Let's Clear Things Up

In case you're a little confused.....
* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."

* If you grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, you're a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* If you name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* If you graduate from Harvard law School, you are unstable.

* If you attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system, while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, things should be much clearer now. . . .

Message to Joe Biden

Hi Joe,
It was nice talking to you yesterday & I'm happy to hear you're looking forward to your October 2nd debate with Sarah Palin. Here's the advice you asked for:
First-be polite and respectful. She's earned that much.
Second-don't talk down to her or be patronizing. That will backfire on you quickly.
Third-don't be afraid of her. At the GOP convention she came out with both barrels blazing. Now let's see if she can take it as well as she dishes it out.
Fourth-hold her accountable. Point out her obvious ignorance on many issues and point out her flip-flops.
Fifth-while doing all of the above, keep it simple & to the point. You have a tendency to 'bird walk'-to say the least. Curb your enthusiasm!

Good luck. I'll be watching.
Sincerely,
Your friend George

More on Sarah Palin

As anyone who hasn't been on Mars for the past week or so knows, there's a lot going around about Sarah Palin. But one of the best pieces I've seen so far appeared recently in Newsweek. It was a column written by Anna Quindlen. She sums up the situation in her typically logical fashion.

Here's a link to that piece. It really puts things in perspective:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/157543

Vote Republican? Absolutely. Here's Why

I’m voting Republican because the government will give more tax breaks to the needy rich. Besides, a little money might trickle down to me.

I’m voting Republican because we need to censor books in our public libraries, especially if they’re offensive to fundamentalist Christians.

I’m voting Republican because they’ll lie us into more unnecessary, trillion dollar wars and kill even more people (but hopefully not the unborn).

I’m voting Republican because they’ll continue to edit scientific papers to fit their agenda.

I’m voting Republican because I’m pro-life for the brain dead and unborn. Once you have your uncle’s baby you’re on your own – it builds character.

I’m voting Republican because I love it when businesses pay their executives outrageous amounts of money. Tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs overseas inspire other businesses – profits go up and Americans lose their jobs. What could be better? Business will always regulate itself and protect the public – whether it’s toys or dog food.

I’m voting Republican because I want them to finish shredding our Constitution.

I’m voting Republican because I needs that AK-47 to hunt ‘possums for stew.

I’m voting Republican because they’ll turn my prejudices into law…and my horse really doesn’t like me anyway.

I’m voting Republican because the poor oil companies need even more record profits. I’m happy that my tax dollars will cover their incentives.

For Two Bonus Points:

I’m voting Republican because they’ll continue to grow our national debt and bankrupt the country. Besides I like being owned by China and Dubai.

I’m voting Republican because they’ll keep making the government bigger and their wealthy friends even richer. A little might even trickle down to me.

AND THEY'RE OFF..........

Well, here we go. We’re off and running. You can practically see the veins popping out of the heads of the McCain/Palin camp as they scream in righteous indignation over Obama's use of the metaphor 'lipstick on a pig'. No matter that McCain used the same expression describing Hillary's health plan. Then when you factor in the media's frenzy in spotlighting this, you've got a good old-fashioned brouhaha. But don’t worry all you Obama fans out there. Sarah’s going to get hers (Oops! I didn’t mean anything by that, honest!). The press is already investigating her attempt way back when to have books removed from the school or town library-can’t remember which. And on and on it will go ad nauseum until election day at which time the voters will be so fed up with the whole thing they’d vote for Paris Hilton just to end it all. I think I’ll start keeping unofficial track of the ‘controversies' as they come up starting with the two described above. Stay tuned. More are sure to follow.

Hysteria unleashed

Well, well, well. The news stations are all abuzz over the latest polls showing McCain now slightly ahead of Obama. It would seem Sarah Palin has given the GOP ticket the boost it desperately needed.
Let's analyze the situation: What you have here is an attractive, young woman who obviously has good speaking skills and, on top of that, has a feisty temperament. It must have been on the basis of this that the people polled-apparently young women- made their choice. It couldn't have been anything else because there ISN'T anything else! The fact that this 'person' is wholly unqualified to fill the shoes of the President of the United States seemed to be lost on them. Amazing, absolutely amazing. Now it's up the Obama & Biden camp to take off the gloves and start playing real politics instead of worrying about being called bullies.

