• With apologies to my wife…

    I simply couldn’t resist…

    If you think they hate us now | Salon.com Excerpts:

    Even if George W. Bush is the most awful American president in modern times, as many historians believe, and even though he has brought the United States into unprecedented disrepute around the world, as opinion polls indicate, the bombastic tone of the candidates seeking to succeed him from his own party raises a disturbing possibility. If the next president is a Republican, this truly bad situation could become still worse.

    The leading GOP contenders have all endorsed the current escalation of U.S. forces. They all share the president’s determination to keep our troops there indefinitely. They all insistently echo Bush by linking the invasion and occupation of Iraq with the attacks of 9/11.

    … in his best moments after 9/11, he (Bush) has defended the rights of Muslim Americans to live here without suffering persecution or prejudice.

    Perhaps Bush’s efforts deserve to be dismissed as little more than lip service, but semantics matter. The Republicans most likely to win their party’s presidential nomination constantly use language that is meant to inflame anger against Muslims for political advantage.

  • Acceding to my wife’s demands

    First of all, I’d like to give myself a great big pat on the back for spelling “acceding” correctly on the first try. I have it on good authority that if there’s a gene responsible for good spelling, the Kauffman family doesn’t have it.

    So what is this demand and why am I acceding to it? You wouldn’t know it from this site, but my wife has a lot to say about what I write. I tell her she should post comments, and she tells me she’s not going to communicate with me through no stinking blog. Sheesh!

    Lately, my wife – critic extraordinaire – has been on me for something without political flavor. I asked her why, and she says she hears me talk about it all the time, she doesn’t need to read it too. Fair enough. Although it’s not my primary goal with this thing, I suppose I can throw an entertaining bone (forgive me for my presumptuousness) to someone who makes up a large percentage of my regular readership.

    Yesterday Cheryl took our eldest for an overdue eye exam (I may not be able to spell, but I have no need for regular pilgrimages to the local lens-crafter – HA! TAKE THAT!). Any hoo, Cheryl and Beth both got the windows to their soul properly measured and analyzed, and Beth was distressed to learn that her eyes were once again a little worse. The lenscrafter tried to explain to her that it was normal for folks’ eyesight to get a little worse over time, and that her eyes were following the typical pattern. Beth (who does have the Kauffman gene for anxiety) was having none of it. As is Beth’s way, she laid her own brand of shock an awe on the lenscrafter, in the form of a saturation bombing of questions. “Why are my eyes getting worse?” “Will they always get worse?” “How bad will they get?” “Will I go blind?” “How long do I have before I need to wear glasses all the time?” “Will I be able to were contacts?” “Do they hurt?”

    The Lenscrafter showed exemplary patience, but with Beth there’s always a question that breaks down the barriers of sanity. On this day, it came shortly after Beth shared her fear that she would not be able to fly into space if her eyesight got too bad.

    “If I get Lasik will I still be able to be an astronaut?”

    “Honey, they don’t do Lasik on children. You can worry about that when you’re an adult.”

    This person obviously doesn’t know Beth.

    Cheryl is my wife and she approved this message.

  • Who are you calling a socialist?

    It occurs to me that even private health insurance represents a kind of “socialized” medicine. If I may be so bold, I’d like to tell you what I think of private insurance: the bastard child of socialism and capitalism. The idea behind insurance is to pool resources with a larger group, so that individual members are better able to cope financially with misfortune, minimizing individual risk. Insurance companies are just the mechanism to facilitate this relationship… siphoning off money for shareholder profits. When you think about it, this community sharing of risk is a pretty socialist idea. So, when you get right down to it, you’re supporting a kind of “socialized” medicine if you’re a proponent of the insurance model of providing health care. Real capitalists would only support a straight fee for service model… only opening your checkbook when you purchase the care itself (none of this paying insurance premiums crap).

    Real Americans pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, they don’t need the village to help them up.