Shocking!

There I am, mug of hot coffee in one hand and Tim Powers' "Drawing of the Dark" in the other, when I come across this passage:

"The Irishman stared at him with the wondering respect one feels for a child who has done some tremendously difficult, absolutely pointless thing."

This little gem of a phrase was crouched between many, MANY passages of bloody beheadings and bloodlettings. After all, it's still a Tim Powers book. But it did strike a chord with me because I was wondering just that morning about the grim patterns which develop when newscasters put political stories into historical context.

A trend which has developed over the past two years is the willingness of certain news broadcasters (MSNBC, ABC specifically) to invoke a historical perspective to the stories they cover. This is all well and good, except in the case of politics. You see, politics has a certain characteristic that makes it a rough fit. Since US politics doesn't really change that much over time, since it is bound to the framework of the Constitution after all, clear patterns develop.

So when a news anchor has to read another story about how power has corrupted, or money has influenced laws, or how people keep voting against their own self interests; I can't help but look at it the same way I'd see a child who is surprised when the Jack-In-The-Box pops up for the hundredth time. Boing! AH! Boing! AH! Yeah, I get it kid. It's shocking the first dozen times, but after awhile you learn to expect it. Right? Boing! AH!