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God makes his views known

Friday, March 2, 2012

No other conclusion can be drawn:

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church is left in ruins Thursday in Ridgway, Ill.

 

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More false equivalency from the New York Times

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Yet another exercise in the arts of false equivalencies in this morning’s Times, which bemoans the fate of Olympia Snowe, who didn’t want to face the wrath of the right in this year’s election. But, in true modern media fashion, it was absolutely necessary for the Times to make it clear that the center is being hollowed out by identical processes in both parties.

It would take a lot of time to deal with the examples of the Democrats supposedly victimized by the thought police on the left, so I’ll restrict myself to a few observations.

First, where is the Club for Growth of the left. Identify, please, the organization on the left that targets insufficiently liberal Democrats for destruction.

To get to some specifics. Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, complains about the fact that while he is anti-abortion, he is taking heat for not being anti-abortion enough. This is not an example of pressure from the left and is in no way similar to Snowe’s experience.

Also, it doesn’t count if someone decides for whatever reason not to seek re-election unless that reason has something to do with the kinds of pressures Snowe was experiencing. Evan Bayh called himself a centrist, which in this day and age means he was an intellectually dishonest corporate shill, but let us put that to the side. There was no concerted effort among Indiana Democrats to defeat Bayh. In fact, the way he went about retiring was a stab in the back to the Democrats, since they had very little time to find another candidate. Ben Nelson is in the same category. No one was attacking him from the left. Plenty of us didn’t like him, but he wasn’t facing any opposition to his renomination. If he thought he was going to lose the general election it was because he felt that even he wasn’t bat shit crazy enough to satisfy the right wingers in his state.

More fundamentally, it simply isn’t true that the two parties have gravitated toward the extremes. The Republicans surely have, but the Democrats have not. In fact, the Democrats have, in many respects, become more “centrist” as the Republicans have succeeded in redefining the center as they pull the “respectable” right end of the spectrum ever more into tinfoil hat land. As one small example, twenty years ago you would not have found Democrats looking to make “grand bargains” about Social Security or Medicare. The Democratic party is far more dominated by corporate influence than at any time since before FDR. That is not left wing. As yet another small example the Democrats just passed a health care bill that was essentially the Republican plan from just a few years ago. Last but not least, the issue that finally drove Snowe to the breaking point, the issue of insurance coverage for contraceptives, is not one in which the Democrats have taken an extreme position. Their position is consistent with the law in 27 states and entirely consistent with the Constitution the right wing claims to own. It is the Republicans that have staked out an extreme position that makes a mockery of the First Amendment principles that they claim to be upholding.

A left wing Senator as far to the right as the average Senate Republican would be advocating, among other things that never enter the public conversation, confiscatory taxes on the rich, say in the 85% area (you know, where it was in the communist ‘50s), truly universal health care, orderly destruction of our empire, taxation of the churches, withdrawal of accreditation from religious schools that teach creationism, and oddly enough because it’s not really a left-right issue, meaningful action on climate change. And they wouldn’t just believe in these things in the darkest recesses of their hearts; they’d be screaming about them and calling anyone who opposed them threats to America. When that blessed day comes the Times can write with some justification about a polarized Senate. Right now, there’s only one party at the pole; the other one is just slightly removed from the equator.

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A great Democrat

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A few days ago I put up a post that included this paragraph about our hapless Democrats:

Today a poll was released showing that 47% of the people in this country want the health care law repealed. And why not? All they hear is a steady drumbeat of criticism from the right and a deafening silence from the Democrats. Would people want it repealed if they knew what was in it? Unlikely. Will the Democrats make a concerted effort to let them know what’s in it, to be as aggressively in favor of the law as Republicans are against it? Need I ask?”

Well, the operative word in that paragraph is “concerted”, so I stand by my main point, but good friend Jason Gross, from Joe Courtney’s office emailed to remind me that Joe Courtney is an honorable exception. He hasn’t run away from the health care bill, and he deserves credit for it. From an article from the Connecticut Mirror:

The third-term congressman from Vernon hasn’t missed many chances to tout the upsides of a law that many of his fellow Democrats have not gone out of their way to promote. Courtney brought a primary care doctor to town hall meetings last year to talk about patients whose cancers were discovered because of free wellness visits that Medicare now covers because of health reform. He’s delivered floor speeches to point out what he considers positive developments from the law, about which Americans remain divided, according to national surveys.

