Democracy for Vancouver

PZ on our national vegetative state:

I don’t get it.

As a nation, we stand atop a pedestal of bones and ruined lives. The disruption of families is ongoing, and our honor has been thrown away by the greed and ignorance of our leaders. And yet we carry on as if nothing is happening, nothing is wrong, no action need be taken. We will have an election, and one of the candidates stands for amplifying our involvement in this evil chaos … and he stands a chance of winning. The monsters who have perpetrated this crime will walk away to fat retirement checks and lives of wealth in the service of bloated corporate sponsors, and they will not pay — you will.

We all have blood on our hands, and no one cares.

Once, four dead in Ohio could stir us. Now, four thousand dead, a hundred thousand dead, it doesn’t matter … we have all become dead inside.

As I’ve said many times, on March 19, 2003, I was sitting in the waiting room of our local Dodge dealership waiting for my car, trying to hold back the tears as teevees all around the showroom blared Fox News’ gleeful coverage of Shock ‘N’ Awe™. Not a single person in the whole building seemed aware that what was being broadcast was real-time slaughter. This country was reaching halfway around the world and killing innocents on a whim: because we needed someone to Suck.On.This, and like any bully, we picked on the country with the most auspicious balance of reviled leadership and military weakness. Like Matthew Shepherd, Iraq was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And now, 5 years later, 60% of Americans think the war was a mistake, and 76% of us want an end to Bush’s policies across the board … but with the next president, not this one. Because actively trying to end this war now, to cut short the killing and maiming of our troops and Iraqi civilians, would just take too much effort. As awful as things are - and our own economic woes are of course rapidly eclipsing whatever small shit we could give about the dead and wounded - it’s still barely enough to motivate us to vote for change, much less actually stand up and fight back against an immoral war.

Even the New York Times can’t bring itself to give a shit; passing the popcorn during round 47 of the Clinton-Obama wars rate much more ink than anything the asshole with his finger still on the button and his deluded sights set firmly on Iran might do:

[T]his is a lame-duck president with less than a year left in office, who I would guess has said many things that you object to equally (if not more). His statements in that conference are of no particular significance, they reflect no new policy.

The media are generally not paying a lot of attention to Bush, focusing instead on the people who are competing to succeed him.

We are the laziest motherfuckers on the planet, and we deserve what we get. But unfortunately, whatever we get, the rest of the world gets to suck on.

USA! USA! USA!