Elitist Obama?

Elite, n. 1. The best or most skilled members of a given social group. 2. A small and privileged group.
American Heritage Dictionary, c 198
This morning’s guest on Meet the Press was Joe Biden. The interview with Tom Brokaw was generally unremarkable because Brokaw threw him some pretty soft pitches but one thing did come up that’s been the topic of other conversations and articles, to wit, the appearance of ‘elitism’ in Barack Obama. Just yesterday I read an article in a news magazine that suggested this issue might be a problem for Obama. These are just the latest in a long-running series that pops up from time to time.
The idea that someone in American politics might be among the ‘elite’ suggests they are arrogant snobs who tend to look down on the rest of ‘us’ (that would be YOU, certainly not me). It’s been said by numerous political pundits that the American people wouldn’t be happy with anyone unless they’re like us (actually YOU, not me). But let’s be clear about something: who exactly do you think it is that wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution???? The ‘Elite Class”, that’s who! Does this country really want someone who isn’t ‘the best or most skilled member of a given social group’? I certainly don’t and if that means they act a little ‘uppity’ from time to time, oh well. As far as I’m concerned this whole thing gets down to the anti intellectual, anti education element of this country. All you need to do is look at the present administration for evidence of this. No one has shown more contempt or been more dismissive of the world of Science than Bush & Cheney. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. Why do you suppose it is that teachers, generally better educated than the general public, are among the lowest paid professionals in this country but not abroad? So if Obama is ‘elite’, good. We need more people like him, not fewer.

Worst Case, Best Case

Exactly 2 months from today registered voters will select a new president. I see two possible scenarios shaping up:

Worst case: Death by 'ism'. As we have seen or heard, Sarah Palin is a feisty gal who can mix it up with the best of them-maybe. Let's see what happens when they start getting a little rough with her. Will she retreat to her corner, whining about 'sexism'?
And how about McCain. If it starts getting a little rougher, will he start whining about 'ageism'?
As for Obama, we've already heard him hint at 'racism'.
Biden? He might start talking non stop for the next 60 days!

Best Case: Everyone behaves like adults, setting forth their ideas in a clear concise manner without getting personal thereby letting the American people make their choice.

One thing's for sure: Everyone can rejoice in the fact that there are only a few short months left to the worst, most damaging presidency in the history of this republic. Hallelujah and praise the Lord!

Random Musings

1. A short time ago I read a great book called "The Downhill Lie" by Carl Hiaasen who is a newspaper columnist and author of several hilarious novels.
The book is about his reemergence into golf after 20 years. He actually calls it a relapse! I bring this up because I played golf Sunday for the first time in 2 years and much of what he said was too true. If you ever played golf, you've got to read this book. You'll relate to it easily (unless of course you're a scratch golfer in which case I don't want to know you-just kidding, Pete).

2. So New Orleans apparently dodged a bullet-sort of-this time anyway. It brings to mind a few questions:
Should the federal government be helping the residents of New Orleans? Yes, of course. That's why we have agencies like FEMA.
Should the federal government be spending hundreds of millions of dollars helping these folks rebuild in exactly the same place instead of somewhere else that's a little safer maybe? I'll leave the answer to that to better minds than mine!
Did you happen to catch the news clip of Junior in NO telling people that things were better this time because residents heeded the warnings of FEMA and got out of town. Like it was their fault Katrina was such a disaster. What a jerk! McCain or Obama. Who cares? Anything is better than this bozo.

Better and Better

It keeps getting better and better. Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter is 5 months pregnant but plans to marry the father soon! If you're a Democrat you don't really give a crap because you believe in letting people live their lives however they want as long as you don't bother them. But if you're a conservative Republican, you're looking to jam your values down the throats of all others. Well, so much for that Conservative base McCain's been pandering to!! Now what???

A Little Fact Check

Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Of all the people McCain could have picked, he chose
- a former beauty queen
- a former sportscaster
- the former mayor of a town with fewer people in it than your average movie theater
-a two-year Governor of a state with fewer people in it than your average football stadium.
Neat little resumé, huh? Oh sure, she’s got solid conservative values but……uh, well, I guess that’s it! Probably the least qualified person on the planet to take over for a 72 year old 4 time cancer victim.
BRING ON THE BLUE TEAM!!!

