The Reviews Are In

I didn't realize that racoons were such followers of current events, but an incident this morning convinced me that they, like humans, are fed up with the political wrangling in D.C. over the debt ceiling.

I'll explain, but you'll have to concentrate in order to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Piece 1: The fruit on the persimmon bushes in our area has ripened, drawing raccoons and skunks from miles around. Persimmons have readily identifiable seeds. 

Piece 2: Raccoon scat can be identified by its appearance, and by the presence of seeds in the droppings - especially persimmon seeds.

Piece 3: Our driveway is several hundred yards long. There are several wild persimmon bushes along side it.

Piece 4: When I walked to the end of our driveway this morning to pick up the paper, a raccoon had carefully and purposefully pooped on the paper. More specifically, on a headline that read "Backup Proposals for Debt Crisis in Works."

Obviously, the only logical explanation is that the raccoons are as disgusted with this whole process as we are.

For God's sake, even the French are noticing.

As the acrimony index peaks in Washington and the Aug. 2 US debt ceiling deadline nears, the political war of words has been accompanied by a flurry of opinion polls. All the surveys state the obvious: Americans are sick of the Beltway politicking.

If the French and the raccoons can figure it out, why on earth can't our elected 'leaders'...?