In This Post, I Don't Let The Perfect Be The Enemy Of The Good. In Fact, I Also Keep The Peace Between The Good And The Not So Much.

I've taken so long on this post that, paraphrasing Karen Russell, it's embarrassing that it doesn't cure cancer. At least when she was done, she had a best-selling novel. I don't even have my best post. Anyway, here's what we've got so far:
I'm a nice guy, and the fact that I have to keep telling you that makes me just want to slap you. But, I don't. However, the woman whose mail I forgot, has put her mail on hold again. I have to admit; I'm judging her a little. I only mention that so that I can smoothly segue into judges, as in our Supreme Court's recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act. This law was reauthorized just a few years ago almost unanimously by a Congress that couldn't even agree on the spelling of unanimous (to be fair, spellcheck and I initially disagreed) better yet vote that way. But they did, and President Bush signed it. We live in a state that is covered by the Act, and violations used to occur as recently as right this very minute. So, nine unelected people that serve for life, Supreme Court, or garden variety junta?

The NSA revelations came out and people are "shocked, shocked, I tell you," by them. I wasn't, because I read the (unclassified) cover story in Wired back in March of 2012.  I haven't even read the cover story of the latest issue yet, but I can tell you right now that we're going to be shocked in about six months when it turns out that while we've been complaining about the Chinese, we've been waging cyber-war. Remember you heard it here first.

That's all irritating enough, as is the fact that the hottest, driest June ever, ended  with me buying two sprinklers and watering for hours, only to have July open with rain.

Death or dishonor is a question that circumstances might pose, but let's do both isn't always the first answer. But June also ended with an episode of This American Life, that is just infuriating. According to the List Project, Iraqis that worked for the Americans during our invasion and occupation were supposed to be allowed to leave when we did. Instead, they are trapped in a State Department recursive customer service spiral, and in a literal Iraqi death spiral.