Hot Air Express on the Roll

Cruising through the cable news networks this morning it was plain to see that the pro McCain windbags are already preaching the virtues of Palin-one of which is that she cleaned up Alaskan politics. What exactly does that mean? Does she vacuum the place every night? Just kidding. They keep mentioning how she killed the infamous 'bridge to nowhere'. Of course they neglect to tell us that she once supported it until it became politically convenient to change her mind. Ahhhh....another flip-flopper. Must be why McCain chose her. But a word to the wise, kids. Coordinate your flips and flops or it might get awkward. This is getting interesting, folks. The Dems have an opportunity here to make the Republican Party look even more inept and out of touch than ever before. Hope they don't blow it!

Sarah Palin (Who's THAT????)

Sarah Palin (Reminds me of Sarah, Plain and Tall) Republican Vice Presidential nominee. That means if McCain's elected & he falls over in his soup some day, the next President of the United States will be the former 2 yr governor of Alaska and before that mayor of some town (city? Do they have cities in Alaska?). And before that......
You've gotta hand it to McCain. It was a pretty gutsy move. If you support him, it's the shrewdest move in American politics. If you like Obama, it was the dumbest thing since McGovern picked Eagleton. However you may choose to view it, one thing's for sure. The GOP has some nerve ragging on Obama for his lack of experience. I'll bet Biden can't wait for that first debate on foreign policy. Of course it may not matter. There are some Americans who think Alaska is a foreign country! �

Sleepy Teens!

On my way to Norwalk to have my car serviced this morning I saw a familiar sight. At least it was familiar if you’re out and about at 6:45 A.M during the school year. It was middle & high school students waiting for the bus. It wasn’t that dark yet but pretty soon, as the year goes on, they will be standing in the dark. Needless to say, they looked less than enthusiastic about their day ahead-only the second day of school. In fact they looked more like zombies rather than bright eyed kids who in a few minutes would be learning how to conjugate a French or Spanish verb or how to solve a differential equation-which leads to the issue of appropriate school start times for teenagers. About 6 years ago or so there was a very active and vocal group of parents and teachers who petitioned the Board of Education to move the start time of high school up about one and a half hours. They argued that a teenager’s biological rhythm was such that early mornings were just about the worst time of day for quality learning to occur. They presented a ton of research to support their position. The idea started to take hold until the transportation department got into it. It was pointed out that in order to get all those kids to 6 (now 7) different schools on time would cost a whole ton of money. That’s all the Board needed to hear. Conclusion? Suck it up, kiddos. Wake up and learn. But to me the issue hasn’t changed. Just looking at those kids at that hour was depressing. With the Internet being such a presence in everyone's lives, it seems to me there could be some sort of distance-learning program in place that could address part of this problem. Maybe I'll approach the Board with this idea, package it and sell it to other school districts around the country. I'll finally be rich-or not!

More on Obama vs McCain

It's been pointed out ad nauseum that Obama has very little leadership experience. It's further been pointed out that he's a lib-er-alllll who believes government can indeed play a role in our lives. And if that isn't enough it's been mentioned here and there that he's a man of color-as it were. So why then isn't McCain 50 points ahead of him in the poles? Well, my misguided friends, it's very simple. Because the American people are a lot smarter than we often give them credit for. Quite simply, McCain is a trigger happy hothead. It's as simple as that. The American people put lives above money. Period. The strange thing about all of this is that with McCain's experience in a POW camp, why doesn't he have a problem with his very own position that 'another 100 years in Iraq isn't out of the question." One can only conclude that in spite of his obvious heroism, he's deranged!! But of course the Dems aren't going to go out on a limb with THAT. They'd be crazy to suggest he's a little off his rocker. So here we are. A dead heat. Wait for the debates to separate the men from the 'boy(s)!

McCain & AARP

The latest issue of AARP magazine (September/October 2008) has a ‘Voters’ Guide’ section. The magazine posed a series of multiple choice questions to each of the candidates. The issues were health care (Medicare, Insurance) & finances (Social Security, Investment Portfolios). There were about a dozen items to choose from. For each item AARP also took a position. Without going into detail, 11 out of 12 times Obama chose the same responses as did AARP. He declined to respond to 1 item. McCain declined to respond to all 11 items! So much for the ‘straight talk express’. How about the ‘no talk’ or better yet ‘double-talk express’.

