We are living in an unprecedented era of graft, corruption, and greed. The Western governments have been busy dismantling their own democracies through privatization of the public sector, and by deregulation of the private sector.

The end result of voting for conservative regimes in the West is upon us. The global ruling elite has successfully merged corporate interests with the agendas of corrupt regimes through legal and illegal graft. One side returns the favor to the other.

This has only been possible because the citizenries of the world's democracies have been lazy, indolent, and selfish.

In many ways, we not only have the governments we voted for, but we have the governments we deserve. The heart wrenching part of this is that the Iraqi people, the Afghan people, the Palestinian people--none of them have power to influence our governments and they clearly don't deserve to be treated as the scum of the earth, and murdered on a whim. Yet that is what they've got, and we are the ones giving it to them.