Not Guilty but not innocent

Just a comment on this Casey Anthony thing.

We have to remember that the jury’s function is to take just what is presented to them in court and make a judgment as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. They do that by looking at only the evidence and coming to a conclusion.

I didn’t follow this whole Casey Anthony trial closely but I did read enough to see that the prosecution did not present a clear case pointing to Casey as the one who caused Caylee’s death. That is not to say that Casey did or did not have anything to do with her death.

Casey may have caught a break by not being found guilty in Caylee’s death but Casey will be paying dearly for this the rest of her life. She has no assets, no money and is saddled with enormous legal bills. There are court judgments against her and she will most likely have to move someplace else. She is subject to more legal proceedings against her. Again she will have to live with this the rest of her life.

The jury system worked as it should. The prosecution didn’t have a good case. As one who sat on a jury you go by what’s presented to you and you make the best decision you can. The public may not like the decision but they didn’t have to make it, the jury did!

“My God doesn’t act that way”

The above was the headline in an article in our local paper referring to a minister conducting a service after the tornadoes that struck Massachusetts on June 1, 2011. He went on to say that his God is a god of love, caring and compassion. This is like a plane crash in which everyone was killed save one person who declared “God saved me!” One has to ask why didn’t God prevent the plane from crashing in the first place or asking why didn’t God prevent the tornadoes in the first place. Doesn’t He care?

These declarations are typical of people with a religious bent who tend to see only what supports their beliefs. It's call selective justification. It’s like saying that you believe there are a lot of Ford Mustangs on the road and you support that belief by noting every Mustang you see without ever noticing the total number of cars you see. If the total car population was accounted for then the belief of many Ford Mustangs fails. We remember the hits and forget the misses. It’s just the way we are wired.

Also it just maybe a guttural thing. When faced with a disaster like a tornado we need some thing to hang on to and even though we deep down know it doesn’t make sense, we appeal to an Almighty.

It’s curious but not surprising that the concept of God is different to different people. I remember in school the nuns who said that the Old Testament described a wrathful God while the New Testament describes a loving God. So it’s not surprising to hear a preacher saying “My God doesn’t act that way.” I guess God can be molded how ever someone wants Him to be. Remember God was made in mans’ image not the other way around. Think about it.

Middle school conversation

Some time ago, Sarah Palin jabbed the press by making reference to the “lame stream media.” It was her was of saying the “main stream media” is out of touch with the “real America'”, where ever that is.

But more than the catty retort which Sarah is prone to spout, it points to how the conversation of the political right is more like what one would hear in middle school -- self-centered, childish and uninformed. It reminds me of those morning coffee shop groups (mainly old dudes) sitting around telling each other the way the world should run and “those idiots” don’t know what they are doing. “Those idiots” tend to be anyone else except themselves.

The right constantly likes to dumb down of some of the issues to snappy sayings and sound bites. One only has to listen to Sarah or Michelle Bachmann or any Tea Party person to get the drift of what I’m saying. And it’s shameful. And it’s harming us.

We live in a very complex world and there are no simple answers anymore. Take the recent ABC News piece on Afghanistan titled “Are We Winning?” You would think that would be a very simple question to answer but in fact it’s not. Gone of the days of the enemy hoisting the white flag and the surrender ceremonies on a battle ship. The new enemy doesn’t wear a uniform and doesn’t represent a country. They are bands of criminals with weapons and motive to inflict harm to anyone they think should feel their wrath. They are not organized and not really lead by any one leader. So, truth be told, there is no “winning” against them. All you can realistically do is to minimize their impact and keep up constant pressure to push them to the margins.

And take the economy. It’s going to be the number on topic for the election and the truth is there is no quick fix. To think that anyone can come into the White House and make everything fine and dandy is only deluding ourselves. I know people out of work want a job NOW but it won’t happen NIOW. To trot out an old phrase “it’s a new paradigm.” We’ve entered a new world in which our economy is tied to other economies and that won’t changed. We need to have real conversations about what needs to be done and how we can prosper given this new environment. And making more goods in the USA is not the answer.

This new conversation needs a public educated enough to understand what’s facing us and our politicians need to set an example of that conversation. Having a talk like middle school girls in the hall way talking about someone who Tweeted so-and-so won’t cut it. We need to be adult about this. Think about it.

