Raising Cain

Welcome to today's Two-Part Post:

Timing is everything. Do you have a specific weird experience around "timing"? I do, and it's one that has been going on for years. When it again happened yesterday, I decided I would write a few words about it today simply to vent in a public way in hopes that whomever cast the nasty spell on me might take pity and reverse the Owl's entrails mixed with the blood of non-virgins capped with the teeth of rodent's evil potion and set me free - at last!

It's a small thing, really. The "timing" irritant. However, everything is relative, isn't it, and what I may find annoying you may not notice - and vice versa.

My landline phone will not ring for hours. Then a call comes in. I answer it. In less than a second, another call will beep in. I either take the new call or promise to call back and will continue with the first caller. Then comes another beep from yet another new call. I've been snagged by the Universe! I've apparently opened a heretofore closed portal to communication and anyone who has a desire to speak with me will "hear" the door opening in the heavens (or somewhere up there) and decide to call. It's maddening! All at once! I barely have time to find out who is on the other end of the line when the call-waiting beeps begin.

Sometimes I'll receive 5-6 calls in one minute. When I've finally finished returning, completing calls, the phone is once again silent for hours and hours until the Freaky Cosmic Mass Phone Call To Shauna traffic jam begins again. By now one would think I'd just roll with it and not let it bother me. Nope. It DOES bother me in the strangest way. Its a sudden sensory overload after hours of peace, solitude.

Isn't the phone jam weird? Wouldn't you wonder what was up with that kind of karma? Once or twice I can understand such a peculiar "coincidence" - but year-after-year?

Sigh. Makes me want to throw the phone somewhere. But then, you can say that I'm a bit high-strung and leave it at that.

All right then. Small rant over. The air has been cleared. I may now move on to more substantive subjects such as the continuing soap opera of the GOP Presidential Hopefuls Parade. Now the utterly foreign policy ignorant and United States Constitution uneducated Herman Cain is still leading the GOP pack in the polls as of today. Amazing that his popularity continues to grow the more he breaks the rules and shows his lack of preparedness for the Office of the President of the United States.

Think about what it says about the United States when a percentage of the voting population would rather place the safety of their country in the lap of a person who knows almost nothing about foreign affairs beyond, perhaps, who Prince Albert of Monaco might be stepping out with behind his newly minted wife's swimmer-toned back.

As so many have shouted and whispered, the U.S. will continue to fall on its face if fools are voted into the White House, Congress, Senate. The fact that Cain is receiving so much support regardless of his completely offensive attitude toward other countries and the unemployed in his own country ("It's their fault that they don't have a job") causes me to feel a bit squeamish.

It's understandable why many of us are disappointed, jaded, fed-up with politicians. It can be refreshing to see a non-politician slide into the fray and seemingly express honest disregard for politics-as-usual. But Herman Cain is not just any ole' "Everyman." He is unclear in his position on abortion - becoming suddenly inarticulate and contradictory on the subject during a recent interview where his position moved so many times one would think he was chasing a skittish stray cat around the room, and the in-your-face message about smoking that was unveiled yesterday in his new TV commercial.

Americans prefer to have leaders who exhibit spunk and spirit. I get that fact. Many do. But I for one do not like leaders who are either playing dumb, or are simply dumb by choice. And Herman Cain, crafty biz man he may be, is another cringe-worthy example of why other countries perceive the U.S. as self-absorbed and uninterested in the culture of "others" - and laugh at us, as well as deride the country for being all swagger and no class.

I doubt that Cain will win the GOP nomination. Nevertheless, his rise to the top of national polls via many different polling outlets tells me that America has a long, long way to go before finally moving on to adulthood from the current extended stay in puberty.