the death of the birther issue

... or is it?  Now that President Obama has had his birth certificate released to shut up the weirdo-fringe element about whether he was born in the U.S. or not, will the birthers just move on to some other stupid waste-of-time issue? After all, this wasn't really about where Obama was born:  it was to remind the lunatics that he "isn't one of us" -- the transparent message being "he's not a true-blooded American -- he's not 'Christian' -- he's not white."

Cartoon candidate Donald Trump now wants to see transcripts from Obama's school years, the obvious implication being that he thinks Obama used Affirmative Action to get into Harvard.  I'm a little surprised that Trump turned out to be this kind of person, courting the white-racist radicals.  Luckily, there aren't enough of them anymore to get him elected President. 

It's a shame there can't be any rational political discussion anymore or, if there is such a thing, that the media choose not to cover legitimate debate, preferring the "reality-show" attention-grabbers.

madness

Let's take a look around...

"March Madness" (college basketball championships) has been going on, and I'm mostly oblivious to it because I never have time for it in March and because there are just too many teams... Starts with 64 of the best teams -- who can keep them straight? -- and gradually pares down to what is now "the Final Four", the champions to be decided next weekend.  I was just reading that this is the "most unlikely Final Four ever".  Why that is, I don't know.  Here are the 2011 Final Four teams:  University of Kentucky, University of Connecticut, Butler University, and Virginia Commonwealth University.  Enjoy it if you're into this.

what else..?

Well, Obama gave his "why we are in Libya" speech last night, and, although I mostly am a pro-Obama guy (primarily because who the potential alternatives might be), he has lost me on this particular issue.  Our answers always seem to be in our bombs.  He can maybe get away with this because Qaddafi is such a distasteful character, but what will he do when the Saudis start attacking their own protestors? Will we still have the same standards?

ho hum, it must be time for another invasion

Every day I wake up happy that Barack Obama is President and that George W. Bush or John McCain are not, but that doesn't mean I can't be frustrated with Obama. Not sure that I'd give him more than a "B-minus" grade overall at this time, made a "C-plus"....

... and one of my main frustrations is that we're still mired in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our continued involvement there currently isn't much different than it would be under Bush or McCain.

... But now here comes Libya. The Administration announced this week that "all options are on the table", including a possible invasion if necessary, to remove the evil Qaddafi from power and restore "peace". Oh and what a coincidence -- they happen to have oil there in Libya.

... Don't do it, dude.

breastfeeding politics

First Ladies of the U.S. always have a worthy "cause" during their husbands' Presidencies. Lady Bird Johnson's cause, for instance, was "beautifying America". Laura Bush's cause was literacy (Which is kinda funny, considering who her husband was).

Michelle Obama's cause, so far, is trying to prevent obesity, especially childhood obesity, which has become a widespread problem in this country. Recently, as part of her program, she has articulated the benefits of breastfeeding, because breast-fed babies generally have less tendency towards obesity later in their childhood. The IRS, in conjunction with this, has announced or clarified that breast pumps can be taken as a medical deduction on individual tax returns.

Needless to say, there is nothing that either President Obama or Mrs. Obama can ever say or do that doesn't get a negative political response from somebody, and in this case the loudest response came from Congresswoman/Tea-Party-nutcase Michele Bachmann, who mouthed off that a First Lady advocating breastfeeding is "government interference" in people's lives. Ms. Bachmann, of course, has no issues with other "government interference" -- for instance, the government deciding who has and who does not have the right to marry. Mrs. Obama is not trying to force any mother to breastfeed -- she's just giving advice. There is no Defense of Breastfeeding Act.

who inspires what?

I would be amused, if it weren't such a somber subject, by the video that Sarah Palin defensively released yesterday, in which she basically blames the media for somehow inspiring hatred and violence by implying that she is partially responsible for inspiring hatred and violence with her nasty, divisive, weapon-loving speeches. The ironic part of her blaming the media is that the media have totally created her. It wasn't any accomplishment on her part or her intellect or her skills that made her, theoretically, a would-be Presidential candidate. It was her bizarre uniqueness that made her a celebrity, and it was the media that brought her out of nowhere to become a household name right up there with Paris Hilton. She owes the media for all the money she is making now as a speech-maker and a political cartoon character. If she can't divide people, she has no message. Compare that Palin video to the unifying, sensitive, and articulate speech by President Obama last night. If these are the choices, I'm so thankful that he's the one who is President.

