The Curmudgeon Growls

Supercommittee wants to supersquash us

2011-11-17T13:57:00.001-05:00

The so-called supercommittee in congress is poised to pass a bill to make big cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
I'm going to quote from an email I got from moveon.org:
"If one Democrat out of six total on the supercommittee goes along with the Republican's plan for massive cuts to crucial programs, it passes. Then their proposal gets fast-tracked through Congress, without amendments, filibusters, or other good ways to stop it.
We are directly lobbying the Democrats on the supercommittee to make sure they don't strike a bad deal. MoveOn leaders in Massachusetts are going right after Sen. Kerry, who amazingly may be the Democrat most likely to cave. The phones are ringing off the hook in all of the committee members' offices. And we are keeping the pressure on the ground in all of the supercommittee members' states and district with our "We are the 99%" events today.

It's not just potential cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that have us concerned. Things have gotten much worse over the last week.
The New York Times reported this week that members of the congressional supercommittee are looking for ways to agree to deep cuts to social programs now but defer any decisions about how to raise taxes until next year.
That's a recipe for total disaster. Congress already slashed programs that the middle class relies on by almost $1 trillion this past summer. What's needed now is for the rich and corporations to pay their fair share—not for the 99% to suffer more so the 1% can keep their tax cuts."

How many of you really think the congress would keep that promise to "look at" raising taxes next year? Don't all jump up at once. My own feeling is that NO cuts should be made to any more programs which benefit the poor and middle class until taxes on the wealthiest are returned to pre-Bush era levels, at least.
If you live in Massachusetts, here's Senator Kerry's phone number, send him a message—be polite:
Senator John Kerry, 202-224-2742

Why o why o why o did i ever leave Ohio?

2011-11-10T21:29:00.002-05:00

Believe it or not, that used to be a song. Seriously.

I've been reviewing Rachel Maddow's show over the last week or so (I don't spend ALL my time on the computer) and have been delighted at the news of the vote in Ohio.

And no I don't want to go back except to visit. But I am proud of my former childhood home for defeating SB5 which the Republican legislature and governor rammed through last year. It would basically destroy the idea of collective bargaining, would have reduced the power of unions to nothing, would have been a boon to the corporate oligarchy as proved by the amount of Koch brothers' money that went into the fight for that vote.

I don't know where the hell Gov. Kasich got that idea from. He's got an Eastern European-sounding name. Eastern Europeans are plentiful in Ohio. And they are laborers and belong, in large part, to unions. Doesn't he know any steelworkers (former steelworkers—all those jobs went overseas)? If any place is a union state it's Ohio. At least I can say that about Northeast Ohio. My father was a steel mill worker (until someone dropped a palette full of bricks on his foot—he walked with a limp forever after and lost his job—in 1917 or thereabouts. I wasn't politically aware enough when he was alive to ask if he got workmen's comp or a severance pay. Snort. It was 1917.)
And almost everyone who was a friend of my family was a union member. Usually steel, but often also police. Only wives and priests were not union members. Priests had a different kind of organization which did not empower them, alas. They coulda used a good union.

My father had a thing against blacks because they were brought up from the south in an effort to break the union-forming activists. He never realized that the blacks were being used by the corporate owners just as he was. That's the way capitalism works.
Where was I? Oh, Ohio shot down that attempted legislation decisively. And good for them. If someone in that state doesn't belong to a union, they have a family member who does. Chalk one up for Ohio.

And chalk one up for Mississippi. They shot down, again decisively, a law declaring a fertilized egg a person. This meant if you were raped, you had to bear the rapist's child. This meant that if you might die if you went into labor, tough luck, you're going into labor. This meant if you used birth-control pills you were a felon. And Mississippi, that anti-abortion, conservative state, saw how wrong-headed this legislation would be and shot it down. Way to go Mississippi!

It's way beyond wonder, way beyond snark, way beyond disgust, what the Republicans all over the country are doing to try to put down the majority of people in support of their corporate money pot. So far they are trying, sometimes succeeding, to destroy working people's bargaining rights, create barriers to voting for the minorities—who may vote Democratic, insert the federal government into our personal lives, insert very conservative religious beliefs into our laws and basically sucking up to the likes of the Koch brothers.
How can anybody vote for these wingnuts?

I know someone who thinks that things aren't going to get better until we "break the unions." Hello?
If you think that unions are getting too much in the way of benefits, take look at how much 1% of our population is sucking up at the expense of the rest of us. If we can even things out about THAT, then I might consider looking at whether or not working people are getting too much from our society. But only then.
If it weren't for unions we wouldn't have the weekend, we wouldn't have workmen's comp, we wouldn't have even the pathetic (compared to the rest of the western world) health care we have (just ask my dad's ruined foot). Are there excesses? Yep. But are they worse than the excesses of the richest among us? Nope.
I mean, this is a no-brainer.
As far as I am concerned, you can't pay teachers ENOUGH!

Aagh, here I am bitching about politics again. I don't want to do this, but it is getting really important to be aware of what is going on. It seems like Republican leadership (not necessarily the Republican proletariat—see Ohio and Mississippi—those votes weren't from Democrats alone) has just swallowed all it's corporate masters' kool-aid and is entirely oblivious to the needs of the rest of us, and oblivious to the idea of what America is supposed to be.
We were not meant to substitute the rule of corporations for the rule of kings. Really— to take the Suprenme Court at it's own (misguided) word—if corporations are persons, then they shouldn't be kings. Getting rid of kings and giving power to the people, not corporations, is what the American Revolution is all about.

Think about that next time you go to a voting booth—if a Republican-sponsored restriction doesn't keep you out of it.

Rant digest

2011-11-06T22:51:00.001-05:00

So I haven't posted much lately. There is this thing called life I've been concerned with—you know how that gets in the way of internet activity, takes you away from the computer. It's a shame, but there it is.
One of my problems lately is the paucity of new and original things to rant about. Maybe that's my rant. It's not that the Republicans and Fox Unnews aren't committing new crimes against intelligence and humanity—it's just that going on about their doings is like shooting ducks on a pond, or fish in a barrel—whatever. It gets predictable and boring. Can you expect anything different from these characters? Can you expect anything from them that an intelligent 8-year old can't refute?
I didn't think so.

If it's stupid and so obvious a ploy to suck up to their corporate masters, then the Repubes will embrace it. Unemployed? Get a job. Don't matter if there aren't any jobs, it's still your fault. Occupy Wall Street (the horror!)? You must be a hippie socialist pot-smoking free-lover who is in favor of gay marriage and trying to destroy the moral underpinnings of America.
Get a job (see above).

It's pretty hard to destroy the moral underpinning of a nation that tried to exterminate the native population, brought Chinese laborers over to build the railroads (and treated them like dogs), fought a civil war about slavery but still tried to keep the former slaves and their descendants in their place for a hundred years after that war; that supported many ruthless tycoons in their railroad and mining and steel-making industries at the expense of the workers actually doing the labor; that engaged in a bunch of military involvements in Haiti, the Philippines and Central America which didn't add any luster to our achievements; that supported a number of dictators solely because they (seemingly) provided a buffer against communism. Remember communism? So last millennium.

But still—there is always a "still." If you're looking for moral absolutism you have to go to some other blog. "Still" America is the one place in the world where people of all nations, creeds and colors have looked to for a chance to be better in their lives. That's why people risk coming thru the deserts of the southwest with questionable guides, why even people from India (you know, our corporations' favorite place to outsource jobs) want to come to get an education and find jobs, why my old man came here back in nineteen ought-ten and why I am here to live and have the freedom to rant.

It's still the case that someone like me would end up dead or in prison for an awful long time for speaking my mind, in some other place. But, it's still the case that the fact that I can speak my mind is essentially co-opted by the fact that I can speak my mind.

Say what?
There is a trap here. Allowing people to vent is a way to defuse their anger and showing how open the ruling body or bodies are. If getting what you want off your chest is all that you need, well, American free speech is there for you. If you expect your free speech to affect the ruling bodies, that's another story. You have to write your congressman, maybe take your body to his office, let everyone you have any hope of influencing also write your congressman and maybe take their bodies to his/her office. If you can counter-act the contributions from the corporations which want to control things in this country (including how much you have to eat every day), if you can see that your congressman/woman is a human being with responsibilities to other human beings, then you can get beyond the trap. You can realize that spouting off isn't always enough, action has to follow.
Am I calling for revolution? Yep. I am. FBI take note. I want an actual conservative (as in conserving the good of the past while leaving behind the dross) revolution that takes us back to some of our founders ideas. One that recognizes our founders' desire to keep religion OUT of our politics no matter what. That would benefit the country. One that recognizes Dwight Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex (so obvious now); one that follows up on JFK's exhortation to do for our country; one that follows up on Martin Luther King's vision of what America can be.
I want a revolution that recognizes that every generation has the possibility of revolution which can advance the evolution of the human race. We are in a unique position—we don't have to depend on Darwinian evolution—we can intellectually choose how the human race will evolve. What way will we go? YOU decide.
Me? I'm going to bed. It's late.
Cheers, everyone.

Steve jobs

2011-10-06T00:58:00.004-04:00

I've come out from under my rock—not to inveigh against the chicaneries, cowardice and general stupidity of government (there just isn't enough time in one lifetime for that), but to talk about an extraordinary person.
Today Steve Jobs died. I'd expected that this was coming, a driven person such as he does not willingly relinquish his command of the second richest company in the world—behind Exxon.
And tho it was expected, and tho I never met the man, I found myself sorrowful, sobbing a little even, at his passing. I am sure I would not have been supporting myself since 1995 without Macintosh computers. I certainly would not have had as much fun using a computer, not had as much fun anticipating and watching his keynote addresses waiting to see what new miracle of technology has sprung from his brain, like Athena from the forehead of Zeus.

    When I first started working as a graphic artist for Star Press back in '95, Apple was on the ropes. Yes they had a good computer—I was using a 6100 powerPC which was a great machine that I enjoyed using. It had a hundred megabytes of memory! But the company was fading. Then Apple bought Next, and got Jobs back into the fold.
Boy did he change things. That funky, spacey iMac came out, first in that Bondi blue color, then in a bunch of other colors. The colors were nice but the all-in-one space age chassis was revolutionary. "You mean I don't have to have a beige computer that looks like a box?"
    There was no looking back after that. In 1999 I bought my first computer, a blue-and-white tower affectionately referred to among aficionados as a "smurf". It had 6 gigabytes of memory!! In the meantime the towers, the laptops and the desktops changed and became more popular. Hey, Apple's share of the market went from 5% to oh, at least 8%. Or thereabouts.
    Then came the iPod, and iTunes. Jobs managed to convince the music industry dinosaurs that selling music at 99¢ a track could be profitable. Boy was it ever. And it changed the way music is presented and sold forever. People i know who don't like Macintosh computers are listening to music on Apple iPods.
    IMacs, iPods, iPhones, iPads—in the last twelve years Steve Jobs has changed the way you and I listen, watch, and communicate with each other in an irrevocable way. This may be good, it may be ill, but there it is.
    And a lot of this Jobs didn't actually put his hands on physically making. Steve Wozniac actually made the first prototype Apple computer—but Steve jobs recognized the value and was able to sell it. And everything that Apple has produced since Steve Jobs came back in 1996 has had to pass his aesthetic and practical judgement. He knew what people wanted before they did.
    Some might say he knew what he could convince people they wanted before they knew they wanted it. Whatever, it worked. Apple products are imitated all over the world in an effort to acquire some of their magic.
    Inevitably, as the hagiographies and opposing debunkings come out over the next few days, you'll hear that Jobs had an illegitimate child who he refused to acknowledge for years before finally accepting her. You'll hear about his management style, which sometimes veered into terrifying territory. And these things are true, and pertinent to those involved, but they don't diminish the effect he has had on the world. Everyone has faults, and I am not excusing his by saying that. Gandhi was rumored to have strange relations (tho not necessarily sexual) with the women who visited him, Martin Luther King is said to have had extra-marital affairs, and many other famous people who have made a positive contribution to the world and human life have had incidences or proclivities which are to us regrettable, maybe even criminal.
    But that's humanity. People who do good things are not always good themselves. And their contributions to humanity should not be diminished by their personal peccadilloes. Turn it around—if you knew that Heinrich Himmler rescued abandoned puppies and found homes for them, would you think he was less of a criminal?
    In the case of Steve Jobs, I think we have to look at what he has brought to our lives, and think about that. Admiring what he has done for computers, music, phones and communication in general doesn't mean endorsing his personal faults.
    Me, I'm too busy thinking about how I could have been better, to worry about how Steve Jobs could have been better. I only know that he profoundly changed my life, and has changed the lives of many others, whether they know it or not. I regret his passing at the early age of 56, and wonder what else he could have come up with. I can't imagine it, but then, I'm not Steve Jobs.
Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs, and may God help your loved ones to find solace in what you have brought to their lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dou7EWRltlA

Can you believe it?

2011-07-29T23:13:00.002-04:00

Can you believe that a group of House Republicans are ready to throw this country into a deep recession for ideological reasons? It's more than mind boggling. I took drugs in the sixties that had a less deleterious effect on my brain than this realizatin. Where are these wingnuts coming from? Were the people in their districts so traumatized by the advent of a black (read Negro) president, that they were ready to vote for anyone who crawled out from under an ideological rock? Ron Paul was fun when he appeared on Rachel Maddow's show, but when he is actually in congress he is a threat to the nation, he and his fellow political miscreants.
These people have no concept of what it is like to be out of work and struggling (they think it's just laziness that keeps you from getting a job in the worst economic climate in recent American history), to have children you can't feed (you must be sexually sinful and let's not talk about restrictions on birth control and abortion), to be elderly and unable to work and having to choose between rent and food. Hey, just die already. Save the country some money.
These asshats think that stimulating the economy is creating debt. What they don't realize is that those dollars, which give people the ability to buy food, pay medical practitioners, take care of other needs, come back to the government in taxes, both from the actual transaction and from the continued ability of people to feel like they can get things they need (put money back into circulation), and have hope that they can be wage-earners and tax payers again. If, that is, they can get jobs, and for some, that means government having the resources to enforce hiring practices, job discrimination and minimum wage standards.
Some people think getting a new job is easy. They haven't been 63 years old and appearing at interviews where one is facing a group of thirty-somethings who look at you as if you are a creature from an earlier geologic age. It's hard to claim age-discrimination. It's hard to claim any discrimination ("Oh, she was black? We hadn't noticed.)

I used to think that people inveighing against our education system were blowing smoke out of their collective asses, because we weren't producing the productive robots we need for a manufacturing economy. Now that our economy has gone south, or at least east to India and China (which, incidentally holds a lot of our debt) and we don't need to produce the 1950's era kind of workers (both blue and white collar), I see that our education system in the last thirty years has really fallen short.
My sister was an English teacher in a junior high school, and she can tell you story after story of protective parents coming to her complaining of a bad grade their child got because s/he didn't study, try, think, about an assignment.
Does the government do anything to help our teachers in saying "Dude, I know you smoked a lot of dope and saw God in the seventies, and believe in free expression, but your kid is still f-king up in class now, and hasn't a hope of going to college"? Does the government help teachers when they say "I know you want your kid to go to Harvard Law School, but s/he's as smart as a box of rocks and you should prepare her/him for some other kind of work?"
Naw. The wingnuts/asshats (your choice) in congress now only look at how much money they can save, as long as it doesn't affect their corporate sponsors. God forbid that we should require corporations, especially oil and gas corporations, to pay a proportionately equal part of their earning in taxes as we, the hoi polloi, do. And besides, a poorly educated citizenry is more malleable to the propaganda of the ruling classes, that is, the classes which have enough money to influence our Congressmen.
Some of these characters claim to be Christian. If so show them this:
Matthew 25: 31-46

…(then they will answer) “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, and thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are my family, you did it to me.”

Feeding the poor, helping the sick or troubled or struggling—Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Health Insurance, Food Stamps, Unemployment Insurance—this isn’t socialism, folks, it’s Christianity.

Edward R. Murrow said it best

2011-07-01T20:40:00.008-04:00

Theres no way I can improve on what he said. Happy 4th of July everyone.

New York, New York

2011-06-25T02:47:00.000-04:00

I'm ba-a-ack.
There's been some trouble with google now owning blogspot, I think—anyway I couldn't even get to my own blog for a while, and that's why I have been bottling up my curmudgeonly gripings lately.

Tonight tho I start off with a joy, tempered by a realization of how far there is yet to go.
Today the New York State Senate approved a bill allowing same-sex marriage. In a senate led by Republicans. Holy mackerel! It's been a struggle but the goal is finally achieved.

This is a big disappointment to the Catholic Church and many other conservative Christians. They are so hung up on believing that the Bible is the actual teaching of God, rather than the attempts of an early society to protect itself and make sense of the world. There was an older translation of the bible in my church which said that eating the flesh of the pig was an abomination and later said that a man having sex with a man was an abomination—and I liked to bludgeon those who were against homosexuality with the thought that eating a BLT was a bad as a man sleeping with another man.
Had a BLT lately?
The NRSV bible, alas, only says that eating the flesh of a pig is unclean. Doesn't have the same punch. New translations are not always better.
In Leviticus, women aren't considered in same sex relations, being pretty much second-class citizens so who cares. It is only in the letters of Paul (my minister says it is in there somewhere but i forget where and I'm too lazy right now to go looking) that women sleeping with women is given equal condemnation as men sleeping with men. That's progress for the status of women, kinda, I guess.

Anyway, I'm happy that NY State has finally decided to enter the 21st century. And kudos to Governor Cuomo for pushing this to victory. I'm having a vision of "Cuomo for President in 2016" placards right about now.
Obama better hope it's not "Cuomo in 2012." Obama was in NYC telling gays that he was against any kind of discrimination. But I'm not sure that he came out in favor of actual marriage. Someone, one of my two actual readers, can correct me on this if they have the energy.
He does belong to a UCC church and should know better. The UCC is a church which says that "God is still speaking" and that means that what was understood by the ancients is not the end and is not necessarily apropos today.
The world and humanity is still growing and evolving. It ain't over yet, folks.
I think Obama, and the Democrats in general, should consider speaking their minds and openly and aggressively fighting for their goals, instead of weaseling around worrying about 2012, and also achieving consensus—and those goals are not necessarily compatible.

Goodnight all.

Wisconsin

2011-02-28T00:28:00.002-05:00

The mess in Wisconsin is really dispiriting. Their yahoo governor, while giving tax cuts to the rich, is now trying to cripple the unions who have helped bring prosperity to the middle class. He's doing this to make up the revenues, in the form of tax breaks, he has given to the rich.
Back when Jesus said that the little you have will be taken from you, he must have been thinking of Wisconsin. Has anyone else noticed that Republicans believe that future government savings must be placed on the backs of those least able to sustain them—like those people who depend on the solidarity of unions to defend them?

Anyone who thinks unions are unnecessary should consider the weekend. Two days off in a week is a benefit we would not have without unions.
My father worked in the steel mills in Youngstown. Back in 1912-18 thereabouts. He told me how Saturday night—after work!— was devoted to drinking and dancing and Sunday, the one day off a week, was devoted to church and hangover. Plus whatever needed done around the house. His steel mill career was terminated when a palette of bricks fell on his foot, giving him a limp for the rest of his life.
No job, no insurance, no benefits of any kind. "Too bad Joe, but you're no good to us now. Hit the road."

This is the situation that the governor of Wisconsin and his corporate backers aspire to. More profits for the corporations, more slavery for the workers.
Middle class? Fageddaboutit. Ain't going to be one. The middle class only takes profit away from the rich. Corporations don't need the middle class—they think. I don't know who they think is going to buy the crap they produce when no one is left who can afford it. Even Henry Ford, anti-Semitic, racist, fascist loving and ultimately murderous sumbitch he was, recognized that his employees had to earn enough to afford the cars he was producing. He may have hired thugs to beat and kill his workers when they tried to form unions, but he at least had a grasp on reality to the extent that he knew there weren't enough rich people around to support his factories. There were hellish factory conditions, no safety net, no health insurance—but at least they made enough to buy the damn cars they made.

Present day corporations don't have even that basic level of intelligence.

Somewhere in my previous fulminations I mentioned how much of the wealth of this country was in the hands of so few citizens. I don't have the exact figures at hand, the top one percent (in riches) of this country control more wealth than all the rest of us. Someone with more energy than me can go look up the exact figures. They're out there somewhere, maybe in my previous posts.

The problem here is not that the public service unions, like the teachers' union, or the state workers, are getting too much in relation to the rest of us—it's that the rest of us are getting too LITTLE in relation to what we deserve. We shouldn't be trying to bring the unions benefits down, we should be trying to bring our benefits up. The quality of life of the billionaires and corporation CEOs is not going to be affected that much if the rest of us have a bigger share of the wealth this country generates. And unions need the collective bargaining power to keep their members alive and healthy. The rich already have enough.

I don't know what the hell they think they are going to do with all that money. What good is it to have more money than you or your immediate descendants can spend? I swear on my mother's grave, I could not spend even one billion dollars in my lifetime, much less several billions. The effort of trying would wear me out, probably kill me. And frankly, I don't want, much less need, all that much.
What do those rich idiots think they need all that money for?

There is one way to screw up this acquisitive action of the greedy rich. Stop buying their stock. Stop dealing with chain stores, support your local farmer and his fight against Monsanto robo-seeds. Give up on money where you can. Okay, your doctor is not going to be happy to be paid in chickens—you will need money here. But if you need a chicken, could you trade some vegetables, a ham hock, a service, a painting, for that chicken? No way we can get rid of money as the medium of exchange, but we can reduce its influence in our lives. We can get along without being slaves to greedy billionaires who don't have a clue as to what it means to be a real, honest human being—a best example of what God created us to be.

Grow what you can, trade what you can, and buy as much as you can and need from local suppliers.

Jesus wasn't kidding when he said it would be easier for a camel to go thru the eye of a needle than for a rich person to attain the kingdom of God. Jesus knew how much the love of wealth and possessions corrupts the human soul and leaves it bereft of value. He knew how we can be blinded by our possessions, how possessions can make us too big to get thru that needle's eye.

You may not believe in God or Jesus. but you should believe in the dignity and the glory of the human race— triumphant above the existential needs of animals, better than the lives in hives of insects—where it is possible for individuality to coexist with societal responsibility.

Libya

2011-02-21T23:39:00.001-05:00

It's a heart-rending situation in Libya. Gaddafi is not going down without a fight. He is now slaughtering his own people, who don't seem to be ready to give up. They continue to protest.
Gaddafi is bombing his own people, and hiring mercenaries to shoot them. The two air force colonels who defected to Malta did so because they would not follow orders to bomb their own people.
The Libyan ambassador to the United states has called for Gaddafi to step down. So has the head of the Libyan delegation to the United Nations. At least nine Libyan diplomats have resigned in protest of Gaddafi's actions.
Somehow Gaddafi appointed many people of moral fortitude to represent his country around the world. Perhaps he just wanted them out of the country.

This is a way different situation than occurred in Egypt. Here the military is ready, in large part, to fire upon their own people. As I write, the Security Council of the UN is going to go into a closed door meeting tomorrow morning. One hopes that it will order peace-keeping troops to Libya.

One also hopes that the people of Libya don't give up, in spite of the fatalities. The governments of all dictatorships need to see that this kind of violence won't stop their regimes from being overthrown.

I weep for the suffering of the Libyan people. I pray that the rest of the world will have the backbone to step in and stop the slaughter.

Mohammed Bouazizi

2011-02-12T01:30:00.004-05:00

"The unrest began when Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old unemployed man, set himself on fire after police confiscated fruit and vegetables he was selling because he had no permit." —Al Jazeera report

Let's not forget this guy. He was an unemployed Tunisian man, probably couldn't afford to buy or bribe someone for a permit, and the police took away his produce, his only means of support. In frustration and despair, he burnt himself to death.
From this, other unemployed took to the streets, the unions supported them and in the end the army supported them. And Ben Ali was the first to flee his country after a peaceful uprising.

Mohammed Bouazizi inspired the Tunisian revolt. And the Egyptians were inspired by the Tunisians. And now Hosni Mubarak is out and Egypt is, we hope, heading for a better future. Two strongmen toppled, shockwaves sent throughout the middle east, and who knows where else, all because one desperate man made a profound act of protest. One man made the ultimate sacrifice, and as a result the world changes, and there is hope, at least, for people who had no hope before.

I am reminded how the self-immolation of Buddhist monks in Vietnam helped turn the American public against the war. Sometimes it takes a horrific act of self-sacrifice to open peoples eyes to the injustice around them. Would that it were not so.

I honor Mohammed Bouazizi, and I hope he has found peace in the arms of Allah.

They did it, part 2

2011-02-11T18:56:00.001-05:00

I have to remark again on the fact that the revolutions in both Tunisia and Egypt were brought about by peaceful means. No storming the citadels with cannon and bomb. Just people going into the street and saying "We will not be moved."
It is so very stirring to see the doctrine of Gandhi and Martin Luther King put to effective use again. And the armed forces of these countries respected the will of the people against their own leader.
There are paranoiac people in this country who are amassing weapons, and promoting ridiculous "pledges" from police and soldiers that they will never take part in blockading an American city in the event of—what? Obama declaring himself dictator?
What amazes me is that these people automatically assume that the army will willingly be deployed against anyone protesting an attempted dictatorship in this country. Are they saying that our army is less intelligent, less humane, less loyal to the people of the country (last I knew, the army is composed of people of this country,) than the armies of Tunisia or Egypt? Huh?
Enough of that.

The other thing I want to remark upon is the ubiquity of the word "democracy." Whatever mistakes the US has made in the world, we should be proud that this idea is taking root in places which haven't seen much of that. Before the last century, how many revolutions in areas like the middle east were about getting people freedom as opposed to picking a new strongman? People may have wanted their own king, sheik, leader, and not someone else's king, etc. But that was it. The king ruled. We still see this in some of the "stans" where a local despot has taken over from the ousted Russian-supported despot.
Now more and more, the idea that people should be able to fire their leader when necessary is taking hold. We may not always like the outcome of democracy in these places (like the Hamas victory in the Gaza Strip) but we need to learn to respect them, and figure out how to live with them.

Woot!! They did it!

2011-02-11T11:48:00.000-05:00

Mubarak is fleeing. Protesters are beside themselves with joy.
Once again a repressive tyrant has fallen by PEACEFUL demonstration. The only violence came from the regime's supporters.
The army has stayed on the sidelines, but I believe they finally threw down their support with the protesters.
No doubt it was the army who told Mubarak that it was all over and he should high tail it.
I haven't been this excited since the Berlin Wall came down.

Don't know where this is going, what will happen to the Egypt-Israel peace treaty (a big worry) or whether the next government will be any better than the one that just crashed. I can only pray that things will get better for the people of Egypt and for the region in general.
And that non-violence can remain the order of the day.

Aggravation Potpourri

2011-02-11T00:02:00.000-05:00

Apparently Obama is proposing cutting energy assistance to the poor in his new budget. Our Senator Kerry has sent a letter remonstrating with him for this. As someone who has received assistance with my oil bill I can only agree. This is a bitch of a winter and I hate to see budgetary compromises being made on the backs of those who can least afford it.
Like Mimi and Richard Farina sang:
"It was the red, white and blue planning how to endure.
The fife, drum and bugle marching down on the poor." (House Un-American Blues Activity Dream)
Obama keeps up like this, I may have to vote for some third party candidate in 2012 (but please, not Ralph Nader!)
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
And in the meantime, Mubarak in Egypt is still refusing to let go of power and doctors and tradesmen and others are joining in the call for him to step down. And our government is still trying to work for what it calls an "orderly transition." Meaning that we want to make sure someone who doesn't hate us gets in power next.
Give it up guys. You want people to love us? Join the people!
It's a chance, it may not work—but continuing to be Mubarak's friend is definitely not going to work.
Yeah, we owe the bum something for at least not opposing our interests for the last couple decades, but enough is enough. Help him find a new home somewhere (not here) and cut him loose. He really hasn't been holding up his end of the bargain with his domestic policies.
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
Something different in the political infidelity scene:
New York Republican Congressman Christopher Lee got caught after sending a shirtless photo of himself to a woman who was looking for a man on Craigslist. We can overlook the fact that he lied about his age and profession in his response. What can't be overlooked is that he is married.
Did I mention that this was the Washington D.C. Craigslist? And the woman in question worked for the government, and apparently she knew more about congressmen than, say, a local Pilates instructor or legal secretary.
Oops.
So he was outed.
So far just like a lot of other malfeasing Important Government Male stories.
What is remarkable is that the very day this news broke, the now Mr., no longer Representative, Lee not only made the the usual "I'm so sorry I let you down" statement to his family staff and public, he actually resigned.
He actually resigned.
In the meantime John Ensign of Nevada, who not only cheated on his wife, but gave his mistress's husband and son jobs, was holding a fundraiser in Nevada.
David Vitter is still Senator from Louisiana, Gov. Sanford of S. Carolina is still governor.
In this comparison, Mr. Lee actually comes off as principled. No tearful press conference (at least not yet) with a stoic wife next to him, no period of denial or blaming others, no trying to hold on to his position of power in spite of abusing it. He said "I effed up" and he quit so that his scandal wouldn't get in the way of the political work he feels needed to be done.
Somewhere the man must have a core of decency. It's too bad he let his Mr. Johnson (that would be a euphemism) overwhelm the scruples of Mr. Lee.

Hey Hosni, you're history.

2011-02-03T00:35:00.003-05:00

Whether he steps down immediately or manages to hang on til September, when he said he'd step down, Hosni Mubarak is over. His minion, Omar Suleiman, has been appointed vice-president. But Suleiman is seen as a Mubarak clone. It's unclear whether he can do anything to quell the protests without kicking out Mubarak.

There is a lot going down in the Middle East right now. Tunisia's president has fled to the more hospitable climes of southern France; Jordan's king has dismissed his government, Egyptians are moving against Mubarak, Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen is stepping down in 2013 (he says—apparently he has a history of saying he'll step down and not doing it) and there are even protests in Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
Saudi Arabia?

"Something is happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?"

