Soooo… the election.  8 years ago this space was rife with politics.  The ascent of Barack Hussein Obama was stunning.  We were tired of Bush.  It was clear our country had made a mistake by going into Iraq and had indeed made the world less safe.  People like me pinned their hopes and dreams on this man.  This broken man.  Different than the rest of us but really no different and idiots like me thought he could transcend the system.  Pull our country together...Hopey Changey type stuff.  Oh well.

He was not transcendent.  Even worse he galvanized the people who disagreed with him.  They were dispersed and weak and dispirited from the Bush Presidency.  But when faced with a liberal black man with a super majority they came together… an angry 20% to block vote for change and whipping up enough fear the Republicans swept that democratic majority out in 2010 and more importantly took over ⅔ of the state house just in time for the census and reapportionment cementing the divide through Gerrymandering that would make Elbridge Gerry very, very proud.

The Tea Party Rose.

The Republican Party began to be commandeered by its base.  The leadership of the party went along with the whipped up frenzy assuming they could control it and… it turned on them. Classic Republican leaders dropped like flies because they were not conservative enough.  RINOs.  Republicans in name only.

But Obama got re-elected.  

Half the country was scared by the strident right which had been whipped into a frenzy by their leaders to fear the liberal, progressive, community organizer, Kenyan, Muslim President and his ilk.

Two sides who hate and fear one another and above all despise and distrust our political system.  Blow it up and tear it down!

The Base of the Democrats rallied around Bernie Sanders pulling the Democrats further to the right.  The base of the Republicans never rallied around anyone sporting 15 or 16 candidates and it looked to be a free for all but it was never even close.  The base argued about who was purest and the entertainer, megalomaniac who understood the media hijacked the entire process with a solid base of 30% in each state who were feeling angry, disenfranchised and they wanted the guy who looked like the biggest asshole to be their bully for change.  And they got him.  In Spades.

So now we are left with a bad choice.  Hillary Clinton is an old, self dealing pol.  She and her husband were low level dealers who have maintained a legacy of self enrichment post Presidency which is unparalleled in American History.  She is not likeable but she is smart and motivated and is a product of our system.  She would be the most disliked and mistrusted candidate in history but for her competitor.  Her competitor is a self aggrandizing, narcissistic sociopath who has never done anything for another human being that he did expect to get a personal or business advantage from.  I don't know why he ran but at this point he is behaving like the proverbial dog that caught the car.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-mind-of-donald-trump/480771/

It is going to be a Hobbesian choice of epic proportions.

We will end up as divided as we started. I wonder how our grandchildren will judge us for the “leadership” we have raised up.  I do believe our country and our constitution will survive as it always has but we all need to think again about when we are going to stop villainizing our leaders, defunding our government and making sure that they cannot do the job we elected them to.  We will need to have courage to find a consensus and a way to move forward as more than a divided nation and find some new leadership that will not manipulate a minority within their own party to disenfranchise the good old american middle.  The disenfranchised middle is the group of people who should be railing about taking our country back.  We will see.

Fall!

Sooooo...Fall.  They say it was on September 22nd, the Equinox but that is clearly wrong and stupid… and wrong.  It is not fall until Day Light Savings Time sets the clock back.  You revel in sleeping in that morning adoring suddenly the cool crispness of the air. That crisp air of course intellectually advises us that winter is just about here.  The intelligent species (old people who have won the Darwinian wars with their peers) are already gone south but we, the stupid, the people with jobs, we shamble along and tell us that “Fall is not so bad!”  We exclaim!  We smile.

I got up this morning.  Cooked a large breakfast, read the paper and went to church and then got some lunch and without realizing it, the day was almost gone  Light started waning shortly after the Rams disappoint again.  Fall.  Dimming light and dimming hope that one can yet escape the bleak cold of a St. Louis Winter and forgot a cruel and beautiful baseball summer. Fall and it’s expectation makes people mad.

"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself."

— Mark Twain

Case in point, the United States Government.  Once again, I know I repetitively refer to it as a clown car, but that is because it is… a clown car.  The open up the doors of Congress and this unimaginably large number of bozos in brightly colored wigs, red noses come barreling out with their big shoes.  And these clowns talk… and talk… and talk.  Rarely has so much shit and trash talk come out of Washington in my life.  The threaten, they pose and they posture.  They assure you that they represent the American people but, don't we all know?

They represent themselves.  They represent their family.  They represent a perpetuation of their own power and the power of their friends and benefactors.  They do it by embodying the simple mindedness that can only come from being a true believer.  This is true of the right and of the left.  This is true of progressives and conservatives. They cannot see the truth because it is not in their interest to see the truth.  It is in their interest to announce loudly simple falsities that satisfy their constituents mind set.

“The Government IS the problem!”

And of course there is truth in that but government also has power to do massive good. But government cannot “fix” anything, but… it is all we got.

And these assholes that we have elected over the past twenty years (arguably my adult life) have severely damaged our democracy and our future.  Now granted they inherited a ship which at least since The New Deal has been premised on borrowing from the future or...let’s use another platitude…

“STEALING OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE!”

Hypothetically we could take the country back and fix it but it would require thinking, balanced people, the reasonable American middle to fight back against the dogmatic, certain SHOUTERS of the right and the left.  Make no mistake when our government is pushed to the brink of a shutdown it serves no one more then the Tea Party.  They want a government that provides roads, national defense and a minimal police force.  

They stand their ground, they don't call 911!

Every time they make all of us question their basic ability to govern they win in further delegitimizing government.  It started when they out maneuvered Obama on the sequester.  Cuts so drastic and stupid and inelegant that no one could abide in them.  But of course, the Tea Party could abide them.  More reasonable Republicans in the middle could not but they are now irrelevant. The goal of the Tea party is to destroy government because it cannot be fixed and the goal of the liberal left is to spend it into destruction.  Both should be an anathema to reasonable people.

