The Hypocrisy Of It All

Ron Fournier wrote an interesting piece in the National Journal wondering if we're seeing the beginning of the end of Washington as we know it. His thought is that the Millennials will get to the point that I have; they'll be so disgusted with government as it is they'll take the bull by the horns and change it.

The Millennials and a whole lot of we old timers feel much the same way.  We've gone from dysfunctional to non-functional and everyone shares a piece of the blame. Take Michele Bachmann telling Greta last night that Congress deserves the subsidies! And I read today where John Boehner spent weeks trying to cook up language with Harry Reid to make them possible without drawing much attention. Fortunately for Boehner the President took care of it for him.  What hypocrites!

So what do we have here?  Five parties, maybe six?  On the Democratic side we have the progressives and the moderates, such as they are.  On the Republican side we have the conservatives, the tea party conservatives, the social conservatives and the moderates, such as they are.

Throw into the mix the independents that tend to be a combination of the parts with a dash of Libertarian thrown in for the heck of it.

So there is no cohesive group in either party.  Plus, they've all become little more than self righteous name callers no matter how much they try to tell us its all for us.

What's needed is an outsider and that just may be the old thorn in the side, Chris Christy.  He has his own ideas on how to fix the disconnect in Washington.  If it sounds familiar it's because it's how it used to work and how it's supposed to work. He'd call leadership into a room and not let them out until the problem was solved - with him leading the discussion.  Not dictating; leading.

He also suggested he'd make off limits the places congressional members rush to after confrontations to lambaste one another.  No media until a real meeting has been held producing real results.  That would be a shock to all sides and a refreshing change for those of us who listen to them.

I hope the Millennials do get angry enough to motivate themselves.  Even though Christie is a bit older, maybe his approach would be one they'd like.  To them it may seem to be reinventing government.  To those of my generation it may seem more like returning to our roots.  I can live with either.

What I can't live with is what we have now.

There's Something Fundamentally Wrong

The Greatest Obstructionist

There is something fundamentally wrong when Congress can approve legislation without first having read it.

There is something fundamentally wrong when it passes that legislation with the support of only one party and one house.

There is something fundamentally wrong when the minority of a party totally disregards the opinions of the majority and holds them hostage to a singular way of thinking.

There is something fundamentally wrong with leadership who cannot or will not lead.  If it costs a career in politics so be it.  There are others. Do it for the country who elected them and in which they too live.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a government that exempts itself from the laws forced upon its people.

There is something fundamentally wrong when neither party is willing to negotiate in good faith.

There is something fundamentally wrong when the Senate majority leader single handedly can prevent legislation from going to the floor for debate.  It's not his government; it's ours.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a President who will negotiate with know terrorist states for dubious ends yet will not negotiate with the opposition party. He is a mere mortal, not God nor King.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a President is so enamoured by his own ego and self-righteous sense that rather than lead a debate opts to do nothing.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a people who allow themselves to be run roughshod over because they are too apathetic to become informed.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a people who elect the people who do this to them what's more allow them to remain in office.

I am so thoroughly disgusted with government as a whole I put a Dogwalk pox on it's entirety.

The Romneys ~ The Barbie And Ken Of Politics

I think back to the campaign and how perfectly pressed Mitt was be it the creases in his jeans or his white tie and tails.  Ann, too, always perfectly wardrobed right down to her equestrian garb.  Barbi and Ken.  The great hope of the Republican party.

Where have they been?  I am aware of a couple of perfunctory interviews after the loss, but since then not so much.  Until yesterday.  I saw an add for Ann's new cook book.  Cook book. How absolutely Americana.  How Barbie and Ken.

Then this morning I saw the first comments I've seen in ages from Mitt. In his usually nuanced manner he declared the Republican strategy for eliminating Obamacare would not be effective.  No argument there but where were the suggestions from the former candidate that might suggest we were wrong in not electing him?

He credited Joe Manchin's idea of delaying the implementation for a year. It has some merit but Obama has already nixed the very thought of it.  Or, Mitt went on, work hard to get Republicans elected to the House and Senate so they could do it in the traditional way.

