"I don't care if Bristol did advance to the finals.
You're not getting out the shotgun."
Cartoon created by Ima June Pullet (aka TexasTrailerParkTrash)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Their Last Hurrah and Hallelujah
 |
| Star Trek: The Next Generation. "Make It So" |
Because there will be no one left who remembers institutionalized segregation or Jim Crow. My Class of '66 was the last all-white graduating class in my little high school in North Carolina. We remember with wonder that such a thing was ever allowed to exist.
My Class of '70 was probably the last graduating class at my all-woman, liberal arts school to forbid slacks in class, even while training the generation that would, within mere weeks of graduation, leave its bras and panty-girdles and up-tight conventions at home in the back of the closet. All that happened so long ago that Spanx have come to seem like a modern invention. There will be no one left who remembers when a woman's college was the best bet a girl had of leading a heated discussion in a political science class. Or any science class.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Out of the Mouths of Babes
For a little over a month now I’ve been volunteering in a reading program for kindergartners at our local primary school.
Since my grandkids are in school pretty much full time now, and my daughter has either been working from home or at her new office digs during school hours, I found that after eight years “on the job” my services as child caregiver were no longer required.
I knew all along that day was coming, but it arrived a little sooner than I’d bargained for, leaving me with feelings akin to being told by a supervisor to pick up my severance pay from human resources and it’s been nice working with you.
Even though I’m essentially a creative, “free spirit” (cough) Gemini, I’m still a creature who needs some structure in her life in order to feel grounded.
To me, one of the worse things that can happen to an otherwise healthy person who’s retired is not having a reason to get up in the morning.
I know too many people who have taken to tippling during the day (and night) after retirement because they don’t have someone or something that needs them; something that requires their attention on a regular basis.
So my “something” has become five kindergartners, four days a week, in a one-on-one reading session that usually lasts twenty minutes each. I have two girls and two boys on Mondays and Wednesdays, and one teeny, tiny little ESL (English as a second language) girl on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
If you want to maintain a young outlook on life, go no further than a bunch of kindergartners.
They are a hoot.
Today, one of my boys was regaling me with a description of a picture he said he’d seen at the library of a horse giving birth. (I’m thinking he must have seen it at the public library, not the school library which has books just for Pre-K through kindergarten.)
Needless to say, it involved some very inventive thinking about horses’ butts and things that emerge from them.
I don’t know who was getting more of an education—him or me.
But when it comes to inventive thinking, today’s prize has to go to my first little girl of the day. She and the other girls came twirling into the reading room decked out in construction paper Indian headdresses and macaroni bead necklaces in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
As I admired her get-up I murmured something about how clever the necklace was, being made entirely of dried macaroni of various colors.
My little Pocahontas wanna-be laughed at my patent cluelessness and said:
“That’s not macaroni! That’s dead food!”
I stand corrected.
Although, it could have been that the teacher had told them it was "dyed" food.
And, more likely, it could have been, with my diminished hearing, that I misheard entirely what Pocahontas said.
Either way, a good time was had by all.
I can’t wait to get up tomorrow morning to see what the day brings.
Since my grandkids are in school pretty much full time now, and my daughter has either been working from home or at her new office digs during school hours, I found that after eight years “on the job” my services as child caregiver were no longer required.
I knew all along that day was coming, but it arrived a little sooner than I’d bargained for, leaving me with feelings akin to being told by a supervisor to pick up my severance pay from human resources and it’s been nice working with you.
Even though I’m essentially a creative, “free spirit” (cough) Gemini, I’m still a creature who needs some structure in her life in order to feel grounded.
To me, one of the worse things that can happen to an otherwise healthy person who’s retired is not having a reason to get up in the morning.
I know too many people who have taken to tippling during the day (and night) after retirement because they don’t have someone or something that needs them; something that requires their attention on a regular basis.
So my “something” has become five kindergartners, four days a week, in a one-on-one reading session that usually lasts twenty minutes each. I have two girls and two boys on Mondays and Wednesdays, and one teeny, tiny little ESL (English as a second language) girl on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
If you want to maintain a young outlook on life, go no further than a bunch of kindergartners.
They are a hoot.
Today, one of my boys was regaling me with a description of a picture he said he’d seen at the library of a horse giving birth. (I’m thinking he must have seen it at the public library, not the school library which has books just for Pre-K through kindergarten.)
