Cloud-Cuckoo-land

Florida man angry with father
for cooking potatoes, pours
potatoes and urine on his head.

Somehow life seems to go on In Cloud-cuckoo-land. There are apparently going to be not one, but two marches on Washington by gun-totin’ patriots, upset, among other things I guess, because Obama is going to take away their guns. The fact that Obama has done nothing whatsoever to take away anyone’s guns is apparently irrelevant to these gun-obsessed loonies (I suspect Obama has other things on his mind). But I confess I’m not really at all clear about this. It seems that it is illegal to carry guns in Washington, D.C., whether openly or not, so one of these groups is going to assemble in Virginia, as close as they can get to Washington. The other group is supposedly going to march in Washington (but without guns?). I guess these people enjoy tilting at imaginary windmills, as most of the things they seem to be opposed to are not about to happen. It’s like they live in an imaginary world where not even a semblance of reality is allowed to penetrate.

I don’t understand the purpose of these demonstrations. If it is to demonstrate they have guns, and the right to have guns, it would seem utterly pointless as no one is claiming otherwise. They pretty obviously are not intending to actually overthrow the government (at least not yet), so I guess maybe they think they will intimidate Obama and Congress into doing something (precisely what I do not know). This is similar to the Starbucks situation where some of their customers are coming armed for reasons that are, I think, absurd. The only explanation I have heard is that they are trying to prove they have the right to do so. I think “childish” might be too generous a description of this behavior. Anyway, I don’t care whether they carry their guns into Starbucks or not (I don’t drink coffee), nor do I care to worry about whether they have the right to do so (I assume if they don’t have the right they will eventually be arrested). I suspect there may be a few of the Teabaggers and others who have legitimate arguments against one thing or another, but those who are carrying around banners of Obama as Hitler, or Obama as communist, socialist or fascist (or all three at the same time), or Kill the Bill, simply have no idea what they are about. They are truly in Cloud-Cuckoo-land (Cloud-Cuckoo-land is a place I first heard about from A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, a well-known anthropologist, who, I think, spent much of his time there, but that is another story entirely).

Well, it appears that my President, whom I voted for and supported, is now embarked on a campaign to do everything I did not want him to do. He is going to allow drilling off our coasts, is helping promote nuclear energy and even burning biomass, all things I think are highly undesirable. This is in addition to his accelerating the ridiculous and unnecessary “war” in Afghanistan, sanctioning Iran, and I’m pretty sure doing other things of which I do not approve. I might give him some slack on drilling, but never on nuclear. And as I think burning biomass is a lost cause they will probably be abandoned as soon as people come to their senses and realize how both unfeasible and undesirable this would be. So why do I continue to (more or less) support him? Because, as I have mentioned before, it’s the only game in town.

The alternative would be to support Republicans, but they, too, are living entirely in Cloud-Cuckoo-land at the moment. When Obama became President they announced they would be the party of “no,” and they have kept their pledge. They have done absolutely nothing for either our country or its citizens, nothing. They have even consistently been opposed to things they themselves first thought of doing, like individual mandates, offshore drilling and so on. They are opposed to these things now simply because Obama wants to do them and they are dedicated to one thing, and one thing only, bringing down the Obama Presidency (as they tried to bring down Clinton’s), thinking this will allow them to regain power. Why they believe that by being totally uncooperative at all times, and for everything, is going to restore them to power is evidence of their residence in Cloud-Cuckoo-land. Similarly, if they think by embracing the Teapartyers they will win elections, that, too, is evidence of Cuckoo-land. Decent Republicans (a questionable assumption at best) have allowed their party to be taken over by the residents of Cloud-Cuckoo-land, have mistakenly even been seeing encouraging them, and have thereby destroyed any credibility they may have had. They have allowed their party to slowly rot away while embracing racism, greed, immorality, hatred, and injustice. Now, desperate because of this, they are threatening violence and promoting civil discord, and above all, making a mockery of government.

LKBIQ:
It is worse still to be ignorant of your ignorance.
Saint Jerome

TILT:
Horses can sleep both standing up and lying down.