Ray, we hardly got to know you

The saga of our friend Ray Sadler has been moved to our sister site, Balasticman Baseball.

The "Revolution" is Dead...Long Live the Revolution

Another election, another loss.  From the constitutional referendum to the parliamentary elections to the presidential vote, Egyptians have decisively rejected the "revolutionary forces".  And, yet again, the same "revolutionary forces" have had the same delusional reaction, consoling themselves in wild tales of conspiracy, contorted mathematical breakdowns trying to recast defeat as victory, and basically anything else that puts the blame somewhere other than on themselves.  They again have failed to find a leader capable of presenting a credible vision for the future, their best offering apparently being an unrepentant believer in the same Nasser who founded the security monstrosity, bureaucratic labyrinth and cultural regression that for sixty years has dragged down the country internally, while gloriously leading Egypt into devastating war after devastating war, with Israel and Arab "brothers" alike.  And now they threaten to commit mass suicide by suspending all credibility in backing an unabashed Islamist (not that the backing covert Islamists really was any better) as the last salvation for the "revolution."  

Plack Eyed Beas

The Presidential Delusion

Presiding over a mess

In the sham otherwise known as democratic advancement in Egypt – where a dyed-and-stained Islamist can mascaraed as being open-minded, where a failed politician can implausibly revive a discredited Nasserist system as the hope for the future, where a union thug can promise mass expropriation as the golden bucket at the end of the rainbow, and where self-declared revolutionaries can willingly suspend belief to find credible that plastic ballot boxes, pie charts and moronic talk shows even remotely reflect a civilized system of self-governance – it is reassuring, even if only somewhat, to recall that the bankrupt Egypt of today, with all of its pitfalls, ignorance and depravity, is still somehow linked to 7,000 years of stabilizing norms.  

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The tepid televised debate between two drab presidential candidates is a poignant symbol of the superficiality of the events that have transpired in Egypt over the course of the past 18 or so months.  Egypt's pompous political class -- from the candidates to the idiotic talking heads -- is utterly shambolic.    

The Solution to Democratic Chaos in Egypt

Move over Justin Bieber...

For starters, raise the voting age and ban girls from voting (it must be the manly appeal of the beard).  While we are at it, may as well ban boys from voting too, and outlaw those with brown hair and/or brown eyes, in addition of course to banning the entirely unreliable black, red or blond haired and/or blue, green or hazel eyed voters. Needless to say, the same rules shall apply to eligibility for candidacy, supplementing the well-reasoned rules for those with any non-Egyptian familial ties (no more experimentation with failures like Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Mohamed Ali or Taha Hussein).