5 days to the Nov. 4 abomination of desolation

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27.)

I never met my maternal grandmother, but she had a saying my mother passed on to me: “Don’t wish your life away.”

Yet never have I wished anything more than for Nov. 4, 2008 to come and pass. This election is the “abomination of desolation,” the nadir of America’s political life, the End Times of the Republic, the disaster of disasters, the Hurricane Katrina of plebiscites.

Out of about 130 million Americans eligible to run for president, our rigged two-party system — our duopoly — upchucked the two worst possible candidates. More than 100 million voters will choose one of those two under the delusion that it is a real choice, and that it will do any good.

A million or so of us, perhaps more deluded — myself included — will vote for third-party candidates who are as relevant as a fly on Godzilla’s tail.

I’ve been avidly following these risible elections since 1964, when I was 9 years old. They get worse every year. The issues are worse, the media coverage more absurd, the delusions of the voters more psychotic.

At this point, I’m supposed to insert Churchill’s cant phrase, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.” But we don’t really have democracy. If you still think we do, just attend your next local school-board meeting and try to change the curriculum. You can’t. It’s been set by unelected bureaucrats in the U.S. Department of Education.

What we have is a massive bureautocracy (rule by bureaucracy) in which the minutest things in our lives, from the size of our shower spigots to our very marriages — the very sanctum sanctorum of our families — is run by millions of government dweebs with Napoleon complexes. In today’s America, freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to decide by yourself.

At least on Nov. 5 the lastest farce will be over with and we can get back to our regular prison routine.