Dance anyone?

"One international official told me of reports among his staff that a 15-year-old girl had been beheaded and a dog's head sewn on her body in its place; and of a young child who had had his hands drilled and bolted together before being killed." Lawrence Kaplan writing in The New Republic

Despite ongoing reports indicating continued deterioration of conditions and ever increasing stories like these in Iraq and Afghanistan, vice president Cheney told a group of guardsmen at Selfridge Air National Guard Base yesterday (7/10), "As freedom takes hold, the ideology of hatred will continue to weaken." This from the same person who said in May 2005 the Iraqi insurgency was in its "last throes" then said last month the administration had underestimated the strength of the insurgents, only to reaffirm in his next breath his insurgency in-its-"last-throes" optimism again.

What the hell is this? Some delusionary bullshit characterized by a fanatism with little hint of any reality connection? Manifesting as some pathological extremism demonstrated by vice president Cheney and those in his audience who reacted like one marine who said afterwards, "People really need to quit sniping at the president and vice president."

Perhaps in a rare moment of compassion here, I'm going to try to be kinder to these sick bastards that appear hell bent on igniting World War III. My reason? Well, to quote Ann Richards, former Governor of Texas, just maybe because, "They cain't hep it!"

What else could explain a bunch of draft-dodgers as leaders with the confidence to stand before a group of soldiers and command them into deadly situations they, themselves, did not have the balls to face? And please note, I'm not using the act of draft-dodging derogatorily here. Au contraire, draft dodging is good. Mostly because all the wars in recent US history have been bad, bogus wars. But when a group of former draft dodgers rises to a position with the power to send our military, many of whom will not return, into another bogus war, a war of their own creation, well, that takes some real balls.

Maybe that's why there may be something else at work here. I'd like to suggest a possibility. In its heyday, the Black Death, or plague, in Europe during the middle ages, there arose a condition so common among the people it was given a name by the Germans. It was called St. John's Dance. It was characterized by "apraxia expressing itself as 'dancing rage,' as uncontrolled ecstatic body movements. In the eyes of the church, those suffering from St. John's Dance were possessed by the devil."

Among the many forms in which St. John's Dance might manifest, is it possible the Bush regime, its neocon supporters, plus extremist churches have a form of apraxia that suppresses reality?

Perhaps Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their gang suffer a collective cognitive dissociative disorder rendering them incapable of recognizing or admitting reality. This disables them from executing appropriate responses to inappropriate realities.

It's what is defined in psychiatric circles as "a psychological defense mechanism in which specific, anxiety-provoking thoughts, emotions, or physical sensations are separated from the rest of the psyche."

Think of it as a kind of sliming defense against reality perceptions in the brain. By sliming over reality, it is thus isolated from any possible interference with the rest of the neocon's agenda. Thus the mechanism then enables their beyond-reality-fanatism to proceed unhindered with their work of raping and plundering the Earth without hint of conscience.

Maybe this particular manifestation of apraxia could be called "St. George's St. John's Dance." Certainly these are dark times for the US and maybe what we're witnessing is the "uncontrolled ecstatic body movements" indicative of possession by the devil.

But I guess that's why president Bush sees his policy as "one designed to spread democracy to a nation long ruled by a serial murderer intent both on destabilising the Middle East and supporting terrorists" while being unable to see himself in the role of serial murderer intent both on destabilising the Middle East and supporting terrorists?

Anyway, so proud was I at my attempt to understand such otherwise inexplicable and unconscionable behavior of the Bush fascists, I read my theory to my wife. But my ideas were immediately rejected. "Nah," she said. "They're just a pack of liars."

So much for St. John's Dance. And I was so in the mood for a good tango.