I'm tired...

I'm so damned tired of this hurricane season. I thought I'd become numb to the constant threat of hurricanes, become inured to the tattooing the entire Gulf Coast has taken this year. I was wrong. Rita is well to the south and west of me, and there's still a part of me that wants to run for higher ground. I wish I had some faith in something. I wish I had the comfort of believing in a higher power. Instead, I find that I just believe that shit happens, and the best you can do is hope that the shit harms as few people as possible, and that none of it gets on you. Baldwin and Mobile Counties in Alabama (on the map, it's the two chunks of land on either side of Mobile Bay) have coastal flood warnings in effect, and the storm is due south of the remains of New Orleans.

I feel so sorry for those who will get Hurricane Rita, whomever they are. I have a pretty good idea of what they're going through right now, and am nowhere near being a big enough bastard to wish that on anybody. But am I a horrible person if I say that I'm just slightly relieved that it probably won't be me? A far larger part of me answers that question with a resounding "yes".

Tonight, I made the grave mistake of turning it onto Fox News when Bill O'Reilly's show was on. Americans are suffering by the hundreds of thousands, with that number certain to rise within the next 48 hours. People are in desperate need of assistance with even the most basic of needs. So, Bill O'Reilly did something genuinely productive and consistent with his character: He acted like an asshole and argued with another asshole from the other side of the aisle over a story that's been over for a while. His willing foil this time was Phil Donohue. What's up with O'Reilly? Doesn't he have some producers to sexually harass? O'Reilly and Donohue are both shit-stains, and the sooner they're off the airwaves, the happier I'll be. I don't favor censorship. I favor free market pressures. If people don't buy it, the product goes away. If you don't believe me, tell me the last time you saw a Josta soda in the local convenience store. I know that most of the people who visit my blog are of a more liberal bent, so this will probably be telling them something they already know, but if you do watch Fox News on a regular basis, stop watching O'Reilly's show. Do what you can to passively encourage sponsors to not spend as much for his show or drop it altogether. I say passively because we all know how well public outrage does for pop icons, and much like Howard Stern and for similar reasons, Bill O'Reilly qualifies. Just ask 2 Live Crew. They might've sold 10k albums had it not been for the outcry by Congresspersons and their spouses. In short, they sucked beyond all telling. Instead, I think their album went gold, maybe platinum, because of the stirring, thought provoking lyrics of the song "Me So Horny." Jesus H. Christ, even P.Diddy has better, more original lyrics, and a good chunk of his songs are him just saying "yeah" to other people's music. So don't watch his show, and encourage your conservative friends to do the same. I would say to do the same to Donohue, but he hasn't had a show in years.

Thus endeth the rant. Oh, and Blondage and everyone else in the projected path, be safe, and I wish you all the very best of luck.