People Are Strange

Now there's a simple minded title for you. It's also a song by the Doors that tends to suddenly play in my head when I read the latest bit of nonsense that the professional left has to say for itself. It's not that the song itself has anything to do with what I might be reading, it just happens to be that I think in song titles. I can't do it intentionally, I've tried and nothing happens.

Lately, while reading the political pundits I'm hearing a lot of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane. Probably the only time I've ever had an earworm that actually fits the content of the article. Actually, maybe there is another time I've had an earworm that fit the topic of an article.

Just yesterday I was reading that a member of the GOP believes that the male fetus masturbates in utero. Initially I was all "Say WHAAAAA?" and then, there it was, "Turning Japanese" by the Vapors.

The House, in it's infinite capacity for ignoring real world problems and focusing on women's bodies, has passed an anti-abortion bill. On the surface, it looks like a sheer waste of time since if it passes the Senate, our President won't sign it. My problem with it is that for some people it has become more evidence that the GOP is conducting business according to the will of the people and it's the President who is being an obstructionist.

Is the professional left, with it's many highly recommended blogs like the Nation or Salon doing anything to counter that idea? No, of course not. They're too busy with drones, Prism, NSA, NDAA and attacking people who don't agree with their oh so very intelligent conclusions.

They rant, rave and blame everyone else for our failure to "have nice things". I, on the other hand, spend my time wondering why they don't see that real world problems like jobs, crumbling infrastructure and failure of our educational system aren't more important than government transparency?

I live in an area where unemployment is still close to 10%. There are 2500 unemployed in the city I work in. Population there is 32,000. There were 12 jobs listed in last night's local paper. More than half of those were minimum wage offers.

My low income seniors have had as much as $50 a month cut from their food stamps. Meals on Wheels have  lost so much in their budget that it's affecting the food being served to those who receive the meals and any new applicants are given temporary meals only if they've been recently discharged from hospital or rehab. They receive the meals for 10 days and then are placed on a waiting list until something changes.

Oh dear. I've just given myself an earworm...."Think" by Aretha Franklin. I always did like that song.