As Congress Tries to Improve its Image, a Reminder

Congresscritters are, as we know, are regarded very poorly by the public they allegedly “serve”: so poorly, they are ranked just barely above Ebola. Both parties in Congress are so viewed, although “Republicans” are ranked as the lowest of the low.

That being the case, the Boehner Brigade and Marching McConnells are trying to figure out how to change their image, without having to change anything that they say or do. Sort of like re-naming sewage as “treatable water”.

They would do well to remember the results of a recent Mythbusters episode:

They found that you CAN, indeed, polish a turd.

However, it still looked like a piece of s***.

Mr. B & C

Note to the Hard Left: Calm the F***ing F*** Down

To hear a few crazies on the Left tell it, this week’s election results are a sign of the impending Social Democratic Paradise on Earth. News flash: uhhhh, ermmmm, not really, no. What it was was a repudiation of the Teabagging, Randian AMFYOYO dope dreams of the Radical Right. That is something quite different from an endorsement of the Hard Left.

The majority of the American electorate is and has always been Centrist.  This despite the earnest efforts of generations’ worth of extremists of many persuasions: alas, the sad reality is that most humans don’t really give a monkey’s about the nuances of political theory. What they want from politics is to have safety, security, and to do their own thing.  So when their wealth is redistributed beyond what seems an equitable extent, they get pissy. When their freedoms are infringed beyond the extent that seems required for their security, they get a wee bit ticked off. When they are insulted, condescended to, or abused, they get hugely pissed off.

All three things were done unto them in the past few years by the Radical Right; and so they gave the Teabaggers a humiliating kick in the groin. Well-deserved it was, and quite entertaining to watch. What they did not do was to endorse a wholesale shift to the Left.

What does that mean? If the Left wants to achieve their goals, they’ll have to do it slowly, carefully, respectfully, in consultation with the Center, and above all in a way that enhances the overall freedom, safety and security of the nation. That requires a calm, grownup approach, peeps.

The last thing anyone in the Center wants to hear right now are the words “radical” or “revolutionary”. They have had a bad experience with that sort of thing of late, and anyone who tries to peddle it now will wind up with their nether regions  feeling a lot like those of Akin, Mourdock and Company.

Mr. B & C

Note to the Radical Right: Wake the F***ing F*** up

During this week’s election, the electorate’s centrist majority whupped a lot of ass upon the Radical Right. Mr. Blunt and Cranky was quite pleased to see how many of these teabagging nimrods received their walking papers: he was not pleased (though also not surprised) that the “Republican” leadership is determined to live in denial. Thus, the ever-so-gentle title of today’s post.

Listening to Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader McConnell’s comments (let’s not even think of the rantings of others like lil’ Donnie Trump) over the past day or so, it is plain that they still think that the Radical Right has the blessing of the majority of Americans: never mind that many of the Tea Party’s poster children went down like the Hindenburg yesterday. Never mind that the billions of dollars’ worth of dark money they spent to buy elections made not bit of difference. Never mind that their frantic efforts to suppress the vote had all the effect of a snail’s fart in a tornado.

No, regardless of the facts on the ground and what they signify, there are entirely too many of these zeebs who still think that today is the first Wednesday of November 2010. News flash: it is 2012, and the Right today must acknowledge that fact. But the Radical Right is unwilling to see the will of the people for what it is: a repudiation of partisan zealotry and excess.

The candidates that lost were, in the main, those that were perceived as having ties to the Tea Party, Social Darwinism, the 1%, pick the term you like. For the “Republicans” to deny this is to seal their doom. They need to climb out of their comfy little bubble and look at this basic fact: the more extreme they get, the more often they get kicked in the wedding tackle.

The Dems, on the other hand, have moved to the middle and scored some big wins.  The Teabag-slurping Repubs must wake up, search their souls, learn from the ass-whupping they endured this year and likewise move towards the center; not continue to move farther towards the fringe. If they can do that, they can win elections and gain the power they lust for. If not, well, pleasant dreams to them as they sleep their way past the end of their brief period of relevance.