We still sit on the greatest piece of real estate in the world.  We still have a fabulous melting pot of people and their progeny who are capable of anything!  But we need to bring back the middle.  We have to look at other opinions with respect and then win the battle with a sensible way of us all going forward together.  It can be done.  The return to the middle is possible but damn, it is going to be hard, and it is going to take a long time and it is going to require that we insist on rationale discussion and decision making.

it might require shutting down 24 hour cable news and demagogues on talk radio.  I know freedom of speech is the holiest of our constitutional rights.  So holy that it is not in the constitution but instead in the First Amendment but holy is holy.  It might require us rethinking whether corporations are people (we all know the founders loved the big corporations like the Dutch East India Company.  We might also have to reconsider whether money is speech… or speech is speech.  But we might not have to do those things if perhaps we could discuss it.  I could be wrong and perhaps corporations are indeed people but it would seem to run against everything I have ever learned, but still, I would embrace discussing it.

But we would need to be brave.  We would need a leader who was willing to speak the truth and when he tried to lead us down a painful road, we would need the courage not to kick him out for his courage.  Here is one example:

SOCIAL SECURITY

1.    Entitlements are writing checks we cannot pay.  In a growing economy with productive baby boomers we could pretend that there would always be more money...tomorrow and we could spend it today and promise… whatever.  This will require sacrifice.  It will mean that people who have paid into Social Security will; NOT get the benefits they were promised.  But those benefits for our long living generation are MUCH more than they have paid in.  So, in short order:

    a.    raise retirement age to 70.  I know none of us wants to work and “The Greatest Generation” (the one who raised us) retired younger and had a retirement house in Florida.  We will not be able to do that, or likely to have that and you know what, it is going to suck and it is going to be great too.

    b.    Means test for the money.  I don’t know what the number is but hypothetically people with 50 Million do not need $4,000.00 extra a month to put in the bank and leave to their progeny.

I don’t know what to do after that but I know that is a start which will be hollered about and it will stink and it will not solve the problem, but it will start solving a problem in a sensitive, painful way that perhaps if we had a brave leader he could lead us to brave solutions.

So it is 5:30 and pitch black and these are the types of crazy ramblings that come out of a middle aged man when his fantasy football team is out of contention.  I look forward to thinking about other ideas for our new party.  A Jack Danforth Republican Party with a Bill Clinton Democratic Party might be a good start.

We can make the middle phat again!

Any Limits On 2nd Amendment? Not Today

Soooo.... Guns.  Sandyhook, Aurora, Portland, Milwaukee, Jackson.  According to the Nation 88  people died in mass shootings but I cannot tell you how they define that.  http://www.thenation.com/blog/171774/fifteen-us-mass-shootings-happened-2012-84-dead#
But so what?  300 million guns in arguably the safest country in the world. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_gun_owners_are_there_in_the_United_States_of_America
Were number one!  Once again we are exceptional Americans.  Exceptionally frightened Americans.  I have no answers and no pearls of wisdom.  We cannot put 300 million guns back in the bottle.  We cannot take back the assault weapons (whatever that means) that have already been sold.  We cannot reinstate the mental health funding which is the first thing cut at every budget impasse.  We cannot remove with the stroke of a pen the violence in videos, movies , games and TV that Hollywood enshrines.

But we should think about it.  And we should be ashamed.  Not just for Newtown but for the people killing each other in Chicago without headline or national comment.  I don’t promote any answers but the one thing that has to be clear is that removing funding for mental illness along with dramatically increasing the availability and number of guns makes things like Newtown a natural result.  We reap what we sew.  The chickens do indeed come home to roost.

So, think about it.  Think about the 2nd Amendment that called for well regulated militia. And what had become of it with high powered weapons available for every household.  Are there ANY limits to the 2nd Amendment as currently interpreted?  If so, what are they?

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.-2nd Amendment of The United States Constitution

Under our current interpretation of this language, what would it not allow? Below is my idea for a movie, or more likely a Saturday night live skit.  I did it on December 3rd, well in advance of Newtown.  It could be funny... and really, really sad.  

***
Mohammed, Aarif, Abdul and Hamdan are in Tehran working on the Iraqi nuclear bomb project.  They are constantly beset by poor working conditions, unreasonable Mullah’s, and UN Nuclear Inspectors.  They cannot get work done.  They cannot build the bomb for Islam.  They are denied the working materials they need and have constant saboteurs (Israeli and American provocateurs) who are constantly undermining their work.  It is a disaster where they have to work each day and the dream of better labs and equipment and materials.

They have a conversation about where they could go to make the bomb for the Jihad.  They consider Afghanistan and immediately disregard it after disparaging comments regarding camels and thieves.  They consider briefly North Korea and then they make disparaging comments about the food and the little dictator that runs the place.  

They go home and in their cramped apartment are watching Al Jazeera’s coverage of the American Election and see the NRA shouting about the second amendment and the right to bear arms...they see southern Senators talking about standing their ground and every man’s right to defend themselves.  Then they see the Republicans on the floor of the house decrying bans on automatic weapon sales and speaking about it being a violation of rights for Americans not to have their own mortars and tanks and bombs.  An idea is borne.

