Friday, April 11, 2008

I Need An Enema




Well, I guess that got your attention. Indeed, the subject of this post is going to be an end run. And I guess you can say that's two more examples of a play-on-words with the picture to the left. No, wait. I have one more. This is a blog entry that I will be backing into it.

Okay, I'll stop.

There's a product frequently advertised on the radio called "Ever Cleanse." It's apparently some gunk that you drink and it amazingly removes the waste from your intestine walls. Allegedly, you can have almost 25 pounds of toxic waste stuck in your body and this stuff pretty much removes it.

I am wondering if there is such a thing that works on brain matter. Because, for all the past meals that never made the complete journey through my body and stopped to enjoy the sights of my innards, it is my brain that now contains all the truly poisonous garbage. And things are lingering there much longer than I would like. As much as I try to decompress and deprogram, we are now living in a world which makes that impossible. And I now realize that I have about as much ability to separate myself from mental toxins as some of the idiots I like to lampoon on this site.

I noticed it initially when I reviewed a year's worth of this blog when I celebrated its first anniversary last month. The more I read the passages, the more I realized something.

When the hell did I become so politically angry???

I've been wrestling with that strange notion internally ever since. But, it was my good friend, the Bibster, who vocalized it to me. He suggested that this blog was now less about fun and more about crap. Too much Obama. Too much Hillary. Too much Reverend Wright.

Too much too much. Too freakin' much.

A point well taken. And embraced. I hear you because I heard me. Thanks to our now everpresent media onslaught, we cannot escape the mediocrity of this country. Never has a Presidential campaign been this consuming and this divisive. Super Tuesdays. Super delegates. Super racism. Super sexism. Combine this all with the other inescapable horrors around us and we are all mentally smoked.

Politically, I am a moderate. Back in New York, I was registered as a Republican, most likely because my father had driven me to sign up when I first hit the voting age. In Los Angeles, I am essentially an Independent. In between, I have voted for Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and my absolute favorite candidate, Nobody. I try to vote for somebody and not against somebody else. That, however, becomes harder and harder to do, as my father's voice and voting counsel more and more resounds in my head.

"They all stink."

And they all do. In what is now essentially an unexceptional country, our leaders are even less so. Look at our choices to lead this land for the next four years. Barack Obama is a liar and a fraud who has beguiled a largely stupid populace with eloquent rhetoric and little substance. Hillary Clinton is a throwback to a yellow journalist, selling misstatements and scare tactics to an unsuspecting public. John McCain's leadership skills are antiquated and certainly not equipped to lead us through the ultra-complex issues facing our world.

There's nobody for me. So, I just need to accept that. I love to read up on 20th Century Presidential history and pretty much can tell you that the only truly great Chief Executives have been Franklin Delano Roosevelt and perhaps John F. Kennedy for about 13 days in October, 1962. Other than that, each and every one of them have been grossly partisan and extremely agenda-ridden. The latest three jerks running for the office are even worse.

Unfortunately, it is all inescapable. Beyond what I read in my own damn blog, I more recently noticed that I couldn't even duck it all when I enter what should be a bastion of solitude and normalcy. My church.

I should not be surprised. My pastor has been doing politically-oriented sermons for some time, and has effectively driven so many people away from our pews that our Sunday services now come up short for even a bridge game. And, admittedly, she's got at least one screw loose on her very best days. But, over the past several weeks, she's so crossed the lines that I am actually considering another house of worship. Last week, she compared Obama's "message of hope" to Jesus Christ.

HUH????

So, now all the idiocy of the world outside comes inside to our most inner of sanctums. When does it stop? How much more do we endure till we throw up our collective hands? The two party system of extremists on both sides is choking the life out of our national windpipe. But, at the same time, I absolutely and unequivocably refuse to be as angry as these jerks want me to be.

I will now contribute in some own small way. So, moving forward in these entries, you will see more memories and movies and, hopefully, merriment. I started this blog a year ago as a daily writing exercise that would hopefully be fun for you as well. And that's where we are going. Oh, there may be a moment or two of reflections on this screwball world we live in. And, if somebody dumps a strawberry milkshake on Michelle Obama's head, that would be too delicious for me to ignore. But, largely, I can no longer contribute to the insanity of our ongoing political disasters. This is not to say that it's going away from our lives completely. Just here.

Right back at ya tomorrow.

Dinner last night: Dish of ice cream (Had a huge lunch).

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