What Happens When a Crip is Left Alone With a Computer and an Internet Connection...

If you are privy to my private journal, (and if you are not and would like to be, please email me and I’ll be happy to invite you in…) you know that I have been on the disabled list since last Monday. Setting up for last weekend’s event, I finally pushed my back over the edge. I think it was probably when husband and I lifted the freezer from out of the back of the pick-up, carried it about twenty yards, and set it down into place. I ended up on my ass in the sand. Didn’t know I had done dire damage to myself at the time. But the next morning (the day of the event, of course) my back let me know it was VERY unhappy with me. So now, I am suffering (and I do mean suffering) with what I would assume is an aggravated disc in my lower back. (No, I haven’t been to a doctor for a real diagnosis. Several issues, not the least of which is questionable health coverage, coupled with a healthy disrespect for the 21st century American medical community at large, prevent me from running to a doctor with every ache and pain…even when I perhaps should…)
Anyway, physical decrepitude has opened up a whole new world for me in the past week. First and foremost, I have had a LOT of time to spend wandering around in journal-land, both on AOL and beyond. "Beyond" has primarily consisted of The Blue Voice, where eight "lefties" from the AOL J ranks have graduated to the big, bad blogosphere-at-large, with the hope of attracting a wider audience for their prolific writings. I have been most drawn to Duane’s continuing commentary on the Karl Rove affair (actually, being the intellectually lazy sort that I am, I’ve been happy to let HIM do all the research….) And I have plunged myself into one of the longest "comment strings" on the blog…on a piece that Neil wrote in reaction to the London subway bombings. Two of our resident J-Land right-wingers, Armandt and RepublicanJen, took it upon themselves to try to instruct (and, in Armand’s case, verbally abuse) Neil on the error of his opinion. And who was I to let them do so unmolested?
All of this has opened my eyes once again to the things that people WILL believe. Jen is apparently convinced that Islam, as a religion, has a lock on the concept of violence, murder, and genocide in the name of God. Armand is absolutely certain that there is a demonstrable connection between Iraq and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, AND that we are obviously winning the "War on Terror," in Iraq and on all other fronts.
It occurred to me that perhaps that is the difference between the Left and the Right. The right is a faction of absolutes. Black or white. Right or wrong. No inconvenient gray areas. And there is no point—political, legal, or moral, for which they do not have THE answer. They are on point, on task, and will stick to their guns in the face of any and all argument.
As for those of us on the Left…the only moral certainty we espouse is that there is NO absolute moral certainty. We believe we are called upon to control the strong, provide for the weak, and protect the rights of every human being, even those whose views may be foreign or repugnant to us--a directive that flies in the face of the whole of human history. Our moral imperative is to walk that walk, despite everything that the world might throw at us. Against the winds of terrorism, xenophobia, political domination or war, we are to remain steadfast in our dedication to the birthright of all humanity. The Right perceives this as weakness. We understand it as the only path to the ultimate survival of the human race.
Whoops…got sidetracked onto that soapbox I keep hidden under my computer desk…
Anyway, I followed a web of links, and ended up at Armand’s blog on Blogspot. I can’t (won’t) comment on most of what I read there, because I am determined to take the high road and not go off on an insulting diatribe about how narrow-minded, high-handed, and just plain wrong most of the posts seemed to me. But I did come upon the following cartoon, and I just could not resist slipping in a comment…which I suspect will be deleted as soon as it is discovered…

Cartoon by Paul Nowak, CNS News
My Comment:
"That should read, "Iraq-9/11 Connection FABRICATED," and the big arrow should be pointing to something else that comes out of the back end of a chicken..."