Diane Sawyer of Good Morning America is on a tear exposing “Mountain Dew Mouth,” a condition in Appalachia (but apparently nowhere else!) that causes rampant tooth decay even in the very young through excessive consumption of the sugary soft drink. These folks are “victims”, and I have visions of ruthless soft drink executives force feeding their product down the throats of helpless mountaineers. I thought we had dealt with this issue when the Courts refused to accept the nonsense that a teenager who ate up to a dozen Big Macs a day was a “victim” of the McDonalds Corporation.
We seem oblivious to the reality that it’s about education and providing a framework in which to make positive choices, but it’s so much easier to simply assign blame. In much of America neither children nor their parents (unless you’re Asian) are much motivated toward education (unless it’s feel-good), and as a result, basic knowledge of nutrition, fractions, fitness, adjectives, and percentages takes a back seat to in-depth familiarity with Heavy Metal, fashion trends, and SMS texting.
Then when someone consumes insane amounts of fatty acids and blossoms into morbid obesity, or loses the $750,000 home they bought on a $25,000 salary, they are “victims,” with no mention of even a modicum of responsibility on their part. We have elevated “the dog ate my homework” and “it’s anybody’s fault but mine” to frightening heights. When I was young and came home with a note from the teacher describing an indiscretion, I was taken to the woodshed. Today parents hire a lawyer and sue the school.
#####
I used to organize “events,” and now that my commercial value rests somewhere between yodeling and hospital volunteer directing patients to the urinalysis room, I have been musing over getting back in the game. I’m contemplating a Las Vegas Smile-Off between Nancy Pelosi and Giada Pamela De Laurentiis (the Italian TV-chef with the alluring décolletage and even more prominent choppers).
And speaking of Mme. Speaker, might there be any truth to the rumor that some renegade Republican snuck into the House Chamber and hotwired her seat before the President’s address to Congress? Reminiscent of a star struck pre-teen at a Beatles concert.
#####
I recently attended a Fasching celebration, a once prominent and now languishing item on the annual Georgetown social calendar. Analogous to Mardi Gras, Karneval, and Swiss Fastnacht, it celebrates the coming of Lent with colorful attire, buffoonery, and bountiful libation. Centuries old in Europe, it began here in the 1950s, grace of mid-western implants of Germanic ancestry. From humble origins it reached a pinnacle in the following decade when the celebration boasted balls, banquets, and parades lasting 9 days, and when local donations and commercial sponsors sent the elected King and Queen to Munich to acquire first-hand understanding of the ancient tradition.
But the event has dwindled to a microcosm of its former grandeur, and this year’s affair took place in the modest Community Center on a chilly Friday evening before Ash Wednesday. After several formal presentations, the highlight of which was a matron describing in exquisite and exhaustive detail her 4 decades of Fasching delights, all assembled and I, apparently the sole attendee with less than a quarter century of Fasching tenure, were treated to a visual presentation, a half-century retrospective of Faschings past.
The first 300 or so slides were fascinating, but things began to unravel as several Queens of old took to tense debate over the identity of certain faces depicted on the screen. Ancient Kings huddled in the rear lusting after the liquid refreshment guarded by an antediluvian courtier under strict orders that not a drop should pass before the secession of formalities. A rousing good time was had by the hundred plus there to remember and me to discover.
#####
There is a sub-controversy over whether Americans on-balance approve or reject the Stimulus package. It’s fashionable to suggest that only inside-the-beltway Republicans are in the negative, while the rest of America is giddy in its enthusiasm. My take is that politicians of whatever stripe are enthusiastic – when did you ever encounter one who declined the opportunity to acquire and spend (someone else’s) money? And those who stand to be enriched are understandably overjoyed.
It is, however, the shrinking pool (the schlubs) who will pay the tab, not today or tomorrow but surely sometime in the future when the bill comes due. It is, sadly, our children and theirs who will be asked to repay the trillions or suffer from its default. Flash: it is reported that several Republican Governors contemplate refusing Stimulus largesse! Can you even contemplate the insanity? Refusing “free” government money?? Good golly Ms. Molly!!! And the Governator who says” send it all to me.” You can’t imagine the emotion that springs within me at the thought of my tax money being used to subsidize the California lifestyle.