He has been missing in action.  There is nothing traditional in the way the government is doing business, if they even are, these days.  Nor do I expect to see it return to traditional practices any time soon.  It's rough and tumble and the most clever win.  It has become a reality show airing in real time showing how our elected officials work and play. I'd rather it be a non-reality show but it's not.  I'd rather the squeaky wheels that gain the most attention were getting it for substance rather than drama but what we see is the new reality.  Watch it and weep.

Voters didn't think Mitt related to the world they live in during the campaign. I'm not sure that's true but visuals being everything these days, he was far too comfortable in that white tie and tails. Too Ken.

Ann too was too Barbie.  All those wonderful outfits, homes, cars and locations all paid for by dreamers.  In Barbies world it was parents making their little girls happy.  In our world it was a reflection of a world most will never know. A world they both understood and one most of us don't. Knowing that aspiring to it was unlikely to become reality we denigrated it and turned to one who drops his "g's" thereby relating to us.  Comfort zone.  Vote for him.

I don't know what Ken did for a living in the world of toy perfection.  I do know what Mitt did and I know that in his own plastic way he'd have been better than the illusion of leadership we have today.  

A Man Of God Says It All

With the entire administration, including the President, having reduced themselves to little more than infantile, name calling hellions leave it to a man of God, the Senate Chaplin, to state it correctly.  "Lord, deliver us from governing by crisis."

This is one time you really want to understand church and state is different from God and state.  Being a mostly Christian nation we invoke that notion in nearly everything, thus Barry Black is the Senate Chaplin who spoke volumes in his opening prayer this morning. He brought the point of the current exercise in bad behavior home, focusing on how Congress is supposed to function rather than how they are by using drama and sound bite governance rather than 'judicious compromise'.

Chaplin Berry's offering:

Keep us from shackling ourselves with the chains of dysfunction. Use our senators today to serve your purposes for this generation, making them ever mindful of their accountability to you. Lord, deliver us from governing by crisis, empowering us to be responsible stewards of your bounty. Using judicious compromise for the mutual progress of all. Provide this land we love with your gracious protection and may we never cease to be grateful for the numberless blessings we receive each day from your hands. We pray, in your merciful name, Amen."

Where he goes astray is asking the Senate to be responsible stewards of God's bounty without including we the people.  After all the Senate as well as the House are beholden to us for all that they have.  I'm sure the good Chaplin would be happy to remind them that what the Lord giveth He can taketh away.

They'd be wise to remember that we the people can do the same.

Banned Books Week

Parents challenging schools and books for required reading is nothing new.  It happens here quite a bit and sometimes the parental opinion is based on an online review, not the actual reading of a book.  Rather like when my generation would turn in a book report based on a Classic Comic rather than the actual book.

Never, however, did I expect to see a week designated as Banned Books Week.  But yes.  There is one and it's an annual event sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association and the PEN Center, among other similar associations.  It is designed to draw attention to banned books.  It is marketing the written word in a most unconventional manner.

If it gets people to buy books and read them I guess it isn't all bad.  It seems a shame there is a need for it but then it's a shame some feel a need to ban a book in the first place.

Over the years some of the great classics have fallen prey to zealous critics.  Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn often make the lists.  Little Red Riding Hood because  she was carrying wine as one of the refreshments in her picnic basket.

The Diary of A Young Girl  by Anne Frank because it is a real 'downer'. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz because it described witches, at least some of them, as good. From Grimm's Fairy Tales the story of Snow White because she almost gets killed by a corset and Cinderella because her step sisters cut off parts of their own feet.  Grimm indeed.

For the older set there's The Grapes of Wrath because some thought fictional residents of a real county weren't flattering. Gone With The Wind for Scarlett's immoral behavior and Fahrenheit 451 for the use of an expletive considered blasphemous.

My what starched and proper lives those who would ban books must live.  Without a touch of reality. And they wish to impose it on others not quite so saintly.

Perhaps the most ludicrous of all is the dictionary.  Yep.  Because it has all the words in it including (gasp) sexual definitions! Well, someone had to read it to know that.  My guess is that the 'definition of' is as close to sex as many have ever gotten!  I do wonder, though, how they justified having kids.

The one book I didn't find on the lists is the Bible.  Heck, it has it all of the above under one cover!  I don't imagine the booksellers would be too keen on that if the word gets out.