Cop-Out

I hope I will be forgiven.

I just cannot maintain focus on politics anymore. The news is all so bad: the erased CIA interrogation tapes; evidence that the White House has been aiding al-Queda; the right-wing hate machine going after any and all dissenters; more and more lies, and confusion, about Iran's intentions; the economic collapse of the United States; the housing bust; billions and billions being wasted, stolen, and lost, in Iraq and Afghanistan; illegal wiretapping of US citizens; Bush appointees destroying the agencies they have been appointed to; the theft of the elections; the inability, or unwillingness, to fix the voting machines; the ascendance of very religious candidates in the United States; the US torturing people around the world; and the ineptitude and/or complicity of the Democrats to do much of anything about all the bullshit that Bush has wrought.

They say that the continued existence of these United States and our "democracy" depends upon the involvement of its citizens, but I just can't. I'm sorry. It's just too much. I'm apparently not strong enough to handle it all. I begin to despair and get depressed, so I fall into irrelevance and humor, like this...

Three old ladies are sitting in a diner, chatting about various things. One lady says, "You know, I'm getting really forgetful. This morning, I was standing at the top of the stairs, and I couldn't remember whether I had just come up or was about to go down."

The second lady says, "You think that's bad? The other day, I was sitting on the edge of my bed and I couldn't remember whether I was going to sleep or had just woken up!

The third lady smiles smugly, "Well, my memory is just as good as it's always been, knock on wood," she says as she raps on the table. Then with a startled look on her face, she asks, "Who's there?"

Hopefully there will be a decent part of the United States remaining when I finally wake up.