Memorial Day

Welcome to Memorial Day in America where we celebrate the true remembrances of what it means to be an American:

1. Price Gouging 
2. Sitting in traffic
3. Ruining the environment for our enjoyment.

You know what I mean.  Half a week before a single-day holiday, like Memorial Day, gas prices go up 30%.  You actually can set the dates on your calendar...and you better, if you need gas.  When I was commuting from one end of town to the other, I used to leave myself sticky notes just to remember to fill up before the price hike.  And now that it's here, prices will take over a week to go back to normal.

That's an American custom.  Lie, cheat, and steal someone else's money until they can't afford anything but sitting at home reading a book.

But, that brings up another American custom:  debt.  Most people in America just don't care about how much is owed on their credit cards.  And there isn't any penalty for having debt, so Americans keep racking it up...

...Thus, it won't surprise you that the major of Minnesotans run up their credit cards on filling up their over-sized cars and motor boats and ATVs to sit in traffic on a trip "Up North" to a fishing cabin up in the northern part of Minnesota, belching out polluted puffs of smog from their tailpipes.

Which brings us to our final American holiday custom:  the ruination of the environment.  

ATVs tearing up the land and vegetation...

Motor boats, ripping out the lake vegetation and killing lake fauna...

And the over-fishing of the mercury-polluted lakes, constantly forcing further reproduction of the fish which then overeat the remaining lake vegetation and eggs.

It's completely disharmony with nature.

It's 180 degrees for the state of Zen.

Ahh the American dream.