end-of-the-month odds and ends

First of all, has John McCain lost whatever sanity he had left? He is saying, as North and South Korea edge perilously close to war, that we should be considering "regime change" for North Korea. We might all like to see regime change in that country, but "regime change" as a buzzword flashes us back to when that term was being used to overthrow Saddam Hussein and bring on the unnecessary and disastrous Iraq War. Sen. McCain surely must know that militarily North Korea is not the pipsqueak country that Iraq was, so such talk is reckless. In the meantime, as he anxiously awaits World War III, he is leading the charge in the Senate on a mission fighting the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" in the military even though more than 70% of the military when polled were okay with that stupid law being repealed. He's giving the appearance of a doddering old man, out of touch with the country, locking himself in a cage of his own making. Thank God this man isn't President.
*****
And what about this "Wikileaks" thing? Is it really such a big deal? I haven't seen much of what's being disclosed, but what I've seen so far would at most just hurt the feelings of some world leaders.. And if you can't stand having your feelings hurt once in a while, you shouldn't be a world leader.
*****
And poor President Obama... He can't even play a pick-up game of basketball without being injured... 12 stitches! Let's hope that 2011 is kinder to the man. We need stuff done!

pitfalls of democracy, part two

Yesterday, I ranted a little about the Obama Administration's apparent decision to appeal 'don't ask, don't tell' being recently overturned by a federal judge.

If the government's logic is that 'the people' should be making decisions, then here is an example of inconsistency: California has a referendum on the November ballot to legalize marijuana in that state. The U.S. Attorney General has already announced that, if the referendum passes, the federal government will fight it.

First of all, marijuana is almost legal in California anyway. Second, legalizing pot would not infringe on people's rights like 'don't ask, don't tell' does; in fact, it would make a lot more people 'non-criminals' while at the same time raising tax revenues.

So 'the people' have to approve a minority's rights but can't vote to undo illogical laws?

pitfalls of democracy, part one

A federal judge has struck down the stupid "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military, so for a potentially brief moment gays can serve openly in the Armed Forces. Unfortunately, though, the Obama Administration will probably appeal the ruling, the reason being that they would rather that "don't ask, don't tell" be eliminated by Congress and not by a judge: in other words, that the "people" (theoretically represented by Congress) make the decision and not the judicial system. And any gays that "came out" in the interim will be discharged.

There are several problems with the Administration's thinking. First, the "people" have not voted up to now to overturn the policy, and it's been in place for 17 years. Second, whether a group of people should have rights is not something to be decided by a majority and therefore subject to its prejudices -- this is why we HAVE a judicial system. Third, President Obama (whom I still support, of course) should stop trying to cater to the conservatives who will never vote for him anyway and consider his political base instead.

beware the ides of march -- 2009

This morning, a Sunday at the Four Inns restaurant in downtown St. Paul, Joan, my barely-limping sister, was giving me a hard time for not updating my blog in two weeks -- "I'm so sick of opening your blog and seeing that Joan Rivers photo!" she said. Jerry and Tom looked on with blank looks, since they never look at my blog and of course had no idea what she was talking about.

So here I am, back at it, mostly to move Joan Rivers out of the spotlight but also to let all my faithful fans know that I'm alive and well. The first two weeks of March are always nuts for me at the office -- major deadlines on the 15th, the Ides of March (although this year since the 15th fell on a Sunday, the deadline extends to the 16th, so I can take a little breather today). I'm hanging in there just fine, except for being nap-deprived.

Non-work happenings of March 2009:

-- Both our houses are still for sale. Lots of lookers, lots of great comments, no buyers.
-- Jerry took a couple of overnight trips during the past two weeks (while i'm slaving away over a hot computer) -- the first to New York City, the second up to northern Minnesota (Lutsen, on the North Shore of Lake Superior) to go skiing. Either trip sounds great to me (as long as I wouldn't have to actually ski) (Of course, right now getting out of town sounds so wonderful that I wouldn't care if it were to Topeka, Kansas!).
-- I've been reading the newest John Grisham novel, The Associate, for at least a couple of weeks. This is a book that should have been done in a weekend, but, wow, is it a pathetic excuse of a Grisham novel! He used to be a better writer than this, or at least less lazy than this. Not recommended.
-- Everybody is talking about the economy and it may be just that it's a sunny day and I'm feeling blindly optimistic, but I'm wondering if maybe in some ways the worst is over. Let's all get over being depressed about it and make some adjustments.
-- Obama is doing ok, but, wow, who would ever want that job? And I'm feeling kinda sorry for Republicans, who are stuck with Rush Limbaugh (their chubby new "face"), Bobby Jindal, and Sarah Palin. Oh, more March 2009 news -- Bristol Palin and her trash boyfriend broke up. What a big surprise -- wonder when they'll show up on The Jerry Springer Show.

Back to normal soon, guys. My version of normal, that is.

presidents' day

This morning, I asked Jerry who he would rather spend today, Presidents' Day, with -- me or Barack Obama? -- and was surprised when he answered "Barack Obama." Ouch!

