rock band does not a rockstar make

The Wife had to work on Sunday, so I arranged a play-date with another family; after a sunny picnic lunch, we went out for karaoke. After breaking my voice on the one challenging part of "White Wedding" and realizing that without the pitch guide I can't sing "Blitzkrieg Bop" has made me realize how much I'm being babied by Rock Band, even on Hard.

I'd still like to thank Harmonix and Neversoft for providing ways to grade air guitar performance.

WPA:TNG

Note to Next President: Modern-Day WPA Will Save the Economy | Autopia from Wired.com:

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama have been all but silent when it comes to repairing America's failing infrastructure, and with all that's going on in the world right now, they might be forgiven for it. They shouldn't be. Investing heavily in our infrastructure is just the thing for reinvigorating our tanking economy.

The candidates can talk all they want about shoveling money into alternative fuels, electric cars and high-speed rail, but none of that will mean much if our roads, bridges and rails can't support them. The next president must commit to fixing our infrastructure. Such an investment will create jobs, strengthen our economy and make America more competitive.

"(Congress) should invest in the more than 3,000 ready-to-go highway projects that could be under contract within the next 30 to 90 days," says John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. "Funding these ready to go projects offers Congress a tremendous opportunity to put Americans to work and help cash-strapped states repair and replace our crumbling infrastructure."

History shows us the time to act is now.

I'm bookmarking this for a later read-through, but I've seriously been wondering about the WPA as a solution for the past few weeks as the news about the economy continues to worsen. Looking at the bailout, it is at its core a means of turning private debt into a public burden. There has to be some way to have the government invest in America itself, not just hand money to the banks which has come directly from our taxes. Then again, I'm a closet socialist with strong capitalist leanings.