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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