Today it was announced the U.S. is officially in a recession. To which, everyone who is jobless, scrounging for money to pay bills and money for food, reply say, "No (expletive)." Upon this news, the Dow Jones plunged 680 points, which is scary because that doesn't really surprise me that much any more.

It's amazing how the effects of a recession can be felt far before an actual recession is declared. If the sign of a recession is a neighbor losing their job and a depression is when you lose your job, then we're getting awfully close to the latter. It seems as if it might be a full year after there's a 15 percent homeless rate in this country before economists can safely say, "Yup, it's a depression."

Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger's state of California is feeling the pinch, with an $11.2 billion deficit facing his state. Today he declared a fiscal emergency and called for quick legislative action to help. But, on the bright side the crisis does not appear to be life threatening as Schwarznegger offered this diagnosis in response to a reporter's question: