What are the crazies thinking?

"While liberal scribes earnestly prattle on about the necessity for good policy in the face of global warming and peak oil and blah-blah-blah, the authors of the right have long since abandoned this outdated "reality-based" model. The reader's heart is captured, after all, not by an adherence to the murky truths of the known world, but by the ecstatic possibilities of the imagined." Steve Almond in Salon.com September 12, 2009, in an article entitled Glenn Beck is the future of literary fiction.

This article summarized a few right wing based best sellers, listed rather inaccurately as 'non-fiction', which purport to warn us about our current dangerous political direction. Their hysteria based claims, it may be feared, could convince some like minded nuts of their claims. Yet I found it somewhat comforting that these fiction based rantings were so obviously - well, fictional. Such thinking, I thought, is not dissimilar to an expose' of an animal hoarder who in the midst of dozens of untamed and unkempt animals running wild and terrified through a feces and garbage filed home insists that the animals are loved and well cared for.

The Lord said, "The poor you shall have always with you." It appears that we can also say with similar certainty, "The crazies you shall have always with you." Just watch closely for those who are armed and do not try to reason with them. Best, I think, to simply nod sympathetically and walk quietly away.

I'm going to see Obama

The President of the United States is coming to town, and I'm going to go see him. I'm going to be one of those cheering loudly and rising to applaud everything he says. It's time those idiot clowns who disrupt and misconstrue are reminded that a majority of Americans elected this man to lead us, and our responsibilities consist of more than "just say no". Either contribute or get out of the way. We have progress to achieve.

Sickos speak out. Sadly, some listen

It is a long time since we lived in warm & fuzzy times, like the 50's, and, though there was much to improve upon during those times, I find myself yearning for their return. At least a return to the simple sense of decency and, yes, innocence, that seemed to prevail in that seemingly simpler time.

A "good news" event this past week was surely the return of the reporters who were being held in North Korea, and yet, the vicious and the small minded, the guttersnipes who pretend to be important public voices will say what they think, no matter how despicable the thoughts, in national venues.

Here's a section of the article in Salon.com today by Joe Conason entitled Clinton Derangement: North Korean Strain

"Here was an effort that exemplified the best of America -- a society that values the lives of its citizens enough to send a former head of state, with all the power of government behind him, to the aid of two women in distress. Here was a happy reunion, bringing wives home to their husbands and a mother back to her little girl, that surely uplifted the spirit of anyone who actually believes in family values. Here was a moment of pride and joy.
But not for Gordon Liddy, the demented felon and radio bigot who cackled about "Ling Ling and Wee Wee being locked up for nine hours in an airplane with Bill Clinton." Not for Rush Limbaugh, the obsessive guttersnipe who wondered aloud whether Clinton "hit on those two female journalists on the long flight home." Not for Andrea Peyser, the curdled tabloid columnist who insisted that "the whole shebang was nakedly scripted and staged as a device to help rehabilitate the image of former President Bill Clinton" (and who neglected to mention that Clinton did not speak to the eagerly waiting press corps and has given not a single interview on the North Korea mission). Not for Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who predictably seized on Clinton's mission as an opportunity for gratuitous and ugly insults to his wife, weirdly imagining that the prisoner release was "some clever North Korean revenge plot, giving the limelight to Daddy to punish Mommy." And not for the editors of the Huffington Post, who posted a very strange headline -- "Bill Upstages Hillary ... Once Again" -- on an Associated Press story that didn’t mention her at all."
Find the complete article at http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/08/07/clinton/?source=newsletter

I commented to a friend yesterday that, since my retirement, I've been reading more and am much more current with what is going on in the world and the issues we are facing. Yet, I wonder if that's a good thing. Crap like this make me wish I could find more ways to fill my time that would block out and ignore the world entirely. I'd truly love a return to simpler times, but alas, the best I can do is block out the present times and fantasize. Oh, if only I could develop selective memory loss.

Thoughts on Senate hearings

A pair of letter writers in today’s Star Tribune chastised our senators Klobuchar and Franken for their lighter comments and comedic touches during the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, implying that acting like a comedian or recounting a casual conversation with the nominee’s mother was some kind of disgrace. I think we can be proud that our senators’ conversations were in stark contrast to the irrelevant long winded pontifications of the self impressed southern and assorted Republican senators on the committee. If there were ever a place where a little levity and comfortable banter should be welcome, it would be in the midst of this phony interrogation. Wasted time and nonsensical inquiry were otherwise the rule of the days.

Privacy rights

Michelle Bachmann, our Minnesota treasure in the House of Representatives, has asserted that she has a right to privacy that allows her to refuse to answer Census questions. In acknowledging the right to privacy, may we now assume that she supports Roe v. Wade? Or would consistency be too much to expect? Ok, you don't need to answer that.

Parkersburg Iowa

My father and his sisters grew up in Parkersburg, a place I visited many times as a child. Last year as my father's sister, my Aunt Mildred, was scheduled for her annual visit from Arizona to Iowa, Parkersburg was swept by a terrible tornado.

Aunt Mildred, along with her sister, Edene, from Michigan, are in Iowa again this week. This time they are welcomed home by a brutal and heartbreaking murder in their home town. They are scheduled to attend an all school reunion on Saturday.

