Thank God for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert

Every time I start to come to a boil like an old kettle over some new idiocy from the GOP lunatic fringe I make it a point to watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.  Sure enough if the situation is egregious enough to have made the news by the next day it will be fodder for their differing brands of political satire.  I watch them and laugh and feel better.  It's enormously reassuring to know there are good quick minds out there ready, willing and more than able to skewer the bastards.  A lot of comedians lamented the ending of the Bush administration because they thought they'd be losing a reliable source of material.  Well, Fox News (an oxymoron if there ever was one) with its stable of vitrolic talking heads and a whole flock of Republican whack jobs--many of whom plan to be president someday--have more than filled the void.  And then there are the self-parodys like Donald Trump and Glenn Beck.  Using them for comedic fodder is almost redundant. 

I never thought I'd say this but I've come to actually feel sorry for moderate Republicans and even traditional conservatives.  Their party's apparent domination by the Tea Party and other mean-minded social conservatives has left them politically homeless.  A lot of them are probably giving thanks now for the secret ballot.  They may have to pay lip service to the rantings of these people but in the voting booth they can vote their consciences without any fear of reprisal.   

It Makes Me Blush!

Not long ago I indulged in a fit of whining about our crummy spring weather and how depressed it made me.  Well in my defense I'd been cold for about four or five months and that really erodes my ability to be stoic about almost anything.  However, after the truly ghastly storms that raged through the south the past few days I'm feeling pretty chagrined about all my boo-hooing about our bad weather.  So far we haven't had so much as a lively thunderstorm.  In an odd fit of nostalgia my daughter even downloaded a thunderstorm on her phone because we haven't had one recently.  I thought that was a bit of an over-reaction but didn't say anything.  

I feel dreadfully sorry for all the people effected by the tornadoes this past weekend.  I know all too well the terrible primitive fear that overcomes you when the sky turns black and you know something awful is about to happen and you're powerless to stop it or do anything more than cower in a dark place and hope you're still there when the sun comes out again. 

Spring has Sprung--Somewhere

We've had a week of spring here in Kansas so of course the weather is wretched and people are getting nervous and grumpy.  Not the customary response to spring, you say?  Well, you obviously don't live in this part of the world.  In fact we don't really have spring, we have Severe Weather Season.  A sure sign of the advent of SWS is the beginning of storm spotter meetings.  Some places have crocuses and the return of robins.  We have storm spotter meetings. 

We get nervous because SWS can--and has--presented us with a wide range of crappy weather over the years.  Tornadoes.  Thunderstorms that give the impression the world is coming to an end.  And hail.  One year it was a blizzard on April 1 that was so bad in parts of the state people were stranded for days if they were caught out on the highway.  And then there are sneaky late freezes that are severe enough all the garden supply places have to scramble around to get baby plants covered or indoors to save their stock.  

Currently everyone, myself definitely included, is grumpy and depressed because we haven't had sunshine or daytime high temperatures out of the 40s for about five days.  In my case that's about four days longer than I care for.  Even the TV weather people are getting that slightly frantic, don't-blame-the-messenger air about them. 

I'll be better once the sun comes out and I'm finally warm again.  But  in the meantime I'm going to be like Marvin, the Paranoid Android.  I'm just going to stand in the corner and rust...

Jumping in to the world of blogs!

So now I'm a blogger--an unattractive word that reminds me of things like gluttony and similar bad habits.  However, I've decided this is a perfect way to vent, rant, share experiences and generally delude myself that I'm not just another invisible old person.  And it's more fun than interior monologues because there's the off chance I'll turn up a kindred soul along the way. 

More later...