How Mitt? How?

Our former governor, Mitt “I’ll tell you anything” Romney, announced his candidacy for President. Woo woo!

Ole Mitt was spouting off his plan to create jobs, lower taxes and bash the hell out of anyone getting in his way. He was putting out the same drivel one hears from all those “business people”, i.e. Donald Trump, who claim to know how to create jobs. Well, running a company and running a government are two different things. For one thing a company CEO generally has the authority to do as he/she pleases. While a President has to deal with our wonderful Congress which may or may not do what he/she wants.

I’ve never understood how voters think that just because a person ran a company, they could run the US Government the same way. It’s like saying “I can drive a car, so I can fly a plane.” As a flight instructor I can tell you they are two different animals.

With Mitt’s past history on the campaign trail, you’ll know he’ll say anything to get votes. Politicians distort things as a matter of course but Mitt raises it to a new level. While in Massachusetts (most of the time) he raised business taxes by $140 million in one year with measures branded “loophole closures” while still claiming he wasn’t raising taxes. Romney also raised revenue from higher fees and fines, a tax by another name, while still claiming that there was no need to raise taxes.

But the one thing that voters should listen for is how Mitt will do what he’s says he’ll do. Politicians are long on promises but short of specifics. Besides if anyone think that Mitt or anyone like him will make American all better two days after taking office, they are in for a rude awaking. I think that one of the reasons that many, particularly on the right, have issues with Obama is that they expected instant cures to the problems we have. The current economic crises is unlike anything we have experienced, save the Great Depression.

My fear is that someone like Mitt will sell the American public a bill of goods and we’ll still have all the long term issues that we can’t seem to get the courage to solve. Besides if Mitt get’s to the White House (hope not) he’ll bring in a bunch of right wing nuts which will make things worse not better. Think about it.

The Last Comic Standing

Bill Press (www.billpress.com) had a column entitled “You’d have to be stupid to run against Obama.” Well the stupid keep trying.

Looking at the current crop of Republicans who are falling all over themselves by sort of running and then not running, it brings to mind the reality show of some time ago called “The Last Comic Standing.”

The list of possible GOP standard bearers who are not running is growing longer by the minute. George Pataki, Rudy Giuliani (maybe in now? who knows?), Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, and Jeb Bush all said no. Haley Barbour made noises then dropped out. Donald Trump drummed up attention (for his reality show more than anything else) and then dropped out. Mike Huckabee is making more money at Fox so he said no. And now the latest favorite, Mitch Daniels said no.

So who do we have left? Well Mitt (“I sorta was Governor of Massachusetts”) Romney is still making sure he looks good for the cameras. The health care law he helped get enacted in Massachusetts will dog him but Mitt will do one of his famous flip-flops and explain it away. Maybe!

Don’t forget former Governor Tim Pawlenty, who said on CNN  - “If any doofus can go to Washington and maintain the status quo. And that's what we've got in the White House and the Congress in terms of the attitude about their willingness to tackle these issues.” I thought the 2010 election sent in a bunch of radicals that were going to shake things up in Washington. I guess maybe the Tea Party people sent in a bunch of doofuses (or is it doofi?).

Then there is the Paris Hilton of politics, Sarah Palin, riding her macho hog in Washington, posing for pictures and spouting a bunch of stuff that sounds good but really means nothing – if you can understand her at all. And of course Michelle Bachmann, the Tea Party favorite who can’t keep her American history straight. I heard that the press at some point egged the two of them by floating the idea of a Palin/Bachmann ticket. That, God forbid if it ever happened, would be a sequel to “Legally Blonde” movie retitled “Legally Brunette times Two.”

What is amazing to me is that for all the apparent fervor against Obama from the Political Right, you would think there would be no shortage of people falling all over each other and willing to take him on. After all he is, according to the wing nuts, leading America down to ruin by “taxing and spending.” Meanwhile the GOP in Congress can’t get their act together to pass anything meaningful.

I go back to what Bill Press said, “You’d have to be stupid to run against Obama.” Maybe the GOP will eventually find someone stupid enough to run. Think about it.

