I took a little test this morning to measure my “outrage quotient.” I’m sure you’re familiar with this test. Although it doesn’t require medical supervision, I recommend that at the very least, you have a friend or family member present just in case something goes wrong. After all, trying to gauge how angry you can get at the mainstream press or the left can be a dangerous proposition. There’s always the chance that you’ll come across something so spiteful, so biased, so…so…outrageous that a myocardial infarction becomes a distinct possibility.
Sue was dead set against me taking the test. “What happens if you read something from Daily Kos and your head explodes?” she asked plaintively.”Or watch Anderson Cooper emote like a cheesy actor in a bad production of Hamlet and throw up? I just did the floor, ya know.”
You can see it took a little convincing.
After promising to accompany her to Pier 1 Imports to pick up a wicker chair to replace the one that our loving cats eagerly shredded by peeling, ripping, biting, and chewing the offending furnishing to smithereens, she agreed to closely monitor my vital signs in the interest of safety.
We started with something easy; the indictment for homicide of the husband and wife owners of a nursing home where 34 elderly patients drowned during the hurricane. Evidently, the owners failed to accept an offer to evacuate the residents prior to the hurricane’s arrival.
My reaction surprised me. Didn’t the Mayor of New Orleans do exactly the same thing when Amtrak offered to evacuate several hundred people the day before the hurricane by train? According to the Washington Post, Amtrak ran a “dead head” train to move equipment out of the city. The company says they offered to move several hundred people but city officials turned them down.
I waited anxiously for the bile to rise in my throat in disgust and my blood pressure to careen out of control, but nothing happened. I glanced at Sue who looked relieved. I could have explained to her that the Mayor of New Orleans has become an untouchable. Any responsibility for the catastrophe rolls off his back like the water that inundated the hundreds of buses left in a municipal parking lot to become submerged instead of being used to evacuate citizens.
Since that didn’t elicit much of response, Sue tried to get a rise out of me by showing me a story involving the other half of the disaster duo, the Governor of Louisiana. It seems that Governor Blanco continues to exhibit a bit of peevishness at the federal government, this time because the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is taking too long to recover the dead bodies left in the wake of the hurricane. She says that the dead “deserve more respect than they have received.”
For a moment, I thought I detected a slight rumbling in my gut, a sure indication that my outrage was about to burst forth into a white hot series of invective and angry retorts. I wanted to say something like “maybe you should worry about giving more respect to the living, you cretinous lickpsittle! Start thinking about all the citizens of your state you let down so ignominiously in the hurricane’s aftermath! ” Alas, the rumbling was only indicative of a little indigestion from the Dominoes Pizza we had eaten the night before, not of any real outrage at Governor Blanco’s extraordinary mismanagement of the crisis.
I was beginning to get worried. The test was not going at all like I planned. Even Sue had begun to look at me as if something might be wrong. Then she remembered the story about the Louisiana Congressman who used to National Guard to retrieve his personal belongings while they were still carrying out search and rescue operations.
It seems that Representative William Jefferson (D-LA) commandeered some National Guard troops on Friday, September 2 to take him back to his house in New Orleans so he could pick up a few odds and ends – three suitcases, a laptop, and a box “the size of a small refrigerator.” This is the same Rep. Jefferson who last month had his home searched by the FBI in connection with a corruption probe.
Kind of makes you wonder what was in the box, no?
Sue looked downright crestfallen. No response worth mentioning. My heart never skipped a beat nor was my respiration affected at all. Again, I could have clued her in that having lived and worked in Washington D.C., you develop an outrage proof attitude when it comes to members of Congress. The venality and amorality is so widespread and endemic to the institution that it becomes depressingly the norm to read about such things.
So far, nothing had been able to raise my hackles. It really looked like, with a nod to Jo Dee Messina, “My Give a Damn” was really busted. Then I saw the fearful look on Sue’s face.
“I don’t think you should see this,” she said carefully. “It’s from a diarist at Daily Kos and it’s in response to the President’s statement that he takes responsibility for the federal foul-ups during disaster relief.”
I laughed and Sue nearly swooned. “You don’t get it,” she said angrily. Do you have any idea what this moonbat said?”
“Let me guess,” I chuckled. “Now that Bush has taken responsibility for mistakes made by the Federal government, he should be impeached. Am I right?”
“How did you guess?”
“Honey,” I said patiently, “Nothing those idiots at Kos say either surprises me or causes me much anger any more.”
Sue looked desperate. She thrust a printed copy of the offending passage in front of my nose:
Now that Bush has taken responsibility, he must resign. He has pleaded guilty. He has admitted that he was complicit in the deaths of thousands of people.Haul his ass in front of the House of Representatives for an impeachment trial, and then ask him to confirm that he admits responsibility. If he denies this, he will look like a flip-flopping liar; if he confirms that it was his fault, Congress will be forced to impeach him.
I actually giggled after reading that. Somehow, the avalanche of lies, distortions, bias, and prejudice had numbed me. I felt like a wet noodle. I got the feeling that nothing the left did from here on out could possibly affect me one way or another. In short, I was suffering from “Outrage Fatigue.”
