The Benefits Of Unemployment

CNN is giddily reporting that all branches of the military have met their recruitment goals. The Army, they say, has even exceeded their quota. As usual, we’re not given any context for this ‘happy’ state of affairs. The story is left hanging in a void from which, I presume, we’re supposed to conclude that all is well at the Pentagon and that Americans are still patriotically taking up the standard in defense of their nation.

Go team!

I don’t suppose this has anything to do with it:

9.8% unemployment. That’s not including people who’ve given up looking for work or who haven’t filed for unemployment. Nor does it include thousands of impecunious serfs like me who are ‘under-employed,’ one of my favorite euphemisms which, around where I live, means ten dollars an hour, twenty hours per week, and don’t forget to smile and wear plenty of flair.

Gen. McChrystal might get his 40,000 new ‘trigger-pullers’ for Afghanistan after all. Funny how things work out, isn’t it?