American Hysterical Overreaction Syndrome

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (AP) - A man who tried to keep bees off his property accidentally set fire to his house instead, causing at least $500 damage.

Franklyn Pigott Jr. set his home ablaze Wednesday while attempting to destroy a nest of bees that had formed outside the home, the Fort Myers News-Press reported Thursday.

When Pigott, 38, mixed a product called Real Kill Indoor Fogger with WD-40, it became a "flame-thrower" and melted the home's vinyl siding, according to a police incident report.

"Goddamn bees! I'll show YOU!"

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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush, facing opposition from both parties over his plan to send more troops to Iraq, said he has the authority to act no matter what Congress wants.

"I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it. But I've made my decision. And we're going forward," Bush told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview to air Sunday night.

[..]The White House also said Sunday that Iranians are aiding the insurgency in Iraq and the U.S. has the authority to pursue them because they "put our people at risk."

"Goddamn terrorists! I'll show YOU!"

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They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Then what do you call doing the same thing, with increasing intensity, and expecting it'll eventually work -- without ever admitting that it didn't work in the first place?

...ol' man Digby is quite insistent that the White House is subtly beating the drums for war with Iran, and that there are deep psychological pathologies under it. (The line that sticks: "[wingnuts] and Bush and Cheney might just need a fix that only a bright shiny new war can provide.") It's a question of fulfilling some basic need for aggression, or vindication, or just a mindset that sees war as naturally productive. ---His Iran theory seems a little tinfoil-hat, to be honest, but the "Surge" and the President's blind aggression against Congress do feel an awful lot like Mr. Pigott's wicked-awesome bee-destruction machine.

I stumbled on a Canadian columnist today, using a typically condescending Canadian tone to describe what she called "American hysterical overreaction". If you can get past the smugness it's worth a look -- there is a tendency, in American government at least, to scream and yell and KILL KILL KILL at any kind of problem. Certainly Washington is not a place where cooler heads prevail.

And between the Iranian weirdness, the scarily stupid Iraq strategy, and generally what we know about Bush's executive judgment, I'm increasingly worried that the president -- in the process of swiping at some serious bees -- is about to set our national house on fire.

Which in this case means a lot more damage than $500.