The Bad News Bears Keep on Comin'

Ever noticed how every summer seems to break into Armageddon of late? Those ridiculous born-again Christians might be onto something after all. Maybe it IS the end of the world after all. Run for high ground, people! Armageddon's a-comin!*

"Worst ever" flooding in India/Pakistan/Etc. A river's tidal waves washes 33 away, killing about 10 in China. Fires raging across the Americas and Europe. Heat waves killing people indiscriminately across the Northern Hemisphere. Bridge collapses for no apparent reason (or because state government's maintenance program sucks). Garbage strike in Vancouver (it's starting to smell! The sickly sweet pungent whiff of garbage juice on the air could really be done without, thanks).

Then there's all the vapid shit in the news about the struggle of little Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Nicole Ritchie's pregnancy... the chronicles of stupidity.

I tell you, I miss the good old days when instead of revelling in stupidity for the other half of the news, we actually had reporting on nice good will stories. You know, "Martha in Lewisbrook just turned 98. Happy Birthday, Martha!" That sort of thing. Sigh.

But, no, Martha doesn't get her day in the sun after all. Nicole Ritchie's unborn bastard of a child, however, does. Nice.

*I have this book from 1920 or something, "A Thief In the Night", about the trend towards fanatical "but it's the end of the world" thinking that occured in many faiths and even in the mainstream at the end of the 19th century. I've read bits of it, and it's oddly in common with all the "god will smite 'em" evangelical (and "Allah will smite 'em Islamic...) bullshit that's been circulating the world with greater frequency in the last decade or so. I only hope it's as cyclical as the one in the book I mentioned.