As we lurch from one governmental crisis to the next, it is really getting hard to take these guys seriously.
The government is officially shut down.
But not really.
Spending has been sequestered.
But not really.
If the debt limit is not increased the world will end!!!
Really?
They may be right, after years of crying wolf this time there may actually be a Canis Lupus at the door.
But then again the definition of Canis Lupus, the wolf of the big bad kind has been extended in the last couple of years to also include man’s best friend the dog formally known as Canis familiaris.
Not that there aren’t scary dogs. Indeed we would rather face down a pack of timber wolves than one very pissed off pit bull.
But then again there are toy poodles, pekes and Chihuahuas none of which raise the hairs on the back of our necks but all of which are now classified as Canis Lupus– wolves.
Our guess is that failure to raise the debt ceiling would bring something like a beagle at the door. An angry beagle. Large enough and loud enough to be pretty annoying but still small enough to be intimidated by a loud voice or a squirt from a water hose.
With all the talk of government shut downs and debt ceilings, we almost missed this little tidbit coming out of Washington– America is suspending its annual $1.2 billion aid package to Egypt on the grounds that the military junta there is not being democratic.
Well we suppose everything has a price.
The thing is that whatever passed for stability and peace in the Arab world as well as international shipping through the Suez Canal was the result of the $1.2 billion payoff to Egypt.
There are lots of reason not to spend money, not having it is a good one. But to punish an Arab country for not being democratic is like punishing Italians for talking with their hands or the French for being, well, French.
If anyone thinks the last three years of the Arab Spring have been tumultuous they may have been just a prelude.