsters from the horrors of war – as well as the aftermaths of war. But no. Weapons-building is what enriches those charlatans in Washington, and weapons-building – and more war casualties – is what we’ll get.