Worst

Yeah, where I said “Not bad” in that last one, go ahead and remove the “not.” Check those links or pick up one of the books. I’ll work on it for next time.

Meanwhile, today is the Feast of the Ass (rarely celebrated currently) and the anniversary of the landing on Titan by Huygens. Titan! A moon of Saturn! The outer solar system! I don’t know how I missed that.

And I’m trying to move back towards talking about the Crisis. Today seems like a good day for that, although I can’t describe just why. Maybe that everything in the news seems to be pitched as The Worst Thing Ever. Net Neutrality is dead, dead, dead. The Israeli Minister of Defense doesn’t like Secretary Kerry. Secretary Gates disagreed with Obama.  A bridge was closed for spiteful political reasons. This is our news.

Or, if you prefer, civility is dead. Your cable company will do what it wants with the internet, and it's your problem if that doesn’t go the way you prefer. Our primary ally in the Middle East has people with no compunctions about complaining when we aren’t doing what they would prefer. The former Secretary of Defense thinks its fine to complain about his boss a few months after he stopped working there. And a bridge, paid for by taxpayers for the use of taxpayers, was shut down because some taxpayers weren’t doing what the ruling class - sorry, governor's hirelings - would prefer.

Perception is reality, I’ve been told. If everyone thinks The Worst Thing Ever is happening every day, then it is. That might even be the real definition of the Crisis. We’re all going to get more and more unhappy that we don’t have the life we prefer, until something forces us to change it into one we can stand. And then we’ll really know what Worst Thing Ever can mean.