Jesus returns --- sort of!

Harold Camping of Family Radio, a California-based religious broadcasting network, has announced that Jesus will return on May 21, 2011 to judge the world and start the rapture. Yeah!

Well not according to some other Christians. I guess Harold hasn’t got it right according to some people like www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/harold_camping.htm where they said that Harold “has aired Mormon advertisements”, perish the thought! Or that Harold claims that the Holy Spirit is no longer working in the church. How Harold came to know that is a mystery. Don’t you just love it when one Christian group points fingers at another Christian group? Who’s go it right?

Also floating on the web are advertisements about pet care for pets “left behind” when those good Christians get raptured up to heaven. For as little as $35 per pet you can be assured that Fido or Whiskers get’s taken care of while you enjoy your heavenly paradise with 72 virgins – woops that’s another mythology! If I wasn’t such an honest person I would start up a business like that but knowing that these folks won’t really depart this planet, they may end up starting to demand their money back. But then I could let it sit in the bank making fabulous interest in the mean time.

Anyway according to www.huffingtonpost.com Harold Camping has done this before. He previously predicted that the Rapture would occur in mid-September 1994 and, surprise, it didn’t. You would think that once you blew a prediction you would be more cautious about doing it again. But these types get caught up in their own delusion and no amount of reality will persuade them to change. It’s like the UFOers who still claim that we’ve been visited by aliens. No amount of shooting down their claims will stop them from believing.

And that’s the real issue here. Religious people are taught to believe something despite the evidence and the more you try to rationalize them out of it the more entrenched they become. If you read most apologists, they basically say that Christianity doesn’t make sense but believe it anyway.

I like the quote attributed to the TV program “House” that says something like “if you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people.” Think about it.

Government, go away–well, wait a minute!

Wiley Miller does a great comic strip called “Non Sequitur.” His Sunday May 15, 2011 comic hit the nail on the head about all those government regulations that the GOP and folks like Sarah Palin hate. Search for Wiley Miller and you’ll find the comic I’m referring to. The striking panel was in the middle where the man stops to read a sign that says “safety from the oppression of socialist, nanny-state regulation zone.” The next panel shows the man about to walk into two lanes of traffic! Who needs regulations?

This comic reminded me of our ever “in-your-face” Sarah because she likes to bash any government interference in our daily lives. She got on Michelle Obama’s case about the First Lady encouraging kids not to eat so much fattening food and, perish the thought, get some exercise! Sarah reminded her followers that our government should not be in the business of telling parents what to feed their kids. If Mommy and Daddy want junior to eat Big Macs every day and end up fat, then that’s their right Sarah shouts!

Then one ever to talk out both sides of her mouth, Sarah back in June of 2010 after the BP oil spill, as reported by Bob Cesca on the Huffington Post blog, wanted government involvement in big business, the oil business no less!

Sarah Palin is in favor of the federal government planting its gigantic boot on the throats of energy companies. She put it in writing. Not only that but she even proposed that our socialist, anti-capitalist, wealth-redistributing president call her on the phone so she can describe to him specifically how to impose all kinds of big government regulations against BP and others.

So I guess Sarah hates the government telling parents what to feed kids but at the same time she wants to regulate big oil business. Well that’s this week. Next week Sarah will be against oil drilling regulations and Twinkies as well, maybe. And people still think about her as a good candidate for President? Think about it.

Donald the Trumpeter

I haven’t written a blog for several months because everything has been so good with the world that I couldn’t find a topic to write about. Oh I guess I forgot about the brutal winter in the Northeast, the earthquake and tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis, the tornados in the South and other little things like that. Then Donald, the male Sarah Palin, pops onto the scene. Now he’s something to write about!

I had thought this “birther” thing had been resolved a long time ago but here comes Donald Duck Trump pontificating that he finds it interesting that Obama won’t show his long form birth certificate. Then lo and behold Obama says here it is! Does that settle it for the Donald. No! He has to have his “experts” (who ever they are) look at it closely as if Obama fudged something on it.

This whole “birther” thing smelled funny from the beginning. I know that some people will hold onto a myth forever and that no amount of evidence will change their mind. Just look at the 911 Truthers. They still claim that the WTC towers were brought down by the government and not by two jets flying into them. Delusional people can not be rationally talked out of their delusion.