#####
Michelle Obama on a televised tour of the White House kitchen spoke of the challenge to staff in preparing green vegetables that would be acceptable to the First Daughters. Many years ago I was taken to a restaurant in suburban Atlanta, famous for authentic Soul food. I recall the cuisine to be superb, but left a neat pile of collard greens on my plate, when an imposing matronly server walked up and bellowed in my ear “Eat’cha greens.” Worked for me.
#####
…the adventure appears determined to morph into springtime, but old timers simply smile when I inquire whether winter is truly past. To this point however, my quest for snow has been thwarted by the mildest winter in the memory of many here…
.
.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
2009-05 GEORGETOWN
Despite some trepidation after my recent chute sur piste, I trudged back to the mountain and after one tentative run I was back in the saddle progressing at speed. The problem is that the voices, once undistinguished from the wind, then merely vague whispers, are now growing in volume. A French friend once remarked, after I professed my love of the raw oyster, “une huitre mauvaise,” just one bad one (is all it takes). I’m not sure, but the voices may be saying “une chute mauvaise…”
Regardless, I am once again a skier, desperately clinging to the hope I will survive at least until the nirvana of securing a free Senior’s Pass. I must report, however, that since attaining age 60, ski resorts have systematically raised the required age just ahead of me. At most mountains the magic number is now 70, and I have little doubt that as I claw my way to that exalted place, the threshold will again be bumped slightly beyond my reach.
#####
Dick Durbin, in response to Republican kvetching over the Stimulus Package, opined on the Senate floor “I wonder where the tears have been these last eight years when their President doubled the national debt?” Hold on, cowboy. Deep in the last century when I studied Civics (which I gather has been largely removed from the curriculum because it bores students and fails to impart warm fuzzies), I was taught that it is Congress that appropriates funds (and therefore controls spending). Has this changed? Has my fear of the early Alzheimer’s become a reality?
Now, granted, the President kept the Veto in his pocket and blatently encouraged spending, and yes, Republicans (not conservatives but Republicans) were in charge for six of those eight. But for Durbin, considered one of the more intellectually nimble of the federal Solonic community, to so charge is a startling indication of baseline intelligence in Washington (or perhaps more accurately what Washington considers to be the baseline intelligence of the American people).
And then comes Maxine Waters, unable even to read intelligibly the questions for bank CEOs written by her staff. In these days of challenge, whenever a ray of optimism peaks through, 15 minutes of C-SPAN is sure to yank me back to reality. As per Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The widely regarded Atlantic Monthly commented about Waters “It's like watching your crazy aunt challenge your boyfriend to prove that fairies aren't real.” A generous evaluation I would say.
#####
I was recently warned to be careful of viruses before clicking on all the e-Valentine cards in my in-box. Just one more annoyance from which I have been spared.
#####
And so the die has been cast. If the Stimulus works, full credit should rightly accrue to the Administration and congressional Democrats. Failure should vindicate Republicans, who overwhelmingly turned their back on the legislation. (Enough crowing about bi-partisan support --3 votes does not bi-partisanship make: 1.4% of all Republicans; 0.5% of all of Congress). But wouldn’t it be nice if for once we could honestly evaluate results and declare a winner?
Alas, it will not be. Failure will cause Democrats to say it wasn’t their fault at all and find somewhere else on which to hang the blame (I’ve predicted Bush with be available to fill that void for years to come). Republicans will disclaim success no matter how obvious it appears. Politics is what it is, and we are not better for it.
#####
I confess that each time I hear my President speak I am bedazzled and can’t imagine a more mesmerizing experience, yet the next time is always more eloquent. If Barack Obama executes but one-third in reality what he delivers in rhetoric, we will have found in truth a man for the ages. But the down side, and there always is one, is that if he fails to deliver on the soaring oratory, disillusionment and despair may rise to epic proportions.
