Meanwhile... back in what passes for reality these days...

Okay, I had told myself that I would show restraint. I've tried, I've really tried. I don't want to spend my time preaching to the converted. But I just can't ignore the current political "news" any longer. There have been several fun images worth re-posting which have appeared since the 'Great Debate' between President Obama and President-wanna-be Mitt Romney. Romney came off as a preppy on speed, obnoxiously interrupting and speaking over both the debate moderator and the President of the United States. There is such a thing as respect, Mitt. It might help if you learned to show it, even if you can't quite connect with the concept of humility which goes along with it.   For his part, Obama seemed tired, first exhibiting the kind of patience a parent shows a child who has just discovered that there is injustice in the world, then tolerance, then peevishness, and only occasionally delving into momentary flashes of frustration. Romney constantly noted that the President was misinformed about his (Romney's) proposals, most of which were stunningly different than those on which he has been running since the start of the primaries and which are contained the Republican Party Platform he helped create. The President let him get away with it. Jeezus, Obama - when the hell are you going to stand up and tell these people off? It's time you called the Republicans on their lies and noted that it is they who have refused to work with you and your administration. You are letting them get away with re-writing your administration's history and spreading it as vote-for-Republican-propaganda-manure. Man up and fight back, damn-it.

As I have no money for cable and there is no broadcast television signal where I live, I had to rely on the internet to watch the debate. Every web-stream I found, including the one on YouTube, was provided by a partnership of Yahoo and ABC News. The anchoring was annoying, but no where near as bad as the constant popups and superimposed tweets of such sophisticated thoughts as "Go get im". The entire internet, once a wonderful resource, has become a constant corporate commercial of banners, roll over signs, and superimposed messages (some can't even be turned off - the only way to get rid of them to read a news story is to reload the page) supplemented by expressions of thought from people who are clearly not used to the process. Don't expect to be able to read much of the news on the internet without paid subscriptions any longer - reportage on the internet has gone heavily into web-streams of talking heads with annoying graphics and music - some as short as 20 or 30 seconds - in place of text. Aside from online sales, it is as though there were a prejudice against  people who can read. Perhaps that is why Romney felt bold enough to note that he would pull all funding from the Public Broadcasting Service (which gets about one one-hundredth of the US budget, less than the Pentagon spends in one day).

Okay, I guess I feel better now.
Maybe.