Then I saw the web site www.thegrio.com in which Goldie Taylor wrote an excellent column where she relates the story of her Great Great Grandfather being jailed after he couldn’t produce his “papers.” She made an excellent point that racism is alive and well in America and folks like pompous Donald needn’t be given a platform to spout his BS. In the 21st century we found a new way to force a black man to “show us his papers.”

I personally don’t give the Donald any chance of becoming a real candidate for the Presidency but at the same time the press should curtail giving him air time. If this is the kind of crap the Right is tromping out in hopes of gaining the White House, then we are all in trouble. Think about it.

The Tucson Tragedy

It’s been several weeks since the shootings in Tucson so I think we can try to calmly examine some of the things surrounding this event.

No one, in my opinion, can make sense of this event except to say that only some mentally unbalanced person could have caused this violence. At the same time I think it is appropriate to ask how close is any one of us to committing something like this? How much pushing via harsh rhetoric and a toxic political tone would be needed to get some other Jared Loughner to do something similar? How many of those gun loving and government hating right wingers are just close enough to that edge to gun down some other politician? Probably more than we care to think of.

At the same time the speech by Obama on Wednesday after the shooting in Tucson was spot on in it’s tone and words. I was blown away by, first of all, the reception Obama got from the audience and the continued applause through out the speech. I was expecting something very somber and muted but instead we got a rally of sorts to come together and honor those that died and celebrate their lives and the people that took part in helping others. My sense was that this audience had enough of the talk of the right and the Tea Party, at least for the moment.

Soon after the shooting there was a lot of talk in the media of the connection between the rhetoric of the past two years and the shootings. For once I had to agree with Glenn Beck and others in saying that the shooting was the sole doing of a “nut job.” The linkage between the “don’t retreat, reload” talk leading up to last falls election and the shooting really had no basis in fact, at least in this instance.

But at the same time is it OK to continue to speak in terms of “don’t retreat, reload” and expect that no one in America would be embolden to take matters into their own hands? Talk like that has a cumulative effect and it’s only a matter of time when someone feels justified to do what Jared Loughner did.

So maybe there wasn’t any real connection between the shootings and the toxic talk of the past two years. But our world is different that any other time. There are lots more of us and we have virtually instant communications. The internet has opened up a whole new world of information, good and bad, that can possibly help push someone to the edge of violence. Dialing back the tone of things wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Maybe taking time to think about how we talk to each other deserves some pause for thought. Think about it.

Zapping Zicam

This is just a little thing but it bugs me. Recently on TV I saw a commercial for Zicam. You know that homeopathic “medicine” that you take at the first sign of a cold and it supposedly shortens the length of your cold. What struck me in all this was how do you know it worked?

I’m sure many have heard the old saying about what to do when you have a cold. If you treat it with all kinds of meds you’ll get over it in seven days. If you do nothing you’ll get over it in a week. In other words the cold has to run it’s course and your will body fight it and eventually eliminate it from your system. The meds one takes really don’t do anything to get rid of the cold. The meds only help reduce the effects of the symptoms and your body does the rest.

Additionally there are thousands of cold viruses around and everyone reacts differently to a cold. So there is no way of knowing how long any particular cold virus you get will affect you. You could get over it quickly one time and the next cold may take longer for you get over. You just never know.

So why spend money on something that really won’t do anything? Well people want quick fixes. And if someone markets something that enough people think will help them get over a cold, then they’ll buy into it. It’s like the magnetic bracelets. There is no real proof they do anything but people plunk down good money on them. It really points out how gullible we all are and how we lack the brains just to ask questions about something we are buying. Think about it.

Huck Finn and Thomas Jefferson

You may have heard about the controversy regarding removal of the n-word from Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” It seems that NewSouth Books, based in Montgomery Alabama, wanted to replace “hurtful epithets” like nigger and injun with “less offensive words” like slave and native American. In other words we are no longer permitted by NewSouth Books to read Mark Twains’ original and now have to settle for something more politically correct. Don’t want to hurt our sensibilities.

