America’s Soul Is the Soul of All of Us

Technorati Tags: Paul Krugman,Bush Administration,New York Times,War Crimes

If, Dear Gentle Reader(s), you are one of those who is divided about whether or not the justice system of The United States should initiate and pursue possible war crimes of some previous administration personnel, then hie thee to Paul Krugman’s piece in today’s The New York Times.  It should go a long way toward helping your make up your mind.

Krugman falls definitely on the side of justice moving forward.

…America is more than a collection of policies. We are, or at least we used to be, a nation of moral ideals. In the past, our government has sometimes done an imperfect job of upholding those ideals. But never before have our leaders so utterly betrayed everything our nation stands for. “This government does not torture people,” declared former President Bush, but it did, and all the world knows it.

In the name of our “moral ideals,” the investigation of the previous administration’s activities must be allowed to go forward.  We owe it to ourselves, to our history, and to our future.

Sphere: Related Content

Juvenilia Revived

Technorati Tags: Townhall.com,Tea Parties,Tea Bags,Tea Bagging*,Tea Baggers*

Oh my, Dear Gentle Reader(s), it seems those embarrassing moments of “in-the-know” from one’s youth which result in red-faced giggles never really fade into oblivion.

Take, for instance, the current reich-wing spate of “tea parties” being held to protest taxing plans of the Obama administration. 

Add a smidgen of…(ahem)…”adult” entertainment information, namely the use of “tea bag” as a metaphor for…(ahem #2)…scrotum.

Then mix with a headline from the Townhall(dot)com email advertisement which reads “Your Tea Bag Might Be on TV April 15th!” and you have a very successful recipe for an episode of smirks, titters, and tee-hees.  “Really?!!?  Will there be tea baggers and tea bagging?  On TV?  Whee!  We’ve come a long way, baby!”

Thanks, Townhalldotcom.  I needed that fun fitlet.

 

*Set your imagination loose.

Sphere: Related Content

We are everywhere

Technorati Tags: Southland,NBC,Conspiracy Theories

The TV show, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is Southland on NBC.  The scene is between two police cars, one a cruiser on patrol, the other a vice squad sedan.  There’s a man sitting in the back of the vice car.  A disbelieving cop in the cruiser is saying, “There’re signs every two feet;” the LAPD has a park under surveillance.  How could a guy get arrested?  There are signs and warnings all over the place.  But there sits the unhappy fellow.

The penultimate scene is in a bar, and the fellow in the cruiser is saying, “I had a shitty day.  I got arrested.”  Unnoticed a few feet away, the cop who couldn’t believe someone would be stupid enough to get arrested in a park which was known to be patrolled by LAPD says, “I had a shitty day, too.”  (It was a tough patrol.)

No mention of the fellow from the park’s infringement, just a reference to the arrest.  No particular overt signs in the bar, but you’d have to be blind, DGR(s), not to know that the officer and the fellow from the park have something in common.

“We are everywhere” is a slogan du decade (or more).  Is it such a truism that there’s no longer any need to “spell out” the officer’s dating habits?  Or is NBC a participant in the “great conspiracy,” the “great agenda,” about which the fundies keep bleating?

Stay tuned.

Sphere: Related Content

Dowd’s Seduction?

Technorati Tags: New York Times,Maureen Dowd,Mr Obama

It might not last long, Dear Gentle Reader(s), so you’d best hie thee over to The New York Times’ presentation of Maureen Dowd’s paean to President Obama in today’s Op-Ed section.

Dowd has made a 180 degree turn since the days of Obambi.  Doubtless she will eventually steer a more centrist course, Mr. Obama can’t help but stumble in her eyes at some point, but right now it’s “killer smile” time—that European trip has turned into a seductive coup.

Celebrate with me.

Sphere: Related Content

4.2.38

Technorati Tags: Gifting,Gifts

A couple of years ago, a brother sent me a wonderful Christmas gift:  he’d made a contribution to the group which buys milk cows for distribution to the poor  in poverty stricken areas of the world.

This year a teaching colleague of mine gave me a wonderful birthday gift:  she’d made a contribution to Doctors Without Borders which will provide 250 people with antibiotics to fight bacterial infections.

Not to belittle gift-giving on special occasions, but isn’t there a time when we, as adults, would really profit more from donations to worthy charities than we would from candy or flowers or…?

Thinking good thoughts and helping the less fortunate are wonderful ways to celebrate a memorable moment.

Sphere: Related Content