All aboard the USS Palomino

We're still not having a good week. First of all, Verizon still really, really, really sucks. Separate post (honest!) forthcoming, but suffice it to say that I spent an hour trying to order their DSL and did not succeed. Businesses like this do not deserve to thrive. (On the other hand, I'm literally blogging in an empty bathtub right now, which is where my dogged pursuit of the faint wifi signal wafting through my apartment led me, so I don't really feel like I've got a lot of choice.)

Second, my nutty and capricious landlady abruptly decided again to raise the rent, and I don't think there's gonna be any talking her out of it this time.

Thirdly, I finally got confirmed for my "women's issues" job -- ok, that part's good news -- but then immediately got a call from Vienna in which a total geil Angebot was waggled in front of me. One that I can't accept -- literally, I'm locked into this other job now. Which, heck, is probably on balance a good thing: this upcoming job is surely my last best chance at finding my niche within my current career and offers me exceptional exit credentials if it doesn't work out. Still. Nothing was going to harsh my "I finally landed it!" buzz faster than not munching my Toblerone while not strolling along the Danube. Damn.

But, funny enough, none of that is actually on my mind right now, nor the fact that my bank decided to jettison the sub-branch that's held my account for eight years, didn't tell me about it, and I only found out offhandedly today that my account was about to be closed. Nor the fact that my dentist lost my appointment, doesn't care that I have the actual appointment card they gave me, can't schedule me again until after my insurance runs out, and isn't the least bit prepared to do a damn thing about it. Nope. None of that really matters, what with the other stuff going on.

It's been a bad week for worriers, what with the LHC firing up (September 10? Seriously? Note to LHC folks: fire your PR people), and my being stuck in DC on September 11 (utterly stuck -- I looked at the road closures map, and I'm smack in the middle of 'em). Further note on that LHC, incidentally...seems to be a bit of confusion: note that the atom-smashing and black-hole-generating part hasn't actually started yet. I was never really worried about them merely switching it on. Doesn't anyone watch any bad movies anymore? Just don't exhale in relief and shift your attention elsewhere...ever...and everything'll be fine.

But, nope. I haven't been obsessing about those things, either. What's on my mind is the election. This story makes sense to me (even if it disquiets me). I get -- in the abstract -- why this one isn't an abject contradiction, but I also have a hard time believing it. I mean, I know I live within an unreal Beltway bubble, but, really: women being swayed by Palin? Show me five. McCain underestimates the intelligence of the American voter, and succeeds wildly? In retrospect, of course he does. And man, does that send me to the pits of despair.

The thing about Obama: I still don't personally like him, but have no trouble asserting that, in addition to being a celebrity, he's at least sort of a public intellectual, which is a rare and vanishing breed in the non-Francophone world. It's easy to imagine the pre-selection conversation in the McCain camp:

- We gots to get us one of those.
- An intellectual?
- No, a celebrity.

And so they have. I stand by my first reaction: I don't get it. People like her because they can relate to her? This is a qualification how, exactly? How can it be that we'd never allow an athlete into the Olympics -- or onto a minor league field, for that matter -- on the basis of "relate-ability," but have a lower standard for the people closest to the nuclear codes?

Twilight of the Empire, indeed. I feel like I'm watching a how-to on the destruction of a great democracy. First, isolate and alienate. Then squander a couple trillion dollars. Dismantle civil liberties, disable environmental protections, and do nothing while infrastructure crumbles and an entire city is wiped out. Watch the economy unwind and our overextended military be unable to rein in Afghanistan or deter Russia's rising petroconfidence. Operate with a figurehead President for eight years --hey, throw in another four; what the heck! -- while actual decision-making is done behind the scenes by unaccountable authorities with strong business interests. And then stick a fork in it; it's done.

On the bright side, I'm not actually feeling so bad about the prospect of total global annihilation via black hole anymore.