8 Minutes On High

God and the Constitution

August 31st, 2010 by Max

Glenn Beck wants us to put them together. They should be separate.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

Glenn Beck is a Mormon

August 31st, 2010 by Max

I’ve been struggling with what to think about Glenn Beck’s rally. I didn’t think too much about it at first because I didn’t really believe it would amount to much.

But now, something like 300,000 people show up and I have to acknowledge that someone’s listening to him. So who is that?

Well, its the Tea Party. Its the conservative Christians who think that President Obama is a Muslim. Its a legitimate group of right wing intellectuals who feel that our national debt is a real threat to this country. (The problem with this group is that they weren’t screaming when George W Bush was cutting taxes and spending $1 Trillion on two wars to fight a group of insane criminals who caused real damage one day in September.

And its racists. Come on. Admit it.
And its gun nuts. Come on. If they weren’t nuts then why did they artificially create a shortage of bullets, by buying an incredible number of bullets, because they believed President Obama wanted to take their guns away. A fear that was created out of whole cloth by the NRA and Rush Limbaugh (no doubt).

In short it is a disparate mix of rational and irrational groups that feel out of control of the country and afraid of the future for the first time in ten years. A disparate mix that would never ally themselves with a strange kind of paranoid who sees conspiracy around every corner (at least as much as I can tell from the few minutes I can stand to watch Glenn Beck occasionally.)

Yes, I think he may be paranoid.

But I’ve now seen a few clips of Glenn’s rally. And in it he declares that as of his rally America is on its way back, that a new era of religiousness has begun (presumably because of him). Its all a little messianic.

Then I realize just how many of these people are southern Baptist types – and it hits me. They must truly be desperate to follow … a Mormon.

And I get it.

Whistling past the graveyard?

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments »

Ever heard of Foxconn?

August 26th, 2010 by Max

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn

Foxconn recent doubled its wages to $293/month. Most of America’s technology is now manufactured in a walled town of 350,000 to 400,000 people, euphemistically characterized as Foxconn City.

Steve Jobs gets his toys from here. America gets their toys from here.

This place needs unions.

Posted in Fun, Politics, Social Commentaries | No Comments »

Onward Christian Soldiers?

August 25th, 2010 by Max

www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/us-soldiers-punished-for-_b_687051.html

(Excerpted from the Huffington Post)

For the past several years, two U.S. Army posts in Virginia, Fort Eustis and Fort Lee, have been putting on a series of what are called Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concerts. As I’ve written in a number of other posts, “spiritual fitness” is just the military’s new term for promoting religion, particularly evangelical Christianity. And this concert series is no different.

Posted in Politics, Social Commentaries | No Comments »

Roger Clemens – the dope

August 20th, 2010 by Max

Floyd Landis – who steadfastly, passionately, angrily denied doping when he won the Tour De France – recently gave in and admitted that he did cheat.

The strategy is clear. Don’t just deny it. Get pissed off. Angrily, self righteously deny that you cheated, as if you would have if you had not cheated.

Sounds like Roger Clemens to me.

I believe Andy Petitte.

Posted in Politics, Social Commentaries, Sports | No Comments »

Our national politics

August 19th, 2010 by Max

Now that everybody has a blog, and yes, that means me, and in the shadow of Lee Atwater and his protege’s, its becoming easier all the time, to be cynical.

I hear things, from the likes of Fox News, Rush Limp paw, and Michael Savage, that I honestly believe they don’t believe. Not only crap. Stupid crap.

The Republicans in President Obama’s now 18 or so months in office, have not only been not helpful, they’ve actively tried to defeat his policies – which is fine if you are the opposition party and you have an ideological difference with the party in power. But some of the stuff they did and said, just doesn’t make any sense. And people like Mitch McConnell and Charles Grassley have said that they have tried to delay things as much as possible.

And they’ve worn President Obama down.

