The Great American Guilt Trip

We have all listened and laughed as comedians talk about the guilt that is trained into them by their Jewish or Catholic mothers, the Sisters who taught them in schools, or the preachers in their churches. It is very funny. But the latest guilt trip that is being inflicted is no joke. It is being done by the wealthy and the greedy of our nation and is being perpetrated on our senior citizens! Having been reared with the idea of self-sufficiency that is prevalent in American society, the aging person is acutely aware of the... Read article

A New Wind Blowing

The whole country is agog with the news of the Madoff Ponzi scheme and the billions he scammed from big investors, but nobody appears to realize that it is only the tip of a huge iceberg. There are other so-called legitimate institutions afloat in the private sector that are profiting from similar scams with the heartfelt approval of the raging capitalists in government as well as private individuals. Foremost among these are the insurance companies as they have become established in America. Even the government social programs... Read article

My Pastor Is Holier Than Yours

I am constantly amazed at the obscure details that politicians will dig up to cast aspersions upon the personal lives of their opponents in order to keep the people from looking at the issues. Lately we are being exposed to the “Preacher Scandal” where each candidate is expected to tell their pastor to just shut up! The good Rev. Wright is drawing fire, much of which is singeing Senator Barack Obama, because he is a prime example of what a black pastor is expected to be, an oratorical firebrand who inspires his... Read article

Debunking The Health Care Bugaboo

Right up there with the economy as an issue for the election is the the problem of health care for Americans. We know that some forty million Americans have no health insurance and those who do are faced with ever-rising deductibles, co-payments, and premium increases. The Presidential candidates all believe they have the answers that the voters will approve but most really are aware that their proposals simply will not work. In the meantime, people are dying from neglect. The President says that everyone has health care... Read article

“You Can’t Do Anything Unless You Try!”

In the many, (too many) gang interviews that are currently called debates by the mainstream media, the question is asked at each gathering, “What will you do on your first day in office?” The candidates of both parties will harangue and equivocate, one after another, but not one will reply with the answer that would gladden the heart of a real progressive, Constitution-loving citizen of the United States. Can’t you just imagine the roar of approval if any one of the prospective Presidents would give the... Read article

Get real, Americans!

You have been ripped off! At long last, the age-old problem of health care for the poor and near-poor is being discussed in open forum. The problem has existed since the ethos of class differentiation was begun with the invention of wampum. In this modern age, it is only through the activities of individual greed that it continues, despite the glaring fact that one solution is the only alternative. Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts experiment has already been exposed as a failure as will be any other program for “mandatory... Read article

Another Clinton Sellout

So Hillary finally presented us with her “health plan”. Whoopee! That will fix everything. Right? Wait a minute, isn’t that what Romney did in Massachusetts? Isn’t that the same pattern set by George Bush’s Medicare Part D? We must, by law, buy insurance from the already-money-bloated insurance industry while still being obligated to pay deductibles and co-payments that will further burst our shrinking budgets? Does that make sense? Those who are suffering from lack of medical care because they... Read article

Dinos Ready To Sell Us Out Again

In 2006, when we gave the Democrats a majority in both houses, we were full of hope that, at last, something would be done to stop the President’s war-mongering. To date we have seen little except compromise, coalition, and making nice. Few are there who have the courage of their convictions to fulfill the promises they made when begging for our votes. A few of the new representatives that are there have tried their best but, just as in high school, nobody cares what the freshmen think. As the result, Harry Reid and... Read article

About That Patience, Mr. President

You know, the patience that you are asking the American people to provide while you continue to slog around in the quagmire called Iraq; while the “surge” creates conditions that will unite the Iraqi people. May I be so bold as to remind you that one of your campaign promises was to unite the American people? Seven years later, the United States is more divided than at any time since the infamous Civil War. And that is only problem one. How many more of our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands. wives,... Read article

Framing Questions and Making Choices

The politicians, though they profess to ignore them, are greatly influenced by the national consensus polls. There have long been comments that the polls can say anything you want them to depending on the wording of the questions. It seems that may be all too true, because those questions do not include a real choice in the answer. Of course, everybody resents the amounts of Social Security contributions which are taken out of their paychecks before they get them and, of course, nobody really enjoys paying taxes. However,... Read article

The Search For The Great Middle

The amusing aspect of this primary campaign for the 2008 president is watching the candidates groping their way in search for the “middle of the road”. Poor Hillary Clinton, while being reviled by the Republican protagonists as a “leftie Liberal”, keeps turning her wheels to the right as she navigates the fog in which American politicians are groping in order to find “the will of the people”. On the other hand, the Republicans have long ago left the road and are off four-wheeling in the... Read article

The Duel

The gingham dog and the calico cat Side by side on the table sat; ‘Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think!) Nor one nor t’other had slept a wink! The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate Appeared to know as sure as fate There was going to be a terrible spat. (I wasn’t there; I simply state What was told to me by the Chinese plate!) Eugene Field, Yale Book of American Verse While watching the CNN/youtube debate, the first thing that came to mind was this children’s poem from so long ago. The... Read article

Three Little Words

There are three words that strike fear into the hearts of modern-day politicians. They are not obscene or distasteful to any ethnic group but saying any one of them in the context of the day’s news will cause an instant and infectious breathing spasm on the part of any of all the bought-and-paid-for pros of either party. Like the Lord’s Prayer to a ghost, a cross to Dracula, or a silver bullet to a werewolf, any of them will empty a political caucus room in ten seconds flat. The first word is RATIONING. Speak... Read article

The Ken & Barbie Show

Yawn! It’s almost time for the next episode of The Ken And Barbie Show. You know, the new television extravaganza where a bunch of very affluent, carefully groomed, coiffed, and made-up rich folks get on a stage and try to convince us that they “feel our pain”. There are two groups and we are supposed to choose the best of each group and then make the final choice between the two of of them. We are asked to judge on the basis of appearance, personality, and creative thinking. On the first two criteria,... Read article

Is Two Hundred Years Long Enough?

A mere two centuries is not long in the history of previous great nations of the world, but it does seem that Americans are eager to end their era of influence in world affairs. We are soundly in the grip of the two-party system, made up of professional politicians, the parties locked belly-to belly in a dance macabre to the music of the multi-national corporatists until it is nearly impossible to discern one from the other. In this artificially-elongated campaign season, the feeling that arises from the grassroots of the... Read article

Big Men on White Horses

For a hundred years, the children of this nation have gone to bed at night to stories of handsome princes and beautiful princesses, of evil witches, fearsome ogres, and happy endings. They have gone to Saturday matinees depicting good, honest people, laboring under the yoke of greedy oppressors and being saved at the last, crucial moment, by a big man on a white horse. No matter how well-educated, no matter how sophisticated we have become in our everyday lives and outlook on the world, we are still waiting for a big man... Read article

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