You Don't Like It When I'm Trenchant, I Know

"It just seems like you're writing things you think 'should' be written on a blog," she said. I hadn't seen her in a while, and because it is always lovely to see her, share the warmth for each other, and she's rather easy on the eyes (yow), I didn't reply with what I thought, and moved on to less heated territory...Besides, I had to leave the V soon, and didn't want to leave with a bad taste in my/our mouth/s.

That isn't it, however. Not by a long shot. What fuels the seemingly increasing rants is a genuine alarm for the things I see happening in our society on a day to day basis, and if I don't vent it here, it would decrease my ability to set it aside in person at moments like the one described above.

Besides, even by foisting it on friends who would rather have me babbling incoherently about, I don't know, the various incarnations of The Tick (Ben Edlund deserves a hell of a lot more widespread credit), I hope that the rants serve as a means of increasing awareness. Not all of my friends read Salon, not all of my friends watch Sunday morning punditry, not all of my friends watch even the faux-news of The Daily Show, even if it is both more entertaining and educational than standard news.

And you know? These are things that I think are awareness-worthy.

For example, I was initially coming in here to kvetch about the impending birthday, and how old it is that I'm feeling leading up to it when a friend sends me the link to a firey op-ed piece in the Huffington Post regarding the US government's switch from The War in Iraq to The War in Iran, and how the Democrats have now backpedaled to the point where we'll be carrying Bush's agenda well into the next decade (seemingly learning nothing from Vietnam), then I read in Salon about how there might be enough Bush-enabling-Democrats to actually give the Shrub both amnesty and increased power on the matter of illegal wiretapping, and suddenly, the feeling of safety gained after last November's election cycle seems all the more illusory.

Add to this the fact that Coulter yearns to abolish Women's Right to Vote; Limbaugh's smearing of wounded vets, followed by his whingeing about being "misrepresented;" and O'Reilly's "discovery" that there are cultured niggras out there...It's a wonder I'm not more like palDeni, really. I wish I had the ability to crack wise the way that (fellow old fuck) palJoe does...

And if I'm able to make some stranger out there, or some friend, think on this crap for just a moment...If I'm able to preempt the inevitable "I wonder what Jamie Somers is up to" thought for a single second. If I'm able to create just the smallest sense of outrage in someone not predisposed to do that; well then, I have succeeded.

Next: I Feel Really Really Old