I FEEL MY PAIN

Another couple of abysmally long days of film editing, this time while suffering an abscessed tooth, thus no posts. Now I'm waiting for a call from the dentist (please hurry!), so let's see what I've missed.

Here's a simple but excellent argument against privatizing Social Security.

Amid the continuing, competing monologues about U.S. generosity/stinginess towards the tsuanami victimes, Nick Kristoff gets to the bottom line on U.S. aid to poor countries.

Here's a valuable legal discourse on the torture memos.

While I haven't had time (or felt well enough) to scope out the news as per my usual routine, I've still listened to talk radio on my way to and from the studio. This morning I was, as usual, appalled at Laura Ingraham. She's such an idiot on radio as opposed to her (slightly) more serious and thoughtful (though still wrong-headed to the extreme) TV appearances. On radio, Laura sounds like an adolescent, screaming (or should I say screeching?) laughter as she disses a Democrat or Liberal for the way they comb their hair, pronounce words, or pretend to be human. (Didn't you know that we're all terrorists, America-haters, "the elite" and/or liars and perverts?) This morning her crusade was the Alberto Gonzales confirmation. She doesn't spare a moment, she says, in her busy day and mind (?) caring about whether or not detainees are tortured or not -- anyone the US government suspects is a bad guy and terrorist and deserves whatever they get. Her big diatribe was reserved for Chris Matthews of Hardball for suggesting that Iraqi insurgents might be considered "soldiers" and thus subject to the Geneva Conventions. Chris, it must be noted, was trying to figure out who "non-military enemy combatants" are, and questioned, "Isn't it their country? (a reference to Iraqi insurgents)" According to Laura, anyone who opposes the U.S. in Iraq is a terrorist.

Yesterday, Darrell Ankarlo was up in arms about the refusal of an unnamed cable network to run promos for his parent, Dallas radio station KLIF, that featured Arab-looking men putting a sweet American suburban family in their crosshairs (the baby was the center of the target) while telling viewers, "There are people out there who want to kill you. Let's talk." Darrell's contention was that we're all at danger every moment from these Islamo-fascist maniacs and need to wake up to the threat, and whatever accomplishes that is good. The fact that our families are more threatened by drunk drivers, loss of health insurance, and a crisis in first-responder (cops, firefighters) funding escapes him. You see, his program has the most up-to-date and factual information about the situation in Iraq because HE HAS A SON FIGHTING WITH THE MARINES IN IRAQ, so it's essential to promote that show to Americans, no matter how it's done, so they get the "truth" from the man best in the know. (Darrell admits to, but seems ashamed of, his older son, who campaigned for John Kerry. I wonder if that son was a product of Darrell's first marriage to a "liberal" -- that would enable him to say, "It's all her fault.") Darrell, too, is a proponent of torture to extract incredibly important information from terrorists. The problem is, if they're so obviously terrorists, why can't the government prove it, or even get an indictment?

Don't get me started on Dennis Prager, who was advocating killing all trespassers and changes in the law to permit it. He rejoices, he said, "it makes my day" every time he hears about a housebreaker being killed by a homeowner. Democrats don't understand gun laws, he said, because they've got a cockeyed view of "violence vs. non-violence" as opposed to the good old conservative kill and ask questions later, otherwise known as "good versus evil."

The most discouraging note is the preponderance of callers indicating their distaste for aiding the victims in any way, since they are (1) mostly Muslim; (2) some Indonesian guy was caught on camera wearing a Bin Laden T-shirt, which proves that they're all our enemies anyway; and (3) we have our own problems in the USA. Wonder how the number (3) callers justify the hundreds of billions spent to "liberate Iraq" (as opposed to securing us against their nonexistent WMD's and connection to 9/11) when they too are Muslims and we weren't invited to destroy their nation in order to "save it."

I hurt so much physically I don't need the psychic hurt the media inflicts. What's happened to America?