This called to mind the story from last March about the Texas Board of Education (a bastion of stupidity if there ever was one) dropping Thomas Jefferson from a world history section of a school textbook devoted to great thinkers. According to David Knowles citing Texas Freedom Network “the board had chosen to embrace religious teachings over those of Jefferson, the man who coined the phrase ‘separation between church and state.’” I guess the Texas Board of Education didn’t like the religion of Jefferson who was decidedly not the Christian of Texas.

This raises the question about how much revisionism must take place and who decides how to write history. We all know, for example, that any history of the western world is decidedly euro-centric, white washing all the gory things those Europeans did in colonizing the Americas. It’s glossed over about how the Europeans literally committed genocide in America. Or how whites used blacks to build wealth in the south to the point of going to war in defense of slavery.

Not only are we seeing the beginnings of a white wash of history, we are also seeing the “Christianizing” of America. The Christian view is all sweetness and love, unless you are not Christian then watch out. See how many nice things they say about Muslims or Atheists. Think of how much of a good thing it was that the missionaries came over to “spread the gospel” to the savages. Where are those converted Christians today? Living hand to mouth on lands that no white person wants.

I think history should be told as accurately as possible so that those that come after us understand how things were back then, good and bad. To paraphrase the old saying, unless we learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. Think about it.

Religion and Sex

On this last day of 2010, thoughts turn to… sex! Why not? With all the attention through out the year to the various sex-o-pades of celebrities and of course the on-going sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, one can not escape all the attention that sex and religion garnered.

I’ve heard it said elsewhere that religion is very concerned about what you do when you are naked. It seems sometimes that religion, especially Christianity, is overly preoccupied with people’s sex lives. Anyone who grew up in the Catholic religion will attest to how much guilt is put upon kids if they dare to even think about sex. I could never understand how priests could sit in the confessionals listening to various teenagers “confess” their intimate thoughts and actions regarding sex and not have some stirrings' in their loins.

The Catholic Church still insists that sex should only be between a married man and woman (who’s been paying attention to that?) and don’t get them started on homosexuality! Just recently the Pope opened a door, so to speak, on the use of condoms. I was surprised by all the attention it got. But the bottom line is, who cares? As long as the sex abuse scandal continues to unfold, the public will continue to engage in sex in their own way, straight or gay and not care what some old dude in white says.

With the foregoing in mind, a recent post in Frank Schaeffer’s blog (www.frank-schaeffer.blogspot.com) caught my attention recently -

In the light (or should I say "dark") of the Republican's stand against repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" we need to understand the wider context of the fight that pits human rights against the conservative Christians who have taken over the Republican Party.

If there is one thing all Christians should have learned by now it's that we -- of all people -- should never, ever cast aspersions on anyone else's sex life!

When it comes to pointing the finger over sexual "sin" the worldwide Christian community -- from the halls of the Vatican, to some Evangelical conservative "home church" established in somebody's basement two minutes ago -- is in the morally compromised position of a sometime violent habitual rapist criticizing a shoplifter for stealing a candy bar.

We're not talking about "a few bad apples," but the whole edifice of religion top to bottom.

So we have the churches, Catholic and Protestant, pontificating about how people should conduct their sex lives while not presenting a very good example. I think it’s time to put religion in the closet of bad ideas for a time and tend to more pressing problems, like ending wars, creating jobs and preserving our environment. Think about it.

Science versus the ark

Two stories recently aired on ABC World News that illustrated how much education in  America is in trouble. The first story was about how American students ranked with the rest of the world in reading, math and science. China beat the pants off us! The second story was about the cofounder of the Creation Museum in Kentucky wanting to build a full size replica of “The Ark”, as in Noah’s Ark! The debate was about using government funds to support a private, religious undertaking.

First to the Ark story. The $150 million theme park will be called the Ark Encounter. The center piece of the park will be, supposedly, a full size replica of Noah’s Ark. Mark Looy, the developer, was quoted as saying “We think the ark and the account of Noah’s flood,… can actually speak volumes today about our culture.” What it says about our culture is that we still cling to ancient myths and still believe they actually happened!