The other day he gave a speech on how the Republicans are trying to privatize Social Security. That dog wouldn’t hunt back when President Bush tried it with two houses of Republicans. He knows it won’t happen.

He’s just become cynical.

Sigh.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

BP’s Heroic spin

July 18th, 2010 by Max

Today I saw a commercial for BP in which the BP employee states that “Every morning, over 50 spotter planes and helicopters search for
oil off the coast…”

He also claims that “We have recovered more than 27 million gallons of oil-water mixture from the Gulf.”

“How much of that “oil-water” mixture is oil? Also, They make it sound like it is hard to find oil in the Gulf. Is it really that hard to find oil in the Gulf of Mexico these days?

There it is!

Posted in Politics, Science, Social Commentaries | No Comments »

Libertarian – thank you Rachel Maddow

May 21st, 2010 by Max

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

Drill baby drill

May 1st, 2010 by Max

What a let down!

Posted in Photos, Politics | No Comments »

Why we love Jon Stewart

April 23rd, 2010 by Max

So the South Park guys did a show. They wanted, as they have in the past, and wanted to show a certain historical personage, who’s image if displayed can bring on the wrath of a 12 century civilization. So they covered him in a bear suit.

An intimidating message was posted on a web site, that people took as a threat to the creators of South Park.

Jon Stewart, who lives America and works in NYC where ironically, the web site is hosted, too umbridge with makers of this web site. Jon had this to say:

Here’s the link to the full show. The opening segment on South Park is worth watching. The above clip cuts too much out.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-april-22-2010/south-park-death-threats

Posted in Fun, Politics | No Comments »

Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot!

April 19th, 2010 by Max

[With apologies to Sen Al Franken]

I wanna test something. I got more hits on my blog yesterday, than ever in the past, now I made some changes to my Google profile, and that may be the reason the search engine crawlers are finding me more, but I think it has more to do with the name …

Rush Limbaugh

But I’m not getting any responses from anyone who approves of him. So maybe it IS my improved profile.

Or maybe it is because people are looking for that know nothing, say anything, bag o wind – and my non political 85 year old dad calls him Rush Windbag …

I think of him as “that” hypocrite … but you may know him as Rush Limbaugh.

You don’t have to listen to the whole thing. Just check from about the 40 second mark to 1:12. “It doesn’t make any sense.” Limbaugh … idiot or brilliant salesman? Here I am talking about him…

I want to see what he does to my ratings.

Posted in Fun, Politics, Social Commentaries | No Comments »

Flame wars

April 18th, 2010 by Max

Facebook!

In the old days of the Usenet, flame wars would break out. People saying bad things to each other. This lead to some unwritten internet laws. First on the list is:

Godwin’s Law
The most famous of all the internet laws, formed by Mike Godwin in 1990. As originally stated, it said: “As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” It has now been expanded to include all web discussions.

I fear I have engaged in a flamewar that could lead to an invocation, on one side or the other, of Godwin’s law. Is anyone else surprised at what people they went to high school now think?

I wonder if there is an internet law about how long it will take before you ignore someone on facebook. How DO you ignore someone on facebook?

A former classmate posted a video of Rush Limbaugh espousing a list of wrong things he claims the President is doing. I won’t post it here, it needs to be challenged on so many levels I really don’t wish to get that deep with her. But I did have time to post on her facebook page. I just asked her to not listen to him.

Here’s the question. Should I have? Or should I have just done whatever the facebook thing for ignoring is?

Posted in Other People's Theories, Politics | 7 Comments »

Tom Coburn, Oklahoma

April 7th, 2010 by Max

I watched this guy during the Sotomayor hearings. He’s sharp. Asking pointed questions, setting a trap much like a lawyer would do. The judge was confirmed and is now the newest Supreme Court Justice. I came away with the idea that this guy was one sharp lawyer.

Hurrah for collegiality. We need more like this. I may not agree with him, but I think he's agreeable and that's a good first step in Washington.

