neurological dryer lint

i just got frustrated and turned off vh1 storytellers: pearl jam. eddie's melodramatic anti-bush rhetoric gets old when all he does is recite clever analogies for how living under the administration is like an 'abusive relationship'. eddie, guess what, it doesn't help your cause any if all you do is spew trite generalizations. real debate helps, educates people, gets people thinking, questioning what they see, developing their own opinions. you train the youth of america to recite slogans, not think.

i'm sure i've done the same in the past. this kinda woke me up to the silliness of that approach, seeing it so plainly, it happens too often, on both sides of the american political spectrum - just watch footage of the congressional debates on leaving iraq - talking points and cute phrases like "cut and run" flying like spitwads across the classroom of the senate. since political discourse was transformed from honest, intelligent argument into marketing... see there i go again. a less grandiose approach would have said, all of our debate seems to happen on biased pundit channels and from grandstanding politicians and high-level officials hidden behind speechwriters with agendas and outlines. i would love to see honest debates. real discussions. it's why i look forward to the presidential debates every four years - it's the closest thing there is, and even those are weak substitutes. maybe it's unrealistic. maybe it does happen away from the cameras, though, people really trying to find answers to the complicated questions that our country faces.

anyway, i'll try to avoid that from now on.