you spin me right round.......

i normally leave political discussions to my sibling. she was, after all, a poli-sci major*, which is one of the many things i admire about her, because i have a pretty low tolerance for the stuff. 

one of the main reasons for this is that i'm not a big fan of fighting, and it seems to me that, when it comes to politics, a lot of folks in congress are too busy getting into pissing contests about how "wrong" the other party is to actually accomplish anything. 

while i'm certain our founding fathers knew there'd be some degree of dissent among the parties, i think that back then, there was less "playing the media" and more of a willingness to compromise. i doubt it's a coincidence that it seems like they might have accomplished a wee bit more than our parties seem able to manage today.

yes, i blame the media. 

(yes, i know how strange that sounds coming from someone with a media-related college degree.)

case in point:

a good friend of mine posted a link to an article on facebook last night, prefaced with a comment expressing her distress at the situation. while i consider her a very good friend of mine, we do not get into political discussions. after reading the article and watching the embedded video, however, i had to comment. 

first, the link: http://theuspatriot.com/2014/06/08/obama-refuses-to-salute-marines-what-he-does-after-will-leave-you-angry/

after which, i commented:

i watched it, and it didn't look like he refused to me. he probably was a bit distracted, and hopped back out to apologize as soon as he realized his error.

after commenting, i scrolled down to the "related articles" that facebook is kind enough to now include and  it looks like my assumption may not be far off.

take a look for yourself: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/obama-salute_n_3331762.html

other folks have since commented on the article and, suffice it to say, i am in the minority here. 

it's the same incident, spun two different ways. 

is the president a "sorry ass, pathetic excuse for a commander and wanna be chief", as one commenter put it, or is he a human being who made a faux pas?  it all depends on which interpretation you choose to believe. 

maybe that's part of the problem. our lives have gotten so busy that we rely on soundbites from talking heads and little blurbs on the internet to get our news, rather than thinking for ourselves. would the outcry be nearly so vehement if just the video of the actual incident were presented initially, without any commentary at all? 

one of the folks in the second video sarcastically pointed out that "maybe this'll be the thing that finally undoes america completely."

the sad thing is, people seem to be getting more outraged over a momentary brain fart than the inability of their congressional representatives to quit piddling around, zip up their big boy (and girl) pants, and actually work together to accomplish something in the interest of bettering the country.

*with a master's degree, as of this spring, in fact!