Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Random Thoughts on a Seemingly Random World

On the Supreme Court decision that overturned McCain-Feingold. First, McCain-Feingold had no real effect in keeping money out of politics. Second, just like the Al-Qaeda inspired terrorists have already won on so many levels, those in this country who believe in their own God-given superiority have now claimed a victory in their battle to separate the haves and the have-nots. The have-nots never stood anything but a chance of an occasional moral victory anyway. But now the haves can get rid of a few accountants and hire a few more lobbyists to further squeeze more out of those on the bottom. We've achieved fascism and there ain't no third way.

On the recent special election. Republicans are celebrating. Democrats are crying in their beer. Angst is everywhere. What's missing in the winner/loser analysis everywhere, is that the voter anger that bred this supposed upset will turn on all sides in the next few cycles. Anger bred by Wall St bailouts and arrogance, health care, and the absolute incompetence shown by political leaders of both stripes is festering deeper than any pollster can measure.

On health care reform. Doomed from the beginning without real leadership from any quarter, health care reform is now dead on arrival. All sides have created such a mess that any chance of talking about anything with any seriousness that befits the issue is gone. Those who fought against this for political gain will end up suffering as much as those fought for it in the end, so everybody loses. Anyone celebrating any new chance or dashed hopes is sorely misguided, deserves a special place in hell, and I hope they don't need medical care at any time in the future. The new American Way.

On the fecklessness of both political parties. Lies work on both sides of the equation and facts and truth are no longer weapons. They never will be again. This will haunt those who run the game now and the rest of us forever. Never in the history of this country have we seen such a collection of weak and feckless leaders on all sides. When your goal becomes "getting a bill passed" or "defeating the bill" regardless of what the bill is, you've given up the fight and don't deserve oxygen, much less the benefits and responsibilities of leadership.

On Wall St. and the Bankers. There's not even a special place in hell painful enough for these folks or the idiots who let them continue.

On Apple's Mythical Tablet. Never have so many, hoped for so much. Entire industries are hoping Steve Jobs will pull their butts out of potential bankruptcy. Geeks are frothing at the mouth. If it could only solve health care it might be a hit.

On Haiti and Bigotry. I'm impressed and moved by the efforts to help out this devastated country. I listened to a gentleman express concern at a civic function about all these donations going to a place where "these people" will steal it. I watched others blithely ignore and move past the comments. What's that old saying form Edmund Burke? All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing? Sorta sums up how I feel about the totality of the mess we are in on so many fronts.

Yeah, I'm angry. Never been so damn angry. As a society we've proven once and for all that we don't deserve any further attempts at bettering ourselves or our fellow man. Everything that every religion on this planet preaches regarding the wickedness that is within us is on bright display and proudly celebrated. Any attempt to do good is maligned to the point that no one's motives can be seen as pure, and the liars among us that do the best job of lying are the new heroes as we search for some way to muddle through.

Mark McGwire Pinning an Asterik on an Ass

Mark McGwire must have the lousiest advisors in the history of advisors. Either that or he just can't stop himself from wearing donkey ears. After sitting in front of Congress and avoiding coming clean with what everybody knew, that he had taken steroids or some performance enhancing drugs, by saying he was "not here to talk about the past," he now says he took the dope. What a dope. If this guy could sing, he should try to get hooked up with a community theatre production of Chicago, singing Mr. Cellophane. He was transparent then and he is now, as he tries to work himself back into the game as a hitting coach. Mark, my friend, the world was on the cusp of forgetting your idiocy and your cowardice. And now you come roaring back with this announcement. I guess it is OK to talk about the past, when you're trying to make a few dollars in the future.

Heading Home From the Great Chicago Pilgrimage

Tomorrow (Sunday) we’re heading back to Virginia from our Great Chicago Pilgrimage. It’ll be an 11 or 12 our drive and in addition to driving we’ll be using it as decompression time. We head right back into the fray on Monday.

But the trip was a blast as usual. Thankfully, both my wife and I realized that in addition to seeing family and friends we needed to schedule some much needed down time on this trip and we did. That turned out to be a real blessing, although we could both use about 2 more months worth of that. But that’s dreaming.

We spent time in both Chicago and Wisconsin with much of it focused on family. And of course there was the inevitable overflow of good food and tasty treats. The three nephews always proved to be entertaining and it is amazing to watch them grow between our too infrequent trips back. And when, you’re the wacky uncle, you’re supposed to be the goofball. I succeed well at that. We hooked up with some friends for a few gatherings and that was always a pleasure as well. The trip featured colder weather than we’ve seen the last several years but of course that didn’t deter us a bit. Mostly we stayed warm and indoors, and warm from all of the fun times with friends and family. After the jump are some pictures from the trip featuring the nephews, Grandma Savaiano, the various places we stayed and played, and more.

As for now, its time to pack up the car and head east.

Quote Note: Giuliani and Domestic Terror

In the rush to jump on President Obama for just about anything, the right wing nutballs are seizing on the recent terror fiasco on Christmas Day like a dog after the last bone on the planet. At least one of them must have had too much egg-nog at during his cross-dressing partying over the holidays. Rudy Giuliani had this to say:

"We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We've had one under Obama"

So, what was 9/11? Urban renewal? Richard Reid? A Nike promotion? Oh, and the mysterious disappearing Anthrax attack? Well, we'll let that go.

Talk about lipstick on a pig.

Report on Reports Sees Too Many Reports and Other Zany Newspaper Articles

Go ahead, scan the newspaper headlines and articles at this link and see if you can avoid smacking your forehead and laughing. I dare you. Yep, these are the real deal. Some other of my favorites:

Use Clothing to Keep Warm During Winter
Statistics show that Teen Pregnancy Drops Off Significantly After Age 25
So far, they have determined that the crash occurred when the plane struck the ground.
Death is Nation's Top Killer

Someone actually got paid to write those.

Now in Wisconsin

As if it wasn't cold enough in Chicago, we've journeyed north to the lake house at Lake LuLu. Yes, it's cold.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Warner's Posterous

Rush and My Mom: Two Different Health Care Experiences

So, the mighty Rush is out of the hospital and possibly out of the woods. And he calls a press conference to tell the world how great the American health care system is. I'm happy for him that things worked out.

We're experiencing the opposite end of the spectrum with my mother. She's seriously ill with lung cancer. This after surviving a bout with colon cancer 4 years ago. We've been in and out of the hospital and doctors' offices since Thanksgiving and while every one is doing their jobs, unfortunately there have been instances where they haven't been done all that well. I'll cite three examples here.