Snow Jobs, Part 3

It's official - I'm getting old.

After shoveling the sidewalks and driveway and digging out two cars multiple times yesterday, this morning I hurt in places I'd forgotten I had places. The only good part of the day was the big pot of creamy gulasch I made for supper, which was just the right thing for aching joints. Especially when washed down with a good red wine.

Nevertheless, I still hurt.

And I took a gentle intellectual wire-brushing from Suzy Q over my castigation of Rush Limbaugh in yesterday's post. She pointed out that I had mistaken the source of some verbiage Mr Limbaugh had used - I identified the "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" words as the Preamble to the Constitution...as Suzy Q correctly points out, they actually appear in the Declaration of Independence. That's what happens when I get a full head of indignant steam up and write before I think. She also suggested that Mr Limbaugh's tirade was not as worrisome as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's assertion that if something isn't done quickly, "500 million jobs will disappear each week."

Intellectually battered and bleeding, Bilbo lurches back against the ropes and tries to collect his thoughts...

I suppose, in a twisted way, I've made my own point. Instead of reasoned debate and discussion of critical issues that affect each of us, we are engaging in a war of bluster and sound bites, with shots taken more often from the hip and heart than the brain. I can be as guilty of this as anyone. Because I get so infuriated by the relentless demagoguery of people like Rush Limbaugh, I sometimes allow myself to get distracted from pointing out the equally stupid pronouncements of some from the other side of the argument. My basic stand remains as ever: we have allowed our policy discussions to be hijacked by those who shout loudest from the farthest ends of the political spectrum, rather than seeking points of agreement (however few they may be) and using them as a basis for working outward to find reasonable solutions for our problems.

Rush Limbaugh equates the least compromise of his conservative ideals as a sellout, rather than a search for agreement. Nancy Pelosi frequently opens her mouth before making sure the brain clutch is engaged. And all the people who slavishly follow them continue to violate Bilbo's First Law: Don't let anyone do your thinking for you.

Thank you, Suzy Q, for pointing out my mistake. I'll try to do better.

Now, if only our elected reprehensives and the shouting blowhards who try hardest to influence them could do the same...

Have a good day. Stay warm (not applicable in Palembang and Southern California). More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo