I'm not going to jump off a bridge or anything, but this morning's news is enough to send a sane person 'round the bend. How do you avoid the temptation to just throw your hands up and say "Well, they seem to like this handbasket and the path to hell, so who am I to try to stop them?"
Except the "them" in this mess is "us" -meaning the body-politic- and "us" includes me, and I'm not so okay with hell and handbaskets. So I guess we soldier on. But really.... here's what awaited me in this morning's news aggregator.
NPR reports that Condoleezza Rice is busy telling people that the United States' treaty obligations ban us from using cruel practices. Last week, of course, the Bush administration was saying this ruling did not apply to US nationals working abroad. So, at one point or another, they were obviously lying, but we knew that. (And, by the way, I really wish NPR would provide text copies of their articles in addition to the audio. But I'm clearly grouchy this morning.)
The New York Times has two stories this morning of innocent (the innocence admitted even by the administration) people being detained by US Immigration officials, spirited away to foreign jails, and tortured. But our treaty obligations prevent us from doing that. I'm SURE that's what I was told this morning.
An AP/Ipsos poll indicates that a majority of Americans support torture in rare cases. Excellent progress in the war on terror, Mr. President. We're becoming the thing we hate.
And the Kansas City Kansan reports that a student was suspended from school for 2 days for speaking Spanish at recess, which, by the way, doesn't violate any rules. "We're not in Mexico" was the principal's explanation. Oh, that's edifying. Spanish is actually taught at the school in question. Would students be suspended for practicing their verbs at lunch-time? Somehow I doubt it.
The Christmas fa-la-la factor is a little low here in the cornfields this morning. In all seriousness, how does one -how might I- forestall exhaustion and frustration?
No comments:
Post a Comment