Then again, maybe it was that Dominoes Pizza we ate last night and by tomorrow I’ll be back to my old apoplectic self.
8:47 am
Homecoming
Today’s dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny … Homecoming Wednesday!
9:00 am
Yes my friends, the Bush bubble has broken and pinocchio has to go. The rebums have been exposed at many different levels and as the scrutiny continues and the facts established, the ugliness or these people will come to light. Failures at home and abroad will be the Bush neocon legacy and it is only fair that the “elite?” give back there tax cuts to pay for those failures. After all boys, its about personal responsibility!
9:08 am
If they impeached President Bush, then they would be stuck with Cheney. That is not something they want, because they hate Cheney even more than they do Bush, so it isn’t going to happen! They would be impaling themselves on their on petard!
Bless you and have a great day.
11:51 am
The exposure is Liberalism’s Collective group-think is rotted to the core with overblown hate, intolerance and political correctness while Collectively having zero thought as to such a concept as personal responsibility. The drones are here in the form of Bushhate.
12:18 pm
I have totally banned myself from Moonbat sites. Political stuff like, say, about Iraq is one thing. The crap they have been writing about Katrina has gone too far.
Well, I did take a perusal on 9/11, but, was barely anything from the left side at all. Like they forgot what day it was.
12:53 pm
I guess I’m feeling the same. I think I feel like saying, “Whatever. You kids go on and play while we adults finish taking care of business.”
1:57 pm
Steve:
I did a post a few days ago entitled “Dancing on the Graves of Black People.”
http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2005/09/09/dancing-on-the-graves-of-black-people/
You are the living embodiment of who I’m speaking of in that post. You’re a gloater. And to be gloating about a political opportunity while tens of thousands of your fellow citizens are in misery is beyond belief, beyond disgust, and beyond reproach.
You and the rest of the lickspittle left are beyond hope.
4:04 pm
I wondered why I was laughing a lot in the last few days. There is no longer any hope of having an intellectual discussion with a lefty.
“Whatever. You kids go on and play while we adults finish taking care of business.‗I’ll have to borrow that line.
7:35 pm
I never feel outraged by their silliness. In fact, I encourage it, because it exposes them for the idiotarians they are.
I actually have a new resident in my comments who moved in yesterday with some nonsense about “u sound like bin Laden” or some shit, and then actually said I should read ROBERT FISK! hahahahahahahahhaaaaaaaaaa
Priceless!
Sometimes, if I spend too much time over at the moonbat sites without wearing a tinfoil hat, I start to wonder if the whole schtick isn’t some sooper-seekrit Rove conspeeeeeeeeeeracy designed to make the left look like drooling retards with spoofers (like Steve). It’s a good idea, y’know.
Hey Steve, thanks for the entertainment! Pass on my thanks to your friends, too!
::waving::
8:19 pm
“Whatever. You kids go on and play while we adults finish taking care of business.â€
This is priceless.
It actually takes a certain maturity to see through the juvenile-ness of the Lefty-doctine. Really.
12:07 am
Liz,
It’s actually very simple and straight forward. Drop the spin, name calling, etc. and talk like an adult (facts please) and you can engage in an enlightning conversation with the other side. As long as the left engages in emotion rather than facts, the “yelling” will continue.
12:09 am
Make that to Rob, sorry Liz…
12:28 am
Let’s see if I get this straight: For eight years, Bill Clinton compiled his legacy of corruption, lying and law breaking. He, on several occasions, had the chance to capture bin Laden and he used some silly legal “reason” not to do so. Clinton spoke of the dangers Saddam posed, of Hussein’s WMD’s and all, yet did not act. He spoke of fixing Social Security, but did not act. And thousands of similar incidents of cheap talk and no action. For all of that, Bill Clinton is thought by many to have been “our best president.” Ever!! Why, he CARED and felt our pain and he bit his lower lip when speaking of a particularly tender moment, such as when he was a child and witnessed all those churchs ablaze. OK, he didn’t see them burning, but… Or, no, wait: Was he touched when Hillary announced she’d been named after Sir Edmund Hillary, even though Hillary (the mountain climber, not HER!) ascended Everest AFTER she was born? I forget, there were so many lip-biting Presidential Moments.
Now, we have George W. Bush, working on HIS eight years in the Oval Office. DEALING with all of the things (and many more Clinton did not address) Bill Clinton ignored or hoped would go away. Bush has signed every pork-filled bill that’s passed his desk, he’s appointed blacks and minorities, top to bottom, he let Ted Kennedy write the biggest Education Bill in our country’s history.
Too, W has worked with much success toward advancing HIS and the GOP’s ideas and goals. That mean-spirited Republican stuff, such as big tax cuts which have helped spur the economy and all. In short, Bush has done much to please and satisfy BOTH sides of the aisle. And what has been his reward, thus far? Scorn, hatred, rage, anger, charges of being a racist from the left. And, unfortunately, some lesser but still annoying and disappointing cat-calls from the libs in his own party.
