Fried Day

Despite putting on our new Google Thinking Cap (Google Glasses are so five minutes ago) while reviewing the news, there wasn't any single story which felt worthy of an entire commentary. Ergo, we're going the smorgasbord route today.

Among the wretched news items which caught our eye (and caught in our throat): Barack Obama's West Point speech at which he declared that he believes in American exceptionalism "with every fiber of my being," despite having less personal fiber than the average ball of cotton candy. He then continued, saying "But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the law." In other words, the president went to West Point to take a big, steaming dump on the military and the United States.

Also in the news, Michelle Obama has accused some Republicans of hating women, children, and the poor and wanting them to suffer from malnutrition. Why? Because of their effort to allow those people to buy white potatoes with their government handouts if they so choose. "For too many years, white potatoes oppressed potatoes of color," the first lady said angrily, "especially the potatoes from Idaho."

Okay, we just made up the quote from Michelle - we just like to imagine her saying "Idaho" because we have a juvenile and politically incorrect sense of humor. But she is against white potatoes, despite her husband's annual St. Patrick's Day claim to be Irish.

Going back to last week's commentary on the 9/11 Museum Gift Shop, Hope n' Change is pleased to see at least one item being thrown out of the store: a decorative cheese platter in the shape of the United States with three adorable little hearts marking the spots where Americans died in agony at Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Frankly, everyone in the supply chain responsible for this nightmarish novelty item should be given a one way plane ticket adorned with an adorable little heart marking their new home at Guantanamo Bay.

And finally, there was an interesting story about a new study which shows that people with cynical outlooks are three times more likely to develop dementia in their old age. Considering how cynical this administration makes us, we're not crazy about that idea - but apparently, we soon will be.

Insanity Defense

First things first: Elliot Rodger's murderous rampage is a human tragedy which shouldn't be used as a political football by either side. It was neither access to guns nor an oversexualized Hollywood culture which made this pathetic 22 year old manboy into a killer - it was his insanity.

Which is why today's Hope n' Change, including the "too soon, too sick" cartoon above, isn't about the specifics of the Elliot Rodger case, but rather about the need to try to do something realistic about the underlying insanity...and stopping murderous rampages before they happen.

Pennsylvania Republican Representative Tim Murphy, a psychologist, has spent over a year analyzing the failures of our mental health system and laws, and crafted a reform bill which might help find and treat those who are dangerously unstable. He has worked with Republicans and Democrats, and his bill enjoys broad bipartisan support.

Or we should say "enjoyed." Because Nancy Pelosi is doing all she can to kill it and telling Democrats to withdraw their support. (Note: please follow the link to the full Wall Street Journal story about this that appeared two weeks ago - well before Rodger's appalling crimes.)

But why would Pelosi want to scuttle the bill? Because in an election year, she doesn't want the Republicans to have even a single example of bipartisan success - even on something as serious and important as this.

Moreover, by putting an emphasis on mental health and psychiatric intervention, the bill is a reminder that the killings are actually done by a human being rather than an inanimate object like a gun (and in this case, Rodger used knives, guns, and a car to commit his heinous acts). Put simply, Pelosi would rather bolster her anti-gun arguments with more mass murders than allow members of her own party to help prevent those murders.

Despicable. Unspeakable. Unacceptable.

There are serious-minded people, Republicans and Democrats, who want to genuinely reform our mental health laws right now to save lives. They should be allowed to do so without the unnecessary obstacle of Nancy Pelosi's partisan politicking and, yes, insanity.

Memorial Day 2014

Today is not about politics. It's about remembering that the freedoms we too easily take for granted came at the highest imaginable cost. We are all in the debt of the fallen - and while it is a debt which can never be repaid, it is essential that we try to prove ourselves worthy of their sacrifice every day.

On this Memorial Day, please take time in your thoughts to express gratitude to those who have died in the service of our country.