In the tsunami of his first 30 days and the euphoria surrounding the Stimulus, there has been a tidal wave of “what’s in it for me,” and virtual absence of the Kennedian “ask not what your country can do for you.” Perhaps the saddest part of this entire drama so far is the fact that the winners are the least responsible, and we poor schlubs who lived within our means, didn’t buy houses we couldn’t afford, and didn’t invest with charlatans promising wholly unrealistic gains, are once again paying the bills.
Sadly it is always so. Along the Gulf Coast, those who can’t be bothered with buying insurance and funding protective measures are rewarded with pastel-colored, furnished double-wide mobile homes from FEMA (i.e. from you and me), while responsible homeowners are left to fight with their insurance companies over whether damage was caused by wind or water (i.e. by definition, the plague that caused the destruction is that from which you are not (or least) insured).
#####
One of the most emotionally wrenching of human experiences is to be faced with a policy you neither support nor believe in, yet need desperately to witness its success. We already have ample evidence of how the radical left approaches such dilemmas (and yes I know you have heard it before but it is so starkly descriptive –“General Betrayus.”) How anyone could wish for the destruction of a society in order to further its political and social aims is, well, unspeakable.
I have grave reservations that current political efforts will return our planet to stability and our nation to promise, but I must hope (and work) for its success, even though it means that core values I live by will be relegated, perhaps for decades, but not forever, to backroom status. Part of the price we pay (some of us, anyway) for civilization is that we allow ourselves to be persuaded that there is a solution other than the one we favor.
…it has been a mild winter, and the snow I had hoped for has been sparse. But the adventure continues and with a seasonal change on the horizon, thoughts turn to new venues…
.
.
Regardless, I am once again a skier, desperately clinging to the hope I will survive at least until the nirvana of securing a free Senior’s Pass. I must report, however, that since attaining age 60, ski resorts have systematically raised the required age just ahead of me. At most mountains the magic number is now 70, and I have little doubt that as I claw my way to that exalted place, the threshold will again be bumped slightly beyond my reach.
#####
Dick Durbin, in response to Republican kvetching over the Stimulus Package, opined on the Senate floor “I wonder where the tears have been these last eight years when their President doubled the national debt?” Hold on, cowboy. Deep in the last century when I studied Civics (which I gather has been largely removed from the curriculum because it bores students and fails to impart warm fuzzies), I was taught that it is Congress that appropriates funds (and therefore controls spending). Has this changed? Has my fear of the early Alzheimer’s become a reality?
Now, granted, the President kept the Veto in his pocket and blatently encouraged spending, and yes, Republicans (not conservatives but Republicans) were in charge for six of those eight. But for Durbin, considered one of the more intellectually nimble of the federal Solonic community, to so charge is a startling indication of baseline intelligence in Washington (or perhaps more accurately what Washington considers to be the baseline intelligence of the American people).
And then comes Maxine Waters, unable even to read intelligibly the questions for bank CEOs written by her staff. In these days of challenge, whenever a ray of optimism peaks through, 15 minutes of C-SPAN is sure to yank me back to reality. As per Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The widely regarded Atlantic Monthly commented about Waters “It's like watching your crazy aunt challenge your boyfriend to prove that fairies aren't real.” A generous evaluation I would say.
#####
I was recently warned to be careful of viruses before clicking on all the e-Valentine cards in my in-box. Just one more annoyance from which I have been spared.
#####
And so the die has been cast. If the Stimulus works, full credit should rightly accrue to the Administration and congressional Democrats. Failure should vindicate Republicans, who overwhelmingly turned their back on the legislation. (Enough crowing about bi-partisan support --3 votes does not bi-partisanship make: 1.4% of all Republicans; 0.5% of all of Congress). But wouldn’t it be nice if for once we could honestly evaluate results and declare a winner?
Alas, it will not be. Failure will cause Democrats to say it wasn’t their fault at all and find somewhere else on which to hang the blame (I’ve predicted Bush with be available to fill that void for years to come). Republicans will disclaim success no matter how obvious it appears. Politics is what it is, and we are not better for it.
