Off Clamming, Back Later

Stunned into silence?  Astounded by the mushrooming idiocy coming from "The Right?"

Yes and yes.  Things have been dormant here for while, with Flic and I both gone to ground.  Same reasons.  As I've said in many other avenues than FBH, people have lost their g-damn minds.

And ya know what put me round the brink and off to sulk and brood and not even read Harper's Magazine fergodssakes?  It wasn't She Who Shall Not Be Named clearing millions with her Wasilla-based cottage industry shilling for a bunch of fanatical hypocrites.  It wasn't the Gulf tragedy, although that has certainly been on the mind.  It wasn't even that idiot woman walking around here with a loaded handgun in her hand (not holstered) who insisted the cops overreacted when they stopped her and oh-mah-God Obama is coming for our guns! 

No.   What convinced me that I needed a break from the greater world was a small occurance on the way home from work weeks ago.  Living in some of the best moose growing habitat in the world up here in Interior Alaska, one would think that folks would adjust to the idea that we have a lot of them and adjust their lives (and expectations) accordingly.  Watch out for them on the road, fence the damned garden, and enjoy taking pictures of the calves in the yard. 

So.  Weeks ago, driving back into the Goldstream Valley on Ballaine, as I crested the hill and followed the curve down I noticed a whole line of brake lights before me.  Seven or eight cars were at a complete stop on the back side of the hill, which could be a bit sketchy if you came round the curve and weren't paying attention.  I stopped, curious, and then noticed that the lead car had stopped to let a moose and her newish calf cross the road.  They were taking their time doing it.  But, ya know, no big deal -- it was maybe 20 seconds of delay on all our trips. 

They crossed, the line of cars began to move -- and the idiot in front of me slowed down as we passed the two moose, rolled down his window, and flipped them off.  I can think of no finer illustration of the self-centered, irrational rage that certain members of our society have been wallowing in since Obama got elected than that. 

Hope y'all are coping better than Flic and I.  We'll be back again -- I will after the long drive to the clamming beaches.