It's Never Straight Up And Down

It is a wiggly world. Our heroes, the ones that we gathered behind while they were being offered up by the NFL and ESPN and other acronyms, have begun to fall. Apparently, abuse that was passed out on a football field wasn't enough for some of these gentlemen. Ray Rice, whose smiling milk-mustached face welcomed kids at our school into the cafeteria, was caught on tape spitting on and then punching his fiancee. Adrian Peterson, another star running back, moved us all last year with the discussion of the loss of his young son, was indicted on felony child abuse charges. Apparently he beat another son with a tree branch. Vikings jerseys with the number twenty-eight will no longer be sold in youth sizes.
Meanwhile, the people who seek to make their livelihoods in public service have us all scratching our collective head. A Democratic president is declaring an undeclared war on terror, and Republican lawmakers want us to know just how stupid and reckless that kind of behavior can be. Or maybe what they are arguing for is what they seemingly always wanted: bombing the entire Middle East until it becomes a flat plane of glass. Our response to aggression seems to be more of the same.
Then there's Thomas Ready, a Republican candidate for Pueblo County commissioner in Colorado. He, like many other people, suggested that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary may have been a hoax. Opinions, as Dalton tells us, vary. Where this gets more bizarre is the reaction to this somewhat ridiculous assertion: Ready received a death threat. Perhaps this is an effort by those who have dissenting opinions to make sure there would be not doubt about what happened to Ready if they disagreed. Or maybe the death threat itself was a hoax. Questions on top of questions. It's a wiggly world.
A very angry, violent, and wiggly world.