I address two brief topics in this diary.
All the fun is below the fold.
Brief Topic 1
As I've noted before, I live in a very red (and, no doubt purely by coincidence, very wealthy) Tennessee city. My route home today took me past our city courthouse, where last year a large group of Baggers gathered for...some reason, mostly to display their signs of Hitler/Obama and stomp and whine like 6-year-olds about losing "their" country.
There was supposed to be a big tax-day bagger rally again this year. But what did I see there today? NOTHING! Nobody but a local news crew stood in the parking lot--reporting what, I just don't know. Maybe they're doing a story on the crickets....
A Bagger acquaintance was complaining a couple of weeks ago about the "exhorbitant taxes" and the "socialist government takeover."
"So," I asked, "Have you filed your taxes yet?"
"No," he said.
"How 'bout you go do that, then come back to me and bitch some more?"
He filed his taxes late last week.
He hasn't come back to talk to me.
My theory is that the shrinking Bagger crowds is directly proportional to those who have filed their taxes for this year. I suspect that the more people see actual reality (in the form of better-than-usual tax returns), the less likely they are to go out and protest make-believe boogeymen. Of course, there will always be the resentful rich and completely delusional Glenn Beck fans.
Brief Topic 2
Meanwhile, Jon Stewart's dissection of Fox News' obsession with coincidental imagery was, as usual, brilliant. If you haven't seen the video from last night's show yet, you can enjoy it here. This reminds me of something that's been bothering me for a while: the state flag of South Carolina. Have you seen this thing? If not, take a quick look at it.
Look! It's a crescent moon! South Carolinians are secret Mooslins! And a palm tree! Palm trees are found in oases! Oases are found in deserts! What else is found in deserts? Mooslins! Now it all makes sense! Something must be done! Somebody tell Glenn Beck!