I picked up my newspaper this morning to see a huge headline: "The R Word". Strangely, reading front-page news about a possible recession comforted me. Yeah, I've already lost a big chunk of my mutual-funds savings and will likely lose more. But at least a recession is something we can live through. We'll recover, even if it's with a diminished retirement plan. I'm sure the politicians are working on some kind of plan to rescue the stock markets and banks. At least, that's what they've been telling me in this election campaign.

It was great that my local newspaper decided to bury the story about ONE QUARTER OF THE WORLD'S MAMMALS FACING EXTINCTION on page B4. The conclusions, in a report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, really are frightening - just as frightening as the global-warming crisis. If we think we can survive the consequences of such massive breaks in the web of life, we really are in denial.

But thank goodness for my newspaper, which has given me something less frightening to occupy my mind. I think I'll go visit my financial adviser!