travesty – burlesque or ludicrous treatment of a serious work or subject; any grotesque or debased imitation. French: travest – dressed to appear ridiculous.
Sometimes a series of events gets us so angry and frustrated that we can’t see straight and we have to sound off. We’re sounding off here not as dancing Wiccans but as private citizens of the United States. The recent flap over “Should we negotiate with terrorists or should we blast them out of existence?” is a travesty.
Do you remember when Libya under Gadafi was the foremost terrorist nation and they were shopping for nuclear armament? First Washington tried to bomb his house. When that failed, guess what? We negotiated. Gadafi promised to be a good boy and not to go looking for nuclear arms. Last month Mr. Gadafi wrote to George W. Bush complaining that the United States had reneged on the earlier deal, because the Senate in its wisdom was going to allow companies doing business with Libya to be sued for past transgressions.
Do you remember when North Korea was part of the “axis of evil”? Madeleine Albright negotiated an agreement with that nation; by it they would not pursue nuclear technology in return for food and for aid with oil. The Republicans reneged on that deal, but North Korea rattled its sabers, and lo and behold, we negotiated with them. The deal benefited this nation less than the one the Democratic administration had concluded.
Now it’s reported that Washington is negotiating with the terrorists in Iraq–in fact we are paying them not to attack American military troops–paying them in cold hard American tax dollars.
Another subject we see in the news is materials supposedly supplied by Iran to terrorists in Iraq. It is suggested that Iran either made these themselves or got them from Russia or China. Why then are the packing crates stenciled in English, in the Roman alphabet?–not in an Arabic alphabet, not in the cyrillic alphabet, not in Chinese characters, but in Roman letters. Were those materials stolen from U. S. stockpiles, or even materials supplied to Iraq in the days when we were friendly with Saddam Hussein?
One last bitch while we’re letting off steam. We wrote a blog a few weeks ago about the lady buying dog food to eat. Part of her problem is that she receives a Social Security check which gets adjusted for the cost of living. It sounds wonderful–a system perfect and benign. There’s just one minor problem. The CoLA that our enlightened government uses does not figure in the price of food or fuel. Apparently, in Washington’s Olympian indifference, these are not essential items to be calculated. In our CoLA all we Frosts can do is go out into the garden and beat the tomato plants so they’ll give us an adequate crop this year. But you, my friends, can do something more emphatic. You can tell everyone what unadulterated BS the Republican stance of not-negotiating with terrorists really is. They’ve done it; they’re doing it; actually it has worked.
You may rest assured, of course, that the administration has read both the Koran and Mao’s Little Red Book. From the Koran source, “One sword is worth 10,000 words.” From the Little Red Book, “Trouble at home? Start a war.”
Okay; we’ve gotten it out of our systems. It does make us feel better … until we turn on the news again. If you aren’t angry, and if you’re not planning to vote, boys and girls, you’re not paying attention. As St. Timothy Leary said (whom that same Gadafi saved from the CIA and the Black Panthers), “Hold your nose and vote.”
Ah well. Just keep payin’ your taxes; everything will be okay. Blessed be. Gavin and Yvonne
