It's hilarious hearing so many people say things like "politically divided like it's never been before." If you were maybe 20 years old, you might get away with that.

You really think there's more shit flying now than there was when Bush was President? Or Clinton? Reagan? Nixon? LBJ? Is Los Angeles burning? Is the current president resigning, being impeached, or refusing to run for re-election?

The Tea Party was probably the most benign protest that ever happened. The sparks were at the polls. Heck, to be honest there are a lot of protests in our history that did more damage than OWS.

Congress isn't deadlocked. The Democratic-run Senate is. Something like two dozen economic proposals have come out of the House and have been stuffed behind the Senate door. The Democrats are going to run on a "do-nothing" Congress if it kills all of us. This has another year to go.

There are economic reasons to shorten sail--we're going to be caught in Europe's undertow as it goes down--but this is pretty much politics as usual. I'm trying to figure out my portfolio right now. You're lucky you're in the Defined Benefit safety zone. So far.