Soul-crushing ennui, and unmitigated contempt:

Have you ever experienced a wave of ennui so deep that your thought processes seemed to slow to an unbearable crawl? Not sorrow or depression, just a bit of malaise that lasted a day or more? Perhaps it will sound a bit emo of me (okay, not "perhaps", more like "definitely"), but I did recently, and I found a cure. When I was younger, I listened to Nine Inch Nails because it reflected my anger. Now, I find it a comfort, and I was okay again, for a while. It just tends to happen this time of the year and around the holidays, loosely grouped around the solstices.

Once I got out of that funk, I remembered my anger at Phil Gramm's recent comments. Frankly, in a different context, I could easily have agreed with Senator Gramm's assertion that America is a nation of whiners, in the right context. With my life experiences, I've seen a good bit of it, and I've even, to my shame, engaged in it from time to time. However, in the context of ballooning food and fuel costs, the weakening dollar, one million foreclosures in the last six months alone, the fall of major financial institutions, and other forms of economic instability, his comments were nothing less than monstrous and evil. Furthermore, I spoke with one true-believing Republican who agreed with him and went on this barely-comprehensible rant about how even the homeless here have it better than the average person in Africa. The person in question had not exactly missed many meals, and anyway, it completely misses the point. Food banks are running out of supplies, desperately in need of food and volunteers, and other forms of assistance usually available during times of trouble are being stretched beyond their capacity. These are very real concerns, these are deeply hurting people, and these are not just "whining." His comments and even his later "clarification" are a slap in the face of those who are suffering and an insult to the intelligence of the rest of us. What a fucking used tampon that "man" is.

This goes to a deeper point, one that I'm sure I've made in the past. At this point, the Republican Party, or more aptly their national leadership, has become something I cannot support in good conscience. Some individual Republicans may get my vote in lower level races, based on their ability, positions, and the nature of the job they seek, but the national party has become something alien, frightening, and anathema to this nation's highest ideals. Xenophobia and bigotry are NOT American values, though an alarming number of prominent Republicans are trying to make it so. Frankly, Obi-Wan Kenobi had a higher opinion of the clientele of the Mos Eisley Cantina than I have of the modern Republican Party leadership. Nowadays, Bob Dole and the late Barry Goldwater would be considered liberal Republicans, and I find that more than a bit disturbing.

I don't know if I've posted this song before, but since it's such a good song by such a brilliant artist, I don't mind doing it again. Enjoy.