Sometimes You've Gotta Laugh

Please do not be alarmed when you see how my eyeballs keep rolling around in their sockets. That is merely a temporary (I sincerely hope) effect of too much concentrated research in the bewildering political wilderness.

I must confess an alarming degree of ignorance concerning politics, not because I don't care but because it's so damned hard to figure out what's really going on. On the one hand, the advent of the World Wide Web allows me easier access to far more information than I could previously attain. On the other hand, more information requires spending more time just trying to figure out what is valid and what is spin. On the third hand, by the time I think I have a handle on any given point or person, a new perspective bobs up from the bubbling muck and I'm back to Square One. On the fourth hand, much of what I discover is not only disheartening, depressing and downright disgusting, it's enough to make me want to sit in a dark corner with a dull blade and sing bawdy limericks until the jug is empty.

Why am I torturing myself this way? Well, gee, sometimes I'm not sure. Mostly, though, I think it's important to have a clue. Any clue. A quotation I ran across might explain it somewhat. "Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right, when wrong, to be put right." Carl Schurz 1829 - 1906. The trick, of course, is agreeing on what is "right."

That's one of the things that is bothering me in my hunt for clarity. All too often, folks seem to feel those who disagree with them about what's right are either unpatriotic or burdened with the I.Q. of a retarded centipede. It goes downhill from there, with the attacks turning personal and hateful and totally removed from the issue in question. And that doesn't even begin to cover the limited-but-pungent vocabulary used to express displeasure.

I've noticed an alarming number of folks have lately been labeled as "pure evil." Not just plain evil or thoroughly evil or even incorrigibly evil. Pure evil. If you define "pure" as "without sin," doesn't that make pure evil an oxymoron? Which is just an aside, having nothing in particular to do with anything. Except, perhaps, to indicate how dippy I get after a session of research into the world of politics. Here there be dragons. No, wait -- here there be politicians. That's worse, by far, than mere dragons.

I spent several hours today, cruising through assorted articles on political mayhem and the comments sections that went with them. Forget the polls that are constantly being thrown at us. Just browse through the comments offered by John and Jane Q. Public for an eye-opening taste of what is going on in the hearts and minds of the citizenry. Hooboy.

Seriously needing a break from the seriousness, I clicked over to one of my favorite blogs, Naked Authors (you can find the link to your right in my link list). Bless them, they had just the right light-hearted posts to bring a grin back to my battered psyche. I would especially point you to Paul Levine's post for today's date, describing an event touting Dave Barry for President. That is followed by Patricia Smiley's Monday post full of marvelously Photoshopped pictures of political fellows in drag. It was interesting to note Rudy Guiliani was not one of the men thusly displayed. Perhaps the author of the mutated photos figured Rudy already had enough -- errrm -- exposure in that venue.

I'll tell you what ... if we're going to get through the next couple of years without all of us going banana-crackers, we're going to need a lot of off-the-wall humor to leaven the angst. There's so much in this tired old world that is good and hopeful and miraculous but it's overshadowed by too much that is ugly and dangerous and out of control. Sometimes a good hearty laugh is all that gives us the courage to deal with it.

Hmmm ... I wonder if Dave Barry for President isn't actually an excellent idea.