Excuse me while I rant

It's been a few days since my last post. The goings on in the world and the heat have conspired to make me a bad blogger.

The AC in our vehicle died again and since it's going to take almost $400 to fix, we've been without it for going on two weeks while we wait in a sweaty stupor for pay day.  Our 30-45 minute drive to work isn't so bad in the morning since it's generally still in the 80s but the same drive home is like sitting in a blast furnace. It's been over a 100 for so long now that when it cools down to 95 it seems wonderful.  It's getting fixed Tuesday, so that torture is almost over.

Getting home hot and uncomfortable does not make for much intellectual capacity. Add to that the fact that the office has been sitting at 68 or so most of the week and blogging at work has been uninspiring as well. Too cold. Surely the drastic change in temperature isn't good for one's health.

I've been watching the crap fest that is the Henry Gates tempest with dismay. First we have the Pennsylvania pool being openly racist to a group of kids who paid for the privilege and now this.  I'm pretty sure that the truth of the matter lies somewhere in between what we've heard from both sides, but listening to the entire thing has been disturbing.  There is so much anger and resentment from both sides. Some justified, perhaps, but in the final analysis completely unhelpful.

So with this background percolating in the back of my head, I was watching BBC's Torchwood and was suddenly struck by what I was watching. People of color were all over the series. And fit not a single stereotype that we see on every American television broadcast. I realized that throughout this series and others from the BBC, I'd seen many persons of color in both minor and major roles.  They held various jobs- doctor, military officer, scientist, barista, secretary. Some were the good guys and some were the bad guys but I never got the feeling that they were chosen for that role on any other basis than the skill that they brought to the screen.

Add to that the ridiculous battle we're having over universal health care and the heat, and I suddenly thought that it was time to move to the UK.

Time to just pack it in. I'm so tired of the general level of idiocy of the media. Tired of every time my governor puts his foot in his mouth and the resulting Texas bashing that ensues. Tired of hypocritical liberals belittling conservatives yet trying to claim the moral high ground with the very next breath. Tired of watching politicians more concerned with lining their own pockets than actually trying to do something constructive. Tired of my piece of shit house that just needs to burn down and be done with it.  Tired of being considered crazy and dangerous because I profess a faith in God that dares to call itself Christian because everyone assumes that I buy into the Christianist garbage that flows from the media and internet.

I'm tired. Tired of the divisiveness that seems to be the status quo in America. Tired of the seeming inability of Texans to vote into office anyone to represent our state that is something besides a flaming lunatic.  Tired of the fact that even when we have, those people never get time from the media, thus perpetuating the image of Texas as composed of racist, homophobic idiots.

I'm tired of the idiocy that gets time on prime time news. From G. Gordon Liddy mumbling about the President's mother running an ad in the Honolulu Advertiser so her son could claim American citizenship to Republicans who use delay tactics concerning health care reform after taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the health care industry to rude and profane behavior and comments on online forums that degenerate the level of conversation to that of  a high school locker room.

It is madness.

We are children with the capability and seeming determination to destroy our planet and each other. What is there worth saving when an 8 year old girl is gang raped by boys ranging in age from 9-14? Or when being black and male makes you a target and suspect just by breathing? What about a people that sent this woman to congress to tell us that Americans don't need health care reform? We're doing just fine, thank you very much.

I'm not feeling very patriotic these days. The people of this country, those great masses that avoid the Internet and get their news from mainstream media, don't seem to want to engage. They're more concerned about their next pay check and feeding their kids, keeping the electricity on and paying for gas. They can't be bothered with learning about the issues and rely on an increasingly polarized media to tell them what to think. That the media can't even get it together enough to feed them one homogenous message only makes things worse.

As Tommy Lee said in that great masterpiece of American cinema, Men In Black, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

That has seemed never more true to me than in the last few weeks.  Hello, hand basket. Got room for 304,059,724 more on your trip?

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