#####
I confess that each time I hear my President speak I am bedazzled and can’t imagine a more mesmerizing experience, yet the next time is always more eloquent. If Barack Obama executes but one-third in reality what he delivers in rhetoric, we will have found in truth a man for the ages. But the down side, and there always is one, is that if he fails to deliver on the soaring oratory, disillusionment and despair may rise to epic proportions.
In the tsunami of his first 30 days and the euphoria surrounding the Stimulus, there has been a tidal wave of “what’s in it for me,” and virtual absence of the Kennedian “ask not what your country can do for you.” Perhaps the saddest part of this entire drama so far is the fact that the winners are the least responsible, and we poor schlubs who lived within our means, didn’t buy houses we couldn’t afford, and didn’t invest with charlatans promising wholly unrealistic gains, are once again paying the bills.
Sadly it is always so. Along the Gulf Coast, those who can’t be bothered with buying insurance and funding protective measures are rewarded with pastel-colored, furnished double-wide mobile homes from FEMA (i.e. from you and me), while responsible homeowners are left to fight with their insurance companies over whether damage was caused by wind or water (i.e. by definition, the plague that caused the destruction is that from which you are not (or least) insured).
#####
One of the most emotionally wrenching of human experiences is to be faced with a policy you neither support nor believe in, yet need desperately to witness its success. We already have ample evidence of how the radical left approaches such dilemmas (and yes I know you have heard it before but it is so starkly descriptive –“General Betrayus.”) How anyone could wish for the destruction of a society in order to further its political and social aims is, well, unspeakable.
I have grave reservations that current political efforts will return our planet to stability and our nation to promise, but I must hope (and work) for its success, even though it means that core values I live by will be relegated, perhaps for decades, but not forever, to backroom status. Part of the price we pay (some of us, anyway) for civilization is that we allow ourselves to be persuaded that there is a solution other than the one we favor.
…it has been a mild winter, and the snow I had hoped for has been sparse. But the adventure continues and with a seasonal change on the horizon, thoughts turn to new venues…
.
.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
2009-04 GEORGETOWN
In 2006 Democrats made an assault on the high moral ground and Speaker Pelosi vowed to crush the “Republican culture of corruption.” By that time the 2008 Presidential campaign was in full swing and I can only surmise that those now in the White House never got the memo.
So now we have a tax cheat (brilliant, but still…) overseeing the IRS, another who will not take over Health and Human Services, a pay-for-play Governor who will not get to be Commerce Secretary, a Chief Performance Officer who will not get to perform, and, oh yes, the former Governor of Illinois who did what Illinois politicians have been doing since Statehood but got caught doing it. Gives new meaning to “Yes we can.” And our new President asks us to emulate the principles and ethics of his Administration. Now in the case of Secretary Geithner, does that mean….?
Hold on, sputters the left, “you guys on the right were just as bad.” Precisely! But when those who fancy themselves morally superior are found with their mitts in the public cookie jar, it can be particularly embarrassing. Good and evil are not the exclusive prevue of the left and right respectively, and those who so profess are morally bankrupt.
Funny how transgressions of the right are always sleaze while slips on the left are “inadvertent.”
#####
The RAM is on the block! Located in a building constructed in 1889, the Red Ram Restaurant and Saloon is a Georgetown institution, anchor of commercial 6th Street, kitty-corner from (en face de) Hotel de Paris, 19th century haute maison and now museum. Absent financial rescue it will be auctioned on the courthouse steps in mid-March. Actually the two other bar-restaurants in town – the Raven Hill Mining Company and Mother’s Tavern are also for sale and the once proud Alpine Inn – site of the original town train depot – stands empty. There are two bistrots in Georgetown – the Euro and the new Prague – both Czech!, and an assortment of coffee spots led by The Happy Cooker. Georgetown may appear busted, but it has been weathering boom-bust cycles since the gold and silver mining days. We will survive!