Obama/Biden

What a coincidence! Way back in the day when umpteen democrats were vying for the nomination, I was routing for Joe Biden. Throughout all of his years in the senate he struck me as one of the few politicians who made sense and had the guts to say it. His expertise in foreign policy is unquestioned by both sides of the aisle & his life experiences rival McCain's. He does tend to take a tad too long to make his point but I suspect someone somewhere is going to be working with him on that. Obama made a perfect choice to balance the ticket and counter his weaknesses. Now we wait for McCain’s choice-someone young, sensible, firm on the issues, cool under fire, not afraid to offend the Christian or Conservative Right. Hmmmm...Lots of luck!

URGENT REQUEST!!

This is an urgent request for someone out there to create a website called something like "Simple Answers to Your Questions". In all of my roaming around the internet, I have yet to find one that meets the above need.
Here's what prompted this request. A couple of days ago I got this huge catalog in the mail that has all kinds of equipment. Lord only knows how I got on that mailing list but the point is it had among other things a whole bunch of generators: gas, diesel, porpane, multifuel, etc. They ranged in price from about $500 to over $20,000. Fortunately, we haven't lost power for a particularly long time here within the past few years but I do recall a time when we were out for several days during the winter. Fortunately, I have a wood burning stove so we could stay home but not having running water was a major pain. So I thought maybe now was the time to get a generator. The problem is they all state how many kilowatts they produce but I wasn't sure how to translate that into practical terms so I commenced a research project. Hence the problem. There were indeed plenty of sites that attempted to explain the relationship between watts, amps and volts (and Coulombs and Joules and Ohms). But they were mostly written by well-meaning college professors who were trying to make PHD Electrical Engineers out of the likes of poor dumb me!! So I went to a long time friend of mine who has become my go-to guy in such matters. So thanks to good old email, I quickly had a simple, completely sensible explanation (volts X Amps = Watts, i.e. 110 volt toaster oven operating at 13 amps = 1430 watts) I quickly realized that the great deal on a 6500 watt propane Honda generator wouldn't even run my water pump! So now back to the urgent request. Why couldn't I have found that out with the click of a computer key. That's why someone out there needs to pick up the ball here. You can link off my website or create your own. Come on, go for it. What else are you doing????

Two Questions

Two quick questions:
What prompts a young woman to wake up some morning and decide "By golly, I'm going to be a shot-put or, better yet, discus-throwing Olympiad?"

Do the Chinese seriously expect the world to believe that all of their 'women' athletes are at least 16? If you wanted to drive one of them anywhere in the US in your car, you'd have to put her in a child's car seat.

Just curious.

Back from Vacation

The ideal vacation to me is the one we just completed: One week at a house on the beach with the entire family. With the exception of some drizzly mornings and occasional thunderstorms, the weather was great. And even when it did rain or thunder, there was always enough to do inside. When the weather was bad the children tended to be in charge. Here are some of the activities engaged in by all of us at one time or another until the weather cleared:
1. Put make-up and finger nail polish on Grandpa & Nana who was visiting for the day.
2. Watch Olympics
3. Play school or doctor
4. Color & Paint
5. Read books and watch Elmo or Barney movies
6. Crawl around the room exploring everything (almost 1 year old Cole)
7. Play with puzzles & games
Otherwise, it was off to the beach! For the evening hours after the kids were in bed the guys took on the ladies in setback. By the way the men were 9 for 10-but who’s keeping track!

And what was going on in the world while we were away?? Well, the Olympics of course. And McCain and Obama continued to snipe at each other. And Russia invaded Georgia (One report has it that Cheney quickly ran into the oval office and explained to Junior that he could relax. It wasn’t THAT Georgia!). The war in Iraq continues to chug along. Also, judging by the number of email forwards on my computer, the lunatic fringe continues to be hard at work slandering, lying and demonstrating their inability to think rationally (did you see the one about Sambo, Rambo & Bimbo; or “eyes your new president”?) And finally back home the grass continues to grow. So it’s back to the yard and the rest of the routine.

