Like a dog

"His glance fell on the top story of the house adjoining the quarry. With a flicker as of a light going up, the casement of a window there suddenly flew open; a human figure, faint and insubstantial at that distance and that height, leaned abruptly far forward and stretched both arms still farther. Who was it? A friend? A good man? Someone who sympathized? Someone who wanted to help? Was it one person only? Or were they all there? Was help at hand? Were there some arguments in his favor that had been overlooked? Of course there must be. Logic is doubtless unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who wants to go on living. Where was the Judge, whom he had never seen? Where was the High Court, to which he had never penetrated. He raised his hands and spread out all his fingers.

But the hands of one of the partners were already at K.'s throat, while the other thrust the knife inito his heart and turned it there twice. With failing eyes K. could still see the two of them, cheek leaning against cheek, immediately before his face, watching the final act. 'Like a dog!' he said: it was as if he meant the shame of it to outlive him."

Kafka. The Trial

What a great frickin last line. That's what I thought of last night watching the returns, K. getting skewered like a dog, but the shame living on.

What shame, you may ask. The shame of calling the election early and then being wrong, like I did yesterday? Hell no, the problem is we didn't call the election early enough. The Republican talking heads made these poker-faced claims for a Bush victory night after night, and then they went out and made it happen. The Democrats equivocated and analysed the conditions under which a Kerry victory might be possible. Very few ever really believed Kerry could win, which is debilitating in aggregate.

No. The great shame is living in a country where that man is president, where 58 million people all got organized to go and vote for a guy and a party who lied to them about an adventurist war which is killing our troops, making us progressively less secure and destroying our reputation the world around. For a guy who is dedicated to the continual evisceration of the environment and civil liberties, along with an aggressively expansionist government financed by loopy deficits. Shame that 10 more states found it in their hearts to go and ban gay marriage.

What is the heartland so afraid of that it should close up upon itself so tightly?

How can I explain it all to my kids?