Trophies for all the Heroes.

It was inevitable:  when the generation that all got trophies for participating had a "war" everybody who enlisted is a "hero."

The GOP's Long Game

In the course of a single high school history class, I had an epiphany regarding the remarkable consistency that is the hallmark of the Republican Party's long game. They're in it not just to win, but to destroy any chance for the losing side to recover. Carl Rove's "permanent Republican majority" is not inevitable, but as the American Dream gets chipped away, with a small block here, a limitation there, a bit more cash diverted to private hands, it all plays toward a Doomsday scenario that looks more like China than is comfortable.

Think about it:  there is a remarkable consistency between the Chinese disregard for the environment and the GOP's war on the EPA. The Department of Homeland Security is now the third-largest entity in the United States government; an agency born in the wake of 9/11, built on the premise of unfettered spending on defense and security, the source of many private-sector fortunes, and reminds one of the Chinese security state.

If we consider the Chinese political and judicial systems, they might remind one of the GOP's ongoing efforts to ensure that only the right sort of people get to vote and have their votes count, thereby ensuring that the right

It saddens and dismays.

I'm still waiting for a meteor.

“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
"But that's terrible," said Arthur.
"Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say 'That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.”

― Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish