Ask not for whom the bell tolls

I visited CNN.com today, as it is one of my wife's favorite sites.  I can hardly stand CNN, thinking of it as Fox News Lite; but that's never stopped the Renkova from playing their "news" video at ear-splitting, brain bashing volumes.  (Just kidding, Svetlana, just kidding... really)

I'm unemployed; my resume is out there on monster and careerbuilder and I've joined a job-seekers group as well.  And at that, right now I'm getting unemployment insurance payments- I still have a house (and it's still warm), and my cupboard is far from empty.

Nonetheless, having spent part of my childhood fairly poor (I can remember meals that consisted of turnip greens picked from the back yard and "hot water cornbrad," cornmeal mush fried into patties), it's one of my principal worries.  We're a long way from there-- but I can see it off in the distance.

So, when I read this, it struck home-- there are people in America who don't have enough to eat.

So much has changed in this country-- before Katrina, I would never have believed that dead bodies would be left in the streets of an American city.  Before Gitmo I would never have believed that the highest levels of the American government would approve of torture.  And I would never have believed that here in the land of fat folks that people would be going hungry, but here we are.

I find myself muttering and fuming about those rat-bastard-prick conservative Republicans and the Renkova chides me about being forward looking, thinking about how to help turn things around for the future, for our grandkids' sakes.

But as I told her, sometimes a mighty rage is a legitimate response.  Congressional Republicans should treat themselves to a screening of Pulp Fiction:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

Just change one line-- "And you will know we are the American People when we lay our vengeance upon thee."