They move to America and with funding from their government open a new nuclear research program at Millsaps or some other small piece of shit southern college.  They start to build their bomb and they defend it against all objectors as they build the bomb.  When people express concern Wayne La Pierre of the NRA goes on meet the press and suggests that every American ought to have access to nuclear technology.  Boeing announces a partnership with Colt to start research to introduce tactical nukes to “defend” your home.  They are defended as they make their bomb and they and others, state that every American should be entitled to have a nuclear bomb.  Why shouldn’t an American citizen be entitled to a nuclear bomb?  It is right there in the Constitution!  During a press interview Hamdan gets carried away shouting “Alluah Akbar” and then catching himself in the dead silence that ensues screams “I mean DON’T TREAD ON ME” to raucous applause.  Fade out to a mushroom cloud over Birmingham.

I don’t know how it ends.  It might be funny.

***

Think about how you should react to gun violence. With fear?  As a Christian... I ask you to find something in the New Testament or something in what Christ said that justifies shooting another human being... Show me where Jesus tells us to “stand our ground”. There are no easy answers or quick fixes but thoughtful Americans should be thinking about these questions.

The Charge Of The Lightweight Brigade

Earlier this week I had a slight nervous breakdown and posted this on Facebook:

““OK...R.E.M. disbands ten years too late and now the U.S. Government is threatened with shutdown again. REALLY? REALLY? Again? We seriously cannot do any better than this? This is leadership? From anywhere on either side of the aisle? People pay taxes to support this type of leadership? People die on the battle field to support your current way of governing our great country? Our economy is in decline, people are not working and you squabble like petulant children. Every member of congress, Senator or House Member should be hanging in their head in shame. Real shame.
"It's the end of the world as we know it..." R.E.M.””

Slightly over wrought? Way over wrought? Probably the latter but really guys, this is embarrassing. I had overblown expectations for our President to use his HUGE popular support to be transformative. It retrospect that was very childish but we had come from a Presidency that was so stage managed and tone deaf that I needed change and certainly John Mc Cain was not the change I needed. I can still shudder to think about how his Presidency would look and we would all be beating on an old man. At least with Barrack we are beating on a young man in the prime of his life. But even though he was dealt an unplayable hand, he has played through every attempt to unite our country under a banner of real, PROUD change. Congress failed him totally, first the Democratically run congress and then the democratic minority dealing with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives who was elected with a mandate from the people, God and the Constitution to thwart anything else he tried. But the original fault is with the Democratic congress originally which played the same liberal, entitlement program that has been pretty thoroughly debunked by our countries history. Nancy Pelosi sucked...and she looked really, really scary, especially when she was worked up. The President, upon getting to his office should have asked she and Reed to resign their leadership posts because it was not what this country needed. He didn’t. Now we are here.

My brother, whom I love, is a Tea Party Conservative. God Bless him and them and their cause because they have changed the argument. I don’t believe they have changed it for the better but they have changed it and that is indeed what makes our country the greatest country in the world...still...no matter what the nay sayer’s say. They have successfully thwarted anything being done by government. Seriously, anything. Now I don’t pretend to know what the proper role of government is but I will tell you that it has to have a role and it is our largest employer and that tearing it down quickly, threatening to shut it down every time there is a spending bill, is reckless and stupid. Obama will be a one term President unless they run a crazy man like Perry or a crazy woman like Bachman. You cannot say stupid things frequently in public, and then stand by them and double down. Both of these candidates confuse this for courage and fortitude. What worked on their small stage (and Texas no matter what they tell you is an intellectually small stage) will be a disaster on Broadway (likely because of the pointy headed New York Intellectual Elite). So that is going to take care of itself. Run whomever you want and they should win and they too will likely be a one term President because we are in a deep trough with no easy way out.
But back to my brother. In regard to politics we agree on nothing. Ever. This might almost be a point of pride for both of us. But we have found a common desire and we need another one term President. We need someone who is brave enough to say the following:
1. We are in a deep, bad economy.
2. Government cannot spend or save us out of it
3. The American People are going to have to get us out of it.
4. We are going to have less government services and our churches and not for profits have got to start really stepping up because there will be needs that the government simply cannot meet for the needy and for those without a voice. This is a tragedy but this is reality.
5. We are going to pay more in taxes.
6. Our standard of living as we knew it was the creation of a bubble and is not sustainable. We can argue about this but time and economics have proven it.
7. Our standard of living will still be the highest in the world and we can lead like America should lead, by example.
8. Social security retirement age needs to be rolled back.
9. Means testing for benefits needs to take place. (I don’t know if my brother would agree with that one but my point is that we should not pay out the “safety net” of social security to people like Warren Buffet, or maybe even to people like me who have managed to put some monies away for retirement.)
10. Having troop fight wars overseas (even with radio controlled airplanes) is expensive AND we are going to have to figure out how to employ and equip all these troops we are bringing home for civilian life and it will be VERY expensive for a while but we have to invest in our best.
11. Something has to be done about health care. Here my brother and I would totally disagree so I will stop but that is the third rail of debt. Social security, War and Health care. Something has to be done about health care. Stopping frivelous lawsuits, stopping waste will not even cover next years % growth of the costs. So...something has to be done about health care costs and we will leave it at that for now.

So we need another one term President after Obama or even better we need Obama to embrace for his last year and a half, the role of being a one term President. Lead us to what is next. Dignity. Real Christian values that question our materialistic and militaristic culture and speaking the truth with love, rather than speaking the truth, when convenient, for votes and campaign dollars. But if not Barrack, and not the next Republican President, than it has to be the next guy or we are in some deep shit and the country will be so angry that we will elect a madman. So watch, pray and expect more of these guys. Congress? We cant shoot them. So lets vote them out and see if we can get some people who put America before their party and who can think for themselves without an agenda of talking points to get people to clap and sing God Bless America. What we need as President and in Congress are real people. Smart people. Creative people who are willing to take risks to do what is right and what this country needs. It didn’t have to be this hard. God already has blessed America, and he still is.


