manipulative excuses

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Memorial Day -- a time to remember wars and their fallout, both heroic and horrific ... a time to remember.

-- On the peace picket line Saturday, Bill, a fellow picket, said softly but firmly, "The best way to honor our veterans is to stop making them." As if to underscore his observation, the Associated Press provides a news story today about the fact that record numbers of veterans are applying for disability payments. Simultaneously, the president of the United States, Barack Obama, was preparing to honor and extol those who died in battle. Was there ever a time when what was insanely vile did not find good reasons to praise and continue what was insanely vile?

-- And, in other news of self-serving manipulation, politicians running for U.S. president have found ways to mine and employ the Internet information of those who visit their web sites. This seems to be a growing trend not just among politicians (whose manipulations have long since overshadowed the substance they might have addressed) but also news outlets which appear to mine similar data and then provide visitors to news sites with "what you like." I can forgive the politicians, whose self-serving, buy-'em-off disrespect for their constituencies is more or less obvious, but I find it revolting -- and self-defeating -- among news outlets that once reported the news ... not 'my' news, just news. Specifically, from where I sit, I suspect this trend at The Washington Post web site. It's bad enough that the site is a floundering mess, but the pandering by a source I once considered good is infuriating. Bit by bit, I learn my lesson ... just don't read The Washington Post.
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