Odds and Ends

There are times when I’ll see several things in the news or on the Web that make me have an urge to express opinions. On a number of other occasions I have used this forum to do exactly that. Another of those moments has arrived.

If you’ve read Red Stick Writer in the past, you’ll already know that I have not only an opinion but also an attitude about politicians telling us that we have to make some hard choices regarding Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Though both parties comment in this regard, the donkey party seems to think increasing taxes and tinkering with these programs are the highest priority targets. The elephant party would rather go after other spending first. The donkeys say that just going after other spending isn’t adequate.

The money that went into these programs came out of our pockets for the purpose of being there for workers when they retire. The politicians are shysters. They stole that money for all of their wasteful pet projects and other spending in order to avoid having to openly raise taxes to fund their shenanigans. I say that they should not make one change in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid until they have eliminated all the unnecessary crap they paid for with our money. I say they should not raise taxes until that is done, as well. And don’t even get me started on the estate tax heist they are bringing back. To force a farm family to sell off half of the farmland they’ve inherited in order to pay estate taxes is unconscionable.

I got a bit agitated yesterday when Harry Reid, poking back at President Obama about banning earmarks, said, “I think this is an issue that any president would like to have, that takes power away from the legislative branch of government. I think it’s the wrong thing to do. I don’t think it’s helpful. It’s a lot of pretty talk, but it only gives the president more power. He’s got enough power already.” Well I’ve got news for that old coot. A lot more people decided Obama should have power than decided it about Harry Reid. I wasn’t one of them, but I’m just saying. If the Senate was even remotely close to being a body of good stewards of our hard-earned money, he might have a point, but guess what. Personally, I think the only way any of this will ever have a chance of getting righted is to pass a line-item veto. Well, so much for that. I write fiction, but not fantasy.

Maybe you saw the article about the billionaire who donated a football complex at UConn. They hired a football coach he didn’t like, so he wants his family name taken off the stadium and wants his money back. Has he ever heard of public bribery? He doesn’t get to own the athletic department because he donated to it. I don’t care how much he gave. I wish they would eliminate putting corporate or family names on stadiums and bowl games and whatever else they’re doing it with.

Oh, and what about the big kerfuffle over Ricky Gervais’ jokes at the Golden Globes? Excuse me for remembering what names and adjectives these showbiz types used to describe George W. Bush. They never could get over the fact that he beat Gore in Florida in every recount that got completed. I’m sorry that the law of the land says we have an Electoral College and that’s how we pick ‘em. I remember how proud they were that John Kerry reported for duty, since he was so much smarter that Dubya. Then it came out that Dubya’s grades were better than the ones Kerry earned. They had no defense for that. Not one word of what Gervais said about them was false, yet they felt he was too mean spirited for their sensibilities.  If they are going to dish it out, they are going to have to man up and learn to take it when it gets dished at them.

Finally, I have to say that I get really angry when people start trying to tidy up history. I’ve got a problem with trying to erase the Stars and Bars from existence. Why is that flag any worse than the US flag? Okay, part of the cause of the Civil War was slavery. We know slavery was bad. Counting slaves as three-fifths of a person and letting their owners vote on the basis of that count was bad, too. Somewhere along the line, we have to recognize that history is what history is. They want to rewrite and say Truman was a bad guy for dropping the bomb. What about the fact that the Japanese did not surrender after one bomb? What about the fact that they started the hostilities between our nations? What if they had won the war in the Pacific? How would we like living under a guy who thinks he is God? That’s kinda what Japan had, right? What got me cranked on this? Well, new versions of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are being republished. In the former there are 219 occurrences of the N-word, and there are four in the latter. These will be replaced by the word “slave” in the new editions. What ever happened to “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me?” The African-American people have triumphed over that word. Everyone should accept that and move on.  Leave classic literature the way it is.  Mark Twain is famous for his books, warts and all.  The dogooders who want to mess with them should create their own classics instead of tinkering with his.

I hope that my comments here today will not cause liberals to decide not to read my novel. Their politics don’t stop me from loving the likes of Barbra Streisand, Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Rob Reiner, and Whoopie Goldberg as artists even though I think they are way off the mark politically. Boy, do I feel better getting all that off my chest or what? You betcha. We really do live in the best nation on the planet. The best thing about us is that we continually strive to be better.