Got eaten for "flame-bating" for the following erstwhile node I called "War!... War!... War! War! War! War!... War!", but I'm not quite ready to let go of it, or the downvotes and "flames" it'll elicit. (Since when should we be afraid of such things?)
War!... War!... War! War! War! War!... War!
It's important to watch the network evening newsoccasionally. Not for the news, of course; you'll barely find it there, but rather to read between the lines of patter and learn the news from how the news is told.
This evening (1/22/03), I watched the CBS News with Dan Rather (while whipping together a rather nice pesto mushroom chicken sausage ravioli thing, thank you very much!) Fifteen full minutes after the predictable lead about the impending war in Iraq, was a story about how at least six major U.S. airlines were either in bankruptcy or contemplating it. Hello?! Can we at least tell the truth here in this place where the only cost of doing so is the risk of being downvoted, or nuked? (What an irony that? Which does Japan fear worse, the risk of being nuked (again) by Iraq or North Korea?) This country's economy is in the worst shape since 1930, perhaps much, much worse. And on we go, jabbering about war—for it, agin' it, indifferent to it—like Wile E. Coyote having running off a cliff still pedaling his legs because he hasn't looked down and engaged the force of gravity yet. (It's telling that these Warner Brothers cartoons hearken back to the Depression Era.)
It's merely a sidebar that in the same broadcast, my wife, infant son and I were dubiously privileged to witness a video clip of our president, George W. Bush warning Iraqi officers that if they followed the order to use weapons of mass destruction, they would be "persecuted" to fullest extent of international law.
This is my rant. This is my truth telling for today. Hit that downvote, baby. Let's see how much in ten years—hell, in one year!—I, you, or any of us gives a fuck.