*cue the large eagle flying down with American flag in it’s beak...cue the country song about God and Country...fade to black*

GET ANGRY

Sooooo.... I am ANGRY! And you should be ANGRY too. Then we can be ANGRY together! There is so much to be angry about. Mexicans taking our jobs! BIG Government! High Taxes! Limited business opportunities! Unemployment! Under employment! The government take over of healthcare (OBAMACARE!)! The United Nations! RICH LIBERALS! The conspiracy to trample on the Constitution! PROGRESSIVES.....FOR GODS SAKE PROGRESSIVES! MAIN STREAM MEDIA! Blame Stream Media! Lame Stream Media! The attempt to muzzle FOX News!! Creeping Socialism! The decline of American Values! People who question “American Exceptionalism”! There is just so much to be angry about and seeming so few exclamation marks. But EVERYTHING needs to be in bold type and end with an exclamation point because we are ANGRY!

Why would we not be angry? We live in the strongest, freest country on earth. A country so embarrassingly blessed with natural resources, clean water, tillable land, coal, oil, gas, timber and a temperate climate that it is as close to paradise as any geographical place on earth. But lets forget about that! Everything is bad! And it has to be changed and it can only be changed if we get ANGRY! If we forget that besides being blessed to be Americans, alive at this great time in history, that we also are blessed by a just and loving God who sent his only son as salvation from our sends. LETS FORGET THAT AND BE ANGRY!

And lets feed our anger by listening to angry people who think as we think, or perhaps are even more angry then we are so that we can feel like we are really not THAT angry. And lets blame people. Lets blame the past administration. Lets blame the current administration. lets blame, politicians, liberals, conservatives, Tea Party people, Progressives, Jews, Christians, Muslims, the damned Sufi Muslims, blacks, whites, yellow, brown, tan and magenta. Lets blame them because OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED! And it is all their fault!

None of it is my fault! I am angry at all these people who have made everything so bad. by being angry i am going to get something done about it. By getting together with other people who are angry we will elect people who are different. People who are accountable. People who will not do whatever they need to do to make sure they stay in power and perpetuate their own families well being. People who are going to be “different”. People who are... not people. Until we elect someone who is not a person, we will not be happy.

We will continue to be angry about the tax code. We will realize that there ca be no free market with this bastardized amalgam of social engineering that seeks to reward behavior government wants to encourage. And we will do NOTHING about it in our anger because we still want the breaks which are good for us! We just want the other guys tax breaks taken away. They make us angry! We must scream about the sanctity of capitalism while insisting that the government subsidize ever Wal-Mart with a TIF and every wind farm with subsidies and price fixing.

It never ends, the things to be angry about. The things that divide us. The things that diminish us as a people. The things that make us smaller. Pettier. Hateful. Bitter. Alone, even in a mob. So we live in the greatest, most blessed Democracy the world has ever known with a higher standard of living than our much applauded founding fathers could have ever dreamed of and we scream about watering the tree of freedom with human blood. Because we are ANGRY!

And as Christians we can draw a lot of examples of this righteous anger from Christ. JUST READ YOUR BIBLE! Jesus was always walking around being angry about the government. Being angry at those damn, scummy Samaritan immigrants who were taking good Jewish Jobs. Angry with Ceasar for taxing the hell out of them. Angry with the politicians of the time for executing him. Angry with people who were exposing “social justice” and leaving a corner of their fields for the poor to get some grain! COMMUNISTS Christ would scream and berate them! At least he never got angry at the rich and powerful. They were blessed and they are guaranteed a spot at his right hand in heaven. That is what the Bible says. Right?

So be angry. Be a Christian and be angry. Follow Christs example and be angry and be a victim and complain. Complain from the left. Complain from he right. Stand up, sit down, fight, fight fight.

Election Irritability: What Program Will You Cut and How Much?

Soooo....one week to go. As regular readers (and I do thank all 7 of you) know I have been rather silent lately. Part of the reason has to do with starting a new law practice and traveling a lot like I do not even need to make a living. Trips to Austin, Cancun, Michigan etc... leave little contemplative time and when coupled with trying to work enough to keep body and soul together there is very little time to watch and observe food, travel, music, life and of course politics. Which brings us to the real reason I have not written...politics.

We are just coming off the long dark tea time of the NPR pledge drive where I listen to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Jamie Allman... the angry cynical chick on talk radio around lunch... and the whole sick experiment has left me even more tired then ususal and more hopeless then I have felt since the start of W's second term. Never has the discourse been so vile, low, stupid and without hope and all of this in the greatest country in the world.

Roy Blount and June Carnahan... What programs are you going to cut and how much? And don't tell me healthcare... it has not brought us here.

I feel for the arguments that are supposed to be at the core of the tea party. Smaller government. Living within our means and self reliance are all great traditional American values. Not religious values but really, REALLY good things. But seriously, where were you fucking people when Ronald Reagan, Bush the Elder and the born again moderate Bill Clinton and then Dubya were ramping up spending at a monstrous level and even Saint Reagan increasing governments size and budget deficit (with the exception of a few Clinton years every year? And every year we elect the same people who say "I am going to cut waste and fraud". That is bullshit. The political class makes it's bones every day on waste and fraud. THEY NEVER CUT WASTE AND FRAUD! But we are going to elect Christine O'Donnell and re-elect Michelle Bachman and elect that crazy chick running in Arizona because these people are serious? These are the ones who will do it?

Ed Martin and Russ Carnahan, what programs are you going to cut and how much? Ed, I don't care that you were a politcal fixer for a governor who was smart enough to quit before his secrets made him a target and Russ... well Russ, i do not care about you at all.

