Is This the End?

Is This the End?
When the statesmen from the thirteen original colonies, which were to become the United States of America, had compromised mightily, written a constitution, and fought a bitter war, to bring a new nation into being I'll wager they thought they had created something new, special, and unique among the forms of governance upon the Earth. Indeed they had. But where is that ideal, that dream, today? Search near and far, high and low - it is not often you will find it.

The idea of a government existing to serve the citizenry, rather than the other way around, was predicated on having decisions affecting themselves and their neighbors be made by a well informed body of voters. In America, today there is no such group. Although many are legally eligible to vote, only a fairly small fraction of them have spent the time and expended the effort to become even moderately informed. When asked who their governor, or senator, or even who the President of the United States is, many cannot.

Voters today will bemoan the tragic state of our economy, health care, energy, world influence, education, immigration, and infrastructure. Actually, the list could go on at considerable length. They will then aver that we must put a moose shooter in Washington to bring about the needed reforms; and perhaps to safeguard our borders. The result, of course, will be that we will still have a government incapable of changing, but good at shooting moose.

America, WAKE UP! Those who claim you can have change and reform by electing the same party and people who created the current mess, are either crazy or stupid! Any candidate, who says he won't increase taxes, but the other one will, is LYING to you. Do you like being lied to? Do you like being ripped off? If anyone wants to bring about real change, right now, all that it takes to begin is to stop lying; and if this election is decided in favor of the Republican candidate then America will stand in ruins. Will we let that happen?

Should Sara Palin be VP?

Sara Palin has been the governor of the 48th least populated state in the nation for just two years. Only Vermont and N. Dakota have a smaller number of residents (less than 1 million). So what if she has been Commander-in-chief of their National Guard? How often has she called out the guard anyway; except perhaps to spend taxpayer money to rescue those hikers and climbers who are too stupid to take care of themselves?

It is also true that Sara Palin, if she were to become president, would probably saddle us with an ultra-conservative Supreme Court, which has implications for American society for untold years to come.

These are just two of the many questions that ought to be considered. Why do reporters not take these issues seriously? It seems like they just want to see who can cram the most inane questions into the time they are given. Real reporters would tell the truth, the true implications of the voters' choices, and tell us what is really at stake here for our nation's future.

A Year Later and We've Still Got 'em!

Real active Blog, huh? Here it is about a year from my last post and we've still got Bush and Cheney. I suspect that Rove, although officially out, has actually taken up residence somewhere in the Whitehouse; possibly under Bush's pillow. From there he'd be in the best position to whisper nefarious schemes into the ear of the Bush who calls himself the President.

The Olympics have come around again, so it seems fitting that I post something that I wrote four years ago:

If hypocrisy were an Olympic event then Bush, Cheney, and Rove would sweep the medals. The only question would be “In which order?” I was thinking, specifically, about the story on “No Marriage Left Behind”, but just about anything that crew has done would qualify. First they mount a campaign to economically destroy the American middle class, then they produce thousands of war widows, and then they say they want to save marriage. Anybody that can’t see these people for what they are is dumber than a box of rocks. Sadly that encompasses about half of the American electorate.

Good Intentions

I started this blog with the best of intentions. Was going to post to it every 2 to 3 days, at most. It is really amazing how things take on a different priority when one really doesn't know how much longer one will be chained to this Earthly existence. My main priorities, for now, are to forge an even stronger relationship with my wife, to share a hundred and one facts, figures, and bits of information with her in the hope she will find them somehow helpful, to bring to fruition some of the ideas that I've held, till now, only in my head, and to have a little fun.

Here it is, nearly a month and a half since my last post, and I've managed to do some of all of the above. After nearly ten years in the same house we are going crazy planting rose bushes and developing a real flower bed from land that had lain empty for about three years. We are finally fertilizing the lawn, too. It had gotten so bad that there was more brown than green, and what was green was as much weeds as grass. Hopefully that will soon change.

As for fun (and education) we've recently come back from a week at Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. There is so much to be learned about Virginia and American history in these three places it boggles the mind. I especially enjoyed meeting Colonel George Washington in 1774. He does not, of course, favor taxation of the colonies, but he does think that as gentlemen we should be able to reach some civilized agreement with the King. Needless to say, things don't work out quite that way.

Perhaps there will be less time till my next post.

What should we make of it?

In the Roanoke times, on Friday, May 11th, it was right at the top of the front page, but few people appeared to be paying much attention. The real good parts were the names, but they were hidden on page 8. Probably even fewer got that far into the article.

For the record, here they are again:
MICHAEL FRIEDMAN - President and CEO
HOWARD UDELL - Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
PAUL GOLDHEIM - Former Executive Vice President of Worldwide Medical Affairs

These three men were responsible for the deaths of some 200 people in Virginia alone. Nationwide, how many deaths took place as a result af the actions of these greedy men? Thousands, no doubt! Add to that the families, the addiction, the crime, the children uncared for, or without fathers, or mothers and you have a crime of unspeakable proportions.

Nice to know, isn't it, that for these crimes these three men served not a single day of time in prison. Even though they completely deserve to spend, not a long time, but a life time, behind bars for what they did, they will serve not a single day! To add to the injury to all that is right and good about America, the fines levied against the three must have amounted to chump change for them. I am sure they have not been taken down to Beanie-Wienies.

On Sunday, Dan Radmacher told us, in his column in the Roanoke Times, what we owe to our troops. We certainly owe them everything Dan said. Don't we also owe them an America where people, especially really bad people, pay for their crimes, not live in the lap of luxury.

A quick post

Today was Mother's Day, of course. Everybody knows that. I called my Mom, who is 86, and happens at the moment to be in the hospital. Her spirits seem good, and she is talking about going home tomorrow.

Then we headed into Roanoke to take my wife's mother out to lunch. It was a beautiful day, and it was wonderful to be out and about. It is quite extraordinary what a few simple things mean when so much that most of us take for granted are taken away.

Time! Is there ever enough?

It started innocently enough! I was mousing around on my PC when I began to notice that my right little finger had something of a mind of its own. It was beginning to tremble and move in and out. I called my doc, because I was trying to reduce some medication, and thought maybe the wayward pinky was a side effect of doing so.

I don't remember exactly what he told me, but I do remember him saying if it wasn't better in two weeks to come in and see him, which I did. Once I got there, he recommended an MRI of the brain. "Yeah, right!" I thought, "Like there's anything wrong with MY brain."

After the test I went back to hear the obvious answer; that there was nothing wrong with me, except perhaps getting a bit old. Imagine my shock when the doc told me I had a tumor in my head and it was already starting to put pressure on some vital arteries and other important parts. He asked me if I had a preferred neurosurgeon. At that point it was like he was asking me "Smoking or non?", like he expected me to have an answer. But I didn't have a name right handy. Go figure! And thus life was changed in an instant, from "normal" to anything but normal.