My mother met my father when she was teaching in Parkersburg and my father, obviously younger than she, was her brightest student. He fell in love with her and pursued her for years until she finally agreed to marry him. My connections to Parkserburg are, therefore, somewhat stronger than to other towns in Iowa, except Odebolt, where I grew up.

When will we realize that allowing open and unregulated access to guns does result in violent deaths? Maybe they would happen anyway, but we don't know that. To save even one life would, it seems to me, make sensible gun laws essential. This gunman was not a militia (as the amendment envisions). This gunman was a mental case. Why did he have access to a gun?

I grieve for Parkersburg, and for all its residents, friends and graduates.

Scapegoat for violence

The Week: June 5, 2009, Best Columns: Europe - Germany. Sad to know that politicians are apparently the same all over. Commentary by Michael Thalken of Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger (Scott will translate this?) After a killing spree at a high school, the government apparently decided to "take action to prevent school shootings" by banning paintball games. It seems the shooter loved paintball and the officials thought it probably "lowered his inhibitions against doing violence." Public outcry caused them to can this idea, and, indeed, to drop the whole idea of taking action. Commentator Thalken suggested the politicians might invest in more counselors and better outreach for troubled kids, but then noted, that would be expensive, time consuming and "wouldn't make a splash with the media." And this from a somewhat more socialistic country than the U.S. of A. Is there any hope for practical, caring and effective programs anywhere?

Al Franken won

The court has declared Al Franken the winner after lo these many months of testimony, arguments, counts, recounts and maneuvering. It appears to me that the public is strongly urging Coleman to accept the result and allow the candidate we elected to be seated as Minnesota's second senator. A little cooperation by our governor would help too.

In this day of commenting, blogging, twittering (whatever the heck that is, and don't even try to tell me), emails and networks, everyone's opinion is out there somewhere, and nearly every one of them would like to see their opinion as "the last word' on the subject. Many of the opinions are useless and irrelevant, as they reflect only that their writers are angry, illiterate, stupid or uninformed, or all of the above. How frustrating to have to plow through these rantings to find those comments you can click "like" on. It is tempting to add my own thoughts to these litanies until I note that what I'm reading is one of 282 posts, and I realize that I would do just as well throwing dishes against the wall and keeping my priceless prose and uncommon insights to myself. Ah, but I have a blog, so I can thoughtfully, candidly and insightfully put out my own opinion where someone might read it. Or not, as they choose.

No one will be surprised that I think Coleman should quit this expensive court battle. Strange how much people dislike and distrust lawyers until they find some who will take their money and battle windmills for them, no matter how meritless the cause. But this isn't about Norm Coleman, is it? He has no political future in Minnesota anymore anyway. No, this is about delaying the seating of the duly elected Democratic senator from Minnesota as long as possible. It's all part of the politics of "no". Will we ever get used to this crap and assume it is something we should expect? I hope not. Will the electorate remember this childish behavior by the Republican party at the next election? I certainly hope so.

Election 1932

In a letter to my mother dated October 5, 1932, my father (age 21 at the time) wrote: "I had the grandest experience last night! You know Hoover was speaking here, to several select groups, and a mere 'Howdy' to the general public? Mr. Rumsey subscribed heavily to the fund and got seats in the second row of the main floor -- and gave me one. I passed up everything for that . . .

"I felt quite among the elite there, you may be sure -- but Hoover failed to impress me very much. I can't see anything more in him than before. He'll never win the election, you may be sure. Even if you do vote for him!" At the time of this letter, my father was in law school and working as chief driver and all around handyman for one of the founders of Meredith Publishing. I'm assuming Mr. Rumsey was a friend of his employer. Mother was living and working in Janesville, Wisconsin. She had finally accepted his repeated proposals, and they were planning to be married.

In a letter dated February 3, 1933, he wrote to my mother: "What do you think of my Mr. Roosevelt by this time? Oh, I'm much impressed with him -- and more and more. Have you heard of his special message to Congress in regard to beer? Signing his name to that plank of the Democratic platform. Such humor in the President! Why he is human! After Hoover that seems good. Oh! Oh!"

As a reminder, Prohibition was in effect in Iowa from 1920 to 1933. Earlier in the letter my father wrote in apparent reference to the Iowa legislature, "Oh yes, we're getting caught up -- without the aid of beer, too -- thank 'ye!. How does it seem in Wisconsin to be flowing in it? Our pussyfooting legislators have not the nerve to risk a vote at the next election in order to stand by the platform upon which they were elected." The prohibition movement had received much support in Iowa back in the early 20th Century. They also were replete with country bootleggers and gangsters who thrived during those thirteen years. The availability of corn was a great boon to that industry.

In spite of their apparently differing political views, George and Thelma were married February 23, 1935. When George died on May 4, 2004, they had been married for 69 years. Their differing political views did not cause many arguments, however, as George became a Republican, albeit a more open minded one than we often see these days. They seem, however, to have raised a liberal daughter.

One of my last meaningful exchanges with my father took place in the fall of 2003, when he turned to me and said, "I thought you'd want to talk about your recent convention in Minnesota." - a reference to the Episcopal Convention at which openly gay Bishop Eugene Robinson was confirmed. I said, "I'll just say that I'm pretty proud to be an Episcopalian." to which my father with his approving smile responded, "I thought so."