Reasons to be Cheerful Part 1

Right: Ian Dury's music, a genuine reason to be cheerful

Okay, I admit it. This is today's Reasons to be Pissed Off Parts 10 thru 1. I thought about my short list of actual reasons to be cheerful: my kids, my wife, the movement against the cuts at the UC, but it'd be pretty boring, so here goes. My top 10 Reasons to be personally Pissed Off. All true.

10. A 50-pound chunk of steel falls onto commuting traffic off the Bay Bridge on Tuesday, a bridge many of my friends who have jobs cross daily
9. A Professor at the University of California warned authorities about such a likelihood
8. My daughter's friend at school, for Day of the Dead preparations, declared to class that she used to have a younger sister, but she was shot dead
7. My partner and I no longer can get away with spelling out the word S.H.O.T. in front of our 6-year old
6. My friend who works at the Federal Reserve explained that her bosses just held a conference for their big shots at a Santa Barbara Hotel costing you and I $150,000
5. The same friend says that this is only the tip of the wild-spending iceberg of her employers
4. We agreed that there is no big newspaper that would have the courage to expose things like this
3. My partner and I noticed this evening a tent up at night at a fenced off Gas Station five blocks from our house: homelessness is expanding
2. My union health benefits run out in one week and I am ineligible for a second federal extension on my unemployment benefits
1. Capitalism