R J Adams -Musings And Meanderings
Winter came with a vengeance to central Illinois last night. Eight or ten inches of snow played havoc with transport services, closed schools, and kept most folks in their homes today.
Thankfully, the forecast is for a rapid thaw, beginning tomorrow.
For this little chap –
– it can’t come soon enough.
Filed under: Snow fun
What is America’s fixation with John McCain? I guess that standing next to his Republican competition in the nomination race illumines him in a rosier light, but honestly, do Americans really want a seventy-two year old has-been as their next president?
Also hard to comprehend is the hero worship. So the guy spent five and a half years banged up in a Vietcong prison; so what? Anywhere but America that would be taken as a sign of failure. If he’d escaped, hacked down twenty of the enemy, stolen a uniform and a Vietcong jeep, then fought his way to the nearest landing strip before hijacking an enemy aircraft and hightailing it back to Arizona, THEN he might be considered a hero.
Okay, I’ll admit there’s an element of facetiousness in that last paragraph. By all accounts McCain is no coward. He even gave up the chance of an early release from prison camp to support other POW’s. But, that, of itself, won’t guarantee he’ll make a good American president.
Despite McCain’s oft quoted “straight-talking” ability, the guy bobs and weaves better than a hunted rabbit. His views on abortion have been up and down more often than a whore’s underwear. Officially, he toes the party line, but in 1999 he admitted ‘Roe v Wade’ should not be repealed.
In 2007 he changed his mind.
He’s been known in the past as a lead sponsor of gun control legislation, yet voted against renewal of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban and the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
A recent Washington Times editorial described McCain’s stance-shifting on immigration, thus[1]:
“On illegal immigration, Mr. McCain said that anyone who says he supported amnesty is “a liar” and says he has “never” supported Social Security benefits for illegals. However, in 2006 and 2007, he joined with Ted Kennedy to support Senate bills that would have granted amnesty to millions of illegals. In 2006, Mr. McCain denounced in a floor speech and cast the deciding vote against an amendment by Sen. John Ensign, Nevada Republican, that would have denied Social Security benefits to illegals who work under a Social Security number obtained through identity fraud. He cosponsored the Dream Act providing in-state tuition for illegal-alien college students, but, in the face of intense opposition to the bill from grass-roots conservatives, Mr. McCain announced that he would have voted against the legislation had he been in attendance when it was voted on late last year (he was absent).”
Recently, in a GOP nomination debate, McCain insisted it would be fine if American troops were in Iraq for the next hundred years. He talked of only withdrawing when victory and honor were satisfied. I seem to remember those same arguments used over the Vietnam war. Then, it took another 20,000 or so dead Americans before ‘honor’ and ‘victory’ took a back seat to commonsense.
The sad fact, for people like John McCain, is that there will never be honor or victory for America in Iraq. The US forfeited its right to such eulogy the day it committed an act against international law by carrying out a premeditated strike against another nation; that, without the subsequent war crimes of Abu Ghraib, Fallujah, and numerous other less well publicized atrocities.
John McCain cannot grasp that obvious fact. He fails to move beyond the intransigence of American idealism. He is blinkered, nationalistic, and way too old to learn a better way. McCain’s heart will never accept that an Arab, once he’s had a good dose of US Imperialism, won’t realize how much better off he is.
In this world, that’s a highly dangerous mindset. It’s exactly the mindset of George W Bush.
Given the unknown numbers of whites who truly hate the idea of a black president, and the indeterminate mass of chauvinist male Americans who despise the concept of a woman in ultimate power, what chance next November will produce a Republican President John McCain?
[1] – McCain vs. McCain (Washington Times 01/25/08)
Filed under: Each way bet
Leaving aside the would-be-presidents and their intense political news of the day, there were some fascinating items from NBC Nightly tonight[1], beginning with a new study involving a million human beings from all around the world. The mid-life crisis, it seems, is real and according to NBC’s resident quack expert, this study produced fascinating truths never before revealed.
According to the report, most astonishing was the fact women suffer their mid-life crisis from around the age of forty, but men are about a decade later.
Well, wha’ der yer know?
A woman gets to forty and thinks, “Oh, my God! I’m forty! My looks are going, my face is getting wrinkled, it’s all downhill from here!”
Men, on the other hand, are only too well aware that many younger women seek more mature, slightly graying males as sexually attractive partners, but by the time men have reached fifty, ‘maturity’ is shifting to ‘aged’, keeping up with the demands of a woman thirty years younger can prove something of a strain as the old testosterone factory goes on short time, and the average male begins that gradual slide into depression.
My only question is: is there anyone out there – apart from NBC’s Brian Williams and the resident quack expert – who doesn’t already know this?
How much did it cost to undertake this ground-breaking study? How many man-hours were spent interviewing a million people?
Little wonder the global economy is staggering to a standstill.
While on the subject of financial matters, it was further revealed that the average American holds nine credit cards. No, that’s not a typo, I did write ‘NINE’ – otherwise known as ‘9’.
I’ve always considered the average American to be a trifle nuts, but why hold nine credit cards? Not only do they have them, but they’re all maxed out – to the limit!
A word of advice, America: credit cards are the greatest financial asset on the planet for running your day-to-day finances – but, there’s only one way to use a credit card. Only have one, charge everything you buy for one month, then PAY IT OFF! After one year the credit company will owe you between two and three hundred dollars; you never have to carry cash, and best of all, your credit rating soars.
If every American did this, credit businesses would eventually collapse. And where would all their billions of dollars in assets have gone? Into our pockets, that’s where!
Wise up, America!
In fact, don’t just wise up, America – wake up! Dear old NBC Nightly pulled another gem of a rabbit from Brian William’s silk top hat tonight with news of two government reports stating the Food and Drug Administration is, not just under strain; not buckling at the knees; not even cracked, but “broken”.
Of course, we all knew it, but it’s nice to have it officially confirmed once in a while. Meanwhile, hauled before Congress in the manner of a small boy propelled into the school principal’s office for smoking behind the bike sheds, FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach said, in his defence:
“We’re not here today because of what is wrong with the FDA, but because of what is right with it, and must get even better…… “
According to two recent government reports, large numbers of people are dying because of “what is right” with the FDA.
Three of the most important Federal institutions in America have now been officially classified as “broken”. The Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Social Security Administration.
There aren’t that many others of any consequence. The biggest, created and expanded out of all proportion by George W Bush, is the Department of Homeland Security. To date, no-one has dared to classify that as “broken”, though there can be little doubt it’s seriously mangled.
It’s a strange irony really, when you think about it. The economy’s in a mess, America is borrowing another $150 billion dollars from China, and there just isn’t any cash available to mend all these broken institutions.
You would think George W Bush would have mentioned that in his State of the Union address. In fact, you’d think all these would-be-presidents out there would want to discuss that, wouldn’t you? But, no, they all just leave it aside.
Like Mister Average American, they simply add one more to their collection of credit cards, then max it out.
Filed under: Daily nightly