Shame: Have You None?

Good Lord. How dare he, this cocksucker waving his finger in Mr. Specter's face?

By all accounts, Mr. Specter is a humble public servant of several decades--one cannot deny this regardless of one's party affiliation or ideological stripe.

This cocksucker had the temerity to bellow "One day God's going to stand before you, and he's going to judge you and the rest of your damn cronies up on the Hill -- and the rest of your damn cronies up on the Hill. And then you will get your just deserts." (Thanks to eagle-eyed reader Michael Schafler for pointing out that I had allowed "deserts" to be spelled "desserts". Though I cut-and-pasted the quote, a true grammarian doesn't duck responsibility. In this context, "desert" means deserved reward or punishment.)

Who are you, sir, to suggest that Mr. Specter's life and political service won't stand up to the Almighty's judgment? Maybe it will, maybe it won't, but it's oh-so-rich to watch such god-fearing people claim to know how God will judge an individual. By the way, wouldn't Mr. Specter be standing before God, not the other way around?

Another citizen wailed "I am very, very scared. I think healthcare reform ... is a vehicle to take us down a path of socialism." Of course she got a standing O.

Reasonable people can disagree on whether health care reform should take the form(s) currently being proposed by Congress, but for fuck's sake, incoherent rage is...pathetic and obfuscatory, among other things.

Oh, poor dear, you're scared?

Because a black man you voted against is president? Because Beck, Limbaugh, Gingrich and Palin tell you you should be as they lie to your face about "death panels"? Because our President is trying to reform health care, something presidents as far back as Truman have failed to do? Because reforming health care runs counter to the interests of the organizers of these town hall disruptions?

Oh, poor dear, you don't want to live under socialism?

You bleating moron, you wouldn't know socialism if it jumped out of your Social Security check and bit you on the ass. I guess it is too much to ask that such people understand that our nation is not, and has not been for many, many, many prosperous decades, an unfettered and unchecked hothouse of ideologically pure free-market capitalism.

So many things that so many people count on, especially the old and easily scared, are government-controlled forms of assistance, like Social Security, Medicaid, workmen's comp, the continued existence of unions, the enormous amount of government spending that pays the salaries and wages of untold numbers of workers who pave roads, put up buildings, build awesome unmanned drones that fire missiles controlled by soldiers sipping Diet Coke in air-conditioned trailers thousands of miles away...and on and on.

These pea-brained sheep will never realize that while our economy may be capitalist (but don't tell that to our agri-businessmen, er, farmers), our government is so very, very socialist already.

But I won't let this anger me (the cursing and the insults is just a time-honored release valve). What I really feel is pity for fellow citizens underserved by their leaders--be they religious, civic, political or cultural. This rot runs deep and is not confined to one side of the aisle or the other.

Sigh........I mean, what can you do but laugh when someone's holding a sign that says "Obahmadinejad".