Mr. Jones, in this case, being not only the Arab governments involved, but also the United States government.
I'm not sure that Tunisia had a big presence in the attention of America's security agencies, but Mubarak certainly has. Jordan's king has been a friend—and a genuinely moderating influence in the Middle East; Saleh in Yemen has allowed the US to deploy our drones to attack terrorists in his country; and the US always attends to the Saudis, in spite of the fact that 19 of the 9/11 villains were Saudis.
What are we doing about these upheavals?
"Watching and responding."
So said PJ Crowley, US state department spokesman, in a recent interview with Al Jazeera.
Yeah.
We're watching and responding. Uh-huh. We're watching as our boys are getting their clocks wiped by the people they have been oppressing all these years. And so far we're responding by saying "Oh shit, what do we do now?"
In the meantime, people in Cairo are picking up the spent tear gas canisters fired at them and reading "Made in the USA."
We sure know how to make friends.

Americans have been blessed in a way, by being separated from the rest of the world by two great oceans. But we have been cursed by that separation as well. The separation means that the problems "over there" are not ours.
The separation means that the problems "over there" are ours big time because we need the oil for gas from "over there" to get to the mall to buy something made of petrochemicals from "over there" that we need, just need, for our homes.
And for those of us at a certain distance from the equator, some of that oil from "over there' is necessary for life, to heat our homes.

Most of us though, are more aware of how the ocean separation of us from the rest of the world benefits us, than we are of how it hurts us.
And this brings me back to Mr. Jones.

In Bob Dylan's song, Mr. Jones is on the wrong side of history. He doesn't understand what is going on with all these people in the bar into which he walked. He doesn't even know that this is not a bar, it is his world and it has changed. It has changed into something that is not "his" world anymore, and he doesn't see that it is not just "their" world, but it is now "our" world.
Politically speaking, that"our" is a real problem.
There is no way for there to be an "our" entity without some (apparent) loss to the "my" entity.
Do you want democracy? Then you have to put up with Republicans, or Democrats, controlling the House of Representatives and/or the Senate. If you are a Republican you have to grin and bear it when Democrats are in power. Ditto for Democrats when Republicans are in power.
When Obama, or anyone else for that matter, talks about bipartisanship, he is acknowledging that concessions have to made, that slack has to be given, that the world doesn't necessarily want to correspond to our desires, or anyone else's desires.

The world doesn't have desires. It has its momentum and its trajectory. We may be able to adjust that trajectory with our desires, but we have to align ourselves to it first.
This is the realm of religion and/or philosophy, not politics. Or rather, it is where politics should be, if not corrupted by the exigencies of the physical world. Like the financial incentives of lobbyists.

This we need to understand, as a nation— that we are not God's gift to the world, but we have to understand that we can give a lot to the world if we think about what the rest of the world needs rather than what we desire it to have. If we understand that if some impoverished people survive, and that that is more important than if Goldman Sacks survives, or AIG survives, then we may have made some progress toward divinity.

Made in the USA

2011-01-29T20:44:00.001-05:00

The Middle East is unraveling. Tunisians forced out their dictator. People in Yemen are protesting. Now the Egyptians are expressing their frustration and anger at the Mubarak regime. It's inspiring to see people out in the streets and forcing change their governments won't give them. Yet it can present a lot of problems for the US of A.
If the demonstrators succeed, they may not want to be our friend. We have given Mubarak billions to support his army—oh and incidentally a little also to improve the lot of the Egyptians. And some of the support we give him goes to keeping up his security apparatus to put down grumbling among his own people.
I have long hated this realpolitik our government practices (from Wikipedia—realpolitik is a theory of politics that focuses on considerations of power, not ideals, morals, or principles.) It led us to support brutal dictatorships in Guatemala, El Salvador, and other countries in the Americas; it led us into the Vietnam war, and it has caused people around the world to hate us, because we help their oppressors stay in power. I understand that at some points we have to think that way, but that political attitude has been used far too indiscriminately.
Fighting Communism used to be our excuse; these days it's fighting terrorism. Such a great way to fight terrorism—support a strongman who is denying freedom to his own people, and creating a breeding ground for more terrorism.
Rachel Maddow had an interview with the amazing Richard Engel, chief foreign correspondent for NBC news. He'd been out in the streets covering the demonstrations. He said that many Egyptians believe that it is the blanket support of the US which enables dictators like Mubarak to ignore the needs of their own people and stay in power. He said protests are not anti-American (he was able to go around without any threat to himself) but—at one point he held up a tear gas canister that had been fired at the demonstrators. There are many all over the street. He held it up and read what was printed on it—Made in the USA, in Jamestown, PA. He said a protester had picked it up and showed it to him, saying "This is the democracy America is bringing us."

It's got to be one of the most powerful instances of reporting I've ever seen.

I hope somebody in our government is paying attention to this kind of thing.
Hey, I have an idea. Let's stamp "Made in Iran" on them instead.

Where is the center?

2011-01-28T00:48:00.002-05:00

I have had occasion to be really annoyed lately by the media because they so often spoke of someone as trying to "reclaim the center" and I saw the supposed center as being so far right of what I thought a center should be.

I have spoken before of a time when Republicans were a viable alternative party. Back in the days of Eisenhower and Everett Dirksen. Eisenhower promoted the right of people to form unions, he defended social security, and called those who would curtail these things as "stupid." And he warned against the military-industrial complex.
I always liked Ike.
Of course in 1956 I was only 11 years old.
It's only in later life that I begin to appreciate him.
For today's Republicans, Ike is a dangerous socialist. Shows you how far we have fallen.

Anyway, I started listening to Obama's State of the Union speech on my way home from town that night, and the first ten minutes seemed like a lot of boiler-plate—this isn't a criticism, it's just how these things always get started, and often finish—so when I stopped to get gas I turned off the radio and put in an Amanda Palmer CD for the rest of the ride home.
I shouldn't have. But I get antsy when the President, whoever he is, starts bringing "two brothers with a factory," "a housewife in Topeka or somewhere," etc. into his speech, I start feeling manipulated. I know the speech is designed to produce a particular effect in me and I resist that. Doesn't matter if it is a Republican or a Democrat who is speaking.
I feel the same way about a lot of movies.
I did hear him say government subsidies to oil companies should be ended. And that caused me to say "Whoa, did he just say that?" Then I go to Rachel Maddow's show and hear her and Frank Rich talk about Obama going back to something like a true center, not a center defined by the radical right. These two are close to my political position ( a little to the right actually—I'm someone who made up an "Anarchy is good for you" bumper sticker for my car when I was in college, tho I've moderated a little bit since then) and I have to pay attention at least to what they say, even if I may not agree totally with what they say.

So it seems that some, at least, think that Obama's speech is more than boilerplate. Apparently the Republicans thought so too. They had an official response by Congressman Paul Ryan, and an unofficial one by Congressperson Michelle Bachman, the space cadet representative to Congress.

Paul Ryan is the person who wants to get rid of Medicare and give those who are on it now coupons to help them find private insurance. You have a preexisting condition and maybe won't live another ten years? Too effing bad. Take your coupon and shove it. So would say the unregulated insurance companies.
Yup, Paul Ryan is right up there trying to do the best for the ordinary American. Not.
I'd feel better if so many Republicans hadn't been elected with the help of big corporate purses. To whom do they really owe their allegiance?

I have heard too much from Republicans, and Paul Ryan, about how the unemployed are being spoiled by the government's help, how social security is a "hammock" not a safety net. These people in my mind are un-American, despotic, ready to oppress the many for the benefit of the few.
They are really straining any impulse I have to bi-partisanship.
Hell, it's not the job of a curmudgeon to be bi-partisan.
Then there is Michelle Bachman. She is a piece of work. Ms. Bachman is either a manipulative politician misleading her supporters for her continued advancement, or she is a totally deluded individual striving for power and recognition. I'm voting for deluded. Listen to her rants—if you have time to waste—and make up your own mind.

This curmudgeon will be anti-partisan, and if anyone (of the last two of you who still read my fulminations) objects, that's the breaks.

Death and the Maiden—2nd Movement (and i get a little religious on you—too bad)

2011-01-27T23:28:00.000-05:00

I've been off my rant lately, too much actual work and actual living to deal with, so I'll get a couple of posts up in short order. First:
I listened to Obama's memorial speech for those killed in the Tucson massacre. He spoke effectively, lovingly, and in the way I remember from his run for the presidency. And in my mind it resonates with the celebration of Martin Luther King we had this month.
MLK was a big influence in my life as he provided yet another resource for my decision to become a conscientious objector to war. He was the first preacher I heard who spoke of actually listening to Jesus' words and applying them, really applying them to this life. And he was a reinforcement to an innate belief I had that everyone is important, is equal in the sight of God (whatever s/he is). I'm not sure how it happened that I was sympathetic to the civil rights cause— I related deeply to the oppressed in all the reading I did as a child, and I know my mother had a lot to do with my feeling that everyone is equal even tho I know she feared hiring a black person to work at our business. You wanna talk about mixed messages? Anyway, I turned out the way I am, for what ever reason.
I was disposed to feel for those who were suffering. I hated the idea that some people were demonized, excluded, thought less than human. I primarily got this thru literature (future dictators take note!) but the fact that my family also faced discrimination in the "Old World," as well as in this "new" world, also informed my development.
I'm not taking credit for this. It is just the way I was. And I had naught to do with it.
But it had all to do with the nurturing and developing of my life.

What I am leading up to is my distress about the demonizing of each other that is going on —in the news, and in internet postings. I know how insulting and snarky one can be in the mostly anonymous universe of the web. Check out some of my earlier posts—I'm not innocent. And I know in my heart that that expression of my worst feelings is counter-productive (unless your goal is to get into a fight.)
Okay. I like to mix it up once in a while, but I quickly get bored. Often I let someone on one of my forums get the last word because I realize that responding would only lead to another response and a further waste of my time. One of the benefits of getting older is realizing that some fights are not worth fighting because fighting would just pollute and obscure the message. And that one's words and ideas will still make a difference to someone somewhere, without needing to be the last word.

Believing this is a matter of trust, is a matter of believing in God's grace and the work of the holy spirit.
I could capitalize "Holy Spirit" but I won't. because the holy spirit is an uncapitalized, unacknowledged, often unhonored, wild, free-ranging, and equal-opportunity instigator. The holy spirit is your union-organizer, your concerned citizen against waste, your protector of the environment, your opposition to the validation of the rich just because they have riches, your opposition to the use of money to corrupt democracy—the holy spirit is there to support all the things which elevate humanity instead of reducing it to an accounting of profit and loss. For me, the holy spirit is the most important manifestation of divinity.
You can argue about Jesus, who he was, if his life meant anything, if he even existed, and you can argue about God, who or what or if s/he is— but if there is anything besides our own lives which speaks optimistically to existence and whether or not we really have any, and any beyond what we know, it is is the idea of a holy spirit which encompasses us all and motivates our lives.

Death and the Maiden

2011-01-10T23:58:00.005-05:00

It's a sad, sad thing that happened in Tucson. Shocking and terrible and tragic. At this point, one can only hope that Congresswoman Gifford survives with her mind intact. And one can only feel sympathy for those who lost loved ones.
A period of quiet and reflection should follow something like this.
But the blame game is already in full swing. We seem to not be able to wait til after the funerals.
Everyone angrily says we should tone down the nasty rhetoric from all sides.
It's all the angry talk.
It's all the personal hateful talk.
It's the fault of Sarah Palin.
It's the fault of the tea party.
It's the fault of the Democrats.
I'm sure someone somewhere is blaming Obama.
Walt Kelly's Pogo once said "We have met the enemy and it is us."
Oh how true.
I don't think blame can be laid at any one person's door—even tho I so would like to.
There are a lot of things to consider here. I believe that definitely the kind of personal attacks going on in the last couple years created a climate where bad things are more likely to happen. If you want to point fingers at someone, Sharron Angle's comment about "second amendment solutions" seems more inflammatory to me than the ill-advised and tasteless cross-hairs on Palin's website. But both are part of a viciously negative milieu which has been part of our lives since Obama was elected.
The people showing up at political rallies and congressional meetings with 'Obama as Hitler' posters are part of this. I condemn it, but I know that some of us on the left of center side were as insulting and dismissive of George Bush. I remember with some embarrassment the posters and things we said about Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam War. None of us, today and back then, offered anything to rational political discourse.
It is so easy to fall into the trap of demonizing those we disagree with—especially if they have more power than we do. (I think that someone could do a good social studies paper on that power difference as a factor in violent action and speech.) (Probably someone already has. If either of my readers know of such a thing, please direct me.)
Your curmudgeon is part of all this, in his own small way. I recall that I have more than once referred to Senator Mitch McConnell as a liar. It is true that I believe that he is. But it would have been better had I written about the things he said and then the facts he had misrepresented and let others draw a conclusion. It's so easy to let anger and frustration get the better of one, especially when one doesn't feel like one can make a difference in the face of political and monetary power.
The social milieu—it didn't pull the trigger, but it made the trigger easier to pull. Being in the vitriolic political atmosphere we have been in is like walking into a room full of people smoking pot. You may not smoke yourself, but you will get high. And if everyone around you is complaining and angry, it will affect you too. And affect the mentally disturbed even more.
Anger has it's place, and should be acknowledged and utilised. And it should be utilised as a spur to one's own action and resolve to change things, not as a reason to berate people and poison the atmosphere. Or to kill.
This computer I am on is a contributor to all this. The ability to anonymously post any kind of statement in a blog or comment box at a news article has added to the noxious atmosphere. It's one thing to spout off at the bar or at your bowling league practice. If you get too vitriolic someone will call you on it or people will just start avoiding you. You will have a response up close and personal to your speech or actions. It's another thing to spout off on line. No one knows who you are, and anyone who responds either is met with derision if they try to be reasonable or met with hostility if they respond in kind. It's easy to ignore the criticism of unknown strangers, harder to ignore the criticism of your bowling partner.
And then there is the availability of guns. I don't object to people owning guns if they want to. Some hunt, some skeet shoot, some are afraid of being robbed or killed. And some want to kill. I don't believe that it is possible to forbid every mental defective or malefactor from getting a weapon. The man who shot Congresswoman Gifford is a case in point.
I do believe there are things that we can do to make sure that the damage done by the evil or insane is lessened. Maybe not allowing large clips of ammunition would be a start. What if the shooter last Saturday only had six bullets in his gun? Wouldn't have stopped the attack,but might have made a difference to someone. Maybe to a nine-year old girl.
I'm not advocating one particular action, or taking a position here. I do think that those who are rabidly opposed to any kind of restriction on weapon ownership should start looking at possible sensible ways to alleviate a situation where weapons can be so easily attained. And not attack those who oppose them as people who want to make it easier for the government to crush us. Those who oppose weaponry might want to step back and listen to those on the other side, acknowledge their reasons and/or fears, and not attack them as paranoids afraid of their own country and government, or malcontents ready to overthrow the government.
We have a lot to do folks. we're all upset now because of the shooting in Tucson, as we should be, but there are killings going on in all our cities, gang related, insanity related, poverty related, domestic violence related.
And we should be as upset at all of them. Every life is important, and the lost life of a teen-ager in the inner city to violence is as important as the lost life of a congresswoman or President in God's eyes.
As humans, we tend to hold the life of a congressperson or President more important than others—at least we think it more noteworthy. But it is only the ability to wield power which makes the difference in those lives, and what is power? It is more fleeting than life itself. And it leads so often to the loss of life, especially among the innocent.

Finally! DADT dies!

2010-12-18T20:56:00.002-05:00

It's about time. and an achievement given that the Republicans in Congress have done all they can to make life ever more unfair for the common (i.e., not a politician, banker or lobbyist) American.

It's too bad that in the last two years when Obama could have done more, we've lost a lot of talented soldiers in the field, translators, and other military personnel because of the stupid law. Maybe someone ought to suggest that we reinstate with honor all those who were forced out. I know I just did, but no one listens to me except the two or three layabouts who have nothing better to do than read my posts.

Still, it's nice to have some good news around Christmas time, and I'm happy for my gay and lesbian friends that another little piece of discrimination has fallen down the sewer of history.

Speaking about happy—I'm sure the billionaires who got their precious tax break extension (OMG they would have been SO financially crippled had they not got it)—and which will make the deficit worse for the rest of us— are happy. I hope they reward well their lobbyists and the craven congressmen who helped them.

Eh, I don't want to end on a sour note. Lord knows I will be busy with baking, presents, children visiting and making sure the Messiah Sing at our church comes off smoothly. So if I don't have a chance to post before January, Happy Holidays and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to both my readers and to all my friends.

And for those I haven't already inflicted with it—here's a cheerful little digital telling of the Christmas Story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA

Why oh why do I think things will get better?

2010-12-13T00:10:00.006-05:00

Obama, what happened to you?
I thought I voted for you and it looks like I got Senator McCain. Or George Bush redux.
How could you give the Republicans everything they want and then say it was a good deal?
How could you make it possible that the rich get more than the middle class out of your deal with the Republicans?
And why weren't Democrats involved in those dealings?
And what about DADT?

Are you a secret Republican?

I don't get it. I don't want the upper class to get extended tax breaks, relief on the estate tax, etc. I don't want to see the billionaires and corporations grind their heels on the middle class bodies anymore.
Quite frankly I don't think you achieved SHIT with your deal with the Republicans. You just gave them everything they wanted. Good for you.
When are you really going to start fighting!??!!

Maybe in 2012 I should vote for a Republican. Maybe then I will get the Democrat I wanted in 2008.

In other news, this is a postcard I sent to Justice Samuel Alito:

On the back I put the statement from the president about how the influx of money into the political process is detrimental to democracy that Justice Alito objected to. Clearly, from the results of the last election, Obama spoke the truth.

Feel free to use this image if you want to send Justice Alito a postcard yourself.

Internet Communities and the Kindness of Strangers

2010-11-14T01:27:00.003-05:00

I'm going to take a break from my usual political carping (tho, God knows, there is plenty to carp about) and talk about community. I think that human beings must have some innate compulsion to form community, somehow, in anyway they can—whether they are trying to or not.

I belong to a Macintosh forum. On-line, of course. Originally it was formed around a desire to find good deals on the web, particularly computer stuff, and to help each other with any computer related problems we had. Over time it morphed into something more extensive. Some have estimated that on our forum lately, only about 10 to 15% of our postings have to do with computers or software. What is the rest? In recent weeks someone has posted about a death in the family. Someone else broke a bone for the first time and wanted advice from others who had. Another posted a long and affecting story about the auctioning off of his late grandfather's belongings. There are the requisite, to any forum, animal stories and pictures. People make jokes, people make fights. For a while there was a mini-community within the forum around the "Lost" series. Someone had a car accident. Another person got laid off (we've had a few of these) and posted about it for advice and sympathy, which he got. One member expressed thanks to another forum member for advice which helped him get a new job. Another wanted to know if someone had advice about getting around in Italy. We exchange recipes. We know who had kids, who had lost a pet or family member, who is looking for a car, a house, a computer.

I know that one member had an accident, almost died. Another had her stomach stapled for a weight problem, another collects guns and is likely to eat out-of-date food he finds in his house (he is our "can I still eat this?" guru). Yet another raises gerbils. A woman on the forum has snakes for pets. I know who had an an auto accident in Hawaii. I've learned about the beers from small English breweries from someone who lives in England. I know who is having good weather or bad weather, and where they live. We have a "Free First Monday" every month where folks can list computer parts, software, peripherals, etc that they are willing to send to anyone who wants them for the cost of postage. We learn about each others dreams, problems, tragedies and joys. Sometimes we get carried away and start arguing. Some of us are good at stopping or settling those arguments.

Which brings me, finally, to the reason I'm writing about this. We have had some deaths in our community. Several years ago, a much-liked tho somewhat unstable member committed suicide. We were shocked and sent our condolences to the family, who were blown away by the love and concern of a community they didn't know about. There was another suicide last year, a woman who met her husband through the forum, and tho they finally separated, there remained a strong bond between them. He notified us of her death and we were there for him with sympathy and support.

Last week one of our older, wiser members died, of an incurable pulmonary disease. She went by the handle of "AlphaDog," I guess to make sure her dog Louie knew his place. She was one of those who usually had good advice for us, who often was able to clear the air in an argument, who helped people. I discovered a couple year ago that we both shared a Slovak heritage, and we exchanged private messages about that and Slovak food. When news of her death spread, over 150 people expressed their sorrow on the forum. Everyone had been touched in some way by Beth (her real name), yet almost no one—only two or three— of our members had actually met her. Many had shared private messages with her. Some had gotten advice from her which helped them in some personal problem. One member wrote about how she had helped him buy presents for his children at a difficult time in his life, and all she wanted back was to know how the kids liked the presents. You could almost see the tears of grief rolling down his cheeks as he wrote. Again, they never met in person and knew each other only by their relationship as forum members.

Beth knew of her condition a year ago, but didn't broadcast it. Many of us knew she had a problem, but only a couple knew how serious it was. She seldom alluded to it. The most direct mention of it I saw was four months ago when she wrote in response to a post by one of our members who was concerned because he had just been told he had a heart murmur. She advised him to enjoy and live every day to the fullest, saying " My days are numbered - literally, although we don't quite know what that number is, except that it's not too many. I've been told to arrange for Hospice services and to get all of my affairs in order. I have. But I absolutely refuse to sit around and worry about what day I'm going to die."
Good advice for everybody.

Beth was one of the most remarkable people on the forum, but there are a lot of remarkable people there. People who will argue with you one day and the next give you sympathy for a loss, or advice for a problem. Often someone would say "I can help. Send me a private message." Is there something special about us? Are Mac users nicer people (I'd like to think so, but I know it's not true.)

No, I think that a community forms around a group of people who meet or communicate frequently and for a significant period of time. Many of us have been in this group for years, and our individual postings number in the thousands. Your community can be "real," as in church or a special activity, or it can be "virtual," like ours. I have to wonder if there is any difference between those two, other than the method of meeting. They both have the possibility of help, advice, humor, or succor in time of need.

I hope you all have something like this in your lives.

That's all I have for you tonight.

The inmates are taking over the asylum

2010-11-03T07:58:00.000-04:00

Well it's happened. Another flip-flop in the political scene. Again, voters have handed a stinging defeat to the party in power. The Republicans were in power in Bush's first term, lost out to the Democrats in 2006 and 2008, and now they are back.
As a teacher of mine once said, "Democracy does not always fill our hearts with joy."

If it is democracy. When one considers how much money was thrown into the races by the billionaires one has to wonder. All I can say is "Thank you, Supreme Court, for handing this country over to the oligarchs." People like the Koch brothers, who make their money from coal (good luck in the next couple years to you green-energy folks) poured millions in to these races. And they used their money to distract people from the faact that it was G. Bush's and the Republicans' profligate spending and two wars which created this deficit. They had eight years to mess thing up, and Obama and the Democrats so far have only had two to fix things.

But that very small percentage of the US which controls most of the money would have you forget that. They don't want the banks and Wall Street to be regulated. they want to keep on getting their incredible bonuses and profits. And in spite of their squawking about "socialism" during the health care debate, they will happily accept the small portion of tax-payer money they don't already have to be bailed out when things go south again.

So welcome to the United States of Oligarchy. It is becoming "government of the few, by the few, for the profit of the few." They will keep the rabble under control by creating false enemies and diversions so they will be too angry to think.

Say good bye to green energy, carbon control, net neutrality, and what's left of the middle class.

The Republicans talk about reducing taxes (and keeping that tax reduction the oligarchs got a couple years ago) but they don't say how. When Chris Matthews asked Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tenessee just where they would make the tax cuts she smilingly stone-walled him. She said "across the board spending cuts" but wouldn't commit to including defense, for instance in those cuts. And she wouldn't rule out social security cuts. It's typical of these people to avoid the specifics. not having governed before, they have no real idea of what they are doing.

There were a few bright spots. Harry Reid kept his seat in Nevada (thank you Nevada, I retract all those snarky things I said about you) and the Democrats still have the Senate. That last is a pretty dim bright spot tho. The Democrats pretty much screwed up their big chance to govern wisely by making too many compromises and failing to explain their policies adequately to the public. Are they now going to develop back bone? One wonders, considering how so many Dems up for re-election ran scared and tried to pretend they didn't even know Obama. I'd like to know how many of those survived.

It'll be interesting to see how the Republican establishment controls the Tea party favorites like Rand Paul who managed to survive the elections.

In the meantime, I guess I better go down to McDonald's and see if i can get a full-time job, since they want to cut back my pitiful social security benefit.

Let's everyone give a warm welcome to the new puppets of the Oligarchy who will be taking over in January.

Questions

2010-10-17T23:36:00.003-04:00

I'm trying to figure out what those people behind all the attack ads, the support of the Tea party activists, the stupid and evil rumors about Obama (choose one— he's a Moslem, he wasn't born in America, he hates white people, and etcetera, miserable etcetera) want out of this election. I mean, what more do they need? "In the United States at the end of 2001, 10% of the population owned 71% of the wealth and the top 1% owned 38%. On the other hand, the bottom 40% owned less than 1% of the nation's wealth."
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Distribution_of_wealth
It hasn't got any better since then.
(By the way—there seems to be more than one "tea party"—Does anyone remember the Spanish Civil war, where infighting on the Republican side, (when "Republican" actually stood for something!) mostly fomented by the Communists insisting on doctrinal purity, actually led to the victory of Fascist forces and Generalissimo Franco's repressive regime? Those who work for the oligarchy's bidding will find themselves enslaved.)

What do these oligarchs want? Don't they have enough already? Do they really get so much pleasure from driving out of their gated and guarded enclaves and viewing the suckers who work for them that they have to drive those people into even more desperate straits? How much is enough? How much do you need to insure that your children and grandchildren will be able to live off your largess?
Will it be good for the children and grandchildren to have these riches handed to them instead of having to work for their rewards?
Where does ego stop? How great do you have to be for yourself and look to your descendants?
And how is all that worth a single life which you have destroyed in getting your riches?
If any of these asshats even bothered to read Shakespeare they would get an idea of the value, or lack there of, of inherited wealth and/or power. The Bible would give other clues, as would the actual history of the human race in the last five thousand years.
You don't know what your own children, much less your grandchildren, will do with the money which you squeezed and cheated out of the rest of humanity. You can bet that what ever it is, you won't approve.
I'd put money on that. If I'm right, pay me now. If I'm wrong, I'll get back to you later.
I'm confident that I won't need to get back to you later.

It seems the Republicans and their puppet masters are trying to destroy the middle class of America. They are trying to reduce the American social equation to lower class, and upper class. They want to make Americans work for the same wages as people in Bangla Desh, China, the Maldives, Zanzibar etc. This is so bizarre and short-sighted.
Henry Ford was really an American fascist (he sold cars to Hitler's Germany long after it was clear Hitler would become America's enemy), he not only fought against unions but hired thugs to beat and even murder union organizers, BUT he did recognize that the American worker needed enough money to buy his cars. And he paid accordingly —he didn't want to pay for industrial accidents or provide health care or have a two day weekend—or have someone else tell him he should have these things—but he knew his employees should be able to afford his vehicles.
If only he'd known how cheaply Indian and Malaysian workers would have worked to build his cars.
History would have been different.

Oligarchies do not have a history of longevity. Of course, while they exist they make life miserable for those not in the "in crowd."

People do have the gumption to finally rise up against them or work around them until they collapse. The "local hero" idea in new England and elsewhere is one example of the force that will bring the oligarchs to ruin. When we choose our own methods of support and community we create the basis of our own economic and social freedom.
Buy as local as you can. Buy away from the big names, the big box stores. It won't be easy, "they" will try to make it expensive; "they" will try to keep you addicted to sugar and ease of preparation and ease of thought about what you are eating and where it came from.
This, by the way, is what "socialism," that much-maligned word, is about. You help me, I help you, we both work with him or her and we all make a living co-operating with yet another for mutual benefit. And no power of one over another.

That's a stickler for the oligarchs. Gotta have that power. How else to know how much we are worth?

Poor Jesus. He came to us 2000 years ago to speak of this, and his message is still ignored. We still judge people on their wealth, their status (whatever that is), their beauty—on everything but their ability to live as a vital part of a human community.

Even your Curmudgeon, who doesn't expect much from human beings, is a little depressed about this.
I hope you sleep well. Humanity needs you to be at your best in the morning.

WTF? Kookbiscuits, cowardly oligarchs, and yours truly

2010-10-14T22:13:00.005-04:00

I've been out for awhile. That mosque controversy wore me out, and when I was ready to write again, I was totally dumbfounded by all the insanity on the airwaves (being an old-fashioned kind of guy, by "airwaves" I mean the computer too). The mid-term elections are coming at us like tornadoes come on Missouri and Arkansas. Why do I suddenly feel as vulnerable as if I lived in a trailer park?
Back in my youth I thought that elections actually meant the choice between two principled though politically opposed individuals. Boy, was I naive. Principles, if they were ever there, seem to have gone the way of the dodo, or at least have the same endangered designation as the spotted owl.
What do we see in this election season?
The Repubican Party is either imploding under it's own corporately-funded, evangelically-dominated weight, or heading for a takeover of the House, possibly the Senate—depending on which cable-channel you were listening to. At least that's the way it looked when I started this a month ago. Now it's not so clear, if there can be any clarity.

What is clear is that Republicans are trying to buy this election. They are purchasing attack ads by the hundreds to show in states where they think there is a chance to beat a Democrat. Recently Rachel Maddow talked about 4.2 million dollars that Karl Rove's "American Crossroads" is going to spend on attack ads. 75% of that money is coming from people who will remain anonymous ( October 6, 2010). Much of the Republican money is coming from anonymous donors. I don't know about you, but I think that anyone who wants to hide his/her political affiliations behind a cloak of secrecy is a coward.

The money from these anonymous people goes to Republicans, but I don't believe the donors are Republicans—I think they are oligarchs who want to continue to amass wealth and power and don't even give a pile of cow poop for their own supporters.

The Chamber of Commerce takes money from anonymous foreign sources, among others, but they assure us, though they won't say how, that they keep that foreign money separate from the political financial support they give anti-Democrat ads. Can't let outside forces get involved in our elections, right?
So how does that work exactly?

Suppose I have a kindly uncle who is willing to give me a certain amount of money every year to help me out.
But he says this is for necessary living expenses ONLY, don't spend in on booze and dancing. And I say okay Unc, I'm with the program. So I put the money in a special account that I use for household expenses. But, oh, now I have that much money from my earnings as a graphic artist which used to go for those household expenses and now is free for other things. Hmm, what to do with that extra money? Why, hey girls, let's have a drink and hit the dance floor!
Any so-called system the C of C has for keeping foreign money "separate" from their political activities is a fake. They are lying. I'll say it again, They are lying. What else can you expect from people who oppose anything that can help out the workers who make their businesses possible? Freaking hypocrites.

