The government shut-down screwed my weekend...and a lot of other people's too.

If this is the best government that money can buy, then the lobbyists aren't getting their money's worth. 

Hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors are suddenly not working and not being paid, even though the nation's fragile economic recovery is just gaining steam, and even though the most economically important fiscal quarter of the year is just about to kick off, all because of an ideological push by a faction of one party to kill what they perceive to be an overwhelmingly unpopular law, parts of which are actually being enacted on this very day. The most inane and morally bankrupt lesson here is that the Tea Party Republicans are willing to let the government and it's non-essential functions cease putting something like 400,000 federal employees off work without pay or any clear understanding of when they will be able to return to work and support their families. This cadre of mental midgets will invite serious harm to our economic recovery, all so that they can try to sabotage a law that has already been passed into law by congress and signed as such by the president. That's real leadership. Just make your unwinnable point at the expense of the faceless American masses. Strong work. Another new low for this Republican congress. Just remember it was Obama who today signed an emergency funding bill so that military families and their dependents could still receive the pay and services they deserve despite this manufactured political crisis.
A downgrade in the nation's AAA credit rating? Tea Party Republicans.
Government shut down? Tea Party Republicans.
I could go on but this is not a political rag.

Nico, his girlfriend Heather, Jack Elliott and I were supposed to spend this coming weekend on Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park. Guess that ain't gonna happen, but my small inconvenience pales in the face of what others must be worrying about.