A BRIEF DETOUR

I have to admit that guzzling five pints of hefeweizen and plowing my way through a surprisingly good pork tenderloin(thanks to my patient comrades at the Sacramento Brewing Company) has left me feeling a bit fog-bound and slow, at least as far as paying attention to the critical issues of the day is concerned. It's odd -- or perhaps not -- how easily the latest exposures of the Bush Crime Family's satanic rampages can be temporarily eclipsed by really smooth beer ... not to mention the above-average rendering of large portions of hog meat. Honestly, if I could arrange the termination of my miserable existence this very minute, chin-deep in a tub full of garlic mashed potatoes and with a beer in my hand, I'd consider it a more than fair way to go.

Jeeze, talk about having your thought processes ignominiously decapitated by the ephemeral satisfactions of pure physical sensation. That's nothing new for me, though. And, unfortunately, it's a condition that's all too familiar to the vast heaving mass of the American populace.

Indeed, the ignorant over-fondness for the trivial and inconsequential -- the elevation of invisible phantasms and existential ass-gas to the top tiers of importance -- is probably the number one reason why the human species is so comprehensively lodged in the cosmic toilet bowl these days, with the messed-up chowder-head American people as the most fervent proponents of grabbing hold of the handle of the ultimate and flushing humanity away, into the crap-filled septic tank of oblivion. However the fatal glorification of the stupid and inane manifests itself, whether in fulsome babblings about glabrous, fat-choked slop dished out by some greasy-spoon brew pub; within the vaporous, rapid-fire chatter of half-drunk dung-headed twenty-somethings, their capacity for critical thought and discernment thoroughly compromised and debilitated by the overpowering influence of corporatized pop-culture; or in the legions of SUV-driving assholes, kool-aid drinkers all, who daily give vent to the somewhat mistaken idea that every other human being on earth is nothing but an inconvenient obstruction, a mere speed-bump or pot hole, that impedes the accomplishment of their sacred, over-priviledged mission -- whatever that is -- well, anyway, the end result is the same. The result is a society of intellectually dislocated wind-up toys pathetically pretending to be people, cynically manipulated by a bloody power-mad ruling structure dominated by tyrannical gonad-squeezing despots ... OK, after such a pointless and (probably) incomprehensible outburst -- a sickening spew that, however much based in the truth as it might be -- certainly leaves the purposeless praising of beer and greasy bar food in a more positive light.

I'll have to leave this hopeless exercise for now, since the dumbness is getting so thick I'm seriously considering tossing my laptop through the window and having done with it, once and for all. Let me finish with this observation (in as non-sequitur a fashion as possible) about the fake Dubai ports rigmarole: think Halliburton ...