The timing is impeccable:  Tonight's GOP debate is the 26th such frightful encounter; Edvard Munch's "The Scream," a portrayal of fright, is to be offered, it was said today.

This is one of our most recognizable human-made images on the planet -- the chilling figure in the foreground, hands up to head, mouth forming an elongated O, background swirls in blue and red.

My mom’s step-dad was the only grandfather I ever knew. He was a short, stout, outwardly devout Christian and looked like a Norman Rockwell American straight from a cover of The Saturday Evening Post. He and the rest of Nixon’s “Silent Majority” were taken completely by surprise by the '60’s. The seemingly placid era of the '50’s was turned upside down when Negroes forgot their place and demanded Civil Rights. The next thing he knew young people defied authority and refused to support the war in Vietnam. Women suddenly seemed to lose their minds and wanted control over their own bodies. Clean cut kids started growing their hair long, smoking dope, and having irresponsible sex. This deeply disturbed millions of Americans like my grandfather who sincerely believed sex was only safely discussed within the confines of a Reader’s Digest article.

I can understand his confusion and anger. At the end of World War Two there was only one colossus bestriding the globe and that was us.

The Dow touched 13,000 today on news that the Greeks will be bailed out with another $140 billion, of course that money really goes to the big banks, not Greece. The new so-called bailout will only be delivered if the Greek government complies by the end of the month with a long list of austerity measures that will ensure the continued decline of their economy.

The Greeks must also prepare two state industries for handover to the pirates by June, and the banker appointed to be in charge of their government plans to literally loot the entire country. Absolutely every public asset of value is being sold off for a pittance to the corporate robber barons. The Communist Party of Greece is on the rise, their slogan could simply be, “We told you so.”

The nerve of some people!

The U.S. is trying to maintain a perfectly reasonable occupation by force of arms in some countries that really interest us a lot, and the people won't stop hating us -- why was it, again? Oh, right:  They hate us for our freedoms, according to the junior Bush.  Pays to keep track.

Has nothing to do with our routine treatment of the native population in all these places we go and so actively adore, spots we must absolutely have as our own -- nothing to do with the regular interactions we have with the people we find already there, at home, in all these places that catch our corporeal and corporate fancy.

It has taken some time, but most of us think we have come to understand the near-total economic collapse rigged by greed-heads, the most recent collapse, that is, the one we all hope has passed.  Or, we all feel that we understand -- same thing, for many people.

Which kind of scary to address?  Oh, hell -- let's try to do both.

After endless examples and conversational models involving tranches and other roulette bets, we more or less get it:  We were boarded by Wall Street pirates running on high-seas casinos, stashing their loot in friendly, duty-free ports of call, on lovely green islands, all stashed inside -- apparently -- one simple, 2-bedroom bungalow with a mailing address, home port, for 5,319 corporations, give or take a few thousand.  Safe at home in this here haven, aye -- safe haven to be sure!

We've already asked a few questions meant to be considered and answered by religious believers, with the answers kept private, shared only between them and God. We now have a final question to ask, with the answer meant for us all, as Americans living in this land.

We need to ask the continuing patience of religious believers in this question, to help us all find an answer to this question -- an answer for atheists, agnostics, for any group or non-group accidentally left out here. An answer for all of us, for every American.