Into the mist and on to the guillotine

Yes, friends, I am back.

It has been a while, I know. When I last left you, the ground was white in Kentucky, the air was cold and things really...REALLY sucked.

The ground is not longer white where I am, it is also no longer Kentucky but things still really suck. In fact, they are far suckier than before.

Into the Mist
I say 'into the mist' because I am now living in Pittsburgh where the early morning mists will often obscure the entire city from view. I am working in a law firm in the city, a proper normal 9-5 job, since the IRS- with the sharpened talons of new healthcare legislation- saw fit to destroy the industry in which I had until this year operated my own business. Kathleen Sebelius: May the flies of a thousand camels infest your nether region.
Don't get me wrong. Pittsburgh is my hometown and I do love it along with all of the trappings of city life. I am glad to be home. But, some things have changed. My old stomping grounds, it would seem, are not immune to the forces that have been operating back in Kentucky and indeed all over our country. I was humbled by the immense patriotism I saw during the 4th of July festivities. Knowing Pennsylvania to be a solidly blue state, I had expected a half-hearted and scaled-down event catering to a tepid crowd of PC fretters. What I saw was a throng of persons standing shoulder to shoulder in alternating heat and rain belting out "God Bless the USA". Everyone was wearing red white and blue. Here, the malaise that had so thoroughly riddled the Kentucky consciousness had not taken hold. While still a union-adoring group here up North, it seems that the love of personal liberty, autonomy and the American dream are more deeply sown.
Still, the passions are greater here, both positive and negative. The culture war is in full play and I have seen more hatred welling up along racial lines in my beloved city now than ever before in my life. I have to conclude that politics has a fair deal to do with that, when racial differences tend to break primarily along party lines. Politics, after all, comes down to our choices in ideology and lifestyle.

On to the Guillotine
If anyone had doubted that we were on the verge of revolution with the emergence of the Tea Party, those doubts were laid to rest, along with civility and hygiene, when we were introduced to Occupy Wall Street protests. This rabble of leftists, hippies and professional agitators lacked both a coherent list of demands and an iota of forethought into the ability to maintain their clamor long-term. Within days, they had taken pristine public [and sometimes not so public] land and made it, well, shitty.
In the Tea Party, we wanted an American Revolution- a chance to reaffirm those founding principles that gave us the greatest nation on earth. We wanted it 1791-style.
What we are getting is revolution au francais- the hack and slash, violent civil turbulence that left a bloody streak through Frances history, the same example that our founders shied from when pursuing our own revolution.
With the first day of Spring upon us, the Occupy crowd is gearing up with a fresh volley of threats and its instigators more clearly at the forefront. Will the Steven Lerners and Frances Fox Pivens in the movement be drawn to a 'Martin Luther King Jr.-style' protest of CIVIL disobedience?

Magic Eightball says, "Don't count on it."

Hypocrasy So Thick You Can Chew It

I was the late one crawling out of bed this morning, a fresh layer of snow covering the grass and lead settled into my bones. I stumbled through the house into the living room where my husband had already set, watching CSPAN broadcast the back and forth on the House floor regarding the bill to Repeal Nationalized Healthcare. Sgt Slaughter from New York's 28th Congressional District was whipping her posse of indignant liberals into a self-righteous frenzy in their attempts to stop the repeal vote. She accused the GOP of wasting time and grand-standing on a repeal vote for a measure they know would go nowhere. Isn't this the same party that hauled Corinthian columns out for an altar upon which to coronate their new leader? Is this not the same party whose leader demanded not only her own airplane, but a newer, larger one when she took over the Speakership? This flaming hypocrite ought to know about wastefulness and grand-standing. I bite my tongue and bypass the coffee pot- I am wide-eyed and twitchy already.
SCREEN CRAWLER
"Harry Reid refuses to allow the Repeal to come to a vote in the Senate..." Weren't they just accusing the GOP of violating the process by skirting the open amendment process and refusing to allow debate? My hand starts shaking while pouring the orange juice.

I never considered myself a violent person, but I have begin gleefully pondering draconian retribution as of late. Often. And I mean, alot.

Sen. Charles Schumer says that those who oppose national healthcare should forgo the coverage. If that option includes forgoing the taxes and invasion of my person, then you can take your free mammograms and cram them up your kiester, Chuck.

Google has all but admitted to spying on its users and has been on more than one occasion too cozy with our government. In a recent jaunt to the store, I discovered that Android[Google-based] phones REQUIRE upon activation that you register them to a Google [gmail] account. That way, when you access any of your other accounts by that phone, Google will have access to all of that information too. Nifty, eh?

If this keeps up, my coffee pot is going to get sad little use. Maybe that's good, because with the prices of food that are coming, I won't be able to afford it.