Monday, November 26, 2012

It's all too Ridiculous


I have been having trouble blogging of late, partly because of the holiday, but mostly because I find the current situation too ridiculous to even be worthy of comment. We (they, somebody) are still arguing about whether the filthy rich should be taxed another four percent or something like that. I regard this as an argument so ridiculous as to not even be worthy of consideration. Of course the obscenely wealthy should be taxed more, lots more, far more than another measly four percent. It is ridiculous they are allowed to even have so much money in the first place.
Then we (they, somebody) are still arguing about the defense budget and how it simply cannot be cut without dire consequences for our security. This, too, I find completely ridiculous. The defense budget is so grossly outrageous it could easily be cut in half and we would never notice the difference. It isn’t really a defense budget in reality anyway, merely another way the corporations can rip off the taxpayers. The Pentagon sometimes loses a billion or so and do not even know how they did it. And we certainly do not need to prepare for another huge ground war against Russia, China, or anyone else.
We (they, somebody) are still arguing about abortion and even contraception, both already accepted as the law of the land for many years. And while we are arguing about already settled issues we are ignoring the most serious problem facing humanity ever…global warming. It is becoming increasingly obvious this is not something to be arguing about, it’s real, and it’s going to destroy us unless some action is taken immediately. That we should still be arguing about abortion, contraception, and who can marry who is completely ridiculous in the face of the much greater problems we face.
Similarly, with one election barely over we (they, somebody) are already talking about the 2016 election! Talk about  ridiculous, this is about as ridiculous as anything could ever be. Will Hillary run, it appears that New Jersey Fats has already indicated he may run, so may Bobby Jindal, and who know how many others. Who in the hell cares at this point in time, there are important matters to be settled NOW, not the least of which are unemployment and health care, along with the deficit. But it seems to be more important to some to make up a complete non-problem about Benghazi and UN Secretary Rice.
We (they, someone) are still arguing about Social Security which has nothing whatsoever to do with the deficit but represents the long-standing desire of Republicans to do away with it, the most successful and popular program in our history. There is no argument here, to persist there is, is ridiculous. And yes, there are problems with Medicare and Medicaid that need to be solved. They can be, or at least could be, if all parties had a genuine interest in solving them, but most of the arguments are, of course, ridiculous.
Of course the utterly ridiculous Grover Norquist tax pledge has now emerged as a problem, at least for some. The Grover Norquist tax pledge has to be one of the most stupid, short-sighted, ridiculous ideas ever conceived by the mind of a baboon. That anyone elected to public office would sign a pledge to never, under any circumstances, raise taxes, is so outrageously stupid as to be virtually unbelievable. An absolutely fundamental fact of governing in the modern world is raising and spending money on public projects, defense, and so on. To take the position one is not going to participate in this part of governing is ridiculous. Grover Norquist  is actually trying to interfere with the normal act of governing and, although this is perhaps not basically treasonous, he should be tarred, feathered, and shown out of the country. The pledge to never raise taxes is so fundamentally absurd as to be not even worthy of thought but somehow many of our elected officials apparently do not bother to think (I guess a few of them are now waking up having finally realized just how absurd their loyalty to Norquist is when compared to their supposed loyalty to their country). Better late than never I guess.
According to Rachel Maddow, John McCain has been featured on 21 Sunday talk shows this year. He has apparently emerged as the major foreign policy wonk for the Republicans. This is, of course, completely ridiculous as he was been so consistently wrong about every aspect of our foreign policy he should never be heard from again. He obviously has a personal grudge against President Obama and attacks him at every opportunity, never fairly or sensibly, apparently still angry over having lost an election to him. His recent outrageous attack on Secretary Rice is itself merely a poorly conceived attack on Obama. McCain should be a poster boy for putting limits on how long one can serve in Congress (or the Supreme Court or any other important office). He has become little more than a cranky old man, bitter and revengeful, and basically harmful to the process of governing. I would suggest that 70 years of age should be the required retirement age for important public servants (I don’t care if they live longer or even if they are still functioning, 70 years is enough. Yes, I know I am writing this at 83. I should have quit long ago).
All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange sometimes inexplicable ways.
Yann Martel 

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