Personal Musings category archive

Why you shouldn’t talk politics at a family dinner.

One becomes certain that the Department of Homeland Security’s (which should never have been created and was one, maybe the only, thing Bush was right about and Democrats were wrong about–and should have been named the Department of Domestic Security if it had to be) stupid color-coded terror alert system, which was always directed more to promoting the fear that Bushism thrived on than at providing useful information, is on the way out when it becomes the subject of a poll at Parade dot com.

R. I. P. Paul Harvey.

In the olden days, I used to listen to him on WAMU-AM, which used to be one of the best radio stations in the country. (Now it’s just another wingnut talker).

He never let a fact stand in the way of a good story in his Rest of the Story feature.

Addendum:

Harry Shearer has an appreciation, starting about 30 minutes into the show.

I am completely and thoroughly convinced that all the Barack Obama birth certificate kerfuffle wouldn’t be going on if the man were pink like me.

Field Negro lays it out.

If my insurance was with an incompetent, bankrupt company, I’d look elsewhere also.

(The good news is that none of my insurance companies are in the news.)

When I was 13, I was conservative too, like this young ‘un.

All the white folks around me considered themselves conservative, and, ultimately, Goldwater swept the county.

Why? They were horribly afraid that the evil Democrats were going to end Our Way of Life: Jim Crow segregation. There was other reasons also, but that was the the main one. And, remember, this was in a part of the South where the outward trappings of segregation were nowhere near as brutal as they were in parts of the Deep South.

What happened?

Answer below the Fold

“Reality television” is to today as dance marathons were to the 1930s.

I don’t know why it rubs me the wrong way, but it does. I really dislike hearing a man refer to his spouse as “the wife.”

Yeah. I know the arrow is supposed to point the other way.

But that’s the Republican equation.

Witness this column from the Guardian:

California has apologetically invested in liberalism – and has reaped a toxic asset. The Golden State is headed towards the kind of public-sector meltdown usually reserved for third-world banana republics. Unemployment has skyrocketed to nearly 10%. The public education system is one of the nation’s five worst. California has the country’s dirtiest air and most gridlocked roads. And we have a government so dysfunctional that even sober onlookers are considering the merits of a constitutional convention. It’s often said that California’s present determines the nation’s future. If that’s true, Americans may need to begin stocking up on firearms and canned goods.

There’s much more at the link, but I didn’t want to waste any more electrons on it.

The author leaves out what necessitated this budget: decades of misgovernance under Republican Economic Theory, which, from passing Prop. 13 to requiring a super-majority to pass a state budget, has left California virtually ungovernable.

He left out that, the day before the budget was passed, California was shutting down. And what is government? It’s not Nyarlothotep, though it’s seldom perfect, just as you and I are seldom perfect.

It’s police, fire fighters, food and housing inspectors, persons who serve the public (and, by and large, persons who, unlike bankers, don’t get bonuses for failure). Government is the engine that makes civilized society possible.

Republicans don’t like government, therefore they must not li–oh, never mind.

Who are these people and why does anyone care about them?

When you hang out a sign that says “bank,” persons should be able to bank on you, not just with you.

I have an ambivalent relationship with Daily Kos.

Self-Indulgence below the Fold.

One of the nice things about listening to the BBC News Hour is being continually reminded that TWIAVBP.

The show was 22 minutes old before they got to Mr. Obama’s speech.

I couldn’t put off getting a haircut any longer, even though I come from the generation that believes that hair should be long and skirts should be short.

Read more »

Indeed.

An interesting post on forgiveness over at Straight, Not Narrow. Among other things, the poster said

The people who don’t know Jesus completely get a “glazed over” look when you talk about forgiveness. They act like you’re crazy to forgive someone for hurting you so badly. They want you to punch the person or slash their tires or something. Heard any good Carrie Underwood songs lately? Actually, if you’ve heard any amount of Country/Western songs, they seem to have a high proportion of revenge songs!

I think there is a piece missing: Many of the persons who claim to know Jesus also

get a “glazed over” look when you talk about forgiveness.

They say the words, but they do not act the acts.

I am so tired of those who practice hate in the name of the love.

The Journal-Register Company, holder of a number of local newspapers, files for Chapter 11.

Revenue had declined 20 percent since 2006, the company said. Moreover, it carried a huge debt load, the legacy of a business strategy of buying daily and weekly newspapers in suburban areas. In recent months its stock traded at pennies a share.

I think we would all be better served if the fancy three-syllable word “leverage” were retired in favor of the short, pithy, accurate word, “debt.”

The fancy-smancy “investment bankers” have made a trade of buying companies, mortgaging them to the hilt, keeping the money, and leaving the companies in an Addams Family episode the lurch.

The “investment bankers” get rich, the companies, their executives, and their employees get screwed.

Witness the Chicago Tribune.

All that debt was not there until Sam Zell purchased the company and sucked it dry.

And then tossed it out the back door onto his trash heap.

Without his Zellmanship, the company would not be in the trouble it’s in. It would be in Little Trouble, not Big Trouble.

In the Olden Days, when I was a young ‘un, a company in overwhelming debt was a bad thing.

So now it’s called “leverage.” That way, no one but the cognoscenti will know it is, in fact, crippling debt.

nam vere est.

I agree with John Cole.

The most optimistic Pollyanna rationale that I can come up with is that the Administration is buying time because it hasn’t figured out what to do yet.

I’ll be writing letters tomorrow.

The same persons who are complaining that the stimulus package will be paid for by our grandchildren didn’t seem to care that the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq would be paid for in the same way.

God, how I love hypocrisy.