Drying Out

Possessing a planet-sized ego, I’m kind of pleased to have my site come up in a search engine which specified “black hot woman,” achieved while keeping all my clothes on, no less. (Careful. There are probably some "not work safe" links on that one. You pervs can thank me later.)

UPDATE: The reference to me as a "black hot woman" at the BET site is gone. No matter. Have at your preferences, pervs. But keep in mind: Someone is watching.

Unfortunately, I’m not feeling so “hot.” It has nothing to do with my looks or my health. It’s just a bit of brain-lock. Like several others, I’m finding all the crazy crap leading up to this year’s presidential election to be too much, even though there have been some contributions to the melee here on this site.

Before roughly 1996, I spent many years not thinking about politics much except to mindlessly punch the card for the Democrat presidential candidate every four years. (That stopped in 2000.) In retrospect, those seem like very innocent times. Of course, there’ll be no going back to that relatively uninformed state, no matter how great conditions *seemed* to be then. (For another relevant metaphor, think Adam and Eve getting booted out of the Garden.)

However, considering the CBS document scandal, the Straw-Man Draft legislation (now deceased, thank God), the increasingly violent dissent from both sides and all of the other insanity, sometimes I long for those days of ignoring the mundane good fortune of being born in the United States. Being ignorant of the likelihood that major media entities like CBS probably have been floating occasional distortions for some time --which is why its bigwigs thought that they could get away with it this time—seem like the days of Shangri-la. Having heard the vague aphorism that politicians were, in general, a group of liars is different than actually seeing televised evidence and reading in print that they are.

To paraphrase Bill Whittle, the world didn’t change; our view of it did (at least some of us).

It’s almost like being drunk for years and, suddenly getting sober. It doesn’t feel good but things look different—sometimes better, but more often than not, worse--in the light of the cold, un-fuzy day.

In that sobriety, one finds out that there are things to take care of that have gone neglected during the binge. In our national sobriety, we find out that things aren’t what they seemed to be when were under the influence of a great many illusions: that we were safe from terrorists (at least on the home front), that France and Germany were two of our most trustworthy allies and that those same two countries were grateful to us for our role in WWII and for protecting them from the designs of the late Soviet Union. (For the record, I never thought that there was any reason to trust Russia, so the role that that nation has played in the recent dramas of world affairs hasn’t surprised me much.)

In my opinion, Senator John Kerry would have this nation go back to the days when—drunk on our delusions--we thought that all of the above were true. That would be fine if terrorists would magically stop terrorizing and listen to reason. That would be fine if the two afore-mentioned “allies” would behave as true allies. Too bad the senator isn’t a magician.

Senator Kerry wants us to disarm—that is obvious from his senate voting record and from his uneven stance on the last three major wars in which the US has been involved. Fine. Let the terrorists go first and then we’ll see.

Those of us who know that none of the domestic issues being brought up in the election run-up matter a whit if we’re dead, want to do our best to vote for the guy who will ensure that our mass domestic death doesn’t occur (again). The strangest phenomenon—to me, at any rate—is that the guy who seems to have done the most to keep that next mass death from happening seems to bring out violent, wigged-out opposition in roughly half of the constituent population that he’s attempting to protect. Call this bottle “September 10, 2001.”

I hate the world as it is, but pretending as though what is *isn’t* will not change its reality. And I don’t *want* to go back to being oblivious to the realities of this world, no matter how pleasant that obliviousness may have seemed. If we must die, let it not be like hogs. Or like fools; trusting those who have long ago proven to be untrustworthy.

Comments

[teal marie]

yes, it feels like purgatory, doesn't it? Suspended animation until our fate is decided. At least we get one more vote.
I dare not voice my deepest fear.
God Bless and protect President Bush, come what may. Please, God.

[Banagor]

Heya Baldilocks,

I just wrote about being tired of it all recently as well. Allah says he's probably quitting after the elections.

I don't know about you but I'll definitely need a break. There will be so much to come back to anyway and the world will go on without us for a while.

I expect to see a serious dropoff rate in some blogging right after the election results. People will be so burned out.

[torchy]

I'm so happy to be able to come here and agree with y'all. Isle of white-knuckled sanity that Miss Julettes blog is. I might of had a stress seizure this morning from all the blantant animosity and fabrication going on out there. But maybe it was just reflux. Here's hoping for no ulcers come Nov 3rd. Amen Miss Teal Marie. Cheers to all >:)

[Terry]

Amen Teal Marie.
I don't know which I fear the most, a defeat at the polls of the one man that I trust to lead this country or another tradegy against this country by those who wish to destroy us.
Please pray America.

[David Blue]

The first thing to say of course, and it's true, is that you won't always be burned out, and whether you are or not at any given time, you'll still be hot. :)

Second, what you said is right. You wake up one day and people aren't what you thought they were. And it doesn't go back to normal. Very _28 Days Later_.