Needless to say, it involved some very inventive thinking about horses’ butts and things that emerge from them.
I don’t know who was getting more of an education—him or me.
But when it comes to inventive thinking, today’s prize has to go to my first little girl of the day. She and the other girls came twirling into the reading room decked out in construction paper Indian headdresses and macaroni bead necklaces in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
As I admired her get-up I murmured something about how clever the necklace was, being made entirely of dried macaroni of various colors.
My little Pocahontas wanna-be laughed at my patent cluelessness and said:
“That’s not macaroni! That’s dead food!”
I stand corrected.
Although, it could have been that the teacher had told them it was "dyed" food.
And, more likely, it could have been, with my diminished hearing, that I misheard entirely what Pocahontas said.
Either way, a good time was had by all.
I can’t wait to get up tomorrow morning to see what the day brings.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sunday Funnies
"This is where the new GOP senators line up to kiss Jim DeMint's butt."
Cartoon by Ima June Pullet (aka TexasTrailerParkTrash)
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Veterans Week, Part III: V-Day +1 +1
I cannot say a word of this better than my friend, Robert, did in his November 12th blog post at Plead Ignorance. I haven't yet obtained his permission to re-post his article, but, just this once I conclude that it is, indeed, "better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission." It's that good.
Yesterday was Veterans Day, in some places, Armistice Day; a day when we are supposed to remember and honor the men and women in uniform who serve, and who have died serving, our nation in times of war and peace. And today, the day after Veterans Day, we can then return to forgetting those sacrifices and ignoring the unequal price they pay to ensure the comforts we enjoy.
Since the Conservatives recently regained their section of Capitol Hill turf the news media has been awash in championing their agenda; which is to cut government and reduce taxes (aka: foster unfettered expansion of moneyed interests). Example: CBS news anchor Katie Couric (who I believe has no more stature as a journalist than the kid who delivers the daily paper) touted all the ways in which the Conservatives plan to reign in government and runaway spending. With no fact checking or journalistic inquiry, she parroted the “facts” about the Social Security System being in “red ink” and on the brink of collapse and being a major cause for the burgeoning deficit. That fact is, that is NOT true!
So now the new prevailing and perceived shining path toward restoring America’s Greatness reads as follows: Ending tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of our elite is off the table. Targeted instead are the costs of supporting the poorest of our citizens; Social Security, Medicare, Welfare. It will be an ironic twist of fate if any Tea Baggerson unemployment voted Republican – unlikely UC benefits will be further extended, these folks might be the first to realize how they just voted to cut their own economic throats.
But among all the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands over concern for our increasing national debt, the absence of the cost of our unnecessary and fruitless war in Afghanistan is the overlooked Elephant in the Room. We are borrowing close to One Billion dollars A DAY from China to maintain this war which has no expectation of any positive outcome whatsoever. Instead, we will continue to pay for it off the backs of people perceived as too lazy to go out and get jobs… which, incidentally, don’t exist. Large segments of our nation are apparently thirstily drinking the Kool Aid being served up by our political leaders.
The cost to our country for this war, and the Iraq war, have been deftly shielded and sanitized for our consumption. This has not always been true in our history. During World War II our nation sold bonds to finance the war. Everyone paid taxes to fund the war and few complained. It was necessary for all citizens to participate in one way or another in the defense of freedom. Everyone felt the pinch; consumer items such as sugar, coffee and materials like rubber and gasoline were rationed. No one was exempt, if you were not serving in uniform you were, in some way, supporting the soldiers who were. We were pulling together.
Again taxes were increased during the Vietnam War. In some sense, the cost to the taxpayer for Vietnam was but one of many pressures the public felt, in addition to the photos of caskets being shipped back home, which forced the government to yield to the growing outcries to bring that war to a close.
That is not the case today. Only recently the Obama administration has lifted the prohibition of pictures being released of flag-draped caskets being returned from the Middle East. But these images seldom make it into the consciousness of the news media; apparently more newsworthy: a Tea Bagger in a three-cornered hat with a misspelled sign calling the president a Socialist is the media’s primary focus.