So people who wish to remain anonymous but have lots of dough to spend want to convince you how to vote. And they don't care who they have up for the designated office. Any kookbiscuit will do. Just look at the Repubican candidates:
Christine O'Donnell, in Delaware (Arkan saw what Dela wore. Did Tenne-see?)—She's against all out-of-wedlock sex, including masturbation. Good luck with that. And the picnic on the Satanic altar? Just a youthful indiscretion.
I remember when politicians were criticized for smoking pot (I didn't inhale, said Bill Clinton) but the tea bagging right puts Christine O'Donnell up as their candidate, in spite of her dabbling in witchcraft. Witchcraft— all you "family, Christian values" people.
Well, as we say in the United Church of Christ, they must be open and affirming folks there on the right, to accept someone who dabbled in witchcraft. Perhaps the LGBT community will be as welcome as the witches in their political party. Uh-huh.
Incidentally, tho it is not a belief I can relate to, I can say that several people in my community practice Wicca and they are hard-working, decent, friendly people, not kookbiscuits. I do, however, suspect they may have had, or be having, sex outside of marriage.
The horror.

Sharron Angle—a new angle on politics for sure, at least in this country—at least since the anarchist heyday of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. If you are really disaffected with government, it's time to exercise your second amendment rights. Get those automatic weapons out folks, we can all be Lee Harvey Oswald. Remember when the idea was we could all aspire to be president? Now she implies we could all aspire to KILL the president, if we don't get our way—I mean, why stop at Congressmen?
I suppose that she means that ANYONE who disagrees with the powers that be can resort to "2nd amendment solutions" when disaffected. She doesn't seem to know that many leftists also own guns. Our anarchist branch has a reputation for bombing skills also. What I get from this was that I shoulda took out Bush and Cheney when they were in power. Is that what you meant, Sharron? And what's with the two "r"s anyway?
People have been killed for acting, or even appearing to act, on these beliefs (look up the "Haymarket").

And there is Rand Paul with his dithering about the Civil Rights Act (actually I kind of like him because he had the cojones to appear on Rachel Maddow's show while so many others are afraid), and that Miller guy from Alaska (must be something in the air up there) who joins the others in wanting to ban abortion for rape and incest victims. Showing real Christian compassion there, folks. I suppose you also have a system set up to care for those unwanted children? Oh, of course you do—not.

I can only hope that enough people who see how crazy it is to have these wingnuts in positions of power will hit the polls this November.
The candidates mentioned above are just a sampling. You will see this all over the country.

And you will see much advertisement against any "liberal" candidate, Democrat or Republican. Many, if not all, of these ads will be funded by those unnamed corporate interests to get "their" candidates into office. "Their candidates" being people willing to sell their souls for milk from the corporate teat, the milk they need to keep them in office and enjoying the perks of pretending to do good for the country. Perks that come from the very corporate interests which are destroying democracy in this country.

I wonder though, if Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell actually get their seats, how much control will anyone have over them. A kookbiscuit is a kookbiscuit is a kookbiscuit. They may not only screw things up for us, but even for their oligarchic masters.

What we do see from all this is that anyone can aspire to public office in this country—poor, rich (especially rich), Democrats, Republicans, Tea-Partyers pretending to be Republicans, (legal) immigrants, Kookbiscuits and asshats, Christians, Jews, Moslems—oops, maybe not Moslems, not these days, but ten out of eleven ain't so bad.

Sleep well, my two loyal readers, now that you have had your curmudgeonly fix.

"Hallowed Ground"

2010-08-22T22:58:00.005-04:00

Here's a series of photos a guy took of places around the World Trade center. All within four blocks or so.
Judge for yourself how hallowed it is.

http://daryllang.com/blog/4421

and a map:

The fear mongers are just evil. The NY Daily News had a picture of some kid on the front cover yesterday with the headline: "The teen-ager who suggested the site for the mosque—WAY TO GO KID"
So now they are going after teen-agers. Have these people no shame?

Frank Rich points out in his NY Times article today (August 22) that the right wing is undermining the very war in Afghanistan they support. The Taliban must be loving this. They are probably replaying videos of Fox News blatherings about the sacrilege of Muslims trying to build a mosque on "hallowed ground." And the comments of a gullible and fearful public don't help. I've heard some nasty stuff on the radio lately. Spoken by "good Christians" all. I bet the Afghanis who are wondering which side to support will be really impressed by this outburst of American understanding and good will.

And why aren't these asshats insisting we break off relations with Saudi Arabia, where all but one, I believe of the highjackers came from? Some are saying that Saudi Arabia is contributing funds to this project and that's another reason for disallowing it. That's bad, but us paying them for oil isn't.

I'm surprised someone hasn't suggested putting all Muslims in camps, like we did with the Japanese in WW2, so we can keep an eye on the evil bastards, by god, and make sure they don't make any more shoe and underwear bombs.

My heart breaks. My father came here because it was a land of freedom. When Czechoslovakia went Communist, no one suggested that he should be watched, not be trusted. Oh, but he was Christian, and white. Nah, that couldn't have been why.

This proposed building is going to be a community center with a prayer room. Aren't there hospitals and nursing homes with chapels? Is any building with a space for religious worship to be called a church, or synagogue, or mosque even if the space is only for the convenience for the people using the facility? If schools allowed prayer, like many of these so-called Christians demand, should we rename schools churches?
If my church allows yoga sessions, should we then be considered an ashram, not a church?

Again, this is a community center. This is not "on the site" of the WTC, it's on the site of a coat factory.
And many if not all, of the people wanting to build it are AMERICAN CITIZENS!

I started off just wanting to post a link to the photos. But this really bugs me. I need another drink.
Dear God, why do you put up with us?

Let them build the damn community center!!

2010-08-18T23:41:00.006-04:00

I've had it. Even more than the usual political lies, this absurd controversy has made me psychically sick and ashamed. The Moslem community in New York wants to build a community center on the site of a former Burlington coat factory. Sort of like the YMCA or YMHA right? Doesn't sound too controversial.
Oh, it's two blocks from the former World Trade Center site. Did I mention that?
It will be thirteen stories high. Oooh, enormous right? If you think so you haven't been to Manhattan lately, lately being the early part of the 20th century. 13 stories is peanuts.
And there will be a mosque as part of this building. Why a mosque? Seems there are a lot of Moslems in Manhattan, and the two mosques already in the area are overflowing. From the New york Times:
"Masjid Manhattan, on Warren Street, four blocks from ground zero, was founded in 1970. Masjid al-Farah, formerly on Mercer Street, moved to its present location on West Broadway, about 12 blocks from ground zero, in 1985. "
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#38747965

Is four blocks safe enough? Or twelve? How far away do Moslems have to go to satisfy ignorant yahoos who think this is a building to celebrate Moslem victory over America? Who basically blame Muhammad and all his followers for the attack on the WTC? Who are eager to stir up trouble so they can get more votes in November? Who think the entire Islamic religion is an enemy of our country? That by the way is about a billion plus people. From a couple dozen different countries with different traditions.
It is not a dozen and a half deluded fanatics who think America will be crushed by bringing down the symbol of our financial trading power.They may have been Moslems, but they did not represent Islam.
And there were Moslem businessmen in the twin towers and they also died when those buildings came down.
Don't they deserve some respect?

Folks, the Burlington coat factory is not hallowed ground. It was a goddam industrial site. The proposed community center is a place for the growing community of people who follow Islam to gather. You're afraid they are going to preach hate there? What's to keep them from preaching hate, if they want to, in the existing mosques, or in their homes or in rented halls. And who are they, exactly? All the Moslems in Lower Manhattan? Some of them? Do we know which ones?

By the way, the mosque closest to the WTC site is the more conservative one. Been there for a while. But the asshat Republican politicians and commentators seem to have not noticed. Perhaps there is not any political hay to be gathered from trying to displace existing houses of worship.

I misspoke when I said "asshat Republicans." they aren't the only ones. Sure, Eric Cantor, he of the "yeah we have religious liberty in this country, but c'mon!" and John Baynor who, ahem, believes in religious liberty but thinks the Moslems should still build a mosque somewhere else, are Republicans. Where is somewhere else , by the way, north of Canal Street? North of Houston Street? North of Canada?

Back to asshats— Harry Reid, Democrat, has also joined the "Sure I believe in religious liberty, but building a mosque there would hurt our feelings" crowd. He thinks he has to do this to ensure victory over one of the Right's major wingnuts, Sharon Angle. Well he is in Nevada. There is Las Vegas and Reno, both full of people with distorted visions of reality, distorted by desire for riches and excitement—they don't think. And outside of those two places there are scattered bunches of renegade Mormons and survivalist freaks with automatic weapons. They think but shouldn't.
Lest you think I am throwing a lot of innocent and decent people under the bus—I know there are a lot of other decent and thoughtful people in Nevada who lead normal lives. We even have some of those in Massachusetts. I exaggerate for effect and emphasis.
I'm a curmudgeon. It's part of the job description.
I just hope they don't send Sharon Angle to Washington.
Massachusetts sent Scott Brown to the Senate, so stupidity is possible anywhere.

Where was I? Oh yeah, some other Dems have also felt the need to jump on this political ice-cream wagon. they should all be ashamed of themselves.

Here is the first amendment, just in case you forgot:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

"…make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…"
The weakness in this amendment is that it doesn't say "the mob shall not…etcetery."
What you have been seeing on the web and TV is the mob. They talk of the "Ground Zero mosque". That it's not on Ground Zero doesn't seem to matter. That it is primarily a community center doesn't seem to matter. That most Moslems in America are, well, Americans, doesn't seem to matter.
Folks, the First Amendment is clear— we all, Christians, Jews, Moslems, Zoroastrians, peyote-smoking Native Americans, even Scientologists, have the right to worship when and where we want to without interference.

The First Amendment doesn't say "unless we are scared of (your bogeyman here) or "if it hurts our sensibilities."
It says we have the right to worship (or not worship) when and where we please.
If you don't defend this, you are betraying a basic American ideal.

That's just the way it is.

An American Hero has Died

2010-07-23T14:02:00.000-04:00

This morning, Friday July 23, newsman Daniel Schorr died. Mr Schorr was the last of the great newsmen of the 20th century. We are unlikely to see his like again.
He was dedicated to presenting the news without putting his own emotional spin on it.
When he read, in a live broadcast in 1974, the names on the just released Nixon "Enemies List' he came to his own name and said with equanimity, "The note here is, 'A real media enemy," and kept on reading names.

His is one of those voices which was a part of my life, almost all my life. He will be greatly missed.

Are you afraid of Black People?

2010-07-22T23:10:00.005-04:00

On the July 21, 2010 Rachel Maddow show, Rachel had a good and long exposition on the political tactic of creating fear among whites—fear that the Black people are coming to get you and more importantly, get your stuff. Two of the biggest stories lately have involved Acorn and Shirley Sherrod.
In the Acorn story, videos were shown that seemed to show an Acorn employee agreeing to help smuggle young women across the border for prostitution. What wasn't shown was how the employee was getting information from the fake pimp and prostitute who were proposing this activity, which he then called into the police after they left. The police have verified this.
Acorn was not without sin, but it's biggest sin was getting a lot of people to vote who would not vote for the Republicans. Hence they had to go, and a carefully edited video was enough to do it.
Now just days ago, another video was aired on Fox "News" which came from Andrew Breitbart, who also, just incidentally, showed the Acorn video. Mr. Breitbart is a known liar and sleazeball. What else do you call someone who edits videos to promote a lie?
The editing here purported to show that Ms. Sherrod discriminated against a white farmer because of his skin color. And she was described as a "government official" when at the time of the story she was relating (20 years ago!), she was working for a non-profit. And the point of her story was how she realized that not doing her best for this farmer was wrong. She went on to help the man, and he has appeared on TV saying that she helped save his farm.
Somehow, gee I don't know how, that last part was left out.

The most disturbing part of this is not that Mr. Breitbart created this falsehood, nor that Fake, I mean, Faux, I mean Fox News immediately jumped on it and gave it mucho air time. No, you expect pickpockets to act like pickpockets, you expect mafia hit men to kill, so the actions of Breitbart and Fox are pretty much normal for them and what we expect. What is disturbing is how quickly the administration bought into this story, did not even TRY to verify it, and forced a resignation from Ms. Sherrod.

This is so utterly disgraceful.

There's no other way to put it. I mean, I mean, I mean I mean, how can this administration allow itself to be so totally flummoxed by these lies? Especially after Obama said a few weeks ago that Fox news was not a real news organization? Well, we knew that. Doesn't anybody fact-check at the white house? If Faux News says the Russians are going to launch missiles at us in moments, is Obama going to push the button?

Give me a freaking break.

Here's how spurious that video seemed to a, omigod, Fox News commentator, Mr. Shepard Smith:
"We here at Studio B did not run the video and did not reference the story in any way for many reasons, among them: we didn't know who shot it, we didn't know when it was shot, we didn't know the context of the statement, and because of the history of the videos on the site where it was posted, in short we do not and did not trust the source."

One redeeming commentator on Fox News.
Like Jehovah sparing Noah, I cannot damn the whole network to perdition.
Drat.

But the point is, if even one, so it was only one, Fox News person was suspicious of the story, WHY THE HELL WASN'T THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SUSPICIOUS OF THE STORY? Forgive me for yelling.

Breitbart has a history of phoniness, and the fact that Faux News picked up this story and gave it lots of airtime should have raised some red flags. But no, the Obamarama caved and asked for a resignation, and then ended up with egg on its face when the real story came out. When will they learn? When will Obama remember he has ba— remember that he won by a big margin, still has a lot of support in the country, and still has the Bully Pulpit so he can get up and call a spade a spade (perhaps not the best metaphor in this context) and bring the force of his office against this fear-mongering and lying?

And now Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who asked for the resignation, have had to make public apologies for this embarrassing forced resignation.

The best part, for Fox and its minions, is that it doesn't matter that the story is proved false. The administration made such fools of themselves over it that the right-wing wingnuts win anyway.

"The buck stops here." You know that Mr. President. Please, please, show a little more leadership.

I thought I was supporting a brave and focused leader for President. I sure wish he would prove me right.
And I sure wish the Democrats would also show some fortitude in pushing a progressive agenda. When Obama was elected, I worried that I would have to go elsewhere besides politics to find things to rant about. I needn't have worried. My biggest gripe now is not that I still have Repubicans (intentional misspelling) to rail against (expected that), but that the Democrats and Obama also deserve the miniscule darts of my aggravation. Oh, if only I had one of those missiles buried in North Dakota, I could really get some attention then. All I have now is my two loyal readers, who really should be doing something else.

I see a need, a job which should be filled. For a mere, oh say, 70 grand a year, I would be willing to check all news stories which come out of the right-wing alternate universe, and advise the administration on any that need to be addressed, and HOW they should be addressed. I'm not asking that much money, but I would make that sacrifice for my nation. 70 grand is not that much to pay to avoid embarrassing yourself in front of over 300 million people.
Consider it Mr. O. You need me. I am willing to serve.

I'm really not a violent person…

2010-07-10T00:16:00.001-04:00

…but God help me, when i hear about how the latest attempt at an environmental protection plan is just about dead in the water in the Senate, my blood starts to boil. Apparently the oil companies, who don't have enough money to devote to research into disaster prevention and clean-up, have enough money to throw at the Senate to keep any reasonable "Cap and Trade" legislation from being passed. The Repubicans are nattering on about how this is a tax. Mitch McConnell, weasel hypocrite extraordinaire, especially is leading this charge. They fulminate about new taxes as if it were you and me being taxed. but who will really be ponying up the cash? Why the very companies which have been making billions a year, with subsidies, subsidies!!, from our government. Deepwater Horizon, your tax dollars at work.
And the Congressional Budget Office has said that the original Lieberman-Kerry Bill (Joe Lieberman, doing something I approve of? These are the Last Days!) would reduce the deficit by 19 billion dollars. See it here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#38159001

I want to go to Washington and grab Senators by the neck and shake some sense into them. And cause bodily harm as well. But of course it would be useless. No way to shake sense into them. They are too full of the manna from the oil companies trough. When I see someone like the late Ted Kennedy, or Barney Frank (who co-wrote an article about cutting defense spending with—wait for it—Ron Paul) working on mutual concerns with political opponents, and getting things done, I am in humble awe.

I used to be such a gentle person.

By the way, this country spends more money on defense than the rest of the world combined!
Are we that scared?
In how many wars are we planning to get involved? I've always had a problem with this kind of thinking. I used to wonder why we needed enough nuclear missiles to destroy Russia several times over. Isn't once enough? But then, I'm a pinko liberal anarchist hippie—what do I know?

Anyway, why do we need to spend so much on defense, and what is the money going for? Ask your congress(wo)man next time you see her/him. Do we really need more submarines and fast bombers to fight against guys who hide in caves with their AK-47s and send weak-minded fools off to try to blow up airplanes with bombs in their shoes? Or underwear? Samuel Beckett, move over. Reality has taken over the Theater of the Absurd. And just who are we waiting for?
God? Better hope She doesn't show up, because She will be very unhappy.

I'll leave you, my two loyal readers, with that thought.

4th of July

2010-07-06T00:45:00.006-04:00

I really hate to see patriotism being taken over by tea-party wingnuts and conservatives. It's hard for any one on the left, or even in the real middle of political thought (which is somewhere to the left of the media's idea of middle) to express love of country without being lumped in with those characters. It's especially hard for a former Vietnam-protesting, civil rights-supporting, FBI hating, anarchist manqué, 1960's college boy.

But though I have been critical, sometimes extremely critical, of how our government works, how often the reality of America has failed (and often continues to fail) America's ideals, I've never hated this country.
Let me tell you why:
There are the obvious things—you know, no king, freedom of speech (most of the time—and we certainly haven't beheaded anyone for it), etc., but that's not what I'm about.

What I'm about is how my father was born in Slovakia, a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire back in 1892 (Jesus, that was so long ago). I don't have all the details, but he worked for a "count," a Hungarian, and he told me about the time the horses he was watching (the counts' horses) were scared by a bear and it took him three days to round them all up. He was basically a serf—the Hungarians controlled that part of the Empire. And like many other conquerors (think about how the native Americans were treated), they weren't always nice to their subject peoples.
I'm not trying to dis Hungarians here, particularly. Some of my best friends, etcetery. They just acted like most other people in their position. No better, no worse. When he turned eighteen, he was supposed to join the army to defend the empire.
He decided that defending the government that was oppressing his people was bullshit and hoofed it across the mountains, probably with some like-minded companions, through a couple of countries whose language he didn't know, to another country across the ocean whose language he didn't know. Many Slovaks, like the poor and dispossessed of other countries, did the same. He ended up working in the steel mills of Youngstown, Ohio.

He came here in 1910, one hundred years ago this year. In 1916 America joined WWI, fighting against the Germans and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. One of my father's friends said to him "Joe, we have to go back and fight for Austria. otherwise Franz Joseph will be mad at us and we'll never go back."
My fathers response was "Piss on Franz-Joseph. This is the greatest country in the world. He'll never beat this country!"

My mother was also from Slovakia. Because of the Hungarians' policy of Magyarization, making all things, especially language, Hungarian, she couldn't study at school in Slovak. Her parents sent her to a Jewish school so she could study in her own language.

One day, we were going though some old photographs and she pointed to figure in one, and said,"That's my father, in New York City." I was dumbfounded. "What was your father doing there?"
She said he had to leave Slovakia for a while because he was wanted by the authorities for agitation—for Slovak independence.
So he went to New York City, United States of America, where he didn't have to worry about the police.

I never had to face any of the challenges my parents faced. Because I live in America.
Nobody is forcing me to learn another language.
In spite of my political agitation, no police are after me.
And I did have the option of being a conscientious objector to war during the Vietnam era. It was a near thing, whether or not I would go to jail because of my beliefs (I didn't), but I got a fair hearing. You can't ask for better than that.

That's why, is spite of all my kvetching, all my distaste for the body politic, all the concern I have that bigoted and fearful yahoos are going to one day get their way and destroy the best of this country, I love America.

Yes, the history of this country has much to be ashamed of—slavery, for one, treatment of the Native population (who were in many cases forbidden to use their own tribal languages) for another, the treatment of early unionists and workers for the dignity of the working class, for yet another. You can come up with your own list of crimes and misdemeanors.

Still.

Still. We have the ideal and many of us continue to strive for it.
We don't want people to have to carry evidence of citizenship on their persons at all times.
We want people to be able to express their views, even if they are Glen Beck.
We don't want the FBI or NSA spying on us.
We don't want to give up freedoms for a false security.
We want our leaders to stop being controlled by money and powerful interests and to keep the welfare of the American citizen (and that citizen is a PERSON, not a corporation) uppermost in their thoughts and endeavors.
We want to keep the beauty of our land safe from reckless development and mining.
We want to worship in the way we want to, and make it easy for others to worship the way they want to, without having an official religion that everyone is supposed to bow to.
We don't want the government to tell us what we can do as consenting adults in our own bedrooms.
We want to be a nation which takes care of the helpless and oppressed, not to nursemaid them, but to give them a chance to stand on their own feet and move ahead without the burdens of class snobbery or prejudice.

I could go on, but you get the picture. This is why I love this country.
This is why I will fight to keep it true to its highest ideals.
I hope everyone had a happy Fourth of July, and that everyone had an opportunity, between the ingesting of hot dogs and the drinking of beer, to think about what s/he loves about America.

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry

2010-06-18T01:05:00.001-04:00

The ongoing spectacle in Washington DC as the congress questions oil company officials is just amazing. It could be comic. But only Shakespeare could really do it justice. And of course we'd have to forget about the photographs of pelicans covered with oil, unable to save themselves, waiting to die.
Mr. Tony Hayward, he of the "I'd like MY life back" sentiment, says he wasn't "in on" a lot of the decisions about the Deepwater horizon oil drilling platform and its problems. "Out of the loop." And this is the CEO of the company. He doesn't know what's going on, doesn't know about safety features not implemented, apparently doesn't know that walruses don't live in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ed Markey, congressman from Massachusetts, showed that five different oil company disaster plans for the gulf were almost totally identical, and all had walruses as a species which would be threatened by a potential spill in the Gulf. The really sad fact here is that no one in the government who was supposed to be regulating these activities noticed this interesting fact. Or wanted to. Oil companies have a lot of money and they are more than willing to share it with government officials and elected representatives who are willing to be their dupes.

They aren't so willing to share the money with the people whose lives they have ruined. Finally President Obama got off his high horse and did some real arm-twisting and got BP to put up a respectable starting amount of money for compensation to the people whose livelihoods are crippled by the disaster. Too bad pelicans don't know how to use money.

The perfidious influence of oil money on Congress was highlighted in bold color today with the "apology" of Repubican representative Joe Barton of Texas, said to be the highest recipient of oil money for his political campaigning, to Tony Hayward. Mr. Barton was "ashamed" of the way BP was being "shaken down" by the White House. Imagine this asshat being willing to prostitute himself so openly. Mind-boggling. Of course, even his Repube colleagues saw that he'd made a fool of himself and he had to come out later in the day and try to say that what he'd said wasn't really what he'd said.
I wish I hadn't been working today so I could watch it live. This stuff is right up there with the Army-McCarthy hearings in the '50s. What drama. What a bizarre spectacle.

And how disgusting.

I have to ask again, folks—what are you willing to give up so we don't have to use so much oil, so we don't have to contemplate drilling in places we shouldn't be drilling, to get it?

Those pelicans are dying for our sins.

I want my life back!

2010-06-16T00:14:00.002-04:00

Back on May 30, Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, topped Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake" comment.
And you thought it couldn't be done.

In an interview he acknowledged people's lives were upset, and, trying to build a little solidarity with the working class, he said "I'd like MY life back."
See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTdKa9eWNFw&feature=player_embedded

I suppose the eleven guys who died on the platform, and their families, would like their lives back. I suppose all the fishermen and shrimpers and people who run tourist industry businesses would like their lives back. I suppose all the birds and fish and turtles who are dying from the oil would like their lives back.

It's really hard to look at the pictures. The poor creatures, who have no idea what is going on, they just know their world has turned against them. Humans at least have the cold comfort of knowing what is happening, even if the "why" of it escapes them.

30 years since the Ixtoc oil well disaster and there has been no, that is NO, advancement in spill prevention, stoppage and cleanup. And this disgrace must also be borne by our feckless congressmen, who pony up to the oil companies' feeding trough over and over again to get the money they need to stay in office. To do what? Pass legislation which is good for the country? No, they want to be able to keep sticking their faces into that trough of money.

And it's us too. It's time to think folks. What are you willing to give up? For all the talk of clean energy, there is one big thing which can save millions in oil expenditures and help the environment more than anything else. It's called conservation.

Where can you and I conserve, what are you willing to give up?
How far will you go?

It's not just turning down the thermostat and turning off lights, tho that helps.
But are you willing to plan so you don't have to use the car anymore than necessary?
Think you're going to be able to make your teenager walk more?

Are you going to be willing to move closer to where you work so you don't have to drive so much?

Are you ready to turn your computer off whenever you are not actually on it? Are you ready to use it less? Remember pencils and paper?

Apple and Nokia and Dell and Microsoft and other tech companies have all kinds of things you "just really need."
Two months ago you never heard of an iPad. Do you lust for one now? I don't, but I sure would like an iPhone.
Going to give up your Wii or Playstation? And rediscover games people played when there weren't so many electronics?
How analog are you willing to be?

I love having a high-speed internet connection here, but where is the energy for that coming from? How many birds have died in oil spills, how many mountain tops have been razed in Appalachia for the coal to produce that energy?

To save on oil would you be willing to give up plastic wrap? Plastic bottles? Plastic food storage containers? All those plastic car parts that used to be steel? Polyester? (Well, maybe that one won't be so hard.)

Going to buy local? Local foods, local products (I believe there may still be some around, some items not made in China.) Gonna pay more at a local business instead of going to Walmart because it's cheaper?

Are you going to promote birth control in an effort to slow the population explosion? Six billion and counting folks. How many people can the earth really support?

I could go on, but it's late and I'd never finish this list anyway. We have too much stuff to think about.

Sleep tight, my two loyal readers.

The Gulf's Good Friday

2010-06-02T22:36:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I defer to a more accomplished writer than myself. The following is not a curmudgeonly rant—Rev. Liza Neal, of the Village Congregational Church in Cummington, is too spiritually advanced for that (unlike me). I hope others find this message thoughtful and thought-provoking.

"I sit writing this with soft white sand beneath my feet. Over the baby blue purring waves a faint pink softens the horizon while the sun rises behind me. The moon hangs just past full still bright before me. The gulls are strangely silent. Pure white birds with long necks peck in the sand and the world of “civilization” is asleep. There are remnants though, plastic shovels and floaties lying next to sand castles. And then of course there are the tons and tons of oil, unimaginable amounts, pouring in this direction, our deadly offering to this idyllic scene.

Preparing for my trip to Siesta Key for a nephew’s wedding, I packed my suitcase. The fancy dress just bought, suntan lotion which has done me little good, and of course, my swim suit. I worried that I might not be able to swim when I arrived. Sitting here at dawn, I am overwhelmed by the calm self-absorption with which I go about my days. Sure I watch the news and am properly horrified, but I also go about my business, driving out to work and packing my swim suit. How is it that we can go calmly on destroying life around us?

My partner and I recently decided to become a one-car household. She bikes to work or takes the bus. I carpool with a friend who lives on the same street. We are managing much more easily than I thought we would. A friend said, “I’m so impressed with what you are doing!” But yesterday swimming out in the ocean, I picked up a sand dollar. Instead of being bone dry, it was brown like wet sand and its underside was slightly rough like the bristles of a miniature brush. It was the first living sand dollar that I have ever seen. And the oil is coming for it. How is imposing vague inconvenience and extra planning impressive?

I am not trying to punish myself here, or you for that matter as you read this. I am however trying to be honest with myself. I want to consider the life of others before I consider my own convenience. I want to consider the life of the earth, and recognize its connection to the life of everything around me, and my own life. When I hear the voice of God in the rise and fall of the waves, I want to respond not only with my heart but also with the way that I live my life. In the Bible, God worries and weeps over the destruction of the earth.

This is the Good Friday of the Gulf, and we have nailed the earth upon the cross. We stand now at the crucifixion, praying that the resurrection is more than just a myth. Jesus told his disciples that in their hands was the power to loose forgiveness and judgment, destruction and creation. We cannot hide in the upper room closing our ears to the march of disaster outside. We cannot stand in the garden weeping. We must change, not tomorrow but rather today. It is time to ask ourselves what we can to do, and to make hard choices. It is time not only to inconvenience ourselves, but to sacrifice what we have for something better, to work for the resurrection of the earth.

Peace and Blessings,
Rev. Liza M. Neal

Finally

2010-05-28T01:18:00.003-04:00

Finally there is progress on repealing "Don't ask, don't tell." A year after the Big O took office and promised to support the repeal, it's going to happen. Okay, so he has had a lot on his mind.
The House has voted "to allow" the Defense Department to end DADT. The Senate Armed Services Committee has also voted for a similar measure. The House provision passed due to a little compromise, saying that repeal wouldn't take effect until the Pentagon concludes its report on how to best effect the repeal.
Note that the Pentagon isn't considering whether to repeal DADT, but how to implement that repeal. Military intelligence at last. Of course one wonders about why a major study is needed on how to do it. Don't you just say, "Okay, you can stop now?" But hey, whatever works.
The big brass at the Pentagon are concerned about doing it in a way that doesn't disrupt our armed forces. Yeah. Ask the Israelis how allowing gays to openly serve has disrupted them. Whatever you might think about Israel's policies, you have to admit their army is pretty effective at doing the things armies do.
Even a handful of Republicans broke away from the "NO" machine to vote in favor of the provision. Of course there were dire predictions from the Repubes about chaos in the military, and how the American people don't want DADT to end. It's just wonderful how they can ignore the fact that 75% of Americans are in favor of repeal. But then Republicans are not known (lately, at least) to have any respect for facts, truth, or reality.
They just want to keep living in their alternate universe, and just visit their vacation homes in reality once in a while.

