A Separate Reality

I think this was the title of a book by Carlos Castenada but it serves here to designate the strange world of Republicans. Republicans held another "debate" today. Of course I did not watch it (too painful). But I did see a few excerps here and there. What happened during this event? Nothing really. It was Fred Thompson's first debate. Many thought he would self-destruct. He didn't. But, then, he didn't accomplish anything else either. It was all pretty much blah. I guess the most exciting part was an exchange between Romney and Giuliani. It went something like this: I cut taxes and you raised them. I did not. You did too. You should get your facts right. You started a commuter tax. I would not have done that. Yes, but I lowered taxes by 17% You did not, etc., etc., etc. Thompson allowed as to how Bush did the right thing by going to "war," and we're doing the right thing now and making progress (no one challenged him on this remarkable claim). Much, if not most of the time, was spent on the Republicans perennial obsession, lowering taxes. All Republicans want to cut taxes. Always. Never mind the staggering national debt, never mind Bush/Cheney's billions a week for the "war," cutting taxes is the way to go. When they weren't cutting taxes they were reducing entitlements like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. Entitlements are at the root of all our problems, according to these fiscal warriors. Thompson even mentioned reducing Social Security benefits but I don't think anyone picked up on it. McCain was on his usual warmongering path, saying that the whole thing was mishandled, we didn't have enough "boots on the ground," he told them so, and the usual. Talk about flogging a dead horse. They also spent some time criticizing Hillary's health care proposals but, of course, they have nothing better, in fact, nothing at all worth mentioning. As has been the case with most of the debates the questions were mostly hypothetical and absurd and the answers formulaic and predictable. All in all, another bust. If Republicans don't inhabit a separate reality I don't know where to find them. This is such a sad bunch of candidates that if they all sailed away to never-never land on a banana boat I doubt they would be missed.

Lewis Black was brilliant on the Daily Show tonight, ranting about the concern being paid to nonsense topics like the MoveOn Petraeus/Betray us ad, Limbaugh's absurd statements about soldiers, and Obama's failure to wear his lapel pin. Black is quite right, of course, these are all absolute nonsense "problems" Republicans (and some Democrats) carry on about as if they are vitally important and have significance beyond their basic existence. Obama is virtually being accused of treason for not wearing a lapel pin by the same people who thought nothing of the treasonous outing of a CIA Operative. But, then, if they couldn't obsess on such trivia we might have to actually deal with the real problems, scandals, and war crimes of the Bush/Cheney administration.

I don't mean to harp on this but I raise the question once again. How is it that I have not seen a movie ad on TV for months (maybe longer) that does not feature violence? Is this a result of my selective TV watching or is it the case that Hollywood no longer makes movies if they are not violent. Even if they were not ALL violent, enough of them are to make me wonder just what in the world is wrong with the industry and its viewers. I never watch any children's programs. Are the ads mostly violent? I know most of the games are. Let's face it, we are living in a pretty sick society that seems to be overly obsessed with violence and bloodshed. It was not always so (if you are old enough to remember the "good old days").

LKBIQ:
"Woe to the nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation's heart, the excision of its memory."
Alexander Solzhenitsyn