No Clydesdales?

The Super Bowl without the Clydesdales would be like...like...well, Budweiser without beer!

It was but a blip on the news yesterday but I did catch the part where you had to let Anheuser-Busch know if you objected. So ever diligent sleuth about all things important I cozied up with Google this morning to see what I could find.

Sure enough. The plan had been to scrap the Clydesdale ads in favor of edgier stuff. This is one instance media reporting did some good. The response from the announcement drew so many negative responses they've put up a Facebook page where you can vote for the spot they eliminated or two competing spots.

I would usually not join a 'fan' page for a one time participation but I really felt strongly about this!

I'm pretty ambivalent about the game itself this year. I'd like to see the Saints win because of their story, yet I really like Peyton Manning. It's a push. Maybe I'm leaning toward the Saints because the NFL is being stupid by making a fuss about the Who Dat slogan being their property. It shouldn't be nor should vendors trying to make a buck be intimidated by the NFL lawyers with cease and desist orders for making garments in the Saint's black and gold sporting the slogan. Sheesh. Get a life guys!

When I heard about the now foreign owned Anheuser Busch folks being just as stupid, I had to act. I joined. I voted. I expect "Fenced" will win.

The Clydesdale ad came in second last year. So what? Some things should just not be changed. The Clydesdale Super Bowl ads being one. If you feel as I do click the Facebook link and vote. There's enough edgy stuff out there already. Leave good old Americana tradition alone. It's bad enough Anheuser-Busch is no longer a part of it.

The Joy Of Reading Is Changing

It probably started with the ancients drawing a line in the sand to warn against crossing some unwritten admonishment. It then advanced to petroglyphs telling of how lives were lived, legends, histories. Then came variations on paper and pen. Books. Newspapers. Now the Kindle and most recently the iPad.

Actually, a version of the iPad has been around in the imaginations of science fiction writers for some time. just watch old episodes of Deep Space Nine and others of it's ilk. From what do they read? A version of a hand held computer.

This morphing into the age of technology isn't comfortable for this old creature of habit. Just in the past few years, as newspapers have taken their hits, my reading habits have changed and not for the better. It's becoming another thing on my 'to do' list rather than a few moments of wonderful down time.

Not so long ago we had a full pot of coffee every morning, settled into our respective arm chairs, propped our feet up on our foot stools to provide ample lap space for papers and dug in. No more. Full pots are now reserved for week ends. Judging from this morning it won't be long until it becomes Sunday only. Monday is barely worth dirtying the pot unless we decide to read page after page of AP wire stories and the legal notices. What a sorry state for the once noble pursuit of keeping informed!

The hype tells us the iPad is the future of how we're going to get our news. Well, the computer, because that's what it is. Paying for content is controversial at the moment but no matter where we go to read, we have to pay. Whether it's a purchased book, newspaper or magazine subscription, or the electric bill for running your computer. My objection is having to pay for content on line for a paper to which I also subscribe, especially if the on line content is free but you have to pay to access it's archives. I'm sure there will be legislation dealing with this on down the line. There is legislation pending on nearly everything these days and little to our advantage. Especially in Obamaworld where the government wants to stick it's financial finger into everything.

There is a downside to all of this. I foresee a downward spiral of those who actually enjoy reading, not to mention those who write. Books. Curling up with your Kindle or iPad just isn't like curling up with a good book. Period. So, there go book sales and publishing houses and paper manufacturers and printers, etc. You get the idea. Consider the decrease in coffee sales for those newspaper readers. Okay. The price of coffee is out of sight anyway, but a paper without coffee? Nah.

Maybe even wine sales? How many sip a glass of wine while they savor the story of the latest best seller?

Ah, times, they are a changing! Pretty soon the only thing tangible left to read will be 5000 page bills coming out of Congress. The irony is it's because they aren't savvy enough to get said bills online in a timely manner. Personally I think that's more by design than lack of technical skill, but if it is the latter, what does it say about them?

Will I invest in an iPad or some similar device? Maybe. But not for awhile yet. I still enjoy that morning pot of coffee even if I do no more than stare out the window at the approaching morning.

Some things cannot be taken away by technology. Mornings are one of them. For that I am grateful.

Through A Looking Glass, Darkly

I have often lamented that one reason we don't get better people running for public office is because of the invasive scrutiny to which candidates and their families are subject. Granted, more who hold high office are not tainted by scandal than those who are (I think), but those who are tend to be doozies!

A headline on Drudge pointed to the efforts by John Edwards former(?) mistress's attempts to quash the release of a 'personal video', ie:, sex tape. It goes to show all that intense scrutiny isn't enough or is it we usually don't pay enough attention?

When compared to sex scandals among the privileged and ruling classes of other countries, our randy politicians look like pikers. Liaisons with ladies of the night or 'soul mates' in Argentina or educating interns. Eh. It's happened so many times before. It will happen again. We have such a huge capacity for forgiveness.

Then there is John Edwards. The gift that keeps on giving. Hub and I have been contemplating whether he was driven to his indiscretion by a domineering wife using her illness as a foil. That's how cynics think. Not that we are in any way giving him a pass!

