We Don't Rent Pigs

You're nearly a laugh, but you're really a cry... - Pink Floyd, "Pigs (Three Different Ones)"

Well, we don't rent pigs. I figured it's better to say it right up front - 'cause a man that does like to rent pigs is - is hard to stop. - Gus McCrae, Lonesome Dove

Germany has endured two major embarrassments this past week. First, their soccer team, favorites as the hosts of the World Cup, ultimately settled for third place. Then today, Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, with a grimace barely concealing her disbelief and chagrin, suffered the presence of the pork-obsessed narcissist who still poses as Our President.

As Israel rains death and ruin upon the helpless Lebanese over two kidnapped soldiers, as Bush's doppleganger in North Korea - a similarly deranged narcissist - shoots wannabe nukes into the Sea of Japan, as Japan itself considers military action in retaliation, as Baghdad rages and riots, as American soldiers continue to be demoralized, depleted, and as we have seen lately, dehumanized; as Mexicans protest in defense of democracy in ways we Americans are much too complacent to dare emulate... as we watch in a mix of despair and surreal disbelief, with only slight punctuations of relief provided by Colbert, Olbermann, or Stewart. And as we all wonder how much more can go wrong, and will go wrong...

"I thought you were going to ask about the pig."

In one smirking utterance - from a mouth that has spewed forth literally thousands of them in the past five and a half long, long years - in one self-absorbed, self-satisfied, smug, pinheaded... aw fuck it, I won't waste any more adjectives on him.

In one sentence, a motto for the world's unraveling was born.

Continued...