#####
The house Stimulus Package that passed without a single Republican vote is taken by many as proof positive of either moral courage or craven indifference. Whatever. But it will contribute mightily to the eventual transfer in ownership of the economy from Bush to Obama. Success will rightfully accrue to the new Administration and failure will be more difficult to hang on the old.
Buffoons like Limbaugh who want the Administration to fail (and the trailing Coulters who tried to say he really didn’t mean it) are (almost) beyond belief. The radical left’s active promotion of failure in Iraq (General Betrayus!) in order to embarrass Bush was unspeakably evil. Current efforts from the opposite direction are no less so.
Let me be clear (to coin a new White House phrase) and make no mistake (another) {LMBC/MNM}: I believe that conservative, democratic, capitalist, private enterprise principles are the best hope for our future, but if other tenets achieve positive and productive goals I will embrace them. How could any responsible citizen do otherwise?
#####
In December there was a mini brouhaha when a C-SPAN talking head asked liberal blogger and journalist Anna Marie Cox to define conservatism and she stuttered and sputtered. A bit like asking a moose to pilot an F-16, dontcha think?
As a public service I enumerate here my own foundations of a conservative philosophy:
1. limited government
2. individual liberty
3. traditional values
4. private enterprise capitalism
5. strong national defense
One and three are problematic and much debated even within conservative circles. Four is currently under siege notwithstanding its considerable success in the 8 decades since the great depression. Five is mocked by those with short memories, including my French friends who, in its absence would be munching weisswurst instead of le chien chaud and replacing circonflexes (^) with umlauts (Ü).
But the greatest of these is Two. It seems that most every day some insidious force chips away at my right to fall on my face, feel foolish for a moment, then pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again. Hilary Clinton’s village is closing in on me. Now LMBC and MNM, I am neither hermit nor anarchist but I do value the much ballyhooed American Dream. When you remove or dilute the ability to soar or plummet, you diminish the human spirit, a condition abundantly obvious on the faces of all who exist where freedom does not.
#####
Rhetoric lives! Despite genuine attempts to reach across Party and philosophical lines, our new President still refers in almost every public utterance to “the crisis I inherited from the previous Administration,” with nary a mention of the previous Congress’ piece of that nasty puzzle. In fact, during most of 2008 the President’s approval rating (“low 30’s, worst in history”) was a tag line in virtually every media release and political speech. Not true by the way, both Truman and Nixon sunk lower, and history is rehabilitating both, Nixon modestly and Truman substantially.
But virtually no mention of Congress’ rating plummeting to an historic low, south of 10% as the 2008 election approached. Oh, and by the way, care to guess who had the highest Presidential rating in history, not once but twice? You got it, the dreaded “W,” followed by Truman. Are we fickle or what?
#####
Recent habanera communications from some conservative readers prompted a re-reading of my recent posts, and confirmed that I do appear to have achieved the exalted status of offending virtually every segment of the political and social spectrum at one time or another. I was wondering what that warm glow was. I had assumed it was just a random je ne sais quoi, but now I know better.
And this serves as a fairly accurate gauge of amity. When comity persists after you have said something alien to the beliefs of an acquaintance, you can have some confidence that a bond exists which transcends political prejudice and partisan beliefs. Others fall eerily silent.
…the adventure continues and next time I may have a new mountain perspective…
So now we have a tax cheat (brilliant, but still…) overseeing the IRS, another who will not take over Health and Human Services, a pay-for-play Governor who will not get to be Commerce Secretary, a Chief Performance Officer who will not get to perform, and, oh yes, the former Governor of Illinois who did what Illinois politicians have been doing since Statehood but got caught doing it. Gives new meaning to “Yes we can.” And our new President asks us to emulate the principles and ethics of his Administration. Now in the case of Secretary Geithner, does that mean….?
Hold on, sputters the left, “you guys on the right were just as bad.” Precisely! But when those who fancy themselves morally superior are found with their mitts in the public cookie jar, it can be particularly embarrassing. Good and evil are not the exclusive prevue of the left and right respectively, and those who so profess are morally bankrupt.
Funny how transgressions of the right are always sleaze while slips on the left are “inadvertent.”