If only there were an end in sight to the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. So far the "top kill" strategy has not been declared a success—but one sincerely hopes it will work. Rachel Maddow had an interesting (and depressing) segment on her Wednesday night program showing how a disaster in 1979 in the Gulf is so similar to the one now. And the only way that one was stopped was through drilling relief wells. It took nine months for that.
Everything BP is trying now, was tried then. With no effect. The really depressing thing about this is that after 30 years, in spite of incredible advances in drilling technology, there has been no comparable advance in technology in preventing or fixing disasters. Must not have been much profit in working on that aspect of the undersea drilling operation. That's your unregulated free market in action, folks.
The technology for getting oil from out under the ocean floor is up there at space shuttle level. The technology for fixing those "Oops—we have a spill" moments—down at dishcloth level.
Oh, and that 1979 disaster was from a well only 200 feet below the surface. This latest one? Five thousand and counting.
Folks, it's time to think about what you are willing to give up in your life, so that we don't need to use so much energy. Sell your house and move closer to where you work (if you still have a job)? Stop putting up strip malls and convenience stores every 50 feet or so in urban areas? Turning off lights and the damn computer once in a while?
Wearing more sweaters in the winter, sweating a little more in the summer? Dig up the lawn and start a garden? Deciding you don't need to drive everywhere? How about supporting a wide ranging and efficient public transportation system?
The future—it's not going to be easy, and may not be pretty.
I'll end on that note.
Keep smiling, everybody.

Politics, shmolitics

2010-05-20T23:25:00.002-04:00

Interesting days lately. Republicans are flailing around, I think. Now they've lost the financial overhaul regulation bill fight. Obama's popularity figures may be low, according to some polls, now—but he is getting some sh— I mean, some things accomplished. I think his popularity will rise again.
So, Mr. B—when are you going to go after "Don't ask, don't tell?" Huh? So far Mr. B isn't telling.

Repubes are also losing fights they thought would show they would be successful in the November elections. Mark Critz, Democrat, took the vote for representative from the district John Murtha represented until his death. Repubes thought they had a good chance to get that. Sorry, guys. And Rand Paul, with tea-bagger support, took the Kentucky nomination away from the official Republican Party nominee. Hey, Mitch McConnell, Senator from Kentucky, maybe your lies and hypocrisy are coming back to nail you. I hope so. I haven't hated to hear someone's voice on the radio so much since Reagan left office.
I love Rand Paul—he's not only wacko, when he talks he sounds like he's on drugs. He did have the gumption to go on Rachel Maddow's show, TWICE, most lately last night, the 19th of May—http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#37244354. I have to give him props for that—especially considering all the others who have avoided her show like the plague. He also showed some skill in avoiding answering direct questions about his views, especially regarding the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and where the line is drawn between government regulation and private property. He kept saying that people questioning his position are putting themselves in the position of supporting carrying weapons in public when going to a restaurant. He seems to have some difficulty in understanding that people don't have a choice what color they are born with, but they do have a choice about carrying firearms. Whichever side of the firearms debate you are on, it should be clear that there is a big difference in being told you can't come into a restaurant because you're black and being told you can't come in with a gun. For one thing, a gun owner can take the gun off and leave it in the car. Pretty hard for a black person to leave his/her skin color in the car.
Anyhoo, Mr. Paul will be doing a lot of fancy footwork around that issue in the months to come. Should be fun to watch. Here's hoping his Democratic opponent, Mr. Conway runs an effective campaign.

And, another "Family Morals Defender" has bitten the dust. Republican congressman Mark Souder of Indiana has been outed having an affair with one of his female staffers. Really honoring family there, eh Marky? At least he didn't hire a rent-boy, AKA male prostitute, like George Reker, another of these morality hypocrites, did. Funny thing about male prostitutes— if you read carefully the bible passages right-wing moralists bring up to condemn homosexuality, you see that they don't condemn homosexuality per se, they condemn the going to male prostitutes (and depriving wives their conjugal rights—and decreasing chances of having more children to increase the population of the tribe).

In other hypocrisy news, Nevada Senator-wanna-be Sue Lowden seems to be trying to deny she ever advocated the barter system with doctors (a chicken for your piles removal), check it out— http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#37244834.

Of course the biggest news is about the biggest disaster, the on-going Gulf oil gusher. the executives from BP, Trans-Ocean, Halliburton, all pointing the finger at each other, all giving the rest of us the finger. In the meantime, no one knows how to stop the oil. Funny how so much engineering research and know-how went into getting the oil out of the undersea reservoirs, and so little devoted to what to do if there's a problem. They all got a tongue-lashing from the Pres, but those guys have pretty thick skins.
I say, put them in diving suits, and give them some duct tape and tell them to go down there and fix the leak and not come back up til they do.
The Pres had better really give some thought to the whole off-shore drilling idea before he tries to push that turkey again. That Gulf spill gets into the right currents (and it looks like it is going to), and every one on the east coast will see all the oil they ever want to see in their lives—on their beaches and on the wildlife and fisheries.

Oh Lordy, how we have effed up our planet.
There is something for both my regular readers to contemplate.
Good night.

Now here's a great clucking idea

2010-05-08T22:10:00.004-04:00

I'm sure you've all heard this but it still boggles my mind—Nevada Senator wanna-be Sue Lowden has proposed bartering with your doctor as a solution to health care costs. Don't have insurance? Bring the doc a chicken. Or maybe, if you're facing major surgery, the whole coop. Or perhaps a calf.
I wonder how many chickens I'll need for my next colonoscopy? Five, fifteen? Maybe he'll want a pair of goats.
If he asks for snakes, I'm outta there.

The insanity of this idea is even more apparent if you ask, as Rachel Maddow asked on her program, will the doctor be able to pay his electric bills with chickens? How many chickens will that new x-ray machine cost?

And what about city dwellers? They don't have chickens. Maybe they can bring in some of those "alley rabbits" (AKA rats). I hear they taste just like chicken.

I wonder how many trout I'll have to catch to get that root canal I need?

I can just see pathetic scenes like this being played out:
Farmer: Officer, I caught this scoundrel trying to steal my chickens.
Officer: What do you have to say for yourself?
Thief: I'm not really a crook. I just need some chickens so my daughter can have the operation she needs.
Please don't throw me in jail, give me some chickens! (breaks down in tears)
This would be a great idea for a tear-jerker movie. If somebody makes one, I better get a cut of the profits. you heard it here first.

I haven't seen it but I hear Ms. Lowden has an ad out now claiming her proposal was taken out of context. No it wasn't. The evidence is all over YouTube. She can't even lie intelligently.

I have to send her a thank-you note. She made my day.

"Maybe I shoulda waited a while…"

2010-05-07T21:54:00.005-04:00

In an astounding display of bad luck timing, President Obama announced on March 31st that he would approve some offshore oil drilling along much of the East coast. 20 days later an oil rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico and suddenly, as someone in the government was quoted by NPR saying, "it is dead in the water." Like many sea turtles, fish and aquatic birds.
There are going to be lots of things dead in the water. Including the economies of many Gulf communities. That drilling idea is getting less popular.
House Repubican leader John Boener had said, on hearing Obama's announcement, that it didn't make any sense to not open the West coast to drilling also. I wonder if he has had anything to say about it lately?

In other news, Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed a new law requiring police officers to check the citizen status of any person they think they have reason to think is an illegal alien. Reasonable suspicion. And if by chance, you get stopped and don't have papers on you, but can later prove you are a citizen, you still get 6 months in the pokey for being negligent and wasting police officers' time.
But it's not a racial profiling law, oh no. It's just coincidental that Arid-zona is adjacent to Mexico. The law's not just aimed at Hispanics. Why, all sorts of Russians and Serbs and Italians (a lot of Italians have sort of dark skins don't they?) will also be stopped and questioned, right? Riiiigghhht.

What is telling here, is that a lot of Arizona policemen don't like this law, primarily because they know that it is actually a racial profiling law, and that it would be a waste of their time, and pretty much destroy any community good-will they have developed.

I have a theory—it's crazy, I know, but then I've never claimed to be sane—that Anglos in Arizona are well aware of the fact that that territory used to be part of Mexico, and they are worried that if enough Mexicans migrate there and become citizens, they might vote to take the land of their forefathers back. Goodbye Anglos.

Nah, that's silly. But there is a lot of fear in operation in the Southwest, and it has not been helped by Federal inaction. The best the gov't. has done so far is put up a fence which basically does more to defile the landscape and interfere with wildlife migration than it does to stop illegal immigrant trafficking. Even poor George Bush tried to do something about immigration in a positive way, and got shot down by members of his own party. The people making the most noise about illegal immigration are the ones getting the most contributions from those who benefit by employing the cheap labor of the illegal immigrants.

And speaking of moronic Arizonan political behavior, I understand that John McCain has recently said that he is "not a maverick." Uh, John, wasn't that the crux of your presidential campaign? You don't use being a "maverick" as a political slogan, put it on the cover of your book, and then say, "oh, i didn't mean it."

Does Arizona get the politicians it deserves? It looks like Arizona may take over from South Carolina as this years political cynics' "gift that just keeps giving.'

I'm sure that since I have not been posting lately, that both my readers have been finding more useful things to do with their time. Right?
Likely not.

tax time

2010-04-18T23:15:00.003-04:00

I took a break after the drama of the health-care bill. Of course it's not over yet. Wingnut Repubican attorneys-general are planning to take it to court. Yeah, good luck with that.

And then there was the annual tax crisis.
I don't mind paying taxes, but i am really pissed about unemployment benefits being counted as income.
I was getting the benefits because I DIDN'T HAVE AN INCOME!
So the gov't generously gives me some money out of the taxes I and everyone else has ALREADY paid, an amount which is one-third or less of the income I was just making it on in the first place, and then says "Oh, by the way, you better set aside about 15% of that to pay back in income tax."
And do this while you're looking for work in an economy which has been crippled (I'm tempted to use an expression which includes the word"cluster" but I'll refrain) by greedy wall street traders and greedy and/or feckless bankers. And I might add, the crippling was expedited by the failure of the government, which is taking my tax dollars, to regulate the financial industry which caused this mess.
There is only so far a person can cut back. My cat has to eat.

That is my main gripe. I'm not like the Tea-party asshats who rail on about taxation (and funny thing, latest research shows most of them think the taxes they pay are fair—check April 18 NYT and other publications) and how they are supporting the "other half" of the nation. The half (read "black women") that has babies just so they can collect more welfare payments. Right. Has anyone reading this blog (either of you) ever considered that as a good plan for bringing in some extra money for your crack habit?
I'm not saying there isn't fraud in welfare. I'm just saying I don't agree with punishing millions of needy people just to keep a few hundred or thousand from getting few illegal dollars. Go after them sure, put in more safeguards, but let's stop bitching about money going to the poor. We are supposed to be a "Christian nation," according to some, so let's actually follow JC's teaching.

Easy for me to say. These days, I'm one of the poor. Alas, my gender prevents me from popping out a couple of kids so I can enjoy more benefits.

In the meantime, these tax opponents are driving down federally funded interstates in cars which have safety features mandated by the federal government. But by God, let's stop all the taxation which makes this possible.

Health Reform! Woot!

2010-03-25T20:20:00.008-04:00

Fine-freaking-ally! At last!

No public option, no single-payer—but at least some good things. The rest will follow.

As Rachel Maddow said "Government is for fixing problems." And this problem is finally getting a start on its fixes.

Unfortunately only half the government is governing—the Democratic half. Certainly the Republicans aren't helping. On the other hand, they are doing everything they can to abort it. Kind of ironic, considering the basic Republican position on abortion. And worse, they are not only not trying to calm down the weird and violent idiots they have inflamed all year long, they are continuing to fan the flames.

Now there are threats against the Congressmen who voted for the health bill. And no , NO, Repubican has unequivocally come out and said that the behavior is unacceptable no matter what. They keep fudging their statements with comments about how the Democrats have done things to call this behavior upon themselves, or how understandable it is that people are angry to the point of violence.

And they are delaying and screwing around and preventing any thing getting done in committee or on the floor. This is the most shameful behavior I have seen in elected, supposedly grown-up, individuals in the 50 years I have been paying attention to politics.
Move-on.org is sponsoring a letter to the Republican leaders calling on them to disavow the mob behavior.
You can sign it here, if you're so disposed:

http://pol.moveon.org/condemnhate/?r_by=19573-592655-FpjRCax&rc=paste

It is still mind-boggling how the Repubes have gotten so many people confused and angry so that they are against something which will help them. It's disheartening to see how many believe lies, and how many are willing to denounce democracy when things don't go their way.

Eh, I shouldn't be surprised.
that's it for now.

I'm ba-a-a-ack

2010-03-13T19:27:00.006-05:00

Geez, I let myself go.
Too much Dreamweaver and web stuff, too much salsa—the dance kind, not the nacho chip kind.
Also I'm lazy.

But not that much has changed since January.
Republicans are still dissembling and being hypocrites, Democrats are still being cautious and uncertain.
They coulda had a health care bill months ago but no, they have to try to accommodate Repubes who don't want to play anyway; and then the Dems also have to deal with members of their own party who only have a summer home in reality.
Like Stupak from Michigan who was going to hold up the health care bill til the abortion funding with federal dollar parts were taken out. Minor problem: there ain't no such parts. The bill specifically says "shall not" when the mention of federal dollars going to abortion comes up. He finally was brought down by Pelosi and others who sort of pointed this out and made him look stupid. I guess he thought if Lieberman could get attention by grandstanding, then it would work for him.
He forgot that Lieberman is a weasel extraordinaire and knows how work the system.

And don't you just love Rep. Eric Massa from New York—I think New york pols are trying to supplant the South Carolina pols in the curmudgeon's affections (I'm not even going to try to get to Gov. Patterson tonight)—resigning under allegations that he groped a male staffer. Then he goes on Glen Beck's show and totally humiliates ol' Glen because he won't say what he was supposed to. He said he not only groped the guy, he tickled him til he couldn't breathe. Then he urged Americans to stop calling each other names. Like "socialist." Also he urged Americans to agitate for campaign finance reform.
Whoa, three strikes and you're out buddy. Don't ever cross a tea-bagger's doorstep again.

In short, The details change, but the picture remains the same.

Finally Obama is starting to get antsy and prod his Democratic minions into actually doing something. he must not have spent enough time in the senate to realize what a hide-bound and basically cowardly institution it can be. I just hope it's not too late for health care.
At least Anthem Blue cross gave the plan a good boost by obscenely boosting its own insurance rates again. It's a textbook example of what is wrong with our current system. Great timing folks. A grateful nation thanks you.
I wonder if they have a lot of ex-congressmen running that company.

I dunno, I try to be amusing here, because laughter's the only way to stave off despair in the face of the stupidity, avarice and inanity in government and society, but sometimes it gets hard.
One needs some good news once in a while.
All I got is Massa on Glen Beck's show. What's this world coming to?

State of the Onion, state of the Apple

2010-01-30T23:12:00.008-05:00

First layer of the onion:
Obama swung a few punches finally, in the State of the Union address. If the Republicans are going to oppose everything he proposes, they better start governing by proposing something themselves. Except the word "No."

Second layer: What the hell are those asshats on the Corporate Court, wait, I mean, Supreme Court thinking? Corporations are individuals with the same rights as me? Gimme a break. I've ranted about this before. Corporations are made up of people, but they are not people themselves and they DO NOT have the right to protect their corporate interests in the political arena.
If the Dems (and, let's be fair, some Repubs who are equally dismayed) don't do something to change this, your next senator won't be the senator from your state, but the senator from Pfizer, or Exxon. Some wag ( I wish this were my own idea) suggested future congressmen having jumpsuits with the logos of their campaign contributors on them, like race cars. And just as intelligent.

Second and a half layer: Annoying Justice Alito enough so he JUST HAD to express his displeasure publicly. Oh sure, he didn't know the camera would be on him. Well, it's possible, but he should have been aware the cameras would hone in on him after Obama's remarks. But I don't think so.
All I can say is: Hey Alito (and your conservative buddies) thanks for negating my vote. And what happened to the conservative ideal of "no activist judges?" If ignoring a century of judicial decisions is not activist, I don't know what is.
I WARNED PEOPLE! I was at a meeting, back in double ought, of people where someone opined that there was no big difference between G. Bush and A. Gore. I said then, "Two words, Supreme Court." It's mind-boggling how people forget this. Those asshats on the Roberts court are going to decide the fate of future generations. You want Roberts, Alito or Thomas deciding if your vote counts, or if your daughter should be able to get an abortion if she's been raped—do you? I sure as hell don't.
I think the Supreme Court decision was un-American. Is there any way to impeach these wingnuts and get them the hell out of there?
I'd like to blame this all on George Bush, but it was the unthinking masses who elected him who have created this mess. Poor George didn't really have much to do with it. I think it was Karl Rove—too fat and homely to make it as a politician himself, he had to find a convenient patsy, enter G.W. Bush..
Cheap shot on Karl Rove? Well, I'm too homely, probably too fat, not to mention short, to make it as a presidential candidate myself. So as a fellow "can't get a girlfriend" nerd, I can criticize him at will.

Third layer: telling the Dems not to "run for the hills." God bless Obama for that. I've been ranting on the "feckless Democrats" for some time now. And I'm pleased to see that Frank Rich of the New York Times also uses the word "feckless" to describe Dems. Check out tomorrow's NYTimes. C'mon, it's one thing to feel a little sorry for the guys who got beat, but you should till move on to do what you want to do after that.

The Republicans didn't waste too much time feeling sorry for Democrats when they were in power.

Enough. Moving on…

Even more anticipated than the state of the union address was the Apple event earlier on Wednesday. I confess I was looking forward to this more than the State of the Union myself. Hell, i've been unemployed for two years, I KNOW what the state of the union is.

So every one (every one who counts—i.e., Macintosh Kool-Aid ingesters) was wondering and theorizing and hoping that Steve Jobs (Kneel when you say his name!) would announce, finally, the tablet computer they'd been hoping for.
And you know what? He did. Except it wasn't. Everyone who had something they thought should be on it was disappointed because that item wasn't on it. Doesn't matter what.
As soon as the long desired tablet was finally announced, the fanatics threw up their hands and cried woe. Actually it seems a lot like the Israelites waiting while Moses was on the mountain. Don't you just love the Wall Street journal cartoon that read "the last time a tablet caused this much excitement it had commandments written on it?"
Ya know, I think it's a neat device, but I don't see a use for it in my life right now. Other people see it in their lives, and I hope they rush out and buy one. Apple has 50 billion dollars in its bank account, and it could always use more. I like Apple, not only because it creates the best software in the world, but the hardware it puts that software in is so beautiful.

They could use some help in the marketing department though. Ipad? Is the next, larger one going to be the Maxi-Ipad? Will there be a special name for iPads that you use on heavy business days? Gimmee a break.

Still, if the sales figures come in like Apple and I think they will (that Kool-aid and reality distortion field is STRONG!), people will forget about the name, like they did for the iPod and iPhone. Of which millions, MILLIONS, have been sold. Why o why didn't I buy Apple Stock when it was only $16 or so bucks a share?
I have a friend who doesn't like Apple, but still owns an iPod. Make room for the iPad, Merrie, two years from now you will own one. Really, it's perfect for someone in your situation.

It's not perfect for me, but I'd buy one anyway, because I love the kool-aid. Mmmm, mmm, good.

Random thought: Toyota has been in the news lately, and it has brought to the surface a question that has been festering in my mind for some time now: Does Toyota have a Department for the Creation of Stupid Car Names?
Just asking. Yaris? Venza? Corolla? What the eff is a Yaris? I had a Corolla station wagon once, and I still don't know what it means.
And what ever happened to "station wagons?' And what does "station wagon" mean anyway? Geez, you start asking these questions and next thing you know you're up all night in a cold sweat trying to find answers. Sorry I brought it up.

I am of the generation that came of age with Bel-Airs, Fairlanes, Falcons, Mustangs and of course, Corvettes.
REAL names.
Yaris? No no no no no.

That's just not right.

On "Wait, wait, don't tell me" today, Peter Sagal, talking about the Pope's saying priests should be more active on the internet, said that priests and bloggers are a lot alike in that both of them dress badly and don't get much sex.
I am offended to have my wardrobe criticized so cavalierly.

Okay, I'm about out of steam for the night. One of these days I have to rant on modern art. But not now.
Sleep tight, my two readers.

Internet nonsense

2010-01-20T23:15:00.003-05:00

I got to get off politics for a while.
So I'll get on to something else that annoys me. And it's the forwarded emails I get all too often.

Before I start, I want to acknowledge that not all forwarded emails are garbage. You may have friends, as I do, who know what you're interested in or what will amuse you, and will not send you junk.

Then there is the other stuff.

I have a relative who likes to provoke me by sending me things she knows will annoy me. I'll deal with her later. But I want to talk about the things she forwards, and the other emails I get from people who send them in all seriousness, and what we can know about them.
And how you can save yourself aggravation and the effort of reading them.
Get used to the idea that there is nothing you can do about them. Except not forward them to some other hapless soul.

This particular item started off with something like "If you cross the border illegally into North Korea you get 12 years at hard labor."
In all caps.

Of course it was easy to see right away where this was going, so I just scrolled immediately down to the bottom and I was right. After listing what the writer thought would happen by crossing several country's borders ("if you cross the Afghan border you will be shot." Oh really? Tell it to the smugglers and Taliban who practically have highways leading in and out of the country), he/she/it finished off by listing all the supposed benefits of crossing into ours, like health care, driver's licenses etc.
The whole thing was full of partial truths (especially about the benefits of coming to the US) and outright fabrications or guesses, based, if based on any fact at all, on single recent news items.

But I'm not going to talk about that. This is about form, not substance. Actually, there is no real substance to this kind of form.

Savvy internet cruisers already know that ALL CAPS means bullpucky is in the message. All cap emails come from folks who are angry and fearful and otherwise helpless (or just plain evil or in need of attention) and think that shouting is the way to make other people listen to and believe them. Trust me, these folks are not trying to engage in a conversation. As witnessed by the lack of signature, return address and back-up documentation for the statements contained in the email. And the all caps.

I wonder if these people know what it means to engage in a conversation.

And these always start of with FW: or Fwd: FW:—meaning your friend or acquaintance forwarded an email that was forwarded to her/him and (s)he is passing it on. Forwarded emails have a long life, it seems. And are almost always useless.

There are some FWs that are collections of jokes, and I even got one that was amusing, once. But mostly they have some usually extremely far-right asshat political point to make, as above, or they are building on some fear or trying to create some fear in the recipients. These latter usually start off with the notorious, nameless "I."

"I want to warn you about a new danger from over-the-counter fiber supplements. My neighbor's daughter was taking XYZ fiber supplement when she was suddenly stricken with an attack of zombie syndrome and rushed to the hospital. We'd never heard of this before, and our doctor, Doctor Ima Doofus, told us it was something the medical profession was trying to hide to avoid panic…blah blah."

"I want to alert you to a new study which shows that watching cooking programs on TV will cause terrible gastrointestinal problems and make you fart like a pirate."

Etc.
There will be no names, no documentation. I did get one that was purportedly from a doctor with a name but it still checked out as fake according to Snopes.com, even tho it appeared the doctor was real. Just terribly misquoted and statements distorted.

Snopes is a good resource for checking out these things.

I said these often have right-wing political lies and distortions. I want to know, what is wrong with all those Obama-loving socialists who are supposedly threatening the country? How do they expect to take over without sending their own forwarded ALL CAPS emails to counter the right wing? C'mon guys, you're falling down on the job.

I digress.

To review:
1. If your email is forwarded, be suspicious, especially if it's from someone you know is likely to fall for internet bullpucky. You'll have to look at it of course—for the same reason we have to look at automobile accidents we happen to pass by.

2. If you open it and it is in all caps, be aware you will be wasting your time reading it. Really, you'll hate yourself in the morning.

3. If it is written by the nameless "I" you will know that it has been written to create FUD—Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Or delusion. Move along, there is nothing to see there.

4. If it's trying to scare you in some way, assuming you've gone so far as to try to read it, it's 99% certain to be junk.

5. If you've read it and are starting to be unsure about its validity, in spite of what I have told you (you aren't listening, are you?), check it out with Snopes.com or some other reliable source. One with references you can check to determine the truth or lack of truth in the message.

And whatever you do, DON'T FORWARD IT TO ME!!!!

That goes for both of you reading this.

That's all for now.

Shame on Massachusetts

2010-01-19T22:25:00.006-05:00

It's a travesty. The seat of a senator who fought for health care for 40 years has been given to a man who vows to defeat it. This is a man, one of whose campaign ads started, "I'm Scott Brown. (zoom from close-up to distance) This is my truck." Give me a truckin' break. He also did the nude centerfold thing some years ago for Cosmopolitan magazine. Admittedly he was a hunk. But still, this is conservative family values?

Young people who plan to go into politics, take note—posing deshabille in magazines may be the wave of the future.
And, let me take this opportunity to say that this would be a better country if more women would go into politics.

Uh, no connection to the magazine thing. Honest.

I don't know what was going on in the brains of the people who voted for him. Especially since they have one of the best health care systems in the country.
Martha Coakley pulled a Hilary Clinton and thought she could coast into the senate seat like Hillary thought she could coast into the Democratic nomination for president. The state's Democratic leadership played the fool as well.
I also blame the feckless Democrats in the Senate. They spent too much time trying to play nice with people who had no intention of playing nice back. People who call the president a liar while they themselves spout total falsehoods about "death panels" and other baloney. The Dumbo- I mean, Democrats should have used reconciliation to pass a health care bill with 51 votes a long time ago. The the right wing "can't have that commie Neegrow in the white house" crowd wouldn't have spent so much money pouring money into this state to get a Republican voted in. I just signed a petition to the Senate leadership (and forwarded it to a few people) to do the reconciliation thing. It read in part:
"Voters did not elect President Obama and a Democratic supermajority in the House and the Senate so that health care reform could be written by the likes of Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson.
I signed a petition telling President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid that the Senate must use reconciliation to pass a better health care bill with a strong public option. I hope you'll follow the link below and take action, too."
Here's a link if anyone is interested:
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/po_reconciliation/?r_by=7410-2283445-4QdHh9x&rc=mailto1

I was right. I won't run out of things to complain about this year.

Haiti

2010-01-15T23:20:00.005-05:00

It's impossible to be snarky in the face of this tragedy. Who cares what some feckless politician in South Carolina says or does when so many people are dead, are injured, or homeless?
To turn on the news, on the radio or TV, is to be ready to shed tears.

What I have heard: Iceland (Iceland for Christ's sake, they were almost bankrupt because of the financial disaster last year) got there early with a plane of supplies. The Russians sent planes. Cuba allows the US to fly through their air space. Canada sent help. China sent a team of trained personnel. On my Facebook page, the Macintosh computer sales and service company Small Dog Computers, offered to match any donations, to the best to their ability. They raised over $15 thousand dollars. In my inbox, an email from Cheap Joe's Art Supplies had a link to a relief agency. And of course the United States is doing its part. As well it should, as our histories are so entwined.
I just have one question: why, dear God, does it take the deaths of thousands for the nations of this earth to join together in the resolution of a common goal? And why can't we keep that level of cooperation up after the crisis has past?

It is sort of bittersweet to hear that Marines are being sent to Haiti for aid. In the past the Marines have been sent to maintain order, mostly to support the ruling class which would not threaten the financial forces which were getting profit from their exploitation of the country.

We supported "Papa Doc" Duvalier, with his TonTon Macoutes, as he plundered and oppressed the country for years because he was anti-Communist. Some of what that country is today is because of what we, as a country, have done in the past.

So it is right and just that we are going in to help now. The Haitians are lucky that we have a president who is attentive to these situations and who realizes the extent of the disaster.

If you know of a way to send help to Haiti, thru Doctors without Borders, the Red Cross, or whomever, please do.

Get naked at the airport

2010-01-09T18:22:00.004-05:00

There's a nice wave of hysteria and concern over the December 25th "underwear" bomber. All the stuff we've done since 2001 and there is still a chance for some malefactor to slip through. I suspect we can never eliminate all threats. There is such a thing as "human error." Something pretty hard to eliminate completely. But now security people are trying to see what else they can do to discover bombs and weapons. Like more thorough screening of airline passengers.

So it seems that in order to prevent terrorism we may need to expose ourselves in full-body scans. I expect to see a lot of giggling among TSA people at airline check-ins. I think a better idea would be we all just take our clothes off on arrival and check-in naked. Sure, it'll be ugly at first, unless you're lucky enough to be there the same time as a college women's soccer team, OR a college men's soccer team, choose your preference. I suspect people will be as dismayed at seeing me naked as I will seeing them, most of 'em anyway. But, you know, this may be the answer to the nation's obesity program. I don't plan on flying soon, but I'm going on a diet. I want to be buff if I'm ever flying at the same time as that women's soccer team.

In the meantime, the Repubes are nakedly belligerent and stupid over the underwear bomber. Obama waited 24 hours before he responded! Publicly anyway. This is horrifying. Never mind that Pres. Bush took six days to say anything about the shoe bomber back in the day. Stuff like that is okay for republicans, but democrats, especially black democratic presidents,are held to a higher standard. It's getting pathetic the straws the anti-Obama crowd is grabbing at. There is also the "he doesn't use the word 'terrorism'" crowd. They have been shown up by both Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow playing a montage of clips showing Obama saying "terrorism."
Do tell.
It would be so nice if there were a principled opposition party in this country.

That's enough for now. It's cold and I want to go warm up my feet.

My three readers will have to wait for more later.

2010—Please, Please PLEASE be better than 2009

2010-01-02T22:42:00.003-05:00

Go ahead 2010, put me out of business, I dare you. What would I do if I didn't have anything to complain about? Lordy, I might have to learn how to be happy. I'd have to change my heading to a face with an inane smile and the words "Isn't it a perfect world?"
Gag.
Fortunately, if the last weeks of 2009 are any indication, it will be quite a while before I have to face that lugubrious decision.
Evidence:
Republicans. 'Nuff said.

The Republicans haven't run out of negative energy. They are sort of a political anti-matter. Physicists theorize that shortly after the Big Bang which started this whole mess we live in, and we're talking nano-seconds here, matter and anti-matter particles started interacting and blowing each other up—sort of like Sunnis and Shiites, or Protestant Irish and Catholic Irish back in the day (not so long ago)—and that fortunately (or not, depending on your attitude) there was just enough more matter particles so that something survived to become galaxies and planets and the earth and Big Macs and Penthouse girls' breast implants.

