Is it just me or is our entire national life turning into a circus?

[Jade Fox]

Take the War on Terror--please! We know that some people flew planes
into buildings on Sept. 11, 2001. As to who was behind it, why they did it,
how many of them their are, what they want from us, I have never heard
clear answers.

And if the Bush Administration has captured or killed 75% of the terrorist
leaders like he claimed in the debates, why are we still supposed to be so
scared that we put all other national concerns aside?

And if the threat of terrorism is real, why is the evidence of that threat
used like a cheap magician's act? Bush down in the polls--terror alert
changes to the high color (whatever the hell it is). Election in a few days--
bring out the Bad Guy video!

As for the war in Iraq, have Beetle Bailey and Gomer Pyle been put in charge
of the Military? How the f*uck do you "lose" that much weaponry? And how
did we end up torturing children while people here in the US actually defend
it as a necessay tactic 'cause the enemy is just so danged bad?

What is wrong with the news media that they can't simply do their job of
of reporting the facts, using sensible judgement as to which ones are the
most important?

Sorry for the rant, I'm just freaking a little.

[shance]

1. Don't apologize. You are saying what most of us think.

I love the way you said it too.

Yes, the only thing we are missing right now is PT Barnum.

But I think we've got a few reincarnates. Apparently, they're on staff at the White House and our media conglomerates.

[Jade Fox]

6. Thanks.

[salvorhardin]

2. I hear you

but as far as circuses go, didn't the whole Hilary bashing + Whitewater/Monica Lewinsky + OJ trial thing clue you in? I mean, how many freaking years of the last decade of our national consciousness were wasted on that tripe. If people didn't intuit what an United States under right-wing control would be like...

Not directing this at you -- had a day full of idiots.

[Jade Fox]

5. Yes, those things did clue me in.....

buy they seemed like side-lines, not the nature of our public life as a country.
I ignored them at the time, writing them off as desparation on the part of
the perps. I was annoyed at Clinton for not being able to keep his pants
zipped when he had attained his life time goal--self sabotage at its most
pathetic.

Now I'm feeling a wee bit overwhelmed by the collective stupidity of it all!

[Sperk]

3. yes, we as a nation, have officially gone insane. *'s legacy

n/t

[FizzFuzz]

4. kick

tom waits plays a calliope in the background.

I wish it were just a bad dream

[AnnInLa]

7. We are in the middle of a Twilight Zone,

a real bizarro world, for sure.

[vetwife]

8. Two years ago I posted on another site, I feel like I'm in the Twilight Z

one and now I have graduated to Outer Limits for sure. This campaign gets more bizarre everyday. This War gets more bizarre every day and Bush has left reality if he was ever there and people have drugged themself with Koolaid. Lord have Mercy on us all !

[Beam Me Up]

9. "Today there are so many different, competing descriptions of reality

anyone not thinking for himself must be going insane."

That was one of the first things I ever read on the internet back in 1995. It seems more true to me today than it deed even then. This country went down the "rabbit hole" with the election of Ronald Regan--a not very good 'film star' who sold soap on TV--and it has bee tough going ever since.

How does another old saying go, 'he who the gods would slay they first make mad?' Something like that.

Our social 'reality bubble' is media driven. My best advice: STOP WATCHING TV. Completely. Not even 'entertainment.' I did a few years ago and I'll never go back.

[Jade Fox]

12. I agree that the election of Ronald Reagan....

Was the beginning of the end of political sanity in this country. Regardless
of what the revisionists say, he was never more than a figurehead. He was
70 and not doing that well when he took office!

What's been scaring me lately is how many of today's adults have no
political memory that pre-dates the Reagan era, and seem quite ignorant
and easily manipulated. Nothing else explains to me how mindlessly they
believe the crap put out by right-wing radio/media idiots.

[Solomon]

10. Americans are mentally ill.

[4MoreYearsOfHell]

11. We are all characters

in a George Orwell novel

[Peanut Gallery]

13. delete

[KoKo]

14. A Circus....A spy novel where we are the characters living through the

pages as they are turned by the Spy Masters...a Nightmare from Hell...a grostesque "Theater of the Absurd"....a Time Warp where we have been thrown back into the begginings of Nazi Germany...

Take your pick! I've given up. On any given day, I feel like it's any one of the above.

Getting up everymorning since that Emperor was Installed I see that he and his "Court" are up to something else that threatens America.

There's no light-hearted humor, no compassion for others, no civility and we are no longer free to be who we are. We aren't called to be better than thugs and thieves...we are called to be them..

[Beam Me Up]

15. So right you are, KoKo01.

Wish I were intelligent or literate enough to say something truly profound about it. The whole world appears to be descending into madness. I have some faint hope that the election of JK will begin a long process of turning things around. But even if possible I have no illusion that it will be easy.

So long as people prefer their ILLUSIONS to reality we will end up precisely where we are, trapped in a vicious cycle of ever increasing delusion. We do not want to FEEL the suffering our policies CAUSE. And yet in truth those who suffer are none other than us.

[getoffmytrain]

16. Turning?

It's been one since the early 90's ushered in by the advent of 24 hour cable news that needed to fill air time so it started to senationalize stories. It's quite simple to see how it all happened.

Want to blame someone.

Blame CNN, Fox News, MSNBC along with all the talking heads that are on the news show circuit.....

Hack reporters, from BOTH sides have damaged our political process more than anything that comes to mind since I can remember. So much for a free press.

[hollywood926]

17. TV, yes - but radio started it

I think the combination of the beginning of the 24-hour news network coupled with the screamers on political radio - Limbaugh and the like - are responsible. I remember seeing IMPEACH CLINTON bumper stickers at the end of 1992 - before he was even inaugurated! Rush Limbaugh had succeeded in vilifying him before he even had a chance. Now it's the Hannitys and the Humes that do the dirty work. They make me sick. History will not view this period in time kindly.