Fusion

Dead on my feet and using the free internet at one of the fast-food-with-WiFi joints just off the I55/Exit 220 is no place to hold forth at great length on anything, except maybe this. 

With stable fusion power in the hands of an artist, you theoretically have a Philosopher's Stone at your command, capable of using the terrible power of nuclear fusion to transform one element into another.  

In other words, lead into gold.

In the hands of a monster like, say, Karl Rove, 9/11 was used in a remarkably similar way: using the terrible power of the events of that day, the GOP brain caste took the degenerate elements of the Party of God and transmuted them into an army that truly believed that they were immune to history and causality.  That no matter how many times their crackpot ideas blew up in their face, no matter many of their hypocrisies were hung out in the public square, no how many times they lied -- lied big, about really important shit -- and got caught...it didn't matter.  They were special.  They were chosen.  They had their hands on an infinite "Do Over" credit card that would never, ever bottom out.

What you are seeing in the Romney campaign is the dead-ending of that mentality. The lying-with-giddy-"Fuck You"-abandon at the top of the ticket, and the genuine rage and bewilderment on the part of the Base that their "Do Over" credit card doesn't work so good anymore.

The GOP used 9/11 to mutate their already-depraved Base into something new and awful.  Come November we'll see if they win or we do. 

Getting back on the road now.  

Until my next internet oasis, I'll leave you with this from me on 09/11/2009.

Sadly, it still holds up far too well:

Like A Virgin

“...they turned to prayer, beseeching
that the sin which had been committed
might be wholly blotted out.”

-- 2 Maccabees. 12:42 

Once upon a time, there was a President named Bill Clinton, who was, by most historical standards, a typical Centrist Republican, although by a fluke of geography and circumstances he ran for public office with a "(D)" after his name.

Under his Administration, many Conservative ideas which had long gathered dust on the shelf -- ideas such as welfare reform, a balanced budget, debt reduction, a strict “Pay as You Go” fiscal regime, jobs-jobs-jobs, budget surpluses, NAFTA, GATT, official bans on gay marriage, etc. -- were finally realized.

And for all of his good work on behalf of their ideology, Conservatives spent eight, long years treating Bill Clinton -- a Southern, White, Christian man -- as if he were a case of flesh eating nuclear syphilis.

Because he did not run for office with an "(R)" after his name.

And because he did not run for office with an "(R)" after his name, according to the leading voices in the Republican Party and the Conservative Movement, Bill Clinton was, in no particular order, Hitler, a Socialist, a rapist, a warmonger, a serial murderer, and a drug dealer, whose Presidency was somehow vaguely illegitimate.

And counterpointing the 24/7 slime campaign, there were those endless, endless hearings. Whitewater. Travel office. Christmas Card lists. Lincoln bedroom. Etc ad nauseum.

Or don’t you remember? 

...

The rest is here.