The Outhouse Runneth Over

*Note: personal opinions that won't sit with everyone upcoming*

So much for disclaimers.

I don't think I'll miss anyone here with a good piss-off. And quite frankly, I don't care. Since a few recalcitrant buffoons in society see fit to piss me off, I don't see any reason not to give some of it back.

I tend to prefer to write humor; or at least what I conceive of as humor. Regular and irregular readers here can decide for themselves what it is I write.

But a few items of recent note got my hackles up, and led me astray of the humor theme. One that wasn't worth a few minutes of outhouse reading time, and was treated as if it carried national, if not global, impact; another, not because the regular news media poo-pooed it, but what it was they largely chose of it to blow off. And lastly, something I picked up from a blog I read regularly, and it merely enhanced my distain for government bureaucracy, regardless of which nincomparty is 'running' the show in DC.

First, the media obsession over the Anna Nicole Smith goat rodeo. This, I'll keep simple: who the f*** cares? For something that has absolutely no substance to it, why are we getting 24/7 coverage of it? As thoroughly as the judge in this case has been a monumental embarrassment to the entire legal community, so has the media coverage been to the journalism community.

What about this crap is newsworthy? Not a damned thing.

'Nuff said there.

Next, the Taliban -- y'know, those turban-headed Muslim extremists of dubious antecedence who were and remain allied with our ol' friends in Al Qaida, the ones John Murtha wants to cut and run from -- take claim for attempting to assassinate Vice President Dick Cheney, while he's making a visit to Afghanistan. The attempt failed; the VP wasn't injured.

That much, the news media did report.

That the attempt failed sent liberal and hatemongering bloggers on the Left into a pukefest tizzy. So much so, Airheadanna Huffington -- with regret, most likely -- was forced to remove pages of a thread from her blog, a thread devoted to wishing the Taliban "better luck next time", and venomous regrets that they -- the Taliban -- missed.

And her compost-laden blog was only one of many expressing regret and anger that the terrorists missed killing the American Vice President.

Fancy that: Americans expressing regret and outrage that enemy extremists tried and failed to kill an American Vice President. And their regret and outrage is that the enemy failed?

And what did we hear from the news media on that? What did we hear from leadership of the Democrat Party?

While Hilarity and Barak trade snipes about the opinion of one Hollywood player who dared to diss Queen (wannabe) Hillary I, what did we hear from the "new tone" in the DC Beltway about this unAmerican bile coming from a loud and vile segment of their coalition? Did we hear demands for apologies? Did we hear the leadership distancing themselves from such outrageous comments?

Nope; all we hear from the Democrats is chirping crickets.

Had the Taliban taken a potshot at a leading Democrat, and flakes from the Right bemoaned the failure, Pelosi & Co. would have been demanding the President, RNC, Fox News and every conservative of any import, denounce the heathens and distance themselves from such outrageous talk and any/all parties engaged in writing or uttering such talk. But since it's a Republican VP....not a peep.

The party of compassion and tolerance, my ass.

Finally...a few of you who visit here (perhaps until you read this post) I know read This Woman's Journey. And you know about the incomprehensible, thoroughly unjustifiable crap that Monica is going through to see justice done for her combat veteran son, Josh, who is suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). The VA -- Veterans Administration -- has been less than helpful to a two-tour combat veteran of the Iraq War. They've been so unhelpful, Monica has had to engage the VA, her congressional delegation, and anyone else with any kind of pull in the cesspool of federal bureaucracy to get justice for not only her son, but veterans like him.

Why she should be having to seek justice for her combat veteran son, is inexplicable; and for those she's having to seek it from, it is reprehensible on their part that she's having to make such a remonstration.

What we owe our veterans is, quite frankly and bluntly: everything. We owe them for everything we enjoy in this representative constitutional republic. For when the time comes to defend our way of life from disagreeable elements in the world who see our way of life and freedom as a threat to their way of repression and totalitarian control, it is our military that carries the ball and does the dirty work on our behalf. While we sit on our take-things-for-granted asses, and spend hours watching news reports on where Anna Nicole Smith should be buried, Britney's latest assinine antics, Al Gore's fluff Oscar, or Pat Robertson's latest utterance that has God either laughing in derision or wincing in disgust.

When those men and women come home, they are owed the thanks of a nation that wouldn't exist without their service. For those who come home wounded in the service of this nation, they deserve the best in medical care. Whatever their wounds, physical or psychological, they are owed the best. For without their willingness to step up and defend all of us, we wouldn't have much of the best in this world to defend, enjoy to the point of excess, and pass onto the children who follow.

So to you VA types who might happen to read this blog: while I appreciate your providing the small but gratefully-received stipend for my late combat veteran father, I at the same time don't ask or beg that you come through for a living and deserving veteran like Joshua Murphy and his fellow men and women; as an American and taxpayer, I Goddamn well DEMAND THAT YOU DO! GET OFF YOUR PAPER-PUSHING ASSES AND START DOING WHAT THE SPIRIT OF THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION WAS MEANT TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE!

And Mr. President? Mr. Commander-in-Chief? It isn't like you don't have some pull with the VA. How's about putting some of that hard-headed, stick-to-it-ness that you've shown for better and worse, into seeing to the health and welfare of those you sent into harms' way? A potential legacy as the president who laid the groundwork for taking on, and ultimately defeating, the Muslim extremists is a worthy goal that benefits us all; but the legacy of being a president who stood behind the men and women he sent into harms' way, both before AND after, is one that is worthy of the tradition of this nation's greatest civilian and wartime leaders.

And it's one they deserve to have some elected C-in-C step up to the plate for. You owe it to them too, Mr. President.

Anyone I haven't pissed off yet? Well, don't worry: Election 2008 is coming up. My soapbox is right where I can get to it.