Mostly in the Afternoon

So was it worth all the trouble for Olympia Snowe? I don’t feel any more kindly toward Republicans, and I doubt they feel anymore kindly toward Obama and those of us who support him. The bill—assuming one is passed, and assuming it doesn’t have the public option—will help; some lives will be saved, many people will save money and be spared anxiety. And maybe that’s the best we should hope for, considering how many other problems there are to address.

Let’s stops the wars. Let’s pretend we don’t have time to think and plan and pack and linger; let’s imagine our collective ass is on fire and we have to get out now. Obama could walk into the office tomorrow and say: let’s see how this Presidency shit really works. How fast can you guys move? Just do it. If the Republicans don’t like it they can try declaring war again. Let them work to get that bill through the Senate.

Of course all those National Guard troops who’ve been working as real soldiers for the last several years might not have jobs to return to. Maybe the solution to the war AND the economy is to announce that Afghanistan’s mountains are made of gold and by for a limited time only, the Administration will provide transport for treasure-seekers. It shouldn’t take long before the country is overrun, the Taliban outnumbered, poppy fields crushed, and America free of its stupidest and greediest citizens. Of course that might create an Afghani society worse than the one there now, but it would make for great TV.

And the Nobel prize money? How about dividing it among the families of every soldier killed in the recent wars?

**

Who makes these changes?
I shoot an arrow right.
It lands left.
I ride after a deer and find myself
chased by a hog.
I plot to get what I want
and end up in prison.
I dig pits to trap others
and fall in.

I should be suspicious
of what I want.

–Jalaluddin Rumi