The misanthrope speaks.
But before I speak let me first provide a definition of the word "misanthrope" I found online.
The following is from Misanthrope's Corner.

The misanthrope hates not man. The misanthrope hates idiocy, stupidity, self-righteousness, authoritarianism, selfishness, greed, ignorance, dishonesty, cant, and balderdash. All of these he hates rightfully. The problem is that all of these are shared by no other member of the animal kingdom but man. And the misanthrope does not entertain the vain hope that these traits will ever stop determining man's behavior.

Here is a link.
[http://www.bway.net/...]

And really, if we can't all agree with hating all of the above we can at least agree to hate balderdash. Balderdash is, I believe, almost universally despised.

More below -

A disclaimer -
I understand that the subject matter for this post is very serious. But I'm sick and tired of having to be serious all the time (yes, I know this administration requires us to be constantly vigilant and serious) so I thought maybe I'd post something a little lighthearted.

One of my favorite folk songs is The Kingston Trio's "MTA", or "Charlie and the MTA", it has a few titles. It was written back in the 40s by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes as a protest of a fare increase on Boston's MTA and, to help a candidate for mayor win the election.
I heard it today as I was running and my mind just started reworking the words. I mean, MTA, NSA, it just seemed very easy.

These are strange times we live in.
The best news sources these days are programs on Comedy Central. If it weren't for John Stewart and Stephen Colbert I don't know where we'd be. They seem to speak to those of us with brains and common sense in this era of koolaid drinking.
So I guess it wasn't that surprising that I read the following article (sent to me by a friend) in The Onion.

[http://www.theonion.com/...]

More on the flip side.

As I was running this evening my iPod spit up two songs in a row that, unless you think about it, have nothing in common - Rockin' In The Free World by Neil Young and B.Y.O.B by System Of A Down. Yes, they both rock but they are totally different sounding songs. What do they have in common? They're both protest songs.
And today being May 4th, the anniversary of the Kent State shootings, the obvious song of the day is Ohio by CSNY.
And, in another reference to Neil Young, his new album, Living With War, has just been released and contains protest songs.

When George W Bush as reelected in 2004 I was, as I assume most of you were, upset, despondent, angry, confused. How could half the country be so stupid, so blind, or more to the point, how could half the country so completely disagree with me? My first thought, being originally from Upstate NY (I live now in New Jersey), was Canada but it was a quick, fleeting thought. Then I saw all the Blue State/Red State maps and noticed that the Northeast was solidly blue. I thought, "Well, what would happen if we just broke away from the US and started our own, progressive, sane and rational Nation?".
So I started a blog called The Northeast Secession Movement. I have to say here that I'm in no way saavy about politics. I didn't follow it that much, I voted Democratic and that was about it. But I needed some sort of release after the election and this seemed a good way to do it.