>You know, sometimes I just think that there is a button in a bunker deep in the ground somewhere in Arizona that when pushed, will turn the rest of the world outside of the US into a parking lot.


And we will be the only ones unscathed. Uh huh.

For anyone who wants to get even more depressed about this subject, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy is recommended. Just be sure to be in a reasonably good mood when you read it.

He's an interesting writer. He made his reputation as the author of dense, "writerly" books like "Blood Meridian" and "All the Pretty Horses" which were more admired than read. Then a funny thing happened. As he got older his writing has become increasingly more accessible and stripped down. In "The Road" there are two main characters, a father and son struggling to stay alive in a post-nuclear landscape. The son is never given a name or an exact age and I don't believe the father is, either. It's easy reading in a way. You can read it in three hours. The mulekick comes later, after the book has been put down and "finished."