July 4h, N. Korean Kooks, the GOP...

As I feared, I didn’t get around to writing a full-fledged Xcargo this week. Sorry. Those seventy some odd papers to grade really got in the way. Damn this having to make a living by honest labor! If only I’d been gone to law school and become a regulator at the SEC assigned to monitor Bernie Madoff during the Bush years. Now that’s a career. Low impact. No heavy lifting. With required napping. Hell. And Teamsters think THEY’ve got a tough union. Ha, I say. And Ho.

So, anyway, since I didn’t get an Xcargo done, here’s some Intermezzi…

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Happy Fourth, everyone. If you’re American (and probably if you’re not) then you know that’s our national day of independence. Or else it’s the day when Will Smith nuked the aliens from California and/or Pluto. Either way, we’re grateful. And it’s a great excuse to drink beer, light fireworks, and blast bits and pieces off ourselves in the process. The Founding Fathers would have been so proud.

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Speaking of which, I see that on the fourth Kim Jong Il launched seven missiles into the seas off his starving country to show how tough he is. You betcha. And since none of the missiles carried warheads, and none got within miles of any serious targets, and nobody was entirely sure that the North Koreans had the slightest idea where they were headed when they lit the fuses . . . afterwards, the world basically went back to thinking about Michael Jackson. Which is understandable given the respective merits of the late Jacko and living Wacko.

But, actually, I think we should be paying very great attention to President Kim. After all, who else do you know who invested so much money, and so much effort, in firing off such big rockets on the fourth of July?

I mean, quite flattering really.

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And, as you know, Sarah Palin has resigned as governor of Alaska, perhaps to run for president in 2012. In particular, she says she has been called upon (perhaps by God) to help lead the nation toward Conservative values.

At the same time, however, a very public squabble over just how much of a ditz she is or isn’t has broken out in the GOP, with much of the dirty laundry being washed on the napalm setting in the pages of publications like VANITY FAIR. And, of course, this is all going on while the nation learns that South Carolina’s Mark Sanford has been preaching morality in theory has been practicing polygamy in the flesh. (Don’t cry for me, Argentina.) And let us not forget that dear Newt Gingrich (a.k.a., Devil in the Blue Dress), that strange being who flamed out so dramatically during the Clinton, is now back for a second helping . . . and in the process doing battle with Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney for the soul of the Republican Party.

Now, I’m a liberal by bent, but I genuinely believe that this nation needs both Liberal and Conservative voices in its political discourse. We must have each to keep the other honest and true, and uncertain of its power.

But, as I watch the circus that American conservatism has become, I shudder. How can the Republican Party survive? As it falls prey to opportunists and caricatures, and leaves behind its party faithful?

And that sound you heard in the distance? Bill Buckley. Weeping in his tomb.

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Copyright © 2009 Michael Jay Tucker