If you happen to define ‘madness’ as ‘weariness and disappointment’, that is. There was a time, way back when, when I was capable of getting fired up about a presidential election. With this election, I can’t even do the old ‘vote for the lesser of two evils’, because I don’t detect much evil emanating from either camp. What I do see are two candidates who give the illusion of strength, without much to back it up. The buzzwords are ‘hope’, ‘change’, and to a lesser extent ‘progress’, but they might as well be ‘polyester’, ‘Stonewall Jackson’, and ‘colony collapse disorder’. I simply don’t see any sweeping, significant changes occurring as a result of this election, no matter who the victor may be. This doesn’t mean that I won’t be voting on Tuesday; it just means that I may need to remember to bring a coin along with me as my political advisor. **Editor’s note: Kids, don’t try this in the voting booth. Using a coin toss to decide your candidate of choice is irresponsible and was likely suggested by the author while under the influence of cold medication and caffeine.**
Am I going to comment on the various propositions on California’s ballot? Yes, but in an extremely generic fashion (that sounds like a line of clothing found in Wal-Mart: Extremely Generic Fashions, now with 50% more spandex. Ewwww.) Most of the campaigning for the props has been pretty, well, blah, with one notable exception (if you’re in California, you know which one). I saw firsthand a confrontation between the two factions last Friday at a busy intersection, and it wasn’t pretty. What really bothered me, though, was the pure hatred and bile-spewing anger that was on display. Some of the tamer epithets used were ‘bigots’, ‘hatemongers’, ‘fascists’, and such kind phrases as ‘go to hell’ and ‘perform an anatomically impossible sexual act to yourself’ (I cleaned that last one up a bit). My question, which really applies to nearly all political protests like this, is this: why do people that oppose something on the grounds that it promotes hatred and closed-mindedness have no difficulty in spewing that same hatred and closed-mindedness towards their opponents? I mean, really, turning into a frothing mountain of rage whenever you’re confronted with an opposing viewpoint doesn’t help your image, and it certainly isn’t an enlightened way to deal with it. You might strengthen the resolve of your compatriots, but you’re not going to win any converts: ‘wow, those sign-bearers just called me a hate-filled, bigoted pus bucket! I guess I should do a complete 180 and join their side so that I can hurl the insults with impunity!’ For the record, I do plan on voting No on this particular prop, but not because of what any of the frothy types have been saying.
In lighter news, a new RiffTrax short was released on Friday, titled ‘Good Eating Habits’. The title is a bit misleading, as the counterexample character in the short doesn’t eat, so much as he rapidly assimilates with the ferocity of one those microscopic black holes that are going to destroy the Earth once that big particle accelerator in Switzerland goes online. **Editor’s Note: the Large Hadron Collider is a wonderful piece of scientific equipment that should shed new insights onto the inner workings of our universe. Please support science in all its myriad forms. And no, you misread it, it’s called the Large HADRON Collider. Get your minds out of the gutter.**