#####
The RAM is on the block! Located in a building constructed in 1889, the Red Ram Restaurant and Saloon is a Georgetown institution, anchor of commercial 6th Street, kitty-corner from (en face de) Hotel de Paris, 19th century haute maison and now museum. Absent financial rescue it will be auctioned on the courthouse steps in mid-March. Actually the two other bar-restaurants in town – the Raven Hill Mining Company and Mother’s Tavern are also for sale and the once proud Alpine Inn – site of the original town train depot – stands empty. There are two bistrots in Georgetown – the Euro and the new Prague – both Czech!, and an assortment of coffee spots led by The Happy Cooker. Georgetown may appear busted, but it has been weathering boom-bust cycles since the gold and silver mining days. We will survive!
#####
The house Stimulus Package that passed without a single Republican vote is taken by many as proof positive of either moral courage or craven indifference. Whatever. But it will contribute mightily to the eventual transfer in ownership of the economy from Bush to Obama. Success will rightfully accrue to the new Administration and failure will be more difficult to hang on the old.
Buffoons like Limbaugh who want the Administration to fail (and the trailing Coulters who tried to say he really didn’t mean it) are (almost) beyond belief. The radical left’s active promotion of failure in Iraq (General Betrayus!) in order to embarrass Bush was unspeakably evil. Current efforts from the opposite direction are no less so.
Let me be clear (to coin a new White House phrase) and make no mistake (another) {LMBC/MNM}: I believe that conservative, democratic, capitalist, private enterprise principles are the best hope for our future, but if other tenets achieve positive and productive goals I will embrace them. How could any responsible citizen do otherwise?
#####
In December there was a mini brouhaha when a C-SPAN talking head asked liberal blogger and journalist Anna Marie Cox to define conservatism and she stuttered and sputtered. A bit like asking a moose to pilot an F-16, dontcha think?
As a public service I enumerate here my own foundations of a conservative philosophy:
1. limited government
2. individual liberty
3. traditional values
4. private enterprise capitalism
5. strong national defense
One and three are problematic and much debated even within conservative circles. Four is currently under siege notwithstanding its considerable success in the 8 decades since the great depression. Five is mocked by those with short memories, including my French friends who, in its absence would be munching weisswurst instead of le chien chaud and replacing circonflexes (^) with umlauts (Ü).
But the greatest of these is Two. It seems that most every day some insidious force chips away at my right to fall on my face, feel foolish for a moment, then pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again. Hilary Clinton’s village is closing in on me. Now LMBC and MNM, I am neither hermit nor anarchist but I do value the much ballyhooed American Dream. When you remove or dilute the ability to soar or plummet, you diminish the human spirit, a condition abundantly obvious on the faces of all who exist where freedom does not.
#####
Rhetoric lives! Despite genuine attempts to reach across Party and philosophical lines, our new President still refers in almost every public utterance to “the crisis I inherited from the previous Administration,” with nary a mention of the previous Congress’ piece of that nasty puzzle. In fact, during most of 2008 the President’s approval rating (“low 30’s, worst in history”) was a tag line in virtually every media release and political speech. Not true by the way, both Truman and Nixon sunk lower, and history is rehabilitating both, Nixon modestly and Truman substantially.
But virtually no mention of Congress’ rating plummeting to an historic low, south of 10% as the 2008 election approached. Oh, and by the way, care to guess who had the highest Presidential rating in history, not once but twice? You got it, the dreaded “W,” followed by Truman. Are we fickle or what?
#####
Recent habanera communications from some conservative readers prompted a re-reading of my recent posts, and confirmed that I do appear to have achieved the exalted status of offending virtually every segment of the political and social spectrum at one time or another. I was wondering what that warm glow was. I had assumed it was just a random je ne sais quoi, but now I know better.
And this serves as a fairly accurate gauge of amity. When comity persists after you have said something alien to the beliefs of an acquaintance, you can have some confidence that a bond exists which transcends political prejudice and partisan beliefs. Others fall eerily silent.
…the adventure continues and next time I may have a new mountain perspective…
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