Sweet Lemons and Cold Weather

Politically speaking things just go along. As a liberal liberal I am not alone in feeling this way.
Hope for real health care reform is low. (People like me always try to find a sweet lemon somewhere. Though, I am having a hard time finding one.)
We got pretty much “Insurance Reform”-sort of. The insurance companies are getting more to cover and with little change on their part. And money flows like water still. Yes, I know previous conditions will supposedly go out the window. (Ah, that slice of sweet lemon, maybe.) That really is a great thing. I don't trust them though. I can't wait to see how insurance companies get around this one.

I will say I have a new appreciation for Sen. Reid. I didn't think he had it in him to push and shove and keep our Senators at it until he got some sort of agreement. As far as the deals cut. Most of them are not terribly consequential at least not in the long term. I may not like it but what interesting meetings and “discussions” were held for the past week. Of course now the two houses must come together and reconcile the bills. Just for learning sake I would love to hear the out of the public deals. This stuff would all be so interesting if it wasn't about the lives of people.

Now I wait to see if there are any real regulations for the investment banking industry. Doubtful.
Too Big to Fail will probably stay that way. However, they may find that the taxpayers won't be there for them anymore. Hey where are we supposed to get money to pay taxes anyway.

Let's see. What about the nation's borrowing, the government in our name. I agree there are times we just have to urge the economy by printing and borrowing but thanks to previous happenings, don't forget the previous administration, we were already in debt up to our eyeballs. Unemployment is high and not much happening to help. A December 26th article from the NY Times, you will not enjoy reading Recession Hovers as Winter Halts Construction Work. We are going through another dramatic change in the ways we can earn income-buggy whips anyone?
I was hopeful for a green economy but people are slow to move and Congress has to argue. More money flowing. Then, what about those who cannot restart. We are not all young and flexible. Will it take a generation or just a few years? Read the article in the Dec. 26th, NYTimes about the Earth-Friendly Elements we use. We just can't learn can we.

I get so much information from progressive groups but I don't get many answers. I get calls for, you ready, sign our petition and contribute. So many petitions I wonder if Congress pays attention to any of them anymore. Who gets the money contributed and why? Progressives need to pool their resources for a little while. That would make for a bigger lobby. But who will hold them together and for how long.

Here some slices of that sweet lemon. We can relax a little now about torturing people in our name; our civil rights at home are not in as much jeopardy; a few more people admit global warming; the present administration did take a little time to decide to send more troops into war; the President didn't say God told him to do send them. Oh, our V.P. hasn't shot anybody. The Republican party suddenly loves Medicare and seniors. The Republican party tried to hold up that awful defense spending-we shouldn't question the why of it. The Republican party that spent so much of our money is now worried about our spending. So see there are sweet lemons to be found.

Now there is the weather. We didn't get hit as badly as many. Most people made it through Christmas safely here. But, why is it there are certain folks who just can't stand staying home for more than a day? It is boring for many but the rest of us would like to relax for a short spell. No, not if you belong to a family of “macho” folks. Does this sound bright to you? Driving when you don't really need to do so; getting stuck so you have to have someone else come to your rescue. Or worse.

Oh, these are actually the kind of people that pay no heed to things like a health-care crisis until there is no such thing as health care except for the wealthy; let banks get too big too fail; depend on the mid-east for energy, destroy the planet; depend on other countries for loans, not countries that exactly care either. Why think ahead we are too busy thinking in the moment.

P.S. Now we are having tougher security at airports. Uh after the fact. Well, at least we try to learn. (sweet lemon)

Now, don't you wish I had stayed quiet.

Find the NY Times HERE.

To Frank Rich August 16

Frank Rich wrote a very interesting column in the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/opinion/16rich.html
Here is a quotation from it.

It’s through this prism we might re-examine the raucous town hall eruptions this month. Even if they are inflated by activist organizations and cable-TV overexposure, they still cannot be dismissed entirely as made-for-media phenomena made-to-measure to fill the August news vacuum. Nor are they necessarily about health care. The twisted distortions about “death panels” and federal conspiracies “to pull the plug on grandma” are just too unhinged from the reality of any actual legislation. These bogus fears are psychological proxies for bigger traumas.

The column was about Mad Men, the 60's and 2009. I was too late to post a comment on the column so I post my thoughts here.

Wrong on bogus fears.
Yet right on bogus fears.

My husband and I sent links to a very funny blog, answers to health care questions, to many people we know. It was an extremely funny blog post. It was sarcastic irony at its best.
To our surprise, though why we were surprised I do not know, several people took it seriously. What has been and is wrong with our educational system? Or is it as a friend reminded me. “Just remember the average IQ is 100. Therefore about half the people are below the average.” (He was being sarcastic)

Many people do believe the “bogus fears” about pulling the plug on grandma and some government panel deciding who can have treatments for ailments. They already live with insurance companies doing some of this so the fear of government doing it is easy to accept. Grandma is told that she is sapping the younger generation, “your kids or grandkids”, by taking Social Security and Medicare. By the way, Grandma probably paid into the system for years and is helping support those "kids and grandkids". So Grandma may believe it is possible that some may well want to pull the plug. (Why is it Grandma and not Grandpa we talk about in this context?)

