If you think it's bad where you are, read this story

When I read this unemployment story, it was as if Scooby Doo had burrowed into my brain, chanting a mantra of "ruh-roh!"

Desperation is rippling through agricultural communities such as Mendota, 35 miles west of Fresno, where an estimated 39% of the labor force is jobless.

Almost half the people are unemployed? Zoiks! But wait, it gets worse: A half million acres of farmland have been taken out of production. Why? Water. Anybody with three gray cells in their head should have seen this coming twenty years ago. You would think that protecting a $37 billion industry would have inspired some long-term thinking on these issues. I guess not.

Nobody wants to consider the fact that we depend on nature. That's very uncomfortable for post-postmodern people. We like to think of ourselves as having conquered nature. We're about to learn the hard way that that's about the dumbest notion ever.

Something tells me that the lush grounds of Beverly Hills mansions are still lush. If these people want greenery, can't they move somewhere that has it naturally? I mean, the Beverly Hills people can live anywhere in the world. Relocate where it actually rains often enough to have the trees, shrubs, flowers, and grass that they seem to enjoy. Either that, or let them continue to live in the mansions with the grounds reverting back to the desert that nature intended.

OK, OK -- it's not fair to blame the Beverly Hills people for living well. It's not just them, either. It's everyone in California with a lawn, everyone who washes their car, everyone who takes long showers.

How ironic is this: Back in the Depression, Okies flocked to California to work in the fields of the Central Valley. Now it's looking like there will be a mass exodus from there.

What happens to the price and availability of food with all that production offline? It's worrisome. The short-sighted Earth-last crowd might have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those meddling realities.

(Cultural references to Scooby Doo will be lost on most under the age of 35 -- sorry.)