Life In A Bubble

I know our President has a great deal of contempt for those who don't agree with him, but I'm thinking he's really living in a bubble he himself blew.  Mostly full of air that's getting hotter.

I realize his words at a fundraiser last night in New York were geared toward his audience, but really.  He wants to take the spirit of togetherness shown in the recent tragedies in Boston and West, Texas to shape his governance for the next three and a half years.

To pass his agenda of course. In his own words he had hoped his winning would break the Republican "fever" that has resulted in the hyper partisanship engulfing the country.  It wouldn't, of course have anything to do with a very unpopular health care overhaul, Benghazi, the AP debacle and the IRS vendetta against conservative organizations, over regulation, crushing debt and an intolerance for any other opinion than his own.

Funny, it's his administration that is approaching the pinnacle of a perfect storm of governmental incompetence and sleaziness, yet it's the Republicans that have the fever.  Okay.  Maybe they are sick.  Sick of his administration and hopefully their own weaknesses.  Heck, even the media is beginning to come around.  Where there's life there's hope.

I find his analogy to be patronizing and sorely out of touch.  He goes so far as to say the reason more reasonable Republicans are reluctant to work with him is because they're worried about what Rush Limbaugh will say about them.  Is he serious?

Granted Mr. Limbaugh talks a lot and sometimes actually says something.  He often gets things wrong too.  And he no longer has the power of persuasion he once did.  He certainly isn't responsible for the gridlock we face on a day to day basis.  Nope.  The President and Congress need look no further than one another.  Forget the pundits.  The more they talk the more you realize they don't get it either.

The question is, does anyone?  Or are we all living in our own little bubbles hearing and seeing only what we want.  Including the President. Including Congress.  All of us.

What happens when bubbles burst? A whole lot of little bubbles form and go off which ever way the wind blows. Does that accomplish anything other than each of our bubbles replicating themselves? That's a lot of bubbles!

What we need is someone on the outside looking in, other than our adversaries, to throw salt on all the bubbles to eliminate them.   Then maybe the President, Congress and the rest of us could come together in the spirit of a crisis resolved. But then I wouldn't want to Rush to judgement.

If At First You Don't Succeed

Every time justice prevails I cheer.  Just as the guilty of murder verdict for abortion monster Kermit Gosnell.  Too often justice does not prevail. When it doesn't I sometimes blame the attorneys and judges more than the defendants.  I think the prosecuting attorney may have come close to losing the Jody Arius case because of his grandstanding except for the fact she is a totally dislikeable person.

Back when O.J. Simpson was on trial for the murder of his ex-wife and her  friend, the prosecution was inept, the defense was flashy, the Judge loved the attention and O.J. was a popular sports hero from his football days.

I don't think anyone thought he was innocent and I don't to this day.  Instead of living up to his promise to search for the real murderer every day of his remaining life, he retired to the golf course with those who still thought he was worth hanging on to and were willing to fund him.

They weren't always the most desirable companions he could have chosen and he ended up getting arrested and convicted on charges of kidnapping and robbery.  He didn't fare well in jail.  He even got beaten to a pulp by a skinhead inmate after hearing him bragging about his sexual prowess with white women.  No one ever accused him of being smart.  Ego can do that to a person.

Now he's back in court with a new legal team in an attempt to get a new trial.  His new attorney claims his former attorney gave him ineffective counsel.  I can understand why Simpson thinks so, that's for sure.  But having paid some $700,000 to said attorney you'd like to think he at least tried though he was a bit on the shady side himself.

When I saw O.J. entering the courtroom on the news I literally gasped.  He may have had some less than pleasant run ins with fellow inmates but he seems to be eating well.  And enjoying having people other than inmates paying attention to him.

Will he get his new trial?  Who knows.  The first witness for the defense is slated to be a psychiatrist.  You can see it coming, right?  Yep.  Diminished capacity of some sort from prior brain injuries from playing football.  He has a whole league of players with concussions to thank for his attorney coming up with this new strategy.

Oh, yeah, in case that doesn't work there's the point he had several vodka/cranberry juice cocktails before the kerfuffle.  They may have further impaired his already shakey judgement. Hey, what ever works!

Evil Incarnate

Have you ever felt like the world was imploding around you?  I sometimes wonder.  We've had our share of evil bubbling to the surface of late.  Fortunately at least some of it gets it's due.

It goes to show, too, evil isn't always connected to gun crimes though, to a degree, Jody Arius is. It was minor, perhaps, considering the 30 stab wounds and slit throat that went along with the bullet in the head.

Look at what has been happening most recently.  We have the Tsarnaev brothers of Boston Marathon infamy.  One has met his maker.  We'll see after what will be a long, protracted process, what happens to the other.  Meanwhile the survivors will get on with their lives as best they can.

Then we have the jury still deliberating over Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor.  The stories that have come out of that trial make me sick, literally, sick.  One can hope the jury seeks the proper degree of justice for his heinous actions.

On top of all that we have three young women liberated from more than ten years of horror at the hand of Ariel Castro, a sexual sadist beyond imagination.  How will they ever put it behind them?

It would seem men aren't the only monsters who have either gotten away with murder or expected to.  In my mind the jury got it wrong with both Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony.  What combination of mind altering substances brings about behavior such as theirs?

Then there is Jody.  What kind of woman texts a reporter to set up an interview while waiting for her verdict to be read?  Woman heck.  Person.  Period. She's slick, that one.  Her demeanor was as cold as ice.  I'd have been a raving maniac had I just received a guilty verdict to first degree murder as would the people I know.

