I was toodling around the Internets yesterday and came across an interesting
article via Quizlaw about McCain saying that if elected, he'd like to appear before Congress periodically to take and answer questions, British Parliament style. Needless to say, I immediately fell off my chair from the shock of agreeing with our very own John "Fighty" McCain on something, but once I regained my composure, I linked The Swedish Pirate Captain the article with appropriate "oh em gee agreementz wif McCain?!?!!111!" sentiment, and after a pause, I got this response:
"that's a hell of a thing to do. I'm now picturing Tony Blair with McCain's face grinning as the house boisterously hoots until someone is passed the microphone. "Would the Commander-in-Chief care to address the heinous alteration in migratory patterns of the red-breasted grosbeak caused by the construction of a federally earmarked coal plant right down the street from where my mother takes her daily walksthankyouverymuchmrpresident?"
and there's more hooting. and mccain raises out of his large chair, flanked by his vp and secretary of state, opens up that large book like they have over in great britain, puts on his glasses, and cleverly remarks, "While the gentleman from Maine's mother may enjoy bird watching and other fine outdoor activities (more hooting), this project is vital to the energy security and stability of our nation in the face of terrorist threats."
That description is actually more awesome than pretty much anything else that has happened in this stupid election cycle. I can't remember if I have mentioned it in this space but I'm becoming increasingly disenchanted with the political process and thus have begun to wonder if I do in fact want to return to full-bore speechwriting when I graduate. I just feel like nothing is changing, and that maybe I'm just perpetuating the problem by helping these people put out the same spin, the same eloquent nothing statements, the same bullshit. I like the vast majority of people I work and have worked with (and those I don't like know it), but what I
really want is a client or two strapped to the teeth and ready to burn the bullshit establishment to the ground. I feel we are so far from the discourse that American began with that modern American political society hardly even resembles its former self, and that's a damn shame.
I have started thinking about teaching - college level, of course...we all know how gracefully I deal with children - because in theory I could do that as well as some consulting and writing on the side. More to the point, though, I think that maybe if I could teach
one kid to not be such a douchebag, maybe a couple more to abandon textspeak as their chosen means of communication, maybe that could be more important and more beneficial to the world at large than perpetuating a bunch of masturbatory bullshit in a deeply flawed system. I don't know. After all, that means a hell of a lot more school, and as we all know, I have a bad habit of going all ADD Theatre after a while, but I also love being smart and love being in school, so maybe the two could cancel each other out. Hard to say.
In the meantime, I choose to ignore the punditry and 99% of what the candidates emit, and turn instead to the Swedish Pirate Captain's much more enjoyable commentary.
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