What's that sound I hear?

Why, I believe it's the sound of a fish on the bottom of a boat flip-flopping around. Actually it's McCain changing his position yet again on pro choice vs. anti choice. He's allowed as how it might be OK for his running mate to be pro choice. A position he once held, then he reversed himself in order to pander to the conservative right and now he's back to square one again. On another front we hear the swift boat veterans are planning an attack on Obama. An attack clearly approved by McCain & his campaign managers. And finally, his comment that, well, maybe it might be OK if we had a time table of sorts for our eventual departure from the soil of another country!
All of this is the mark of a desperate man. Do we really know where John McCain stands on anything? The answer is no. When we ask him about the economy he refers us to his lead adviser who in turn tells us to stop whining!!! The choice in November is clear and guess what? It sure as hell ain't the big Mac!!!!!

Here We Go Again

Item 1: KM3 recently posted a piece on his blog (blogspot:georgeswebpage.com) that expresses his outrage with the current congress. For what it’s worth I agree-but not for the reasons he stated. I really don’t much care that they haven’t been passing much legislation. I’m beginning to agree with Calvin Coolidge who once said “that government that governs least governs best.” My outrage with this congress is spineless resistance to the Bush/Cheney mess. In 2006 the American people sent many republicans packing because they were sick of this administration’s leadership. They correctly recognized Bush & Cheney for what they were, i.e. the two people who have caused more harm to this nation than any other pair of elected officials in history. What has this congress done to correct that? Nothing!

Item 2: Here we go again with the off-shore drilling thing. They (McCain, Republicans and to some extent Obama) can’t get it through their thick heads that drilling the earth full of holes is NOT the answer. We need to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels-not find ways to use more. So, here’s what I would do if I were Dictator of the United States:

-subsidize companies to build nuclear power plants, wind power and solar power. Eventually put the entire nation on an electrical grid that would provide heat and energy for all homes, businesses, schools, hospitals, etc. That would save untold quantities of coal, oil and natural gas.

-next, with the coal that is saved from electrical generation, convert it to diesel fuel. The technology is there. It can be done. This nation has about a century’s worth of coal in the ground. Use it to power all diesel vehicles.

-next, impose heavy penalties on anyone using a gasoline powered vehicle that is not a hybrid. Eventually all gas powered motor vehicles would be hybrids getting around 40-50 mpg.

If all this were done, we could produce enough oil domestically to fill our needs until hydrogen fuel came into its own at which time we’re completely off fossil fuels!

That’s what I would do if I were the Dictator of the United States of America!

Obama Abroad

Sooo....what does one make of Obama's recent world tour? You can view it much in the same way as McCain and his supporters: Nothing but a feeble, transparent attempt to upstage McCain while trying hard to look as though he knows something about foreign affairs. Or one can view it from the Obama camp: A very presidential looking candidate doing what all future presidents should do-continue to learn as much as possible while introducing foreign leaders to the guy who will be the most important person in the world for at least the next 4 years.
As in all things the truth lies somewhere inbetween. But you have to admit, he did conduct himself pretty well. Yeah, yeah, all those Germans who turned out to listen to him aren't voters but the people who do vote were watching and possibly thinking 'Geee, maybe we finally have someone who isn't going to be held in utter contempt by the rest of the world thereby bringing about an era of international cooperation and progress.' or not.
One thing's for sure. McCain's reaction to the whole thing lacked class and substance. The best he could do is criticize Obama for going to the gym instead of visiting wounded troops. Come on, Mac. You can do better than that-or can he?

