Where is Dickens?

Thirty-seven year-old woman
beats 69 year-old boyfriend in
shower for cheating on her.

What a pleasure to get away from Sandhill for a couple of days! We went to Canmore, B.C. and basically did nothing but eat and relax. There is something about those stupendous awe-inspiring mountains that truly is peaceful. Not only that, the food is better, the news is more interesting, and the accommodations more comfortable. There is a fairly new restaurant called the Iron Goat that has the most fantastic view of the mountains. The weather was a bit chilly but otherwise wonderful. Don’t forget to try the wild boar pate.

Where is Charles Dickens when we need him? Here it is the year 2009 and there are many who do not want to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. I mean, like, it’s not the beginning of the Industrial Revolution anymore. One would think that an enlightened democracy like the United States would be interested in paying decent, livable wages to its millions of workers, if only to insure they could afford to buy the junk being produced for them and thus keep the economy afloat. But no, I guess the fact that wages have been stagnant for years, or even decreased, isn’t good enough for our present-day scrooges. But, then, what would you expect, when you are paying the few at the top more than all the rest combined year after year, no matter how incompetent they are, there just isn’t any money left over for decent wages. It seems that the powers that be, the corporations and the filthy rich, are not interested in a healthy middle class, but, rather, in wage slaves. I think they prefer wage slaves to real slaves because they don’t have to feed them. On the other hand, they don’t get to whimsically beat and rape them either, perhaps that will come back next. I find the opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act to be completely and totally disgusting, and those like Arlen Spector (and maybe Nancy Pelosit as well), sold out to the Corporations, to be beneath contempt. Hey everyone, this is the 21st century, not the 18th or beginning of the 19th! Not only do I find this utterly disgusting, I find it virtually impossible even to believe. Has greed finally become so commonplace and acceptable that it is now the mainstream?

I find it interesting (and somewhat amusing) that the MSM seem to be more concerned with Michelle possibly upstaging President Obama than they are with what he might or might not accomplish at the meeting. I guess they seem to have already concluded that he won’t be able to do much so they have decided to go with their usual emphasis on infotainment (what will she wear, will they really like her, bare arms, young designers, how daring, what might happen when she meets the French first lady, etc., etc.). You know, the real news. Of course there is the French threat to walk out if they don’t get their way, but nothing unusual about that I guess.

I guess the Spanish better be very careful about what they do. They are talking of bringing war crimes charges against at least six of the neocons responsible for the Iraq “war” and such. What a great idea! But Bill O’Reilly, that master of international politics, is threatening “not to go there” if they continue. Wow! I bet that will put them in their proper place.

I saw somewhere that Newt Gingrich is converting to Catholicism. He is a thrice married adulterer and arguably the worst hypocrite ever spawned, so what might this be all about. Someone said he is doing it in preparation for a run for President in 2012. I don’t think so. Why would adding Catholicism to his vitae help to get him elected President? None of this makes sense. But, then, it is Newt Gingrich we’re talking about. He seems to have fooled some people into believing that he is not merely a phony, braying jackass, pontificating his idiocy at every opportunity. The Republican party certainly has more than their fair share of borderline lunatics: Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Joe the not plumber, Michael Steele, What’s-his-name Boner (sorry, Boehner), Eric Kantor, Mike Huckabee, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Newt Gingrich, and many others cut from the same pattern. With a lineup like that how can they possibly fail, especially with their tried and true mantra: tax breaks for the rich, tax breaks for the rich, tax breaks for the rich, etc. ad nauseam?

Was I hallucinating? I thought I heard somewhere that someone had videotaped Joe Biden’s daughter sniffing cocaine. Then I thought I heard it was one of her “friends” out to make a bundle of money by betraying her. Then I thought I heard that his lawyer refused to have anything more to do with him. What I did not hear was anything about this whatsoever on the news anywhere. You can find it mentioned on Google, but nothing is very clear. It might have been someone who just looks like her. It might have been her. It seems as though it might have been hushed up, at least temporarily. So what if it is was Ashley Biden? And so what if she was sniffing cocaine? All kinds of people are doing it nowadays. It ought to be legal. Do you think she’d being doing it if it was legal? I hope she wasn’t doing it. But if she did maybe it will motivate her father to think more seriously about the hopeless “war on drugs” he has been so active in. When is anyone going to wise up enough to know that drugs should be decriminalized? What a disaster! What a relatively easy solution. But, like, you know, this is America. We don’t do anything sensible here.

I did not learn until today there was such a thing as motorized bar stools. What a terrific idea! Unfortunately there is no provision for a designated driver. A man was arrested for driving one while drunk. He says he only drank after he wrecked his motorized bar stool because his head hurt. Of course, we should have known that. The inventor was on Rachel Maddow tonight demonstrating his product. What a clever way to save gasoline. I’m sure they get far better mileage than the Hummer, and they doubtless are attractive to the same population of mental midgets. Ah, American innovation! It makes one right proud.

LKBIQ:
I never took hallucinogenic drugs because I never wanted my consciousness expanded one unnecessary iota.
Fran Lebowitz

TILT:
The Galapagos penguin lives near the equator.