But the real issue is Kentucky’s Governor Steve Beshar willingness to give $40 Million in tax breaks to the developer, touting “job creation.” Naturally there are those that oppose it citing the separation of church and state. In this case the state is seen as promoting through tax breaks one religion, namely Christianity. I wonder if the Governor would give the same tax breaks to Muslims who want to build an Islamic cultural center in Kentucky or Jews who wanted to build a theme park based on the Temple of Solomon. That probably wouldn’t see the light of day.

The second story was about how China and other countries are ahead of us in math, science and reading. Particularly in science where a majority of Americans believe that humans came from two folks in the Middle East about 6000 years ago and the Intelligent Design folks trying to actively discredit or downplay evolution.

It amazes me that in this very technological time that we live in where we are so dependent on the latest wiz-bang cell phone, we still cling to the myth of creationism. More alarming is that in some segment of America, school textbook are being rewritten so that the more Christian view is promoted while evolution in given a once over. All you have to do is read reports showing that high school students are having to get remedial classes before really starting college. What are we teaching our kids?

In other countries classes are in session longer during the day, the school year is longer and everyone is focused on education including the parents. Amazing! Maybe parents here need to get off Twitter and pay attention to what their children are being taught. Think about it!

Atheist Ministers

A recent TV segment on ABC World News about ministers who become atheists while continuing to lead their flock raised an interesting point about bible study. Specifically one minister was quoted as saying “Reading the Bible is what led me not to believe in God.”

I never attended Bible study as I was raised Catholic and Catholics, for the most part, don’t read the bible. Catholics leave it to the priests and bishops to tell the flock what all that gibberish in the Bible is all about. If we read anything it was Catechism which is defined as “the Church's official manual of popular instruction.” So the faithful doesn’t have to bother their little brain with reading the Bible.

So when I did finally get to read the Bible for myself, I was amazed by all the gobbligook in it. I won’t get into all the violence and mayhem that the Bible goes on and on about. Or the numerous things you can’t do or if you do do God will whack the crap out of you. Or the begats and begats, ad nauseam. What really struck me, among other things, was the sheer repetition of many stories and the inconsistencies in a lot of stories. No sense in going into that here but sufficed it to say reading the bible tends to open one’s eyes if one is willing just read it as it is rather than have a bias initially that all in the bible is true and inerrant.

Which brings me to my point and that is that most Christians tend to isolate themselves with their religion, listen mainly to ministers and teachers and don’t go beyond that. Pastors usually admonish their flock about listening to dissenting people and/or opinions. The message usually is that you shouldn’t listen to those that don’t believe as they might sow the seeds of doubt in you!

In my own case I remember the nuns telling us not to think too much about the “mysteries” of Catholicism and just to believe. They would tell us the the mystery of three gods in one that is really only one god, sort of, and you must just believed it. Thinking about the Trinity might make your head hurt.

So here you have some pastors who “dared” to question the Bible, and probably read dissenting opinions and slowly came to the conclusion that it just didn’t make sense. The problem they are left with is that the only training they have is as ministers. They see no job prospect for themselves. But, I contend, if they really want a job they can hawk things like magnetic bracelets or dowsing rods or elixirs for cures. After all, their training is all about convincing people to buy into things that are just myths! Think about it.

Bristol Palin–Mediocrity Exalted

I have nothing against Bristol Palin and I don’t really care about this “Dancing with the stars” program. It’s all fluff and a way to entertain the masses. But this “controversy” about how Bristol stayed so long in the competition despite being, according the “those” who know, a mediocre dancer illustrates how we as a society have our priorities mixed up. Instead of having the “best” rise to the top, we promote those who, for what ever reason, are lackluster.

Jason Gershman, a mathematician from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who studied some of the telephone voting patterns, said he believed Bristol Palin's support was largely political, given that it appeared she got more votes during the weeks that Sarah was in the studio audience. He said he sensed a backlash brewing against Palin by fans who thought the best dancer should win, and they coalesced around Grey, who kept winning perfect scores from the judges despite fighting through injury.

