Traumatic Stress

Did you notice that the Terror-alert level went down right after the elections? For most of the country it was "yellow", but for New York City and D.C. it was orange. Not enough to send people into a panic and blame the president for them feeling unsafe, but just enough to make them nervous... about changing presidents.

Of course the Bush administration will claim that they lowered it because we successfully got through the election without a terror attack. But what they really mean is that the alert is no longer needed. It helped get George re-elected, and now they want to lower it so people will feel more relaxed and euphoric about his election.

It hasn't worked for me. I've been horribly stressed out the last couple days. I haven't been sleeping well, my gut's been irritated, and (probably the direct cause of much of that) I've drunk enough since Election Day to match what I usually drink in a week. Which, to be honest, is a substantial amount.

One thing that's helped is having the Virtual Canadian web site to work on. It's now a proper-looking web page, and I've set up an online store to sell t-shirts and mugs, as a way for people to spread the word about escaping their U.S. identity and becoming virtual Canadians.

I've done some blatant whoring about on the blogosphere mentioning it wherever I can find people talking (seriously or not) about moving to Canada. It seems to be catching a little buzz, and I'm getting some registrations from others who want to escape the states (even if just in their heart), which is kind of exciting. Time will tell whether it becomes The Next Big Thing, a little sizzle in the pan, or what.