You can imagine my surprise when I observed a female ( Nameless to protect the Innocent ) in a state ( to put it as politely as possible ) of dishabille dancing about on
my back lawn. She purportedly was doing a rain dance. This was two weeks ago.
Since then it has rained continuously every day for the last two weeks. The stressed trees and flowers have picked up and even the lawn has greened up. The weeds are also thriving. This marks the end of the drought which has afflicted us all summer long.
Not only Houston, but the rest of the state is also being drenched with flash floods
and mud slides everywhere, much too late for the ruined agriculture but at least
replenishing the lakes and aquifers.
But enough about the weather. I would much rather mention the great honor bestowed upon our leader, Barak Hussien O'Bama. THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE.
He now joins the ranks of such luminaries as Yasar Arafat, Jimmy Carter, and Al Gore.
How proud we must all feel.
7 comments:
Happy Birthday Dad! So glad you are writing blogs again! For your birthday maybe we can have some sun?
Perhaps they are hoping he can beat North Korea and Iran into submission, the way he is beating the people in our once great nation into submission.
Ok... I will take the bait and comment, against my better judgement :-)
Nancy: Hogwash... our lovely nation took its real beating under the tutlage of Mr. Bush. Now extraordinary measures need to be taken to right a sinking ship.
I am however, perplexed about the negativity regarding his Nobel prize. If I had to hazard a guess, I suspect it has more to do with the Republican ranks not wanting to give any credit to our Democratic president(s), with the mistaken impression that being graceous would hamper their political agenda.
Tom -- the negativity is not strictly a Republican thing. It is simply because he has accomplished NOTHING, so the prize appears BOGUS. He is a great speaker, but that does not translate into events or lead to peace.
Now, I was not and am not a Bush fan (dad can vouch for that!) and I agree that there was some mighty big damage done in his 8 years. However, he was not the author of most of the crises -- he simply was not equipped to deal with them. The banking crisis was precipitated when Clinton allowed the banks to start investing (a regulation put in place after the banks failed during the Great Depression) and then he softened the rules for appraising real estate to stimulate bank lending in 1993.
I am not opposed to health care reform, but I am opposed to how it is being done. This legislation is complex and costly and will have myriad side effects. It should not be rushed into law simply because it might not pass if it is not done right away. When you have one side of the aisle crafting legislation that impacts 100% of the population, you can guess that it will not be representative. Current proposed bills do nothing to reign in costs -- no tort reform, no ban on drug advertising, no direction toward reducing American prescription drug intake (and that is a major problem!), no talk on improving health by changing the farm bill to subsidize healthy fruits/vegetables vs grains, no talk on improving access to parks or sidewalks so people can exercise more. On a side note, I have called numerous legislators to voice my concern that any employer mandate that does not change the way insurers quote rates for small or mid-sized employers will result in one of two outcomes -- (1) dropping any insurance currenly offered or (2) getting rid of any old or disabled employees. This is because currently small and mid-sized businesses are rated on age and risk...
Just an FYI - Nobel peace prizes are like Mensa membership... you don't send in an application. You are chosen - and the choosing is done by a body of people, in this case, not one of them American, so I doubt this can be pinned as a Democratic vs. Republican agenda. In fact, if there was a better choice, I am sure they would not have passed it up to hand out a Bogus award.
By the way - I disagree... the negativity is almost STRICTLY within the republican ranks... there are others who may be confused by the award, and that may well extend beyond republicans... but even these are at least mildly pleased that the award has been given to the leader of the USA and the free world.
You are right - there is no substitute for concrete results, but Nobel peace prizes are distinctly different that those for science and literature - attempts at peace are on the same footing as a resulting peace. All peace must emmanate from the person, be voiced, and then acted upon. Let's give the man a chance.
You (and othere) say he has done nothing... but with the other side of the knife he is clobbered by the right for "rushing through changes" and being the instigator of changes that are, and will be, the demise of this country. We at least need to be consistent in our arguments.
Last thought... I think the health care system has been recognized as being broken for a whole lot of years. What have we seen done in the last decade to fix this? Not much. The truth is, that the system is broken, but the impact is borne by the middle and lower classes, not the elite in congress. I don't think your compaint is necessarily over "rushing" a bill through, it is that you don't think it will address the real problems, and might have some unintended consequences. And you might be right. Remember though - more than one presidency has been sunk by this hot potato issue - concensus is not likely to be reached anytime soon (even between Democrats, not to mention Republicans), and the problem is only getting worse every year. If we can't pass something soon, I am afraid that tells us that our congress is not up to the job they were elected to perform.
I remember talking to someone not long ago... and they said "Obama has not written a thing yet - the House and Senate each have come up with their ideas - they are the legislators." But what do we call it on Fox news? ObamaCare.
Tom, As usual a well thought out response. However, I would like for you to look up the early NY Times opinion articles on the award -- they were particularly harsh and critical of Obama accepting the award. From the SF Examiner: "If Obama is going to be tempted to consider peace, let it be because it is in American interests, not because he wants to hold true to Nobel's ideals." Also, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat stated, "President Obama missed an opportunity to reject the Nobel Prize and instead put to rout the high expectations of his office. The implications of his decision to accept it will reverberate in every policy he pursues. etc, etc" These same sources and others talked about Teddy Roosevelt waiting until he left office to accept his award.
When I said he had done nothing -- I only meant it in context of the award!
I can only remember Clinton trying to pass health care reform and it did not sink his presidency. Were there others? I DO want them to slow down and pass a well crafted plan, it is that big and that important -- there is enough support on the other side of the aisle if it is well-thought out and non-partisan (leave out the pandering to lawyers and labor unions). I know that we will never pass legislation that pleases everybody, but we should ALL understand what is being passed, and not even ONE congressperson understands the 1300+ page document they are espousing. I always think that the government's motto is "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit." I think that simpler is better, always. Perhaps a well-crafted, straight-forward 200-300 page reform bill would be better. That would also eliminate all the special interest exceptions (everyone must do this except for a, b, and c). We do not want or need another plan like Bush's prescription drug plan which is the most complex, obfuscated, and ridiculous legislation ever passed -- and expensive to boot. However, I do believe that in their fervor to get certain groups to support the plan, this legislation threatens to overtake the Bush bill in complexity!
I rest my case...
I checked out SF examiner, and found a pretty nice balance of opinions. Although most were cautiously positive.
I am pretty sure American interests both do, and should align with peace. To think otherwise is failing to consider options, strategies, and is usually a result of failed past policies and methods.
Same with NY times.
You are right, columnist Ross Douthat was pretty scathing, but he is a renown conservative author/blogger/columnist - so pretty much lines up with my assessment that most negativity emanates from the right.
I do hope you are not reading in my replies that I love the health care bill. But if we apply the same litmus test you are asking this bill to pass, you would probably reject the majority of congressional bills. It is the "way politics is done". I hate it, find it offensive, but it is the system we have - and must live to work within its ugly limits.
I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on some of this... but am not closed to discussions. Obama in not the answer to all America's problems. He is just our elected president, and as such wish people could at least grudgingly bequeath him a modicum of respect. If not for the man, for the office.
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