Sheesh is right

Told he couldn't take vodka on plane
German man chug-a-lugs entire bottle,
soon can't stand, talk, or walk.

Round up the usual eight losers, add an escapee from the asylum, put them in a absurd format, and what do you get - boredom. Today's Brafia "debate" was an absolutely useless waste of time. Nothing happened. Nobody won. It was so bad the moderator was heard to mutter "sheesh." Obvious questions, obvious answers. The only bright spot (if you can generously call it that) was when Thompson refused to answer a raise-your-hand question. The participants seemed to agree that no one should be asked to sacrifice anything and, indeed, it should not be necessary if we just don't spend so much money. No one except Paul suggested any way to do this. His solution is to abolish the American "empire" which we can't afford. On the other hand Thompson and others suggested we needed to strengthen our military, the usual nonsense that overlooks the obvious fact that we already spend most of our budget on defense against those armies from outer space armed with tanks, submarines, battleships, and armed flying saucers (no provision for suitcase bombs or such). Above all, more important than life itself, we should never, under any circumstances, no matter what, ever, ever, raise taxes. When it comes to abortion or education we should just leave it up to the states (Idaho education is a fine example of what happens when you leave it up to the states). Of course if we leave all this stuff up to the states we will be assured of equal rights for all (except those from other states). Let's see, I guess one could live in one state long enough to buy and carry a gun, then switch to another state for a gay marriage, still another for an abortion, one more for the right to a dignified death, and another to make sure your automobile passes the exhaust test. States' rights is such a great idea maybe we could go back to hanging Black people, Indians, and Chinamen, to say nothing of Muslims. Oh, yeah, if you lived in just the right place maybe you could step across the state line for a drink or a smoke, or a morning after pill. Yeah, let's hear it for states' rights.

Let me repeat, I believe that a candidate's religious beliefs are important when considering someone for the highest office on earth (short of Pope, that is). I was particularly taken with Huckabees argument that all students should take music and art (along with math and logic, to develop both sides of their brains). Interestingly, he didn't say about teaching evolution which he doesn't believe in (maybe we should make that a states' right thing also). We could have creative design in Iowa and evolution in California. That would be good, no?

In spite of the fact that waterboarding has been defined as torture since the Inquisition, is specifically against the law in the United States and Internationally, Japanese were found guilty of it, and so on, our newly elected Attorney General is still trying to determine if it really is torture. Is it because he can't read and comprehend? Or is it because if it is torture Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and others are automatically war criminals? I place my bet on the latter. Why defend war criminals? It's the Brafia way, the basic credo, the Code of Omerta.

It is interesting (to put it mildly) that Alan Keyes, lunatic-at-large, was allowed into the Brafia debate, but Dennis Kucinich will not be allowed in for tomorrow's Democratic debate (he didn't rent an office in Iowa. Apparently Keyes, who most people didn't even know was running, did?). I wonder if he was even told this was necessary. But what the hell, it's Iowa, intelligence and common-sense aren't very important there in the land of Intelligent Design, it's Huckabee territory. I learned today that in Pocatello, Idaho it is against the law to look sad. I love local laws. I think every city should be able to determined their own abortion, gun, and civil rights, states just don't cut it and conditions do vary from place to place. Perhaps we should revisit the Wise-Use Movement so we could leave this all up to counties. I don't know, it's just too difficult for an old man.

LKBIQ:
"All say, 'How hard it is that we have to die' -- a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live."
Mark Twain