I want to believe it. I am a bleeding heart liberal. My religion causes me to think that Jesus would want all people to have health care (even illegal aliens) but I know the government cannot afford it, anymore then it can afford wars of choice in the middle east. I like health care more then war with a couple of trillion but it is not affordable and sustainable BUT if we can send a few thousand American boys off to be killed and in the process destabelize a region so hundreds of thousands of their people can be killed and they can legitimately blame us for it while paying trillions to do it... I will take health care (even for illegal aliens).

And now we have this silly, silly election. In my life they have always said the same thing about election cycles. In every non presidential election 40% of the country dictates their displeasure and in the next election cycle 60% decide they did not like what the 40%. Well we are in a 40% year. I will vote but many of the crazies who voted for Obama will not come out and cheer for their local congressman and Senators. I do not blame them. they are an uninspiring bunch. the only thing less inspiring is their Republican dopplegangers who are there to rescind, remand, undo, unfund and stop Obama Care. Reinstitute tax breaks for everyone and shut down government. That will work well. The minute someone's mom misses a social security check... heads will roll.

And therein lies the lie of the tea party. They want to cut government but not the government that serves them. they decry socialism but take social security, unemployment, medicare and every tax break they are entitled to and they ARE entitled to their breaks. But the others...the LAZY ones who "take advantage" of the system.... their support needs to be cut. If smaller government is the goal (and it is an honorable goal) there is only only question EVERY candidate should be asked. Which programs will you cut and by how much? The follow up being if you are going to cut taxes what dollar for dollar cuts will you make in programs to justify those cuts. But forget the follow up. Ask you candidate, which programs will you cut and how much? Which programs will you cut and how much? Which programs will you cut and how much? (Repetition is a rhetorical device). If they cannot answer and if they answer with bullshit platitudes like they are going to stop earmarks and cut waste and fraud... then they are the frauds. Call them out. Republicans, Democrats, a pox on both their houses. I will vote Democrat again and hold my nose because their politics seem slightly less stupid, slightly less selfish in concept and frankly slightly less mean.

20 years of Republicans enlarging of government (the last 20) but it takes a black President to unite the anger over big government and the self righteous bullshit about selling out our kids futures. Now the Tea Party wants us to believe that their politicians have gotten religion. Being co-opted by the Republican party illegitimizes their goals. I get the anger, I am angry too, but until our culture changes, the institutions cannot change. Changes at the top are pure laziness. If you cannot pull our country together by it's core values of inclusion, hard work, charity, self reliance and compassion then we will keep electing leaders who reflect our broken sense of values.

Change youself and become a better person. train your kids to be better persons, discuss being a better person with your friends and what you (and they) can do to make a better Country. Then our leadership can make a meaningful change. In the interim...ask these hypocritical son's of bitches...which program would you cut and how much? Then wait for a real answer.

Michigan v. Notre Dame And Other Morality Plays

I find this time of year delightful inso many ways. On the cusp of fall. Football, everywhere, professional and of course college. Naturally my well documented aversion to Notre Dame comes into my play with a withering, unjustified and smug dislike of this storied program I have beaten that dog to death so I will leave it alone. Michigan on the other hand has been on incredible hard times. A great program of which less and less has been expected and every year they have disappointed recently. So naturally I wanted to be sitting in a bar watching this game and instead I was working and working but am now sitting at home and watching the fourth quarter. Michigan dominated once the first series (with an ND score and losing their quarterback for a while) but are now in jeopardy of having the Irish march down for a last second score. Go BLue! On the road and in the home of touchdown Jesus and all those... those people...who come to South Bend expecting miracles and more because... they are entitled.
###
I have been watching the bullshit for the last two weeks about this idiot at a tiny church in Florida announcing he was going to burn Koran's or Quoran's or Qoran's, depending on your belief in correct spelling and political correctness. I cannot fault the preacher. He is clearly mentally ill with a strong (but not too strong based on the size of his church) instinct for self promotion. it is a shame and a pity that this man got any press at all much less the full Katy Perry 15 minutes for this despicable display. If they burned Bibles in Iran I would hope that no American press would cover those crazy people either. But for a 24 hour news cycle and the desire to create controversy none of us ever would have heard of this idiot and his hateful, little, offensive church that has the audacity to call itself Christian. God will have mercy on his soul but i would have to pray a lot more to show this guy any grace. Which brings me to point 3.

###

The Glenn beck Rally was annoying. Tomorrow the tea party gets together in St. Louis. "tea party Patriots". I guess the rest of us are not patriots. "Real Americans" according to Sarah Palin which i think also means that since i disagree with them makes me a...'Fake American"? I DON'T FEEL LIKE A FAKE AMERICAN. Listening to Glen Beck (and I do) I am realizing that one of the things I find so offensive is this culture of victimhood he cultivates among the middle class. YOU are victims! THEY are taking things away from you! YOU MUST FIGHT BACK! What kind of bullshit is that? What has been taken away from whom? A lot has been hogged by the top 1% with the assistance of their government stooges and complacent people who believe that their interests are the same as these oligarchs. But what is really bothering me is that Tea party people I see almost to a man (or woman) self identify as Christians even while they follow the rantings of their Mormon profit Glen Beck.

Where is the Christ in the much vaunted "Christian" values? Why is the ten commandments so much more important, as well as all other old testament law regarding women, homosexuality, marriage etc....all so important, quotable and indictable but Jesus own words and examples are forgotten. the Tea Party and conservative Republicans are all about government getting out of the way...so they can gather as much wealth as possible for the benefit of themselves and their families (see the much hated DEATH TAX) where we keep kids from inheriting things they did not work for from their parents. Where it is in Christian values and Christ's example to gather up wealth while on this planet. I know you can interpret "render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar's" but when we are talking about money and taxes how else can you read it but that these are not things of the kingdom that we are to be concerned about. I am not going to quote the Bible any more then that because I question people who do it for their own purposes. Go to Matthew Chapter 5. read the next four chapters of the Bible where Christ gives us a short course on how to live your life. read it in context and read the whole thing. See how your conservative Christian values stack up against the real thing.

