Well said

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

Still, I'll opt for capitalism.

Two days after Thanksgiving

We write the light stuff, the silly stuff, or we write not at all when things seem heaviest and hardest. This whole world seems in chaos just now, including close to home. Bomb attempts at the lighting of Portland's Christmas tree, murder of a young college girl in upstate New York, suicide bombings "in diverse places," North Korea starting up against South Korea with nuclear power to back it up, the US government printing money as we speak with nothing behind it, folks working the system, others just down and out.

So what's to say?

Maybe just that I count my blessings. Which are many. Anything else I might say seems not to matter much.

Yesterday's Election

Results should send a "stop what you're doing" message to Obama, but I'm waiting for his first wriggle out of it speech. Actually, I may have missed it already.

I've Had It Up to Here

I think BO is running scared, although he does not look scared. But he is everywhere these days. Talking up his whatever-you-want-to-call-them plans and performances. Telling folks it all really is working. That's behavior of a scared guy, isn't it?

And he pops in here and there unannounced (so they'd have us believe), surprising school children. Yeah, sure. They're safe. They won't ask the hard questions. They'll just cheer and smile.

I get worried sometimes. I'm afraid too many people are thinking, "Yes, we elected a black president. Aren't we wonderful!" And that is enough for them.

Not for me.

Keep running scared, BO. And by all means, keep talking off the cuff in those platitudinal (my spell checker says it should be platitudinous, but I like platitudinal better) phrases we've all memorized by now.

We have two years to do something about him. Excuse him from further service. Vote him out.

Yes, indeed

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
- John Adams

Has anything changed?

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
- Aesop

I don't think so.

Oil Spills and Such

I used to ask my students how they would find out the truth of, say, a news story, suggesting to them they could not count on the news media, for instance. Their abbreviated reports, their need for readers/listeners/viewers, their editorial agenda, etc. All would interfere with the truth.

Today I ask the same question, because we have the story--and it's a big one--from so many sources. BP tells its truth, the federal government a different story, the Coast Guard another, the Navy, the folks who are on those few and small stretches of beach doing "clean up," reporters with limited access or skewed perspective, former BP employees, and anyone with something against any of those entities. Any or all may not be worthy of belief.

And it is possible that all news, or most of it, is filtered through BP. It's their oil, after all, their deal.

I wonder, do all parties have something to gain in this thing? Is there some profit to be made by hiding the facts?

Or is there someone, anyone, anywhere, who is actually disinterested, objective? Even objectivity is no promise of the truth.

Some pretend to objectivity, pretend to say the truth. Some may believe what they tell. Others just don't know the whole story. Does anyone?

Can anyone? I don't think so.

So who tells the truth?

I say, no one. Not really.

I am not a cynic. I may be an idealist shocked and disappointed a few too many times. But I simply believe we will never know the truth of this thing.

And I'm not sure most of us really want to know. We're usually happy with the quick reports. They're quite enough, thanks.

This and That

I guess I'll find out if Muslims read this blog, because I'm about to say, "Look out. They are taking over the world. Truly they are." So check on me once in a while. And I'm not kidding.

For instance, look at population data in Europe, particularly France and The Netherlands, and in Canada and the US--just for starters. And it's the IHH, the Muslim factor in Turkey, that is leading that country's tirade against Israel and advocating a severing of relations over the flotilla incident.

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. It's kind of scriptural, you know. I just don't like witnessing it.

And so on.

I still stand with Israel. Fewer and fewer of us do. Seen a production of Fiddler on the Roof lately? And Mark Steyn says The Diary of Anne Frank is now on the do not read or produce list in Holland.

By the way, I'm not through on the Arizona issue, but that post is likely to be lengthy, given what I've been reading recently. So later. For now, I still stand with the state's right to establish laws regarding illegal immigration into it--the state--without the federal government overturning the laws.

No. I don't have it in for anyone. I will add, though, that I am sick and tired of King Barak. Hmm, new subject. Did British Petroleum give him $1,000,000 for his campaign? Yes, that is true. Didn't he let them slide on the safety issues? Oh dear, here I go.

Later.

Arizona

So NBC did a poll about Arizona's immigration law.

Results: 61% support the law; 39% do not.

Yes, I'd like to know who responded or how many people they polled or where those people live. Still, I ask, do such results mean nothing? Someone on the federal level--maybe the president and his flunkies--ought to pay attention.

Betty White, and isn't it a shame

This post is similar to the one on Carol's Corner, but it's not identical. Why do I post it twice? Because I am really disappointed, at least times two.

