Well, we ought not to be too surprised.

A momentary blip two years ago, brought on by a serious economic downturn, doesn't do much to shake things up in any fundamental way. Pluto, Saturn and Uranus weren't going to bring about an "easy" revolution. Things will get more intense, and there will be more fuel added to the fire so that the pot can really boil, and boil over.

Change isn't easy. Evolution is not really like a butterfly turning into a caterpillar (that's metamorphosis, anyhow). It's more like the dinosaurs going extinct so mammals can take over... not exactly the kind of agenda you can endorse if you're a brontosaurus.

And change isn't what anyone - or any party, or any viewpoint - wants it to be. All of our debates are the pushing and pulling that turns the engines of real change, which go where they will, not where we would like.

Oh, well.