John McCain made a speech at the Naval Academy encouraging all Americans, not All-Americans, however, to go into public service.
He wishes more Americans would join the Armed Forces. He wishes more Americans would run for public office. He wishes more Americans would work for the government.
Of course, he wants more Americans in the Armed Forces to expand the military, to bomb, bomb, bomb Iran. Well, volunteers will likely go off to fight in Iraq and risk being killed or maimed. If maimed, they won't get the same medical treatment in the U.S. that they get over in Iraq or the hospitals at Rammstein AFB in Germany, to which they are evacuated. They'll have a hard time getting medical treatment and benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or many other disorders which do not manifest themselves until after return stateside. And the educational benefits have been reduced or eliminated, especially if they don't jump through the procedural hoops and pay for the benefits -- the G.I. Bill is on its death bed. So, service in the military isn't what it used to be.
Getting elected to public office is a difficult adventure, opening up one's life to the world at great cost. It would be hard to keep a day job and run for public office. Maybe, we should just elect the unemployed, homeless, or -- those who lost their houses to foreclosure by companies that donated billions to Congressional campaigns.
Finally, did he read the newspaper before he made the damn speech? NASA is going to lay off about 8,000 people. The end of the space shuttle program means many in private companies supporting NASA will lose their jobs. The extent of these job losses hasn't been calculated. State governments are shrinking because of cuts in federal dollars and the federal government passing unfunded mandates requiring states to expand programs at the expense of others and generally cutting jobs and benefits and cutting job programs, putting the poor trying to better themselves out on the street.
Yeah, McCain is like totally in touch with -- hmm, I can't think of anything or anyone. All I know is that he was much sharper eight years ago and even four years ago. Angry responses, cutting off questioners, having aides or, horrors, Joe Lieberman, feeding him answers while McCain feigns understanding -- those are all the warning signs of any number of dementing illnesses.
I have a solution that McCain hasn't mentioned: Glass-blowing.
See?
This is my playing-with-molten-glass-to-find-out-how-fucking-hot-it-is paperweight.
And this is my vase. There's a bad drinking glass in the background.
And shut up -- I still bite my fingernails. Wanna make something of it?
Posted by Bill at April 3, 2008 07:14 PM