Alas, with 3:45 left Notre dame just scored on a 95 yard play. Michigan missed two field goal tries. All might be lost soon. My poor, poor Wolverines.

Now the Wolverines have Marched down to the 2....TOUCHDOWN! What a game! What a life? perhaps there is hope for our country after all. I am not sure how this result relates to anything but allow me my ramble.

Social Engineering, Taxation and What We Need To Try

OK....or as I like to say...sooooooo.... our country is a little bit of a mess right now. we are totally polarized between the tea party people on one side and the lefties. commies socialists or I guess Glen beck calls them "progressives" who are even to the left of our President. There are people to his left. Just like their are people to Romney's right. And everyone is angry. Our economy is in shambles with a jobless recovery that cannot drive any true growth. It is like we have forgotten how to grow an economy without another bubble like the tech bubble and the real estate bubble which drove our recent spate of high life style and over borrowing.

When I say over borrowing I mean you. Even if you were one of the careful, smart, responsible ones who did not borrow more then you could afford and who are continuing to mke payments on your houses and cars... you borrowed too much. You borrowed too much through the government who borrowed on your behalf and you benefitted from it because the economy boomed while everyone built and built and built and bought and bought and bought with all that cheap money. Now we have massive debt, a stagnant economy and even I cannot really tell you with a straight face that Barrack's policies can be doing anything but making it worse. In the best possible light the policies are preserving a stagnant status quo.

So what do we do? One answer is to let the beast die. Stop government spending. Stop consumption altogether and let the economy crash. And it will crash. All those businesses hoarding cash because they are afraid are going to really be afraid when the government stops buying. 21 million employed by the government, wait until those people get unemployed. It seems like a bad answer but that is what the tea party people are demanding. Smaller government, less services, especially for those who are not paying for them. i still do not understand where that falls in with their Christian majority but that is neither here nor there. And when your talking about creating jobs... you are going to throw a couple hundred thousand government workers into the mix when you start to cut all those budgets. be careful what you wish for.

I have another way to shock the economy. Throw the tax code in the trash. 17,036 pages. Longer then a Harry Potter book. What is in all those pages? Well I am certain there is some good stuff but mainly what is in there are tax breaks, and tax incentives encouraging certain types of behavior that Congress at one point or another found advisable. When did our country of rugged individualists and Federalists decide that Washington should incentivize businesses and individuals, through the tax code? When did they decide it was their job to incentivize us at all. I have no problem with paying taxes. I pay a lot of them. I hear a lot of small business owners bitching about their taxes but most of them I know do not pay all that much and sometimes none at all. In this economy they might not pay any because of no profits yet still they bitch. Well, lets fix that.

It does not have to be a flat tax but there is a lot to recommend the egalitarian nature of it. I know they regressive but low wage earners should pay taxes too. They enjoy the benefits and shared suffering is a unifying thing but it does not have to be that answer. It could be anything. It could be a soak the rich plan. It could be a national sales tax plan. It could be a tax the hell out of the middle class plan. Tax businesses until they break plan. the main thing and my only requirement is that it is a simple plan. Why isn't all income taxed equally? Why is capital gains income different then earned income. I earn my capital gains income by risking my money. Why should Warren Buffet not pay millions or perhaps even billions in taxes. Why should I be able to preserve wealth for my children? Dead people should be the easiest people to tax and their heirs have rarely done anything to "earn" or "deserve" the money anyway. And DO NOT tell me about how this damages and forces the break up of family farms. I know it has happened. I have never seen any evidence that it could not have been avoided with some better estate planning.

Bottom line. Abandon the tax code. Burn it. No more incentives. No more breaks. no more loop holes. No more social engineering from Washington. Tea Party People...are you with me on this?

Healthcare, Who Cares?

Well that is really the question. I thought I cared about healthcare. I thought that I (WE!) voted for someone who was going to bring national healthcare. I feared it slightly but that was the kind of change I was voting for. Then the congress started debating it. Then the Republicans made it clear that they were not going to agree to any reform, other then tort reform. Then the Democrats did what politicians always do, creating a bill that served a variety of special interests, towards doing a lot of good things, but short of national health care. Then they really started debating it. Then the tea Party people waded in. Just STOP they cried. Socialism! Death Panels. As I type this Tuesday night the people of Massachusetts are voting for another type of change because they like me think all this shit has got to stop, so we vote against whatever is going on. And I do not care. I know the Tea party People and the republican's will tell you it is referendum on health care, or even better a referendum on Barack HUSSEIN Obama but they are missing the point.

It is a referendum on our whole current government. Not the Democratic controlled Congress, but Congress itself. Not on the President, but the office of the President. I don't disagree at this point. the bill or bills that congress approved does not accomplish what I elected Obama to give me which was healthcare for everyone. I know we have healthcare for everyone now, but grudgingly and it is certainly not guaranteed. I would have even given healthcare to the dreaded illegal aliens. it also does not seem to be doing a lot to control costs since he cut deals with insurance companies, drug companies, the AMA etc... I don't know everything in the bill. I tried to get educated and what Glenn Beck. I tried to read summaries of it. I just could not take it all in. Neither could congress. I watched Beck and Limbaugh pull peaces out of it to demonize Congress and the administration. It didn't really tell me anything. Frankly the whole exercise has pointed out how divided our country is and watching cable news incessantly dissect every vote on every issue as the bill progressed... made me sick. I still wanted health care reform. But in the end I also want world peace. This appears to be something that is just not going to happen.

