RAMBLING THOUGHTS ON THE MIDSHIFT

Does anyone really care that Madonna adopted a Third World orphan? As someone who was looking at international adoption (until the War Department got pregnant) my own take is "money talks". From all the accounts I've read she waltzed into an orphange, had the kids line up, made her selection and now is home to England with the tyke. Bam, boom, in and out, Sionara sweetheart. Most of us wouldn't have it that easy. I won't even get into the morality of what she is doing, it's been discussed to death elsewhere. But in the end, who cares?

The Foley scandal and everything else in Washington these days reminds me of Danny DeVito in "War of The Roses". He asked a question, "What do you call ten thousand lawyers on the bottom of the ocean? A good start!". Substitute politicians for lawyers and it really applies. These days both parties seem to be in a race for a "Scumbag of the Week" award. While I don't believe in having a third party I'll admit times like this make it tempting. But then I think of Ross Perot and how he cratered back in '92.

In a Swedish knife fight between Rosie O'Donnell and Ann Coulter I really don't know who I'd want to win. Rosie is so flaming liberal and over the top with her views it makes my teeth hurt, Coulter is a shrieking harridan who makes my skin crawl when I realize she holds many of the political views I do. On the plus side, Rosie seems to try being a good parent. Yeah, I know there's that whole gay thing going on and yada yada yada. There are plenty of hetero couples I've known who should have been sterilized before they hit puberty. Ann Coulter seems to understand we're not playing pattycake in this war on Islam. So sometimes it helps to have a snarling Doberman at your side, even if it does pee on your leg. Like I said, I don't know. Any way they could both lose?

I read some of Charles Fort's works years ago. Since then I keep my eyes open for the strange and unusual. It's out there. A few years back, when I still read the Dallas Morning News, there was an article about a town in flyover country that had a rain of quarter-sized frogs. Never heard anything else about it. There's been other weird happenings since then, that one sticks in my mind because I used it to make a point with the War Department. Like I said, that stuff is out there.

When I get discouraged about life these days I remember the little things of yesteryear; diving under a desk at school for air raid drills, fallout shelter advertisements, Jimmy Carter as President, the Monongahela (sp?) River being on fire for years before they could finally put it out. Could always be worse, someday it may get worse but for now it's not. And today is all we've got.