Fascinating yet disturbing
THE BOYS and girls with the clipboards have been busy in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Fiscal Cliff shenanigans have brought the approval ratings of the US Congress to possibly their lowest point ever.
According to a Raleigh research company called Public Policy Polling, Congress is now less popular than root canal treatment, National Football League replacement referees, head lice, the rock band Nickelback, colonoscopies, carnies (ie coconut shy operators), traffic jams, cockroaches, Donald Trump, France, Genghis Khan, used-car salesmen and Brussels sprouts.
However, good news for Congressmen – they did manage to beat off telemarketers, John Edwards (former candidate for president), TV reality show The Kardashians, lobbyists, North Korea, the ebola virus, actress Lindsay Lohan, Fidel Castro, playground bullies, meths labs, communism and gonorrhea.
The overall favourability rating of Congress stands at just nine percent favourable and 85 percent unfavourable. Women (13-81) view Congress slightly more favourably than men (6-89), as do Democrats (13-82) compared with Republicans (9-87).
"We all know Congress is unpopular," said Dean Debnam, of Public Policy Polling. "But the fact that voters like it even less than cockroaches, lice, and Genghis Khan really shows how far its esteem has fallen with the American public over the last few weeks."
Fascinating yet disturbing stuff. Are there not implications for democracy? But at least these new analytical tools give advance warning of socio/political stirrings. Do we need something similar in this country?
Somebody ought to commission Public Policy Polling to conduct a similar survey out here on governmental performance. Against what would it be measured and compared? One thinks of Bafana Bafana, the arms deal, sports administrators, polluted beaches, rhino poaching, school book deliveries, tenderpreneurship, corrupt practice … Er, no, let's rethink. Some of these are already on the other side of the equation. There's no basis for comparison.
Garble, garble
MESSAGES get garbled even in these days of communications high technology. There's the old (yet true) one from World War I of the message from the front: "Send reinforcements, we're going to advance", which ended up at HQ – after being relayed through a whole lot of hand-cranked field telephones – as: "Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance."
Something similar happened in reverse in the English town of Watford, in Herefordshire, when a five-man crew of water rescue specialists turned up with three fire engines at a pond in the town centre.
They found there a drenched grey squirrel that was stranded among reeds on a small island. The call was supposed to have gone to the RSPCA.
They rescued the squirrel anyway, without too much difficulty, and it scampered away as soon as it was placed on dry land. We're not told whether the rescue team then went on to a dance.
Hot air wedding
A SUNSET wedding ceremony on board a hot air balloon in San Diego, California, ended in near-disaster after a gust of wind forced the pilot to crash-land.
One of the 14 people in the balloon cradle suffered a minor back injury when it was dragged over a wall and into a private garden.
The gust hit the balloon just after Kerin and Jonathan Narcisse had exchanged vows. Shaken, they went on to the reception.
Marriage always has its bumpy moments. It's unusual for the bumps to follow so immediately after the vows.
Flying frog
A NEW species of flying frog has been discovered in Vietnam. The bright green creature, 10cm in length, glides from tree to tree using its webbed hands and feet as parachutes. It lives high in the treetops in lowland forest and comes down only to breed in puddles on the ground.
Flying frogs? Vietnam's definitely the place to go, Gladys.
Head-on
ANGLERS in the Netherlands are puzzled by the discovery of a dead pike with a zander – a fish of similar size – jammed in its mouth, also dead. It happened at Almere, near Amsterdam.
They can't work it out. Why would a pike prey on a fish it had no chance of swallowing?
It was probably an underwater collision. The zander must have jumped the traffic lights.
Tailpiece
DO YOU KNOW? If you put your ear to a stranger's leg you can hear him say: "What the hell are you up to?"
Last word
Nobody outside of a baby carriage or a judge's chamber believes in an unprejudiced point of view. - Lillian Hellman
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