So I am assuming that weird Democrat lady in Massachusetts lost to that good looking, rich guy "man of the people" and that the republicans will be able to stymie health care reform. They will be lauded by the 20% of the country who adamantly oppose the bill. They will be vilified by the 20% of people who wanted the bill. The rest of us will just be dumbfounded and depressed that this is the best our elected officials can offer us. Seriously? This is it. Total division. Barack said he was going to "forge a new area of bipartisan politics. The Republicans made clear that anyone who would vote for ANY bill submitted by the Democrats was a dreaded RINO! The democrats then decided to play hard ball and use their elected supermajority to push through a more liberal bill, though still not as liberal as their far left constituents would have wanted. They miscalculated Teddy Kennedy's batteries and the patience of the people of Massachusetts with the current level of bull shit.

The Dems and crazy Nancy Pelosi will try and force through a bill, a watered down bill. They will likely fail and even if they succeed they fail because it will be a lot of nothing. So, we get the healthcare we deserve. Just like we get the government we deserve. You can vote these guys out but it is the dreaded "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" thing. Until we get rid of career politicians and big money special interest lobbying the game will remain the same. Demonize people who do not agree with you. Question their intelligence and their motives and their agendas and cobble together a 51% majority to try and shove your favorite policy down someone else's throat.

So. Who cares about healthcare reform? Well, you will when your old. You will when your sick. You will when your daughter marries a putz without health care from his job and she gets sick, or their baby gets sick. Ou system and the way we deliver healthcare is broke. Perhaps what Congress finally came up with would make it even worse but perhaps something might have worked and we could have started to sift through ideas keeping the ones that worked. Instead the healthcare industry will continue to dominate the debate and take up a larger and larger part of our GDP, our economy and what was formerly take home pay.

I want to elect Rush and Glenn. They have lots of creative ideas about how to fix the system. Oh, no they don"t. But they are entertaining if you can stomach them.

Democracy is a good thing. This is how it works. The Democrats have blown an opportunity here. It will be a while till they have another clear shot. Elections have consequences but this one, not so much.

***

Post Script: That was last Tuesday night and not surprisingly I called it. Although it is only the Senate seat in Massachusetts, the media (and not just FOX but all the media decided it was a referendum on Obama, healthcare, socialism, the economy, everything wrong in the country. This is of course silly but... I am wrong about this one. I am out of touch with the country. It is all about the economy and when the economy is bad everything is bad and it really is all that matters. All the social issues, abortion, gay marriage, immigration, taxation and even cries of socialism are all just back ground noise for the economy. The Tea Party cannot make tea if all those people are happy, employed and employing people. But they are angry and we are scared and we are sheep. We will vote these guys out quickly and vote in a different kind of problem. If the economy stays bad we will vote them out too and bring in some more.

On a brighter note, my brother and most of my clients were very pleased and it was nice to see them happy for a few minutes. Still angry... but hopeful.

Nothing will get done on healthcare because the only "change" we can stomach is change we believe will be beneficial for us. Any other change, no matter how needed is unacceptable and when your talking healthcare there is too much to scare people out of. Once again the only wisdom of the Diner Review is that we get the government we deserve. It is actually a George Bernard Shaw quote. He was a negative guy and the quote is:

"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better then we deserve." God help us. Even better God have mercy on us because rarely has our country been collectively acting so ultimately scared and selfish.

The REAL Tea Party

Last night I went to a place called "Lil' Mickey's" for Bar B Q. We didn't have any other place to go and thought it might be an adventure. The place was talked about a while ago in the Post when they were rating the areas best Bar b Q and it was suggested that this was the best Memphis style Bar B Q in town. It was out in St. Peters on mexico Road. That is a long way from Webster (37 Minutes according to Google Maps) and we headed out there when it was already dark. I am always amazed when I head out to St. Charles. Evidently quite a few people live out there. I had no idea. When we got there we found that Lil' Mickeys only is a carry out place. They have two small tables with stools but that is it. Thinking quickly we decided... to order carryout. We took it home and the Bar B Q was excellent. It might have been worth the drive but the bottom line was I ate a lot of Bar B Q.

To quote the great Reverend William Yonker "I told you that, so I can tell you THIS!"

It gave me nightmares. Bad nightmares. First of all they came in the form of a vicious squirrel attacking me... and then I was locked in a bank and there were some very violent people breaking in and the police would not come...but finally... the scariest dream of all came. I wish I had Daniel with me as I sit here to inturpret the dreams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Daniel But the third one was the scary one. Those spicy ribs took me to Louis Carroll's "Alice In Wonderland" where I was at the tea party. I always found that tea party upsetting. The March Hare was such a compelling character... he was being played by Sean Hannity, Alice was played by Ann Coulter and the he was....Rush Limbaugh as The Mad Hatter. They were all sitting around and not drinking tea but dumping it into a lake, a river, a pond, a puddle or ANY water that was available to meet their metaphor analogizing themselves to early patriots risking their lives battling tyranny. Of course none of these people or even their fantasy characters had never risked a finger, a limb or a dollar for their cherished Democracy and although trumpeting the viirtues of free speech felt compelled to shout down all competing voices. I was cast in the position of the Dormouse and like anyone who disagrees was not allowed to speak. Alice appeared to be drunk and kept saying "dittos Rush". I spoke out of turn to opine that the original tea party participants were of course ruled by a despotic, unelected Monarch across an ocean while we had the virtue of election of politicians who were doing pretty much just what they said, and everyone new they would do. Couler kicked me in the nuts and called me a faggy little mouse.

