Somebody please tell me which was the real “Presidents Day”? There’s Washington’s and Lincoln’s to whom we used to give a nod teach Feb. 12 and 22. Maybe no others were born in this month of the most “r’s” and the most oysters. Truth be told, some years we’re big on those two guys, some […]
Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Looking Presidential
February 26, 2010Saving the World One Disaster at a Time
February 19, 2010Earthquake in Haiti and American foreign policy This is U.S. foreign policy: help those who try to do us in; and ignore our neighbors, especially the poor ones haplessly within our nearest spheres of influence. We know what happened with our foes in World War II: one was a repeat from War I as well. […]
A Message to Brown
January 30, 2010A MESSAGE TO BROWN (Scott Brown’s stunning upset in the Massachusetts special election to replace the late Ted Kennedy sent shock waves throughout that state and the Democratic establishment in early 2010) Deal with it. Martha learned her lesson in sudden, stunning fashion. And Scott will surely learn his. He’s the beneficiary, for now, of […]
Two Walls Not to Like
November 21, 2009The Wall on the U.S. southern border is a barrier of shame. I think of Robert Frost’s timeless line, “Something there is that doesn’t like a wall.” We hated the Berlin Wall throughout its some 25 years of miserable existence and joined the recent anniversary celebration of its collapse. Some people still imagine that Reagan’s […]
Send Lady Liberty Back to France
September 26, 2009During Obama’s struggle to bring about health care reform, fall of ‘09 brought, on the heels of ugly Town Hall meetings across the U.S., a new low in Congressional behavior from Joe Wilson of South Carolina and indications that our “nation of immigrants” no longer tolerates its own kind anymore. This begs the question: why […]
Goodbye to Town Hall Meetings from Hell
September 19, 2009The summer of ‘09 was one of more than a little discontent. Americans began to behave badly in a frenzy of misplaced anger at those not necessarily at fault for their unhappiness. But who cared? It was not a time for making nice–nor would it be, for months to come. Okay, the politically unwashed of […]
Teddy and Daniel
September 12, 2009The death of Ted Kennedy occasions reflections on him and Daniel Webster Ted Kennedy’s death closes a great circle but makes us ponder circumstances. Little more than a half-century ago, the name Kennedy was hardly in the mix of national conversation, before we witnessed the saga of an extraordinary family that changed history and now […]
Listening to Pravda
June 20, 2009Spring and summer of 2009 found the adoption of a new hero by right-wingers–none other than a Russian blogger who was not from the “Pravda” they assumed, nor was he of the importance they were led to believe, but a legend only in his–and their–minds. Desperate for new mud to sling, right wingers the nation […]
Greed is a Terrible Thing
February 28, 2009Freshly in office, president Obama told it like it is: Wall Street is a den of shamelessness. It’s a miracle!–and refreshing to hear from someone in authority, considering we low-lives get nowhere with our protestations. Knock on legislators’ doors and they’re always gone to lunch: nobody talking, nobody listening, as far as they’re concerned–and so […]
Rush to Judgment
February 7, 2009When radio commentator Rush Limbaugh said, in early 2009,that he hoped Obama “fails,” it set off a storm of criticism across America, along with staunch defense from his “dittoheads” (As a news column, these comments were reprinted through much of the U.S. during February of that year) When a certain Limbaugh said of president Obama, […]
Ichabod's Kin 