When He Said

Pic of the day: Evacuation of an Island, by Victor Hugo (1870)

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I don’t know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I cannot know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms.

Albert Camus

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When he said “do not lose heart,” I wanted to respond to him myself, tell him I hadn’t, but there were parents that would never have the same heart again. Then again I knew he wasn’t really talking to me.

When he said “I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation” I thanked him. My prayers, little though they are worth were offered up for both the dead and the survivors from the moment I heard about this. I know I am far from the only one.

When he said “The school’s staff did not flinch” I felt a swell of pride in such strong character shown by the people teaching the leaders of tomorrow. They, and those like them are making future generations better simply with their presence.

When he said “We, as a nation, we are left with some hard questions” I was pleased. Even if he didn’t ask all the hard questions there, he had made it plain with that statement that he, along with the rest of us, was looking for those answers to those questions.

He asked one of the hard questions a moment later, and while leaving out important political context that was not necessary at that moment, also gave an answer. Shortened version of the question : Are we doing enough to protect our children as a society?

Answer: No.

When he said “No set of laws can eliminate evil from the world” He was telling the world in only slightly veiled language, that he is ready to fight this fight. That this fight is a murky one, involving gun laws and mental health legislation and a host of other issues, but a fight that he is ready to fight and will pour all his available energy into, to safeguard this nations children, who are it’s future.

When he read the names of the children who died I had to turn away. I felt the welling up of the emotion of loss. They were not my children. I have none, sadly, but I felt the sting of the bitter loss that death brings. The parents who lost kids, the spouses who lost loved ones, must hurt , must feel a pain a thousand times stronger and more virulent than any I have felt. I think I felt that emotional upwelling for them as well as those who died.

As he left the stage, I was happy to have heard him speak. But it leaves me wondering, now that the speeches are over with, what will happen now? We have all heard speeches before. Will more come of this than just words of comfort. I hope so, for the whole nations sake.

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That’s it from here, America G’night.

Lacey, The Speech, and The Chinless One

I find the oddest stuff while reading the news.  Looking for source material for writing an article about the Presidents speech tonight, I rolled across a story about John Boehner bringing with him to the speech one Henry Juszkiewicz, President of Gibson Guitars.  Initially I’m thinking “Ya know, that is pretty f****** cool of him to do that.”  I like Gibson guitars, I used to play them all the time, back when I was starting up.  OK they weren’t real Gibsons, I used to get the cheap Korean knock-offs, but Gibby’s are great guitars.

I read that the company was apparently hard done by.  By the justice department.  I read that and add the name Boehner, and begin to think there is something not right here.

The Gibson guitar company has apparently broken the law using illegal wood, from Madagascar.  They got Ebony from apparently illegal logging in Madagascar, and it seems they did the same thing with some type of wood from India.  And since the crimes are felonies, the man who runs the company is liable and could see prison time.

There is also some anger about the enforcement of Lacey act, the conservation law which Gibson is alleged to have violated. And that is why John Boehner brought him.  Seems that John, and a number of other people think that the law’s enforcement is improper for several reasons.  The main one being that Americans can be harassed (a term I find odd in this particular case) for breaking the laws of other nations.

Odd for the Lacey act is an American law.

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To jump off of politics for a second.  I said the Saints may well go 0-3 to start the season.  One third of the way there.  Packers win 42-34.  And that pass interference call as time expired was bullshit.  A.J. Hawk went over the top on Sproles, didn’t interfere with him at all.

Stoopid ref.

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As for the speech itself?  I liked it, what I saw of it.  To be honest I was a wee bit tired, and missed the last 10 minutes or so of it.  The Pass my bill now thing sounded funny coming out of the Presidents mouth, made him sound like a used car salesman.  The only reason I won’t further make fun of that bit is that it seems the man has to hawk his wares to the American people. Sounds like a stimulus package.

And I have no problem with that.

We need it, and anyone arguing against a second stimulus had better bring better reasons than that weak ass “it’ll grow government” bullshit.  Government has to grow to meet the needs of the people, government that shrinks cannot serve the people it is meant to serve.  And if government cannot meet it’s main objective of service to the people, one of two things are wrong.  Either the government is serving the people in the wrong way, or the people are wrong in their thoughts on what government can and/or should do.  Both can and do happen.

