It is so hard to blog these days because:

• The economy is collapsing. Shouldn’t we all be hiding under the covers?

• The presidential election hangs in the balance, and a lot of people seem to actually be considering voting for the wrong guy.

• We’re still at war.

• Sarah Palin is the butt of endless jokes over her dismal, embarrassing performance on the news, and yet could still end up the Vice President of the United States.

• Paul Newman died.

• Administrative work just gets stupider and more arcane with ever iteration.

• No matter how hard you work to develop new and innovative pedagogies, it doesn’t matter if the students think reading is for losers and original ideas are for liberal elitists.

• The weather has turned lovely but you can’t shake the feeling that this may be the last beautiful autumn ever in the history of the planet, that we may all be wearing sunblock and breathing through gas masks this time next year.

• The polar bears are still endangered.

• Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse out there, you wake up in the morning and it is much, much worse, and no amount of snarky, insightful, angry, or sarcastic blogging is going to make any difference.