Those in power have taken great pains to insure that this war costs the American taxpayer nothing; unless, of course, it happens to be YOUR child or loved one who has chosen to serve in the active military. I have not heard one public official suggest taxes be increased to pay for the War on Terrorism. And now it is quite clear that they neither want to factor in the cost of the war anywhere into the incendiary discussions about the rise of our national deficit.
I find it tragic that every day men and women go out on patrol in desolate places of the world based on pointless strategies, facing death and/or injury; while at home, Americans stop but one day a year to honor their commitment with parades and plastic flags made in China. Well hey… they volunteered to be in the service, didn’t they? I wonder who’s on “Dancing with the Stars” tonight?
Further reading:
1. "Bush-Era Tax Cuts Depart From History of America War Finance" Urban Institute
2. “The history of America’s tax system can be written largely as a history of America’s wars.” and Taxes, by Steven A. Bank, Kirk J. Stark, Joseph J. Thorndike."
Good work, my skeptical friend.
Veterans Day +1
Since the Conservatives recently regained their section of Capitol Hill turf the news media has been awash in championing their agenda; which is to cut government and reduce taxes (aka: foster unfettered expansion of moneyed interests). Example: CBS news anchor Katie Couric (who I believe has no more stature as a journalist than the kid who delivers the daily paper) touted all the ways in which the Conservatives plan to reign in government and runaway spending. With no fact checking or journalistic inquiry, she parroted the “facts” about the Social Security System being in “red ink” and on the brink of collapse and being a major cause for the burgeoning deficit. That fact is, that is NOT true!
So now the new prevailing and perceived shining path toward restoring America’s Greatness reads as follows: Ending tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of our elite is off the table. Targeted instead are the costs of supporting the poorest of our citizens; Social Security, Medicare, Welfare. It will be an ironic twist of fate if any Tea Baggerson unemployment voted Republican – unlikely UC benefits will be further extended, these folks might be the first to realize how they just voted to cut their own economic throats.
But among all the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands over concern for our increasing national debt, the absence of the cost of our unnecessary and fruitless war in Afghanistan is the overlooked Elephant in the Room. We are borrowing close to One Billion dollars A DAY from China to maintain this war which has no expectation of any positive outcome whatsoever. Instead, we will continue to pay for it off the backs of people perceived as too lazy to go out and get jobs… which, incidentally, don’t exist. Large segments of our nation are apparently thirstily drinking the Kool Aid being served up by our political leaders.
The cost to our country for this war, and the Iraq war, have been deftly shielded and sanitized for our consumption. This has not always been true in our history. During World War II our nation sold bonds to finance the war. Everyone paid taxes to fund the war and few complained. It was necessary for all citizens to participate in one way or another in the defense of freedom. Everyone felt the pinch; consumer items such as sugar, coffee and materials like rubber and gasoline were rationed. No one was exempt, if you were not serving in uniform you were, in some way, supporting the soldiers who were. We were pulling together.
Again taxes were increased during the Vietnam War. In some sense, the cost to the taxpayer for Vietnam was but one of many pressures the public felt, in addition to the photos of caskets being shipped back home, which forced the government to yield to the growing outcries to bring that war to a close.
That is not the case today. Only recently the Obama administration has lifted the prohibition of pictures being released of flag-draped caskets being returned from the Middle East. But these images seldom make it into the consciousness of the news media; apparently more newsworthy: a Tea Bagger in a three-cornered hat with a misspelled sign calling the president a Socialist is the media’s primary focus.
Those in power have taken great pains to insure that this war costs the American taxpayer nothing; unless, of course, it happens to be YOUR child or loved one who has chosen to serve in the active military. I have not heard one public official suggest taxes be increased to pay for the War on Terrorism. And now it is quite clear that they neither want to factor in the cost of the war anywhere into the incendiary discussions about the rise of our national deficit.
I find it tragic that every day men and women go out on patrol in desolate places of the world based on pointless strategies, facing death and/or injury; while at home, Americans stop but one day a year to honor their commitment with parades and plastic flags made in China. Well hey… they volunteered to be in the service, didn’t they? I wonder who’s on “Dancing with the Stars” tonight?
Further reading:
1. "Bush-Era Tax Cuts Depart From History of America War Finance" Urban Institute
2. “The history of America’s tax system can be written largely as a history of America’s wars.” and Taxes, by Steven A. Bank, Kirk J. Stark, Joseph J. Thorndike."
Good work, my skeptical friend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)