I am opposed to the solutions being offered by the Republican party. Their suggestion that the government be re-opened until January 2014, and the debt ceiling increased until February 2014, is ludicrous. The whole point of this exercise, as I have come to understand it, is to remove these accounting procedures from the realm of politically useful arm-twisting.

This nation has done a fair job of keeping important decisions from political hands, particularly our Congress—it would benefit everyone if we disowned these extortions as harmful to the nation, and made the House of Representatives return to their interminable pillow-fights, without causing the World to change its axial tilt every time some cotton-headed firebrand wants to march us all back into the imagined past—not even the actual past, but a fantasy world that exists only in their dreams and wishes.

For one thing, Tea Party mouth-pieces are constantly snarking at higher education and learning in general—their idea of a well-educated man is a preacher who has read every inane book in some deep-southern seminary school’s library. People used to have the sense—when someone started to say ‘the facts don’t matter—our Christian values are more important’—we used to nod politely and ignore them ever after. But now such statements are amplified over TV and the Internet and Social Media, without any loss of credibility by the speakers of such stubborn-minded, insistent ignorance.

Sigourney Weaver, while very tough (and cool) is hardly a match for a giant space-monster. But if, as in “Aliens”, she straps herself into an augmentation suit, she becomes strong enough to stop anything.

Well, Sarah Palin thinks she’s Ms. Weaver, the Media is her ‘augmentation suit’, and she considers the majority of our population to be ‘evil aliens’. Her vapid thoughts and observations should have zero power over public opinion, but the Media reliably observes and comments on her (because that’s show biz) and her supporters see that and feel legitimized—while the rest of us are simply fascinated by her bravado idiocy—and understandably intrigued by the Media’s inexplicable insistence on ‘covering’ her.

Otherwise, sensible people would have quickly decided to extend these self-imposed financial limits through a full year, at least. These paltry concessions by the GOP are a signal that they still don’t get it, that they still want to use our economy as a hostage in their fight against Obama-ocracy. And in their fanaticism, they are willing to torture the entire country (as if we weren’t already having a pretty tough time) as a stratagem to obfuscate any progress or accomplishment of the present administration.

And the threadbare cloak they tried to keep over their prejudice and hate is slipping rather badly, now that their patience has been tested for six years. For six years they’ve wanted to shout out what they really want—which is to ‘Lynch that uppity n-word!’ But now their desperation is eroding their ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ not to say anything overtly, or out loud. Yes, I’m not objective—yes, I am very subjective about these people—they make me sick.

Stopping even just the WIC program alone makes them all guilty of starving hundreds of thousands of underfunded young mothers and infants—and the list of other evils caused by the government shutdown is as long as your arm. Even if we conceded that these Tea-Partiers had a valid point, if we conceded that Obama-care is a danger to the nation—that would still leave them without a sensible reason for shutting down the whole country. Considering the economic climate, here and globally, they should be debating the AHA and extending these fiscal deadlines as far into the future as possible—not making one contingent on the other.

There are millions—millions!—of people suffering hardships due to the Tea Party’s extreme agenda—the losses in productivity, maintenance, and security are probably close to the cash losses they claim the AHA would cause—and they haven’t stopped AHA, anyhow. Where is the logic here? If you find some, let me know.