I'm Baaaaak!
It's been about six months since my last blog and podcast. The hiatus is because of such overwhelming disgust that I didn't really know where to begin. So, here are some random items that have been the cause for months of heartburn and aggravation.
I left off at the health care reform debacle. That was the major cause of runaway dyspepsia. If anyone had any doubt Americans are the dumbest people on earth, that issue should have dispelled it. As part of the only so-called civilized country in the world without universal health care, I shivered at the ignorance of those screaming epithets at the President for trying to take care of his country. And it was fueled by right wing-nuts who managed to trick those who needed health care most to once again be on their side. WOW! I get a chill when we flock in to support issues against our own interest.
Take for example the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The President placed a hiatus on deep well off-shore drilling. Man, you'd think he outlawed driving to work or something! That is now off the books and under future discussion. And why, you might ask as the oil pours daily into the ocean polluting water, land, adjacent swamps, beaches, killing fish, birds, animals, not to mention the death of life styles of all those who live near affected areas. Well the answer is simple, the revenue brought into the state of Louisiana by off-shore drilling is far in excess of the revenue from tourism and the fishing industry combined, and who the heck gives a flying Fig Newton about a few dead birds or critters. Screw'em! Drill Baby Drill! Bobby Jindel, Governor of Louisiana and male clone of Sara Palin, is fighting to get the oil industry revenue back on track.
It's simple, money once again is King. The fact the Gulf of Mexico is going to be a dead sea is unimportant. Not even ecologists are mentioning the death of coral in the area, the vanishing of the bait fish that made the Gulf one of the best fishing grounds in the world, the species becoming extinct because their breeding grounds have been turned into toxic dumps. Get big oil pumping again - get those drills turning and money to fill the pockets of anyone who profits from the oil business.
Louisiana, under Jindel's Governorship hasn't recovered from Katrina, after all, those people displaced and screwed over were just poor Blacks and no one cares about them. By the way, where are they? No one's heard from or about them in years. See, I told you no one cares.
Money at the moment is tight in most quarters. I find sickening what's been spent on the elections in California. Mega Million Meg Whitman poured over 72 million of her own funds just to secure the Republican Gubernatorial nomination. The most unpleasant television time of the year has been living through the smear campaigns of both Mega Million Meg and her opponent Steve Poisner. After months of bombardment by their bullshit, I was so sick of them both I wouldn't vote for either…but then that left Jerry Brown…oh my God, we are so screwed California!
Three M, my new name for Meg, thinks spreading her money around makes her a good choice. She first aligned herself with the dot-com biz and then went to Goldman Sachs - kinda like the resume of a Country Club jail inmate. Is that supposed to make her a good candidate? If she wanted respect she'd support a few charities with the money she made at Goldman Sachs, maybe like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates. Those mega bucks guys are at least doing the right thing.
It's good I spend most of my time in Mexico. Margaritas on the beach are such a nice way to forget rampant stupidity. This is a worse election than putting Dumb and Dumber up for office. And have you seen the ads for Carli Fiorino? She says she's endorsed by Sara Palin. To me, that's an immediate vote for her opponent.
Several weeks ago I went to see the new "Sex And The City" movie. I was a fan of the TV series and found the first movie okay. But the new one I found embarrassing and disrespectful. If the producers/writers wanted to give a perfect illustration of the ugly American, they were right on target. If they wanted to be funny, they sure missed their mark with me. Maybe I'm more sensitive because I worked in International business for over thirty years. Shakespeare had it right – "When in Rome do as the Romans do." In Italy I respected signs on the outside of churches requesting women not to enter in sleeveless clothing or shorts. In restaurants that prohibited women in trousers years ago (Yes they did, believe me!) I complied and wore a skirt. Now I don't agree with covering women up, making them wear veils, and treating them like chattel, but the movie went too far. If any human living today doesn't understand the dress codes in the Arabic countries, then they are certainly deaf, dumb and blind. The film shows Americans as self-absorbed, rude, disrespectful people. Oh, sorry, they were right after all, it is an accurate description. Guess it did hit the mark after all.
I won't go into the Tea Party, or the new Arizona legislation except to suggest it's not a good idea to have dark hair and a suntan if you want to make a visit to that state.
But getting back to respect, the thing that angers me the most is the disrespect being paid to our president. The poor man inherited a bankrupt country on the verge of tanking into third world obscurity. He's given us back a little street cred in the international community, worked hard on universal health care. He's tried to stem the fall of the real estate market and is attempting to reign in the wanton profligacy of the financial markets. But the right wing-nuts keep insulting him, pointing the stick at him as if he created the mess he inherited. They have convenient memories that oblige them by deleting the eight years the country spent behind the Bush while the carpetbaggers raided our coffers with Haliburton and Blackwater no-bid war contracts, government subsidies to oil companies, and in the last minute before their lease on that big White House was up, their final gift to Bush/Cheney buddies of unregulated hand-outs to Wall Street. I think it's expedient to remind everyone once in a while and not give in to those convenient short-term memory losses. Respect for the Office of the President was a given for generations. I suppose after we have Presidents like Bush, it's hard to keep that idea in mind.
So those are just a few of the things that have been sticking in my craw lately. When I remember the rest, I'll get back to you.
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