Brinks, Brinks Everywhere...

It's amazing how truly little there is to watch on daytime TV. It makes one almost wish for work. Of course, being back at work today, I was missing that nap at about 12:30 that I normally took (yeah, "normally," as if seven days of disease-ridden time spent at home is "normal") when all the soap operas started up in earnest.

Of course, time spent with oneself, no matter how miserably feverish and cough-racked your body may be, is time well spent as long as one doesn't get sucked in to Judge Maria Lopez or Jerry Springer. Of course, a little TIME magazine and Advocate doesn't hurt either, and it was in reading this second periodical that got me on my soap box (poor Rich--of course, that bastard didn't get sick, so... Not-so-poor Rich...) and like the trooper that he is, let me rant and rave between coughing spasms as if it were all in a day's work, sky god bless him.

What started me on my rant? you ask. It was this small snippet on page 56:

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"It was obscene to show Prince, a homosexual person, through a sheet [so] as to show his silhouette while his guitar showed a very phallic symbol coming from his below-midriff section. I am very offended, and I would prefer not to have showed it to my four children, who love football. One of them has hoped to be a quarter-back, and now he will turn out gay. I am actually considering to check him for HIV. Thanks, CBS, for turning my son gay."

--An anonymous television viewer in a written complaint to the Federal Communications Commission about Prince's performance at this year's Super Bowl half-time show, February 5

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I don't know how morons like this end up getting enough of an education to learn how to write words, but don't know enough to engage their other faculties in any sort of normal manner. I know, let's play a game--how many illogical self-made fallacies can you find in the anonymous persons "comment" (if we could actually call it that...).

Among the other things that managed to stir life into my bones was this whole fiasco over the troops funding bill. Bush and Cheney want money to continue to wage their personal war. Congress said, "Okay, but here are the rules for more money." Now Bush says he'll veto the bill (so the troops won't get the money) and try to blame the evil democrats. He claims, among other things, that Congress is trying to micromanage the war (as the Bush/Cheney team would never, ever do such a thing). For an administration who's so keen on "strict constructionists on the Constitution" for the federal and judiciary branch of our government, he sure takes a wide, stretchy view of the executive branch, doesn't he? What does the Constitution say about times of war and how it relates to the legislative and executive branches?

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Article 2, section 2: The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States;

Article 1, section 8: To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

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So did you get all that? Bush is in charge of the military, but Congress is in charge of making the rules of war, how the money is spent, and how and when war shall begin and end. But... but...

Yeah, you 30% who still think Bush is doing a "heck of a job" are disappointed that he can't really keep his monarchy going. The war is going to end. Hopefully sooner rather than later. But knowing Bush, as everything else that Congress has forced on him throughout his presidency, he'll spin it to make it look and sound like his idea... And a lot of you will swallow it: hook, line and sinker...

Silly sheep...

Only 21 more months and this nightmare will hopefully end...

There's much more to share and rant and rave about, but I'm still exhausted from the bronchitis and such. Being the giving person that I am, I must apologize to my older brother, mother, and father, who, although only in my house for about an hour, managed to contract my sickness (even though Rich lives here and barely sniffled the whole week and a half, the bastard). Hope you're all feeling better soon as well. And thanks to you, my readers, for your well-wishes, both posted and emailed. It's much appreciated.