A guy with a loaded gun made his way into the capitol building in Washington.
Let me make that more clear:
A GUY WITH A LOADED GUN MADE HIS WAY INTO THE CAPITOL BUILDING IN WASHINGTON!!!
The guy, one Carlos Greene, not only got into the building yesterday, he got all the way through it, past congressional offices, down to the basement. Pretty much top to bottom, all the way through the joint, before he was finally caught.
The mind reels.
We're spending billions on a war in Iraq because it is, according to our beloved president, the "front line" in the war on terror. Of course, Iraq has never attacked us, but...I'm getting a headache...the people who did attack us are still running free...and...um...
AND A GUY WITH A GUN GETS PAST CAPITOL SECURITY!
This is the sort of thing that isn't supposed to be happening, right? I mean, let's say he had actually, I dunno, been firing the gun as he made his way past the halls of power. Let's say, instead of a handgun, he'd had a converted semi-automatic rifle, the kind so beloved by the NRA lackeys in congress, and been firing away with that. Or that he'd been rigged with explosives. And instead of a mentally-damaged guy with no apparent axe to grind, he'd been some kind of zealot.
Because the reaction in congress itself today was pretty subdued, basically passing this off as an "unfortunate incident," but you know, nothing to really be alarmed about. Hey, why worry? It's not like it represents a pathetic waste of the fortune being dumped into Homeland Security or anything. Man, what a bunch of douchebags.
Sigh.
Incidentally, I realize this is the second week in a row that I've violated my already weakly enforced rule of using Tuesdays to review new DVD releases. So, briefly, pick up the new Boris Karloff boxed set, the fourth season of The Bob Newhart Show and Nobuo Nakagawa's Jigoku. But before you sit back and enjoy them, be sure to drop a line to your representative in congress and ask how the hell they figure it's not that big a deal that a gun-wielding nutjob is running down the halls.
Betcha they don't answer.
