An Abbreviated Stop the Stupid!!

Sorry folks!

Circumstances are forcing me to post only a very short Stop the Stupid this week. It isn't that I have lost interest. Far from it! This election season is proving quite fruitful. The mass of stupidity is overwhelming. No, on the contrary. I just am quite pressed for time until after the holidays, so here is the best that I can do with limited resources.

1. I sat to watch ABC News last evening to gauge the very first one on one with Sarah Palin. As a Canadian, I rarely watch American nightly news, simply because the shit that is happening in Toronto takes more immediacy, then the re-hashed half an hour from the networks. But Charlie Gibson scored the first Q and A with the Governor of my neighbour to the north, so I was fascinated. I must admit, that my liberal bullshit detector has been on full alert since her nomination, but I was intrigued so I tuned in. I am still convinced that John McCain hit the jackpot with this woman. I disagree with her on every single issue, but she comes across witty, engaging and she certainly knows how to memorize the talking points. (OK! So maybe she doesn't know what the Bush doctrine is and maybe she still thinks that Georgia is one state north of Florida, but she is a quick study!) But, she lost me when discussing the possibility of nuclear arms. I don't think I can take another possible 8 years of any government official mispronouncing the word NUCLEAR!! Mrs. Palin! The word is NUCLEAR not NUCULAR!!! Please, you sound absolutely stupid and uneducated when you mispronounce such a fundamental word. I don't think that it is quaint or that it brings you closer to the masses. It is just stupid.

2. This week saw lots of pigs wearing cosmetics. Who knew? I didn't realize that our farm animals like to dress in drag. Give me a break. Who honestly out there believes that Barack Obama was calling Sarah Palin porcine when he used this common, if not kind of odd expression. To make matters that much more ridiculous, both Dick Cheney and John McCain himself have used this term recently when discussing the opponents policies.



Come on people. This is yet another distraction from the Republicans. They want you to worry about things like supposed sexism, media bias and Cindy's wardrobe, so that you will not focus on the real issues, like the war, economy and 4 more years of Bush policy. Please, my American friends. This is truly lipstick on a pig!!!

3. Not to be outdone, my countrymen have survived the first week of the politicking for our own federal election. So much is ridiculous, I hardly know where to start. How about Mr. Harper and Mr. Layton (as far apart on the political spectrum as two leaders could get) actually joining forces to keep the Green Party out of the televised debates. I am not really sure what they were afraid of. Dissatisfaction with the established party choices? NAH!!!! While it is true that the Greens have no shot whatsoever at forming the next government, they have met all the previously stated criteria for participation in the debates, including a newly minted sitting MP. The public backlash was intense even from within the Conservative and NDP ranks. Finally, the dreaded FLIP-FLOP! The Green leader will now be present for the debates. If nothing else has come of this, the manner in which televised debates are organized needs to be rethought. It needs to become part of the election rules and laws, as opposed to leaving it to the private television consortium that could be rampant with special interests. Thank goodness sanity prevailed over stupidity.

4. Stupid is the price of gas. Oil has dropped worldwide to just over one hundred dollars (US) a barrel, yet there is a disconnect between that and the price at the pumps. Last night gas in the GTA rose $0.13 a litre. HUH? Hurricane Ike hasn't even hit yet and we are faced with a 13 cent hike? WTF? Citizens on both sides of the border, I urge you to question your candidates about a coherent energy policy.

Shabbat Shalom to all who observe.