McCain, Merit Pay & Education

Jumping off the front page of The Wall Street Journal Thursday reads the following headline: McCain Outlines His Education Plan…. The sum and substance of this plan is pretty much the same as what Republicans have been saying ad nauseam for the past several years, to wit: there should be merit pay and a publicly funded voucher system. To the second I say no way. Strengthen the public schools. Don’t destroy them. The issue of merit pay, however, is a tad more complicated. Having served in public education for over 30 years, I will be the first to say that in all of my years I have known my share of colleagues who were quite simply not getting it done and it annoyed me a lot that they were making as much as me who was getting it done. And yet, I can’t support McCain’s program for merit pay because the whole thing is tied to test scores. Here’s the theory the Republicans love to put forward: Education is a business. As in all businesses, your compensation is based on your performance, right? Therefore it follows that if you perform satisfactorily (according to test scores), you’ll be justly compensated. If you believe that, I've got some property in New Orleans I'd like to sell you. Here’s the problem: The basic premise is wrong. That’s not at all how it works in the private sector. Think of all the people you know who were forced into retirement or who otherwise got shafted by their companies for reasons entirely different from performance-poor or otherwise. So let’s cut the bull and tell the truth. Second, the reason why merit pay won’t work is because there are certain significant segments of our society who simply do not value education. What’s a teacher supposed to do about that? Is that in his/her control? On top of that what about the significant number of students who don’t or barely speak English? Do you seriously expect them to be able to pass a test? Look, there’s no question there are people who simply do not belong in a classroom. Fine. Get rid of them. Fire their butts and let them work at McDonald’s. Then, those who are left can continue to do the fine job they’re doing for however much the pay scale they’re on dictates.
Like much of what we’ve heard from McCain, his ideas are poorly thought out and overly simplistic. He is more interested in pandering to the republican base than finding genuine solutions to complicated problems.

No Place Like Home

The recent issue of Money magazine features its annual "Best Places to Live" article. In spite of the long scientific explanation of how they arrived at their conclusions (crime rate, education, environment, cost of living, etc), I'm always surprised at some of the places they've chosen. For example their Number One place to live in the entire USA is Plymouth, Minnesota. Now, before I start hearing from all you fine folks in Minnesota (like they're going to see this!), I'm sure it's a grand state & I'm equally postive that the three days a year you have summer are beautiful, but let's face it. The rest of the year is COLD-even colder than here in beautiful New England. At close to $5 a gallon for fuel oil, that does it for me.
Another thing I noticed is the relatively high number of places in the top 50 that are in Texas. Again, no offense, but I've been to Texas-several times and in several locations. Without going into unnecessarily graphic details, just let me say, I'll stay here, thank you.
There were very few places in New England that were on the top 100 list-probably due to cost of living. Some in Mass. and one in CT but that was it. I recall just a few years ago Danbury, CT was the number one place. What happened in a few short years that it didn't even place in the top 100? Oh, well. As Dorothy said, 'There's no place like home'.

Who Needs Enemies??

I don't care where you stand on the political spectrum. You've gotta be feeling sorry for McCain and Obama. First, Obama's religious affiliations do a number on him. Then, McCain's religious guys come along & do the same for him. Next, McCain's chief economic advisor calls us a nation of 'whimps' and finally in this morning's paper is a picture of the cover of the latest New Yorker magazine-a publication I always considered to be fairly classy. The picture is of Obama dressed in Arab attire and his wife dressed like a terrorist. OK, it's supposed to be satire but who will really see it that way??
With friends like this, who really needs enemies?? And, hey, here's the good part. It's only just begun!!!!

