Guns and God, folks. That's what we've got to turn to in these troubling times. At some point, I'll look into that statement that got Barack Obama into the sticky part of the news cycle this weekend. Both Clinton and McCain jumped on his words in the developing effort to splash Obama with John Kerry's windsurfer wake.

The timing was good, though, in the sense that it led into Sunday's "Compassionate Forum" in which Clinton and Obama competed to out-God each other. Actually, it wasn't so bad. The tone was fairly relaxed and even occasionally thoughtful.

In the random thoughts department, last week's airlines problem, which left much of the country effectively grounded, made me wonder if the upside is that maybe people will start to appreciate where they are for once? Could this be the beginning of the triumph of localism?

The Economist says we're in for a long, bumpy ride. Unless you're rich, in which case, none of this matters.

"Recessions happen," explains the New York Times' David Leonhardt. What's different about this boom that wasn't is that most Americans actually lost real income in the last decade.

"It’s hard to see how the economy will get back on track without some fundamental changes. This, I think, can fairly be considered the No. 1 economic project awaiting the next president."

Leonhardt argues that the next president needs to plow some of those nation-building funds we're wasting in Iraq into a good, old-fashioned major projects bonanza of the sort Roosevelt used to invigorate the post-Depression and post WWII economy.

"It’s easy enough to imagine a new version of that program," he argues, "with job-creating investments in biomedical research, alternative energy, roads, railroads and education. On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama all mention ideas like these."

Somehow, though, it feels like we'll get screwed out of the bulk of the largesse no matter whose program gets adopted. It'll get sucked up instead by corporations via grand contracts.

Then again, maybe I'm just bitter.