Yet here is a man who could have been President! He was a Vice Presidential nominee then a candidate with a wife knowing of his dalliances. We know that with political egos these are not uncommon happenings but had he been elected what kind of leader would he have been? What would his mistress have decided to do and what would his wife have done? I'd say there are some character issues with the lot of them. Sure, the same goes for Bill and Hillary and so many others on the state level it's enough to boggle your prurient sensitivities!

Yet I look at President Obama. Right now he is being pilloried for not keeping campaign promises as if he had committed the most egregious of mortal sins. Okay. He's hasn't proven to have the leadership capabilities I had hoped for or expected. To date, however, he is still a decent man who is a good father and husband. I think. With his ethereal 'big picture' persona he might be better off in a think tank than as President, but job capabilities aside, he is still a decent man. As was his predecessor.

Now I may be dead wrong about all of this. Just because headlines haven't been made doesn't mean there isn't smoke soldering somewhere. Let's say there isn't for the sake of the point. I'd rather live with his protocol faux pas than suffer seeing Presidential indiscriminate behavior all over the tabloids one more time.

Sex tape? Please! While running for President? We dodged the 'good judgement' bullet with this guy. Maybe instead of toning down that scrutiny we ought to ratchet it up and include the enablers! The spouses who know. The lovers. And those loyalists who turn a blind eye.

State Of The Union - Did You Hear What I Heard?

I didn't hear much. I heard absolutely nothing about the actual state of the union. I did hear a lot of 'I's and 'me's and condescension toward those of us who just don't get it.

Actually, I think I do get it. This next year is to be business as usual. The main topic may be jobs rather than health care reform but the tactics look like they'll continue unchanged. Ho hum.

The Democrats, especially the far left in the persona of Pelosi, have apparently not heard the people! What haven't they heard? We are not in favor of health care reform as it stands. Doing an end around will not change that. We're not in favor of cap and trade. We're skeptical about the facts behind and therefore the need for radical climate change as proposed. To simplify it, the American public does not like the direction nor the rate of change the administration and Democratic Congress are trying to take the country.

Much has been made of Scott Brown's election to the Senate. When you look at him along with the governors of Virginia and New Jersey it's hard to miss that they ran against the administration's policies. And won. Why does Congress and the President not understand this? Deep down I think they they do. But the current mind set is they know best, they've got the power and that's the way it is.

The Republicans aren't helping matters any. Those of the tea bag mind set that are threatening to run their own candidate if the Republican is too moderate will defeat their own purpose. We moderates, though having made some inroads, are the ones being squeezed out. Where does one go? There is inter party warfare on both sides of the aisle and the fall out from last night's speech indicates there is little chance of change.

What I'd really like to see happen is what each claim they want. Talk to each other. Compromise. Neither ideology will ever be totally satisfied; a middle ground must be found or we'll be doomed with ineffectual government and and an increasingly bitter and frustrated population.

When I see that some Mayo Clinics are turning out their medicare patients because medicare reimbursements no longer cover the cost of care, it scares me. Where are those people to go. Will I be next? Yet cutting medicare reimbursements is still on the table. Is anyone paying attention?

The President, with all his eloquence, gave a speech filled with contradictions. Cut spending here; raise spending there. I wondered at times if he even reviewed it before giving it.

One thing is blatantly obvious. We have a dysfunctional administration and Congress. No one escapes blame for the mess we're in; not even us. We put them in office. We're doing better at holding their feet to the fire but for the moment we're the ones getting burned!

History - Fact Or Fiction?

We've all heard of revisionist history; we all know that Iran's President Ahmedinejad denies the Holocaust ever happened. We know that people without sufficient background for the task are often asked to approve or disapprove books our children have access to in schools. One off none of this may seem important but, you know, I believe it is.

When people with agendas begin meddling in what can and cannot be taught, history gets skewed. What do we know of it unless we've actually lived it? Hearsay. It goes back as far as the written word. The Bible in all it's incarnations. Parables confused with fact. Or not so confused if one has an agenda other than teaching or learning.

The disturbing thing is how manipulation is being used to this day. A controversy is ongoing in Texas right now regarding what should and should not be included in their social studies curriculum. When I think about it I couldn't begin to tell you what my 11 and 13 year old nieces believe to be history. I would be willing to wager it's not quite the same as what I was taught.

Here are a few of the recommendations from Texas as reported on the texasinsider.org site.

1st grade: In the section on holidays it removes Veterans' Day and Independence Day. The 4th of July? On customs it removes the anthems and motto's of Texas and the U.S. and from patriotic symbols it removes the Liberty Bell.

3rd grade: Removes a children's biography of Stephen F. Austin.

High school: Removes John Locke's Two Treatises of Government and English common law and changes the phrase "Free enterprise system" to "capitalist system".

Presidents Roosevelt and Eisenhower were referred to as "dead white guys" in discussions on phasing them out and not adding any more.

Needless to say there has been tremendous push back on these recommendations. Thank heavens. But I can see where such could pass virtually unnoticed in the not too distant future. What with the blurring of reality in movie embodiments of history, writers, actors, producers lending their own slant and photo shop altering any and everything, perhaps one day we will have no history at all. Existence will be nothing more than an epic work of fiction. Reality will be but for a fleeting moment.

So. As Bob Schrum said about Obama today in a conversation with Andrea Mitchell, he needs to stand before us and tell us just who he is. Why? It will all be altered anyway. There will be no truth.

Will the real Davy Crockett please stand up? Did he even exist?