We have lived as if addicted to consumerism. Many of us who could afford it have not paid attention to our own health and expect a drug to “take care” of any problem that arises from it. More consumerism because of the constant barrage of drug ads. We are told over and over that our educational system is failing. Yet, there are no real answers forthcoming and most of us don't take time to demand real answers. And the kids in school hear that their schools are no good-so why stay in the system. We talk about our kids as products-consumerism mentality. Some of us buy things to learn how we too can be among the wealthy classes. We frantically purchase anything and everything. We now see programming on how to save money, yet keep spending, by purchasing things we don't need at discount stores or flea markets. We purchase goods from many of these discount stores that are made in China to undercut our own economy. At the same time we are told saving and investing is great, but then told by saving now we hurt the economy.

Yes, there are so many anxieties. Many of us are watching as the economy is in a mess. We fear, maybe it is a fear well-grounded in reality, the government is not paying attention to “we the people”. There is no government watching or regulating much of anything. It seems corporations and various industry coalitions have purchased control. Is anyone going to really do anything about “too big too fail”. Really do anything. The very air we breathe is in question. Yet, some of our government is saying we can't change now the economy can't take it. The debt to China is concerning at the least. The deficit and the debt are in numbers we cannot even picture or read. The TV media, and much of the print media, jumps quickly from “hard news” to the latest scandal from any sector-cultural or business or … Why? Because we, the consumers, want to forget all the anxieties we cannot control. And business wants us to keep watching and reading so they can advertise at us; therefore to keep us spending.

We do feel “Don Draper's disorientation”.

A Birthday to Forget or Maybe Not

Happy Birthday? March 19th

It has been six years to the day since we woke to “SHOCK and AWE”. I remember it well, it is my birthday too. Though I am just a tad more than 6.

In that six years, more than 4200 US troops have died and who knows how many Iraqis have died. Millions of Iraqi citizens displaced. US troops killed in Afghanistan somewhere around 600-700. The trust of American Citizens in their government is low. Hope is high but mistrust is still ever present. Yet, we search for someone to keep our hopes up.

Whether it is a right-wing radio talk show host or a left-wing newsletter, we still want someone or something to trust and in which to hope.

We can't trust our our own senses: eyes, TV or newspapers; ears, radio. The media will give us what they think we want. So now we don't trust ourselves either. We research and we seek more information but who or what can we trust in our research. By reading or watching and listening to many sources we can hope to make a judgment.

A few days ago a picture ran in the NY Times newspaper showing a pipeline diverting water to a mine in one extremely dry place in Chile where the towns and villages are “drying up”, people leaving. On the same front page was the article about AIG paying those bonuses. There was greed in both picture and text. Actually greed did not seem a strong enough word anymore. (NY Times, Mar 15, 2009)

Then too we have the radio entertainer getting paid hundreds of millions to complain about how high the cost of replacing some part in his private jet while he tells his audience the government is raising his taxes and theirs. And they hope. The audience listens and hopes because they are still convinced they will be one of the very wealthy too. This audience has worked hard and they deserve to be rich. If the government will just stay out of their way, they will be in the top income percentages soon. They haven't made bad decisions they deserve to be rich.

We have young people with no health insurance unless not so rich parents, or sometimes grandparents, can pay for it: we see tent cities in the US: we see long lines of people seeking jobs, any job; we see the working-poor losing their homes or close to it. People are hungry here in the US. Actually people have been going hungry in the US for quite a while but not so many as to get any real attention. People have been living in cars and on the streets for years but they must have made poor decisions.

All the while our Congress argues about increasing Americorps, argues about changing bankruptcy laws to cover residences not just vacation homes. Congress continuously argues about who is to blame for what problem. Congress legislating after the fact and never trusting themselves or us. Deregulation was not really about trust. Absence of regulation is not the presence of Trust. There will always be greed.

Perhaps all we can do is try and hope. If you are a religious person, maybe you pray. If you are a spiritual person maybe you pray. Though our religious institutions are in doubt. We heard things from political leaders about praying and God talking to them. A President of the US said God told him to go into Afghanistan and Iraq. We heard from some religious leaders about the coming of the end or not. Some religious leaders told us it is OK to kill in the name of God. Of course this was not the first time religious leaders told people or rulers it was OK but that was history and this is the 21^st Century surely not the same. Surely we have come further or have we?

Read these documents http://www.iep.utm.edu/j/justwar.htm http://www.catholic.com/library/Just_War_Doctrine_1.asp and http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf for partial answers. The first two are different explanations of “Just War”. The third is a file of American War and Military Operations Casualties prepared for Congress and last update shown was 2008.

The past 6 years have been interesting but let's find other interests, please. It is spring maybe we can try gardening or birdwatching. There are so many beautiful things still in this world let us look around. That is all it takes and maybe we can help others see the beauty too.

We can take pictures. We can paint pictures. We can write poetry. We can make movies. We can write music. We can write stories. We can talk. We can teach. But we don't need to use “Shock and Awe” to get a point across.

So just a Birthday to you Iraq War, “Iraqi Freedom” ? (and me too) I hope I don't ever awaken to another birthday like that one 6 years ago. And I wish everyone a better year.