Monday, May 2, 2011

The Vorpal Sword



Is that an octopus on your head
or are you just glad to see me?
Great and serious thought was given to writing about those crimes against nature appearing on a number of heads in the Abbey on Friday. Some of the creations were interesting...in the Minnesotan sense of the word, which is not a good thing... while others were just plain weird ...in the New York sense of the word which means really, really weird. But, as I was exploring my inner fashionista, reality crashed in over the weekend and I find myself pulling out the ol’ soap box. Against the class act the Brits showed us on Friday, we had a cheesy three ring circus of our own. 

I’m not quite sure if it was Donald (the Toup) Trump and birth certificate, Michele (the brain) Bachmann’s comparison of the tax situation to the Holocaust, or POTUS at the Correspondents’ Dinner that sent me over the edge. It was like a perfect storm.  Just way too much material to settle for hats. 

Personally, it was thrilling to hear the President call Donald the Toup out on the birther baloney. It was about time. And while I think Mr. Obama has far more important things on his desk other than the establishment of Hawaii’s credentials as a state, it was almost a relief when he bluntly called this a distraction of “sideshows and carnival barkers."

But now, it seems the sideshow owners and carnivals barkers...now known as carnival “talkers”... are taking exception to the remark, claiming the President has perpetrated “... the same type of stereotype that has been placed on African Americans.”

Excuse me? 

I could’ve sworn the whole purpose of a sideshow “talker” was to draw people in to see the unbelievable. You know... "SEE IT WITH YOUR OWN EYES!!!" kinda thing.  

And speaking of seeing is believing....I cannot wait for the Osama was seen in Vegas with Elvis reports. You know it's coming...unless the side shows get him first.

What? Me worry?
As for moronic Michele on the stump in New Hampshire, her “Drill, baby, drill,” mantra is just plain wrong: wrong for America’s coastal waters, wrong for the Arctic environment, and wrong for the needed reduction of dependence on fossil fuels. Drilling is not going to solve any of our problems, it will only exacerbate them. And Michele honey, there is just no comparison between our tax situation and the Holocaust, unless you’re planning some bizarre demonstration of putting 6 million pennies in a smelt furnace to make some cockamamie point.  You’ve embarrassed yourself and your district enough; it  really is  time for you to sit down and shut up.



To quote Aaron Sorkin’s  
THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT:  
These are serious times, and 
your fifteen minutes are up.






I was about ready to stop here, but then something else distracted me.


Over and over and over, we're being asked:  Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in this country today?


The pollsters are playing with us on this one. This is an inherently stupid question because it doesn't have an immediate corollary question to refine the "why."

If you take the numbers at face value, things seem pretty bleak, but not everyone thinks that for the same reason. I happen to be dissatisfied with the way things are going in this country, but it’s more of an objection to a obstructionist Congress fueled by a right wing so far out of synch with the population that large numbers of the population don’t understand what is at risk. 

I think the country is going in the wrong direction because jobs are still be exported by companies who get tax breaks for taking jobs overseas. I think the country is going in the wrong direction because the tax burden continues to be lightened, and sometimes removed, from large corporations who open single office doors in places like Switzerland to avoid paying any U.S. tax. And I think the country is going in the wrong direction when it refuses to acknowledge that the budget cannot be balanced through more tax cuts.

Do I think the president is leading us down a wrong road? No. Do I think the President and his cabinet are capable of putting together a roadmap for deficit reduction and economic recovery? Yes...and most serious economists would agree with that we are moving in the right direction.

No economy of this size can turn on a dime; we barely lumber along, but lumber forward we do.

Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
So, you think Osama bin Laden is dead? Give it a day or so....
 the Death-er Movement will be demanding a stuffed body.

6 comments:

  1. A day? How about a few hours?

    R.I.P. Arthur and Ken.

    Perdie

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Wifely PersonMay 2, 2011 at 7:00 PM

    Our cousins Arthur (z"l) and Ken (z"l) will always be remembered in this family. Their presence will always be felt and missed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Perhaps its humanity that's headed in the wrong direction...

    Don't know if its due to good parentage or my religious beliefs, but I have been unable to celebrate the death of OBL. Cheering the killing of a human being -- no matter how despicable he may have been -- just plain strikes me as wrong. Gunning him down as an act of revenge doesn't give me goose bumps either.

    Has anything really changed? Has terrorism been halted or in fact reactivated with a new cause? Has justice been served?

    I can't get this feeling of sadness out of my mind while everyone else is cheering.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Wifely PersonMay 3, 2011 at 10:14 AM

    Celebrating the death of anyone is barbaric. To be sure, there is some relief now that bin Laden is out of the world, but this is really a very somber time for careful thought and consideration of our national stand on war and terrorism. It is not a stime for standing in front of the White House shouting poinltess slogans and being obnoxious.

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  5. When the wicked perish there is song."(Proverbs 11:10) However, when we broke into song and dance as the sea swallowed Pharaoh's army, the Holy One rebuked us saying: 'How can you sing now; look what I had to do to my creation.' I am saddened that these wars, the loss of life, of innocence, of freedom were necessary. So I sing, but I sing softly. (thanks to Samantha Miller for posting this)

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  6. I feel a sickening likening to a roman society of spectators at a gladiator match when our own is demanding and hoping for pleasure at viewing and absorbing images of fatal violence. While capital punishment is arguably suitable for some crimes, there should never, never be any enjoyment derived from it. relief, may, but not enjoyment.

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