Bring On Teh Crazy

Republicans seem to think this midterm election will be a cake walk, that they'll end up with the control of Congress, giving them ample opportunity to continue their obstructionist policies. But I don't think so. Why? Because instead of offering answers and solutions to the myriad problems facing this country, the emperor wannabes new clothes are steaming hot piles of insanity.
First up is the insanity intern and future Palin hopeful Christine O'Donnell, who was revealed to have dabbled in satanism as a teenager, by her own words forcing her to cancel her appearances on the Sunday Morning Talking Heads New Shows on CBS and even Fox. You know when a Republican cancels a chance to knock softball questions out of the park on the media arm of the GOP, something is up, and that something is teh crazy.
Next at bat in the bat-shit crazy line-up is, no, not bat-shit crazy Michelle Bachmann, but the Montana Republican party which, in a moment of pure unenlightened unenlightenment have decided to adding homosexuality as a crime to their party's platform this year. It takes some severe homophobia to want to lock gays away, where you wouldn't be tempted to want to join them. Why else put them in jail, because what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes is something Republicans say that the government should stay out of, right?
And from homophobia, we cross the crazy trail to the phobia du jour of the conservative regressives-Islamophobia! Failed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is proposing a law to ban Sharia Law's use by judges in deciding cases. First off, you should have done that when you were, you know, an actual member of congress, doofus, and not now when it does no good but stokes the fires of a thousand burning Korans. Secondly, we already have that in our constitution, it's called the Establishment Clause, and it bars any decision made based on Sharia Law, Biblical law, Judaic Law, or any other law emanating from some all powerful invisible being who doesn't exist. All this does is play into the ignorance of haters who think that Muslims are taking over the country, and that our president is one of them. And that is the Republican plan. No policies. No solutions. Just pure unadulterated hate. And not a hate based on reality, but an unfounded hate based on insecurity. That is pure paranoia. Which is nothin' but teh crazy!

The Twenty Four Hour All Anxiety News Cycle

The other day on the way home from work I was passed by a car sporting the old "I Don't Believe The Liberal Media" bumper sticker. I chuckled to myself at the cluelessness of this driver for believing that the corporate media is liberal or, with the exception of FOX NEWS, conservative. What we have is the All-Anxiety American Media, all anxiety, all the time, designed not to enlighten and inform, but rather to keep viewers in a constant state of anxiety, crying wolf, as it were, about things they are ultimately powerless to end.
A prime recent example of this is the "ground zero" mosque controversy, manufactured, for sure, but in the end neither opponents nor defenders have any real power to make a difference. The die has been cast and while people browbeat each other over religious freedom and security issues, I'm sure somewhere they have already forgotten all the other things they threw at you to keep you reaching for your Xanax.
As an example, we were warned of the imminent end of the world when Iran acquired nuclear power, yet they launched their first nuclear power plant, and everybody's okay, except for this guy.
Today I caught a glimpse of a story on the Internet Bin Laden, the next in a long line of Boogeymen that the Anxiety News Cycle has to shake at you once you realize that the real Osama Bin Laden is dead. Once you have nothing to fear, there is nothing to keep you tuned into the news to see how to protect your family and yourself, and every viewer lost is a loss of revenue for them. The meat on that dead horse must be really tender they way they've been flogging it. It's no wonder alleged 'patriots' across the country are protesting the building of new mosques, or that in a desperate move, the RNC sent a tweet saying Obama has confessed to being a Muslim. Fear sells, but what's really scare is the type of people who are buying it.