So in Washington someone, the President, or even feckless Democrats, proposes something which might actually be useful to the country and its citizens, and the Republicans stand up and say "No!" and many of the useful things get blown up. But some things survive, like the almost totally eviscerated health reform bill. But it is there, and given the hysteria and fear-mongering of the past year that is a victory. The victor is stumbling along with one leg, one arm, one eye, but is still moving.

Tom Ridge and others have come out and fulminated against the "underwear" terrorist (isn't that the ultimate put-down—not only to fail at blowing up yourself and the plane you are on, but to be known for where you stored the explosives?) being tried in federal court. They think he should be tortured for any other information he has.
First, he has been singing like Wagnerian soprano to the authorities about where he got his stuff and who put him up to it. Second, if you follow news reports about this guy you can see that he is a confused and malleable individual who would not be trusted with any important information by any sane terrorist leader (if "sane terrorist leader" is not a tautology.) As far as information goes, where this guy is concerned, there isn't any there there, as Gertrude Stein once said about Oakland.

But what else to expect from the Repubes? Senator DeMint of South Carolina (where else—like I said before somewhere, for the curmudgeon, South Carolina is the gift that just keeps on giving) is blocking the nomination of a Transportation Security chief because he may be favorable to airport luggage handlers unionizing. God forbid airport employees being happy with their work—and maybe being more concerned and alert to security breaches. Preventing unionization is a more important issue for Demint than having a leader for an important security agency.
Go figure.

Then there is CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Committee which is holding a convention partly sponsored by—wait for it—the John Birch Society.
Younger readers may not know this, but the Birchers were the original wingnut radical right organization. Rachel Maddow had great fun last week countering their complaints that she was misreporting their past statements and positions. For the record, they decided that everyone in power in America back in the 50's and 60's was a Communist. We're talking ab0ut President Eisenhower here—he was a Commie, according to Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society and a major flake. Fluoride in water was a Communist mind-control plot, etc. Having these asshats co-sponsor what is going to be a major conservative/Republican event has got to be the nadir of conservatism in America. Will any person of intelligence ever arise to rescue conservative thought from the crazies?
Back in the sixties I thought that presidential candidate Barry Goldwater (google him if you don't know who he is) was a dangerous wacko. He is sane compared to the Republicans of today.

And finally there is Dick "the mouth" Cheney. Not happy that he is being dissed for the things he did as Presi—oops, I mean, as vice-president, he is seemingly everywhere these days complaining about what the current administration is doing. Even when it is doing the same things he did.
Man. I wish he'd stayed in that undisclosed location he used to haunt when he was VP. Couldn't someone have barred the door?

So, in conclusion, I look forward to a cheerful year of complaint and bewailing of the state of the world.
Life is good.

Happy freakin' New year!

2009-12-31T21:07:00.003-05:00

Actually, your curmudgeon is in an uncharacterisically good mood here in the last hours of the year and decade.
The fact that 2009 and this decade are actually, finally, ending has something to do with it.
Foolishly, I always expect the next year to be better.
Well, sometimes it is, just enough times for me to keep up the expectation. But really, I'm getting to the age where any year in which I am still alive is pretty much a good year.
I had all my children here for Christmas. (Seems funny to call them children, they are all in their thirties)
Also my son-in-law and his mother, a delightful woman. Her husband is a doctor and had emergency room duty all Christmas, so she came up here rather than sit home alone. We all had a good time and ate copious amounts of food, most of which son-in-law Jerome and children cooked. There were presents exchanged, but that was the least part, nice as it was, of the holiday.
There was a very nice Christmas eve candle light service at the church, and this past Sunday we had our 45th annual Messiah Sing. Getting this thing on is one of my biggest responsibilities of the year. I put in some sweat and worry, but it seems to all work out. I have people who love to come to be soloists, a good organist, a great conductor/friend, and a lovely woman who takes care of refreshments for the crowd afterwards. All chorus and orchestra are volunteers, many who come year after year for this. When the music starts I am just about as happy as I get.
Here is a little video my daughter shot of the "For unto us" chorus.

I love this piece. It's nice to have a remembrance of the performance.

Sooo,
I wish a happier and more satisfying new year to both my readers, and hope they find something more constructive to do than read my meandering wailings. And a happy and better new year to all those out there who are struggling with disease, joblessness, and worry; and to all those making an effort to make this world a better place than it is.
God bless everyone—with no exceptions.
Cheers.

Year-end Round-up

2009-12-20T23:55:00.005-05:00

I’ve let this go quite a while.
It’s a combination of being busy, being tired and being ill. Ill on two levels: one is the common cold, and a cough that wouldn’t give up for three freakin’ weeks. Thank God for codeine and brandy.
The other level of illness is the behavior of Congress over the health care bill.
Boy, I’m sick of this.
I’m sick of feckless Democrats not having the fortitude to use reconciliation to get that damn bill passed WITH the public option.
And why hasn’t Obama been out there kicking ass?
I’m beginning to think he’s just too nice a guy. To be president.
But he’s still better than McCain so I better shut up.

This end of the year time is a time for lists and awards, so here’s mine:

Top weasels of the year—
Joe Lieberman. He is the most top weasel, the weasel extraordinaire, the weasel nonpareil. He leads the country this year in hypocrisy, perfidy, ego-tripping at the expense of Americans, and probably corruption, tho I have no proof of that.
This is a guy who in the 90’s co-sponsored a bill to GET RID OF the filibuster. He had all kinds of mean, nasty things to say about the filibuster back then. But NOW—now he uses it as a threat to get all the things out of the health bill he doesn’t like. Which just happens to be things which would help the common American (as opposed to the political and health insurer type Americans) like the public option and the medicare buy-in. The medicare buy-in which he favored just months ago. I really think the insurance companies have their hooks into him. How else could he be like this? Like Mitch McConnell, it looks like corruption, whether monetary or spiritual, has just taken over his bearing and appearance. They are pod people—health insurer pod people.
A pox on you, Joe Lieberman.

Weasels in no particular order of malefaction—
the aforementioned Mitch McConnell, DeMint, Stupid Stupak and all “just say no for the sake of saying no no matter who it hurts” Republicans.
These guys represent the big business, insurance company and medical equipment companies, not the people of their districts.

It’s possible that someone could make a principled case against health care reform, tho I can’t imagine what it would be. But I’ll concede the possibility. But these guys, and gals, lets not leave out the women of the GOP, did not do that. They supported the lies put out by the radical right and the insurance providers, the “death panels” the equating of Obama with Hitler etc. There were no principles on exhibit amongst the Republicans this year.

Idiots of the year:
This is a crowded field. For simplicity I’ll divide the honors:
Political idiocy—
the Republicans of course, but even more so—
the tea-baggers with their phony populism (supported by health insurers and Dick Armey’s lobbying organization), their signs with Obama wearing a Hitler mustache. The fools who adopted a name with a sexual connotation we don’t want to discuss here.
Rolling up in third place—feckless Democrats who just wouldn’t roll up their sleeves and do what needed to be done. Where are the “Damn the torpedoes” guys?
Everyone was worrying about bi-partisanship and sixty votes no matter what the cost.

Sexual idiocy—
Governor Sanford of South Carolina (South Carolina was the gift that just kept giving this year) with his Argentine mistress and his coining of a new euphemism for marital infidelity— “hiking in Appalachia.” Thanks, gov, for that one. He also gave an object lesson in how NOT to do a press conference.
Runner up— John Ensign. Not only did he cheat, he put his mistress’s husband and son on the Republican Party payroll. And he got his Mom and Dad to put out $96,000 to the mistress and her hubby, as consolation perhaps. Nice parents!
There were others, but, you know, it gets hard to keep track of them all. Funny how so many of them belong to those “family values” religious sects.

Professional Liars of the year award to:
Fox News. Not only did they create the news, as in starting the “teabagging” protests, they also exhibited a remarkably traitorous attitude to this country and its president. Sample of that, and also their stupidity—their delight at the Olympics going to Rio de Janiero not Chicago. They saw it as a personal failing of the Pres, didn’t care about the dollars it would bring to this country, and just wallowed in their hate. I don’t know who the foolish woman was that I saw in a clip from their station, but she was saying how nice a city Rio was. Apparently she hadn’t visited the gangster-run favelas or met any of the police assassination squads. I hope she gets a REAL look at the city on her next visit.

Professional Idiot “News” man of the year:
Glenn “Mr. Tears” Beck. May your tear ducts dry up.
Traitor of the Year Award:
Rush Limbaugh, who wants Obama to fail. May you trip in your studio, Rush, and end up with a boom mike up your butt.

Religious wackos of the year award— to the “C” Street “Family,” whose “power theology” would have Jesus spinning in his grave, if He hadn’t been resurrected. This is the group supporting John Ensign and other miscreants who actually live there on the premises. These guys are also supporting the Ugandan “kill the gays” legislation which is pending in that country. Good work, guys. I hope there really is a hell so you can rot in it.

Hey, it’s not all bad, there are some heroes.
The “not afraid to speak out award” goes to Barney Frank, who told that wingnut libertarian with the “Obama as Hitler” poster that arguing with her is like arguing with a dining room table. The Democrat with the most balls is the openly gay one.
I originally said "Bernie Sanders," who tho he didn't make that remark, is also a principled member of congress and fighter for the right.

The “I ain’t taking any of this shit anymore” award goes to Jenny Sanford, who, unlike other wives of political adulterers, did not stand by her hubby as he made his public confessions and apologies. She wasn’t playing by the old “political wife” rules, and rightly so. I hear she’s recently filed for divorce. Take him for all he’s worth dear, but leave him a little for giving us the “hiking in Appalachia” thing.

The “Exhibiting Real Class” award goes to—Michelle Obama. For everything. The Curmudgeon loves her.

Anybody knows of any other heroes of 2009, or any of the oughts, let me know. I’ll be glad to celebrate deserving people.
I’ll turn over a new leaf for 2010—optimism and joy, that’s the ticket.

Should last a week or two, just like other resolutions.

Anyhoo, I sincerely wish both of my regular readers a happy holiday season and new year, whatever your beliefs or lack thereof.

Berlin Wall is falling down, falling down…

2009-11-09T21:27:00.007-05:00

I need to stop and commemorate this anniversary. 20 years ago tonight the Berlin Wall started to crumble. Those of you, amongst my three or four (on a good night) readers who were young or not yet born may not realize what that means to those of us "of a certain age."

And I have to go back a ways. (It's what we old farts do when we tell a story, we go back a ways.) When I was in grade school thru high school, back in the fifties and early sixties, people all over the globe lived with the idea that there could conceivably be a nuclear war. As a grade schooler, I remember being marched down to the basement floor of the school with my class and told to lean against the wall with my arms over the back of my head. All I remember about it was that it was for "emergencies." What did I know of nuclear war? Of course this pathetic activity would not have saved any of us from incineration. But it gave adults something to do.

People built bomb shelters, stored up supplies. Most of us went on our way, saying to ourselves, "nah, it won't happen" and keeping our fingers crossed. 1961 was a particularly anxious year, with President Kennedy's ill-advised attempt to start an anti-Castro revolution in Cuba in April—I was with my high school choir in Niagra Falls singing for some kind of Welsh convention ( really, it's true) when we got the news, and we thought that things were going to be getting pretty hot pretty soon. Happily they didn't.

Then in August the East Germans built their miserable wall, because too many of their citizens were realizing the limitations of Communism and fleeing to the west. Many of us thought that that might be the start of something, but geopolitical realities prevented a war from starting, though that was no consolation to the East Germans.

Thereafter, several times a year, we would hear in the news of someone being shot trying to get over the wall, or captured trying to sneak through the gates. Occasionally there was a happy story of a successful escape, but there were many deaths. It seemed like the ugly thing would be there forever, and it was a symbol of the Iron Curtain itself, the wall of arms and might separating the West from the East.

Then Mr. Gorbachev became premier of the Soviets, and he knew the times were a'changing. He's a personal hero of mine. He started the process which led to the eventual dissolution of the Soviet empire. By 1989, there was so much pressure from its people for more freedom, the East German government was unraveling. Even they couldn't stomach shooting that many people. And Russia was no help—Gorbachev had already told the East Germans it was time to swim with the tide.

So one day in November of 1989, the ninth, it was announced that the government would allow East Germans to go wherever they pleased. The details were unclear, and the government certainly didn't mean to have happen what did happen, but suddenly thousands of East Berliners were at the gates demanding to be let thru for a stroll in the Western part of the city.

At the Bornholmer Strasse crossing, there were so many people making demands, and so little direction from the government, that someone in charge just said to himself, "Shit, we can't keep this up," and opened the gates. When guards at other crossing points got the news, they also opened their gates. Within days, pieces of the Berlin Wall became a coveted souvenir of a closed period of history.

And nobody got nuked.

I remember driving to work through Pittsfield early the next day, hearing the news with mouth agape, and tears streaming down my face. I knew this was the end for Communism in Eastern Europe. I knew that shortly Czechoslovakia, birthplace of my parents and home of my forebears, would follow suit. By the end of November, President Husák had resigned, and by the end of December Alexander Dubček, another personal hero, was speaker of the parliament and Vaclav Havel was President of Czechoslovakia.

Why this means so much to me:
My father left Slovakia (there was no Czechoslovakia at the time) to avoid serving in the Austro-Hungarian army and to seek his fortune in the United States. Later he went back and married my mother and brought her over too. So I have family back there. Back in the sixties, my mother's sister wanted to see her again so she came to see us. She came alone—her husband had to stay behind so they wouldn't defect together. And it's not like he was some big deal with a lot of state secrets. He was a train engineer for pete's sake. What, were they afraid he'd reveal the schedule of the Bratislava—Sered express to Western spies? But that's the way the paranoid mind works. He came the next year, without his wife. One of my cousins is a nuclear physicist, and her husband one too. They could not travel abroad together. One always had to stay behind under the thumb of the state so that the other would return.

By New Year's Day, 1990, that was all over.

I have never known that kind of oppression personally, but the experience runs in my family. We know from oppression. Somewhere back at the old homestead, there is a picture of my mother's father, in New York City. When I asked what he was doing there, my mother replied, "He had to leave the country for a while, the police were after him for agitating for Slovak independence from Hungary." When I hear people nattering on about Obama being a dictator, trying to start a "socialist" or "communist" state, I know they are idiots. They don't know anything about it. They never had the oppression, they have no clue.
Bad cess to them.

Me, I feel better knowing that being a pain in the ass runs in the family.
Good night all.
Be grateful for where you are and when you live.
Here are a couple of videos showing the fall of the Wall. Be prepared to shed tears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_eCVhCGYwE&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM2qq5J5A1s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLS17dCidEI

Election time again?

2009-11-04T20:26:00.006-05:00

The biggest problem with not posting regularly is that so damn much happens it's hard to keep up. Like I said last time, I'm n0t as young as I used to be.

So the elections yesterday, Nov. 3, produced mixed results. In Maine the ballot to disallow gay marriages was voted in, as was an initiative to expand medical marijuana usage. This may be the first concrete proof of the idea that marijuana damages brain cells. Even if I get sick, I'll vacation somewhere else.

Republicans won govenorships in New Jersey and Virginia. From what I heard prior to the elections those were not big surprises. Some people think they were. The Republicans (what's left of them) are hoping these off-off year elections will give them momentum in 2010. Good luck with that.
The Democrats are saying it proves that voters want things to get done and point to their victory in New York's 23rd district and say it proves their agenda must move forward. Good luck with that. Senate majority leader Harry Reid is unsure that there will be a health care bill by the end of the year. One wonders what the use of a majority is if it takes so long to get done something most of the country wants done.

About the 23rd district elections—it was a satisfying pie in the face for conservatives who have taken the Republican party hostage. All the big stars and would be stars came there to kneel at the altar of right-wing wingnuttery (Gov. Pawlenty of Minn., where will you go for votes now?). Pawlenty, Sarah of the sexy boots and half-term governorship Palin, Dick Armey (a major mover behind the "tea-baggers") all came to support Doug Hoffman, a carpet-bagger who doesn't even live in the district, over the Republican party nominee, Ms. Scozzafava. In a remarkable and delightful turn of events, after withdrawing from the race because of the outside blitz for Mr. Hoffman, she threw her support to the Democrat, Mr. Owens, who finally won.

Upstaters know a pig in the poke when they see one. And kudos to Ms. Scozzafava for recognizing that the Republican Party she thought she was a part of, is essentially dead. I remember when the Republicans were a respectable party.
I'm showing my age, but back in the day there were people one could admire and respect, even if one wouldn't vote for them. Eisenhower, Margaret Chase Smith, Henry Cabot Lodge, Prescott Bush (grandpa of our George). There is probably a lot of rotational velocity happening in their graves right now.

Back to Maine. That was a real disappointment. It is taking so long for people to recognize that the 14th amendment applies to everyone, not just those with officially approved love partners. It's time for people like me, straight people who do recognize those rights, to get up and do more to get rid of these hypocritical laws which deny people the right to celebrate their love in a legal marriage. With the divorce rate and co-habitation without benefit of clergy rising so rapidly among heterosexuals in this country, you'd think conservatives would be glad anyone is willing to marry. We have to recognize that the money for these anti-gay campaigns only comes from a few sources, mostly very rich conservative businessmen who want to exercise their power without going thru the messy business of running for office themselves. And the Catholic Church, the church of "priests were always meant to be men and the sexual-abuse thing has nothing to do with that". I read that there were second offerings taken is some churches for funds to support the anti-gay marriage vote. Isn't that illegal?
Of course the Church has never shied away from telling it's parishioners that they would be liable for hell-fire if they didn't vote the Catholic way. I know, I used to be Catholic, and I remember.

I didn't mean this to be a diatribe against the church. One doesn't expect anything different from that quarter so why dwell on it? And I do recognize that the Church has very often done a lot of good in the world. But I am more concerned with the way certain individuals and other organizations flow money into a state where they don't even have any, or a large, presence, to influence the general vote, especially when they use lies and fear to get their way.

This is a subversion of democracy.

I live in Massachusetts, which has allowed same-sex marriage for some years now, and last time I looked out the window, the state was still there. Heterosexuals were still getting married as well as same-sex couples—the world has not ended for us.

It must be a real stone in the throat for conservatives to see that the state is not falling apart. Too bad.
I'm done.

Drones

2009-10-23T23:38:00.002-04:00

I gotta start posting more. There's too much to fulminate about. I get distracted, lose my notes, start rolling my eyes about something else—it's tough trying to keep up.
And I'm not as young as I used to be.

So there is an interesting article in this week's New Yorker about the use of drone planes against enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Especially in Pakistan. There is a so-called "secret" war waged by the CIA (Rachel Maddow called this "the worst kept secret since Elton John came out") going on there, using drones to spot and then shoot missiles at Al-Queda leaders. Sounds good. Except in tribal areas of Pakistan, a country with which we are not at war (yet?) we have killed upwards of 700 (estimated—it's a no-news area) people to off about 2 dozen terrorist leaders. So is this good or not? Is it worth 700 "collateral" damage deaths to kill a few Al-Queda guys? Do you suppose that maybe those collateral deaths might NOT be raising two or five or more dedicated revenge seekers to fight against us?

There has been a problem in Afghanistan, where we actually are waging war, with innocent people getting picked off by drones, and it is causing trouble for our troops and the politicians we support there. And this is a place where we (mostly) know what is going on. Some wedding party gets wiped out by a misguided rocket, at least people have a chance to get queasy about it. Although a stronger reaction is hoped for.

Anyway, when the CIA operates, and this is without any oversight or accountability (the CIA is, after all, a secret organization) how do we know the operations are effective? And don't you think it's a little dangerous to have non-military personnel deciding who lives and dies in a country we aren't at war with?

Apparently Obama has approved more more drone attacks in 9 months than George Bush did in the last three years. I don't know who is giving this guy advice, but I think he might want to bring other voices into the conversation. The American halo is already tarnished by torture—shouldn't we be just a leetle bit more cautious about killing operations in a country we'd like to be on our side?

Back in the seventies the public and Congress were justifiably upset about CIA freedom to assassinate or abet assassination, so we passed laws. Now it's against the law for an agent to slit an Al-Queda leader's throat, but okay for an agent in Virginia or California or wherever to guide a drone (possibly by information provided by an informant who may have a personal stake in the removal of the intended victim) and shoot a Hell-fire Missile at a house which contains the target, his children, his in-laws, his friends, his baby-sitter, whomever.

I don't like killing, even if I sometimes feel mad enough to think I could, but I'd be more comfortable with the single throat-slitting, especially if it were vetted by a panel of military personnel (not spooks) as being useful. At least if there was a mistake only one person would suffer, not his extended family and friends.

It's a bitch to have to think about stuff like this. I don't even like what I said in the last paragraph. I don't like that it's true.

But most people don't think about this. And it's understandable. Hell, I don't think about it much of the time, being involved with problems of my own survival (and sometimes of my own making). There are drones in the air and there are drone voters on the ground. I would like for enough of us to be concerned enough of the time so that we can get out elected representatives to do their jobs and deal with this stuff properly. And they won't do it properly unless they know we are properly concerned.

And this brings me to drones in the Congress. Specifically Repubicans droning on with the party line of "no."
30 Republicans voted against a bill that would forbid the military from using contractors which forced their employees to sign agreements they wouldn't sue if raped or discriminated against. This was an Al Franken bill which was inspired, if that's the right word, by an incident in which Jamie Lee Jones was drugged and gang raped and imprisoned in a shipping container by Halliburton employees.
Why am I not surprised?
Actually, I am not so much surprised at the actions of Halliburton employees, they have the former VP Cheney on their side, as I am, still, by the feckless perfidy of the 30 Repubicans who voted against the Franken bill. These people really believe that corporations are more important than people. Halliburton is so important that it doesn't matter if one of their employees is raped. Repubicans voted against a Consumer Protection Agency. Is their thinking "why protect consumers?" Who do they think "consumers" are? Not the peoiple who voted them into office, certainly. Consumers are some sort of low-level life form which corporations are allowed to feed on like Morlocks fed on the Eloi in H.G. Wells' time travellor story.
Consistently Repubicans side with corporations against their own constituents. Of course, corporations give them more money. Corporations are better than the average American citizen because they have more money.
Hell, you all know this. Corporations are the embodiment of capitalism which is the bedrock of the American way. That's why you and I don't matter.
Okay, I've got more—haven't even got to the state of the art world yet.
Another night.
In the meantime, get a job and do something more useful than reading me.

Didn't see THIS coming department

2009-10-09T23:22:00.003-04:00

Obama gets the Nobel Prize for Peace.
Who'd a thunk?
I'm conflicted. I'm always happy to hear some American has gotten a Nobel prize for something—in spite of conservative opinion, I do have pride in this country—and I have to admit a certain swelling of the chest on hearing of Obama's award.

But I have to ask: the guy has been president for 9 months, tops. Sure he has the ability to inspire people (those who aren't being ruined by health and energy industry flacks and their lies) and he has lofty goals. But has he done anything yet?

This has got to be the mother of all expectations—how would you like a Nobel prize when you were just getting started? This is worse than the most prototypical Jewish mother. Or Slovak mother. Or—your nationality/religion here—mother.

The pressure is on, Obama—you better produce. I bet he woke up this morning and heard the news and said "Oh, shit."
It's not like the guy has enough on his plate.

He can live up to it if he starts fighting and gives up the "oh we can be bi-partisan and love each other" crap.

Some reporters have suggested that this was as much a slap at the Bush administration as an acknowledgment of the greatness of the Obama administration. It's easy to see it that way, especially when the Nobel committee mentions the way Obama has reached out to the rest of the world, and suggested that we (America) are ready to work with, as opposed to, well, opposing, the rest of the world. So he's given a prestigious award for being a good citizen.

I hope it inspires him to really get out there and kick butt for health care, repeal of "don't ask, don't tell", Palestinian/Israeli peace, add your particular obsession here.

The right, so desperate, cheers America losing the Olympics

2009-10-05T20:35:00.007-04:00

So the Olympics are going to Rio, not Chicago.
Full disclosure, this decision doesn't affect me one way or the other. I understand that this is important to people that many regard it as an honor to host the Olympics, and I know that different people who would be affected had legitimate arguments for their positions either for or against. I myself wondered why Obama was going to Copenhagen to argue the case for Chicago. I have since learned that leaders from all the contesting cities also showed up, so it wasn't just a personal, quixotic gesture of Obama's. I stand corrected (well, I'm sitting down actually).
Now, the other leaders of losing countries went home and people in their countries were sad, but as far as I know, did not consider the Olympic Committee's rejection as a referendum on their leader's abilities.

Not here, however. The Wretched Right, the conservative wingnuts, so dismayed that their policies were roundly defeated in the last election, so upset at that liberal NEEGROW having won, are desperately clutching at the straw of Obama's failure to get the Olympics to Chicago. Finally, that sonovabitch failed at something, they exult. It doesn't matter to them that they are slapping Chicago in the face. They probably figure that Chicago deserves it, for giving us Obama. It doesn't matter to them that they are slapping America in the face. As long as they can get Obama while they do it…

It goes to show how desperate and pathetic Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the rest of that unpatriotic, weasel crew—I'm sorry, I just maligned weasels—the rest of that unpatriotic, asshat crew are and how ineffectual. They would rather see America thrown in the dust than see Obama accomplish anything good for the country, even if it's just getting an expensive, though entertaining, sports spectacle to come here. And that's all they got. So sad.

I think I remember a time, way back in my youth, when conservatism actually stood for something, as opposed to just being against anything. But it was in the foggy distance of my youth (I did have one) so I might misremember.

Closer to home, John Ensign is getting into deeper water, his affair, his hiring of his mistress's son, his payoff to the mistress's family, are getting the legal attention they deserve. It'd be nice to see one of these philanderers and his vagabond pecker get thrown in the hoosegow. (Did I really just say that?)
I'm still waiting for both he and Mark Sanford to resign, they being so adamant that philanderers should resign, if the philanderers happened to be Bill Clinton.

Ya know, just writing about these guys makes me want to go wash my hands.

If you want to have fun, watch friday night's (Oct. 2) Rachel Maddow show and see her lose it over the Moment of Geek—when someone "gets shagged by a rare bird."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#33148607

That's it for now.

Public Option?

2009-10-01T17:26:00.002-04:00

Well, the senate Finance Committee has shot down the public option, for now. Senator (Gr)assley of Iowa has shown his asshattery again. Not long ago I saw a video where a woman told him that the Lewin Group, from which he had been getting info on health care, was actually an organization wholly owned by United Health Care, a health Industry member.
Apparently Sen. Grassley didn't care enough to check up on this because he referenced the Lewin Group again during the Finance Committee discussion, repeating the same industry lies.
Where is that man's brain? In some health industry lobbyist's pocket?
Just asking.

A couple more things…

2009-09-28T23:22:00.003-04:00

Just want to note the passing of my favorite conservative, William Safire. I disagreed politically with him on just about everything, but he was a gentleman. And you have to give props to him for coming up with "nattering nabobs of negativism." I'd say Safire made VP Spiro Agnew what he was with the stuff he wrote for him.
And I always looked at his word usage column in the NYT. That, I really respected him for. We need more defenders of the language and it's usage in this world, not less.
Bye, Bill, thanks for the memories.

I don't like to dump on Obama, but sometimes he just deserves it. What is it with this bullfeather trip to Denmark he is making? To advance the cause of nuclear non-proliferation? Uh-uh. It's to put in his two cents for Chicago getting the Olympics for, oh, whatever year, it doesn'tmatter, the Pres of the USA has more important things to do. There's this health care issue…

He should be here putting all his weight behind the health care issue all the time until he gets what he wants. No one is going to die if Chicago doesn't get the Olympics, fer pete's sake. People are dying now because of insurance company greed. Check your priorities, Barack. Get Barack on track and pay attention to the real issues.

Besides he's going to look like a real doofus if the Olympic Committee, not known for either intelligence or integrity, gives the nod to some other city. He better hope those guys like him.

That's it.
I'm outa here.

Doggone…

2009-09-27T22:25:00.002-04:00

…I'm too mellow to be really bitchy tonight.
I had a good friend stay with me the past ten days. He does the butter sculpture at the "Big E", Eastern states Exposition, and comes here for that. Nice to have an old buddy around, I don't have to drink alone.

Still…
Repubicans don't have a lock on stupidity. One Democratic Senator, Kent Conrad, of North Dakota, said in the Senate Finance Committee that "Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and other European states have managed to contain costs and provide good health care without government-run systems." Except, those countries DO have government-run health care systems. You know, those "socialist" health-care systems.
C'mon, North Dakota, I know there aren't that many of you, but surely you can do better than this.
Unless it's the accepting of health care industry money that makes one stupid.

Maybe the Surgeon General should look into this.
And why is there a "Surgeon" General and not a "General Practitioner" General?
Which kind of doctor do YOU see more often?
I digress. Seems to happen fairly often.

I saw in the New York Times today about how the Dutch are working on preventing illegal shipments of trash from leaving Rotterdam, which they said was one of the biggest ports in Europe.
This trash goes anywhere in the world where it can be dumped. Which means, of course, poor third world countries where officials can be bought and people have no voice. Not too much trash gets dumped in Monaco, or near any Club Med-worthy locations. Of course, I understand that we have a fine old tradition in this country of putting waste in areas where people are essentially disenfranchised, either by ignorance or political malfeasance. Pretty hard for us to throw stones.

Some trash shipments make sense, like if a lot of plastic products are imported from China, say, it makes sense to send the broken, outdated and unwanted detritus back to China where it can be recycled into more plastic stuff. At least it's not being dumped near some village in Guinea Bissau or a similar location.

I think about trash and recycling a lot. I live in a town where this is fairly important, our dump fees depend on the efficiency of our recycling efforts. I feel guilty if I throw tinfoil into the waste basket instead of the recycling container and God forbid I should just throw away a plastic bag—and why do I have any anyway?
Six and a half billion people on this planet can generate a lot of waste. But isn't it funny that it is only the developed nations that have a problem with waste disposal? There aren't any illegal dumps in the US of A that I know of with waste from Guinea Bissau or Cameroon.
Just where do they put all THEIR used toasters and broken radios and ipods and out-of-style decorator lamps? We should ask.
Could learn something.