The third thing is, yeah, burnout is a big deal. I think people underestimate this. They always used to say, after the latest horror - you know this will only stimulate us all the more to fight terrorism. But it won't. We, the limited number of people who are sincerely against terrorism, will burn out. I for one can't help the fact that horrifying stuff like Beslan puts me through an emotional blender, but you also can't run emotionally at that level indefinitely. So atrocity, which the bad guys can keep up forever because they love it, but which drains us because of the moral horror, because to the depth of our souls we're against it, is one more way they beat us down.

I know I've pretty much assimilated the sounds that a man makes when a jihadi slowly carves his head off - screaming modulated by futile struggles, gurgling and so on. ("And so on!") The gabbling of sadistic monsters and "Allahu Akhbar!" - these are among the tunes that are part of me now, like _Waltzing Matilda_ or the James Bond 007 theme.

Even the trivial stuff, like the lying mass media, is grinding. And again, the bad guys are counting on us to fade. CBS for sure thinks they're just going to keep the same people in place all the way up to the election, and the pajama people, with no institutional power and nothing to feed on, will wilt. And that seems to be right. We've wilted and will wilt more. You can't maintain the outrage forever and stay remotely healthy. Real life has to have right of way.

God knows what it must be like to be President George W. Bush and Vice-president Dick Cheney. Dealing with this, with ultimate responsibility for results, is their life.

[David Blue]

So this present very high and emotional level of friction between evil and good isn't going to be sustained. (I have to use "evil" and "good" because moral horror is an inseparable component if what I'm talking about. Sorry if that's "fundamentalist".) We're going to get to some sort of comfortable high place to rest for a while, like George W. Bush's (or rather I suspect Peggy Noonan's) mountain top with a view. Or alternately we're going to get ground down, we'll gradually stop having any real reaction to things beyond horror, and we're going to lose our collective will to fight.

While the bad guys, seeking nuclear weapons, glorious hate-orgasmic martyrdom and 72 virgins apiece forever will of course stay on the job. This is exactly why Islam and jihad are so effective in the long run. Shock numbs, horror sickens, emotional batteries run dry, everybody reasonable wants to cut a deal, make concessions if need be, get off the hot spot, get back to real life - but the Koran is still what it was, the hadiths and the interpretations are still what they were.

After the Beslan siege broke up, one of the female terrorists got caught sneaking into a hospital to detonate there, in the cruellest, foulest location still possible to strike, because after all that, after days of Nazi-like sadism and the massacre of the children, it wasn't enough for her. She still wanted more blood.

Sooner or later the side that never, ever gets its fill of blood and horror and struggling to beat, subjugate and convert all that live must inch ahead of those who in their hearts sing ...

"Why Can't We Live Together"

Tell me why tell me why tell me why
Umm why can't we live together
Tell me why tell me
Umm why can't we live together
Everybody wants to live together
Why can't we be together

No more war no more war no more war
Umm just a little peace
No more war no more war all we want
Is some peace in this world

Everybody wants to live together
Why can't we be together

No matter no matter what color
Umm you are still my brother
I said no matter no matter what color
Umm you are still my brother

Everybody wants to live together
Why can't we be together

Everybody wants to live
Everybodys got to be together
Ooh everybody wants to live
Everybodys got to be together

Ooh Ooh laaa laa laa laa
Everybodys got to be together
Everybody wants to be together

I said no matter no matter what color
Umm you are still my brother
I said no matter no matter what color
You are still my brother

Everybody wants to live together
Why can't we be together

Gotta live together
Together!

It's not true of course. about what everybody wants. But many times I've cried, wishing so hard that it was true. That's our weakness.

[David Blue]

After the coming elections seems like as good a place to pause and rest as any.

For me that's tomorrow - for good or evil I'll know where we stand by the end of the day's counting, 48 hours, tops. Of course, the other shoe still has to drop. If the mighty Americans give up, if they prefer self-deceit and passivity to reality and resolution, then nothing else matters, in practical terms. But in terms of national honour our hour of truth is tomorrow, and if we get it right, if we ratify what we've done, that's a lot. It's a place to pause in peace.

You poor Americans have to wait weeks longer. But it's only a few weeks now, if the result is not too close. Hang in there. Eyes on the prize. Good luck.

And treasure these days, when we ordinary people did our tiny bits to decide the shape of things to come. Because this must pass, we will not see it quite like this ever again.

[The Anchoress]

Baldi, what an excellent piece, that I think reflects the feelings of many of us. I myself and becoming very concerned at the 'disinformation overload' which - even with bloggers working round the clock - is so hard to answer to. I've certainly never seen the press like this, and I'm getting worried that all of the truthful information now coming out, about the UN scandal and the final WMD report, will be 'lost' via misreporting and OVERreporting of these damn debates, which are being way, way, way too focused on.

[David C]

What scares me is that a lot of people *do* want to go back to Sept. 10, and Kerry is telling them he's the guy who can make it happen. "Vote for me, and I'll use my magic hat to make the bad things go away!" It's all unrealistic, and based on bald-faced lies, of course, but I worry that a lot of people are OK with that, and too passive to think things through.