We here in Eastern Connecticut can be justly proud of our current Congressman. Not only does he vote right (well, almost all the time-no one’s perfect), not only is he a real Democrat, but he is a truly nice guy, something you can’t say about many politicians, even those with whom you might agree.

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Big surprise: Catholics don’t like Saint Ricky

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

This really should come as no surprise:

Despite Santorum’s devout Catholicism, Romney beat Santorum, 44% to 37%, among Michigan Catholics, who comprised 30% of the state’s electorate. In Ohio, by contrast, Catholics were just one-quarter of the vote in 2008. Meanwhile, Santorum trounced Romney among Michigan’s Evangelicals by sixteen points. Such voters amounted to 39% of the vote in the Wolverine State. Four years ago, evangelicals made up 44% of the Ohio electorate.

Catholics are not, on the whole, particularly rabid about their religion, and were probably more turned off by Santorum saying he vomits at the thought of JFK, who many of those Catholics still hold dear (even the Republicans), than they are entranced by his birth control stance, with which they disagree. Santorum may think JFK should have danced to the Pope’s tune, but most Catholics would disagree, especially when it comes to anything involving sex. Nor should it come as any surprise that Santorum does so well with the fundamentalists; he is more of them than he is of the Catholics.

The quote above illustrates a peculiar phenomenon in our discourse. Santorum is a “devout” Catholic because he wants to outlaw birth control and abortion (i.e., keep those females in subjection), in line with Catholic teaching. Liberal Catholics, on the other hand, don’t earn that adjective, despite the fact that they agree with the Church on such issues as the death penalty, not to mention feeding the poor, healing the sick and all that other old fashioned stuff. The Bishops, twisted individuals that they are, would probably go along with this categorization; the hierarchy has become sex-obsessed. There may have been a time when they had some influence on the voting behavior of their “flock”, but lately, for the Bishops, it’s been like herding cats rather than sheep.

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Where’s Colbert?

Monday, February 27, 2012

If you’re a Colbert fan, you know he’s currently in a deadly rivalry with his former best friend Jimmy Fallon. Well lately Jimmy has been hanging out with Michelle Obama, seen here in a potato sack race against Fallon at the White House.

So, inquiring minds want to know. Is Colbert going to take this lying down?

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When will they ever learn

Monday, February 27, 2012

In an apparent attempt to please the beltway punditocracy, Steny Hoyer has announced that he’ll soon be announcing a deficit reduction program, which, whatever its merits will be rejected by the Republicans. Apparently Hoyer believes that the American people will reward the Democrats for attempting to address the most critical issue facing the country, as that term is defined by the usual gang of idiots on the news channels and the newspaper columns. In this Hoyer will fail in twofold fashion. First, one can never satisfy the Pete Petersons and Tom Friedmans of the world, particularly if one is a Democrat. But the truly astonishing thing about this is Hoyer’s apparent tone deaf belief that this is an issue that really matters to the American people. Of course, if you ask most people they’ll tell you that they care about the deficit; but they really don’t. They know they should care about the deficit, because the need for such concern is constantly drummed into them, but when push comes to shove it’s a minor issue for most real people. What they really care about is jobs for their kids and sometimes for themselves, and social security and Medicare. These are issues ready made for the Democrats, but to speak up on them is to risk the wrath of the very serious people in Washington who feel that one proves ones seriousness by screwing everyone, except for them, of course. The fact that there solutions never work is beside the point.

Hoyer’s announcement tells us much about the difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans use the punditocracy, but they never kowtow to it. How many of them, for instance, are making any effort to appear reasonable when it comes to taxing the rich?

This is of a piece with the Democrats total inability to craft a message. Their electoral strategy consists of passively reaping the benefits of Republican stupidity. See, e.g., the war on birth control. But that is not a winning long term strategy. Today a poll was released showing that 47% of the people in this country want the health care law repealed. And why not? All they hear is a steady drumbeat of criticism from the right and a deafening silence from the Democrats. Would people want it repealed if they knew what was in it? Unlikely. Will the Democrats make a concerted effort to let them know what’s in it, to be as aggressively in favor of the law as Republicans are against it? Need I ask?

 

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Feeling Down

Sunday, February 26, 2012

I’m feeling a bit down lately. It was Mitt that made me feel this way, sort of empty and dissatisfied.

It all started when I saw him deliver this heartfelt paean to the joy he feels when he returns to his native earth.

