Curioser and Curioser, or Life in these United States
Waking Point
by Helen Noakes
“’But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ said Alice. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the cat. ‘We’re all mad here.’” —Lewis Carroll
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—(Weekly Hubris)—11/22/10—A few news items in support of the theory that we have all gone a bit gaga in these United States, and I don’t mean the Lady variety:
1. Representative John Shimkus, a Republican Congressman from Illinois, speaking before the House Energy Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, advised all concerned that they should not worry about the possibility of global warming destroying the planet as we know it. Congressman Shimkus quoted the Book of Genesis, Chapter 8, Verse 22: “As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.” He claimed that this guarantees that our planet is in no danger now or in the immediate future.
Well, Gee, Congressman, did God say anything about poisons not killing? Would you please find that quote in the Bible, because I couldn’t find it anywhere.
I don’t know who voted for this guy, but I wonder if they knew that, in May 2007, he compared the Iraq war to a baseball game. Gee, Congressman, I’m sure that the families and loved ones of the troops who gave their lives in that war and the veterans who’ve returned with limbs missing are pleased to know that it was all one big happy game.
2. The Oxford American Dictionary has honored Sarah Palin for her erudite and impeccable English. They included her Twittered malapropism, “refudiate,” in their current version of the dictionary. I repudiate their so-called dictionary, refuse to consult it, and refute refudiate, itself. My Oxford English Dictionary continues to serve me well, as it’s English that I learned to speak at five, and shall continue to do so until they carry me out in a pine box.
3. Just to spice things up, and to understand the nature of politics in our country, might I bring to your attention, a fascinating YouTube video: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/10/new-jerry-brown-ad-compares-meg-whitman-to-schwarzenegger.html (After you see it, ask yourself, who’s pulling the politicians’ strings—in other words, who’s really running this country?)
4. And, lest we forget about puppets, consider the headlines which trumpeted that G. W. Bush, while out flogging his book, proudly admitted to approving the torture of terrorists. The sheer idiocy of such a policy boggles the mind. Not only did it plunge our country into barbarism, but it put all of our service men and women in danger. If we sanctioned torture, what were they to expect should they have been captured? I know. I know. Our POW’s have been tortured and mistreated but, in the past, we had a leg to stand on when we negotiated their release. Well, Mr. Bush, all I can say is that torture is the expedient of cowards, idiots, and men who’ve never seen a day of combat in their lives.
That’s all folks! I’ll return now to my Alice in Wonderland. Her world makes more sense to me than this one.
Helen Noakes
Helen Noakes is a playwright, novelist, writer, art historian, linguist, and Traditional Reiki Master, who was brought up in and derives richness from several of the world’s great traditions and philosophies. She believes that writing should engage and entertain, but also inform and inspire. She also believes that because the human race expresses itself in words, it is words, in the end, that will show us how very similar we are and how foolish it is to think otherwise. (Author Head Shot Augment: René Laanen.)