Alright. That's enough.
Good night.

I'm a conservative

2009-09-19T23:36:00.010-04:00

Yes folks, (both of you) I have arrived at the logical conclusion that I must be a conservative. What has led me to this rather startling conclusion is the Rachel Maddow Show's coverage of the "Values Voter Summit." This is an event organized by the Family Research Council which attracts all the Repubicans who want to ingratiate themselves with the tin hat fringe of the right. Many leading lights of the Repubican party will show up at some point, like Romney (he of the haircut) and Tim Pawlenty and Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor.
They have some kind of workshops called "breakout sessions" where they discuss topics such as "True Tolerance—countering the Homosexual Influence in Public Schools" and "Global Warming Hysteria—the new face of the 'death agenda'("if people are the problem, what is the Final Solution")."

So—if 'True Tolerance' means opposing homosexuality, and if trying to save the environment is a 'death agenda', then, ipso facto, being liberal must mean being a conservative.

And here I thought it was just "Talk like a Pirate" day. It's also "Opposites day."
Aarrr, I am a conservative, matey, an' if ye don't believe it ye'll have to walk the plank. The Repubican plank.
So if I am a conservative, then politicians like Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor must be liberals. They are certainly liberal in their condemnation of those who don't think like them, who dare to differ from their white male anglo-saxon protestant self image and heritage.
They are liberal in their asshattery.

I am proud to be a conservative conserving the freedoms listed in the Constitution and Amendments, and protecting them from yahoos who want to deprive freedom from those they fear and hate.

I'm getting pretty sick of those malcontents and their butchering of the English language and their hate-filled and fearful little minds. The Repubican leadership won't acknowledge that the rhetoric of hate they are ignoring/encouraging can lead to danger and violence. They don't realize that the ones who are energized by this talk, once all the "liberal" enemies are gone, will come after they themselves. Hate and fear, once unleashed, cannot be brought back to heel easily.

Okay, now here's a weird little news tidbit— Public Policy Reporting says that 18% of New Jersey conservatives think that Obama is the Anti-Christ, and 17% are not sure. Is this weird and wild or just dispiriting?

Just goes to show you how stupid people are. Actually, I, I AM the anti-Christ, it's just not public knowledge yet.

It will be, you heard it here first.
Soon, my minions will be living in your condominiums and enjoying those time-shares in Cozumel.
Live (or not) with it.

Isn't the internet wonderful? In one short posting I have gone from a conservative to the anti-Christ. (some would argue there is no difference).
Talk about self-promotion. I love the world we are living in.
good night all (two of you)

Speech

2009-09-09T21:26:00.007-04:00

I heard on NPR that the Repubicans are upset that Obama said the distortions they've been promulgating all summer are lies.
They just hate the truth.
I missed most of the speech, alas. I was involved with something else and logged on late. I was trying to listen to NPR's live feed but there were gaps, dead air, and I was missing things. I tried CNN to no avail, then I remembered—"Hey, I have a radio!"
Remember radios?
I'm so pathetically computer-oriented anymore. I need to find a twelve-step program.

I did hear the big O be very firm about getting this thing done, and it seems, with a public option also. Good.
'Bout time.

I also heard the Repubican response by Rep. Charles Boustany, the Louisiana doctor. He said the Repubes were willing to work on a bi-partisan plan. Horsefeathers. "GOP Chairman Michael Steele and House Minority Leader John Boehner …have said they would oppose any plan put forth by the president, with or without the controversial public option." This from NPR. I believe I also heard earlier this summer that GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell also said that. Some bipartisanship.
Why should I believe that anything else in the response was truthful?

Nah, the Repubicans won't play because it isn't their ball. They'd rather incite wingnuts to shout down Representatives in town hall meetings and to show up with their guns strapped to their hips and to call Obama a Nazi.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

But hey, if weren't for them and those other minority white males, who would we have to laugh at?
Well, Michelle Backman isn't male but anything she says is risible, or would be if she wasn't so sadly serious about it.

Okay, I've bitched enough for the night. I'm glad to see the world hasn't gotten any better, otherwise I'd have to shut down this blog.

Wacky Wackenhut, Alberto Gonzales, other fun stuff

2009-09-07T21:27:00.004-04:00

I'm back after a short hiatus to celebrate my birthday.
Not saying how old I am but there is a Beatles song about it—"will you still need me, will you still feed me, etc."
Actually the Beatles didn't sing "etc."

Well, there was news last week about our intrepid American contractors, the ones guarding our embassy in Afghanistan. Those wacky Wackenhut boys, drinking and running around naked and doing lewd things. Reporters have called it "deviant behavior."
On behalf of all you deviants out there, I will protest this insult.

It's just amazing the lack of quality in our contracted foreign service employees. Why aren't our embassies being protected by Marines anymore? Those guys were proud and took their job and their dignity seriously. I may be a conscientious objector, but I thought they looked great and fitting in front of our embassies back in the day. Kinda made you proud, no matter what your position on war.

Now we have yahoos being paid by you and me but with no accountability to you and me for their behavior. They are only accountable to their employers, and you know how corporations cover their asses no matter how bad they've been. One of my biggest gripes is hearing how some corporation has paid a big fine for some malfeasance but allowed to get away with not admitting any culpability.
Who started that shit?
Make the bastards get down on their knees and beg, i say.

Anyway, I wonder whose pockets got greased to allow Wackenhut to keep its contract despite many complaints about its incompetence.

On a lighter note, someone, one Melissa Dunphy, has written an opera the libretto of which is the records of the hearing of Alberto Gonzales before Congress. The appearance where he couldn't remember anything. It is, in the little I heard on the web site, quite accomplished, listenable and rather charming.
Also I'm developing a crush on the woman who sings the Alberto part, but that's neither here nor there. I develop a lot of crushes. A few drinks and a good look in the mirror and it goes away.
I digress.

One of the neat things about this production is that the composer, being a little pissed that there was only one woman on the committee questioning him, has switched genders on all the participants. All the male senators' parts are sung by women, and the lone female, who was Senator Feinstein, is sung by a male. It's a delicious conceit.
You can hear segments here:
http://www.gonzalescantata.com/

I can't wait for the original cast recording.
I hope Ms. Dunphy does more of this.

Actually I think Philip Glass should also take up the idea. it wouldn't be as engaging as Ms. Dunphy no doubt would be, but it would actually reflect the atmosphere of a Senate committee hearing more accurately. I'd love it if he did the Sotomajor hearings.

I can already hear the three note turn on "wise Latina woman." He couldn't repeat it more than the Repubicans did.

Oh, latest right wing wacko upset—fear that Obama will indoctrinate school children into socialism with his speech to them this week.
What a bunch of wingnuts. This is all racism at its core. Bill Clinton, even in his unzippered peccadilloes, wasn't treated like this. There are just too many people who are upset that that NEEEGROW is running the country.
The socialism thing is just a camouflage to hide the underlying racism.
So far what I've heard of the speech is basically the usual boilerplate "study hard and be good etc" stuff.
Definitely a hidden socialist message there.

That's as much as i can manage tonight. Both of you, my readers, go find something useful to do.

Kennedy

2009-08-27T22:47:00.003-04:00

It's taking me some time to wrap my head around the death of Ted Kennedy.
My political awareness started with John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War. I still wonder how the Vietnam situation would have gone had John F. lived. But he didn't. And I came into political awareness in the middle of one huge mother of a national conflict. And with the emergence of a Kennedy on the national scene.
So John was killed. Then his brother Bob was taken out by another wacko. Doubly sad because Bobby could have done more to resolve (if that's possible) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that Sirhan Sirhan was "protesting" by killing him than Nixon did. Ted was there, I didn't think much about him. One got tired of thinking that you NEEDED a Kennedy in government.
And of course he had his problems and was certainly responsible, whether thru confusion or cowardice or drunkenness or a combination thereof, for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. I think it was only his name that kept him from at least a manslaughter charge.
But surprise. Though he didn't get the wildness under control for another decade, he was all effective politician from the start. Whatever demons drove him early on, he worked hard to dispel their power later. He had a name and position that made him almost invulnerable. He used it to help the most vulnerable. He helped defend the civil rights of all of us, rich or poor. No one in recent memory was as effective as he in bringing sides together and effecting a compromise. And whatever he gave up today, he was back after tomorrow.

I'm remembering another Boston Irish politician of large appetite and girth, who also was an effective leader of his time—Tip O'Neil. And i imagine that political cartoonists feel as deeply the passing of Ted Kennedy as they did the retirement of Mr. O'Neil. Both were lions in the Congress, both were large in appetite, and both fought for the underdog.
What is it about Boston Irish anyway?

Anyway, I bet old Tip passed on good advice and was a role model for Teddy. Ted kennedy will be sorely missed.

Daily Show—health care

2009-08-21T21:39:00.004-04:00

Last night's Daily Show (August 20, 2009), had Betsy McCaughey, a woman who works for a medical instrument company of some kind, and who has a vested interest in keeping things the way they are—that is, profitable to the insurance and medical supply companies—and she is the one who has been charged with starting the "death panels" rumor. Of course she never called them death panels—but I haven't heard that she has spoken up to object to that.

Anyway, Stewart fairly eviscerated her. She was reduced to frantically rifling thru the massive volume of the written bill she brought with her to try to find support for her arguments.
It was fruitless. Jon Stewart was able to point out every one of her misconceptions, if that's what they were. Clearly, being a hack for a medical supply company has a negative effect on one's logical capabilities.

I guess I should give her props for having the nerve to come to his show, but that decision may just be a result of the deterioration of the aforementioned logical capabilities. If she really believed what she was saying, she was deluded and ignorant. If she didn't, she was mendacious to an incredible degree.

Speaking of mendacious, let's consider Senator Grassley of Iowa. He may vote against any health care plan because of the feedback he is getting from town meetings. The same town meetings that are being defiled by insurance company hacks who incite people with false rumors so that they forget what America is all about and shout down and refuse to allow serious debate. Also, he has been getting information from the Lewin Group, supposedly a "non-partisan" think tank which is studying health care. The Lewin Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Health Care, 2nd largest health care provider in the US, and of course, a company which profits greatly from the way things are.

In a video clip on the Rachel Maddow show, Sen Grassley, in response to an elderly constituent who confronted him with this information, said "I wasn't aware of that."

Iowans do not have a reputation for stupidity. Sen Grassley is an Iowan. Presumably, then, he is not stupid, especially since he has reached the political position he has. So how could he NOT be aware of what the Lewin group is and whence the information it provides? I'm afraid the only answer is that he is dishonest.

And yet, this is one of the people Barack Obama says is working toward a "bipartisan" resolution of the health care bill situation. I don't figure ol' Barack anymore. He may be a political "idiot savant," counting votes in Congress like Dustin Hoffman counting cards in the casino in "Rain Man," and knowing what he's got at any one moment, or he has some dirt on all those suckers and knows they will toe his line, or he is so desperate for bi-partisan support he is willing to overlook any evidence to the contrary of his desires.

Perhaps he is making a lot of bi-partisan talk now, and ready when the crunch comes, to say the hell with it and get the Democratic majority to get their act together and pass that gddm bill already and hell with the Repubicans.
I hope so.

Have you paid any attention to the expressions on the faces of the Fox news commentators and reporters? In all the clips I have seen, it just looks like they know they are being dishonest and delighting in it. Especially Hannity, the way he sits and tries to look casual.

What weasels.

that's it for tonight.

Not all Democrats roll over and play dead

2009-08-19T23:01:00.002-04:00

So I hope everyone could see the link I posted in the previous entry. Barney Frank telling it like it is to a deluded "Obama is a Nazi" character.

Also, 60 democrats in the House said to Obama, "Hey, no public option, no health care bill."

Somebody is finally figuring out that the Repubicans are not going to get all warm and fuzzy and go bi-partisan on us.

They would sooner go bisexual, and given the recent spate of Repubican pubic adventures, that may already have happened.
Not that there is anything wrong with being bisexual, but one shouldn't be a hypocrite about it. THAT is the wrong part.

Democrats have a majority in both houses, they should just go ahead and take care of business. But we still have those so called "Blue Dog" types who are acting like Repubicans, or like Repubicans should act. I suspect they are getting a leetle bit too much campaign money from the health industry. They should wake up and get with the program.

The majority of people in this country are not tin-hatted birthers, and they want affordable health care. Let's go and get it and let the insurance companies sink back into the hell they came from.

Isn't it just amazing how quickly politicians sell themselves out to stay in power? Alas, it's also so predictable.

Barney frank—gotta love him.

2009-08-19T22:50:00.001-04:00

This needs no commentary. it's just lovely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8

Un-American Republicans

2009-08-05T11:44:00.009-04:00

The latest perfidious Repubican tricks to subvert the elections they cannot win:
Organized disruption of Congressmens' town meetings. There's a script for this which traces back to Bob MacGuffie, a lobbyist associated with "Freedom Works" (irony isn't dead), a lobby with Dick Armey at its head. This plan calls for people to disrupt by shouting out questions, not letting the congressman speak, in general trying to rattle him.

This is not freedom of speech. It is fascism. Brown shirt tactics. It's also an indication of the bankruptcy of Repubican ideals and policies. They want to pretend that they are with the mainstream, this against all evidence to the contrary, and since they can't get legitimate voices to speak for them, they create mobs out of the disaffected, the "birthers', teabaggers and other tin-hatters. This is un-American behavior, and should be condemned as such far and wide.

This is a deep shame and pitiful. Civil discourse doesn't work for them because they have wrong-headed ideas, so they just try to shout down the people who are actually trying to do something.

The whole idea that the health care bill will force the elderly to an earlier death was started by a woman who works for a medical equipment company. In Virginia, Dem. Congressman Tom Perriello got letters from a Hispanic organization and the NAACP which urged him to vote against the "cap and trade" legislation. Problem is they were fake, written by Bonner and Associates, a Republican lobbying firm. Big surprise there.

I can't believe that Republican senators and congressmen are ignorant of all this. Why aren't they speaking out against this perversion and destruction of American democracy?

"Racist"

2009-07-19T23:53:00.003-04:00

I'm still thinking and aggravated by the Sotomayor hearings. All those wingnut Republicans worrying about whether she is a "racist" because she thinks a "wise Latina" can add something to the country's judicial discourse.

And this comes from many in that crowd who were racist themselves long time ago. Hey Jeff Sessions, still think white lawyers are a disgrace to their race for having black clients? Some of these people are influenced by the space cadets over at "C" Street (see Rachel Maddow's shows of the week of July 13th in particular for details) who think that if one of them has been elected to Congress and a position of leadership, it's because God wanted them there and they can do whatever they want. The voters apparently had little to do with it.

The rules the rest of us follow don't apply to them.
Sen. Tom Coburn is one of them. He's been advising John Ensign and the other famous Republican adulterer, Mark Sanborn.
Sen. Coburn, in talking to Sotomayor, responded to something she said with "You got some 'splainin' to do." Quoting Ricky Ricardo of "I Love Lucy" fame. Apparently he doesn't realize there is a difference between a Puerto Rican and a Cuban.
This is typical of the level of ignorance of these people. Anything that falls out of the purview of the Powerful White Male is just incomprehensible to them. They can't figure out why they are being picked on.
"It's discrimination!" they shout. Excuse me. White males controlling finances, wars goods and services—at the expense of everyone else in the country, including other white males who are just trying to make a living but who don't have the power or connections—they are feeling picked on? And they try to make this a rallying cry for white males everywhere.

This unemployed white male ain't buying it.
Really, the middle and lower class white male is just another minority to be used as far as these Powerful White Males are concerned. Those industrialists, senators, bankers etc. They don't really give a sh!te about me or any other person, white, black, male , female, other who isn't part of their privileged world.

I hope Sotomayor kicks ass when she's on the Supreme Court.

The Senate on Parade

2009-07-16T00:17:00.003-04:00

So the so -called Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings are in progress. I say so-called because it seems so far that most of the procedure is to allow Senators the opportunity to ramble on, possibly (or probably) make fools of themselves, to let them show their constituents what they believe, and, incidentally, confirm a new Supreme Court justice.

Rachel Maddow said it was looking like the Jeff Sessions show. Ol' Jeff is a treat. he is really concerned that Sotomayor is a "racist." This from a guy who was denied a judicial appointment years ago because he said a white lawyer was a "disgrace to his race" for having black clients. Also, he was accused of calling a black lawyer "boy." You can see why racism is a particular concern of his. He wants to restrict it to white men, apparently.

Now, yours truly hasn't been watching the whole hearings. They pay people to suffer through these things, nobody pays me. I see the clips and hear the comments, no doubt slanted according to the presenter's racial or social background. Some of them may even be "wise Latina women." God I hope so.

It's almost alarming how foolish the Republicans are looking. I say "almost alarming" because lately it's just a given that Republicans will look foolish. In the absence of anything substantive to criticize Sotomayor over, the Repubes are grabbing onto any statement anywhere that she might have said, in the hope that in her off-the-cuff statements there might be gold. Gold for them to use to deny her a seat on the Court.

So they rattle on about the "wise Latina woman thing" and wonder if her "life experiences" will influence her decisions on the court (no one seems to have gone thru her 17 years of decisions as an appellate court justice to see if there is any evidence of this.) You know, I don't recall if the Repubes were concerned about John Robert's life experiences having an influence on his decisions. I suspect not.

I have had a running joke, a stupid running joke (not that that has ever stopped me) about calling Republicans "Repubicans." Drop the "L" and one has a reference to our "nether regions" as they might have once been called. That's basically where the republicans do their thinking, it seems. Certainly John Ensign and Mark Sanford have exposed the factual underpinnings of my little wordplay.
That's all for now.

Various Irks

2009-07-09T23:32:00.004-04:00

Hmm. Seven Democrats from the House Intelligence Committee (there's an oxymoron for you) wrote a letter accusing Leon Panetta of lying when he said the CIA doesn't mislead Congress.

On the one hand, if true, this should be pursued and steps taken to punish people appropriately, even tho this letter-writing smacks of politics as much as it does moral outrage.

On the other hand—what? Are these guys surprised? Of course the CIA lied. It's part of their job. It's no surprise that once you encourage lies, cover-up and deception in one area, like foreign entanglements, that behavior slips over into other areas, like reporting truthfully to those who theoretically are monitoring the behavior.
A practice performed often enough becomes a habit, and the habit becomes hard to break.

Rep. Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania, Iraq war veteran, has started a movement in Congress to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I saw him on yesterday's Rachel Maddow show
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#31808171) and he was quite impressive. He's fairly conservative and straight, if that matters, and he's determined to get this passed. He made a good case for Obama NOT making an executive order to stop "Don't Ask", saying Congress passed the law and it was the responsibility of Congress to repeal it.
He also said that when you're patrolling an Iraqi street, you don't care about the people with you being straight or gay. You care about if they can shoot their weapons and act accordingly under fire.

Even tho he wants Congress, not Obama, to put a stop to "Don't ask," I still wish that Obama would say more than just he'd sign the bill if it came to his desk. I'd like to hear him being more forceful in speaking to Congress and the nation about it.

And what's with the continuation of Bush policies around secrecy? Transparent government? Only in selected areas it seems. Most be some kind of virus or mold there in the White house that causes Presidents to turn away from openness to secrecy. Yeah, you need some, but it seems like President Obama is being more like George Bush and less like Candidate Obama around this issue.
And don't let me get started on Guantanamo and military commissions to judge prisoners there.

There is a pertinent and thoughtful article by Jennifer Pozner on the NPR site about Sarah Palin and how the media treats her.
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106384060)
She's referring to the comments relating to her femaleness, not ethics or politics. All the talk about clothes, her attractiveness, is she going thru post-partum depression, yadda yadda. The usual guy talk about an "uppity" woman.
And there were and are so many substantive political issues one could go after her about. Of course that would be treating her (giving her the same respect) like a man.

I think I'm a little sorry about this resignation. I think her tenure in office would not have helped her political aspirations, and been a further drag on Republican efforts to regain the White House.
Now she's free from the possibility of doing a bad job as governor. Her quitting in itself will be an issue, of course, but she does learn a little from mistakes. No more posing in front of the turkey slaughter. Now she's in waders and going fishing, and looking competent and pretty much "one-of us"ish. Even I was thinking yeah I'd like to be there too. But then maybe that was my love of fishing clouding my judgement.
Positive images. If she can keep that up for another three years…

Nah. She'd still lose.

I'm outa here, bye.

The madness continues

2009-07-04T23:40:00.003-04:00

Gov. Mark Sanford now has the distinction of adding a new phrase to the American language. "Hiking in Appalachia" in now officially a synonym for cheating on one's spouse, according to the Urban Dictionary.
His original embarrassing news conference was bad enough, but then he went on to do more interviews (WHAT is that man smoking?) and talked about his "soul mate" and the "love story."
Too often a guy gets a stirring in his crotch and thinks its a stirring in his heart.
I spared myself listening to the whole thing. Just the excerpts were bad enough. The man is having a serious mental crisis.
His wife is looking good. She's not having anything to do with the usual "wife standing by philandering politician husband" routine. Didn't see her at the news conference. She had the guts to throw the bum out even before he went "to Appalachia." She's standing on her beliefs. The Repubs ought to look to her for their standard-bearer in 2012. She's got to be better than the other female possibility. You know who I mean.

The other possibility, dear Sarah Palin, has decided to resign her governorship. What is she up to? all the pundits are wondering. Has she had it with the ridicule, and wants to just hang out with the family? Is she going to go around drumming up support for a presidential bid in 2012? If she really has presidential ambitions this doesn't look like a good way to realize them.

Perhaps she just wants to catch up on her reading of all those publications, you know, "all of them, any that were put in front of me." Then she could go back to Katie Couric and say "Newsweek! Time! Utne Reader!" (well, maybe not that one) and prove she really does read.

Maybe she's been "hiking in Appalachia" (or maybe Todd has) and wants to get out before the media firestorm hits. Or the strain of running for VP is finally getting to her. All that traveling with the sneers of the McCain operatives, the interviews, the 100,000 (or was it 300,000) dollar wardrobe (o Sarah, I still remember you in those boots—mmmm), the pressure.

Stay tuned.

In the meantime—HEY OBAMA— when are you going to end "don't ask, don't tell" already?
We're waaaiiiting.

When will they learn?

2009-06-27T00:13:00.004-04:00

When oh when, sweet Jesus, will politicians learn that their power and influence is supposed to be for the good of the people, and not for the satisfaction of their lusts? Now comes Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, following Senator John Ensign down the "follow your Willie" trail. It's starting to really get sad watching all these stalwart "family values" guys sink in the morass of their own hypocrisy. Of course they deserve it, but the disgrace they bring to my sex overrides any pleasure I could get from seeing right-wing Republicans crash and burn.

John Ensign not only had an affair, he had his mistress and her son on the party payroll. Surely there are criminal charges which should be applied here.

Mark Sanford wasn't home on Father's Day, he was in Argentina doing the horizontal tango with his girlfriend. I was all shocked that he wasn't home for his kids until I found out his wife kicked him out two weeks ago. So at least he has an excuse for not being there on Father's day, tho it is a really crappy excuse.

He doesn't have an excuse for adultery, and especially he doesn't have an excuse for abandoning his duties without putting anyone in charge, without letting anyone have a way to reach him if there was an emergency. And he tried to lie about it when he got home. If someone hadn't sent some emails which he'd written (he has a real romantic streak)to the newspaper, he'd have kept on lying. If I were a resident of South Carolina I'd be gathering signatures for impeachment, and maybe agitating for some kind of criminal charge for his dereliction of duty .

And you know, he didn't look so hot at that press conference. Granted it was a stressful time, but he rambled on in a way which suggest a different kind of mental turmoil beyond the shock of being found out, especially in light of his weird disappearance. He might want to spend some time taking a rest in a special "home."

It's gotta be hard for those moralistic right-wing Christians who tout vigorously their so-called "family values." I hope so. Ensign and Sanford have done more damage to the institution of marriage than a legion of gay and lesbian marrieds could ever do.

The wingnut Fox commentators are already trying damage control, pathetic as it is. Rush Limbaugh already said that Sanford's problems were Obama's fault. Apparently, according to ol' Rush, because Sanford was depressed at having federal stimulus money forced on him (Sanford only wanted a particular kind of South American"stimulus.") so that's why he acted so erratically. Oy vey. Is there no idiocy Limbaugh will not stoop to? Geez, I'm waiting and praying for the gov't. to force some stimulus funds on me. Please, Obama, make me take some money and depress me!

If I had some of that U.S.A. stimulus then maybe I, too, could afford some of the Argentinian kind.

Good night.

Revolution

2009-06-19T23:39:00.003-04:00

I saw a very touching video segment on the Rachel Maddow Show. People in Iran yelling from one rooftop to another, at night, "Allah Akbar—"God is Great") to show their opposition to the phony Iranian election.

The video, I think a cell phone movie, of course was smuggled out via the internet, as the authorities have done everything they can to keep information from escaping, not only to the outside, but to other Iranians.
At last the internet is actually providing a significant service to human development—as opposed to being a vehicle for computer games, pron, illicit music downloads and my cat photos.

The old radical in me is really stirred by this example of resistance to the ruling class.

So what's the biggest problem in your life tonight, eh?

Oh, if we could have had something like this in this country in 2000, how different the world would be today.

In the meantime, the Obamarama is still waffling on the "Don't ask, don't tell" thing. Now, the GLBT spouses, or significant others, of federal employees are eligible for the same benefits as federal heterosexual significant others. An advancement in human evolution, but not the biggest one that could be taken.
Getting relocation allowances is not the same as having your marriage recognized as legitimate.

Where is the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" we were expecting? Why is the Obama Justice Department defending the so-called "marriage protection" law?
What is this "marriage protection"?

I was just at my daughter's marriage. She didn't need any protection for her marriage. The ability of gay people in massachusetts to marry didn't disuade her from taking the vows with her BOYfriend. I didn't see that she needed any "protection."

This whole foofaraw around marriage is just annoying and I wish I could ignore it. But people I love are involved. I have a good gay male friend, someone whose presence made working in a place I didn't really like bearable, and a wonderful lesbian minister and friend who has meant a lot to my life in the last few years.
I will defend their right to live their lives as they see fit without interference from obsessional, deluded people who feel that they have the only way to truth and to God.

I've said before, it's funny (as in "odd" not as in humorous) that the biggest concern of right-wing Christians is with sexual issues, while Jesus himself said so little about that, but boy, did he talk about the evils of riches. Ask your local evangelist if he (it most likely will be a "he") preaches more about sex or about riches and see what answer you get.

My reading of the New Testament suggests that Jesus was concerned about people's attachment to worldly things, and certainly an obsession with sex would fall into that category, but he saw that the biggest obstacle to humanity was it's attachment to worldly wealth.

As John Ensign, John Edwards and Elliot Spitzer can attest, sex is more likely to bring you down than illicit monetary gain, or political chicanery, at least in this country.
And the reason for that is that we, the collective "we" of the US of A, feel that you should be loyal to your spouse, and to your constituents (if you can't be good sexually how can you be good governmentally?)

Geez, so much hypocrisy and so little time to complain about it. I'm not getting any younger…

Jesus was a Socialist.
Get over it.

Twitter, the ever-ripe Republicans, Sotomayor and torture

2009-06-16T22:54:00.005-04:00

Ah humanity. The variety and richness of your idiocy.
God, WHAT were you THINKING?—
when you created us. Are we your comic relief on those days of rest?
Are we a "beta" version?
Humanity 1.1?
I eagerly await version 2.0.
You got something more important going on in some other part of the universe?
Or what?

I'll have questions for Him, you betcha.

Anyway…

All kinds of upheaval going on in Iran. And the usual news organizations have been warned to keep their reporters away. So how are we going to find out what is going on there?
The answer, God help us, is Twitter!
Someone said "the revolution will come in 140 characters or less."
I wish it had been me.
As it turns out, all those internet activities which are so much fun to satirize and laugh at, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, are providing a window into the activities in Iran. Real news is coming to the world thru these vehicles. Who'da thunk it?
When the State Department asks Twitter to delay scheduled maintenance so they can keep getting news from Iran, you know something is happening here, don't you Mr. jones?

This is my official apology for my disdain.
I still don't think I need a lot of "friends" on Facebook or to have people "following" me on Twitter. But I will admit to the utility of those services.
And cell phones with cameras. Isn't it amazing? One wonders how the American revolution would have gone with those vehicles available at that time?
Somebody who actually knows how to write could make a novel out of this. Philip K. Dick, where are you?

And Republicans, ever ripe for mockery, ever ready to look foolish. Where do these people come from? Where to start?
Sotomajor. Ohh, this Latina is really screwing with the Repubs minds. Is she mean? Dear God, we can't have a mean Supreme Court Justice. Lindsy Graham of South Carolina is really concerned about this. Oh, but we don't want someone who is too "empathetic." Can't have someone who is soft on criminals, but she shouldn't be mean, either.

She's been making the rounds at the Senate, meeting with Senators so they can see she doesn't have horns and a forked tail. Only thing, I see a photo of her meeting with Senator Michael Crapo (now there's a name to conjure with), R-Idaho.
And she's wearing pants.
Omigod, she's wearing pants in an Idaho Republican's office? Doesn't she know she should look like a "lady?" He may think she really is mean, wearing pants and all.

There's been so much FUD (fear, uncertainty and disinformation) coming from the Repubs about this—she's mean, she's empathetic, she'll have a "Latina" perspective on the law (like Scalia doesn't have a Catholic perspective? He is Catholic, after all).And she has so many decisions to analyze for those devilish details that the Republicans need more time to read them all.
Oh, and she belongs to a "females only" judicial group. Horrors. This is disturbing news to the "Skull and Bones" crowd.

And more torture mems and other documents have been released, without the redactions of previous releases. I love that word "redacted." So much nicer than "censored."
Anyway, it seems that Khalid Sheikh Muhammed had said (redacted in an earlier released version) that he made up stories under torture. He said he didn't know where Osama was, they tortured him a while, and he made up somewhere where Osama could be. Of course one has to ask if he was lying under torture or lying for this deposition, but it still knocks a hole in Mr. Darth Cheney's assertion that torture got us useful information. Ol' Khalid, by the gov'ts. own admission, was waterboarded 6 times a day for a month. I already said somewhere on this blog that I would have implicated everyone I know under that kind of treatment—probably by the second waterboarding of the first day. Sorry friends, relatives, minister—you'd all be toast.

