et ceteras

LochMess

First: I did not come up with that name. As far as I can tell, it was coined by a classmate of mine (from St. Pete High and Auburn University!) because he's tired of "gate" being attached as a suffix to every actual, semi, and psuedo scandal that comes down the media's pike.

Second: I don't give one flyin' friggin' flip about this story. It pits Brazilian authorities, who aren't exactly trustworthy and have quite a chip on their collective shoulder, against a bunch of young dudes who gave conflicting stories about an incident that took place a couple hours before dawn, when they were intoxicated in the late stages of an all-nighter. Let's just say that credibility is wanting on all sides.

Why would the American swimmers concoct a story against nobody in particular, when there was not already an allegation about them that needed to be explained away? Who knows? And more to my point, who cares? This story doesn't even move the needle for me... yet I have just spent three paragraphs of my blog writing about it... ugh.

Meanwhile, in other news... 

...Vladimir Putin, who by all appearances took control of the Russian government by orchestrating the terrorist murder of innocent Russian civilians and precipitating a war that killed Russians and Chechens alike, continues to resurrect Russian imperialism without a peep of criticism from either of the USA's major-party presidential nominees... and without a peep of mention by the USA's mainstream media outlets, which prefer to talk about LochMess and the divorce of 26-year-old quarterback Robert Griffin III.

Surely the citizens of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan -- to say nothing about the citizens of already-attacked Ukraine and Georgia -- have taken notice that the Soviet bear is again on the prowl and is prowling unopposed.

Talk about one of history's greatest victories for freedom and morality being on the verge of getting thrown away due simply to laziness and non-seriousness. I don't mean to sound overly pompous or melodramatic, but this is... how do I say it?... a fucking disgrace. If we don't change course our country will have to answer for it, but it is the citizens of other countries who will pay the price and it will be mostly our country's fault, not theirs.

Louisiana

The Bayou State is currently being devastated by major floods that have damaged at least 40,000 homes, killed at least 13 people, and, statistically speaking, rank as the nation's worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy.

And President Barack H. Obama is spending these days vacationing in that one-percenter playloungeground known as Martha's Vineyard, without any criticism from the USA's mainstream media outlets.

I seem to recall that when the same state was devastated by major floods from Hurricane Katrina, the USA's mainstream media outlets accused President George W. Bush (who actually went to Louisiana in real time) of not caring that Louisianans were dying. More specifically, they said he didn't care that Louisianans were dying because so many of them were black, and they non-critically publicized people who claimed that Bush had actually steered the hurricane toward Louisiana in order to cull America's black population.

Just sayin'.

And with that...

...I'd better quit while I'm ahead.

Not that I'm really ahead, because I haven't said anything positive in this post. But if I keep writing I'll keep digging an ever deeper hole, so stopping now does keep me ahead of where I would otherwise be.

And seriously, I am somewhat positive in spite of the seeming shitstorm in which the word seems trapped.

I see and appreciate beautiful sunrises every morning and I always remember these words from Churchill: "I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else."

C'est la vie!