Clinton: Great economy, no big, nasty war(by the way, just asking, but, how’s that business in Bosnia coming along? Shouldn’t we be out of THERE sometime soon? Hmmmmmm…??), no attempts at spreading democracy, no real heavy lifting. BUT lots of fun and adultery and impeachment by the House and…. God, it goes on and on, doesn’t it? By the way, what was with that Vince Foster murder, ah, suicide, anyway?
Bush: Mediocre-to-getting-better economy, 9/11, Al-Qaeda, Afghanistan, tax cuts, proposal on illegal immigrants (not a real favorite for us Repubs, but at least he’s addressing the problem; the biggest influx of illegals occured under Clinton).
And which guy is a racist liar who must be impeached? Sad, isn’t it? Talk about an upside-down world.
Lastly, imagine Bush’s poll numbers were he blessed with Clinton’s charm and fine speaking abilities? I have thought from Day 1 of the Bush presidency that his plain-spoken, taciturn mannerisms would prove a problem for him. Clinton—say what we will about him—was a masterful speaker who could make young women swoon and old ladies cry while he was describing the latest Big Mac he’d enjoyed!
In this MTV, media-splashed, pyrotechnic world of mass communication, it is almost imperative that an elected official, especially the president, be able to speak fluently and concisely. Tony Blair is another example of fine oratory prowess. So often I have cringed while watching W speak, leaning forward, staring at my TV, virtually willing that the words leave his lips in the correct pronounciation and with the proper inflection. I know it may seem trite, but if only, if only president Bush possessed what Clinton and Blair possess, he’d be forty points higher in the polls.
Yes, in this high octane world of ours, speaking is important. Lastly, speaking of speaking, I wish Bush would tout his administration’s successes more. Damn it, man, you’ve done some good, often GREAT stuff!! TELL us and the world about it. I wonder if he and the Republicans are afraid or ashamed or embarrassed about what they have done and want to do in the future. VERY aggravating and frustrating. And all the while, the MSM and Dems have a field day, spewing their garbage. Wonder why Bush’s polls are low? Because, sadly, much of the drivel being issued by the left is taking hold across the country. The president and GOP MUST answer this stuff (where appropriate) and get the TRUTH about what they are doing out there
Aaaarrrggghhhhhhhh
! Phew, I feel better…
There, I’ve finished. Sorry to take up so much space here. Guess I got off on a rant of my own, Rick! Was fun, though. Maybe I’ll visit again sometime real soon.
Jim in Wellesley, where Hillary went to college. Barf…..
1:11 am
Thanks Jim,
Very nice reply…
As usual (at least with Rob), I give up on disucssions with the left. Their logic seems to be out of my reach.
7:06 am
Great post Jim, I’ve often had the same thought. I watch Tony Blair speak with his accent and eloquence and then cringe when W struggles through his speech, hoping he doesn’t screw it up and give the MSM yet another field day.
11:29 am
DEagle,
First off, come on now of course you can’t be in a debate with a “lefist” like me, you don’t have facts to back up your bullshit. And Jim King, your guy has been in office for 5 years. Don’t you think its time to stop blaming Clinton for everything. Just becuase Bush has a press secratery who refuses to say anything and conservative broadcasts like O’Reily and Fox news doesn’t mean he’s actually doing anything. That is why so many people dissaprove of him, or are polls “The liberal media” too?
11:30 am
DEagle,
Now First off, come on now of course you can’t be in a debate with a “lefist” like me, you don’t have facts to back up your bullshit. And Jim King, your guy has been in office for 5 years. Don’t you think its time to stop blaming Clinton for everything. Just becuase Bush has a press secratery who refuses to say anything and conservative broadcasts like O’Reily and Fox news doesn’t mean he’s actually doing anything. That is why so many people dissaprove of him, or are polls “The liberal media” too?
5:53 pm
DEagle, guit defaming our National Bird you idiot. Don’t call yourself that name please. Bill Clintoon did NOTHING BUT BORK MONICA AND BOMB ASPIRIN FACTORIES, STEAL AN INNOCENT CUBAN KID OUTTA MIAMI, BURN DOWN COMPOUNDS IN TEXAS, COMMIT PERJURY AFTER USING A CIGAR ON MONICA, HELP HITLERY STEAL DOCUMENTS, GIVE OUR SECRETS TO CHINA, TREAT TERRORISM AS A CRIMINAL PROBE INSTEAD OF TAKING THE MILITARY THERE AND KICKING BUTT, NO DID I FORGET TO MENTION ANYTHING? I’m sure I did cuz there is too much to try and remember—just go on outside and play now sunny bunny cuz the adults need to talk—hark, I hear moveon.org and kos calling, fat ass moore wants to play with you on those sites.
1:24 pm
Rick,
You forgot Paul Krugman. If Krugman doesn’t threaten to explode your head nothing will.
11:10 am
Carnival of the Vanities 157
This week’s Carnival of the Vanities is hosted at the skwib, a satire blog by Mark A. Rayner, who begins by announcing a new carnival—the Carnival of Satire. Is it a form of satire to add another carnival…