Political Pathos

I'm out of town on vacation, yet I still try to see what's going on in the world.  

I am not a subscriber to the local Minneapolis Star Tribune, which means some of it's content is protected by a pretty pathetic subscriber block.  This means that while I can't see their layout or images, I can read the article simply by right-clicking and selecting "View Page Source" in my browser.  

Which is how I managed to read yet another shameful piece of work by a former politician.  Seems Tony Jurgens is upset because of a family tragedy.  Not his, mind you, but by the events which occurred around another legislator's loss of her father.  

This whole thing played out about a month before the recent end of the state legislative session.  Fortunately, even today in these "modern" times our state legislative sessions are limited to our winter months.  From January to May, our legislature has to meet and get their work done.  Much like a school year, this is designed to get the business of the legislature done while, at the same time, limiting the amount of damage they can do.

As has become traditional in our state, the legislative end-of-session debacle, regardless of party in power, winds up combining a bunch of unrelated crap into one massive bill, when the time grows short, and we'll end up with bills that combine necessary laws with someone else's good idea of stupid shit.  This past year has presented yet another fine example where our legislators felt it was a good idea to permit motorcycles and other motorized vehicles that run on fewer than four wheels to weave in and out of traffic, including driving between traffic lanes.  

Some dispshit appeared on the local news recently touting the benefits to motorcycle riders now that they can shoot down the gap between two lanes of traffic legally.  So if I'm changing lanes, not only do I need to watch for large vehicles, I need to make sure there's no fuckwit roaring up between traffic lanes, because they can do so legally.  And I am betting they have also removed the protection we used to enjoy from motorists who would rear-end vehicles - in most cases, the driver who runs into a vehicle ahead of them are usually "at fault" for failing to recognize the vehicle ahead of them was there, and moving more slowly than the vehicle approaching from the rear.

This local fellow's complaint is that state senator Nicole Mitchell, who lost her father during the past legislative session, had broken into her stepmother's house to retrieve belongs of her deceased father, including his ashes.  Mind you, I have no information regarding the relationship Senator Mitchell had with her late father's wife, but I am absolutely confident in assuring you that the two likely were not on good terms.  While I know damned well that the loss of parents can cause some pretty terrible things to happen within families, I can't condone burglary.  I also understand the frustration and fear that you may lose any hope of possessing any of the items you valued greatly.  

I guess I have a much higher level of risk avoidance than Senator Mitchell does, but I do understand that desperate feeling of loss.  And I do have to point out that it is absolutely comical to have a member of the Republican Party complain about the other party turning their heads away, ignoring the illegal behavior of a member.  As the only party that has the honor of having the only President who has had to resign and be pardoned and the only president who is a convicted rapist and liar, well, there's the whole "Glass houses" thing which we no longer consider valid.  Apparently in the post-fact era, our political figures can break all sorts of laws, complain they're being treated unfairly (which is accurate, though not in the direction they want people to believe), the whole world is against them, and they're the only person who can fix that which was never broken.

Laughingly, I would say, if this wasn't such an important issue.  But I guess it's a pretty obvious symptom of some form of group psychosis that we've yet to diagnose in which people slavishly follow a media figure who is the antithesis of everything they held dear because that figure has promised to do something they have always wanted to see.  Mind you, while the media figure may have delivered on some apparently deeply-held commitments, the deeper and more long-lasting damage may turn what ever that victory was into a fairly small step towards the end of this nation.  But yeah, I'm just howling at the moon.