Stories that Stuck Like Flypaper

Tags

Arnold Schwartzenegger, awards, Books, Britain, choking, Evan Bayh, fashion week, GOP, haute couture, health care reform, hotdogs, Japanese, Party of NO, Toyota, unsafe cars

I’m surely not the only one who finds Evan Bayh a pale comparison to the giant many of us consider his father, Birch.  Well, Ragebot, has done a lovely satirical piece on the retiring Senator from Indiana. Or is he? Go and take a gander at this quite amusing little post.

And guess what? It turns out that Evan’s wealthy wife, Susan, sits on the Board of Wellpoint, the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross. You remember them? They were planning a 39% rate hike for their existing members in California.

I guess we see why Evan has been so vehement in his refusal to consider anything meaningful when it comes to health care reform. Not gonna mess up that golden egg are we Evan? As I said, your father must be appalled.

***

Everyone in the world knows that America is nuts. After all, we are the home of swallowing goldfish, stuffing phone booths with people, food eating contests, Evel Kneivel, and Dog, the Bounty Hunter, and his fashionista wife. Need I say more?

Well, the Brits can give us a run for our money it seems. That should be clear anyway. Ever get a look at  what passes for royal fashion at Buckingham Palace? Enough said.

The silly Brits have a thing called the Diagram Award, and it features the best and silliest of book titles they can find. Past winners have been Bombproofing your Horse and Living with Crazy Buttocks.

Do stop by and see the finalists for this year. What can I say? I guess I have too much time on my hands again.

***

I’ve never been much of a fan of Arnold. I tend to be skeptical of actors entering politics. No doubt I’ve said an unkind word about the Terminator now and then.

But utter kudos are in order. Appearing on This Week, George Stephanopolous’s old gig, with Governor Rendell of PA, Arnold was willing to call it down the middle.

He condemned his own party for decrying the merits of the Stimulus package, all the while posing at home for photos with the big check, taking credit for bring money home. He also acknowledged that Republicans were in fact the “party of no” and it was time for ideas and compromise.

Colin Powell also echoed the call for compromise, calling on both parties to stop the bickering and start working for the American public.

I found it refreshing that Schwartzenegger was willing to put his state first and not merely echo the usual Rethug talking lies. Maybe we are seeing a few cracks in the monolithic GOP propaganda machine.

***
Okay, so we like Ugly Betty and Hollywood’s rendition of the fashion world, but to us sane folks, most of the crap worn on the runway is fit for either a Halloween costume or the grand finale of the Barnum and Bailey’s Circus.

I guess it stands to reason that each season, some attempt is made to “outdo” last year. Being more outrageous (ever seen the stilts Lady GaGa has tripped around on?), seems to be the key to wowing them in the aisles.

Anyway, Isabel Mastache, (we hope she is not an American. . . .as I said, our cup runneth over with weirdos already), offered us “penis pants.” in her new spring collection. There is a video attached so link up and go see for yourself.

One would be tempted to say, what next? but I rather think that we can’t fathom the possibilities. But what do I know? I after all, shop mostly at the Goodwill a hotbed of sweat pants and t-shirt fashion.

***

Is nothing sacrosanct? I mean really! Okay, its a serious subject. Choking is no laughing matter. People die from choking, but this?

It seems that doctors, some at least, think that hot dogs are the worst offender to young children. They also add in grapes and popcorn.  I mean how more American can one get than a hot dog? It’s more American than apple pie and mom right?

Yes, I can see that these items could be dangerous. But heck, should you not allow your children to ride their bikes down the sidewalk because somebody might suffer a stroke and go careening over the curb and run down your offspring?

These overly cautious ones want the hot dog redesigned, whatever that might mean. I guess we can redesign the Dachshund while we are at it. And what about the poor hot dog bun? What is he supposed to be used for now? A pen holder?

***

It’s beginning to look a lot like Toyota has got its tit in a wringer, or is up a chit creek without a paddle, which ever works for ya.

I’m not sure the Japanese automaker will be surviving this endless parade of its failure to build safe vehicles. Today I saw a feature where a man has been imprisoned for some years on a manslaughter conviction, all from an accident he claims was caused by an accelerator that would not release.

I’m wondering if Japan sells Toyotas to Japanese folk at home. While there are plenty of reasons why Asians have some axes to grind against America, callously ignoring the safety of innocents seems a lousy way to redress grievances. It’s impossible to believe that the average Japanese is so unfeeling, so we can only conclude that Japanese business leaders go to the same ethics lacking schools as Americans do.