I just found out two good things about him.
1. He’s a doctor – yes, generally I think most Americans favor doctors over lawyers.
2. He’s not a knee jerk Republican.

This is from today’s cbsnews.com href=”http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20001827-503544.html”>

“I’m 180 degrees in opposition to the speaker — she’s a nice lady,” he said. The crowd could be heard responding unfavorably to his characterization.

“Come on now, she is a nice — how many of you all have met her?” continued Coburn. “She’s a nice person. She’s a nice person.”

“Just because somebody disagrees with you doesn’t mean they’re not a good person,” he added. He then discussed his own experience of being vilified before asking the crowd not to “catch yourself being biased by Fox News that somebody’s no good.”

“The people in Washington are good,” he said. “They just don’t know what they don’t know.”

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New Rule

March 28th, 2010 by Max

Eric Cantor doesn’t get to bitch about the Democrats complaining of violence against them.

People spit on John Lewis.

[Its not funny]

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Blogging at 4 a.m.

March 26th, 2010 by Max

What is it that keeps a person awake at 4 a.m.?

My mind was just rolling through memories of my grade school class. Dunno why. Maybe its because things haven’t worked out quite the way I imagined. Or maybe I’m wondering what they’re doing now.

Susie Weiller. I had a crush on a different girl, pretty much through my whole grade school daze. Now I’m not even sure how to spell her name. Theresa Kuracina I think. Wow. I just remember always being in her thrall. Her mom lived with the nuns. She was therefore favored by the nuns. But as I recall. Rightfully so.

I always considered myself one of the smart kids in the class. I guess that’s what started me down this wayward path. That and Facebook. I met someone in that goddam Facebook from my grade school class who I never really imagined as a big success. Who is now, a big success. Sorry. My bad.

Now don’t get me wrong, world, this isn’t about vanity. I’m fully aware of my flaws, my lack of intelligence. And I’ve known for years that there is something more important than raw processing power, even raw storage capacity, in making someone a success. I just always figured I would be somewhere else in my life when I was looking ahead in those days. There’s a line in the Desiderata about not comparing yourself to others that I didn’t know then. Its good advice.

However I can’t help remembering. I can’t imagine remembering all the kids from my 8th grade class at Blessed Sacrament School, but I wonder what some of them are doing.

Like Theresa Kuracina. Stunned crush. I remember the day, that John Kozell asked her out. It was the first time I’d ever seen anyone ask anyone out on a date. I was crushed, but just a little bit. John was alpha male. No doubt. And a really good guy. Easily the best athlete in the class, I think a year older than I was. Something about a water skiing accident. I remember a story about a cow bone. Supposedly John had a cow bone in his leg. I still can’t remember who told me that. That can’t be true. Can it? Can John Kozell have really had his shattered leg replaced by a cow bone? Could he have had that and still been “the fastest kid in the class”?

What I do know is that when we boys played Hill-Dill (from Hill and Dale I guess) on the school parking lot, John was invariably the last one caught. I was usually the first. I was pretty smart. But I was definitely the runt of the litter in my grade school class. John was the best athlete by far.

But I wasn’t the shortest. Rick Scott was. And Rick was probably the richest. His dad was actually a banker. Rick looked like “Little Ricky”. Rick and I were rivals. Or maybe I just imagined we were. I remember Rick could sing, but sometimes in music class, I would get the solo. I remember being picked to sing the lead in “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho” and being surprised when the nun picked me instead of Rick Scott. Rick was handsome. Rick was rich. I remember our class debate in 1968. I don’t remember who Rick went up against. I do remember that Rick supported Richard Nixon. And he demolished whoever it was he was debating. I remember “Instead of a chicken in every pot my opponent would have a little pot in every chicken”. Great line.

I know its petty, but I’ve always taken a little satisfaction in Rick having supported Nixon. And him having to stand in the front of the line, two places ahead of me, when they lined us up by height.