Doesn't matter. We're both working today anyway (and I bet Barack is also).. We did take the morning off to take my sister Joan to the doctor to have her cast removed. She is now once again among the walking! The wheelchair is history.

What is "Presidents' Day" anyway?.. When I was a kid in New Jersey, we had both Lincoln's birthday (Feb 12) and Washington's birthday (Feb 22) as holidays every year, and somehow it all got merged into a Monday holiday called Presidents' Day, which meant that Lincoln and Washington got smushed into bad company like Franklin Pierce and george w. bush. Maybe that's why fewer and fewer companies have this as a paid day off. What's to celebrate??

great expectations

January isn't a great time to be moving into a new house, but I bet the Obamas won't be carrying any boxes into the White House in the next few days so it won't likely be a problem for them... The job I'd like is being one of the movers getting the bush family the heck out of there -- as fast as possible, maybe breaking some furniture along the way (like real movers).

I for sure don't envy Barack Obama as he becomes President. There are only 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week -- Where does he start to undo the disasters of the past eight years? Yet the pressure on him to perform is intense.

As 2008 ended, I heard so many people say how glad they were to see the year end and how they expected 2009 to be so much better. A lot of people found 2008 to be a total downer, for financial reasons, for personal reasons, whatever. I can understand that, but at the same time I've never been glad to see a year end. I'm never even glad to see a day end. There aren't enough of them.

And I admit I've always been better at looking back than at looking forward. And looking back at 2008, I'd rather think about the good -- at least, selfishly, my own personal memories:

--- November 4, Election Night.
--- (Without getting too corny) all the time spent with family and friends.
--- The Phillies winning the World Series.
--- Vacations, in particular the week in New England in September and the four day trip in August to Alaska (pre-Palin).
--- Labor Day in St. Paul -- Marching in the anti-war rally against the Republican National Convention (and not getting arrested).
--- Some great theater -- especially the touring production of Jersey Boys, the Jungle Theater's The Gin Game, and the Guthrie Theater's A View From the Bridge.
--- All the books I read during the year. My favorites: Pictures from a Revolution by Mark Harris and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

With that, I'll lay 2008 to rest. I apologize for being a Pollyanna.

Best of luck, President Obama... Show them how it's done. Hope you like the new house.

the survivor

One of the best things about yesterday was that there was no more political advertising: No piles of junk political mail, no political phone calls, no political TV advertising. Suddenly, overnight, the country changes back to Dr. Jeykll from Mr. Hyde, and the desperate viciousness goes at least into hibernation.

I mean, when you think about it, isn't our political system a total embarrassment? After the past year of so-called debates, isn't it amazing that there still has been so little in-depth discussion of real issues? And who would put themselves and their family through the degradation that it takes to run for President these days?

The election, despite it all, ended somewhat happily from my perspective. At least something will change. When I saw Barack Obama and took this picture at a rally a couple years ago, I was concerned that his handshake wasn't firm enough, it was limp. After seeing the excellent campaign that he has run since his nomination in August, I'm thinking that maybe his handshake has gotten stronger by now. Or maybe he is saving his hands for more important things. I think he'll make a pretty good President -- and an inspiritional one for many. He might not be a JFK, but, let's face it, neither was JFK.

another jelly doughnut

I haven't mentioned politics in a long time, Nancy....

In 1963, President Kennedy delivered a speech in Berlin, Germany that included one of the most famous sentences of his Presidency: "Ich bin ein Berliner" -- meant to mean, "I am a Berliner" -- a citizen of Berlin. The Berlin Wall had just gone up, the city was glaringly divided. So he was saying, We are with you, citizens of Berlin, ready to stand against the division, the Communists, whatever...

But to many Germans, at least supposedly, the word "Berliner" is better known as the popular name of a certain jelly-filled pastry. The legend goes that JFK was inadvertedly saying to the Germans, when translated, "I am a jelly doughnut" (I've wondered what he would have said if Hamburg had been the divided city instead -- "I am a Hamburger"?)..

This week, Barack Obama, candidate for president, is on a tour of various countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq (and some photo ops with the troops), and then on to a couple of countries in Europe, including Germany... I'm not sure what he'll be doing in Germany, but at one point there was discussion of having a rally at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, where he would make a speech in front of tens of thousands of cheering Germans... Now, make no mistake, I'll vote for the dude, and I understand that he is quite popular in Europe (the rock-star thing again), but isn't this a little weird -- and maybe a bit arrogant -- for a U.S. presidential candidate to be making what are essentially campaign speeches in other countries?.. We'll see how this all goes this week.

