"We'll feel it most at the pump."

I try, with due diligence, to keep my blogging bloggery light and airy and usually devoid of anything too political or too entirely personal. After all, these are the internets, you know. And plus, since we hear & read about it all day long, I like to try to write about stuff no one cares much about to make sure all those "gaps" are filled in. Meh. I'm kidding.

Anyway, last night I very briefly tuned in to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart where there was the usual smattering of updates on the Middle East et al. A few things struck me as funny. Funny, as in funny-pathetically-sadly-true, rather than funny-funny. The two things that I remember most were these:

1. At what point will Washington, a large portion of the media, and a whole lot of other folks in between STOP referring to the violence, bombings and killing as the, "Brink of War?" Jon made a comment about the question mark at the end of that sentence.... um, so they're not sure it's the brink of war?! And moreover, once the question mark is removed from that sentence, at what point does it turn from BRINK into, "Yes, it's a full-out WAR!" How much more evidence is needed? A few thousand more bombings? A few thousand more deaths? What, exactly?

2. Jon also showed a clip of SEVERAL dim-witted newscasters, from CNN and elsewhere, who all similarly said, "Americans will feel the pain & devastation of the Middle East the most at the pumps." That's great. Nevermind everything ELSE to be worried about... let's just worry about the PAIN and DEVASTATION we will feel at the GAS PUMPS as prices continue to creep upwards. Can you imagine?! Egocentric, self-righteous Americans, hooray! (And believe me, guilty as charged with whining about gas prices. $20 barely fills half a tank on my fuel-efficient Honda Civic these days.)

Both comments were really political satire at its finest. Definitely food for thought, I thought.
There, I'm off my small soapbox for now. I try to stay educated on world events as much as possible, but still feel generally too ignorant most of the time. I can't keep up. Can anyone?

EDIT 7/20/06: Because I always feel the need to justify every ounce of verbage that leaks from my cranium... I would just quickly like to add that I am not trying to "sum up" all things war-and-violence-everywhere by making the above two "bullet point" editorial comments. This is obviously all part of a much, much bigger picture, folks. Just wanted to clarify is all. I'm done now.