In 1952 I was 11 and we lived in Santa Monica. Betty White had a local TV show, Life With Elizabeth, co-starring Jim Backus. I loved the show, and I loved her. From then on I have liked to see her in whatever role she has played; even the stupid skits on Johnny Carson were often funny, if sometimes shady. She's good, fun, smart.

Now she's old, 88, but she is not dead and neither is her career. I have liked her in her occasional appearances on TV, and I liked her in The Proposal. So it was logical that I watch as she hosted Saturday Night Live. Of course, I have seen the show, but it is generally vulgar and stupid, so I do not watch it. And I should have known because of the over-hype about it.

I did feel some apprehension, because I figured the writers would hardly change just because the host is someone I like. Right I was to be apprehensive. She even said the F word. Why? Just to prove she could? Disgusting and quite disappointing.

Vulgar? Yes, and beyond the merely suggestive. And, really, those are all old jokes, if you can call them jokes.
Stupid? Very. And no imagination exhibited by the writers. I mean there are other themes that could have emerged beyond that of her age. Aren't there?
Funny? Not in the least.
Disappointing? Well, yes, because I expected she might be a cut above the crap. But she isn't.

I couldn't watch the whole thing, and I felt it was not a good beginning to my sabbath.

And It's My Right, too

Let's all go to Arizona carrying a placard advocating that state's rights. In fact, all states' rights.
At least, let us all remember that principle.

I Like It

Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.
- Ogden Nash

What I Think

You can quote me on this, but I'm not sure anyone will:

Beautiful people don't always know that people who are not beautiful are also beautiful.

Guest Post on Self Awareness

by some guy

Me: I love sunshine after a couple rainy days.
Also Me: Why is that?
M: I'm hoping the sun will dry out the rain-soaked dog poo in the front yard so I can shovel it out into the street where it belongs.
AM: Where it belongs?
M: Well, it certainly doesn't belong in my yard.
AM: It doesn't belong in the street either. Two wrongs do not make a right you know.
M: I'm not trying to be right.
AM: That's good because you know you are wrong.
M: Whoever owns the dog that leaves those huge piles in my yard drew first blood.
AM: So you're Rambo now? You going paint your face with mud and hide in the feather reed grasses and jump out the next time that mini-bulldog digs your bark out onto the sidewalk?
M: No, I'm not Rambo. Am I supposed to enjoy dog crap in my yard?
AM: No, but you are going to die of a stress-induced heart attack if you don't learn to let go of all these insignificant things that you get all worked up about.
M: Like what?
AM: Like what? Oh, like anytime we drive anywhere and you comment on every other driver and how you must’ve missed the memo that driving to the gym was now a NASCAR event. Or anytime we are in the front yard and that red pickup blazes the stop sign on the corner and you remark how he never stops there.
M: He never stops there.
AM: See? Or that time you were dropping the kids at the child watch at the gym and you made a big deal about how it stunk so bad knowing all along it was Patchouli and knowing the worker girl standing right there wears Patchouli.
M: I hate the smell of that crap.
AM: Exactly. But that doesn't mean you gotta get all worked up and make a federal case out of every little thing. Like that time at Goody's when we were getting ice cream and you asked the worker girl if she was a hippie and she said she didn't like to label things and you went off on her deconstructing her comment pointing out that every word in it was a label and how stupid it was to say labeling things is bad and how without labels for things nobody could ever communicate; we would all just point and grunt and soon even grunting would be a kind of a label. There’s no reason you need to take everything to its most ridiculous extreme.
M: ....
AM: Do you even recognize that you rant anytime someone parks backwards on the street or in a parking lot or someone cuts across a parking lot or leaves a grocery cart anywhere but in the cart return or doesn't use their blinkers when turning or anytime the neighbor takes a tool out of his shed or anytime you see someone on their mobile while driving or...
M: ....
AM: I just don't see what skin it is off your nose if someone you don't even know and won't ever see again happens to like listening to their music really loud in their car stereo as they pass you going a few miles over the speed limit. Why do you feel compelled to make a snide comment about their tastes and their passion for NASCAR e v e r y s i n g l e t i m e?
M: I see you've thought about this a lot.
AM: I want you to be self-aware.
M: Really? OK, I'll think about that while I'm out front shoveling soggy doggy poo into the street.
AM: Perfect.

Obama's Crusade

Is there no one--or not enough of them--with the courage to go against the king? Will this "health care" thing be shoved down our throats?

"We will get the votes," he says. I don't like the sound of that.

Hold firm, conservatives. Come on, moderates.