[duck prime]

There is burnout, sure, but there are also new people coming on line. Myself I am, after many years of benign indifference to my responsibilities, preparing to apply to the CIA. Burn out? Sure, but then bounce back. Where we have it over the Islamist types is that their manic maniac determination is *fragile* -- if they are defeated enough, and hard enough they lose face, and lose heart. Consider how revitalized the Iraq insurgents were after all our timidity w.r.t. Fallujah and M. al Sadr ... they are only bold where they see weakness. Remember how fast the Taliban folded when the momentum turned?

Consider also that terrorism is in itself the tactic of weakness. It is, in essence, the last possible resort of a movement without a country, without an army, without any hope of winning except hoping that the enemies somehow give up.

We may be losing the war on terror on CNN, but we are winning on the ground. Two of the four biggest state sponsors of terrorism have fallen. Iraq is a terrorist bug lamp. And best of all, we don't have to deal with "help" from France and Germany.

(gasp) And that's enough for today.

[Mike]

People keep talking about how we're divided - implying that it's Bush who did the dividing. I think it's more complicated than that. I think the division is coming from the grass roots - from us. From people who will not listen to other viewpoints, from people who say "If X is elected I'll move to Outer Mongolia".

I wish I could understand why so many people (from my biased point of view, mostly people on the Left, for which I cite Michael Moore, Chomsky &c., and most of the media) are simply unwilling to give an inch.

It may be that there's a "middleman" group doing the real dividing, by writing articles in "progressive" magazines and papers, year after year, and university faculty members relentlessly instilling a "progressive" mind-set into year after year of classes.

On a bigger scale, we could live together. We (the West) could live in relative harmony with Islam (that was the case for a long time throughout history - early Spain is a good example), but the inescapable conclusion is that they cannot live in harmony with the West.

And those of us who cannot see that are blind.

[CGHill]

I'd be the last person in the world to tell you that the world doesn't suck, but I really don't believe the level of suckage has become terminal yet, despite the best efforts of our national nihilists to make it so. I can understand the frustration, but I suspect at least some of it will go away when we discover that there are fewer blue states than we were led to believe.

And BET (which, incidentally, is ruled these days by the evil overlords of Viacom) be damned: you're still plenty "hot."

[lyle]

Even as a news consumer, I'm burning out.

I can't trust Big Media. They force-feed the same elitist half-truths that the DNC does. War's hard, appeasement's easy. If I could just relax and swallow, it would be so simple. Vote Democrat, and go back to sleep.

John Kerry's commanding officer at An Thoi remembered him, despite his brief tour, specifically because he was the biggest whiner the commanding officer ever met. Kerry continued to build on that legacy through the antiwar movement and his Senate career. Which makes him the perfect candidate for the backbiters, the second-guessers, the self-deluding, the fearful, and the dishonorable.

Such a man should never be Commander-in-Chief. Because the stakes are high, because we have to swim against a tide of lies, and because the vote is so close, this campaign is spiritually exhausting.

Every voice for truth is a shoulder to the wheel. Thanks for what you do, Baldilocks.

[Fausta]

Excellent blog and insightful comments.
Exhausting as it is, my motto's become "never give up, never surrender". We are blessed to live at this time.

[David Blue]

After minutes of delay, drowned out by the uncontrollable cheering of the crowd and stopped by his own happy laughter, Howard is starting the acceptance speech for a victory of truly historic proportions.

The worst that I feared, a failure of our own sacred value of mateship, of our resolution and integrity, will never be. The critical test came, and is past: the verdict is that we did the right thing, we regret nothing, we repudiate nothing and nobody. Any hopes the terrorists had of getting us to do a Zapatero are officially ashes and dust in the wind. All that I wanted has come to pass, and much more than I had hoped. Let the terrorists do their worst; now that we have decided firmly to do our best together and with our friends (HI!) I fear nothing. All weariness has passed from me. I'll live for years and years on this, even it there's no more good news, and now I truly believe there's going to be a lot more good news.

(runner hands over the baton) Your turn! Go!

[AH·C]

David, that is indeed good news and hope springs eternal that we don't fumble the baton.

This place is the first that I've heard of the results -- not watching the tube today. But will be interesting to see how the MSM spins it on the Sunday Morning circuit.

[Jim C.]

Re "both sides": just for the record, Danial Okrent, the public editor of the NY Times, said in this article http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/weekinreview/10bott.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

"As nasty as critics on the right can get (plenty nasty), the left seems to be winning the vileness derby this year."

[thebastidge]

I've been having a similar p[roblem RE: the election. While I've firmly made up my mind some time ago (understatement) and I've recently started blogging, I can't bring myself to touch directly on the election too often. Instead I go for a (perhaps) loftier goal, or at least one that is much more nebulous- just trying to add my 2 cents in a constructive manner in the sphere of social discourse on a variety of topics of importance to me.

[Alexander]

Well, you've made it to that "hotlist" again, as I can see. Congrats. And still keeping your wardrobe...

A.