"If her name was Bristol Smith or Bristol Jones, she would not be on the show or she would not have gotten this far," he said. "She went from being a bad dancer to a mediocre dancer. But she was not the best dancer." Reported by David Bauder,
The Associated Press, found on www.troyrecord.com, 11/24/2010

This Bristol Palin thing is an illustration of how we, as a society, raise stupidity and mediocrity up to levels not justified and don’t bother with things that really deserve our attention like science and people that excel in science, just to name one area. Why is it that piss poor athletes like some football and baseball players who are not that good to begin with command such huge salaries while educators who are trying to raise the terrible educational level of our young people don’t get wages that they deserve? Our priories are out of whack.

We have a very smart man currently in the White House but he is constantly slammed by Bristol’s mother who is a few, no many, cards short of a full deck and she is adored by millions. Why is that?

We’re all terrorists now!

I’m here to say that Al Qaeda has won! We are now all considered terrorists when we buy a ticket to fly on a commercial airline. It’s now the default. You’re a terrorists until the  government, in the guise of a TSA flunky, says you’re not.

This recent attention to the new airport screening started with pilots complaining about having to go through body scans over and over every time they go to the airport to fly passengers to their destinations. The TSA responded if they didn’t want to go through the body scan they can submit to pat downs. I can not tell how that’s not a very comforting sight to see your airline pilot being patted down before he gets on YOUR plane. Thank God the TSA has determined that he’s not a terrorist! Whew!

Then the other night was a piece on TV about this TSA body scan and pat down security. In part of this particular piece was a video showing a three year old girl screaming at the top of her lungs “don’t touch me!” as the TSA guard tried to pat her down. Come on folks! Is it necessary to traumatize a little girl just because some idiot from the Middle East tried to blow up his under wear? Realistically, is a three year old girl an agent of Al Qaeda?

On a recent trip I watched how TSA tried to search a frail old lady in a wheelchair to make sure she wasn’t a bomber. She could hardly stand up to go through the metal detector. She didn’t fit the trademarks of a terrorists but the TSA was hell-bent on making sure this woman didn’t have any bomb making material. None-the-less, I’m sure that Al Qaeda is now recruiting little old ladies for their next attack in addition to three year old girls.

Why are we  doing this? To keep America safe! We are continuing to spend time, resources, and gobs of money to catch those terrorists. “They”, who ever “they” are, point out that the terrorists are still trying to blow up planes. They tell us that terrorists keep coming up with new and improved ways to try to blow up planes. And our wonderful government needs to stay one step ahead of them to protect us. Hence all this pat down stuff and the new high tech body scans. So what happens when the terrorists come up with some other way to blow up a plane? What new and denigrating way can the TSA develop to search us before we board that flight?

I propose that the next time you go to the airport to fly, when you get to the security line you take off all your clothes and walk through naked. That way they can just check you visually to see you are not carrying any bombs and then your can dress up and go on your merry way. No pat downs, no body scans. Think how much time and money we will save!

A couple of days after the election and the loonies are coming out of the woodwork. The latest insanity is the story about President Obama’s trip to Asia that is supposedly costing 200 million dollars a day. The bad part of all this is that loonies like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are using this to bash Obama which doesn’t surprise me. And of course Rep. Michelle Bachmann from Minnesota can’t think of anything else to talk about to Anderson Cooper of CNN but this story.

One look at this and anyone with some intelligence will see the $200 million figure doesn’t make sense when it it costs $190 million a day for the war in Afghanistan. Why would the Navy divert 34 warships to protect the president? We do have people to protect the president and they do trips like this all the time.

But what is most upsetting is that our Congress people, the ones that will fix our economy in the next two years, are jumping on this like stink on shit. I shiver to think that Bachmann will get on some committee directing funds here and there and she doesn’t have the brains to check out this Asia trip story before she opens her mouth?

This is scary folks.

Tomorrow is election day and it looks like it’s going to be interesting. We might end up changing the change. It’s not paradise with the new guy we brought in in 2008, so let’s bring in the good ole’ boys!

First thing, I predict that even with a big change in Congress things won’t change anytime soon. Since the Republicans were such gracious players these past two years, I expect to Democrats to be just as nasty. A little tit for tat. Even if enough “Tea Party” people get elected, there is still enough entrenched BS in Congress that will stymie any grand ideas the tea partiers might have.