Mr. B & C

Schrödinger’s Court

In college, Mr. Blunt and Cranky studied many wondrous topics suitable for inspiring beer-fueled bull sessions. Among them was the thought experiment known as Schrödinger’s Cat: oversimplified, it postulates that if a cat is in a box and cannot be seen therein, it may be alive or dead (or both). The only way to find out for sure is to open the box. While the box is closed, one may project whatever one likes on its surface, and no one can prove the projector to be wrong.

To an allegory addict like this writer, the most obvious parallel is the judicial branch of the United States Government: is it every bit as partisan as the other two branches, or is it still at least somewhat fair and impartial? Put another way, are the courts dead or alive? Alive, if they function impartially, dead if they have strayed from the vision laid out in the Constitution.

There are those who say that the box has been long since opened and the modern court already found to be dead: they point to Bush vs. Gore and Citizens United as “proof” that the court majority is a load of right-wing Repub ideologues, set on the destruction on everything post-1852. There also those  (some on the left, some on the right) who argue that no box opening has occurred,  and we cannot know for sure; but man, they do not like what is likely inside.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky thinks the lid is still down on the box. He further thinks that when it is opened (AKA when the Obamacare decision is announced), we will find the “cats” of Schrödinger’s Court  either on life support, or turned to Zombies – Schrödinger’s idea that one can be both alive and dead sounds rather like today’s zombie chic.

Zombies make for entertaining graphic novels, but they would not make good jurists. Here’s hoping the courts are merely comatose, rather than undead.

And here’s regretting that we have been reduced to hoping for something so pathetic as a barely-alive judiciary.

Mr. B & C

God, Guns, Gays, and Gynecology

This blogger wants to know why: with so many people unemployed; with businesses in need of capital; with war abroad and terrorism at home; with our nation’s infrastructure crumbling; with our information security ineffective; with censorship and surveillance rampant; with the very rights of our citizenry at risk; with deficits going ever upwards;

Why then, oh why, is the House of “Representatives” spending so much time and money  on “The Four G’s”?

God is omnipotent and does not need their help, Guns are widely available, Gays are already hugely oppressed by any measure, and Gynecologists don’t need a roomful of windbags to tell them how to practice medicine.

Get off it, people, and take care of practical matters.

Geez.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The Constitution is Not a Buffet Lunch

Mr. Blunt and Cranky loves hitting the buffet line for meals. He can pick what he likes and leave what he dislikes (cholesterol and sodium content taken into account, of course [in case his doctors read his blog]) to place upon his plate. Lots of green leafies, lean meats, spicy stuff; and cheese, oh yeah, gotta have the cheese. Yum.

Of course, what works for his belly does not work for everything. When it comes to the law, few of us would have much luck with the constabulary if we picked and chose which laws to violate and which to obey. But it is a favored pursuit among some wingnuts when the Constitution is on the menu.

Case in point, Number A: The Loony Lefties who want to ban guns in the United States, and conveniently downplay the Second Amendment. Sorry, Chuckles, the Constitution is an all-or nothing package deal. You don’t like it, buy yourselves an island and start your own country.

Case in point, Letter 2: the Raging Righties who want to discard most of the post-Civil-War amendments and go back to the old version of the Constitution that, well, helped to enable the Civil War. It might sound logical to the Uptightie Whities, but this writer would prefer that we not have another such conflict, especially in an era of nuclear and chemical weapons. See above note regarding islands.

The Founders were a bright bunch overall, and knew that their work might need updated in the future; thus the amendment process. Anybody who wants an amendment can work to get one through the process. It ain’t easy, but it has been done, more than a few times so far. They did not, however, provide an option for selective application of the Constitution. One more example of their smarts, one which also provides an example of how dumb a lot of extremists are these days.

We live in a nation of laws. This citizen would prefer some laws be removed from the books, but recognizes that the Constitution and laws that are derived therefrom cannot be ignored. Unlike the three-bean salad at the salad bar- that stuff is nasty, and this buffetphiliac gives it a wide berth.

Mr. B & C