One of the nice things about living in the vicinity of Washington, D.C. is the ability to get C-Span Radio in my car. For part-time political geeks like me, listening to Robert Gibbs give a press briefing or a wrap-up of the Sunday talk shows gives me my fix, allowing me to feel a bit more connected to the byzantine Beltway world that has an outsized influence on our lives. I'm still grappling, though, with the trauma of what transpired on the radio Saturday evening.
I was returning from my sister's place and catching a replay of the recent Family Research Council Values Voters Summit. The FRC is a perfectly good organization if you believe in family values, and I admit I do; after all, what's not to like about kids in good homes being raised with a code of ethics, of Americans helping one another out and using religious teachings as a means of imparting instruction in how to live, how to be kind to neighbors, and being a solid citizen? Of course, the FRC wants you to think of "family" and "values" according to its own definition. The group sees homosexuality as "harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large, and can never be affirmed. It is by definition unnatural, and as such is associated with negative physical and psychological health effects." Okay, millions of hard-working, tax-paying, patriotic Americans, you've just been marginalized! Moreover, the FRC somehow drinks the Kool-Aid that makes them consider the USA a nation of under anti-Christian attack: "FRC will continue to speak out when bigotry against people of faith, especially Christians (who are the most frequent target), is expressed in the media and in the political sphere." I want to ask these folks, "What color is the sky in your world?" All that being said, Mike Huckabee had just finished his folksy evisceration of the Obama administration (now I know what it's like to vomit in your own mouth) when Michelle Bachmann is introduced, our favorite paranoid nutjob Congresswoman from the great state of Minnesota. And you know what song is playing when she's introduced? U2's "Mysterious Ways". Oh, this is wrong on so many different levels! First, the "values" she claims to hold are in many ways antihetical to the inclusive pluralism of U2, not to mention most of the political causes they espouse. Then there's the fact that rather than moving in "mysterious ways," Bachmann moves in right-wing bigoted circles that make it clear in no uncertain terms where they stand: global warming = hoax, claim that Barack Obama has "anti-American views", promote the whole death panel canard in the health care debate, supports the teaching of intelligent design in schools, supports a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage (let's see- we had amendments that extended the franchise to women and black Americans but now want an amendment to deny citizens their rights?)...you get the picture. Ain't nothing mysterious about this chick.
For dinner: potato & onion fritatta. Delicious. At first seemed a bit bland but then the onion flavor seeped through. Don't think there's any way to muck up eggs, potatoes, and onions.
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