While We Were Watching The Poop Hit The Deck

A great story. Trapped in a flood of sewage on a luxury liner.  Even without actual video, word pictures did wonders to make the story work. I mean having Sanjay Gupta call it a 'floating petri dish.'  Dang.  Now that's visuals.  I watched CNN's exclusive video of a non-moving ship at sea. I watched Fox News lacking the budget to actually send a reporter to the scene, depending on studio hosts talking via cell phone.

I bought the story and watched the reunions.  I got sucked in hearing how bad things sucked.  I wonder how many politicians and the media were glad to have us distracted.  From what I gather, our leaders would much rather have us pay attention to stories of poop in the hallways then know what is going on in Des Moines and the world.

Wait, another passenger is talking to CNN:  “We walked through…well, stuff that had overflowed…but the crew never stopped smiling…”

Oskaloosa republican Guy Vander Linden reading from his party’s talking points, did admit this week that his party is pushing through a voter id law.  He wants to make sure that our fair legal elections are altered to assure that some are excluded from voting.  Well, that’s not what he said but considering there were few (or no) reports of voting irregularity in Iowa, or America, what other motivation could there be?

"Oh, the crew went above and beyond..."

Campaign finance reform is on the table. Thanks to DM Register for a fair and balanced story.  (seriously) Few have more to lose if such reform is passed than the media.  One billion dollars were spent on the last election.  Republicans vow to kill the bill.  No wonder that 4 of 5 Supreme Court justices that voted for Citizens United didn’t show up for the state of the union address.  They know how much they injured the state of the union.  Do the media really want campaign finance reform?  The people that own the media have so much to lose if such regulations spread.

"We give thanks to God and the crew."

Since I got back from Thailand on February 1, the price of a gallon of gas has gone up 24 cents.  No reason except an improving economy makes oil speculators more optimistic that we will travel more, hence price gouging.  Oh, you want an update on returning luxury cruise passengers?  OK.

"Conditions were deplorable, food was scarce a couple of days but the crew was fantastic."

Yes, I was among the distracted.  Passengers are safe.  What I learned from that story is that the crew did great work.  Time to get back to our world.