Has the world
ever appeared more
insane (yes, but. . .)?
Yep, I'm just about ready to swear off
the damned broccoli,
turn over a newer leaf and dive into
tobacco, booze and shooting anything that moves within 10 yards, even my own
foot. To quote the most intriguing words from Hillary Clinton as she exercised her Benghazi-isms, what
difference does it make?
So Mr. Obama's
taking to the TV airwaves tomorrow night, intending to romantically whisper yes,
yes, yes into our ears, even as our consciences say no, no, hell no. We've been here before. You remember Iraq, Afghanistan -- and I
(intimately) remember the Vietnam draft.
Nobody ever intends to go to war, it's just a little thing, some little
action. It won't take long, just a few
strikes or deployments here and there, and presto! It'll all be over before we know it.
D.C. gasbags
all, voicing farts and ultimately casting truth and nothing but the truth to
the wind. The established TV networks,
complicit and willing, bravely stand ready to spread and cheer on the
propaganda.
The American
people are overwhelmingly against action in Syria, but it doesn't matter. The House will sort of, a little bit, maybe a
lot, be against it, too, but it won't matter.
That nebulous entity known as the international community will
approve and some Arab states will even contribute a few bucks, and we'll send
off a few missiles and that will be it, except that won't be it. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, nothing.
Except planners still seem to have left the door open for troops on the
ground. Our troops, as usual, for the
most part. Estimates of 75,000 Americans
going in if nerve gas needs to be secured and removed. Just talk. Since when did ours become soldiers of Saudi Arabia and co?
Tell me again --
who set off the gas in Syria, and what kind of gas was it? What about the Russians' lengthy report about
all of this? Who was this rebel who came
forward and said the rebels set off the sarin gas? How do we know some videos of
"victims" aren't frauds? Al
Qaeda and co. have a history of providing all sorts of tomfoolery. And if everything is real as claimed, just
what are we going to do about it?
Or is this less
about Syria's actions and more about Iran's potential threat? If one drifts off in that direction, other
wish list subjects come into focus -- such as oil pipelines intended by
competing national entities.
Will Russia's Putin save the day by reaching an agreement with Assad to gain control of a bounty of horrible weapons? If so, will Obama take credit for all the good stuff and blame Congress for all the bad?
One wonders
about Mr. Obama's stable of psychologists, said to be successful in influencing
the vote. As we write these very words, mere
musings beyond the Ethernet, could a team of psychs be actively engaged in
making sure the president speaks exactly the right words Tuesday evening? Words and thoughts designed to gain support
for his goals in Syria -- and beyond? A
slew of university psychology graduates roam the planet, hungry for brains, your
brains and mine, so it was only a matter of time until government found a use
for their talents in manipulation and influence of the mind. Of course, they've long been part of the
government, but their usefulness to the Obama White House in pulling mental
strings among those whose thought processes range no further than celebrity
worship and sports scores confounds.
In the meantime,
I've watched a succession of news shows about Syria, and I'm reminded of that
TV commercial aired a few months ago where a family's cable goes out and, in
order to sell satellite TV as an alternative, the ad shows the family and a
little kid sitting on a sofa who proclaims, in response to the (alluded to) question, what are you going
to do about it, "You gotta do something!"
Yes, Mr.
President, you gotta do something.
And that's why he will. Something will happen. Maybe even a hollow something.
And speaking of
television, I sometimes turn the sound off and just watch
the actors and visual premise of various programs, and suddenly some shows
silently appear more vacant and stupid than they actually seem with audio. And as we've mentioned before, we're not
encouraged by the new TV season, particularly because TV continues to reach
into the past for fairy tales and the like.
Vampires have been done as much to death on TV as cop and hospital
shows, and much of the remaining ammunition of production values involves
recycling old stuff or updating fairy tales or bringing in Sherlock Holmes and
-- soon -- the "legend" of Sleepy Hollow (we doubt that the ghost of
Washington Irving will be coming around for residual payments). Either there's nary a creative brain left in
Hollywood or, more likely, new brains are forbidden to enter Hollywood, what
with attorneys, agents and the like protecting the old breed as well as the new
clueless breed whose life experiences, necessary for success, constitute
nothing of consequence. Then again, the
younger up-and-coming TV audience stands on equal par, so perhaps the new TV
season will sparkle after all.
Which brings me
back to TV news. I don't know how to put
this gently or without offense, but I have to say -- NBC, if the White House
ever, ever needs to advertise in the job market for butt-wipers, you folks
should be at the top of the list. In
fact, maybe NBC already provides that service, augmented with powder puffs.
considering the stuff they throw out every day and night about this White House
bunch, which can apparently do very little wrong as far as NBC's divisions are
concerned. Baby wipes are purchased by
the ton, one suspects.