Refund Joy

Holy Cow! I already got my tax refund--small though it is, $80--from the state of Idaho. Can't complain about that. Hope they let me keep it.

Now Maybe I Can Forget About Taxes

I have received email communications from the IRS and the state of Idaho. Both of my tax "returns" have been accepted. I hope this means accepted forever and no letters coming in two or three years saying I owe more.

I hope.

Yes, I hope accepted means to them what it means to me.

Here's How I Think

"I never said it would be easy. I only said it would be worth it." One of those ubiquitous sayings, the likes of which I can't like.

One young man stood up in church recently and credited Jesus with that very statement.

I squirmed, but I did not say, "Oh, really. Can you give me chapter and verse on that? Was that before or after he said 'Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light'? or 'And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me'? or any of a number of things actually attributed to Christ in the scriptures?"

No, I did not say it. But I thought someone should warn the young man--actually, he's a full-time missionary--that he needs to be aware that he may encounter some people who know Jesus did not say that thing. It's not part of his gospel, not doctrine. It's just one of this day's "feel good" bunches of words that probably came from some motivational speaker trying to sell his books and DVDs. And some people might like to be taught the truth.

And so on and so forth.

This week's Weight Watcher's meeting brought the saying to me again. "You know what we always say," said our meeting leader, "I never said it would be easy. I only said it would be worth it." This time I didn't squirm, but I did sigh. More tolerable in such a setting, and at least she didn't attribute it to Jesus. I suppose I can apply the saying to "dieting" and say, "Well, okay."

But, truthfully, I still hate it in any setting. I find its succinct trivialization of everything in our lives intolerable. Yes, I do.

Chapter and verse for my citations: Matthew 11:29-30; 10:38.

Tax-es

Done.
Hoping--and praying, truly I am--that they are done right.

Yes, Taxes

I'm working on them.

Just a Part of Life in the US

I do not look forward to it, but I have to get at it. Taxes. What a burden.

It would be a different matter if I were getting money back. But no.

Swell

Those folks now charged with child abduction in Haiti--they're putting Idaho on the map, so to speak. Make you proud?

Read about Ms Silsby here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/world/americas/05idaho.html

My mind is not closed entirely

Okay, so I heard some of the things Obama said to House Republicans as he met with them on Friday, and I liked them.

For instance, I know it's true, as he said, that we tend to demonize one another--each side against the other. I know it's true that such characterizations make true bi-partisanship nearly impossible.

I had a sense that he loves this country.

I still don't want his health care bill.

Nobama

You know, I can't help how this sounds, but I could not watch him last night. I tried for a few minutes, but I couldn't do it.

Well, it was mostly I could not listen to him, that signature clipped way of saying words, the actual things he was saying, which, by the way, we all knew in advance, thanks to the "pundits" who couldn't wait to let us know how wonderful this State of the Union, "his first," would be, and of his wise and wonderful (politically motivated, obviously) shift in focus to the forgotten middle class and middle of the road folks.

It made me tired.

Mudslides and Such

My Aunt Allie, 90 next month, lives in La Cañada, California, where the mudslides have forced many to evacuate. Last summer, when the fires ripped through there, her street was evacuated, but she didn't go, choosing to sit it out rather than sleep on the high school gymnasium floor. She told me then, when the fires were finally out and she was fine, that the next challenge would be when it rained, because, with all the trees and other ground cover burned away, mud would race down those mountains right behind her.

She was right.

However, I have just now spoken with her. She's in her home and reported that her street was not evacuated. Happy news for me, and, of course, for her.

Part of our conversation dealt with her health and mine. I told her I have cataracts beginning in my eyes but that they are nothing to worry about yet. She said she had cataracts, had to wait, finally had the surgeries, and all went well. Then she said, "Maybe by the time you have to have your surgeries, Carol, Obummer will have his health care plan in place . . . and you won't be covered."

We then spoke of the Massachusetts election, the hope it brings to those of us who do not want the president's health care plan. And we spoke of other things.

This post exists so that I could use the name she has given to our president, one I had not heard before, one I like.

Thanks, Allie, for it and for being there and still fine.

Hmph!

If I notified Delta Airlines that I needed to change my flight schedule, they would charge me, like $100, I think.

But they have notified me, via email, that they have changed my flight schedule, and the change will almost surely make me miss my connecting flight to New York City.

Shouldn't they pay me something for that?

The down side . . .

of having an email address, or having one that people know, and, after all, that's the reason for having an email address.

But to the point, the down side: all those forwarded bunches of junk. I do believe some I saw years ago are making the rounds again.

My View

To put it mildly, I am sick of Obama.