The astute Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, said that the recession will probably end this year, but unemployment will continue to rise. Umm-uhhh but isnt that an oxymoron; I mean if the recession is ending wouldnt unemployment be going down and not up? I mean if you tell a hundred unemployed workers that the recession is ending would it matter to them? I think that they would ask you a question right back and that question would be: For who? Maybe Bernarke meant that the recession is ending for him and his pals at the Fed and the Treasury?

And, what about health care; these unemployed people are going to be out of that costly item very quickly and the expense of health insurance, unfortunately, comes after such items as food and clothing and paying the mortgage or rent, especially to the unemployed, living on savings and/or an unemployment check. Today, we spend two trillion dollars a year on health care and Obama says he has set aside $634 Billion to get his reform package started.

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost just shy of one trillion dollars to this date, Sept. 9, 2009. Ask any ten-year-old child what makes the most sense when it comes to saving money and serving our own citizens and mankind in the most perspicacious and thoughtful manner and he would have the answer for you in an instant, and so why then, can our highly-educated and highly-paid politicians and public servants not figure something this simple out? Are they too busy planning their weekend getaways or too busy satisfying their lobbyists every whim, as they look for an offshore bank that won't report their bribes?

The United States accounted for more than two-thirds of foreign weapons sales in 2008, a year in which global sales were at a three-year low, the New York Times reported on Sunday. Citing a congressional study released on Friday, the Times said the United States was involved in 68.4 percent of the global sales of arms.

U.S. weapons sales jumped nearly 50 percent in 2008 despite the global economic recession to $37.8 billion from $25.4 billion the year before.

The jump defied worldwide trends as global arms sales fell 7.6 percent to $55.2 billion in 2008, the report said. Global weapons agreements were at their lowest level since 2005.

Italy, the second ranked country, amassed only $3.7 billion in arms sales, while Russia ranked third with sales falling to $3.5 billion in 2008, down from $10.8 billion in 2007.

Where, oh where, are our priorities? And where did this money go, to health care reform or to build more weapons of mass destruction? Three guesses on that and the first two dont count.

But for the working man this country would be nothing, it's the people who actually do the legwork and sweat while they do it that make this country great and keep it going and we are all shown the least respect and many lose their jobs because of the greed of the politicians and the "movers and shakers" but I say to us all, this day after Labor Day: May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, the angels protect you and may heaven accept you.