I can't remember why we were there. Or who was with me. We were just there. For some reason. Dreams usually don't make sense anyway.

So there we were, thinking about drinking, since this was a bar of some kind. But there was construction going on. A moat was surrounding the whole bar. It was a dry moat, as the water hadn't been added yet. Or maybe there wasn't any water because we're really dry here in New Mexico. Whatever the reason, it was dry.

An old friend I'd seen a month or so ago in real life came up to me. He was stumbling a bit. Mad. And his hair had been chopped and bleached. A usually agreeable person with long, black hair had changed into a drunk and raving madman with short bleached hair. Maybe it was the haircut. But his pronouncement made it clear what he was drunk and mad about. He'd been fired, he was among the unemployed.

He knew I still had a job and he didn't. Angrily, he turned away from me and fell into the dry moat. I saw his head slam against the side of the moat wall before he disappeared.

He didn't come back for the rest of the dream. We looked around for him, tried to get others to help us out, but it was useless. The dream had eliminated his character. He couldn't even get consistent work in my dreams.

In real life, this old friend is not unemployed. I'd like to think it was just a metaphorical joblessness. Or something like that. A sign I was supposed to listen to or try to understand.

Maybe that's looking into it a bit too much.

The cover of Newsweek this week is about live at home fathers. A new paradigm of marriage where the woman makes the money and the father takes care of the kids. Also opening this week at movie theatres: Baby Day Care, where an unemployed Eddie Murphy opens a day care to supplement his family's income. I'm sure the movie is more about cleaning up baby poo than it is about the changing face of marriage.

But in the article, many of the fathers are victims of the dot.com bust. They had nice jobs--well paying jobs, but the jobs disappeared. They no longer exist because the companies disappeared as well. Dreams never became reality and reality came back and bit millions in the ass.

A year and a half after the terrorist attacks in New York and DC, and 9/11 is still blamed for everything. A bogeyman who takes the blame for whatever ailment befalls a person. The economy isn't recovering because Americans still have psychic scars from this event: they don't want to recklessly spend their money anymore. Millions are still unemployed because the attacks tanked the economy (even though it was already heading in this direction at the time). Elizabeth Smart was found, and the Royals won their first eleven home games because of 9/11.

Airlines are still failing. Advertising is down. Britney Spears is recording a new album. All of these things are a direct result of 9/11. Apparently.

I keep waiting for the day when we stop blaming everything and stray dogs on 9/11. I keep waiting for the day when people stop saying 9/11. I wish I could stop saying 9/11.

But I guess if none of our problems are actually our fault, then it's easier for everyone. It certainly isn't our President who deserves blame for this. It certainly isn't because we went to war for seemingly invisible meanings (A new game from Parker Brothers: Spot the weapons of mass destruction!) His best idea to turn the economy around is to give those in the highest 1% of income earners a couple of tax cuts. One on their income and another on their stock dividends. Because, you see, this money is taxed twice. Personally, I think they should get taxed three times. Y'know, so it's like a charm.

Y'know what, my money is taxed twice. I have to pay income taxes. And then when I go out and buy ANYTHING (which is what they want us to do with our income--spend it), I pay sales tax as well. I have to pay to earn and pay to spend. Can I have some money, Mr. Prez?

Of course, if there was no sales tax, our cities and states would be in a financial crisis--oh wait, they are in a financial crisis. Everyone is having problems right now. We're in a recession. It affects everyone.

And everyone is reaching for a handout.

Matt Worley is just reaching.