I never liked my place in line and the nuns were always lining us up. I was either 3rd from the front, by height, or way in the back by alphabet. I always wanted to be in the back of the line with John McKercher and Mike Donovan when they lined us up by height.

Its funny what you remember. I remember John McKercher trying to trip me when I was on crutches after a year and a half of being home in bed. He went from someone I remembered fondly, to not so fondly. Probably was jealous of all the attention I got when I came back to school. John was always the second tallest kid in the class.

Mike Donovan was the tallest. And the smartest. I remember him winning a spaghetti supper from Father Toomey by getting some number of 100′s on his final tests. I think it was four 100′s! Mike was the smartest kid in the class, but Theresa Kuracina was a close second.

Ah Theresa Kuracina. She was merely perfect. I wonder what she was doing now. I wonder if all the boys had a crush on her. I know John Kozell did. I know I did. Of course I had a crush on Sister Janet too. They were both about equally unobtainable in my mind. Equally pure. Equally smart. Equally beautiful.

As I was tossing back and forth not sleeping, thinking about things long ago and wondering why I remember what I remember, my mind went back to Susie Weiller and just how stupid a young boy can be.

One of the strange things that I remember was square dancing with Susie Weiller. Suzie was the shortest girl in the class. Cute as a button, poor Suzie always stood at the front of the line of girls when the nuns lined us up. She always stood next to Rick Scott.

The nuns figured, I guess, that we should start being interested in the opposite sex in 8th grade and slow dancing was out of the question, so they had us square dance. At that time I would never have told anyone that my father was a square dance caller. I’m proud of it now, but this was 1968, Rick Scott was talking about Nixon and I was listening to Rock and Roll!

But that day, or those days, I don’t even remember how many times we went square dancing in the basement of the church, that day when we got to touch the girls, as long as we didn’t get too close, what I remember was Susie Weiller hooking elbows with me in the square dance. Susie tilted her head back and laughed with delight as we spun. I’ll never forget the sound of her laughter.

As I sit here alone at 4 a.m. 40 years later, I don’t remember when it first dawned on me that there was another girl in the world besides Theresa Kuracina, but I remember it was Susie Weiller.

Posted in Arts, Changes in the World In My Lifetime, Fun, Mustang, Politics, Social Commentaries | 3 Comments »

At the risk of invoking Godwin’s law

March 24th, 2010 by Max

Who does this sound like:

[snip] never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

Its worth noting … about the Health Care Bill

March 19th, 2010 by Max

Its worth noting that with all the criticism that I personally have leveled against the Democratic Party for all of their pathos in governance … not including Joe Lieberman who is just plain awful.

The Republicans have set out to systematically obstruct at every turn never really trying to be the loyal opposition.

From the beginning the Republicans have simply lied and lied and lied in this process.

They lied about “death panels”.

They lied about the finances. We know now this bill will reduce the national debt by 1.3 trillion dollars.

And they are continuing to lie about this bill providing any federal money for abortion.

And as my friend “Doc” says … they say they don’t know what is in it, then they tell you what is wrong with it.

More lies.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

Spaghetti Supper

March 18th, 2010 by Max

I saw another one today. These signs are appearing all over up here. I bet this is happening all over the country.

I can’t tell you how many I’ve seen…

So and so has the “lymphoma cancer” and we’re having a “Spaghetti Supper” to raise money to help with some of the bills.

Someone had an eye issue. Here’s a jar. Put in what you can.

Three people one one placard had sick kids. Need surgery. Need chemo. Need treatment. “We’re holding a benefit at the American Legion”.

Over and over and over again I see signs, I see giant empty pickle jars with slots cut into the tops and a couple inches of coins and a few dollars, a picture of someone in a desperate situation taped on the outside. There’s almost always one by the cash register at the cafeteria at work.

“Joe’s kid. Give what you can”.

I’m sick of them. SICK of them. And I’m pissed. The people where I live and work are constantly putting dollars in mayonnaise jars and holding spaghetti dinners and coming no where near providing enough money to make a dent in the bills cancer patients and ALS patients and other patients are incurring.

