Uncomfortably Numb

"Hello. Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone home?
Come on, now. I hear you're feeling down. Well I can ease your pain, Get you on your feet again.
Relax. I need some information first. Just the basic facts: Can you show me where it hurts? There is no pain, you are receding..."

- Pink Floyd

Waterboarding!!

The word sounds kind of fun in some ways doesn't it?!

I imagine some killer cross between surfing and boogie boarding.

Dude! We went waterboarding today and the waves were totally vehicular!

Sometimes it just feels like too much to take doesn't it?

Every day a new (or old) oppression,

Every day another story of some horrible thing or other that is happening because of this administration...

NAY..

because of the entire US Federal government.

The Democrats are a joke. At best they are enablers. Like the wife of an abusive alcoholic who may complain to her friends about his behavior over lunch but marches straight home and has his steak dinner ready to go complete with his Scotch on the rocks and a twist.

Sadly the truth lies somewhere more in the realm of most of them being totally on board and in favor of nearly everything that goes down. There are a few exceptions of course... way too few.

And so it was last week when I read about Mukasey admitting to waterboarding detainees that my reaction was closer to "Ho-hum what else is new" then "HOLY ELECTRIC BALLS!!"

Don't get me wrong. I am completely aware we have been doing much worse than just waterboarding for quite some time. But Mukasey's admitting to the act changes things on many levels. First and foremost, it is a public confession of an illegal act. But the confession serves as an attempt to normalize the behavior as much as possible in the publics collective sheep brains. By telling them it was only done 3 times and for the worst of the worst terrorists they automatically start a debate about something that should not be debatable. What's even more comically-tragic, is that in a hearing Mukasey is asked if waterboarding were done to him, would he consider it torture. He answers a definitive "Yes".

So we beat the crap out of detainees and we murder millions of Iraqi's and force more Americans into poverty every day and there's election fraud and on and on and on... and... you start to just get tired of it to the point of being numb to the brutality of it all.

It's a real challenge to keep the empathy going and to feel the pain of the waterboarded and the parents of dead Iraqi children, and it becomes soooo much easier to choose to stay comfortably numb and turn our attention to our own problems, the Cubs, Brittany, pick your guilty pleasure... and soak in the comfort of it's distraction.

But as I lean back in my easy chair with my remote in hand, I find I can't help but feel a sudden rush of water start to run down my throat as I gasp for air.