*****

We said Auf Wiedersehn to our German girls, Jana and Saskia, this past Wednesday and were surprised how much we missed them after they were gone!

something's gotta give

I thought I handled my busy season so well this year, but the stress must have been silently building in me. That suppressed stress was followed by a death in the family and trips across the continent. It all caught up with me, and my body has started acting its age. I've seen more doctors in the last week and a half, both in Hawaii and back here in Minnesota, than I generally would see in a year and a half. There is nothing I hate more than seeing doctors and taking medication and being reminded of mortality.

Oh well, I'll be fine, one way or the other, although my flesh, after all these years, might be meeting a scapel. I was planning on flying down to North Carolina to spend a long weekend with my sister, but that had to be postponed. I guess I need to slow down a little. Jerry is taking good care of me, as always.

Change of subject. I've hardly watched any television since February, and I turn on the news now and they are still over-reporting this silly Presidential election! It looks like I somehow have to get excited about Barack Obama, if I can, because, after all, have you ever seen a more lame candidate than John McCain? I do think Obama should offer the VP slot to Hillary, but I bet he won't. Somehow he needs to figure out how to win the big states. In the primaries, he has done great in states that he has no chance of winning in November. Plus, he needs somebody to show him how to be President, if he somehow wins!

words like daggers through my heart

My sister Nancy in North Carolina, in her emails, is always asking me if i've checked her daughter Michelle's blog for this news or her daughter-in-law Cris's blog for that news or this video, and I always say yes because I like both of their blog sites. But then yesterday I asked Nancy if she ever read my blog. Her brutal response: I've read your blog a few times. I usually forget, but it's not near as interesting as reading about my grandkids.

OUCH! Et tu, Nancy??

A Later Note: Nancy wrote back and said she had caught up on my blog, but she seems to think that it is too political, which she finds dull (agreeing with Tom). So I was amused when I checked Michelle's blog later in the day and found on this very day Michelle's blog had gone at least momentarily political -- Michelle has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

SuperTuesday burn-out

OK, I hate to be back to this, but I went to my caucus the other night, and it's still on my mind, and I need to think about other stuff. Isn't this whole Presidential race (which started way too early, as everyone knows) getting eerily similar to American Idol? I mean, think about it. The only thing missing from those endless debates was Paula Abdul as moderator. It's a popularity contest-- it's not about issues, ideas. Who is electable? Someone we like. Should we add a talent contest and swim-suit competition?

Hillary, Barack -- I'll vote for either of course, but Barack's "rock star" status (which doesn't last long in this country) makes me nervous. McCain is scary, but it freaks me out that the media love him, and the media shape the election. Shake me, wake me when it's over.

and my next post will not be about either politics or football. or the weather. or what i had for lunch.

rollerskating with Hillary Clinton

last night, doing some desperate channel-surfing, I landed on one of those presidential-candidate debates, this time Republicans. These are really painful to watch, but, even though I will end up voting for whoever the Democratic nominee is, somehow the Republican debates are easier to watch. When they screw up or make total fools of themselves or call each other names, I'm kind of happy. When the Democrats debate, all I can do is cringe, because I have to vote for one of those stiffs.

I don't know why anybody would run for President these days. Who but a fool would go through the humiliating process? I mean, it's kind of amusing to watch Rudy Giuliani pretend to be religious or any of these Republicans pretend to care about public education, but how refreshing would it be to see real debate, to have these candidates say what they really think? And the media outlets are disgusting in their coverage of all the wrong non-issues! I must admit, though, as I look up at that line-up of even these Republican candidates, that any one of them seems to least have a brain, unlike the current holder of the post. I don't have the patience for this campaign and wish we could ignore it, but I do look forward to that magical date: January 20, 2009, when somebody else moves into the White House.

Tom, my son, prides himself on being non-political, but the other night he had a dream that we all went rollerskating with Hillary Clinton. My question, of course: was she wearing one of those hideous pantsuits? Can she possibly look all that bad in a dress?

Hillary isn't so bad. I could vote for her. The main issue I, like many of my fellow Democrats, have with her is that she voted for the Iraq war and until recently still supported the idea of that war. Other people that I know, people who would normally vote for a Democrat, say they wouldn't ever vote for Hillary because of the possible "dynasty effect" -- a potential 28 years of 2 families in power: Bush, Clinton, bush, Clinton.

but then there's Barack Obama, who has the limpest handshake of any man that I've ever shaken hands with. Doesn't a handshake say something about a person?

Or John Edwards, with that annoying accent?

What is remarkable is how all these candidates are making non-candidate Al Gore look so good. I of course am thinking that maybe he wouldn't look so good if he were standing up there at the debate podiums next to all these other chumps. Still, if he were running, I think he would be my guy.