Time to Play

Anyone who spends time on a regular basis with grand children knows that you're going to be doing things that you haven't done in a long time-or ever. For example when I spend a day with my 4 yr old grand daughter we play games. Her favorites are school and doctor-especially doctor. With few exceptions, her dolls (she has several at our house) are the patients. Sometimes I'm the patient but we haven't done that in a while. The ususal procedure is that I'm either the doctor and my grand daughter is the doll's mother or she's the doctor and I'm the nurse. We play out the whole thing to the extent that the room where we spend most of our time together becomes the waiting room. All the dolls are seated on the couch and I ask an imaginary nurse to call them in one at a time. Their complaints cover a wide range of ailments which is all carefully explained to me by my grand daughter. Some just need routine check-ups along with shots. We use smiley stickers as band aids to cover the point of injection. Sometimes they have fevers and illnesses or sometimes they'll need tubes inserted in their ears. The latter is a much lengthier procedure. My grand daughter has tubes in her ears herself & it's amazing how much of the procedure she remembers. For example if I don't administer the anesthesia correctly, I'm sternly reprimanded! Another interesting thing about all of this is that when it comes time to give the shots, she says I have to ask the nurse how many. I mention that since I'm the doctor, wouldn't I be the one to make that decision and she says well if I don't like what the nurse says, I can ignore her. I usually end up giving about 4 shots with a toy plastic hypodermic needle in her medical kit. This goes on until she tires of the whole thing and abruptly switches games. That's the other thing. You have to be ready for fast transitions. One minute we'll be playing doctor and the next I'm a child sitting on a cloth circle at school having a story read to me be my grand daughter who has instantly become the teacher. Her name is always Miss Amy and I'm always Keila. Sometimes I get in trouble and I have to go in the closet for time out. I asked her if that happens at her school and she said no and I know it's not a term her parents use so where she got that is anyone's guess. This goes on for quite a while until it's time to have lunch or we go outside. Even when we go outside to the swings and slides, the games will frequently persist. Often the dolls are loaded into strollers or toy shopping carts and hauled to the play area. Sometimes I'm the teacher watching them play or other times I'm one of the students. Then, we'll suddenly switch and play hide and seek. This goes on for pretty much the whole day.
Another dimension to all of this is when the younger grand daughter is with us. She isn't quite two, but she already likes to play doctor. She says doctor and goes to the medical cart and puts on the stethoscope. She puts it against my back but if I don't put my shirt up, she gets very annoyed. Then she takes deep breaths as though she were the one being examined. Then I get the inevitable shot. I'm sure as they get older, I'll be treated to new experiences that I barely remember from when my children were little. It's great fun. Check back for more stories.

Obama for President

When you cast a vote for Barack Obama, you will be voting for:

-The end of our involvement in the civil war of another country

-The end of ‘good ol’ boy’ Washington politics

-The end of a bunch of hypocritical Republican windbags trying to tell the rest of us what to do all in the guise of ‘American Values’

-The end of Supreme Court nominees who put the Federal government and corporations ahead of individuals

-The end of unfair taxation

-The end of a Republican created national deficit

-The end of a staggering display of arrogance and indifference to the international community

-The beginning of tolerance and fair play

-The beginning of responsive government

-The beginning of economic prosperity that will not be at the expense of the poor, young and aged.

Now if you vote for John McCain, you’re voting for basically:

-Four more years of Bush/Cheney policy.

How’s that been working out?!? Enough said!

Happy Birthday, USA

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”

The person who penned the above words, Abraham Lincoln, was speaking of the deadliest battle in American history-The Battle of Gettysburg-fought July 3rd, 4th & 5th 1863-exactly one hundred forty five years ago. It was during the same year that Lincoln freed the slaves. Today, for the first time, on this two hundred and thirty second birthday of the United States of America, a black man is running for president. Slow progress for sure but progress nevertheless. Just don’t look too hard at the email forwards making the rounds these days or the websites being created or listen to carefully to the Rush Limbaughs and Patrick Buchanans or the Al Sharptons and Jess Jacksons of the world. These are people who can’t get past that first layer of skin on a person. Shallow thinkers, indeed. One would hope they’re the exception-not the rule.
Happy Birthday, America. Long may you endure.

Oil, oil everywhere......

I heard Newt Gingrich speak the other day about oil shale, off shore drilling and ANWR. Shortly after that I rec'd an email forward from a friend of mine regarding the same issue but focusing on ANWR. With the price of gas going up, up and away there is more and more discussion on how the tree lovers and bleeding hearts are blocking our poor nation's quest to be energy independent by prohibiting drilling in the above regions. Junior has added his two cents to the discussion as well (See my blog #58 on georgeswebpage.com, blog spot; G's Place).

OK, now listen up all you Democrat bashers & anti-environmentalists. I'm only going to say this once. Even if we were to drill a hole in every square foot of American territory, including coastal regions, and even if we mine every ton of shale we have, there are a few things to keep in mind:
1. It will be AT BEST 10 years before one single drop of oil finds its way to market.
2. And when that happens there is absolutely no guarantee that your gas tank will see one drop of that oil unless of course you propose nationalization of the industry. That should get the Republicans shaking!
3. Even if your gas tank does actually see some of that oil, it's a temporary fix, at best.
4. The solution is CONSERVATION and intelligent use of what we DO have, i.e. 30% sugar based ethanol, hybrid vehicles, coal to diesel fuel, nuclear energy, etc.

Got it?? Now quit whining about the Dems and tree huggers and get back to work!