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Cue Homer Simpson: “Oh, and in case you couldn’t tell, I was being sarCASTic!“

Just a few days after Virginia Tech, and we’ve got another shooting. The question people are asking, once again, is: “How can this sort of violence be prevented?” And they look at the gun laws and wonder what can be done. But I have a question that not many people seem to be asking: Why is everyone so fucking pissed these days?

This isn’t the first time we’ve had to hear about someone going postal at work. Hell, “going postal” is kind of a punchline these days, because it’s been going on so long (since at least the 1980s) that we’ve become numb to it. We almost expect it–someone at work is tense enough to explode.

But these are the late-20th and early 21st century equivalent of the slave revolts of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The post office shootings (or revolts, if you like) started up because, a study showed, the coporate culture of the post office (forced on them by Richard Nixon’s scheme to privatize the USPS) was particularly brutal, authoritarian, and stressful. It’s not surprising that this jumped into the private sector; the private sector has turned us into such a servile position that the term “wage slave” is now a bitter joke. And there are more people who are just finally pushed too far. Handgun-Free America did a study in 2004 showing that there had been 164 shootings between 1994 and 2003; 290 people had died in them. It’s not guns, it’s not violent movies and video games, it’s not sociopaths who have a psychotic break. We’ve always had guns and psychos; we’ve always had violence in culture. The people who do these are seemingly random; both the FBI and the Secret Service have been unable to come up with a profile for who is apt to snap (remember that right now while pro-gun conservative apologists are deflecting the gun issue and talking about recognizing “symptoms”).

Here’s your problem in the workplace: the CEOs and their corporate policies. In 1978, CEOs earned 35 times what their average employees did. By 1997, it was 115 times. By 2001, it was 531. You want to know who’s destroyed the middle class? Adjusting for inflation, the average white-collar worker earned just six cents more per hour than he/she did in 1973. Since Reaganomics, America has the single worst gap (by far) of any advanced economy between the wealthy and everyone else. 531 times what the average employee makes. For every dollar the bottom 10% of the work force makes today, the top 0.01% make an extra $18,000. Since the 1980s, people are taking shorter lunch breaks and less vacation time. They work harder to make basically the same amount of money they were making in the 1950s, while the cost of living goes up, more services are privatized (so their costs go up), and the amount of free time they have disappears. And, unlike every other advanced economy in the world, we’re not even guaranteed health care. So we have to work even more for much, much less.

Think about all of that the next time some company tells you they’re raising their prices in order to “stay competitive.” Or the next time they tell you they’re shipping your job–but not you–to India or Mexico to “stay competitive.” Competitive to what? That extra $18,000 not doing it anymore?

Companies now seem to operate on a policy of terror and stress. It’s in their best interests to keep the hive humming, but not to keep them thriving. Corporations are grabbing all of the wealth they can and leaving us nothing but stress, anger, and sickness.

And no one cares.

I remember Lewis Black talking about the Enron or Worldcom CEOs, and remarking that he was surprised “the employees didn’t rise up as one and slay them.”

I also remember, in the movie 1776, about the writing of the Declaration of Independence, a character pointing out that “most people would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor.”

Good luck. But keep this in mind: 52% of workplace shooters have experienced a negative change in employment status. Only 13% have a history of mental illness.

Say what you will about the French, but at least they take to the streets in protest. Why are we so afraid?

Brit Brit wasn’t a happy bunny yesterday as she visited a beauty salon in LA yesterday. Probably because of her Daddy releasing that statment to the NY Post yesterday. (I’m happy because she got rid of the pheasant hat but she replaced them with a greater evil, these boots)

Britters was much happier on Thursday afternoon when her and Allie stopped off on the side of the road to buy some strawberries:

Brit’s close friend,choreographer and So You Think You Can Dance judge, Brian Friedman (who is over in England at the moment acting as a judge in Grease In The Word) gives an exlcusive interview in The Mirror today about the pop tart’s impending comeback:

PS: 3 Tracks have been confirmed to E! from Britney’s new album:

Pull Out

Love

Kiss Me All Over

Every decision she’s made in the past month has been positive,” says Brian, who was with her last week as she recorded tracks for her next album.

“I’ve worked with her over the last couple of months in the studio on stuff with new music,” Brian confides. “It’s all very top secret. Will her new image involve her showing off her shaved head? We’ll see. It’s definitely going to be a change.”

“I’m not just talking about going to rehab. More than that. Her life is going in a very positive direction.”

But behind the scenes, Brian will continue to do what he does best – being a dependable friend to one of the world’s biggest pop stars as she begins the next stage of her life.

“She’s a strong woman and I’m sure she’ll do what’s best,” Brian says. “I’m proud of her for taking control.”

Brian’s probably equally as delusional as Brit Brit though as he doesn’t rule out a reconciliation with JT:

Brian believes she could return to the big love of her life – the man many believe she has never stopped caring for – megastar Justin Timberlake.

Brian, who’s worked with Justin and hangs out with him socially, says: “I’d never rule anything out. They made a cute couple. I’m not going to try to be their matchmaker though.”

There, as you can see, even the prettiest girls are self-conscious which can equalise them with Carmen in the end, they only need an attitude like hers. Sometimes, it is all in the attitude which, unfortunately, can hardly be obtained over-night still, who tries and works on themselves, results always follow in the end.