Another Monday, another set of sensationalistic headlines and the requisite cast of talking heads offering their sound and fury, yet offering us nothing of substance. So what's on today's agenda?
- Elena Kagan has been put forth by Obama as his nominee for the Supreme Court. Cue the GOP and their right-wing minions in the media and blogosphere to begin a new wave of contrarianism. Then cue left-wing apologists taking the bait and addressing the nonsense brought up by the right in the first place. This is already old and we haven't even had the first attempt by the GOP to block her confirmation. Honestly, I don't know a thing about this woman other than the blurbs that accompany the headlines, so it's possible she's the best nominee possible... or she could be a rube with no idea how to conduct herself. Who wants to bet that neither will be the issue being discussed on cable shows.
- BP failed to stem the flow of oil in the Gulf, so now they are reaching out to every engineer on the planet in the hopes that someone will have an Einstein-level solution. Again, cue each side's activist groups shouting loudly about everything except what matters most: fixing the problem. Yes, we'll get left-wingers screaming about how this is the failure of large, oil companies to care about the environment, and right-wingers screaming about how this is actually not a big deal and left-wingers are blowing it out of proportion in order to make political hay. Irony. I guess we need a giant rubber band.
- The whole Arizona immigration law thing. This just boggles my mind. How can two sides ostensibly agree that there is a problem yet be so far apart on what constitutes an acceptable solution? It is just as egregious a failure to ignore the concerns of those who live in Arizona and have to deal directly with this issue as it is for those same people to use a ridiculous "nuclear" option. But we're apparently just a nation of extremists now. Being moderate and logical in thought just won't do. No, it's about who can shout loudest and appear to be most aggrieved.
Black is white; white is black; Democrats are hard-liners; Republicans are revolutionaries; liberals are hawks; conservatives are victims; moderates are crazy; extremists are rational. And I've contributed nothing; no answers. Welcome to Monday!
