random rant
Begin political rant:
Weird and disturbing moment at the gym tonight: I look up from my huffing and puffing on the treadmill to see that I'm facing two TVs, one of which is tuned to FOX News, and the other is tuned to infomercials. Synergy! The news ticker that crawls by as Brit Hume does his "newscast" doesn't pretend to be fair and balanced; there seems to be much outrage over at FOX about Gray Davis, much gloating at how much money Democratic candidates have collected versus the campaign debt they have outstanding, and much attention paid to Paul Gigot.
Outrage is a wonderful motivator for running that last half mile at a better-than-normal speed. The market zealots have taken over -- the free market fairy cures all. I used to think this was a smash-and-grab presidency, where these idiots simply thought that handing out sweetheart deals to campaign contributors would have the slight side effect of doing the right thing for the government and the country. The business of America is business and all that.
I think differently now -- GWB has out-Reaganed Reagan and followed through on the wet dreams of Grover Norquist and Lee Atwater: the government itself must be made smaller by spending it into bankruptcy, or at least putting it on a crash diet.
Libertarians would say this is the right thing to do, because government should be small and that the government's largesse makes us all hostages. I dunno -- ask a retiree or a vet if they feel like a hostage. Give me the New Deal, or even the Great Society (warts and all) over what our "Corporate Responsibility" and "Leave No Child Behind" president is doing to the country, and yes, to me.
I certainly feel like a hostage, but that's because I don't belong to the oligarchy that anointed this guy in the first place.
Another weird moment: Mer and myself (as some know) are big reality TV whores. So we're watching the final episode of "Last Comic Standing" (basic setup: funniest comic voted by viewing public gets a contract with NBC and a special on Comedy Central), and the first comic in the lineup is... angry. Not just normal Denis-Leary-am-I-not-edgy kind of angry, but this guy doesn't seem to like leftists too much. Angry rants about hypocritical poseur war protestors, environmental protestors... even friggin' Michael Moore. The big refrain: "I want cheap gas! I want cheap gas! Light 'em up! Light 'em up!" I don't mind humor cutting close to the bone, but I do require actual funny.
I don't know which was more disturbing -- that this was actually considered funny or that he got a standing O from the entire Vegas audience. Welcome to the future, folks.
Feh. What a world.