Given her behavior during and especially after the 2008 presidential election, and with the apparent senselessness of this resignation, I'm now wondering if mental instability isn't also a distinct possibility. I don't think I've ever seen a politician act so erratically and consistently against their own best interests, while at the same time bolstering their egos with ill-advised stunts. (Like that Runner's World interview and cheese-cake photo spread -- there was no dignity in that whatsoever.)

America spends over $600b a year on its military -- and that number never goes down, as it seems to be even more sacrosanct than ethanol subsidies. China spends $60b/year. The entire rest of the world, including America's allies spend $500b/year combined.

Just one angle...

* = Where 'finest' in no way refers to the actual quality of said healthcare, mortality rates, efficiency, or percentage of people who need medical care actually receiving it; 'finest' instead refers to the sheer profit to be made in a neo-monopolistic captive-customer system in a hyper-parasitic unethical business model, jacking up premiums faster than a rocket and denying coverage in every quasi-legal way possible. And pay no attention to those World Health Organization numbers -- Amurrka can't possibly be 37 in ANYTHING, golly!

That's what he really meant.

That's some serious self-delusion, too.

2. Senator Ensign... tall, trim, has that regal and rugged handsome look about him, complete with all that Senatorial power. Hampton... an overweight (complete with man-boobs), balding middle-aged doof in a knit shirt, with a "where's my shitzu?" look about him. If Mrs. Hampton had a pulse, she didn't stand a chance. Unless she resembles Mr. Hampton.

Sometimes that code goes further in that "the affair wasn't necessarily with another woman..."

There's a certain fragrance of kink about this whole thing... No proof or anything, but the motivations and behaviors simply don't add up.

It all struck me as the way a person of average means would decorate a house to give the false impression of being affluent.

(So says she who's trying to put a house together after 3 years living abroad, and so some of our furniture is literally stuff I've had since college 20 years ago... But hey, I know ugly when I see it.)

But let's take one giant step back from the seeming contradictions...because they're not really contradictions. The "War Forever" and "Torture? Sure!" crowds are being disingenuous when they go on about saving lives through bombs and torture. They want to save -particular- lives (namely, their own, and those of embryos (regardless of viability or danger to the mother's life)) -- and they don't care who else gets hurt in the meantime. In fact, a lot of 'em *want* to see others hurt and in pain, as it fits in with their whole angry vengeance-driven creed.

Thus, they scream with indignation when someone rightly calls the Iraq war one of choice. And why the uncounted civilian casualties of that war are...well, literally uncounted.

They'd never put a guy who murders OB/GYN doctors to the waterboard because they think the murders are justified.

For us to point out the contradictions and hypocrisy versus their earlier contention that torture is sometimes necessary and justified makes no difference, because they've thoroughly incorporated the necessary qualities for full-on DoubleThink. When we point out the inconsistency, they just fall back to name-calling, demonizing, and demagoguery.

Or to put it another way, we might as well quack like ducks at 'em, for all the good it'll do.