A Sense of Humor Helps

Was discussing this report of a bin Laden sighting with my pal and dearest little brother in Christ, Greg. He sighed in exasperation and said, “What is this guy, Bigfoot? Sightings? Don’t they realize Bush is going to trot him out on The Tonight Show this Monday?”

I needed that laugh. We’re all too edgy these days, and I’m not meaning simply my family and our situation with S. I have friends – both Republicans and Democrats – calling me up in various stages of hysteria because the polls are coming too fast and furious – they cannot be digested quickly enough and people’s heads are spinning with numbers and possible scenarios. My response: Turn off the television, stop listening. Stop looking at the polls. They’re meaningless. No one is going to predict this election. The Father of Confusion has well-obfuscated this silly season; the media are – to my everlasting grief – barely coherent and no longer trustworthy and these strange, shifting polls, which seem to reflect nothing but bi-polar disorder in the masses, are merely one more manifestation of that.

I’m of the opinion that only news and political junkies are listening to or looking at any of this any longer. It’s too overwhelming and for most of the population it matters more to get supper on the table, oversee homework, meet a deadline, make sure there are clean clothes for work tomorrow, or somesuch. They’ve decided who they are going to vote for, and they’ve stopped listening. The pundits are spinning away and the folks still watching are zoned out, but can’t look away because this whole election has become such a freak show. It’s all white noise, which should always be turned off and at this point I honesty believe it’s harmful to one’s mental heath to focus too much on these final, furious days. Hopefully there will be no terror attack. If there is, Kedwards will say it’s Bush’s fault for not personally guarding an ammo dump that may or may not have had explosives in it sometime in the past 18 months, in between the time when Iraq was, then was not, then was a dangerous and threatening place. The Bush team will wonder if the Kedwards weren’t used by some larger forces as part of the attack, since their strangely synchronized media and UN co-ordinated campaign just ‘happened’ to start talking about these explosives just ‘before’ an attack. (Scroll down to Synchronized Spinning).

In the end, of course, finger pointing will not serve the nation a bit. I’m a simple middle-class American woman with a family; my husband is flying across the country tomorrow on business, and I am not liking this whole idea of a threat one bit. If either side decides the correct response to an attack is finger-pointing or blaming anyone but the terrorists, it will tear the nation apart. I pray there is no attack. And if there is, and anyone tries to make political hay with it – damn them.

Being a bit edgy myself, I’ll go for another laugh. I like this video. After spending ten minutes watching Edwards comb his hair a few weeks ago, Bush’s short and sweet response to primping is refreshing.