I've known a person like her though.  Fortunately, as far as I know, that person didn't vent rage as Jody did.  But the manipulation was there.  Cold, calculating, frightening.  There can be something about people like Jody that causes others to not only be drawn to them but also bound to them.  It can become a love hate relationship where you end up despising yourself for your weakness yet not being able to disentangle yourself from the relationship.

I was lucky.  I finally had the opportunity to walk away from it.  I didn't walk, I ran. At times I still find myself looking over my shoulder what's more eyeing every person I meet with a degree of caution.  It's a reason why I'm leery of Facebook among other things. I don't let very many get very close.

It's not the best way to go through life, but proceeding with caution is preferable to suffering the fate of a Travis Alexander.

The news about these people reminds us evil abounds in any manner of guises.  I'm glad I lead a quiet and relatively inconspicuous life.  It makes the five acres I'm about to mow and my nondescript song birds look like heaven - without having to die to enjoy it!

Celebrity And Politics Don't Mix

One thing I took from the Benghazi hearings is that Hillary Clinton wasn't paying necessary attention to her job. Oh, sure, she racked up more air miles than any of her predecessors but what did she actually accomplish?

 Just as bad if not worse seems to be that the President didn't much care.  While the men in Benghazi were fighting for their lives he was in bed.

Then came the ludicrous story about the You Tube video which both the President and Hillary claimed as the reason for the attacks.  According to the witnesses at yesterday's hearings, both knew better.  In essence they lied to the American people but since neither was under oath, so be it.

Now you can argue that the witnesses were no more than mal contents.  Many of you will, especially those of you who feel the President and Hillary can do no wrong.  I disagree.

Both, I believe, have achieved their status due to celebrity, not ability. The voters seem to be content with it.  Consider everyone who has the slightest possibility of running for higher office in 2014 or 16 is working on their own celebrity status.  It amazes me how we embrace celebrity.

Look at Mark Sanford regaining his old House seat.  An adulterer and a liar.  Anthony wanting to run for Mayor of New York.  I'm not sure exactly how one categorizes a man who tweets photos of his underwear covered privates other than shameless.  I have other words for it, but I doubt anyone cares.

Back to the ones who have already achieved high office.  The compliant media ignored the Benghazi story as much as they could to  successfully protect Obama during the election season. Now they are doing the same in anticipation of Hillary's run.

There are just too many verifiable reports of intimidation, too many rewrites, too much righteous indignation for me to believe these witnesses are lying.  Their careers have already been altered. What is left for them to gain?

Will Hillary succeed in fooling some of the people all of the time?  I expect so.  I just hope she and her machine don't succeed in fooling all of the people.  When you listen to former diplomats and military personnel who have actually participated in government tell what could and should have been it becomes apparent what happens when you have celebrity rather than experience at the helm.

When the Secretary of Defense states the forces who were trained and exist to combat situations like Benghazi couldn't be put in harms way I wonder what they are supposed to do. When the Secretary of State asks "What difference does it make now" I wonder why she doesn't understand it makes every bit as much difference as it did the day it happened.

Who do I want to answer the phone at 3:00 a.m.  The people didn't want Hillary last go 'round.  I hope they don't want her this time either because she likely won't.  They wanted Obama.  They got him and he didn't.

I want someone who cares more about their country than themselves.  Unfortunately they seem to be in short supply in both parties.

Dumbing Down Vocabulary

I need some help.  I don't remember exactly when this phenomenon first began but I know it has irritated me for some time.  When did "bust" or "busted" replace broken, break, apprehended, arrested, etc.

When I hear a news anchor reading a serious piece then interject "busted" it's like fingernails on a blackboard to me.  Or is it chalk board these days.  Blackboard is probably politically incorrect.

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal there was an editorial about the over reaching of New York's crop of AGs.   I'm reading along about the current AG's attempt to... ""bust" up the class action law suit..."

Please!  I know government is  trying to redefine much of what is happening in the world.  We no longer have a war on terror.  And groups are overly sensitive to what "they", who ever "they" are, feel are racial slurs.  Like the Washington "Redskins".

When real American Indians come out en masse to complain about the name then I might listen.  Until then, go away.

Words used to be fun.  Slang used to be fun but now it always seems to be offensive to some one  some where therefore it must never more be used. I'm tempted to one day write a post using every politically incorrect word or phrase I can come up with.  The problem is there are so many it could turn into a book!

Bust certainly has it's place in the vernacular.  "Spring is bustin' out all over...",  California or bust,  I busted my chops and so on.  Times, however, when there are more appropriate words why are they no longer used?  Is it a fault of education?  Is it lazy writing?  Do the people who write the copy for news readers not know better?  Can't the news readers change it or don't they review their copy before going on air? Maybe they don't know better either.

As for print media, the fault must certainly be with the writer. I'd like to think an editor would change it. Then again, to do so might be offensive to the writer thus lowering his or her self esteem and we can't have that.

We'll just go on dumbing down the language until there are so few words for so many things, no one will have a clue what's being discussed.  We can barely read, "they" want to eliminate the teaching of cursive writing in many schools and now they want to make words so multidimensional they lose their magic, their charm, their poetry.

Face it, there is nothing even marginally appealing about the word bust in it's common usage today. It's a shame.  And a puzzlement.