Stimulus, which will do much to cure what ails this fine nation, has me thinking that opponents of it belong in the second category.  But that’s just me.

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Read a funny thing about Mitch McConnell, the chinless one.  He said this speech “isn’t a jobs speech, it’s a re-election plan.’

A few things.

First off Mitch, when the speech references jobs, has job creation as it’s main point,  and puts ½ a billion dollars out there to create jobs, then that would make it a JOBS SPEECH.

Stooopid Mitch.

Second, we Americans understand why you think that., because you, Mitch,  have stated that you’re agenda is to make sure the President doesn’t get a second term.  Therefore, anything that would increase his chances of getting re-elected would look like a re-election plan, because it makes it harder for you to meet your goal, which is a one term presidency for Barack Obama.

But Mitchy-Poo doesn’t get that, he has an agenda, and that agenda has nothing to do with the betterment of the American people.  If it did, you’d hear more constructive dialogue about jobs from him.

…And ya know, even if it IS nothing more than a re-election plan, If it helps me get a full time permanent job, I’m all for it.   A re-election plan that gets me a job is one I can get behind.  I’m pretty sure a lot of other people feel much the same way.

Nothing wrong with making money, and if the prez gets people working again, then all else is moot, it doesn’t matter.

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That’s it for me, America. G’night

Head To Head

       First up, a speech. 

    Next up, the question and answer session.

    Now for those of you who don’t know, and that would be all of you, I’ve been busy all day and have not yet had a chance to watch all of this, so I’ll be watching this in it’s entirety in a few minutes… I have the speech running in the background as we speak.  I might toss out some commentary tomorrow on this…and I might not.  We’ll see.  What I have heard about this is that the President did really well out there, and the republicans really had problems making their points stick.  I have heard about five or six complete different pieces of commentary, back and forth, and not once did the Republicans make any charges stick.

    What I have seen shows me that the man is very much on the offensive.  If you are a democrat, this is good news. 

     I have seen a funny take on this story, and a serious actual non partisan look at the event.  But there are probably a thousand different stories about it with as many types of spin on it as there could be.   Find them on google news or whatever news site you get your news from.  But do me a favor, check at least one site you normally do not go to.  I am enjoying the MSNBC television coverage, but I am also checking out the CBS blog coverage, Voice of America, and the Baltimore sun’s coverage. 

   I am gonna go give this a listen.    Catch ya later!  Might toss a second post out later tonight.  This was a pretty big news day.

Today’s nuggets, by George Washington, via wikiquote:  When one side only of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it insensibly.

One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings, which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those, who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.

It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government.

State of The Union

     Just a few viddys in this installment.  All from tonight’s State of the Union.   With maybe a few words about each clip.  All clips from the CBS channel on Youtube.

    Part 1:  An end to don’t ask don’t tell.  This came as something of a surprise, at least as far as this particular speech was concerned.  And it is a happy thing indeed.  I don’t care about what people do with their d*cks and p*ssies.  So long as they do their job when they have to, it doesn’t make a difference to me.  So it’s good to see that the president will use as the criteria for our fighting forces a persons ability to do the job rather than some weak artiface that plays to the prejudices of one segment of the population.  Nice.

    

    Part 2:  The president lit into the obstructionist Republican agenda with ferocity.  Good on him,  He also lit into democrats for giving up too easily.  I especially liked what I saw as an allusion to Sen. DeMint previously holding up the confirmation of Erroll Southers for head of the TSA.    Facing down the malice in politics in Washington was the right thing to do.  It does make for greater distrust of government.  Favorite line here, speaking to the Republicans”…the responsibility to govern is now yours as well.  Just saying no may be good short term politics, but it’s not leadership.”

    Go get’em Mr. President.

    USA.  USA. USA.

   Damn right. One helluva speech.  Things are looking up.  And no, Mr. President, we don’t quit. 

   And I didn’t even talk about the talk about taxes on banks, or tax cuts, or his jobs creation program, or half a dozen other things either.  More because those viddies are not yet available than anything. 

