Taking a mental health break

I am immersing myself in P. G. Wodehouse for awhile.  Lots of Jeeves, maybe a visit or two to the Drones Club, and who knows what else.  There's a lot of Wodehouse on the bookshelves, and things are sufficiently depressing in the real world that escapism seems like a rational plan at the moment.  I may even start looking for Bertie Wooster dvds at the library and Netflix, both the Hugh Laurie and Ian Carmichael versions. 

Whatever I do, though, for sure I need to avoid books that are as grim as a couple I've read lately.  To call Greg Bear's Quantico dystopian would be like referring to Sarah Palin as merely intellectually challenged, a definite exercise in massive understatement.  It did not help that Quantico takes what feels like our contemporary political and cultural situation -- lots of unfocused paranoia, various fringe groups running around spouting conspiracy theories, government law enforcement agencies like the FBI and ATF (or whatever they're calling themselves these days) more interested in fighting turf wars and accusing each other of treason than they are in cooperating on anything -- and projects just a few years into the future when things are a whole lot worse.  Bear is a great writer, but for sure I'm hoping he's got all the predictive skills of a Jean Dixon.  Other than the Navy naming a frigate after Robert A. Heinlein, there isn't a thing in Quantico a thinking person would actually want to see happen. 

It did not help my mood at all, then, to turn on the television and see asshat Rick Sanchez waxing skeptical over Bart Stupak (former Michigan State Patrol officer [13 years] and an attorney) (the man may be a deluded fanatic on the subject of abortion, but he does know crime when he sees it) characterizing the various threats and vandalism directed towards members of Congress, including himself, as "domestic terrorism."  And I quote Sanchez, "What do you think, Wolf? Is Stupak right? Is it terrorism?"  What part of tossing bricks through windows, issuing threats of bodily harm, or vandalizing property does Sanchez think does not qualify as a terroristic act?  And why on earth is he lobbing rhetorical questions at Wolf Blitzer?  Asking Blitzer what he thinks about anything is a waste of everyone's time.

And then there are the brain dead relatives and acquaintances on Facebook.  The S.O. got so fed up with some of the crap one of his cousins was posting that he unfriended her.  She kept saying she wasn't political, but then would do post after post on Obama-the-evil-socialist and get-government-off-our-backs.  This is a woman who's spent most of her adult life as a Navy wife -- she doesn't want the government involved in healthcare when she's had the benefit of CHAMPUS (aka TriCare) for many, many years.  How does someone end up so mentally challenged that she'll insist on "no government health care!" when that's exactly what she's got and what she's had since the 1970s?  Definitely a classic case of "I've got mine; screw everyone else." 

So for a few days I'm going to just retreat quietly to the bedroom with my Peeps, Jarritos mandarina sodas, and Wodehouse.  Junk food and mind candy.  It's looking good.