life and puppies

I guess I was the last to hear about these imaginative tea parties being hosted by our nation’s finest today.  Well, I’ve heard now.  I just came back from outside where I was checking on what these folks were up to across the street at my beloved Capitol.  There are hundreds of them!  There are buses pulling up and depositing very un-Madisonians all over the Square.  Many are carrying signs that say things like, “Stop taxing me!” or whatnot.  I’m slightly puzzled by the timing of this, as I had more money than before in last week’s paycheck.  I understand, of course, that some people hate paying taxes.  I am not one of them.  I think taxes are very helpful in creating an orderly, civilized society.  I realize, also of course, that these taxes are not always spent by the gov in great ways.  I, like everyone else except people who control these things, am not a big fan of all these bailouts.  I get protesting against stuff like that.  I understand being worried about the debt the country is getting itself further and further into.  Protesting against that makes sense.  But it doesn’t seem to me that that’s what the people across the street are protesting.  I don’t know what the hell they’re protesting actually.  It seems everyone might have a different agenda.  One sign complained that Obama is violating the Tenth Amendment (what?).  One that urged us to make sure we exercised our Second Amendments rights.  Several people had tea bags affixed to their signs.  Someone said they were “Tead off!”  [Side note: some people had some wicked ugly homemade signs.  That always irks me.  You know, like the ones where the person starts out writing something like, “STOP TAXING me” and they have to make the “me” really small because they ran out of room.]  Then there were others who expressed their anger with Doyle, others advocating term limits and still others who want the US out of the United Nations.  Focus, people!  The biggest offender, though, goes to whomever made their eight year old hold a sign that says, “Don’t forget: everything Hitler did was legal.”  Yes, this country right now is strikingly similar to Nazi Germany.  Sharp minds.