In Mel Brooks’ brilliant 1974 satire “Blazing Saddles“, Gov. LePetomane says, “We have to protect our phony baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph!” Almost 40 years later, nothing has changed. Three examples, harvested from today’s headlines:
1. The hue and cry for “opening a conversation” on “gun control” [sic] … this in spite of the fact that Connecticut is the fifth ‘best’ state in the nation for “gun control” [sic], according to that paragon of truthfulness, the Brady Bunch. Not to mention the fact that the alleged murder weapon is exempt from the very “Assault Weapons Ban” [sic] that the shrieking prohibitionists want to reinstate. (The 1994 act had no effect whatsoever on crime in the ten years of its original run.)
2. The official report on the Benghazi murders states, out of one side of its mouth, that there was a systemic failure by the US government in protecting the US citizens slaughtered, while out of the other side of the same pork-hole saying that no individual bears responsibility. Well, at least the logic is consistent from Newtown to Benghazi – no person is responsible, we just need to provide more control of the ‘system’.
3. The lemmings Obama and Boehner are racing for the fiscal cliff, each so busy trying to outmaneuver the other that they don’t seem to see the consequences of their (in)action. And so, once again, the best we can hope for is for them to agree to “kick the can down the road”, as the popular saying goes, regardless of consequence. Hmm, form over substance – that sounds awfully familiar. (See items 1 & 2 above, for example.)
It was a lot funnier when it was just a movie, folks!