Jules wrote another great column for the Boston Herald. Issue at hand? The October Theater of the Absurd.
Welcome to the spectacular surprises of October 2006. A tour de force in the political theater of the absurd.
He deals with North Korea’s claimed nuclear test first and concludes:
North Korea wants a big stage, upon which it can inflate its own importance and set up a good pratfall for the United States. And there are American politicians who want to reward Kim Jong Il’s saber-rattling by giving him what he wants. This is absurd.
Amen.
Next up: Mark Foley:
Moving on, we have the matter of former Congressman Mark Foley, apparently overly interested in young male pages, whom he badgered with lascivious e-mails. Reprehensible behavior that led to his resignation, a House ethics investigation and an FBI probe.
Any suggestion that immoral behavior is limited to one party is absurd. Any suggestion that it is an issue upon which national policy and elections should hinge is beyond absurd.
To a degree I agree. However, breaking the law is different from ‘just’ having an affair. Being protected by one’s partisan brothers, despite the quite likely possibility that they knew about his reprehensible actions is something that is and should be of importance during elections.
Estimation of deaths since the Iraq war began:
That the estimate is not supported by the existence of any mountain of bodies or any other evidence or logic is no obstacle to the social scientists who insist their methodology is sound.
Concluding:
So the stage is being set for next month’s elections, which could shift control of Congress and affect the tenor of President Bush’s last two years in office. Everyone wants to get on stage in October. The performances, so far, have been clumsy and ridiculous. While having the capacity to alarm and influence people, none of these spectacles has amounted to more than special effects in the political theater of the absurd.
And he could add many, many more ‘absurdities’ to that list: Ney pleading guilty, Reid and $, Allen and $ are just a couple of examples.
One thing is for sure though: it ain’t boring.
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