Skip to main content

To Clear Our Heads

Our cat, Orphan, is training to be a deathwatch cat.
We have inherited her, so as far as I know, that is how she got her name.

At any rate, when it became obvious that I had a terrible cold,
combined with an experiment to discontinue using a decongestant,
with the result that I had coughed up both lungs and was working
on the diaphragm, Orphan came snuggling to me in bed.

She has been a comfort, sitting there, eyes glowing green
with the faint flicker of eternal flames in the background,
but finally I appealed to my doctor to prescribe something
other than a cat for my cough.  It seems to be working,
but it has turned the cat against me.  Truth be told,
this is the cat that occasionally bites me.  It is nothing personal.
It might not even be intentional.  You know, a nip gone bad!

Mari moved away, gradually; first to the far side of the bed,
then downstairs, and then down another set of stairs,
from where she occasionally climbed up to report that
she had heard that I was making no progress.

I now that my health is of no concern to you, but it has interfered
with my interest in what is happening in the world, and given
the election results, I am grateful.   I had only a bad cough.
A good part of the electorate had a brain seizure.

How can we reduce government without vastly increasing
unemployment?  How can we lower taxes on the greatest mass
of capital, at the top, without crippling social services,
and increasing unemployment?  How will reversing health care
reforms be better for anybody except insurance companies?
Whose idea is it to turn banks and investment companies
loose without supervision, with the high hope that they have
our best interests at heart?  Who thinks that putting social
security money into the hands of stock brokers will make money
for anybody but stock brokers?

Lots of people, I guess.  Lots of people think Sarah Palin
is a political genius, and that Christine O'Donnell is intelligent,
and that Sharron is the Angle of God.  Michele Bachmann
wants a larger role in the leadership of Congress.

I am feeling much better now, and that is fortunate.
I am perking up just in time to see the Republican Party,
having ridden complete non-cooperation into control
of the House, reverse itself and begin to work with Democrats.
All the Democrats have to do is learn to say no to everything.
Then both parties will be on the same page.

The next two years might achieve what the Republicans want:
smaller government (it always got bigger when they were in
power), fewer public services, a reduction of supervision
over banks and investment firms, a protection of great wealth,
fewer public schools and more private schools, maybe
pay-as-you-go fire protection (or let the house burn), an end
to unemployment insurance benefits on the grounds that it
encourages unemployment and keeps people alive, a return
to our old health care situation (afford it or forget it!),
and a repeal of a fair part of our constitution.

I don't think so!  I think listening to all that idiocy is what
caused me to start coughing.  Gagging, actually.  The next two years
will not be pleasant, but they may be necessary, to clear our heads.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friends-- My step-father of 35 years died this morning. His name was Conrad Royksund. He was 86 years old. He was born into poverty on a farm near Puyallup, WA. He was the first member of his family to attend college and earned a PhD from the University of Chicago. He paid his way through all of that by fishing in Alaska. He spent his professional career as a college professor. I met him when I was just 3 years old and don't actually have any memories of my life befor e he was in it. He was intimidatingly smart, funny as hell, and worked his ass off. He taught me to meet people with kindness and decency until I was certain they could not be trusted. He taught me to meet ideas with carving knives until I was certain they could. I will remember him as one of the bravest, most curious, and funniest people I have ever met. He left this world with a satisfied mind. We are so grateful. Dan Hubbard
1 comment
Read more

Caliche Busters and Government Work

When I was young and both stronger and smarter than I am now, I put my might and brain to work doing nothing useful, unless it might be thought that hand/foot/eye coordination might come in handy.  Those were skills to be learned and practiced.   I found an iron bar our grandfather had shaped in his blacksmith shop.  He took old car, truck, or wagon axles, and made tools from them for digging post holes.  He sharpened one end to a tip, and the other to a blade.  Washington State, like many places, had a hard layer of soil, probably created by water and limestone, or some such materials, that made digging holes a miserable chore.  The bar chipped through the natural concrete so that a shovel could take it up.   I found Grandpa's iron bar, and since I was young and dumb and strong--or so I thought--decided to punch a hole down to hardpan and ultimate truth.  I knew how to do that.  Raise the bar vertically with both hands, and then slam in straight down.  On the second try, aimi
Post a Comment
Read more

The Sea is Rising

Let us just step back:  two hundred and fifty years ago, or so, the ships of England and Spain had drifted onto a whole new continent, as they saw it, from far north to a savagely cold south; pole to pole, as if there were such things. Millions of people already lived here, some of them still hunters and gatherers; some of them very wealthy, indeed!  Gold and silver stolen from the southern Americas funded Spanish and English dreams. There was land, lots of land, under starry skies above, rich land, and oil and coal and iron ore.  The whole western world learned how to build industries not on simple muscle power, but on steam and oil.  We farmed, too, of course.  All we needed was cheap labor--slave labor from Africa, mostly, so the ships came with slave labor.  Chinese labor built railroad beds where there had been rock cliffs. Europeans, long used to killing each other for good, religious reasons, brought their religious savagery with them.  Even when all they wanted to do w
Post a Comment
Read more