I really hate to do this. I just can’t help it this time.
Politics is not my gig, and I don’t usually discuss it where I fear that I may offend someone with a different belief system than my own. If only I had one that is …
Trouble is, when I heard the Alaskan Beauty Queen ask that silly, unabashedly cynical trick question to kick off her Tea Party keynote speech, my jaw absolutely dropped to the floor. Where is she coming from with a question like that? Is that a faith based stance? Is that family values or God bless America? It just makes me want to yell at the TV:
GREAT SARAH! HOW’S ALL THAT HATEY, FEARY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YOU?
I may have to delete this post, since I think I’m writing it from a negative space, which I really don’t like to do. But Dang. I mean DANG! Don’t people on the right side of our belief spectrum hold out hope for change too? But I’m going to click Publish now …
Thoughts-0-Dave 
People, of all sides of the political and social spectrum, get blinded (and motivated) by many things.
Well said MTAE. Indeed we do. It’s the blessing and the curse of a big country founded on such noble principles of liberty.
By: morethananelectrician on February 8, 2010
at 9:21 pm
Darn, you wasted that “Headache, Nausea … ” title. It would have been perfect here. That Alaskan bimbo does really, really bad things to my head, my stomach, my blood pressure, and my peace of mind. Frankly, I’d like to take her “hatey, feary stuff” and stuff it back where it came from.
Actually this title came straight from TV– pharmaceutical commercial “fine print”. Some of the media saw fit to report a few days later that this “convention” was attended by about 600 people, and wondered why it was in the news. Well Sarah was why. I don’t think that the governor will ever get any real traction. She may be pretty, but she’s shown everyone that she just don’t got “it”.
By: pied type on February 8, 2010
at 11:10 pm
But now things are going to happen in Europe. Up to now they mentioned Greece and now they are mentioning Portugal, and still they are rather polite about Spain. If only I knew what they mean by “debt”, because it was my impression, years ago, that wheile other countries piled up Government debt, The spaniards had a way of spreading it all over making it more difficult to calculate and classify.
Just now, I saw this descriptrion of the Portuguese Premier: “Mr. Sócrates, a dapper dresser with an open, expressive face who underlines his points with theatrical hand gestures…” And you’d have picked up (or I would have told you already 10 times) that the countries of Southern Europe are now called PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain).
This abbreviation was so gleefully received that even the PIIGS found it funny.
Yes the PIIGS have been in the news here recently. There is a western hemisphere equivalent acronym which escapes me now … What do you think will be happening in the EU?
By: cantueso on February 10, 2010
at 11:54 am
I told you about William Pfaff, formerly of the NYT, but by now very old, on the extreme left, says that the US has between 800 and 1000 bases all over the world.
He thinks that the idea and the development of these bases could be the one, by now irreversible error in US foreign policy: expensive, irrational, and dangerous.
He thinks that Obama caved in to those facts. Yet he was the first big journalist to favour Obama as a candidate to the presidency.
I am not going to disagree with what you say Mr. Pfaff says. But I don’t really know much about this. It seems like there have been quite a few domestic bases closed in the past 10 or 20 years. I wish we didn’t spend so much of our money on military stuff. On Obama, I can’t really get a read on what he’s trying to do. At this point I’m still faithful that he’s being cautious and thoughtful.
By: cantueso on February 10, 2010
at 12:22 pm
I don’t know and I think nobody can know it, because it is no longer rational, but dangerously out of balance and control, and so things depend on minor accidents that set them going one way or another.
From what has been stated publicly, it could be that Germany and France have been whispering behind the scenes, planning to help the smaller countries, but not Spain (and maybe not Portugal). Spain is “too big to fail”, and there is something else.
Spain might have to leave the Euro.
Yes, this is a sad state of affairs. One that works well for those who promote chaos, fear, and hatred. It will be interesting to see what becomes of nations “too big to fail”. Perhaps all debts will come to be forgiven?
By: cantueso on February 11, 2010
at 11:52 am
That “something else” that there is:
I don’t read history books, but have now and then looked into one. There has always been an oddly open hate for Spain in European history books.
In Switzerland there was one Burckhardt, from an Aristocratic family and greatly admired and sometimes envied by Nietzsche. He was the very picture of calm lucidity. However, when he mentioned Spain, each time he fell off his pedestal and started to bark and snort. Churchill the same. Tocqueville the same. These are the biggest name in European history writing.
I have been told that that hate is due to the reformation, also that it is because of Arab influence here. Anyway, one is taught that Spain was left out of every big European movement.
Interesting comment cantueso, thank you. Despite this hatred, Spain has had some major cultural influence in my hemisphere, historically. As you claim not to read history books, so do I, but even less so, or more so. What little I know of history comes from the classes I was required to take in school as a child. Or through the lens of some of the science subjects I’ve perused over the years. I don’t hate Spain.
By: cantueso on February 11, 2010
at 12:08 pm
I find myself saying it all the time when people have that reaction, “You know what they say, fill in personal name here, it’s different for Dems.”
My favorite was actually when she was reading from notes at a lectern while giving Obama shit for using a teleprompter (which was first used by a president named Eisenhower way back in the late 80’s) while waving a hand full of written notes. I love shit like that. It does make my job harder though. Who’s going to pay me to stand there and point?
Yeah, like there’s a difference between notes on paper versus screen. But Palin uses her “palm” pilot so she’s up on technology, right? If she was not pretty I bet she’d have been booed right off the stage by now.
I think I would pay you to stand there and point.
By: boundandgags on February 13, 2010
at 12:33 pm
As to the euro, just today another cover-up has become known. Some 8 or 9 years ago, “Wall Street” (I think it was Goldman Sachs) helped Greece hide a big part of its debt by “buying” it from them in return for rights on future lottery income and airport fees.
If Greece was able to do that, then Spain would have done it, too. Greece did it to be allowed into the European Union.
The strange thing about this deal is that the government was not obliged to publish it. It was secret, but not therefore illegal.
So you see. There is no telling what happens next.
Well that’s just WONDERFUL cantueso. My grandiose oversimplification of the evil world of the money changers is that the physics of money is consistent only unto itself and its engine of greed. If there was again a great crash where the value of wealth plummeted toward The Zero, then all bets would again be off and we’d be lining up for soup and bread while the lesser [former] millionaires would be jumping out their windows. Then it would not be a secret any more. 😦
By: cantueso on February 14, 2010
at 11:31 am
Im going to say it too. S.P. the B.Q. of A. is an embarrassment to mothers, republicans, women, Alaska, the United States, and people that wear glasses.
Hi Maleesha! Yeah, I’m embarrassed as hell. As an eyeglass wearer anyway. I wish my republican friends would own up to their embarrassment. Thanks for visiting. 🙂
By: maleesha on February 17, 2010
at 6:21 pm