I understand that if you post anything on the Internet about current events, you're supposed to have firm, "I-am-absolutely-right" viewpoints on all the issues at hand but I'm afraid I don't. I'm reasonably sure that it is a good thing that the U.S. is out (or nearly out) of Afghanistan and that both Democrats and Republicans kept us there — and did a lot of misrepresenting to justify keeping us there — for far too long.
But that bit of deception and incompetence was too bi-partisan for either side to score many points over it so everyone's going to get a pass on that waste of lives and money. We're not going to talk about who to blame for getting us into it or who to blame for not getting us out of it sooner. Republicans are going to hammer Biden for how he got us out of there because of course they are.
I've become just about numb to politicians and pundits being outraged at the opposition party. Their job descriptions these days seems to be looking at what The Other Side does and spinning it, no matter what it is, as corrupt, stupid, senile, immoral, self-dealing and certain to lead to the destruction of the United States. If Biden spilled his iced tea, Ted Cruz would be on Hannity within minutes explaining why it's the end of America as we know it.
Here's what I'm waiting for: The Democrat or Republican — I'll settle for either — with the courage and integrity to not play this game; to tell his or her "base" that the other side did something good. I expect to wait a long time for this. And if it's an elected official who does this, he or she might not be one for long.
Regarding the pullout in Afghanistan, Kevin Drum — a pundit I like because I don't think he does that — makes a pretty good case that things over there have gone as well as could be humanly expected. But I don't hear too many Democrats making that case and I don't expect any Republicans would dare and nothing I've read has coalesced into a solid opinion for me.
The same is true of another current issue that someone asked me to comment on…the parole of Sirhan Sirhan. It's easy to say he should rot in prison forever for what he did. Hell, you could say that of anyone convicted of committing any degree of murder and just be done with parole for such people. I saw one web post from a lady who seemed to be saying, "We should never parole anyone who murders someone I've heard of."
Somewhere in this state, there's a parole board and doctors-of-the-mind who actually interviewed Sirhan as he exists today and arrived at some sort of evaluation…and I have trouble just discarding that as irrelevant to the discussion.
Often, a jury returns a verdict that seems cockeyed to those of us who didn't sit in the courtroom for eight weeks and hear every last bit of evidence and sit ten feet from the witnesses. I don't think that should be ignored. They might not be right but they do know a lot more than I do about the case. What I know comes in short bites conveyed by a news media I do not think is always as competent as we'd like it to be.
Sorry for the uncertainties but I'm like that at times. If you want a firm opinion, I've got one for you: The folks who say to wear masks and get vaccines are right and the ones who say it's a hoax and unnecessary and that being told to wear a mask is like Nazis carting Jews off to be executed are wrong and making this thing last way longer and be much more destructive of life and the economy than it had to.