Up The Doseage -OR- We Need More Thorazine... STAT!

I spent some quality time with the in-laws over the weekend. The gathering was "Downstate" in their natural habitat, just outside the shadow of our state capitol.
Not all of the relatives could attend. Because of the early, wet spring and a new record succession of 80+° days, the corn had to be harvested. The earliest harvest anyone could remember...

That may or may not be important, or correct, since there is ample reason to suspect their capacity for memory. They've forgotten that there were presidents before Obama (who were not named Clinton), and that for MOST of the last 42 years, they've been republican, that Illinois was governed by an unbroken string of Republicans from 1977 through 2003 aka the years before Blago, and that education in Illinois has been badmouthed, bullied, beaten, kicked and financially starved through a shifting of funding to the lottery, casinos and sin taxes since I was a student.

When I tried to introduce any of this "ancient history" into the general berating, belittling and bemoaning of all things Obama, there was blankness. Invoking the Reagan "legacy" of exploding federal spending, reduced revenue to the states and unfunded mandates I swear they plugged their ears and chanted "NANANANANANANANANANA, I can't hear you".

"Reagan??! What does he have to do with anything happening today? Sheesh, he's been out of office for 22 years and dead for the last six!"

Hmmmm, okay you remember THAT though? You remember when he left office, bow your head in reverence whenever his name is spoken and support a national holiday to commemorate him, but you really haven't considered the impact of his policies on the realities of 2010? More blankness.

"He's dead. Get over it. He has absolutely nothing to do with what the Kenyan Usurper is forcing down our throats.".

"Right, and the guy who died 2010 years ago? He didn't do anything that has gone terribly askew either?" Yep, the twofer. Politics AND Religion. Despite the glaring from my long-suffering wife, I was in it to stay. I AM Don Quixote!

"Well 200,000 people were in D.C. for Beckapaloza what does that tell you?"

Gee, I don't know, there were 300,000 in Chicago in 1968. Did the D.C. cops wade into the crowd swinging riot sticks? Now that would have been fun eh? Did they disperse the crowd with tear gas, fire hoses and dogs? Isn't that the playbook for large demonstrations?

"Don't tread on me!"

Awww, fuggit. Where's the Beer?