Sad. Just sad.

Enough of all this drivel. You must have important things to do. Get on with them, and I’ll see ya tomorrow with who knows what. I never do.

Weeping for All the Victims

Tags

army, Fort Hood, Islam, Japanese, Latino, Muslims, racism, War

I share with most people, the sadness of what transpired at Fort Hood in Texas. Sadness that so many were harmed and killed, grief that war continues to take its toll even off the battlefield.

What I most fervently prayed for, in those initial moments, is that no Muslim or Latino would be involved. Of course, that turned out not to be the case, as a Muslim army psychiatrist seems to be the person who wreaked such horror on the base.

I fear for the expected backlash, which always seems inevitable in this country. We are a country that proclaims it’s melting pot status on the one hand, and then goes out of its way to scapegoat most of its ills on “immigrants” and other “others.”

I cannot imagine the pain that ensued in Muslim quarters as the news came forth. I cannot imagine what plans and practices normal everyday Muslims must take to protect themselves against the slurs and actions of rabid “patriotic” nut cases. I almost desire to run up to every Muslim I can identify as such as offer my apologies.

I have already heard talk that “some” suggest that Muslims shouldn’t be serving in the armed forces, simply because our identifiable enemy is “Islam.” Of course it is not, for the vast vast majority of Muslims are law abiding, pious, quiet people, much like their Christian and Jewish brothers and sisters. It is only some demented fundamentalist types who pose a danger to all of us, Muslim, Jew,  and Christian alike.

Such an idea is absurd and unconscionable of course. It is akin to the racist nonsense we endured during WWII when we “interred” Japanese Americans, lest they secretly offer help to the Empire of Japan. We still are shamed by the film of those days as perfectly ordinary citizens are rounded up and incarcerated for no other reason that their heritage.

Such hatred and vitriol is not news these days. The right wing continues to ratchet up the rhetoric. Go to any of the tea bagger events and see the signs. President Obama is vilified as a “sambo” and referenced to Hitler. One knows that this powder keg will someday explode in some sort of ugly display. And of course the right wing pundits will all look left and right, and deny any complicity in the tragedy that has come upon us.

This is the quiet cloud of desperation that Muslims live under today. Never knowing. Keeping their eyes averted, and their mouths closed, they move among us. Knowing that anyone may be a potential nut case, ready to wreak patriotic retribution on supposed enemies of the state.

Latinos are not far behind in this. Regularly, otherwise innocuous “crimes” and unsavory activities are tied to “immigrants” and their “living off America” lives. We forget that they work harder and longer for less than most of us, and send a good portion to family members still trapped in even deeper poverty than here experienced.

Fostered no doubt by high schools that still teach that American is somehow the best and never much to blame for anything, we now live in a nation which always looks to some one else to be the cause of our unhappiness. It is always the fault of the socialist, the communist, the anarchist, the fundamentalist, the Asian, the Latino, the Muslim, the Jew, the Buddhist. As long as it is not “us,” that illusive and ever shrinking whitey. We are the somehow never to blame, perfect being.

I offer my meager support to Muslim brothers and sisters and those of all other minorities who seek the American dream in this morass of fickle humanity. We can slap them on the back and tell them, that, “hey, this was done to the Irish and the Italians as well. They made it. You will too. Just keep you head down and your nose clean. In a few decades, we will have found someone else.” It is hollow and trite and is inexcusable.

I am saddened that we as a nation cannot seem to learn any better. I am sorry that we don’t see this tragedy for what it is. A man, ill suited to the job he was in, increasingly makes it clear that he doesn’t belong in war. We ignore him, as we do all such men and women for the most part. Buck up there soldier! we say. You’ll survive, just as we did. It used to be okay to say, “it will make a man of you,” but it doesn’t sound as good saying it will make a woman of you.

War has many victims. More than we know. It has all of us as its victim if we would but see that. We all are reduced as human beings, we all suffer, we all are harmed in ways too deep to even see. We violate each other and then we return to base and eat a steak and sip a beer. A little touch football, and a good nights sleep, and tomorrow, well who knows, live, die, kill, wound, cry, laugh, it’s anybody’s guess. The insanity of such a life is clear isn’t it?

When will we learn that war is not an answer, but a stop gap for a people who have become too uncreative to come up with anything else?