"We can hear the night watchman click his flashlightAsk himself if it's him or them that's really insaneLouise she's all right she's just nearShe's delicate and seems like the mirrorBut she just makes it all too concise and too clearThat Johanna's not here."Bob Dylan"Visions of Johanna"I've been thinking of Dylan's song — which, incidentally, Rolling Stone ranked 404th on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time — after reading some articles that have been written lately about how Democrats are resigning themselves to an electoral spanking...
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Until two years ago, the prevailing wisdom in America was that, although there is no foolproof path to the presidency, the best preparation for the presidency — or, at least, a campaign for one's party's nomination — was experience in the statehouse.In the last 35 years, that has been a tough conclusion with which to argue. Four of the five men who were elected president between 1976 and 2004, after all, were sitting or former governors.(Ironically,...
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The summer of 2010 is coming to a close — and thus, I suppose, "Recovery Summer" also is ending.But, while the administration may have had high hopes when it launched "Recovery Summer," things seem to have flatlined, at best, and a lot of folks just aren't feeling it.They aren't all Barack Obama's political opponents, either. Some of them are like Velma Hart (see video), an Obama supporter who told the president that she was "exhausted" from having...
Sunday, September 19, 2010
I often wonder what James Garfield, America's 20th president, might have accomplished if he hadn't been shot about four months after taking office — and died of his wounds two months later.Garfield, who died 129 years ago on this day, had a mere 200 days as president — only William Henry Harrison's one–month presidency was shorter — and nearly 40% of that time was spent in bed with the gunshot wound that ultimately killed him.But he showed so much...
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
"And the only reason I'm singing you this song now is 'cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if you're in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do, and that's walk into the shrink wherever you are, just walk in, say 'Shrink, you can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant' and walk out. You know, if one person, just one person does it, they may think he's really sick, and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots,...
Thursday, September 9, 2010
I have to think that, in Professor Obama's "Teachable Moments" lecture series, Rev. Terry Jones and his plans to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday — the ninth anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks — had to be the capstone.Consequently, it must have been a disappointment for the professor (even though he made a public appeal to Jones to listen to the "better angels" of his nature) late this afternoon when Jones announced that he would not proceed as planned but would, instead, go to New York to meet with a Muslim leader.There are, after all,...
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Do you remember the last year or so of George H.W. Bush's presidency?He was like a moth on a summer night, frantically drawn to whichever light beckoned to him from the many competing beams that seemed to be shining. And, for the last painful months of the first Bush presidency, he was bouncing from one light source to another, only to discover they were never among his famous "thousand points of light."Moths, they say, are attracted to light because they fly using a form of celestial navigation so they zero in on a light source and that keeps...
Sunday, September 5, 2010
These haven't been good times for the folks on the infamous "Enemies List" of the Nixon White House.Of course, it's been nearly 40 years since the existence of the list was made public, and many of the folks who were on the "Enemies List" are gone now. That's to be expected, I guess. Just about everyone who was on the list would have to be in their 70s or 80s now.In fact, if you're too young to remember the Nixon presidency, the very existence of...
If anyone confuses me with a George W. Bush supporter, I can only conclude that persondoesn't know me, orhasn't read much in this blog.Perhaps (or maybe that should be probably) both.After all, Bush was still president when I wrote that his actions in office needed to be investigated.I still believe that to be true, but, after revisiting that particular post, I feel I need to amend what I said — if only to make what I feel are somewhat obvious points...
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Many people — too many, in fact — think the 2010 midterm elections are only about which party controls the House and/or the Senate.To be sure, that is one of the critical things that will be decided in November.But there are other races that, in their own way, could have a longer–lasting influence on American government.I am speaking about the races for governor. The winners of those races may wield important influence for the rest of this decade in the form of congressional redistricting based upon the eventual findings from this year's Census.Yet...
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