Eighty big corporate CEOs are issuing joint statements through Murdoch's Wall Street Journal about the dangers from Congressional inaction on the fiscal 'crisis'. They talk down the economy, they are making announcements about layoffs, highlighting below expectation earnings, and generally spreading panic based on Congressional inaction on the 'fiscal cliff'. Just before the election, coincidence?  Probably not. Nothing about the 'fiscal cliff' requires immediate action, they aren't laying off people because of it, if they are really laying off people at all. Demand creates jobs, not corporate CEOs.

It doesn't matter what the 'lame duck' Congress or the President does right now about any of 'fiscal cliff' items. The Republicans demanded it be set up this way, when they were holding the country hostage over the debt ceiling. They would have had 'the fiscal cliff' happen on election day, but that would have been too obvious politics even for dull witted 'independent' voters. They just pretended that everything would 'magically' come to a head at the end of the year. Pssst, the fiscal year ended September 30th. The real concern is who will be making the decisions at the end of January, when it counts for the next two years.

... If it makes any difference at all, it's probably not the Halloween stuff at the stores and at home, even though the kids always go nuts for this "creep out" stuff.  More and more adults, too, looks like -- some say it's the second-biggest holiday of the year, if not THE biggest.

Ca-Ching, goes the cash register, and another angel costume gets its wings bent, straight out of the box -- isn't that how that one goes, from that "It's a Dunderheaded Life" movie they always play this time of year?

Sorry, I know what it's really called, it's just that life has pretty weird lately, and you know how we always joked around about movie titles, like the...

What? Yeah, Bedford Falls and Jimmie Stewart -- always such a great story.  My favorite actor, too.  Did you ever see him in "Harvey," about that big rabbit -- or "Arsenic and Old Lace" either?

The original Twilight Zone series had a timely episode involving a kind of a stopwatch:  Click the stem, and all time stops.  Except you.  Maybe you're already hearing the tell-tale series music and its four-note loop.

40-year-old Patrick McNulty realized the stopwatch offered many intriguing possibilities, if its secrets could be unwound.  In the teleplay by series creator Rod Serling, the [spoiler alert] watch is dropped and broken -- forever stranding McNulty in time.

Except for that being-stranded-in-time part, I could have long used a stopwatch like that.  (You too?)  It sure would have shrunk down those 75-hour weeks to size.

Welcome back to another edition of Field Guide to Humanity: The Strange and Puzzling Account of Homo Confusus.

This time out, we tackle the political animal (Spotlightus Selfinterestus) yet again, continuing to fine-comb through behavioral traits and observations, examining myth and lore, and then on to some leap-of-guesswork field scrutiny to discover the innermost secrets of this strange and almost disturbingly gregarious tribe.

Political animals, as you remember from last time, come in a handful of subsets, with two main co-ruling -- and constantly warring -- parties:  "Republicans" (Boneheadus Maximus) and "Democrats" (Spinus Missingus).

Each subject shares a number of general behavioral adaptations within the larger group, as we have discussed.  One group excels in many of those traits specified previously: obfuscation of facts, denial of responsibility, blockading and obstructing the forward motion of other groups, instilling the fear of others within tribal members under their hypnotic control, acting out of altruism (rare) or greed (typical), and so forth.

Ancient history is alive and well today -- and is, in short, old hat.

Submitted for your consideration, a tale of two worlds:

In the UK, a man is trying to decipher the intricate subtleties of symbols on a clay tablet from 3200 BCE that speaks to the current status of the home group, using the language of the time.

Across an ocean, in the US, two men will meet tonight, in 2012 CE, and use modern speech, attempting to speak to their own audience about current affairs within the home group -- providing observers can decode the oblique, nuanced language used.

The man in the UK is an Oxford University academic investigating arcane symbols, figures, and ancient language not used in more than 5,000 years.  He says he could use some suggestions in cracking open the meaning of this true prize, if we'd care to join in.

Chalk up another win to tee-shirt philosophy, with an added twist.

Many have long said, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."  The current version of such qualitative evaluations in life might be, "Just because you can, why on Earth would you want to?"

Upholding that basic concept, especially with that newest wrinkle, may be a sign of intelligent life down here after all, but I'm not blistering the flooring in a panicked hurry to get out and place bets.

Call me a recliner spud if you like, but I don't get the fuss over skydiver Felix Baumgartner.  OK, so he was the first skydiver to break the speed of sound.  All righty then.  Congratulations are due: Huzzah, huzzah.  I throw confetti in your general direction.  Please pretend it's ticker tape at your own private parade.  Best wishes.  Live long and prosper. And so on.

Now, do you mind if I get back to this book?  It's getting pretty good, right in through here.  Sorry -- I don't mean to, uh, taint anyone's Cheerios, but let's look at this for a sec.  Stripped to its basics, this is a guy who leaned forward out of a capsule in a pseudo-spacesuit, rode gravity to the ground, and triggered a parachute at the appropriate time.