I was reading over at Tennessee Conservative Watch, which is still not a site about watching conservatives, but a site about what conservatives watch. This bothers me. If I went to a site called Tennessee Bird Watch, I’d expect to see this:

Not this:

But, okay, who am I to argue with Tennessee Conservatives?

My point is two-fold. One, in a post called “Cindy McCain is more qualified than Obama bin Biden,” why is the post actually a comparison between Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama? Isn’t that weird?

And second, I am now to the point, when I see something like “Obama bin Biden,” I have no reaction to it. It just signals the Democratic ticket. I don’t think Osama bin Ladin or terrorists or anything. It’s like the term feminazi. The first time I heard that, I was like “Oh my god, Rush Limbaugh is saying that we’re Nazis.” And the other day someone said she didn’t appreciate being compared to Hitler’s minions and I was all ike “What? Oh, right.”

It loses its sting. I’m all looking at Obama bin Biden and I’m wondering what kind of point they’re trying to make about Obama being the figurative son of Biden and I suddenly realize, I’m way over-thinking it.

I should just go back to my conservative watch, if I can ever figure out what it is.

Sep 5

Some Bright Morning

I was listening to Coble’s pick for Feel Good Friday as I went on in my feed reader–Digby talking about preemptive raids and police in riot gear, Pesky showing it, Keith Olbermann on the verge of tears, and Josh Marshall talking about how whoever put together the montage behind McCain apparently going out and getting a picture of Walter Reed Middle School, which is in no way connected to McCain, because they apparently didn’t know what the hell Walter Reed is–and I’m going to admit, I started crying.

In part, because what breaks my heart about Christianity, especially the stout Midwestern Protestantism I grew up with, is the commonly held belief–even when it’s not enumerated from the pulpit–that Christians have had something wonderful happen to them, even if they sometimes lose sight of it, that has put them on a better path to someplace wonderful, and you, too, can join them. It is, on the ground, a hopeful stance, even in the face of so much worldly stupidity. The Midwestern Protestant Ethos is to square your shoulders, fix your hat, and keep walking, arm in arm, forward, possibly towards the church basement for the potluck. And hearing that music juxtaposed with those images was just too much for me this early in the morning.

But the other thing that upsets me is just the god damn ignorance that has come to permiate our culture. This idea that we can somehow continue to be America and not embody the things America stands for. We don’t “preemptively” arrest people. We don’t send police into crowds to stomp on children. We don’t round people up onto a bridge to tear gas them. We don’t burst into their houses and shoot them on the word of criminals. We don’t laugh about how silly it is to extend people the rights they’re guaranteed in the Constitution. We don’t mock the very mechanisms that got us where we are today. We don’t use people’s difficulties and tragedies to score our own points.

Except that we do.

On all sides.

I don’t know. I wanted to hear something hopeful this morning, too. In honor of my friend, Coble, I, too, picked a hymn: