This topic dovetails nicely with my blog the other day about teenagers deflecting blame.  According to an article I just read, Karl Rove admits to a mistake in the Bush White House handling of the Iraq War, but the mistake is not about losing focus in Afghanistan or further destabilizing an already unstable region or fueling global hatred for America by projecting an unreasonable, unilateralist viewpoint.  No, his mistake was in not handling the media better after no weapons of mass destruction were found.  This is the Bush administration in a nutshell.  The invasion on false grounds wasn’t the mistake; it was the spin game in the media that was the problem.

If these pompous, egomaniacs aren’t the most evil collection of jackasses the world has seen in three generations, then I don’t want to see who’s worse.  Rove has spent his entire career spinning lie on top of lie on top of lie, yet he’s convinced that he actually occupies the moral high ground.  That dick wouldn’t recognize morality if it scalded his ass.

According to the source, he also defends the Federal response to Katrina.  Nevermind that FEMA manages major disasters and that the Bush administration fired career professionals who knew how to run the organization and replaced them with incompetent golfing buddies.  That wasn’t the problem.  Nevemind that it took FEMA three days to get its bearings after the storm passed because the director was more concerned with his wardrobe than the people on the ground.  Nevermind that the Army Corps of Engineers had repeatedly ignored warnings about the levee system in New Orleans and didn’t take proactive steps to protect the city.  No, none of that really matters.

Karl Rove, the legacy of the Mistake from Texas is and always will be failure on an epic scale.  Fox News can spin it however they want and call their one-sided bullshit factory “Fair and Balanced” all they want.  The facts are that before the Mistake, we had the most robust, prosperous economy the world had ever known.  Now, we are in shambles.  Eight years of pillaging the coffers and swindling the Middle Class are what put us here, you lying, arrogant, elitist swine.

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This week has been brutal so far.  For the last week, I’ve been grading and giving back papers, and as anyone who has ever taught an English course can attest, the process is tedious.  The act of grading, when it’s done seriously and sincerely, is exhausting.  It takes roughly 15 minutes to grade one paper, and after three or four in a row, I need to take a break to clear my head.  After 12 to 15 papers, I’m fairly well spent.  Over the last week, I’ve gone through roughly 110 essays and still have about 15 go.  My brain is complete mush.

In addition to that, I’m missing my sons terribly.  Both of the trips I’ve wanted to take over the last couple of weekends have been canceled because they have been under the weather.  That’s nobody’s fault, but I’m frustrated and angry because I feel like I have no substantial role in their lives.  I’m just this guy they talk to on the phone and see in person from time to time, and that hurts more deeply than I can describe.  I feel like they will never understand that this was not my choice, that I was cornered and bullied into an arrangement that has progressively excluded me more and more.  Because I actually pay my child support and keep insurance on them, I am punished by not having the funds to see them more often, but they don’t see that part.  All they can see is that I’m not there.

So basically, I’m mentally and emotionally drained, and it’s only Tuesday.  I don’t mean to whine or be negative or seem ungrateful for the good things.  I just need to vent a little.

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When Tyler Grady got booted off American Idol last night, he did the thing I see so many students do these days.  He blamed someone else.  It wasn’t his fault for singing a tired song in a clichéd manner.  It wasn’t his fault that his performance lacked energy and sizzle.  It wasn’t his fault that people didn’t vote for him.

No, Tyler Grady blamed the judges for not giving him enough direction.  Please, excuse me while I choke down my urge to smack him.  Give me a freaking break.  I hear this crap from students all the time.  One student, who couldn’t figure out how to type on a word processor, actually blamed the program for putting a space between her last word and end punctuation.  I’ve heard students blame their parents, their siblings, their friends, their teachers, their neighbors, their communities, their environments, their computers, and complete strangers, but I rarely ever hear students hold themselves accountable for their own shortcomings.

I realize that this is nothing new.  People have tried to pass the buck for as long as we have had cognitive functions, but now, it feels like a pandemic with this generation.  They have been so coddled and pampered from conception on that they cannot accept that they are responsible for their own actions.  They are precious butterflies, unique as a snowflake.  They are all winners because if one feels like they’ve lost at something, their feelings may never recover.  How in the hell are these kids ever going to compete in the real world?  In evolutionary terms, they are weak prey, and the strong will devour them because we have weakened them with this precious butterfly nonsense.

God help us when these wimps are running the world.

www.thirdaxe.com