OMG yuck

Referred by a random optometrist called Dr. Wang, at the Hour Eyes store where last week and the week before a certain creature named Aminat* tried heroically to prise every last red cent out of my bank account, I went this morning to the offices of Eye Doctors of Washington (in Chevy Chase, Maryland, of course) to see a certain eye doctor of Washington, Dr. Wang. No relation. Whereas the routine gloaucoma screening that alarmed the first doctor Wang (Pei) was the usual 'puff of air' stuff, backed up by a slightly uncomfortable eye-numbing and -prodding, this morning the second doctor Wang (Walter) did all kindsa nasty stuff to my eyeballs, the last of which involved grabbing the corneae with a little doodad attached to a machine that goes 'ping!' and PULLING, distorting my natural lens such that my vision went horrifically wonky. And as is often the case with local anaesthesia, while it didnae hurt, I certainly felt it going on. Dude, you are SO pulling on my EYEBALLS.

By the time he was done with that I was distinctly ready to pass out. Dr. Wang saw this and reclined the chair and patted my head in a kindly way. I recovered after a few minutes.

GodDAMN that shit was MASTY.

* The name has been retained verbatim in case anyone wants to go break the asshole's legs.

David Foster Wallace and Republicanism: A Likely Story.

jaegerbeast just pointed me to a couple intriguing essays:

Below The Pain's weekly cartoon ('What if the Republicans win?') is his deeply personal essay starting from the death of Dave Wallace but ending up in ruminations about what makes people shitheads and how we can find common ground (that's not really even a half-decent blurb to describe what is basically a complex and heartfelt ramble)... and that essay links to this terrifically interesting exploration of the possible genetic foundations of conservatism and comparitive moralities and whatnot... e.g.,

'The book of Leviticus makes a lot more sense when you think of ancient lawgivers first sorting everything into two categories: "disgusts me" (gay male sex, menstruation, pigs, swarming insects) and "disgusts me less" (gay female sex, urination, cows, grasshoppers).'