 

 

It’s so terribly unfair that the press and much of the blogosphere has seen fit to concentrate on his wife’s two Cadillacs, rather than the pain and heartache he, and she, must feel when they are forced to use those Detroit made Cadillacs near their modest homes in New Hampshire, California and those other locations to which they have been most cruelly exiled.

 

For my part, I look around me and I share Mitt’s pain, for the blinders have fallen from my eyes, and now I can truly see. What do I see? I see that the trees are all the wrong height. I’m not sure if they’re too tall or too short, but that’s not the point. And don’t get me started on the roads. I now know that our stunted and/or overgrown trees and crooked roads are among the many reasons why I can never be truly happy here in New England. And this realization has led to even more revelations. The grass here is too high, the water finds a level too low, the sun rises too early, and the young maidens cheeks are not appled enough.

 

But like Mitt, I must soldier on. Not for me the joy of living where the trees are just the right height, the roads go places, and all other things have achieved the golden mean. Like Mitt, for reasons beyond my ken, I will never know the joy of living in Detroit.

 

 

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Friday Night Music

Friday, February 24, 2012

Well, in keeping with the topicality requirement, I thought I would try to find a song that celebrated something all the Republican candidates had in common, and I think I’ve found it, in two versions. This group was a true one hit wonder, though according to what I read while wandering through youtube, they parlayed the song into appearances in two movies. The group was the Castaways, and the song, well, like I said, a tribute to all the candidates. There are no non lip-synced versions, by the way. Maybe it’s because it was actually physically impossible to replicate those high notes live.

Now, I’m including this second version only because it shows the truly bizarre range of things you can find on the internet generally, and youtube specifically. According to the description on youtube:

“Liar, Liar,” by 1960s garage rock band The Castaways. Dance performance by The Honey Bees (Mary Ann, Ginger and Lovey) of Gilligan’s Island.

I used to watch Gilligan’s Island. Yes, I’ll admit it. But I have absolutely no recollection of “Lovey”. One thing this video does prove is that Mary Ann and Ginger couldn’t dance worth a lick, and Lovey, well, she isn’t even trying. Maybe it was being stuck on that island for so long.

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They truly serve who only sit and tweet

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Yesterday’s debate is over, and I think it’s only fair to pay tribute to the true heroes.

The internet has done some wonderful things, but perhaps for none can we be more grateful than the ability it affords the millions to avoid actually watching the likes of Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney bloviate for two hours, while still giving us the ability to get the highlights, from a number of perspectives, in real time.

I consider myself a person of at least an average ability to maintain my self control and, despite my advancing years, my heart is strong and my blood pressure low. But I know my limits. In my younger days I was fully capable of watching Republican presidential candidates debate, but that was in a different era, when some of them were certifiably sane. Those days are gone, and I know that I risk permanent harm should I expose myself to a concentrated dose of high pressure right wing posturing, particularly by the loathsome creatures remaining in this year’s contest. I don’t need a brain aneurysm, thank you very much, and my wife gets upset when I start screaming at the television. But thanks to the magic of the twittersphere, I can avoid any need to risk my health or marriage while still keeping fully apprised of the debate as it progresses, for there are numerous brave souls who willingly- in fact, in some cases, one suspects eagerly – expose themselves to the mind altering experience of a Republican debate. They sacrifice their health and their fingers, as they tap away throughout, sending instant and –in the case of those I follow-informed and funny reactions to the doings on stage, allowing the faint of heart such as I to stay informed yet sane.

So let us observe a moment of silence for these brave if foolish souls. They watch, so we don’t have to. We cannot know what permanent damage might result from this masochistic behavior. We can only hope for their sakes, that Obama’s Healthcare plan remains in effect, as they will need treatment of some sort, sooner or later.

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No democracy allowed in Greece

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

This, (via Atrios) along with the extreme austerity imposed on Greece, really should give Germany, of all countries, pause:

When Wolfgang Schäuble proposed that Greece should postpone its elections as a condition for further help, I knew that the game would soon be up. We are at the point where success is no longer compatible with democracy. The German finance minister wants to prevent a “wrong” democratic choice. Similar to this is the suggestion to let the elections go ahead, but to have a grand coalition irrespective of the outcome. The eurozone wants to impose its choice of government on Greece – the eurozone’s first colony.

What’s being done to Greece now is the functional equivalent to what was done to Germany after World War I, and that really didn’t turn out so well. We’re unlikely to see a Greek Hitler, but we’re quite likely to see a Greek dictator.

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