p thoughts and notices

Paraphernalia was amazed to realize how popular Trivial Pursuit® remains, even after all these years. Once an avid player, paraphernalia somehow got distracted, and went on a binge of school, travel and work fuelled by all kind of memory altering devices. Having learned a lot (and forgotten even more!), it is nice to see that the game is as good as it was. However, a sinister version seems to have been introduced while paraphernalia was nursing its hangover.

As many other wholesome enterprises, it seems that the game has been co-opted by politicians. Re-branded as Trivial Politicizing™, the emphasis of the new game is quite different. In this updated version, politicians provide the answer first (a la Jeopardy®), only to emphasize the trivial in the pursuit of votes. Knowledge is left out of the game altogether.

A good example is John McCain, self-anointed Moralizer-in-Chief of the USA. The use of steroids in baseball, certainly one of the most fundamental drug issues of our time, is prompting him to push for the intervention of Congress. Well, paraphernalia loves baseball, as the national pastime provides countless examples that the use of illegal substances for recreational purposes does not prevent talented individuals from having productive lives. Of course, Mr. McCain’s concerns are different. For him, the GAME is more important than the people. Sorry Mr. Senator, but some of us would like Congress to care more about the repealing of the "3 strikes you are out" legislationand of mandatory minimum sentencing than about fulfilling your childhood fantasy. Indeed, paraphernalia is sorry you did not make it to the Big Leagues. Actually, the minor leagues would have been fine too. Everybody loves Crash Davis more than they like you anyway.

As usual, GW Bush is in a class of his own, as rules of the game never apply to him. Dubya, in yet another surreal moment, actually created a law that grants rights to one family (and one family only!), in order to (and we quote) err on the side of life.

History seems to show that Dubya has been erring a lot lately, though rarely on the side of life. While paraphernalia likes to focus on drugs, it still knows that GWB’s actions rarely match his words. From civilian deaths in Iraq , to the electric chair in Texas, or the killing of people while in custody of the troops we are all supposed to blindly support, mini-Bush trigger-happy finger speaks volume about where he stands on issues. Even on tube theory, the president disagrees with himself. Feeding tubes forcibly inserted into the navel of a woman lying in a vegetative state is fine now; but it was bad then;
in any case, talking about providing clean tubes to drug addicts to protect them from HIV infections is wrong. Is this the culture of life or the culture of lies?

Well, it does seem that we are back to Trivial Pursuit®. Question#1: Who is the politician who came out in support of Michael Jackson during his child molestation trial?

Bored already? Fine, let’s watch some Reality TV. Hopefully, we can vote Bush off the island tonight…