Needless Things
 
To criticize the current congress as a do-nothing congress would be unfair.   This congress has recently taken up the issues of the Estate Tax, the definition of marriage, immigration, protecting the constitution, corruption and broadcast decency.  The impressive scope of action can be categorized simply.   Matters of no consequence, such as the Estate Tax, the definition of marriage and broadcast decency, have been acted upon, that work brought to a resolution.   Immigration, corruption and domestic spying matter and that work dangles unaddressed for the forseeable future.   This is the Congress of needless things. Senator Frist seems, at first glance, to be no leader at all.   Lacking both spine and vision, he could only have been anointed chief by the ugly and the sluggish.   Nonetheless, the approach of both houses of congress seems to match his: A frenzy of passionate irrelevancy.   A dying woman in a vegetative state deserves a special session of congress to prevent the law in her state from tragic implementation.  An unpassable constitutional amendment without a problem to solve, an issue to resolve or a constituency to help demands urgent focus.  Hie!  Hie!   Somewhere in our good Republic there may be a man losing at poker who needs the solace of our good government.   Let the word go forth across the land, there is no matter too small.   The threshold for too large, however, seems to be about a breadbox.   Or a thick envelope. There can be charm in flippancy.  A dour shrug and a dry line in the face of tragedy may be the apex of the satirist's art.  You wish for mere cynicism while listening to Senator Frist solemnly intone, with a straight face he must have been born with, the threat to the family should the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) fail even as he acknowledges it surely will.  The passion is dedicated to an act I have neglected to discuss here because there is no hope for parody beyond the intrinsic. Earnestness in frivolity may be nadir of political art.  Like the husbands and wives the Senator promises to defend, you can only hope the subject is enjoying his condition more than he seems to be. So we have in our legislature a pious faith based purely on the apocrypha and a choir that sings only jingles.   In Nero's Rome the emperor fiddled while the city burned.   Rome survived because the Senate hadn’t yet taken up the kazoo. Alas, these are darker times syncopated by lighter hearts and illuminated with deeper shadows. The Prattler Wordbook FRIVOLOUS, adj. Gravely addressing the threat from ring-around-the-rosie to a nation’s youth. FROCK, n. A Frown. FROLIC, v.i. To vote. FROM, prep. In the direction of similar error. FRONT, n. The point of contact between an invisible enemy and a televised hero. FRONTAL, adj. 1. Baring the front to turned backs. 2. Sideways.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
From the collection of Richard Samuel West / Periodyssey.http://www.periodyssey.com/private/press.htmshapeimage_5_link_0