Johnny "Guitar" Watson With Our New National Anthem

Big ups to reader Gene for sending the link.

In the last 48 hrs. I have been flooded with the kindest, most supportive words you can imagine, and several hits to the tip jar.

Thank you very much for both, although I'd like to make two things clear about donations.

First, if you yourself are hurting, put your wallet back in your pocket. No kidding.

Second, what happened to me was not a natural disaster; like millions of my fellow citizens, I just lost job at a very inconvenient moment. I will always gladly accept contributions from anyone in any amount because they appreciate the work I do and feel it is of tangible enough value to help pay to keep it going, but if you are dipping into your "charitable contributions" or "emergency relief" dough to send money my way, please don't.

Of course, none of this applies if you are named George Soros or Warren Buffett :-)

I am still more than a little sore and dopey from yesterday's Encounter at Drillpoint, but I will be replying to all individual messages individually as soon as I can.

Lastly, many of you have shared your own stories of getting creamed by our new economy realities, both in the comments section and via email. As Andrew Sullivan and others have done, I plan to post some of your experiences over the next few days and weeks because A) I am a lazy, lazy man and, B) In some quarters, I think it still hasn't really penetrated just how different the Great Recession is from any of its predecessors over the last 70 years, and how radically it and the toxic ideology that led to it are changing American life forever.

And if we ourselves cannot shape policy, we can at least bear witness.

Many thanks to you all,

Your pal,

driftglass