Today’s nuggets, via wikiquote:  All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason. It is vain to hurry it. By trusting it to the end it shall ripen into truth, and you shall know why you believe.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Superior leaders get things done with very little motion. They impart instruction not through many words, but through a few deeds. They keep informed about everything but interfere hardly at all. They are catalysts, and though things would not get done as well if they were not there, when they succeed they take no credit. And, because they take no credit, credit never leaves them.   Lao Tzu

Anagram: A Basic Understanding/ Cunning Bastards Idea

      Been reading that damned evil book again.  That “Communist Manifesto”.  And dammit the thing makes sense.  Mind you it makes sense in a  “I’M MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE” type of way, ya know, Kinda Glenn Beckish, but it has an intellectual feel to it that Beck lacks. 

     It’s a nice bath-time read,  But when I bought this book, I also bought a few others, and I haven’t gotten to them yet.  Also picked up John Stuart Mill’s ” On Liberty”, Active Liberty by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and Heart of Darkness by Robert Conrad.  I don’t know which one I’m gonna read tomorrow when I’m soaking my legs in ice water, but I think I’m done with Karl Marx for the short term. It’s a good read and I like the way the man thinks…

   …Socialist bastard that I am.  🙂  

     And to be slightly more …serious isn’t quite the right word, down to business I guess, let’s talk about our fearless leader, Comrad…Our President and the speech he’s going to give tomorrow to the school children of our nation. That’s nice.

    The President to date has shown himself, if anything, to be somewhat middle of the road politically, but the idiots on the right, in an attempt to keep the meme running, keep calling the man a socialist and keep throwing all the cold war style propaganda at him, this time saying he’s a socialist who is trying to indoctrinate your children. 

    Please, Comrade.  Throwing shit is for monkeys, not for humans.  It makes you idiots on the right look like untrained animals, and you end up with shit all over your hands.  The President is going to be talking at the beginning of the school year to children and teachers about responsibility and learning and setting standards and the importance of education.  Here’s a snippet of the speech, which, as scheduled, was released to the press today.      

I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future. That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

       Now, you tell me exactly how socialist that sounds. Exactly, Not at all. You could well imagine that other great communist American dictator Ronald Reagan, making much the same speech.  Well not really, he didn’t give a shit about anyone who wasn’t white and wealthy. 

    There is one thing that troubles me about the speech though, as well as the President handling of the entire health care legislation debacle.  The perception of it and how it has affected the Presidents approach to it.  He seems overly apologetic, almost like he feels the need to apologize for being in power.  THAT is a major mistake.  WE THE PEOPLE put him there.  He has no need to do anything but be confident in his capacity to do his job and get done what needs to be done. Despite the yammering from the limp wristed right, you have the will of the people behind you Mr. President.  Do your job.

     Republicans seem to think that waving the flag and calling the opposition names somehow equates with political discourse. The President currently in power is nowhere near the oligarch that Dubya was.  Waving the Flag and saying you love America and hate what is happening to it doesn’t show that you love America. It shows that you are annoyed and angry that you are out of power and that you can’t shove your Plutocratic agenda down America’s throat anymore.   That agenda put us in the bind we are in now.  Our economy is in dire straits and it’s the fault of the Right, and frankly I don’t think they can handle that. And THAT is the real reason all the bitching is out there on the right, Mister President.

     Ignore them Mister President, they’ll go away on their own, if you just let them.

     That’s it for me except a second viddy, with Tom Daschle.  The point you want to watch for is the statement that Tom makes beginning at the 2:21 point.  There’s a number you need to focus on. That $35,000,000,000,000 makes the number the Republicans and the right are focusing on look minuscule in comparison.  Health care is a black hole that will suck all the money out of this country if we aren’t careful.  That a trillion dollars is a relatively SMALL number in comparison to the total cost of health care over the next decade should be all we need to hear to get us off of our asses, stop the name calling, and get this fixed.

   Dasvidaniya!

Today’s Nuggets, Via Wikiquote:  Dynastic wealth, the enemy of a meritocracy, is on the rise. Equality of opportunity has been on the decline. A progressive and meaningful estate tax is needed to curb the movement of a democracy toward plutocracy.  Warren Buffet

God forbid that the day should ever come when, in the American mind, the thought of man as a “consumer” shall submerge the old American thought of man as a creature of God, endowed with “unalienable rights.  Benjamin Harrison

I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.  Thomas Jefferson