Those
paying attention will note that I have been a tad lazy of late. In some measure
because I find that reporting on events I consider weird, bizarre, or just
plain screwy, are more and more accepted as normal. But occasionally…
Sitting in a secluded outdoor corner of
a favored watering hole, trying to profit from the last rays of summer, I
overhear a father say to his cute but squirmy 2-year old “See that man over
there? Why don’t you go talk to him?" Removing him/her (obligatory unisex
haircut) to the floor, he turns to his yuppie tablemates, obviously far more
engaged with them than his progeny.
As the only “man” in the vicinity and
the assumed target, I greeted squirmy and tolerate his/her scurrying around my
small table and even dodging a few small pebbles scooped from the floor and
flung in my direction.
But upon the attempt to climb on my lap
I take him/her gently by the hand and return him/her to the familial bosom. With
uncharacteristic equanimity (attempting to accommodate a family member
distressed that I am sinking into chronic curmudgeonry at an alarming rate), I
politely intone, “thank you for sharing, but I raised my own and prefer that
you do the same with yours.”
The response, quintessentially
predictable from the progressive species that pervades Santa Fe, a snarled
“what do you have against children?” The instant realization that nothing I
could say would penetrate the thick wooden barricade encasing his brain, I
walk away to the glares and rude comments boring into my back.
I know these folks believe it takes a
village. Surprisingly my two have survived quite admirably with just two loving
and attentive parents.
##########
Quote of the Week:
Former French Foreign Minister Bernard
Kouchner in a radio interview. "Let's be honest, we eavesdrop too.
Everyone is listening to everyone else. But we don't have the same means as the
United States, which makes us jealous."
So apparently the international outrage
stems from the fact that we do it better than everyone else. As the French
might say, Tant pis…
Chrystal clear however is the fact that
the Administration’s promise to “restore” US credibility around the world has
been a colossal failure.
And, an insider joke from my Paris
research bureau. “The only person listening to (increasingly unpopular
socialist President of France Francois) Hollande is Barack Obama.”
##########
If you subscribe to the Chinese proverb
of wishing to live in “interesting times,” you have your wish in spades, or
perhaps in the clubs both sides are using in the misbegotten hope of bludgeoning
the other into submission.
Of the several defective genes I carry,
seeing both sides of the argument is perhaps the most troublesome, as it often
sends all within earshot (readshot?) into a tizzy. Although I have noticed that my
liberal acquaintances are far more affronted than are those who occupy contrarian
views.
I take this to be the result of liberal
conviction that from the left they are always right, i.e. correct and pure in
all things. It must be a great cross to bear struggling through life with the
burden of perfection on your back.
Like the Wake Forest professor when
asked why there are not more conservative academics, replied “they’re just not
bright enough.” Or our President who repeats obsessively that “they just don’t
get it,” and seems genuinely perplexed that all the planet’s inhabitants don’t
naturally fall into lockstep behind his flawless leadership.
It could just be that liberals are
smarter, but wisdom doesn’t equate to intellectual acuity.
##########
I was not and am not in favor of
defunding Obamacare in the manner conservatives attempted, but I cannot get my
arms (nor brain) around the illogic that says big business gets a reprieve, thousands
of waivers have been dispensed to individual commercial enterprises, and unions
are demanding (and will surely get) massive concessions, but we poor schlubs
who slog through life trying (for the most part) to do the right thing have to
pony up.
##########
“There
are few things more demoralizing than working for people you don’t admire,” a
quote from the unlikely lips of Julia Child in the much-trashed “A Covert
Affair,” by Jennet Conant. Wonder if I should put this in a frame and hang it
on my office wall? Probably not a wise move!
A la prochaine...
##########
