just sayin'

Two items in the mornings news before I go on to the rest of my beautiful day.

1. A 91 year old man suffering from severe dementia took up his twenty-two handgun and shot his daughter in the stomach. She is also an elderly person who is his primary caregiver and was helping him with his bedpan. In what bizarre world is OK to arm a 91 y/o man with a handgun when he's severely demented?

2. A Florida legislative committee has recommended a bill that would make it illegal for doctors or psychiatrists to ask their patients if they own handguns.

Sail on, oh ship of fools!

from a friend

Taken from a friend's posting on Facebook.

Joan Fitzgibbon

I was a public employee and am not the problem. The US has lost billions in Wall Street speculations that went awry. I followed the rules. Your community's school teachers, police officers, paramedics, firefighters, street and highway workers, and others are NOT the enemy. We live here, pay taxes, work hard, and are trying to support our families, too.

Reagan, once again.

In my opinion, it is a mistake to believe that the bankruptcy of America was an accident. It was nothing of the kind. The whole point of the last 30 years in American politics has been to undo the welfare state that history brought us, to destroy the unions, and to "make the government small enough to drown it in the bathtub" as one right-wing wag has put it many times.

People should begin to analyze this crisis according to when it happened and who had the power. It began under Reagan who ran up a national debt that was almost inconceivable at that time. You may remember that he based his economic theory on"trickle down" economics. If you make the rich richer, they will spread the wealth.

Of course, that didn't happen. But, as much as he criticized the "welfare queens" and the "greedy unions" those people did not in those days hold power in Washington.

Reagan managed to maneuver a slash in the "revenue sharing" program begun in earlier times, and this caused a serious hurt to a lot of states and localities who were required to find new sources of revenue or cut programs, like road repair.

Then came G.W. Bush with his tax cuts that brought the country to the edge of bankruptcy. And when times got difficult, whom did he choose to favor? The wealthy interests that brought him to power, the wealthy interests that controlled the Congress (through legal bribery). Hence, the "Wall Street bailout" which most Republicans now blame on Obama who chose to fight for it.

Never forget that they will serve themselves who control the government. And right now, that is none of us.

Wisconsin

I received this message from SPARTY this morning-

Has news of the situation in Wisconsin reached paradise yet? A very angry L.N. called last night and left a message on our answering machine - we were in Lansing till late. I googled the Wisconsin State Journal this morning to see what has pissed her off so and discovered among other things that the 2600-strong teachers' union closed the Madison schools today with a blue flu. This follows a crowd of 12,000 packing the the capitol grounds yesterday. When you get a chance see what this Republican governor is up to - this is the same guy who refused the federal bullet-train money.

Here was my answer: (Other Birchies are welcome to chime in.)

My sis called me last night to talk about the Wisconsin thing. She wants to head for Madison today but is no longer able to drive that far and so wants one of the local unions to send a bus. After her call, I watched MSNBC for a couple of hours and got caught up in it. I cannot believe that all this is happening. It ruins my concept of the America I once knew.

While we're clamoring for better teachers and improved education, we want to slash the school budgets, lay off teachers, cut off their bargaining rights, cut their pensions and benefits, and blame them for all the ills of the system. What a load of shit this all is.

Yesterday, Governor Boychild of Florida turned down the fast train offer from Washington.

my life

I clambered into my golf cart and drove ten miles to a coffee club gathering (it's 74F right now), then to lunch and now on the computer, but hereafter, I will meet She Who Must be Considered, for golf. Then it's home in the dark on the golf cart which I hope will still have enough battery power to get me home with the headlights on.

Just now, life is very nice.

from MARSHA

sent by MARSHA as a point on the discussion of Bush and the Middle East, below.

hi and "help!"

I have to hand it to AirTran. In the dead of winter, they got us every where they said they would, and on time, and they didn't bump us at all. Of course, we weren't checking luggage.

From 36F to 67F in 3 hours. Bright sunshine.

Was George W. Bush right? He said if we could establish a democracy in one place in the Middle East, it would spread to the whole region.

I am having a terrible time trying to answer this question, now. I haven't been able to ever accept anything he says as being right. Who will help me?

Please,

you have to comment on this thught, one of my newer deepest fears.

A modest proposal for our wacked out friends on the far right fringes of paleo-politics.

I see that the mouth foamers are meeting in CPAC , which I believe is a planet just east of K-PAX, in order to look at some likely presidential candidates. This is pretty much akin to a sudden gathering of vagrants at an accident scene, looking at the bodies strewn on the pavement and trying to figure out whose pockets to rob.

In any event, Michele Barkman, who has enough mouth for three sets of teeth, says that they must unite behind whoever is most likely to make Obama a 1-term President. Usually, when a well-intentioned group of politicians gather to choose a candidate, they are looking for a person who would make a great office holder, but the Republicans haven't done that since 1980.

I have a modest suggestion: Jared Lee Loughner. He would be right down your alley. Not only is he conservative on social issues such as gun control, but he's a loyal right-wing campaigner, and has a history of political participation that appeals to so many conservatives like the Sarah Palinese. His mind is in the right place, and he wouldn't be the first guy to run for President from jail.

BAH!

4 days later

I've been away from computers for about 4 days.

I suppose Mubarak believes he can win a violent confrontation. The army must have a big hand in all this uncertainty.

As for the U.S., I believe the best policy is to keep hands off and keep encouraging a transition to a new governmental form that is more representative.

the RR years #2 from Sparty

These further graphs were sent by SPARTY, to whom, many thanks:

(As always, Click to enlarge)

remembering the RR years

During the current memory cleansing of the Reagan years, which were good to many people, this should be remembered: Most people, but not the rich, had a wage freeze. (Click to enlarge)

From "Mother Jones" CLICK

snaps

Marsha shows off the Championship Trophy won by University of South Carolina, winners of the College World Series.

Found online.

Click to enlarge.

BIRCHES just wanted to note that a Canadian woman, Mary-lu Zahalan-Kennedy, has become the first college graduate in the world to receive a degree in "Beatles studies." Imagine the homework required for such a degree. The exams must have been real bears.

Meanwhile, those Chinese students are wasting their time in engineering and mathematics. Well, we can't all be hip, eh?

oppression?

Now, this one really pissed me off.

Click to enlarge.

snaps

This is the Snowangel.

This is an Irish Bigfoot.

snow

This picture was lifted from Grace Ombry's Facebook. Wow! At some point, this snow storm gets annoying.

More on Education

People are talking below about what content should be taught in the public schools. Who should decide which version of history to teach? Which values to teach? Who should select the textbooks?

These are good questions for which I have offered no answer. I remember when I taught, the teachers in a discipline, such as the "social studies" teachers, chose the history books. I never thought that created much of a problem. However, I do recall that the Humanities teacher glued together pages of every textbook because they included the "Miller's Tale" from Chaucer (or was it "The Wife of Bath?") and that included the word "farting".