Worry, justice, and John Kerry

I have an anonymous reader who worries about me. He/she thinks I should not worry about the size of envelopes but be thankful I can write checks to fill them. I guess that's true. I do worry about the size of envelopes a lot. Indeed, every night when I go to bed I worry about those envelopes. Actually, it keeps me from worrying so much about other things.

For example, A Chief Warrant Officer was just now tried for murder. He put an Iraqi General head first into a sleeping bag, wrapped it tightly with electrical wire, and sat on the General's chest until he suffocated. He was convicted of "negligent homicide." Negligent, as far as I know, means carelessness. I guess he was pretty careless. Anyway, for this abhorrent act he was sentenced to 60 days of home confinement (of course he's allowed to go to church). The fact that the General's face had apparently been beaten to a pulp for two days previously by CIA goons with rubber hoses was not an issue or, I gather, even mentioned. But I just can't help worrying about those tiny envelopes.

Those envelopes also help me to forget what happened and is happening in Iraq. Remember, we went to "war" (an illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, and totally unnecessary act) against Iraq because of a bunch of blatant lies fed to us by Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Powell/Wolfowitz/et al. There is no way to assess the horror and misery this "war" has caused, not only to Iraqis, but also to ourselves. I cannot watch films of what is happening there without bursting into tears. But when I do, I just think of those stupid envelopes and immediately feel better about things.

Then sometimes I worry about the national debt, poverty, the lack of universal medical care, the environment, the victims of Katrina, aids, abortion rights, homosexual marriages, unemployment, and other stuff like that. When it threatens to keep me awake I just remember the problem with the envelopes. Those envelopes are a real sophorific.

Tonight I will worry about something else. I will worry about whether John Kerry can find 40 other Senators to vote with him and sustain a filibuster so that Judge Alito can be denied a seat on the Supreme Court. While this is not as serious as the size of those envelopes I will worry about it nonetheless. I fear that Alito will allow the President to claim (and achieve) dictatorial powers that will mark the end of our Republic as we have known it up until now. It will also probably mean I will no longer be able to fill those envelopes with checks every month as he will have successfully brought about the complete bankruptcy of our nation.

But not to worry. Bush has managed to bring democracy to the Middle East. Iraq has democratically voted to institute an Islamic Constitution and in Palestine Hamas has won power in a virtual landslide. The U.S. is not going to recognize either of these democratically elected governments. So much for democracy. And oh, our own democracy doesn't seem to be doing very well either.

So dear readers, don't worry about me. I continue to be optimistic. I know that someday, when there are no more human beings on this planet, things will be just hunky-dory.