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This is the title of a book I have out from the library right now. I haven’t started it, yet, but the title alone has made a deep impression on me.

The unfolding disaster in Japan, which is dismaying both on its own and because it seems like just the latest in a string of catastrophes and defeats of recent years, has really weighed on my mind since Friday. Seeing evidence, today, that my early instincts that “this doesn’t add up, this must have done far more damage than the early numbers suggest” were right is obviously no satisfaction for me. It really produces no reaction at all, aside from leaving me feeling a bit sick.

I like to think that Japan, as one of the richest and most advanced nations on Earth, can at least help itself as well as any society, but… that’s still a lot of hurt which is going to need a lot of help.

And yet, other things continue to happen. And that phrase, “let the great world spin,” keeps prodding me. So I’m going to go ahead and round up a number of items from recent days, and then go do some work, clean the bathroom, etc., etc.

Let the great world spin.

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Wow. First the (assisted) self-inflicted wounding at NPR, and then on the same evening, Wisconsin is captured.

Red America must be havings its biggest orgasm since Sarah Palin started a Twitter account, right about now.

Upon brief reflection, I suppose that this is the time to man up, rather than moaning or moping. As atrocious as things look, and as likely as it seems that they’re going to keep getting worse before they get better, I can’t really be so self-indulgent as to ignore all the people who have survived, and are still trying to survive, societies far more clusterfucked than 2011 America. Because they had to.

Still, if nothing else it’s frustrating to see the need for doing something but not  what exactly to do. I’m curious what others, more directly involved, are going to do now. Just roll over? I don’t know. I certainly wonder what, if anything, they had planned for a possible outcome which presumably was known to be a possible outcome. I guess we’ll find out.

As for me, unless I hear any better ideas I’m going to go chuck some money toward this. I don’t know for sure that this is the best way, but I do know that sooner or later we have to hit back, and harder than the other side is hitting. And they’re going to hit as hard as proves necessary, obviously.

What are we going to do about that…? What are you going to do about it?

It’s not often that I find myself even partially in agreement with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but Nino’s dismissal of the State of the Union speech as an empty, pointless ritual is pretty much my own opinion as well. Of course, we disagree about Scalia’s rather pathetic assertion that things were so much better in Reagan’s day, and about my assertion that Scalia is still an asshole even when he’s partially correct.

I also have to confess, though, that the combination of “the chief executive’s prime-time telemarketing event” and the reactions to it communicate one or two significant things about the state of this union. Things, alas, pretty thoroughly discouraging.

The disappointment expressed by a wide spectrum of observers is particularly interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I’m disappointed in the Obama presidency in various ways but, paradox though it may be, not really more disappointed than I expected to be. What did everyone else expect?

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