Cranky

Eighty-two year-old man beats
and strangles 74 year-old girlfriend
for loading the dishwasher wrong.

How much longer can Obama and Holder refuse to acknowledge the war criminals in our midst and take some action? Every day we learn more about just how awful the torture was. Now we have learned that the memos Cheney claims will prove torture worked, won’t, thanks to Carl Levin. Not that it would matter whether it worked or not as it would still be illegal. Bush himself has now re-entered the fray, claiming, as Cheney does, that it was all legal. But finding your own pet lawyers and instructing them to write memos claiming it was legal, does not make it legal. Does Bush really believe this? Perhaps. But you can bet your life that Cheney doesn’t believe it. He is frightened that his lies and torturing may catch up with him and he might end up in prison where he rightfully belongs. He should, of course, be joined by Rumsfeld and Rice, at least, and surely a few others. Bush might not have to worry as much, there are laws protecting the retarded.

I don’t know if I am becoming more cranky because I am older, or if I am older because I am more cranky. I can’t believe just how bad things have become. When politics becomes as stupid and ridiculous as the television ads you have to wonder what is happening to us. Think of all this fuss about Sonia Sotomayor. Everyone knows she is going to be confirmed, even those who are slandering and attacking her. So what is the point? They pick out little nonsensical examples of things she once said, take them out of context, and makes mountains out of molehills. It’s disgusting, to say nothing of being silly and a complete waste of time. But that is basically what our news has become, a complete waste of time. I don’t think it is too far-fetched to say that we really do not get news anymore. The news has been abandoned for infotainment. Infotainment is much cheaper than actually having to pay real reporters to go out and seek real news. And the public seems willing to accept this, as they have been conditioned by now to not know enough to care about what is happening. So the networks just keep feeding us more and more trivia, and laying off more and more reporters, and trying to make more and more money by giving us less and less, and then they wonder why they are failing. I think they are failing because there are more and more people like me, right on the edge of refusing to even watch any longer. The ads are insulting, the news is insulting, the whole system is rotten and about to collapse (and rightly so). I have now reached the point when almost the only show I watch is Rachel Maddow, who so far has not completely disappointed me. Radio is dominated by a bunch of right-wing wackos, Fox News is out of the question, CNN isn’t much better these days, Chris Matthews is an egomaniacal mental midget, Olberman is overbearing, and most all of them just tell you the same thing over and over again all day long. I hate to be so old-fashioned, but I would like to return to the old days when we had real newspapers, with real reporters, who went around the world and gave us real news.

I was really excited to learn from our weekly newspaper that a new Militia is forming in our county. We are told that it “won’t involve men running through the woods with six packs of beer and guns.” No, not at all. “This militia will involve men helping their neighbors whether it be in times of flooding, forest fires, or protecting one’s right to bear arms.” Note this last phrase, which implies of course that someone (Obama? Democrats? People from Outer Space?) is threatening to take away their right to bear arms. We have a large and active National Guard in our country. We also have a Sheriff and his deputies, a very adequate Police Force, a fine Forest Service, a Search and Rescue Group, several volunteer Fire departmens, plus our city Fire Department. Presumably these fine organizations are not competent enough to take care of floods, fires, and whatever. It’s really those pesky people who insist on taking away our right to bear arms. I’m certain that with the newly formed North Idaho 21st Battalion of Light Foot we can rest assured that we will be in good hands should anyone actually try to take away our guns, all two million or more of them.

LKBIQ:
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
H. L. Mencken

TILT:
An adult male salt water crocodile can weigh up to 3,000 pounds and grow to 20 feet in length.