June 24, 2012
As I sit here, somewhat uncomfortably, and way too sober in these wee morning hours as I prep for my colonoscopy – I can only think of the many other things that I’d rather be doing than having this Colyte cocktail and visiting the toilet every few minutes to, well, anyone who has had a colonoscopy with Kaiser knows…
And while I was going through the same routine last night, I had the occasion to watch the first episode of The Newsroom, a new HBO series featuring Jeff Daniels and Sam Waterston and soon to come, Jane Fonda. I must say – I enjoyed it very much: particularly the opening scene in which Jeff Daniels has a powerful monologue on why US can’t really consider ourselves “the greatest” country on the planet any longer – which jives with what I often write about (and I particularly enjoyed the Haliburton bashing at episode’s end). The happy theme underneath is that as Americans we have always sought to “do better,” and, if I can maintain this belief as well – I might not be so despondent with regards to the future of US.
But whenever I attempt to frame the chaos that is America under some canopy of meaning, I instead experience Elliot’s vertigo of “The Second Coming” – where the center no longer holds.
By now everyone has heard of the famous McDonald’s coffee lawsuit – where Micky Ds’ is sued for $11 million because someone threw hot coffee on someone else in a McDonalds’ outlet; but what about this local nonsense? A girl overdosing at a local rave and her parents getting a financial settlement from the rave organizers? As if the rave organizers invited her to come there and die?! No one asks what the parents culpability in this accident was?! Did they give her permission to go? Did they know she experimented with drugs?? I don’t know how shit like this plays into our nation doing better!?
Even the mother of homeless Kelly Thomas, (the fellow essentially beaten to death by Fullerton police) managed to pull off a cash settlement from the city of Fullerton. I suppose this was in recompense for her stellar mothering that facilitated Kelly’s life on the streets. I’m still wondering if Dad will settle for cash – or, if he really just wants to see 2 cops behind bars…
And some idiot reporter(s) in my beloved Times had the audacity to suggest that Mexico is responsible for handling their CIA-facilitated cartels…
I’m just not convinced of the American way: it is typically under-informed and almost always violent.
In my spare time I study the “taming” of the American West – and the Native American body count is staggering. I look at Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan – and see similar body counts (and this is without having stats for clandestine efforts in Angola, Sudan, Uganda and other places where it’s difficult to get the news out – not to mention Central and South American countries whose dictators have pandered to American oil interests).
We can do better?!
Nah. The American solution is simply to throw guns and money at the problems. Because frankly, these two agents solve all problems, don’t they? Just ask Rodney and Osama.
And, if you run out of money to throw, just print more – so the whole world is T-peed in Yankee Dollars to clean up all our shit.
And if you think I had a bug up my ass when I wrote this, well, I did!