Fear, uncertainty and doubt. Those who use these means of control inevitably fall victim to them.

Oy.
It's quarter past midnight. I'm going to bed.
Hopefully, I won't have Republican nightmares.

Where was I?

2009-06-05T23:12:00.005-04:00

I've been on hiatus.
Actually, my older daughter got married, on the island of Vieques no less, and from the build-up to the event to the aftermath of the event, I have been in a cloud of anticipation, joy, and let-down at having to return to normal life.

It doesn't matter if one has come of age in the 60's when "free love" was where it was at, and it doesn't matter that one's daughter has been living with the groom for the last 9 years and "friends" with him for 14—when one walks said daughter down the aisle to the ceremony all the usual and wonderful feelings of something special happening come washing in and overwhelming one.
It was a joyous ceremony and I had a wonderful time on Vieques. It's hard to get back to the everyday ordinary gripe and angst one usually lives with. There were warm seas, sunny beaches, beautiful women (alas all too young for me) good food, great climate and dancing.
What's a curmudgeon to do?
I'm not used to being so happy.
Best vacation I ever had.

But then I come back and what do I find?
MORE IDIOCY!

Mostly Republican idiocy.
But, sadly, the Obamarama is also making a contribution to this category. I don't know what it is with him. So bold during his campaign, now he looks like Bush dark.
(OK, bad joke.)
I think Obama is going to be a great president, eventually, but he is really not looking all that good lately.

Guantamano? Still open, and geez, we can't have those terrorists in the US. Just ignore those guys who bombed the US embassy in Kenya, who were tried and convicted in the US and currently reside at taxpayer expense in one of our better prisons. Doesn't seem to be a problem so far.

But the Repubs don't want them in their neighborhood correctional institutions. Could be a danger.
And then there are those who are innocent, like the Uigurs. What to do? The Uigur community in the US wants them, but the Gov't. can't bring themselves to let innocent victims of the Bush Inquisition into the country. So it seems like we're giving money to the nation of Palau (where? who?) to take them. There any Uigurs in Palau?

Then we have "Don't ask, don't tell." 15 guys fluent in middle eastern languages are dumped from the service for open gayness. Brave and useful soldiers are kicked out of the service and what is the Obama doing about it? So far the defender of gay soldiers has been silent. And he's not overturned Bush secretiveness in spite of a pledge to do so. Actually being in charge is a little different from being on the outside and criticizing, isn't it?
"Uh, maybe we ought not to release those photos. they could be inflammatory …and… etc."
"Uh, maybe ought not to releaes those Uigurs in the US…and…we need to find prisons somewhere else to take the guilty guys." Etcetery, etcetery, etcetery.
C'mon Barack! Lead already!
Stop throwing money around and get down to business!

Then the Repubicans.
Actually I enjoyed bitching about Obama for a while. It was different. The Repubicans are getting boring. Same old, same old.
Mitch McConnell is still making a fool of himself publicly. Lately it's "the Dems are rushing the nomination of Sotomajor." Baloney. As Rachel Maddow pointed out, 45 days from nomination to Senate consideration is about average.
Doesn't stop the Republican obfuscation and obstruction. Still kowtowing to the Limburger. I mean, Limbaugh. Either way, smells.
Still opposing everything the Obama does. No matter how trivial.

And Cheney still going around the country fear mongering. And his daughter (the straight one, not the gay one) with him. He thinks he can talk his legacy into legitimacy.
I don't think it's going to work.

The Repubicans are so pathetic.
Bad cess to them.

I'm going to bed.

Various rants

2009-05-15T22:45:00.004-04:00

Oh, that torture thing just won't go away.
Dick "the dick" Cheney is going all over the place (North Dakota! He really wants all 156 people who still live there on his side.) (Yes, I know more than 156 people live in North Dakota. There are probably several hundred in Fargo, alone. Really alone.)

Though he doesn't mention this specifically, he's still maintaining that waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times led to important information. More than if they'd only tortured him, say, 97 times. Must be one tough somabitch to last 183 waterboardings before spilling his guts.
Me, I would have implicated my sister, nephews and nieces and minister and best friends after, oh, maybe fifty or so.
More likely three or so.
And Abu Zubayduh, 83 times.
Ol' Khalid and Abu are not exemplarary human beings by any measure—unless you think planning the deaths of thousands is exemplarary. But is what we have been doing really the way we want to act as Americans? And as the Conservatives maintain, a "Christian" nation. Christian indeed.
I guess it's a good thing for those money-changers in the temple that Jesus didn't know about waterboarding, or they would really have been in for a world of hurt.

Which, incidentally, brings me to Dan Choi, an Iraq vet, West Point graduate Arabic speaking soldier and platoon leader, who is being kicked out of the Army Nat'l. Guard because he spoke up about being gay. Maybe no one asked, but he told.
Gasp.
The man clearly has the qualifications needed to be one of the best soldiers and officers that can be, yet he is being kicked out for being open about his sexual identity. We have so many Arabic speaking soldiers I guess we can lose a few.
Quote of the day, yesterday, from Jon Stewart, speaking of how Dan Choi, one of 54 Arabic speaking gay service people, was kicked out of the service—"It was okay to waterboard someone over 80 times but God forbid the guy who could understand what that prick was saying should have a boyfriend."

What else?—the Pope went to the middle east to promote peace. Still waiting to see if it worked. I suspect he's found out that no matter what you do there you're doing something wrong. What a mess that place is, and the West has had a big hand in contributing to mess, with it's colonialism and anti-Semitism (which extended to all Semites, not just the Jewish ones.) Jerusalem— three major religions have a claim on the place and none of them want to let the others have any. I'd like to clear everyone out and turn it over to the Buddhists. Or maybe level it and let the Disney people build a theme park on the site. It would be the first time in centuries the place brought happiness to people.
Shallow happiness, but still…

Speaking of religion, NOT. "Angels and Demons" is in the theaters. I haven't seen it yet. I like what A.O. Scott said in the New York Times about "The Da Vinci Code" offending his faith—in the English language. I'm not the only one who thinks Dan Brown is an execrable writer. I only read the "Code" all the way thru to see how he was going to wrap up that mess he started, wincing on every page at the quality (not) of his writing. Anyway Scott said he enjoyed "Angels and Demons" more because he hadn't read the book. Still, it isn't that good, except as mindless entertainment.
But so much of our manufactured life is mindless entertainment.

Whoops. Started to inflict some pop-philosophy on you there. Sorry.
Guess it's time to log off.
Go be useful somewhere.

I'm collecting stuff

2009-05-09T23:58:00.003-04:00

Stuff like this quote from George Carlin: "The best thing about getting old is you're not responsible for remembering things anymore."

Works for me.

Also took this screen shot from the Rachel Maddow Show:

"the Dick" Cheney as Darth Vader.
An old joke by now but ever relevant.
This guy is something else. He is definitely the supreme example of someone who never will admit, or even consider, that he was, and is, wrong.

He seems to be taking his traveling Medicine Show around the country to friendly venues anywhere, (North Dakota?) where he might find some sympathetic response.

Waterboarding? Well, we only did it a little bit (183 times in one month to one guy).
And Obama is making the country less safe by not being the hard ass we were.
I mean, he's acting like a real American, with values and all that weak-kneed stuff.

Mr. Silence is now "Mr. Can't Shut Up." Go back to your underground bunker, Dick, we don't need you. Even Repubicans don't need you—you just remind everyone of the terrible botch-up your administration was.

Not that the Obama administration has been an unbridled joy—there is the problem of those pesky military tribunals, among others—but it is a model of probity and sanity in comparison to the recent past. And besides, we don't really want anyone to be perfect.

God knows what I'd do with my time if I didn't have someone in the Government to bitch about…

Besides, as a rule we humans don't really go for perfection all that much. It's one reason we keep God (and Jesus and Buddha and Allah and the rest of that deity crowd) at arm's length. To emulate them we'd have to give up too much. Being perfect is hard work—I'm here to tell you. It's a struggle every day, and I don't get no sympathy.

Now I got myself all depressed. I'm going to go cry myself to sleep.

I'm mad as hell and I'm gonna secede!

2009-05-08T00:00:00.003-04:00

The Repubicans are SUCH sore losers. Can you believe it? Now a poll shows that 24% think their state would be better off not being part of America.
Geez.
Just when you think you've seen the nadir of stupidity already, something new comes up. Surely the variety of stupidities in this world is inexhaustible. Secede? What are they thinking? We went through this already about a hundred and fifty years ago.
I'm getting (non-drug induced) flashbacks to the sixties when many of my age group left the country rather than go to Vietnam. Of course they were facing going to risk their lives for something in which they did not believe. Still, they left, and I wish they hadn't.

But these disaffected Republicans aren't being asked to do anything any more onerous than living in a country where the President is from another party—something many of us have been doing for the last eight years, without thinking about secession.

I live in Massachusetts, a state which is essentially the epitome of and the very touchstone of the liberal way of thought, the Holy Grail home of left-leaning socialist commie knee-jerkers (ever have your knee jerked? It's painful), the veritable Elysian Fields of liberalism—and we never said we wanted to leave the US of A. Not 24% of us anyway.
But hey, you can always find malcontents if you look hard enough.

No, we didn't want to cut and run like those lily-livered Repubicans. Leave the country? Secede? Not in our DNA.

We wanted to stay and PLAN OUR REVENGE! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

And now we have it.
It's imperfect,but it is here.

We still have to get Obama off this "don't look back" thing he's got going. I know he thinks it's somehow more honorable to not go after his predecessor and minions for war crimes and general malfeasance, but he's wrong. We need some closure here, and it won't come from letting "the Dick" Cheney run his mouth in his strip-mall office.

As long as I'm on a roll here—did you know this was the "National Day of Prayer?"

Somewhere along the line the idea of separation for state and church got muddled. Our forefathers, those guys the Repubicans and conservative "Christians" like to bring up all the time, definitely wanted to KEEP THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE RELIGION BUSINESS.
Most of them were Deists, which means they believed in a God who may have set the ball rolling but was staying out of the way as we tried to avoid getting run over by said ball.
They didn't want anyone forcing anyone else to believe in a certain vision of God or a certain church, or a certain way of avoiding that ball of inexorable history.

But there are always people who don't get it. There are people who live in fear of going to hell if they don't do things just right, believe in the right way, and also do their best to make others believe the same way they do. And some of them don't have any problems throwing insults into their demands.
One Wendy Wright of the (so-called) "Concerned Women for America," said tha Barack Obama should have done more to commemorate this day even tho he himself "may have problems believing in the Christian faith."
What an asshat. Bringing up surreptitiously the "Obama is a secret Muslim" slander.
So much for Christian charity.

I have more but it's getting late.
Goodnight, you two, or three.

Aren't Repubicans fun?

2009-05-05T22:29:00.004-04:00

Ah life—so many occasions for humor.
The so-called "moderate" Republicans had a pizza party in one of their efforts to try to become "more relevant." I hear the pizza, at least, was good. The "National Council for a New America"
led by Jeb "brother of U-No-Hu" Bush, George "Haircut" Romney, and Eric "Mad Dog" Cantor.
New America indeed.
A pizza party. How the mighty have fallen.
And this is the wing of the Repubican party (for some reason I keep leaving off the "L") which considers itself moderate and a hope for the future.
Now i really don't have a jones against Jeb Bush, supposedly the smarter brother, or Eric Cantor (just doing his job, ma'am) or even, well, maybe a little bit, against George Romney. He does have an impressive haircut.

But these guys are going nowhere with people like Mitch McConnell running the Repubican side of the Senate. He is leading the defense of the corporations who are evading taxes by setting up phony headquarters in the places like the Cayman Islands. He says any action to force these scofflaws to pay taxes is "a significant tax increase on companies."
He means actually making them pay what they owe is an increase?
Well, we can't expect much better from McConnell. He is a lying s.o.b. who is whoring for the business interests of this country. You can see it in his face at news conferences. He may actually believe what he says, but the untruths are eating him away inside anyway.

What really gets me, is, that after seeing photos of the Cayman Islands and the seven-mile-long beach, etc., I can't figure out why companies don't actually set up their headquarters there. I mean, really, a tropical island where you can live and work without the pain of winter in Chicago, Boston, New York, or any season in Houston, Texas—and these asshats just use it for a post-office box address?
Gimmee a break.

I guaranteee you, if I were CEO of a company that made enough money that it needed to set up a phony address in the Cayman Islands to pay taxes, I damn well would turn it into a legitimate address. Really. Beaches, tropical weather, distance from all the a-holes who want to make life difficult for you—WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

Go figure.

And if anyone wonders why I dare call McConnell a lying s.o.b.—
first—I don't think he can risk defending himself in a court of law
second—who am I for him to care about
third—man, if he went after me wouldn't it be a boost for my blog?
I mean, now, my only readers are a comic book artist, a crazy poetess in the Berkshires, and an obsessive-compulsive-disorder computer geek in the Albany area—maybe.
There may be a Lesbian minister in the mix somewhere.
These people read me once in a while.
Sometimes.
On occasion.
Like the way I blog.
I have aspirations for the big time. Also, I never say anything I don't believe, unless it's clearly in humor.
And I am ready to sell out. Procter and Gamble, Toyota, Hersheys—give me a call. My people (i.e. me) are ready to talk to your people.

Good night all.
Aren't you sorry you weren't doing something more productive?

Torture

2009-04-27T22:52:00.006-04:00

Torture for me is finding out how much our former administration has sullied the American image with their secrecy and "advanced interrogation techniques."
Actually America's image is the least of it. Real harm was caused to people who may actually be innocent. Are they innocent? At this point it may be too late to actually discover the truth. I think I would be tempted to join Al Qaeda if I had been waterboarded, even if I had no interest in the organization previously. That would make me guilty, wouldn't it?

And now there are declassified memos which show just how far we have sunk, how far people who should know better have betrayed their own humanity. John Woo, are you listening?

During the Bush administration, Dick Cheney (maybe we should call him "the Dick") was so close-mouthed you couldn't even get a "Good morning" out of him. Oh he might admit it was morning because the sun was shining on everyone, but he sure wouldn't say "good," because that would let you know what he was thinking.

That was when he was Vice-President.

Now, however, you can't get the guy to shut up (no matter how much you may want it.)
He is criticizing the Obama administration right and left, and recently called for the declassification of memos he says will show we actually got good info out of the torture we committed.
How many times did they waterboard Khalib Sheikh Muhammed? 183 in a month? At least 6 times a day? The first 182, nada, but the 183rd?—golden! Right. I really believe that.
So probably around, oh, 103, he actually said something that was more than falsely betraying his mother, father, sister, pet lamb and best friend as terrorists, just to try to stop the torture. What could it have been? Could it really have been something which was useful in any concrete way? The mention of a safehouse? A revelation of some plan still in the "hey, wouldn't it be a good idea" stage? I wanna know. And when I find out I will still say it wasn't worth it.
I'm doubting Thomas. You want me to believe torture works? Show me the nail holes and the spear wound in the side. Jesus convinced Thomas but I don't think Cheney is going to convince me, nor will he convince a lot of other people.
He's trying to protect his own sorry ass from prosecution. He is also just goddam sure he is right and the Constitution, International Law, and the opinion of Jesus Christ don't matter.
Now, I know some people who don't pay much attention to the opinion of JC, but they do believe in the Constitution and International Law (which, ironically, are informed by the preachings of the aforementioned JC).
Dick Cheney believes in the law of Dick Cheney.
It's not very Christian or forgiving of me, but I want to see that mthrfkr tried, convicted, jailed and humiliated. And I wouldn't mind seeing his puppet President in the cell along with him.

One of Obama's failings is that he is so concerned with moving forward that he feels that paying due attention to the past will be counterproductive. He's wrong. I don't really want to see our nation's former leaders in jail—what I wrote above is just raw anger unmitigated by reason—but I do want them to see that the majority of their fellow citizens condemn their philosophy and actions. I want to see an end to their "History will vindicate us" fantasy.

I would really like to see them on their knees begging for forgiveness, but I'm not thinking I'll be living that long.

Rachel Maddow had a Col. lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Colin Powell for a period of time, on her program last week. He opined that Dick Cheney is a man who "frightens easily" "lives on fear, and he is a fearful man." Col. Wilkerson said that other countries have had to go thru proportionately worse incidences of terrorism than us, as bad as 9/11 was, and the level of fear in those countries was not as great as the level created by our own administration.

The Pentagon had been told that torture was not a reliable method to get good information, that what you get is someone who is just trying to stop the pain. The USA had prosecuted Japanese officials after World War II, who approved and used waterboarding, as being "torturers."

Excuse me, if those furriner slant-eyes do it it's torture, but if upstanding white Americans with "straight eyes" do it, it's a legal method of getting information?

Is there a bucket I can throw up in?

On that cheerful note I will end. I'll not mention the swine flu and the failure of our elected representatives to provide funding for pandemic preparation.
I don't want to drive anyone to drink. I can take care of that for you.
Just one of the services I provide.

Beauty good, homely bad.

2009-04-21T21:50:00.009-04:00

Everyone is agog lately over the Susan Boyle video on YouTube. This dowdy, unmade up, steel wool hairdo, 47 yr old in her (British equivalent of) Sears Roebuck dress comes out to a sneering audience and unbowed and unafraid knocks their socks off with her wonderful voice and singing talent (they don't always go together.)

The first link I saw was on my Macintosh forum and the post was entitled "A grown man cried." And I have heard over and over again at how emotional people got at seeing this nobody come out and show the world her stuff to such great acclaim.
The incredulity of the judges, the sneers of the audience, the seeming ridiculousness of her desire—all swept away with a sudden "Wow! This is great!" realization.
It is truly inspiring. Even your curmudgeon got a little damp around the eyeballs and had to put aside his natural cynicism while watching that video—for a while at least. No cynicism for Ms. Boyle—she has got the goods and can deliver. But I wonder at what our reactions show about us, about our inability to separate appearance from reality. I have questions.

Honestly now, if it had been that blond judge (I didn't get her name but if anybody knows her phone number…) who came out and sang like that, would we have reacted the same way? Sure we'd applaud talent, but would those great fuzzy warm feelings from seeing someone defy expectations successfully have been there?
And doesn't this all show how we are all in thrall to the idea of visual beauty and its inherent superiority to plainness? That we still expect frumpy to be frumpy to the core and have no redeeming values? Why did everyone in that audience have this "Oh, god now what?" reaction to her appearance and desire to be a professional singer? Now I didn't, but then I was forewarned by the post and the article it linked to before I saw the video, so I cannot claim any superiority of vision here (darn it). Would they have greeted the blond with that same skepticism?
The feeling I noticed in myself, which I find a little discomfiting, was that somehow the approval of the blond judge made it all seem so much better. There she was with her beauty, decolletage and shiny cheeks (flushed with excitement or perhaps a stray tear of joy?) smiling and surprised and approving. And I wonder, did it all make the whole thing seem so much cooler because the cool dame loved the uncool dame? Would the video (and it was well-constructed for maximum effect) have been as effective if that woman looked like, oh, Eleanor Roosevelt for instance? I'm speaking as a male, I mean. I won't speak for the females among my readership.

Such as it is.

One of the two of you.

This event has a lot for people to think about in terms of their expectations, world view and prejudices. I like that the good-looking judge said "It was the biggest wake-up call ever."
That was true, but it shouldn't have been needed, for all of us.
But for the moment, for her, there was revelation. I hope it lasts.

Another idiotic week

2009-04-18T08:23:00.005-04:00

Yes, this was tax week! America's own private Calvary.
It's even more fun when one is unemployed. Here's what it's like:
You're just barely surviving with the 150 slices of bread you get every week. Then something happens and you can't get it anymore. So the government comes and says "Aw, let us us help you. Here's 100 pieces of bread, even though it's not quite enough, it's what we can do. Oh, but wait, we're going to want to take 15 slices back later, so don't eat them. And if anyone else helps you make up the rest of the 150 slices, we'll want to take 15% of those too."

The best solution to this governmental idiocy is to get another job that pays at least as much as your previous one. Of course. Did I mention six hundred thousand more people lost their jobs last month? Good luck.

I'm not one of those anti-tax people. I am willing to do my part for the good of the country, even tho i think we spend too much on fancy submarines and jets and too little on streets and transportation and people in trouble. But just sit down and try to do your own taxes, especially if you have more than the basic income, like a side business, personal taxes associated with your other business etc. There really can't be a cogent reason for this complication.

Speaking of anti-tax people, the teabagging idiots were out this week. And making substantial fools of themselves, likening Obama to Hitler and his government to fascism. And not bothering to discover the scatological meaning of teabagging to see why people are laughing at them.
Where do they come from?
It's an argument against the concept of evolution that these wingnuts haven't already been bred out of the gene pool after these thousands of years.

In other news, an organization called the National Organization for Marriage has a false, mendacious and also risible ad out now to scare people out of supporting gay marriage. It's so patently phony, with it's storm clouds in the distance and talk of fear and rights being taken away. The people who wrote that should be arrested.

Massachusetts has had gay marriage for some years now, and guess what? (quote) NORMAL (end quote) people are still getting married. Yes! Incredible as it seem, heterosexual marriage has survived, and even seems to be thriving. And some of the ministers conducting these heterosexual marriages are married gay or lesbian ministers. They haven't taken away the right of the rest of us to get married. Can you believe it? Also, already-married heterosexuals are not flocking to the courts for divorces on the grounds that marriage doesn't mean anything anymore.
And, frankly, heterosexuals have not been longing for an excuse to cohabit without benefit of clergy. They've not needed any excuses.

Of course this is Massachusetts. We're notorious for our ultra-liberal ideas and practices. I mean, the Kennedys came from here. We're still electing that liberal Ted Kennedy to Congress. But then, even with a brain tumor he's more intelligent than most of the other senators.

Steven Colbert has a highly amusing take-off of that ad. It points out the ridiculousness of the attitude and claims. Not that that is all that hard to do.

Various grumbles

2009-04-10T22:10:00.006-04:00

Republicans—what a bunch of idiots. Now they are sending teabags to Congress and the White House. They are urging everyone to "teabag" the White House. Apparently they don't know that "teabagging" is a sexual slang word for an activity which involves the only part of a man's physique which could be likened to a teabag. I won't say anything about the activity, except that you wouldn't want your partner to sneeze in the midst of it. One assumes these clowns don't know about the double entendre. One hopes so, because if they do know, then they are not only being stupid, but meretricious and disrespectful to the office of the presidency.

It was great fun watching Rachel Maddow report on this last night. She clearly knows what it means and it was all she could do to get through the report without breaking down in laughter.

But what else can you expect from this bunch of losers? The Repubes have not come up with a single viable idea to counter the force of the Obamarama. All they can do is hold up business and look petulant.
Speaking of looking petulant, have you looked hard at Sen. Mitch McConnell's face when he is talking? It's hard I know, but try. All the years of weaseling, compromise, putting the country second for the sake of his party and ideology, the corruption of his reasoning abilities—it is written on his face. It shows, it shows. It shows that deep inside he knows the Repubes are not behaving well, are in fact being hurtful to the country they profess to love.

All the lies, the dissembling. At least he is not a looney tunes like the Bachman woman from Minnesota. I'm not even going to get started on her. She's certifiable and one should be gentle with the mentally damaged.

In the meantime, Obama is going around the world, being a real statesman and not an embarrassment like someone else recently in his office. it's so nice to once again have a president I can stand to listen to.

And another 600,000 people showed up at your local state employment bureau office this month. These kinds of figures do not give one a lot of confidence in a job search. After a certain point one loses all concern, and the whole situaion becomes laughable. I'm going to take what little money I have and buy a lot of shipping crates, like for large appliances. I can see a need arising. People are going to need someplace to live, and I want in on the ground floor, so to speak.

Okay, I'm done.
Go do something useful.

A bunch of unrelated stuff

2009-03-27T23:28:00.003-04:00

First, let me repeat again my admiration for Rachel Maddow's show on MSNBC. I love it that she can have Zbigniew Brzezinski on and be his intellectual equal. Zbigniew Brzezinski is no lightweight. She is charming and gracious to all her guests, whether they agree with her or not. Such a nice contrast to the shouters and asshats on other programs.
Did I mention that she is smart?

In other news: comics and the people who comment on comics.
There are a few comic strips I follow because I need a laugh once in a while, or a thoughtful comment even.
GoComics.com is one of those places where people who read the comics can comment on what they read. On the one hand, this boggles my mind. People are so hungry to make a mark in the world they have to comment on the day's comics? This is especially pitiful when you see that people are commenting on decades-old reprints (is that the correct term when we are speaking of the internet?) of Calvin. On the other hand, I find myself actually looking, however briefly, at the comments on one particular strip.
I read a comic called Pibgorn, http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn, about a fairy, the winged kind, and an eight hundred year old succubus and an ex-Episcopalian organist. It's not your usual comic strip concept.
There is a coterie of rabid fans who constantly comment on the drawings, the convoluted plots, and the hotness of the succubus (and she is indeed, smoking.) Every day they are there. And creating a community of sorts around this comic strip. And I ask—WTF is wrong with these people, don't they have a life? I mean, comparing insights in a comic strip?
This is not the only place this happens. Indeed, you almost cannot go anywhere where your opinion is not solicited for whatever your internet site is showing. What do you think of this ad, this video, this song, etc.
Please tell me this is not "Democracy in action."

The hell of all this is, that in the case of Pibgorn, at least, I find myself actually reading the comments! God help me, I am being sucked into this mess. This mess where your opinion ostensibly matters to someone else than yourself. To some other asshat on the other side of an electronic divide.

I eschew most of this supposedly interactive computer relationship, though I do belong to a Macintosh computer forum. But of course, Mac computers (and iPods and iPhones) are IMPORTANT, they are not like comic strips or news items or whatever.

Do you ever find yourself annoyed or delighted by something said by someone you never met or expect to meet, who has been contributing to the forum you belong to; do you find yourself responding to their posts as if they were a relative or friend in the room with you? If so, you're screwed. You need a life with real people in it. Turn off the computer and go look, already.

I had more, but I'm getting tired. It's hell getting older, you just can't bring up (pardon the expression) the same level of distaste and condemnation you could as a younger person. And if you can, you find you don't have enough energy to really care.

The world is going to hell and has always been going to hell, it's just that we don't see it because we are too busy trying to make money or make people do what we want or trying to get laid.

Are you ready to commit suicide yet?
Have a good night's sleep. You'll feel better in the morning.

I do what I can to make the world a better place.

Bonuses and condoms

2009-03-20T23:59:00.007-04:00

I hear some Repubicans are defending the AIG bonuses. Or at least saying they shouldn't be taxed. I mean, those guys worked their butts off for that meltdown, they should get something, right?

Actually, I think all opprobrium possible should be heaped on those characters until they give the bonuses back out of shame and sell their houses and slink off to Mytushiefroze, Alaska, where they will live out their lives in obscurity skinning moose for Governor Palin. Now I am all in favor of taxing the rich—everybody should pay proportionately— but I feel little strange about using tax law as a punitive weapon. Something seems fishy about that. Besides, all these senators are only making a lot of noise in this room, metaphorically speaking, so no one will notice the mess they left in the other room. My cat does that.

In other news, Pope Benedict has said that condoms don't help prevent AIDS, they actually help spread it. Will someone please check that guy's medication dosages? Now being against condom use is part of the papal job description, but it's one thing to be against it because your belief is that sex is only for procreation, not fun, and something else entirely to be spreading lies about it. We expect this sort of thing from our wacko right, but they are stupid. One would think that the spiritual leader of over a billion people would have more on the ball.

I know what the problem is—lack of sex. It messes up the mind. Imagine two thousand years of priests and nuns going without sex (ostensibly) because of what may be a totally erroneous assumption about Jesus. There's no mention that Jesus got laid in the bible, ergo he didn't get laid, goes the thinking. Did they ever think that maybe he was too much of a gentleman to brag about it?

If I remember correctly, of the three vows of priesthood, poverty, obedience and chastity, chastity is the one renewable vow. There's a reason for that.
I'm done for the night.
Ciao.

Bon(ehead)us

2009-03-18T22:06:00.004-04:00

Ah, everyone is in a fine dither about the AIG (that's pronounced "Aaaaiigghh!) bonuses for the very same wingnuts who brought the company to its knees.

"Joe, you oversaw the division that insured the uninsurable and turned the company into a financial Chernobyl. Great job! Couldn't have done better myself. Here take a few mil, just as a symbol of our appreciation.
Don't spend it all in one place. Heh, heh."

Makes sense to me. Man, if I'd have gotten bonuses for all my eff-ups over the years, I'd be on easy street.

The explanation from Edward M. Liddy, latest CEO, (wonder if he's any relation to G. Gordon Liddy who ran the "plumbers" operatives who burgled the Watergate?) said it was in the contract and is necessary for "employee retention."
Retention bonuses.
Sounds kind of anal, doesn't it?
Maybe they should get more fiber in their diets.

Best part, I heard on the Rachel Maddow show, is that eleven of the wingnuts got their "retention bonus" and left the company. Those bonuses really work.
My guess is that they were escaping rather than just leaving.
They all should have gotten pink slips instead of green checks.

Of course, considering the size of the bonuses compared to the size of the bailout money we've given (yeah, we—you and me) AIG, that amount is small potatoes.
All those Congressmen who are bitching seem to forget that there was an amendment in that stimulus bill which would have prevented this. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. said that he and Sen. Snow of Maine had put one in, but it somehow disappeared by the time the bill was voted on.
Gee, how'd that happen?

So a lot of this is a distraction. Aggravating, but it's just scratching the itch while ignoring the melanoma.
Instead of spending so much time on this, Congress should be working on ways to make sure the vast bulk of the money is being used the way it was supposed to be used. They should be exercising our owners' rights, since we now own the bulk of the company.
(I still want to borrow my corporate jet to fly down to Puerto Rico for my daughter's wedding.)

Congress could also be examining its own soul to see how it contributed to this problem. But hell, I'm not going to wait for that.

In one of his few bonehead moves so far, Obama, or his minions—same thing— was suggesting that soldiers with health insurance should use that instead of depending on the VA.
"Lost your leg in Iraq? Blue cross will take care of you. All you need to do is come up with the 5 grand deductible."
Even a conscientious objector like me knows that if you send a guy out to fight for you and possibly die or get maimed in the process, then you owe him something. Something like all the medical care he needs. I believe I saw somewhere today that that doofus idea has been dropped.