I want National Socialized Medicine. Just like my Dad wanted before he went nuts, found religion, and stopped voting! “I’m voting for a higher power” he said.

I said “Until he shows up, vote for the Democrat!”

Now we’ve got them and they’re damned disappointing.

I’m sick of good hard working, middle class, employed people pretending that a spaghetti supper can do anything near what National Health Insurance can do.

And I’m sick of watching the limp ass cowardly damned Democrats run away from their best issue.

It makes me sick.

Posted in Politics, Social Commentaries | No Comments »

Demon Pass

March 16th, 2010 by Max

Lawrence O’Donnell on today’s “Morning Joe” said that the strategy which the Democrats will take to repair and pass this health care bill is to “Deem” it has passed and then pass the repairs. The repairs involve take backs of all the giveaways like that awful gift to the people of Nebraska that Ben Nelson was given.

O’Donnell said this has never been done before and wouldn’t likely pass. It would be, he said “like having runners on first and second and hitting into a triple play!” It could happen, but its almost impossible.

The “Deem and Pass” strategy is this. The Congress (The house I think first) will “deem” that the health care bill has passed, then they’ll fix it, then they’ll pass the fix.

But they can’t really because they need to pass the fixes to a law and it isn’t a law until it passes.

I predict that this process will be called Demon Pass.

All this is parliamentary mumbo jumbo procedural stuff because they don’t have 60 votes, because Ted Kennedy died.

I think this bill should die too.

Yes it gives 30 million more people health care – but a National One Payer system would do that too!

This bill also allows the health insurance monopolies to continue to have one of two Anti-Trust exemptions (nice for baseball – absurd for insurance companies). It also mandates that 30 million more people will have to have health care. Have to pay for health care, puts more people on Medicaid, which is what is killing state governments right now and takes away from Medicare which is the only thing that works half way well in all this.

This is a big win for the insurance companies on top of a big win for the insurance companies, on top of a win for Republican obstructionists who are going to campaign against this bill whether it passes or not.

Lets do it again.

Lets make a small, simple One Payer Plan (you down with OPP?) and get it right.

Let’s have someone in Congress show a little courage and vote, the way that Marjorie Margolis voted before she lost her job in 1993, because she courageously voted the deciding vote for a bill that balanced the economy and put surpluses in the budget. Bill Clinton’s 1993 budget bill.

Start over. Start big. Have some courage. Lose your jobs you Democrats – in the course of serving the people!

Listen to Lawrence O’Donnell. He knows of which he speaks.

Posted in Politics | 6 Comments »

Kirsten Gillibrand on “Morning Joe”

March 11th, 2010 by Max

Ok. So sue me. I do watch Morning Joe. And to his credit. Joe Scarborough has loosened up just a bit. Not quite a complete Republican hack. He still takes up too much of the air time. He still interrupts too much and he still talks about himself too much – but he seems to have come way around from his days as a complete “toe the line” talking points guy of the Newt Gingrich era.

So there, this morning, first time on is Senator Gillibrand. My Senator. Formerly my CongressWoman.

This show, as was “Imus In The Morning” previously (believe it or not) is an important focal point for politicians.
Senator Gillibrand is running. I wanted to hear what she had to say.

Asking questions were Joe and Mika, and Andrew Ross Sorkin and what’s his name from Boston. And they grilled her. She was up to the challenge. Defending the reconciliation health care bill, as a benefit for New Yorkers. Staying on point about jobs. Defending her consistent point about gays in the military – why should we deny people who are capable of defending us or make them lie?

She also defended her gay marriage position and her “broadening” of her posistion on guns. This latter issue she handled masterfully. Actually all of her answers showed an adeptness, and agility of mind and speaking the becomes the smartest most agile politicians.

In short she acquitted herself expertly and did her self a world of good in the public eye.

Posted in My New York, Politics | No Comments »