sorta kinda maybe once in a while a little the same way

In the space of about 20 minutes [Aug. 24, 2012], I heard...

1. ... Romney announce proudly while stumping in Commerce, MI, where he was born, that "no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate." (AP Story >)

2. ... a DNC email misrepresent Romney’s position on abortion in the case of rape by quoting part of an LA Times article; the full context said nothing like the implication of the partial quote. (Story: Anderson Cooper Takes DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz to Task for Misquoting L.A. Times In Fund-raising Pitch > )

3. ... progressive radio hosts yuk it up over US bishops and the Catholic church position on HHS like a couple gravel-voiced FM DJ's that smoke 5 packs a day and take a toke off their one-hitter before hitting the air; it seems the "high road" was being taken by "child molesters." Snortle grimace guffaw.[1]

Our country - yours and mine - is facing something more serious than an election: the loss of perspective.

After which little else can matter, because there's so little we can agree on.

Even when confronted with blatant misrepresentation in front of a national audience, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz would not concede. Even when repeatedly asked for more tax returns, Romney will not concede. The response from Wasserman-Schultz is essentially "Yeah, but we all know what he really thinks about abortion," and Romney's response is "Yeah, but I released 2,000 pages of tax info from one year, and my VP pick released his returns."

The closer we get to the election, the further away both sides are from my vote. Neither side will stand above the fray and rein in the troops on the front lines that are becoming embarrassing cannon fodder in a take-no-prisoners damn-the-truth battle. It's like watching two teams compete in a sport I don't care about from two schools I never heard of.

I'm sure someone somewhere is saying, "Awwww, Clarence is upset, nobody's playing fair, isn't that too bad."

We're incapable of seeing things sorta kinda maybe once in a while a little the same way.

[1]
Child abuse exists everywhere, not just the Catholic church. Why the focus on Catholics? Andrew Brown in The Guardian had this insight, which has a lot of truth to it:

This is vile, but whether it is more vile than the record of any other profession is not obvious. The concentration on boys makes the Catholic pattern of abuse stand out; ... it is nowadays very widely reported. It may be the best reported crime in the world: that, too tends to skew perceptions.

There are, however, some fragments of figures from the outside world suggesting that not many professions do better. Last year, it was reported that half of the girls fostered in social democratic Sweden in the 50s and 60s had been abused; according to Camila Batmanghelidjh 550,000 children are reported to the social services in this country every year.

So why the concentration on Catholic priests and brothers? Perhaps I am unduly cynical, but I believe that all institutions attempt to cover up institutional wrongdoing although the Roman Catholic church has had a higher opinion of itself than most, and thus a greater tendency to lie about these things. (Source: Andrew Brown, The Guardian > )

Started: 2012-08-24