My mind is functioning in slow motion these days. It is, after all, only on January 11th that Betty (my wife of 40 years) died. But some disparate things in the news struck me as worth a mention, albeit shared without my acerbic wit. First, the Tea Party.
What an asinine name for a political movement that is composed almost exclusively of white people. Tea, at least the kind the colonists threw into Boston harbor, is brown.
Now if the British were taxing white bread that would be a far better name for the party. I’ll take mine with nice brown peanut butter.
Lemmings hell, and least they run like crazed lunatics off the cliff. And lemmings do have brains and one can excuse their mass suicide as an accident of genetics.
The Republicans being against Wall Street reform remind me of wind-up tin toy soldiers marching in lockstep into midair to plummet onto the rocky shoreline in a tangle of broken gears.
My state’s new senator, who sadly bears my last name, was especially idiotic when asked by a Boston Globe reporter what could be fixed so he could support Wall Street reform and he threw the question back:
“Well, what areas do you think should be fixed? I mean, you know, tell me. And then I’ll get a team and go fix it.’’
Stop saying Sarah Palin is rich. Okay, to all of us $12 million in a year seems rich. But think of the billions Goldman Sachs executives made defrauding its customers. Those Wall Street criminals are rich. To them Palin is a pawn and not even worth the title nouveau riche.
Life imitates art department: Remember the movie with Bruce Willis as an oil rig operator sent on a mission to blow up a giant asteroid on target to destroy the Earth? (“Armageddon”, 1998)
You have to give President Barack Obama credit for imagination on his plan to revitalize NASA and perhaps follow in President John F. Kennedy’s successful, score one for American pride, promise in 1961 to send an American to the moon before the end of the decade.
Mostly glossed over in the news is another Obama pledge echoing the exact same pledge made by President Richard Nixon some 40 years ago: curing cancer.
Nixon failed. My wife is dead because of this. She was treated for cancer using the same kind of drugs used when Nixon was president.
Early this month Obama pledged an initiative to “cure cancer in our time”, whatever that means I am all for it.
But it wil take lots of money and no small measure of luck.
Now let’s see if he can get Congress to pass a gigantic research funding bill. Are you ready to watch the Republicans march in lockstep to defeat that one too?
10 thoughts on “Tea is brown and other musings”
My sympathies also on your loss. My husband and I just celebrated our 45th anniversary and I would be nothing without him. My mother died years ago (on our second anniversary) from pancreatic cancer, and in all these years, there still is no cure, so I would approve of any money spent on eradicating that horrid disease.
Just think, if Bush hadn’t declared war on Iraq, how much money there would be for the important things in life like cancer research, or proper education, or maybe health care for everyone. If only…
My condolences on your loss.
Prevention is far more elusive than cure till adressed.
Did man on the moon heal or distract from the bad ties under the rail?
To think ” we will never get off the pad,
” renders folks too ”
the shot in the dark” ,
or the smoke of an oral black powder muzzle blast.
Sorry about your wife Hal. Wondered where you have been. Stay strong. You’ll get your wits about you in no time. Then you might be sorry for complaining about people protesting their government regardless of skin color.
The Tea Party are the second worst segment being decimated by the depression that still have means to actually get out into the streets and tell them no more no more no more!
Us poor folk, the ones getting totally creamed by the depression, can’t take a day off to get out to protest. More power to those that can. I’ve many of the same gripes(and many more) with prior and current leaders as the Tea Party. I’m registered Democrat, don’t watch Fox News (or any cable/satellite television) and don’t listen to Rush on the radio.
I have not been to a Tea Party, but have friends who have and I support them one hundred percent because street protest is a part of our way of life.
Hal, I have always loved your columns, as well as those of Pastor Agnostic. I was sorry to hear of your wife losing her battle with cancer. Both my wife and I are cancer survivors. She had breast cancer, stage 2b. I had urinary tract cancer, stage 3b. I was told I had a 3 in 10 chance of even being alive after five years. It’s now been 15 years and counting. My wife is six years out from her bout with breast cancer. And we had our 48th anniversary this month, so you can see that “we ain’t spring chickens.”
All I can do is wish you the best of luck. The pain lessens after a time, but I know it never goes away. Take care of yourself, my friend.
Al (John1172002)
So sorry to hear about Betty. Ruth and I celebrated our 40th last year, and (fingers crossed) are still going strong. I can only imagine how rotten I would feel if I lost her.
Cure cancer? Clean 6000 chemicals out of the environment.
We’re not related! Word here is that Victoria Kennedy might run against him in the mid-term elections.
Victoria Kennedy? Yeesh. Well its the choices of the MA citizens.
As far as cancer goes, my mother is battling breast cancer. Her prognosis is good. She is the 5th woman in my family. So far 3 have died. Watching her go down this hellish road, I am thinking when it’s my time, just give me some drugs and shut up. I can’t imagine going there, and yet my genetics tell me I just might.
Good luck to Obama curing cancer. If he does, I will be a good democrat and vote for him early and often. 🙂
Hal, you’re not saying that you and your senator are related? Yikes. While your perceived slow functioning will pass with time, I suspect his is a natural state of affairs.
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