The Little List of 21st century Irritables

1. Facebook applications. (And the social taboo of ignoring them.) (And the fact that they always, invariably, do something terribly obnoxious to my computer.)

2. Text messaging. Yes, I understand its convenience. But does one have to text all the time: during rehearsal, in the middle of conversations, at the dinner table? What would Miss Manners say? I'm tempted to take the next texting phone that gets between me and the conversation/dinner/project/lecture I'm working on and throw it out the window.

3. American politics. Okay, so the American body politic is not an exclusively 21st century annoyance, but our government (including our eloquent, dashing president) can go suck the text message that just went flying out the window. War in Afghanistan? Increasing funding for the Pakistani government? Letting GM declare bankruptcy after giving the company billions of dollars in tax-payer funds? Refusing to close Guantanamo because heaven forbid a "suspected terrorist" acquire a cell in a Colorado maximum security prison? (Apparently we're okay with American born terrorists; we only break the Constitution for Muslims.) Paying attention to that gargoyle Dick Cheney, and running ads accusing Sotomayor of racism for suggesting--gasp!--that a judge might approach the bench with individual biases? Insinuating that North Korea behave or we'll kick the country's ass? And yet, somehow, despite all of this, today's top news story is about the government's new commission against computer hacking?

COME ON PEOPLE! This is making Mussolini's War Against the Mosquitoes look well-considered.