43 White Men

In the absence of religious belief, I seek comfort from intelligent people with good ideas. In the absence of an interest in sports, I seek entertainment in the con-game horse race that is the presidential campaign. So, with each Obama primary win I am comforted and entertained; my fear is that I will be neither when he wins the race and finds himself in a possibly un-winnable situation.

Everyone in the country, with the exception of the absolute stupidest and stubbornest 25%, believe that just about anyone will be an improvement over the current captain of state. The problem is that the same 50.0001% that may have voted for him might be somewhat regretful, but not any smarter. Short memories will fail and blame for their particular share of our collective nation karma will fall to the person trying to fix the mess.

What motivates the trio of presidential candidates to clamber over one another, spitting and biting, in an epic battle to force their way into the wheelhouse of our metaphoric ship of state, so they can stand behind the helm as that ship slams into the rocks and makes a dive for the bottom? It really takes some big cohones to get up in front of a country and declare that you are going to make everything alright.

Any sane person to do such a thing must know that apart from the majority of their audience, who will ignore them, there are well organized, clever people who will try to either debunk or sabotage them. True believers are then disappointed and bitter... this is the logic that makes hope difficult.

A burning freighter loaded with empty containers is adrift in a rocky harbor during a growing storm. The captain is an idiot and the crew is comprised mostly of lunatics and thieves who have stolen all the cargo. The ship is running out of fuel, and much of what is left in the tanks is on fire. The fire extinguishers were thrown overboard because they were somehow perceived to be in the way of the lunatics' thieving. The only hope of ending the conflagration is to let the ship sink in shallow water so the the waves can quench the flames. We'll try to re-float it later, but while resting on the bottom waiting for the storm to blow itself out, why not launch our lifeboats and see who needs help?

My new favorite quote

"Everyone has a plan, until they get hit in the face" -Mike Tyson

I don't imagine he was speaking metaphorically at the time, but I read this as a variation of "The best laid plans of Mice and Men..." The fact that it was spoken by a dangerous half-wit lunatic makes it all the more true and hilarious. This quote really cracks me up.

I think the accidental wisdom of dangerous lunatics around the world should be heeded. A million monkeys banging on a million keyboards for a million years will eventually write Hamlet.