Dumb and dumber

Unfortunately, I'm referring to me.  I should know better, but after avoiding right wing blogs since shortly after the election, I just couldn't help myself and wandered over to The Corner tonight after the Obama shindig.  A couple of whiny complaints about stem cells (not too bad) and some KJ silliness (nothing to see here, move along) and then I was smacked upside the head with this dandy from Jonah G:

A Question I Wish Someone Asked Tonight   [Jonah Goldberg]

From a reader:

Jonah; I have never seen this point made:  all of Europe, which has nationalized health care already, is also experiencing the current economic crisis.  Why does Obama believe that bringing national health care here will in any way save us a similar economic crisis in the future?  He keeps repeating that only if we get health care costs under control will we have “real” prosperity, but the countries that have already “tackled” this problem in the past were not spared their own economic meltdowns.

Uh, Jonah and friend, the reason you have never seen this point made (at least in cognitive circles) is because it doesn't even begin to make sense.  I'm reasonably sure that the derivative traders, uber-creative "financiers" and the rest of the criminal Wall Street crowd weren't trading in health care futures...

Shit - that question is so stupid I can't even come up a parody comparison.  I keep going back and re-reading it and...

Like I said - I should know better.

Where have you gone, Ray Suarez?

For anyone who doesn't get the reference, Suarez was the longtime host of NPR's Talk of the Nation.  Last I knew, he had moved on to Jim Lehrer's PBS show.  He was a remarkable journalist, speaking fluently on a wide array of topics and he asking the most pointed, informed, enlightening questions I could have imagined.  He was a joy to listen to, regardless of the topic, and I frequently scheduled travel time for the 1-3 p.m. time slot to hear his show.

I don't catch much of the show anymore, and Neal (Neil?) Cohen strikes me as something of a lightweight.  He also seems to be enamored of his role in the beltway chattering class and it really colors his questions.

But today I caught a piece of the show where some giggly guest host was having a "political round table" with another beltway chatterer questioning whether Obama was "laughing too much" and showing a lack of...I don't know...somberness (apparently that is not a word but I don't care) by appearing on Leno and talking about the NCAA tournament on ESPN.  

Beyond missing the absolute irony of holding this discussion on a "intellectual" news program, they relied for support of this hypothesis on a guy traveling the country for the first hundred days who talked to a few people in a diner this morning.  Gallup would be proud.

And this is the high end.  I'm starting to think we deserve whatever fate we get...

The Great Compromise

"I used to sleep at the foot of old glory

And awake in the dawn's early light

But much to my surprise

When I opened my eyes

I was a victim of the great compromise"

For those of you scoring at home, that's John Prine from...I don't even know when.  I also don't know, btw, which of the many great compromises our government has served up to us that he is so eloquently referencing.  Probably Vietnam and the faux populism wars like that demand.

Regardless, I'm feeling it now.  I think the Treasury Department needs some sort of slogan for the cash shoveling currently underway:  "Bankers and Financiers First!"  "No Banker Left Behind!"  Something...

And while I'm not ready to take up my pitchfork and join the "populist uprising" or express confederacy with the misplaced outrage of the Rick Santellis of this world, I am indeed starting to lose the faith.  And though I am far from an expert in the complex economic issues at play here, I understand enough to sense the swirling sound of "hope and change" sliding into the sewer hole with the mountains of cash we're feeding to the criminally inept folks who created this mess.  

Meanwhile, the recipients of our cash infusions send us notices that, well, darnit, we're just going to have to tweak up your interest rate by 6 or 8 points, or raise your insurance premium by 40% due to "economic circumstances beyond our control..."

Watching The Watchmen

And I did, last night. Either I've become a completely unsophisticated dufus (entirely possible), or I've achieved some sort of cynical immunity from sloppy stories and crappy metaphors and the like. Regardless, that is three hours of my life I'll never get back.

Yes, I get it. Duality. Good and bad in all of us. I saw The Dark Knight (where they missed the real opportunity to make him heroic by choosing to have him violate everyone's civil rights - means justifies the ends, sounds familiar, blah blah blah...arrrgh) and that was plenty of that lesson. It was also a much better movie than The Watchmen (though still utterly forgettable to me).

The story line in The Watchmen was hackneyed and full of gaping holes and lousy plot devices. And some really bad "oooh" moments (I know a few therapists and none of them carry a briefcase full of Rorshach cards and nothing else). And the whole midget in prison scene? What did we learn from that?

I could continue but I'll spare you. We should have seen "I Love You, Man". At least you're going to get what's advertised...

Oh, and I can't help but comment on having an opening montage so long they had to stretch out "The Times They are a Changing"????? Get some editing scissors, dudes.

Is anybody there?

Wow. I didn't even look but I haven't been here in a long time. A lot has gone on since whenever it was...I didn't speak a word about Obama or recession or all the craziness in my own life. I think I actually had a lot to say but couldn't find the time or the energy to put it here.

Maybe now...maybe things are clearing up.

I listened to some John Hiatt yesterday while I was watching my daughter at gymnastics practice. I've found new music (new to me, anyway) recently and sort of lost track of him. It sounded great and made me think of here and all that has gone on over the past few years. I'll have some things to say about that in the coming weeks...

"Is this the place I can rest my poor head
And gather my thoughts in sweet silence
And is this the place where the feelings aren't dead
From an overexposure to violence
And is this the place I can slowly face
The only one I truly can't know

These are tears from a long time ago
I've got these tears from a long time ago
And I need to cry thirty years or so
These are tears from a long time ago"

Oh, and happy birthday Emily.