Friday, August 17, 2007

Just come out and tell me you want me to contribute...

Got this "survey" from the DNC the other day. While it purports to be a "Grassroots Survey of Democratic Leaders", what it really wants is my money. And, if I had any laying around, I'd be more than happy to give it to them since (as you might be able to tell from some preceding posts) I have nothing good to say about either the current incumbent President or the rest of his party. However, this stealth approach to my wallet does annoy me.

What also annoys me is that the questions on the survey are so constructed as to almost demand certain answers. For example, take question 7:

Do you support new tax cuts targeted at working families?
Response 1: Yes, with our econmy struggling, working families need a tax break. Response 2: No, additional tax cuts at this time will only worsen the federal deficit.

See? It is obvious what answer they want (and expect) respondents to supply. The whole thing is constructed the same way. And that annoys me as much, if not more, than the fact that the whole thing is actually a request for donations. (Suggested minimum being $35: inflation rears its ugly head.)

Ah, screw it...the whole thing landed in the circular file...They'll start getting money from me next month...but it won't be at the level they think they want...On the other hand, it will be regular and monthly from October through the national elections next year...

Somethng has gone terribly wrong...

I grew up in the post-WWII years. I was born in 1945 (OK, so now you know I'm an old fart at this point in my life...), so my formative years were pretty much during this country's golden age. Sure, there were termites in the foundations so the whole thing was pretty shaky to say the least, but, still, those were, for some of us, golden years.

I grew up in a town in central New Jersey where we could leave our doors unlocked pretty much all the time...as a kid I never had a key because I didn't need one...the doors of the house were never locked. My town was a town of...I dunno...about 30-40,000 souls, and we had no problem with kids wandering around at will. None of my friends and none of my younger sister's friends were ever bothered. As a ten-year old kid, I could ride my bike just about anywhere in town without worrying about "strangers". Hell, as a 5-year old kid, I used to walk a couple blocks to friend's houses to play. Nobody thought anything of it.

I bring all that up to emphasize that my background is not the same as the background of adults who are 30 years younger than me. In many ways, we are from different places even though, geographically, we grew up in the same physical space.

I have mentioned before how much I like Fred Clark's writing. Frankly, I think he should be much more widely known than he is. I think he writes as well as any syndicated columnist from my youth...Fred is one of those people who grew up in the same space I did, only 30 (mol) years later. However, he is one person with whom I feel that I share something. For example, his latest blog entry Inquisitors is, once again, something I wish I had the talent and skill to write. I heartily recommend it to one and all: click on the link and read this.

If you go back about 4 years or so in my blogs, you'll note that I did not support Mr. Bush for a second term (for that matter, I did not support him for a first term although my support for Al Gore was tepid at best...to my eternal discredit.) I did not think Mr. Bush was the effective leader he tried to portray himself as being. However, I did not think that he was, frankly, as evil a man as he has turned out to be. George Bush has made me ashamed to be an American. If I had been alive in the the ante-bellum years of this country (and had the same ethical bias I have today) I would have been ashamed to call myself an American while my fellow citizens held other humans as chattels. George Bush has, by his absolute disdain for our freedoms, put himself in that same class of people. And he has sullied and stained our name and our honor. He is, in fact, the same kind of man as was his arch nemisis, Saddam Hussein. One of the things that give me hope is my faith that he will join Saddam in some corner of hell once he sheds this mortal coil.

When I was growing up...when parts of this country were Camelot...for some..., I was proud that we were the "good guys". Of course, when we played "cowboys and Indians" the Indians were always the bad guys and the cowboys were the good guys...it took me a until I read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" to realize that my European ancestors were good at treating anyone not from their ethnic branch of the human tree badly...but, still, we were the good guys. We stood up for the oppressed; we fought for the ideals enshrined in our founding documents. Even though we built this country upon the forced labor of black humans whom the white Europeans enslaved on land basically taken by force from the native inhabitants, the ideals embodied in our Declarations of Independence, our Constitution and our Bill of Rights were shining goals for us to strive to attain. George Bush has sullied, stained and defecated upon those ideals, and, in the process, he has mortally injured this nation.

I could say more, but...not now. All I will say is that it is ironic that the freedom of expression that this medium engenders is both a strength and a weakness. It gives a huge number of people a public platform from which to declaim, but those very numbers tend to obscure and attenuate...depreciate what they are saying. Like I said, Fred Clark should be a respected syndicated columnist rather than a slightly obscure Blogger. (I say "slightly obscure" because he does have a following, which is a lot more than I can say for myself...) Those of us who have been lucky enough to find him...to find this bit of gold amid the dross...are the better for it. I just wish that more of our fellow citizens also had the benefit of his clear vision.

'Nuff said...

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

When did this happen?

OK, maybe I'm old and becoming less and less in tune with the zeitgeist, but since when where vampires and werewolves the good guys? I thought that these particular denizens of the shadow world were pretty much the bad guys. I mean, they both run around killing people: they have to kill people...it is what keep 'em alive. But not so much any more. We have Remus Lupin in Harry Potter: he's a werewolf, but a nice guy too. Then there is Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden: Dresden is a wizard (a la Merlin), but his half-brother is a white vampire--and a good guy. (White vampires don't drink blood, they suck straight life energy from their "food". Now, this is not as immediately fatal as the blood sucking variety of vampire feeding, but, ultimately, unless the White Vampire is very careful, the food source does die.) Then we have Laurel Hamilton's vampires, whats-her-name Rice and now Stephenie Meyer's new teen heroine who appears to be a vampire.

Personally, I prefer the old model. Vampires, of any description, were the enemy, and one did whatever one had to do to kill 'em.

Moving on, now that the Harry Potter saga has come to an end, I would like to commend a new Harry to you all. I am referring to the above mentioned Harry Dresden. This Harry is also a wizard (the only practicing wizard in the Chicago phone book), who lives in a slightly more complex world than Rowling's Potter. The good thing about this Harry is that his creator, Jim Butcher, has already penned 9 or 10 (I lose count...) books in the series, and he plans to go for about 23 or 24 total. Butcher has created a world very much like our own, but larger. Butcher's world has wizards and witches, warlocks and demons, faeries and trolls, pixies and elves, Knights of the Cross and Fallen Angels. It is a very rich tapestry, and one that is still in the process of creation. Reality building is one of the reasons I like this series. Pick up the first book, Storm Front, and give it a whirl. I think you'll like it.

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