One of the central American beliefs is that if you’re lucky enough and dedicated enough, you can do anything. That includes dreams like becoming President, sailing a yacht around the world, becoming a famous writer, inventing a cure for cancer, or just sitting around having profound thoughts all day. So the idea a lot of Americans have is that their day job is holding them back. They don’t want to be a file clerk, middle manager, construction worker, etc, forever. Now if they can retire early, they can do what they really want.

Also many Americans feel burned out by their hectic lives and schedules. We cram an awful lot into our daily lives, and a lot of times we don’t see any tangibile benefits from our efforts. So people feel like if they can get out of the rat-race, they’ll be better off.

Now personally, I agree with you. I grew up working sunup to sundown and I can’t imagine just stopping after some arbitrary year. I just had an unexpected “vacation” from Hurricane Ike and I nearly went crazy, after my neighborhood had been picked up. I made it most of a day before I ended up scrambling to find enough gas so I could drive to all my relatives houses and help them clean up and do repairs – just so I didn’t have to sit at home and listen to the radio all day, wondering when water and power might come back.

I didn’t read through all the other comments, so someone might have already asked this, but I have a question I’d like to see in an upcoming mailbag:

What do you think of the so-called “bailout bill”? I know you have at least some aspirations to local politics, so I’m curious to hear what your thoughts are on the latest national political turmoil.

I’ve already found several recipes that I want to try.

On that, I actually met Randall Munroe from xkcd at a barbecue before a Linux convention this past April. We talked about Roombas, it was amazing.

-Jess

This one is a killer punch. I agree, and although I never would have thought of the incredible power that this could have.

I find it a bit ironic that neoconservatives drool over Ronald Reagan’s presidency (specifically with regard to his statesmanship), while Bush’s idea of diplomacy consists of “Do X Y and Z, or else.”

Reagan met with Soviet leaders, which were some of the greatest and most widely feared ideological enemies America had faced, and he is credited with ending the Cold War. Why is the Bush crowd so loath to admit this?

Well, in your behalf you have more experience than he does.

Some joined not thinking they’d ever deploy – but this is a volunteer military in the midst of a war being fought to protect our country. My husband joined following the tragedy of 9/11, was in basic training the next month, deployed for the invasion of Iraq, and came home in the past year from a second deployment. He’s seen firsthand what’s happening there, so I’d caution every American to be careful of what they take to be the truth. Negatively-biased media coverage is not an accurate picture of our successes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The civilian casualties of 9/11 weren’t the outcome of an accident, mistake, or bad intel. It was terrorism, which we’re now fighting (successfully!) to overcome.

I love what you had to say about being President. Your sensibilities and ability to cut right through to the heart of the issues is wonderful. I see a political future for you and hope that someday you’ll see fit to run for office. Iowans will all be the luckier for it. Keep up the good work and know that you are making an impact on people’s lives and thus, on our culture.

Reem,

I think American’s would rather do things they enjoy for themselves rather than do things to make thier boss rich.

More importantly if your brother is still using (implied by the posting), you aren’t just letting him into your home. You are letting in illegal drugs (do you honestly think an addict keeps their promises), you are letting in other addicts (who wants to party alone), and you are *not* letting in the brother you once had, you are letting in an addict who’s driving need in life is getting their high, with all other considerations taking a back seat to that need. If he isn’t off meth you are shifting the focus of your family from you and your children to your brother and his addiction. He will become the central drama your entire family revolves around. Even the kids will start to relate to his *needs* and he will enlist their aid to support his addiction (when my friend comes to the door, let him in and send him to the basement, and don’t tell your mother he was here since she’ll get upset and we don’t want your mommy upset, okay).

Help him to fight the addiction provided he’s really trying, but don’t let either yourself or your children become enablers.

Many articles are about early retirement,I even read in a personal finance blog tips on how to retire at the age of 35,for me this is weird.I really want to understand the American point of view regarding this issue.

The US continues to be the largest exporter of humanitarian aid, in the form of food and money, even to our enemies, and we curry no favor from anyone else in the world for that. If we were to add to that giving away technology in return for ‘no more war’, we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot… enabling our enemies to focus more directly on being our enemies, either immediately or in a few years when that “aid” we gave them is forgotten from the political scene.

I agree we should end our dependence on foreign commodities… oil being a big part of that. But the same goes for cheap (exploited?) labor in the rest of the world so we can have a new plastic doohickey from Wally-World for $0.99.

As for the topic of war, I’m no arm chair general. And everyone who is should really straighten themselves up. Celebrities have no business passing judgement on war. We have no business thinking with our consumer mindsets we have any place nor right to judge the ground level tactics of how our military prosecutes war. I *hope* the military does a good job of exercising military force, where ever we send them.

If we want them directed some where else, let that be by casting our vote at the next ten elections rather than badmouthing the current policies that we, ourselves, voted into office over the last decade.

We really should be thinking decades and not terms, mindsets and long term policies rather than the last emotionally charged sound bite.

(When’s the last time you heard a positive story about the good that’s going on in Iraq? When all you hear is bad, it’s no wonder so many want us out. I know I’m not getting the whole story from our news media… how about the you?)

Enough rambling. Hopefully this spurs serious thought and not vitriolic debate.

Don’t do it. Many people with substance abuse problems have repeated relapses and they will do things they (and you) will swear they would never do while they’re using. He probably loves his nieces or nephews very much but he could do things that would endanger them because the drugs are stronger than anything else. Not to mention that if he begins using again he WILL steal from you.

I’ve had 2 family members with substance problems. One is dead, murdered by the person who got her addicted. The other has relapsed a couple of times and caused all kinds of grief to family, plus now has a criminal record for several instances of theft and shoplifting.

All you can do is support all the good things they do, like going to detox, attending a 12 step program, etc. But you can’t make them do these things. They have to want to. And even when they want to they often stumble. Love your brother by all means, but don’t trust him early in the process and don’t enable him.