The big hot button in the election has been taxes. We’re taxed too much and we’re spending too much. So pretty much every politician is spouting the “cut taxes” drivel. And Americans want to hear that because nobody likes paying taxes. Which brings me to the 60 Minutes piece last night with Dave Stockton, Ronald Reagan’s budget director. He made the radical statement that cutting taxes won’t solve the problems we are facing. In fact he is proposing that ALL the Bush taxes cut expire meaning that we all pay more in taxes. Perish the thought!

If you rationally think about it for a moment, he might have something there. How can we run a government on less revenue and expect the government to do what we want it to do, like national defense, social security, Medicare, fight terrorists, etc? The old saw is brought out all the time about putting more money in the pockets of consumers that helps prime the engines of growth. Well, since many more people since the great depression are out of work, they can’t spend because they don’t have anything. So how is that helping to prime the pumps?

He did mention something that I’ve suspected for a long time and that is that the top 5% of Americans in income hold over 40 trillion dollars in wealth. The other 95% has somewhat less… a lot less. Just imagine if we were to tax them just 1% more how much that could help our situation. I know that smack of socialism but continuing like we are now is not working.

Talking about raising taxes is deadly to politicians, but maybe the new GOP and Tea Partiers will have the courage to do the unthinkable. I doubt it.

“Abracadabra, everything’s perfect”

I was really surprised when I saw an article in my local paper quoting a retired plant worker saying “Obama’s been in office two years and he’s being blamed for not saying, ‘Abracadabra, everything’s perfect.’” It’s gratifying to hear someone with a more reasonable view of things.

It seems to me we are prone to forget what took place years ago that got us into this mess and how we expect quick fixes. Understandably we are focused on the short term and tend not to look at the long view. For those who are out of work and can’t find a job or who lost their house because they lost their job and can’t pay the mortgage, I can understand that position. But we have to keep reminding ourselves that if it took a long time to get us into this mess, it will take a long time to recover.

There was a lot of euphoria when Obama took office. Our choice in the presidential election was, at least to me, clear. With Obama the mood in the country was that he would quickly change things around for the better. But because the economic problem was so deep and pervasive, the actions he took didn’t seem to fix things a fast as we wanted. Houses are still being foreclosed, people can’t find jobs and the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

A recent article by Rick Newman, of US News and World Report, reported that corporations and investors are doing better under Obama but the undereducated and low-income Americans are doing worst. With the GOP poised to take over the House and possibly the Senate, the gap between the rich an poor will only widen.

So now anger seems to be the word of the day. We will elect a bunch of right leaning newbies who will fix things now! Well, don’t be surprised if things don’t get any better soon. I predict chaos will run rampant. Maybe, just maybe, this will improve Obama’s bid for reelection in 2012. Who knows?

I’m soooooo angry!

Angry. That’s the word you hear a lot about these days. The public is angry over…. well you name it. We’re angry over taxes. Anybody been happy about taxes? We’re angry about spending… except for what we each can get from our government, like social security, medicare, farm subsidies, etc. We’re angry about debt… except for all the individual debt we’ve accumulated over the years. We”re angry at politicians… all those selfish politicians we keep electing to send Washington money back to our towns.

I remember my days as a Corporate Computer Service Manager. No company likes to have their computer systems go down so invariably I’d hear from a lot of angry customers. Well after they ranted and raved for a while I’d say “Now what can we do to fix this problem?” One could understand the anger one might have when computers don’t work and how they impact a company’s business. But being angry doesn’t really solve the problem. Calm investigation and action solves the problem.

The media keeps saying the Americans are angry. Well yes, the present economic situation doesn’t make anyone happy. But if you step back for a moment and look at things rationally (how many Americans look at things rationally?), you’ll see there wasn’t just one thing that caused all this. There were many factors taking place over many years that brought us to this situation. Changing out some idiots in Congress for other idiots really won’t solve things. It will take whole scale changes in how we operate, how we innovate and how we address problems. We’d like to have someone say “this was the cause” but in truth there is no one cause. And it wasn’t Obama. It’s all kinds of things.

So after this election, and I’ll go out on the limb and say that the GOP will take over the house, we need to calm down and really figure out what needs to be done to fix things. We need to restore some sanity in this country. And I’m sure that the new crop of politicians we’ll elect will do that! Don’t hold your breath.