Reality

Out of all the facets of the current Bush administration that have amazed me over the years, its unsurpassed ability to ignore reality or--better yet--to create its own more hospitable reality never ceases to astound me. Remind me about that last election. Wasn't there a sizable uprising of voters who made it abundantly clear that the populace wants out of Iraq? Even in districts where we voters didn't dump incumbents, the people's will seems pretty clear at this point.

Get out. Now. Yesterday.

And what is the Executive Branch of the government doing today? Pitching a total of $197 billion in additional spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Which doesn't include the $460 billion Defense Department budget.

The war in Iraq is now costing US $3 billion a week.

The Iraq war has already cost us over $330 billion.

Guess how much of our money the US government spent on Education last year. $56 billion. Read it and weep, folks. That means the Department of Defense Department spends almost 10 times more money each year than the Department of Education.

Here's my most unoriginal thought. What if we had spent every warfare penny in Iraq on education? What if we only spent that supplemental $197 billion on education? Or repairing the ruined Iraqi infrastructure so folks would have electricity and clean water? Couldn't that possibly have spread Democratic principles a bit farther than the tried and true method of killing people?

I know I'm being simplistic. But surely no more simplistic than a government who truly believes that you can bully an already culturally and religiously divided land into a single nation by killing off massive quantities of their people.

Here's a reality I'd like to avoid: the reality of being an Idaho Republican. I'm sure it's a fine state, full of lovely people. I'm hoping that, perhaps, Larry Craig is underestimating those fine people. Because, clearly, he thinks that the most important fact Republican Idahoans need to know about what he did was THAT HE'S NOT GAY. Not that he wasn't unfaithful to his spouse or didn't break the law. Not that he didn't lie. THAT HE'S NOT GAY.

As Ron said of Hermione, "She needs to sort out her priorities." It's a sad state of affairs for Republicans. They've spent so much time gay bashing that one's sexuality is now more important than sexual ethics, fidelity, lawfulness, or morality. Family values, my friends, family values.

My favorite reality of the day? Leona Helmsley has left $12 million to someone who obviously meant a great deal to her. Her dog. She also attempted to make one last effort to control her family by reaching out from the grave to require yearly grave visitations as a requirement of several of her grandchildren receiving a bequest. At least it isn't The Queen of Mean's grave they have to visit. Apparently, they have to be bribed to visit their own father's grave.

Nice last touch, don't you think? Perhaps I should review my own will and find some way to jerk around my surviving family. Thank goodness I'll have little to leave them--there will be nothing to fight over, nor hold over their heads!

Liz