I just can't help it. I know this is supposed to be first and foremost a lighthearted look at modern mothering, but damn it all if the world doesn't keep making it impossible for me to ignore the hell-handbasket direction of things.
The Europeans are investigating our probable gulag archipelago in Eastern Europe. Just try, if you can, to ignore the irony in that. We spend billions of dollars and expend tens of thousands of lives "winning" the Cold War by fighting wars in all corners of the globe *except* those very countries where communism is crushing the souls of its population--Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Georgia, and on and on--only to declare our own victory when those countries finally rise up against their oppressors and then we use those same countries to house political prisons to outsource torture? And I won't even get started on the idea that we are using extraordinary rendition in the first place.
At home, the government has admitted that it has been spying on people who call abroad. This means that my parents and friends--who often called me while I was living in the Czech Republic, that haven of terrorism so renowned for false stories of rendezvous involving the Iraqis and Mohammed Atta--could have had their phones tapped. I still call many friends abroad. Am I being bugged?
In the Senate, our elected officials are preparing to confirm for a lifetime appointment a man who believes in forced pregnancy and strip-searching 10-year-olds. Thank goodness we'll have him to protect us from President Cheney--I mean, Bush--and his notion of an imperial presidency.
And the hue and cry from the opposition and our free media on these matters? Let's just be generous and call it underwhelming. As far as I can see, only one lone, courageous woman from Texas really gets it. And Molly, as much as I worship you and your clear head, your strong voice is not enough. What can we do to fix this mess???