[With apologies up front for brevity and scatological content.]
The current budget negotiations remind me of an old joke/story, one that should remain old until totally forgotten, but given the current circumstances, it's time to dust it off:
One day the organs of the body were all bragging about their relative merits, and which of them was, ultimately, the most important organ to the body.
The brain argued it was the center of awareness, THE most highly evolved organ in THE most highly evolved species, ever. It controlled emotions and reason. Most everything the rest of the body did was at the direction of the brain, its pituitary gland was the master of all the other glands, and without its interpretation of sensory input, the body would never survive. "Without me," the brain said, "you are nothing more than meat." As one would expect from a brain it was flawlessly logical argument.
But then the heart spoke of it's tireless 24/7/365 job, how it has been traditionally considered as the source of love and the very center of the human soul, and with good reason. It brings oxygen and nourishment to all the other organs, and that if it stopped its ceaseless, faithful and loving duty, even for a few minutes, the body would perish. It was a persuasive argument.
The lungs, liver and guts engaged in a visceral debate with the heart, "Without us there would be no oxygen or nourishment for any of us, the brain, and even YOU, heart!"
Next the reproductive organs stood up, "Without us NONE of you would even exist, and besides, were more FUN than any of you." (The male brain, seeing the ummm... 'logic' of the reproductive organs argument, nodded in agreement, and began to consider itself to be the SECOND most important organ in the human body.)
The debate raged for hours when suddenly the asshole spewed out a stream of preposterous crap and then totally relaxed, allowing a huge bolus of stinky gas out of the gut. Next it clenched tightly shut, allowing almost nothing to pass. All attempts at reasoning with the asshole were met with more loud burst of stinky gas and nonsense. This went on for hours, then days. Soon all the other organs capitulated, and agreed that the asshole was not simply THE most important organ in the body, but that henceforth and forever everything that the body did was to be done the assholes way.
The moral of the story? The GOP's Teabaggers are assholes.