I'm running out of rancor. Gottagive up the brandy, it makes me too mellow.
Good night all (or rather, both of you.)

Still on that elevator to hell

2009-03-10T23:38:00.003-04:00

Don't these things ever go up?

Latest Republican fantasy: the initiative to allow employees to unionize by signing a "sure i want to" card is an indication of the coming apocalypse and a denial of democratic principles. In that order. Watch for the rapture. I hope these guys get bugled up to Jesus (see, i didn't say they should go to hell) so that we can have a decent life here on earth. And I want one of their cars. A BMW preferably. And that time-share in Cozumel.
They are foursquare against what they say is an undemocratic way to organize: that is, without a secret ballot. They ignore the fact that a secret ballot still remains as an alternative. But when has the Republican minority ever bothered with facts when lies will suffice?
I was a supervisor at a wallpaper factory for a while in my past life and when there was a union move to get our employees into a union we management types were all called together and given the ways to counter the union message. I listened to the crap but basically did nothing to implement it. I had been a punch-the-clocker myself. The place i worked was pretty fair to employees but still, you never know what's coming down the road. There are people who make a living helping companies fight unionization. Republicans hate unions. Unions take profits away from contributors to Republican election efforts.
You know a man by his enemies, I've heard it said. Look at the enemies of unions and a lot will become clear to you.
So Obama has a stimulus bill. Spends a lot of money doing a lot of stuff. Of course the Republicans are against it. They don't care if it's good or not, they are just against anything a Democratic President produces. Obama's bill isn't perfect, but what is? It's addressing a lot of problems. The Repubs are still nattering on about tax cuts (for the wealthy—their main contributors) and more of the same old. these guys complaining about spending are the same wingnuts who voted for every appropriation George Bush asked for, especially any money for his ill-advised war in Iraq.
But now they have seen the fiscal light. Like Saul of Tarsus, they have been struck down by the power of the Lord and now repent their profligate ways.
Unfortunately, unlike Saul of Tarsus, they haven't really turned to the good. They have turned to the "keep the money in your benefactor's hands or else" way of thought.
And they aren't anywhere near as articulate. Have you heard Mitch McConnell speak? Is anyone (other than George Bush) more pathetic? Well, alright, there's Bobby Jindal. It's hard to sound reasonable and articulate when what you are saying is so contrary to fact.

Okay, I've had my fun dumping on the Re-pubic-ans.

It's bedtime, and both of you reading this should be in bed.
Good night.

Economic elevator going down, next stop—Hell

2009-03-06T23:34:00.007-05:00

I am discovering the lazy blogger's punishment. There is so much going on, I don't know where to start. Financial apocalypse, Obama administration initiatives, unemployment increases, the Oscars. But since a lot of the activity is revolving around the Republican's struggles, we can sum that up in one sentence. "They are idiots."
But of course I can't leave it at that. Such complete intellectual implosion almost demands attention. It's like slowing down on the highway to look at an accident. You hate to look, you know it's meretricious and macabre, but something in you just has to force you to look.
How does my mind boggle over you (Republicans)?
Let me count the ways:

Michael Steele. Where does one start? He must have a third foot, because he can still walk with one in his mouth. The government never created a job—presumably not even the gov't. job he held in the State of Maryland. That was delivered perhaps, from heaven by God. Not by the actions of government.
Then there his attempt to bring hip-hop and rap to the Republican party. This is so , so, improbable—I just can't come up with a word that would accurately represent this action. Mr. Steele himself does not bring the term "rap" or the term "hip- hop" to mind on seeing him. He is not cool.
I come from the generation immediately after the beatniks, the hippie generation, and I know from cool. Mr. Steele is not cool, he is not hip, he certainly is not "gangsta."
Let's not leave out his criticism of and then his capitulation to, Rush Limbaugh.
Which brings us to—Rush Limbaugh. or is that Rush Limburger? Anyway you spell it he smells. Mr. Limburger says he hopes Pres. Obama "fails." What a patriot. He'd rather America suffers through Obama's failure than that it recovers through his success.
God forbid that Conservative principles should be proved false by actual real world situations.
The party of "No." Conservative principles again. Although this may be a real perversion of the word "principles" What kind of "principles" leads a governor to turn down money that would help the people of his state because it comes from a Democratic President's initiative? Especially because the idea is that the unemployment benefits part would be turned down but the other parts accepted? Well, this is, at least, consistent with the Republican refusal to believe any of the lower classes deserve help of any kind. God knows, some miscreant out there might abuse the system, get some benefits he doesn't deserve. They aren't like the honest, upstanding members of our financial community, like Mr. Madoff (made off with your money) and Mr. Stanford, the Ponzi scheme specialists.

To their credit, the legislature of Mississippi has passed a law requiring their gov to accept the money he was threatening to turn down. So I heard.

It's too much. Some of us (that going up to 10% unemployment bunch) are trying to make ends meet, worrying about health insurance, mortgages, whether or not we're going to have to eat the pets, and the Republicans are worrying about doctrinal purity.
Go eff yourselves.

That's all. God help America.

Coming up: Stimulation (oh, baby!) Watch for it.

Inanity and Insanity

2009-02-11T21:53:00.004-05:00

In other words—Republicans in congress.
Some of the arguments they have been making are ridiculous, and still mired in that old thinking about tax cuts being the only thing that works for everything. One of the idiots, John Thune, of South Dakota, I believe, had the old easel and signs showing how high a stack of a trillion dollars worth of hundred dollar bills would go.
How pathetic.
Some of us are worrying about losing our homes, have no job, and guys like him are resorting to puerile arguments to try to defeat the stimulus bill.
And they believe a tax cut will get me out of the red? Ho ho.

Dinosaurs, all of them.
Can't admit they've been going down the wrong alley all this time.
Some of these guys, if you try adding their IQ levels together, you start getting negative numbers.

It took the prez long enough to get around to calling them on their silliness. He's going out now to show them, the Republicans, and the press as well, how "ordinary" citizens feel about out economic situation. Best part is the enthusiastic receptions he is getting in typically Republican strongholds.

I hope that at some point his administration will get around to clearing out some bureaucratic
obstacles in the process of helping people. here's a good one: I went to the state unemployment agency today because my state benefits ran out and I need to apply for the federal extension. So they can't just put in for the fed's extension. I have to re-apply for benefits to the state, get turned down (as I will) and then, and only then, they can kick in the federal extension. In the meantime, I'm left with three weeks of no benefits. Oh well.

Didn't Dante put the merry-go-round of pointless government bureaucracy somewhere in the inferno?

Well it was a nice day anyhow, and i listened to the new Amanda Palmer album (probably my last personal pleasure expenditure for the foreseeable future) on the way down to the office and back. Seemed to go well with the day's efforts. "Who killed Amanda Palmer?" Highly recommended by me.

BLAGOJEVICH SECRET REVEALED!!

2009-01-28T22:13:00.005-05:00

I've done it. I have ascertained to my satisfaction the reason why Illinois governor Blagojevich is such a goofball. It became clear to me watching and listening to him on Rachel Maddow's show of Jan. 28, 2009.
The reason he acts the way he does and looks like such a goofball?

Wait for it…

He is actually Dave Barry, pulling one of his pranks for his next book.

Observe:

The resemblance is there. Any difference is probably due to prosthetic devices. Even the hair is similar. The same vacuous grin, the same bemused and confused expression on the face.

You heard it here first folks.
This is right up there with my prediction that John McCain would pick Paris Hilton as his running mate. Better, because admittedly I was wrong on that one, but I was close, yessir, right in the ballpark. I didn't know about Sarah Palin at the time, but I was getting the vibes.

Clearly, frustrated in his attempts to become president, he has lowered his sights to the governor level. Considering what some of our governors are like, he fits right in. No wonder he hasn't been exposed until now. I like Dave Barry and I'm not sure I approve of this foray into x-rated language, but I'll reserve judgement until I see how it plays out. This is certainly more ambitious than that Mentos and diet Coke adventure.

You've been exposed, Dave. Take the foam padding out of your cheeks and own up.

Jan. 20, 2009

2009-01-20T22:40:00.002-05:00

Finally. Fin-freaking-ally!

It's a toss-up whether I'm happier Barack Obama is finally president or that George Bush is no longer.

It was a nice ceremony. I haven't watched one since Kennedy was elected. I didn't really think I'd enjoy any since. But i loved this one.

Except for Rick Warren, the only sour note, talking about how everyone is welcome in this country—but if you're gay don't try to get married. Hypocrite. And I know he's a Chrisian (so-called) preacher but did he have to end with the Lord's Prayer? I mean, this country that welcomes everyone is full of Jews and Muslims and Hindus and atheists (as Obama noted in his speech) so why not have an inclusive prayer?

But anyhow, I won't let that spoil my joy.
Great to see so many people (but man I'm glad I wasn't in that mass of humanity). Obama said a lot of good things in his speech, like how we're going to actually work with people around the world. That would be new. It wasn't a JFK type speech, but it was a speech calling everyone to work together, and wouldn't that be nice, if we all worked together?

A great day. The man looked cool and confident, his wife is beautiful—the most attractive couple in the White House since JFK and Jackie. It's going to be so good to hear his voice and see his face for the next four (eight?) years, and no more to see or hear his predecessor.

Happy day, America.

Grumble potpourri

2009-01-12T22:23:00.004-05:00

First off, I want to know why I can watch (a day late of course) Jon Stewart on my computer without commercials, but when I want to watch Rachel Maddow, I have to sit thru those annoying "bear with toilet paper stuck to his butt" commercials.
People are just trying to be too cute with something that's made for wiping, uh, the rear.

I suppose some sympathy should be shown to the poor advertising people charged with creating ads for this product. "omigod, not another poop-paper account. What can we do that hasn't been done?"
They should look to Andy Warhol. I have heard he was supposed to do a commercial for Coke, but what he submitted was a thirty second shot of a bottle of coke on a table, and in the last two seconds or so, he entered thru a door, grabbed the bottle and shoved it at the camera and said "Eat Coke."

This idea needs some adjustment considering the product: one couldn't use the word "eat" in this context without creating enemies. How about someone (preferably someone famous—perhaps Mickey Rourke?) coming into the room, grabbing the roll of TP and shouting "Wipe it!"
Wouldn't that get your attention more effectively than cute cartoon bears?

How'd I get off on this? I'm so easily distracted.

I see that a judge let Bernie Madoff (I think that's pronounced Made- off, as in "made off with all your money") stay out on bail, in spite of his attempt to distribute all his assets to relatives and friends so he wouldn't be forced to give them up to reimburse his victims. Really. Nicky Noaccount who knocks over a liquor store for $185 to buy drugs doesn't get off on bail. But the guy who conned who knows how many millions out of people gets to stay in his cushy apartment and enjoy his evening cocktail while scheming to send his jewelry into hiding.

I think I may have mentioned in this blog that I am not a violent person. But the idea of public floggings is starting to look attractive.

And the Democrats finally decided to let Roland Burris into the Senate club. Why did they make such a fuss in the first place? To separate themselves from Rod "alien haircut" Blagojevich, who inconveniently is also a Democrat. They painted themselves into a corner last week and now they have footprints all over the floor.

Oh yes, our soon to be thankfully departed president gave his "last press conference" today. So what does that make? his second or third in this last four years?

No shoes were thrown. Reporters are so much more civilized here. So much more gutless. Or blind—they have probably been dazzled by the press secretary, Dana Perino. Hey, even I think she's a dish and a sweetie. Even if she does work for GWB.

Anyhoo (I got distracted again) Georgie "admitted to some mistakes" according to reports. But not the big ones, no sir. Phony war, violation of constitutional rights, torture—nuh-uh, those weren't mistakes.
Oh, that "Mission Accomplished" banner— that was a biggie.

He makes a big deal out of not drinking anymore, but frankly, I think he would have been a better president soused.

The Golden Globes awards were given. Kate Winslet won a couple, and showed up in one of those "Jesus, how does that thing stay up?" strapless dresses. Not that I am complaining. And Tina Fey, showing a most un-Sarah Palinish décolletage. A good night for aging lechers.
I actually didn't get to see the Golden Globes, not having television up here in the boondocks, but I got to see the pictures on the New York Times website. Occasionally I do regret not having TV.

Mickey Rourke also showed up, looking like, well, Mickey Rourke. That is, not that good. Maybe it's just as well i don't have good TV reception .

Enough. I'm going to go to Hell for wasting peoples' time this way.
cheers.

2009-01-10T21:01:00.003-05:00

Man, this new year is something else so far.
Is there no respite from the vacuous, venal and violent?

At least we have Blagojevich for some humor. Not that he's trying to be funny, and, on a deeper level, he's not. No one that blatantly and unapologetically venal is really funny, finally. But on the surface, and for the nonce, he's a million laughs.

The press conference with the people he supposedly helped standing near him (some called it a "human shield") was almost as good as Nixon appearing with his dog Checkers on TV (in response to a contribution scandal). You can't do better than appearing with a dog.

What kind of pet would Dick Cheney appear on TV with while explaining his actions? A Tasmanian Devil?
Of course the idea that Dick Cheney would deign to explain anything he did is pretty much just science fiction or fantasy.

Speaking of science fiction, I just figured out what that haircut of Bagojevich's was reminding me of. Robert A. Heinlein wrote a novel called "The Puppet Masters" in which slug-like aliens attached themselves to the backs of humans and controlled them. I'm proposing that we are under attack by fuzzy aliens who attach themselves to the top of the head of humans to control them and make them do blatently stupid things, like discuss selling a senate seat on a tapped telephone. Blago's alien just didn't land quite right.

Britney Spears' alien landed right, and incidently, looks better. She did make an effort to get rid of it tho.

On a more serious note, I wish the Israelis would realize that bombing the shite out of people is not the best way to get them to stop acting badly. They'll just get sneakier.

And it's about time for Hamas to grow up and put the big boy briefs on and realize that they aren't going to make Israel go away, and that they are only making things worse for their own people. But that is the modus operandi for unwavering ideologues who must have things their own way. Everyone is expendable to the progress of their desires.

In the meantime —TEN MORE DAYS!!

Ten more days before the Bushman heads off into the sunset. He should never have been president.
The only good thing he's accomplished was to prove once and for all that deregulation and market forces do not a healthy economy make. And that was only done inadvertently and by causing a lot of people to suffer. The jobless rate went up to 7.2% last month. That's just one of the results. Your curmudgeon was ahead of the curve on this one, having been laid off last February. I consider myself a trailblazer.

It's going to be interesting to see if the smooth-talking Mr. Confidence, Barack Obama can get the US at least on the way out of this mess, if not entirely out of it. At least Republicans can't go complaining about his spending, not after one of their own blew a budget surplus into smithereens.

Okay, I'm done. Go find something useful to do.

2008 is over—Praise the Lord! or whomever.

2008-12-31T22:46:00.003-05:00

Geez, what a year. At least there were no assassinations—here in America. I can remember a few from 1968, you won't see a year like that again, thank God.

But we had enough to wonder, quail and groan at.

The final year of a two year presidential scramble. Sarah Palin. Joe the Plumber. Huckleberry Huckabee (I like that guy, even tho he is opposite of everything I believe— one of the few Presidential wannabees who had a real sense of humor), Mitt the Haircut Romney, John Edwards of the $400 haircut, and mistress. Speaking of mistresses, lets not leave out former Gov. Eliot (Mr Clean) Spitzer.

And remember Hillary "I dodged bullets in Sarajevo" Clinton, and not to be left out, John "evermore removed from reality" McCain.

The Obamarama. I hope this guy comes through.

And then there is the economic tsunami, where your curmudgeon saw all his 401 gains go south this year so that he is left with what he started off with three years ago.

And we see the moronic congress give the bankers and stock manipulators oodles of dough without restrictions but then get all huffy over the needs of the auto companies (and especially the unions).
They get all concerned over people who actually produce something but the bean counters can do whatever they want.
What is wrong with this picture?

And in the last days of the year the Israelis are bombarding the shit out of Gaza, or, as they say, the Hamas leadership. Why do I feel like we've been here before and it didn't work then either?

I've always thought of myself as a friend of Israel, but I really have to wonder about what they are thinking with this latest action. Rocket attacks on nearby Israeli towns notwithstanding. Creating new Palistinian martyrs will not advance the cause of Peace.

One of the terrible legacies of the 20th century (up there in the top ten of "worst centuries in human history" category) is the disregard for non-combatent life. Okay, it wasn't that much better in the 18th and 19th centuries, but usually once you'd been raped and had your food stolen you were still alive. These days you don't even get that small and problematic blessing.
You just get death.

Am i depressing enough now?

Okay, switch gears. There is still a lot to enjoy about life. It's the beginning of a new year. Are you carrying a load of resentment and/or hurt, a sense of failure, a realization that life has gone in a different direction than the one you wanted?

It's not the end of the world.
A door closes, another one opens. If you stop feeling sorry for yourself long enough to look around to see it. You can move on.

This is the time of New Year's Resolutions. I should have done that in all caps to give that expression, New year's Resolutions, the false importance it aspires to.

What this time is, is a time to remember you have or had goals, and it's a time to reassess those goals, desires, hopes, to see if some adjustments aren't in order.

It's time to look over the top of your champagne glass to a) see your future if you continue with what you have been and done in your past, and b) if you have the fortitude to move past that and adjust to new realities, seek new opportunities, make something new of yourself.

Of course this isn't something you do tonight. but you could start a process that grows over the course of the new year to create a new reality, a new future for yourself.

Hey, maybe you don't need that. Maybe you are where you should be (are you REALLY sure?).
But most of us are still a work in progress, and that's not bad. In my deepest heart, I don't really want to find myself finished. I don't really want to reach a point where nothing else needs to change or be done.
This is earth, and as a Sufi sage once indicated, an apple with a worm in it is about the best we can do as a representation of heaven. We gots to enjoy that apple, we gots to respect that worm.
we gots to eat around that worm and still get our nourishment.

Anyway, to get back to where I started with switching gears— shit happens and it will happen to you and me, if it isn't happening now already. But life and its blessings are also already happening to you and me. It's up to us to see and go with the best of these options. And it will be hard sometimes. But in the end i hope you, and I, will find the joy in life in the midst of the sorrows and disappointments.

May you all (both of my readers) have a happy and fulfilling new year!

Ooops, I forgot to complain. Blame it on the holidays.

Seriously,
Happy new year to the world! And to each of you.
cheers.

Sigh

2008-12-21T23:02:00.004-05:00

Where to start?
There's snow, all over the place and not stopping.
There's my cat, who will not go outside and expects me to fill in the entertainment vacuum.
And Barack Obama has asked Rick Warren, the evangelical, anti-gay right wing Rick Warren, to do the invocation at his inauguration.

I was hoping he would at least wait til he was actually president before he started disappointing us.

I expected some disappointment. As much as I admire the guy, he is a just-a-leetle bit too far to the right side of center for me. Of course, my center is probably just-a-leetle bit too far left for most folks. But I didn't think i would start to have issues so soon.

Now the Rev. Warren has some good qualities. But no one is all bad. Heck, even Hitler wanted his country to produce a car everyone could afford. That's a good thing, right? The fact that the Beetle became wildly popular among people who stood against everything Hitler was for is just ONE of life's little ironies.
Still, Rick Warrens' opinions about gays and abortion and his endorsement of the usual evangelical sex hang-ups don't show any understanding of the reality of people's lives. And they certainly don't reflect the ideal of inclusiveness which animated this country from its beginnings (well, except for the slaves), nor do they relate to the radical inclusiveness of Jesus's teachings. What would Jesus think about "megachurches?"
There is a large group of people, of all sorts, who feel that scripture is a dead document. That is, it must be accepted as written without any thought to the times in which it was written, and how times might be different now.

I'm a person who thinks that you can glean a lot of understanding and enlightenment about the human condition and our relation to "the divine" thru reading of scripture. But I cannot leave out trying to understand the times in which the various parts of scripture were written.

Is contemporary America in any way analogous to the struggles of a small group of people trying to survive in a hostile environment with the possibility, and at times, the actuality of slavery and extinction of their clan, beliefs and way of life?

Physically at least, people who have had to depend upon God for manna are in a different existential sphere than people who can run down to the local Stop and Shop for their daily bread.
When a tribe depends so desperately upon reproduction for survival, it could be natural to have rules against masturbation, abortion, homosexuality. Also rules about keeping the women in the house, not only to assure the proper paternity, but also to try to keep the death at birth rate down. Not saying that's right, just saying I can see the reasoning there.

But we have 300 million Americans. How many more do we need? I'm just bringing that up because I think our present situation means we should look for more timely and relevant guidance in scripture than rules about reproduction. And I am not making a blanket endorsement of abortion as birth control. Women close to me have undergone abortions, and with good reason. And not just because they were too feckless or irresponsible to use other birth control options. I'm just throwing this in because this is one of those hot items the evangelical right likes to jump on.

What I mean is that if you look at scripture in general, and the life and teachings of Jesus in particular, you could find a more practical, responsible guide for living. And if one follows that guide, a lot of these other issues become moot. Not that, say, unwanted pregnancies wouldn't happen, but they might be dealt with in a more honest and humane manner.

We are not the ancient Hebrews (nor the ancient arabic tribes, for that matter) and we shouldn't try to be them, think like them or act like them.

My rant for the day.
How'd I get here? Oh yeah, I started with Obama. He's got my support so far, i hope he doesn't ef it up.

More Asshatery—It's Bleeping Golden

2008-12-16T23:29:00.003-05:00

Ahh, Illinois. Just when things were slowing down Gov. Blagojevich comes to the rescue. With actions so blatant he makes Elliot Spitzer look positively discreet.

I mean the man was ALREADY being investigated—and he still talked on the telephone. Hello? As Peter Sagel said on Wait, wait don't tell me,"We in Chicago weren't surprised at the corruption. We were surprised at how stupid he was."
Indeed. He was outrageously stupid. Not only by trying to sell a senate seat—did I mention 'over the phone'—the tapped phone—while already under investigation, but the seat wasn't just some schmoo's from downstate who didn't have much national presence. It was the president-elect's seat fer pete's sake! You have to wonder how he got to be governor, even in Illinois. He must've been more discreet in his perfidy, previously. No doubt the trappings of power got to him, like it has to other governors in Illnois and lately in New York. Something about high office must just make certain men feel that they're too big to get caught.

But how did he hide the stupidity?
The hairdo should have been a giveaway. No one willing to keep THAT thing on his head is to be trusted.

Anyway, the curmudgeon is pleased to see a good old-fashioned scandal in the news again—the money and corruption kind. No four-thousand dollar hookers, no sex or kinkiness, this one is rated PG. Some foul language.

Slacker

2008-12-15T21:19:00.003-05:00

That's me. Ten days since I last posted. Call it post-election ennui.
When did I start this silly thing? A year ago? Immediately it was Clinton-Obama-McCain, Clinton-Obama-McCain. With a Mitt and a Huckleberry thrown in once in a while. Every day another opportunity for humor—or anguish.

I feel like a junkie who just got locked up in rehab. Where's my fix!?
Watching Obama pick his cabinet is about as exciting as watching barnacles adhere to the bottom of a boat. It sort of looks like Clinton Administration redux. But then, there haven't been a whole lot of Democratic administrations since 1980, so where you going to find people? At least a couple of them seem to be Washington outsiders, which is good.

I can't wait til he becomes president—and fair game.

I did get a little political fix today. An Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at Pres. Bush. Of course such an overt sign of disrespect by a foreigner is to be deplored. Are you properly deploring?
This is the kind of thing we want to reserve for ourselves.
Gotta admit, that guy had more cojones than the Congress had in the last four years.

In the meantime, here on the home front, we've had a major ice storm in New England. Yrs truly was out of power for about 30 hours. Not too bad since some people are still waiting, four days later. I got to experience the fine old 19th century tradition of reading by candlelight.
I'm telling you, it was hell not being able to use my computer.
What a freaking geek I've become.

With the new DSL connection I have I have been able to enjoy the Daily Show and Rachel Maddow. This is both an enhancement of my entertainment options and also a major time suck. And a big downside, I am getting to see commercials again.
Horrors.
If I have to watch the ads for "Yes Man" one more time, I will hire a squad of crazed ninjas to take out everyone associated with that movie.
It's like having sex with someone you realize you don't really like.
"I enjoyed it the first time."

And that weird toilet paper commercial…
some of you may wish to skip this part—

A mother bear chases a baby bear who has little white specks on his butt. The point of the ad is to sell a tissue that won't leave debris in your nether regions.
Wha?
I dunno, I've had maybe over a dozen sexual partners (hey, I was a late starter) and I never saw this as a problem, nor did any of them, perhaps being too genteel, comment about any litter on my anatomy. Nor have I heard any jokes or comments from my guy friends about this. And you know guys, with their partially developed, puerile brains, wouldn't pass up a chance to joke about this.

My conclusion is that it is a nefarious plot to create a new fear among consumers so that they will buy that particular brand of TP. It's pointless to try to create a need, everyone is aware of that (God, I hope so), and I believe the desirability of softness has been, er, thoroughly covered. So all that's left is to create fear.

Don't fall for it.

Keep reading my blog. It will wipe the offal from the daily news off your brain without leaving any evidence of thought behind.

Cheers.

Mindf*ck

2008-12-06T23:03:00.002-05:00

Geez. I had thought that with the end of the election campaign (I survived, no thanks to the aliens who refused to kidnap me) the curmudgeon could hang up his hair shirt and lay around in the sun in his Obama T-shirt.
Alas.
There is a recession going on (of course you and I knew this, but it took some academics with slide rules to convince the gov't), the so-called Big Three automakers are looking for help, the price has gone up from 25 billion to 34 billion—I guess it costs a bit more to run those hybrid cars they drove to Washington this time—and since they have untold thousands of subsidiary companies and their employees in thrall to their needs— they have a good chance of getting help. The last I heard this was coming as a loan. And if this scenario is good, they will start facing reality and producing useful vehicles and repaying us, the taxpayers (let's not look at the question of how I will know that my taxes are reduced because of this payment), our loan to help them stay afloat.

Take a deep breath now and hold it until they pay us back.

By the way, it's not the auto WORKERS who are responsible for this mess. Management always likes to blame the people who actually do the work for any price increases or problems. It just boggles the mind to consider how well this works. Joe, the car assembly line guy, wants more family time—that's socialism to give it to him (horrors).

Hey, it's not the millions we spend on bonuses for our middle and upper middle management guys which are creating this problem. It's those guys who actually put the cars together and who want decent health insurance who are the problem. They want adequate compensation for their efforts. Obviously Communists.
Anybody here remember what Communists were?

In the meantime, George phone-the-job-in Bush admits that well, the Iraq thing has cost a bit more and taken a bit longer than expected. Yeah, it's cost over 4 thou American lives (and we're not considering the larger number of Iraqis here), is draining our treasury of money we need here, but hey, it's mostly a success.
Saddam is dead, isn't he? That's worth 4 thou grieving families.
NOT.

Okay, I'm 63 years old, or young, compared to how old you yourself are. but I don't think I have ever seen anything as bad, financially, as this.
I've been out of work since February, and another 500 thou people got laid off just last month.

Guess how much hope I have of ever working again. The competition, where it is not steep, is certainly numerous. In any job you or I apply for, assuming there is such a thing out there, the human resources person will be so overwhelmed that unless you or I are in the first ten our chances are about as good as the survival of a North Vietnamese in a Rambo movie.
Change your name to A. Aabababa as soon as possible. If you're not on that first google page, you are toast.

Politics—screwed up.
Economy—screwed up
Recovery—screwed up

Seems like this place is a winner.

Bye, bye.

Black, black Friday

2008-11-30T23:24:00.002-05:00

The American consumer is soooo stupid.
And disgraceful.

On Long Island, a Wal-Mart employee got trampled to death on Friday morning when drooling, greedy shoppers broke down the doors and swarmed into the store. At what, 5 AM? some ridiculously early time.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

First, wanting so badly to save money (while spending it—go figure) that they would get up early to be at a store on opening to be sure they got THE BEST DEAL.
Second, being willing to be part of a mindless horde of avaricious shoppers.
Third, being willing to kill to get what they want.

I heard people were annoyed that they had to wait while the store, the police and the EMTs cleaned up the mess.

Way to show Christmas Spirit folks.
Suddenly, water-boarding doesn't seem so bad. I'd love to get my mitts on the first two hundred or so of those idiots who stormed that Wal-Mart. I'd like to adjust their attitude. This kind of thing really tests my pacific Christian philosophy.
I end up feeling like I really want to hurt those people.

Lord, forgive me. But there it is.

Can you imagine being one of these people? Can you imagine how ashamed you would be? And if not, can you figure out why you deserve to live?

If this is the way Americans are supposed to be, maybe it's time for me to return to the family roots in Slovakia. I asked before in this blog, if I were the only one who thought that it was weird that the economic health of our country depended on us buying things. A lot of things.

I still think it's weird.

I don't have a problem with people wanting something more than the basics of existence. And I don't have a problem with other people producing stuff that goes past the basics and who want to earn a living selling it.

But I do have a problem with elevating greed and possession to the be-all and end-all of life.
Actually I could just say "end-all of life" because anyone who is in the thrall of this possessive addiction has really opted out of true human life. There ain't no "be-all" for them, they are just robots.

What insanity is it that induces major retailers to create elevated levels of possessiveness in their customers? And what insanity is it that allows customers give themselves up to these consuming influences?

Are people's lives really so empty? Are retailers so insecure and greedy? Are people so stupidly susceptible to being manipulated to the point where they actually surrender any pretense to humanity?
Yes, yes and yes.

I keep coming back to that parable in Luke where Jesus tells the rich ruler to sell all he has and give the money to the poor. The rich ruler can't do it. Do you suppose any of those Long Islanders could give up even half of what they were planning to spend at Wal-Mart to the poor?
Don't bet the farm on this.
Disclosure: I lived on Long Island for a while once and I'm here to tell you, it's better to be in Youngstown, Ohio or Eugene, Oregon or anywhere else in the known universe. Long island makes you crazy.

Although so far they haven't been shooting each other in Toys R Us. That's left for the Californians.
Merry Christmas everyone.

Go meditate or something already.