On choosing sides

My heart is moved by all I cannot save;
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who, age after age,
perversely, with no extraordinary
power, reconstitute the world.

- Adrienne Rich

So at long last, this is what we've come to.

I'd really hoped -- against hope, surely -- that this wouldn't happen, but happen it has.

First, let me point out that Obama isn't black. He's half-black. He could as easily describe himself as half-white. Just an interesting consideration.

Now go read this.

This is what you can expect to happen when you stir the American cesspool. The first shiny turds to float to the top are always the racists. Hollering "nigger" and telling a black man to "Sit down, boy!"? Shouting "Kill him!"? What's next...are they going to lynch Obama in effigy?

This is where Palin, and by convention McCain, has taken us. Into the slimy sewer of American politics, where the dregs of the 20th century still linger, stewing in their own bile over the fact that blacks are now treated as equals, over the fact that they can no longer publicly call them "nigger" and "boy." It's disgusting enough that these troglodytes still exist, more so that I have to share my air with them, and finally that people like Sarah Palin would stoop to rousing them from under their rocks as a political tactic.

Shame on Sarah Palin. And shame on John McCain for letting her go this route -- in fact, for picking her at all (which was, of course, another plainly political tactic, but that's another discussion). I'd like to think Americans in the main are bright enough to repudiate this kind of race-baiting, but I've heard too many interviews with people who profess to like Obama, then when asked why they aren't voting for him, can't or won't provide a reason. Which makes their reasoning pretty plain, as often as not. Shame on them too -- they'll be the downfall of America, in the end.

Well, I haven't been around forever, have I?

Color me busy. Flower beds, soccer practice, home improvements, redoing home improvements becausing the damned foundation settled again. Plus politics...this time of year I kind of get sucked in.

And I'm only back momentarily to say this: With respect to the bailout, I don't think I've ever been so conflicted about an act of Congress. On the one hand, I think it sucks to preserve institutions run by freakish greedheads who got rich at our expense, gamed the system, and lost. On the other hand, the damage is done. Those bastards have their money, and if something -- anything -- isn't done, it'll be you, me, and those beneath us who suffer. Nothing we can do -- short of prosecution, and the sad fact is they didn't do anything illegal, for the most part -- will bring that money back out of their wallets. All we can do now is pray that we avoid a depression.

Then we go back, figure out what happened, and fix it. And as little as the parties involved are going to like this, it must needs involve assigning blame. Because I want to know who to trust, and who not to trust, going forward.

And no, "don't trust anyone" is not an option -- it's a recipe for anarchy.