All three of them were carrying guns. Limbaugh had a Glock, Hannity a vintage Colt 44 and Coulter of course had an AK-47... slung low. It went with her heels. Hannity was nattering on about the blood of the tree of Liberty needing to be watered by the blood of "Patriots". There was that word again. What of course they are implying with their guns at public meetings is that if called upon they will incite their minions to water the tree with the blood of anyone who dares to disagree.

I heard some screeching when a maniacal Glen Beck came running shouting OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! Fortunately at that point some of the pork had worked it's way through my colon and created an emergent need to wake up and take a rather large dump. It was a huge relief to realize it was only a dream but it did seem a little to weird and a little too true. The craziness according to these folks is in the White House. I cannot always argue but the fact that anyone is seriously listening to these folks is troubling indeed.

We need some sanity. We are not finding it on cable news. Maybe we can start finding it in the entrails of birds or from scattering chicken bones but we are not going to see anything of meaning from these folks other then screeds of hate.

"Off with their heads!" Indeed. No more Lil' Mickey's for me. But if you want to get some of their carry outs...
http://www.lilmickeysbbq.com/index2.html

Why Are We So Angry? Maybe "WE" Are Not

So we have a continuing theme of anger in our country and it seems to at the current administration. The Tea Party people, the Christian right and the “conservatives” all will tell you it has nothing to do with “the President” but the policies AND with the people who are “the system”.

Where is anger at people and administration who brought us here? It is non existent. And it should be. Bush is done. Even Cheney is done. But their cobbled constituency of the biggest American Corporations and Banks and the radicalized evangelical community remains as an incredibly solid base of 20% of the electorate and a boat load of money. These loud, angry people are controlling the debate. They are “motivated”. When engaged what they are motivated to do it is to tell the government to “just stop”. I understand the sentiment but once again where were you for the last 8 years? The government is a big ship that is hard to turn and momentum in any direction is hard to stop. We headed down this road for the last 30 years which were great years. Reagan and Clinton and Bush’s dad ran us down the path that unbridled capitalism (funded by government in many cases) will solve all problems and that government debt has no consequences. Unfortunately we all suspect that Obama will accelerate that process but be clear, Obama has not spent a penny of our money yet. Our deficits and indeed this budget are all creatures nurtured by our past “leadership”. But we have stuff like this going on:

PHOENIX (AP) — About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday — the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.

Good stuff!














I have really appreciated the few Republicans who have said “Elections have consequences.” This guy was elected by a large majority. He was never unclear about what he wanted for healthcare and America spoke that this was “change” they wanted. When faced with being frightened regarding how the details might effect them they have reacted like everyone would and are saying “whoa”. I know the system is broke and cannot be fixed but do not change it if it is going to effect me. We elect people at times for the purpose of forcing us to do unpleasant things and putting a bullet through the head of our current healthcare/industrial complex might be one of those things. Our country voted hugely for change and groups of vocal people, peacefully assembling while carrying guns to meetings and asserting their rights have hijacked that majority will. I have not seen a single tea party member who has said, “I voted for Obama and I made a mistake”. It is important to note that literally tens of thousands of Americans have joined these peaceful/angry/reasonable/spontaneous/coordinated by Limbaugh, Beck and FOX demonstrations. According to the census bureau there are approximately 307,500,013 of us in the United States which means that as many as 307,400,013 have not yet joined these citizen revolts. But you wouldn't know it to watch ANY cable news.

What about racism? Seriously? This is a meaningless discussion. We are NOT a post-racial society and will not be in my life. It is a fact that many of us are VERY uncomfortable having a black liberal as a President. Some of us have let this color and exacerbate our basic opposition to his policies. This is a fact. Live with it. People are human. I do, when watching FOX hearken back to the days when you were a traitor and a commie under the sacrosanct rule (when Bush was President) to "Never Criticize a sitting President at a time of war." And so i not be remiss. Lets talk about ACORN. This organization was originally a good idea. They have blown it and are done. No matter what an organization has stood for you cannot be "entrapped" into the type of stupidity they have and not have organizational accountability for your employees. They as I said are done. I do note with interest that the same cannot be said for pro life organizations when there members kill people. They cannot be blamed for the crazies among them.

This was of course stupid then and it is stupid now. But where from the Christian right is the basic moderator of their faith? Of our faith? Of MY faith? Jesus lived under an oppressive totalitarian regime. In all the Gospels other then "render unto ceasar..." he didn't say squat about it. he wanted his disciples to focus on healing people, helping people and moving them to faith and to concentrate on the higher things. There is this guy who wrote a lot. St. Paul. He wrote a lot of letters to people in strife and dissension. On such group was the Phillipians. They were a generous people and this was a letter of spiritual encouragement. Paul said "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

So where does that leave us? Well, perhaps all of us are NOT that angry. perhaps by watching Glenn Beck, exchanging email forwards that mock the President, all just reinforce our feeling that EVERYONE feels this way. Maybe talking to people who agree with us and do not challenge our vitriol (especially from a Christian perspective) is self reinforcing of our anger. Perhaps we ought to read a book. Maybe some fiction or maybe even better some American history. because one of the other things that really saddens me is the lack of confidence the angry people have in the greatest Democracy in the free world. Every President, from Lincoln to Obama had been accused by some segment of the country in undercutting and imperiling our Democracy. They have not succeeded in doing it yet. This guy will not be the one to get it done either.

When we are talking about healthcare, government, or our brothers and sisters in the human race... think upon these things. INDEED.

Here was a thoughtful rant on healthcare from an unexpected source, my favorite singer songwriter James Mc Murtry. A tax paying Texan. http://blurt-online.com/blogs/view/2781/