Just What We Need (Not)

Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson has identified yet another reason why Michele  Bachmann is just what we don't need in a national leader: more ignorance.  The latest dust-up is Bachmann's position opposing requiring (or encouraging?) adolescent girls to receive the effective human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.  The vaccine prevents acquiring HPV and, in turn, vastly reduces the future chances of being stricken with cervical cancer, most of which is caused by HPV.


Instead of even attempting to argue logically against the requirement, Bachmann chose to demonize her opponent (Gov. Perry of Texas, another member of the Republicant brain-trust, NOT), for signing a law requiring the HPV vaccination.   She didn't cite religious reasons, or even some sort of government intrusiveness reasons.   She chose to lump the HPV vaccine in with suspect un-named vaccines that cause "retardation."  She went off the rails and downhill from there.


As those friends of yours who think Bachmann is just what this country needs, why it is that we need more ignorance.

Growing Up

So my grandson Josh started kindergarten last week.   My wife and I have been "baby-sitting" him two days a week since he was a few months old; the other 3 days he attended preschool near his parents' work.  I put "baby-sitting" in quotes because I truly question how much monitoring I've done in the past 5 1/2 years.  More likely, I was learning from him as he discovered the world and observed the strange ways lots of things work.  The transition to kindergarten has been surprisingly hard; for me, not Joshua.

I have lost my favorite playmate and I never saw it coming.   He and I have seen  17 movies in the past year, and perhaps as many as 30 in the past 2 1/2 years.  We both love popcorn and lemonade and movies.  Other activities have included biweekly library visits (where we played chess or checkers on giant boards), building stuff with Legos, miniature golf, attending kid plays, and climbing trees.  Now I'm faced with baby-sitting Joshua's brother twice a week and he's actually a baby (4 months old or thereabouts).  I'm starting all over again.

Anyway, the point of this post is to speculate how Joshua will deal with school demands.  We've speculated that he will do fine, but I've wondered if he will break his teacher by Columbus Day; he can be a very strong-willed fellow.   

I think we got a hint last Friday.  He came home from 3 half-days of school (full days began today) and asked his mother "Mom, will school get harder?"  Before she could respond, Joshua followed up with "'Cause so far it's been arts and crafts..."  That preschool is a tough act to follow.

And I'm going to miss my playmate. 

Vermont Envy

There are a multitude of reasons to envy the State of Vermont, including it's scenery, downhill skiing, and independent tradition.   Lately, I've found another reason; the US Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders.

A recent quote from Senator Sanders will demonstrate why I admire the guy and wish we had 30 more of him in the Senate.

“I think it’s very clear that the function of the Republican Party today in congress is to represent the wealthiest people in this country & the largest corporations. They couldn’t care less about the middle-class & working families… the President can not keep trying to compromise with people who do not want to compromise.”

Senator Sanders caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate, but does not belong to a political party and is officially an Independent.  He has had the courage to publicly declare his admiration for "European social democracy" and argues forcefully for the rights of middle-class Americans.


Another of Bernie's recent observations:

"Enough is enough! The American people must fight back. We need a government which represents all people, not just the wealthy, campaign contributors & lobbyists. In these tough times, despair is not an option. This fight is not just for us, it is for our children & grandchildren & for the environmental survival of the planet."

I wish every State had a Senator Sanders.

Throw Them All Out

Over the years I've found politics in general to be fascinating and positive, but in recent years, I've come to the conclusion that something is very wrong with the political process in this country.   Our nation's current inability to adjust the debt ceiling, the latest of a long series of governmental paralyses, is truly frustrating and apparently never-ending.

The people who are arguing ad nauseum in Washington, D.C. over how to raise the debt limit, have one thing in common with the politicians who find ways to also justify their personal peccadilloes.  Like Congressman Joe Walsh (no relation to the great Eagles guitarist) who has been ranting and raving that President Obama is a "liar" and that there are lots of ways to fund the government's programs without raising the debt limit.  He has accused the "other" party of mismanaging the economy and recklessly spending our money.  He was elected by about 300 votes in 2010.

Now we have news that the Congressman is arrears more than $100,000 to his ex-wife for child support.  He has dismissed the reports as a political hatchet job, but the court records and extensive "negotiating" with his ex-wife, as well as other reported financial problems he seems to have had, tend to lead me to the conclusion that he is just another politician who is a hypocrite and hack.

I've come to believe that the major cause of our political paralysis is because so many (all?) of our politicians and so-called "leaders" are egomaniacs convinced that they have all the answers.  This world-view means that they are unable to even consider that someone else might have some insight on a particular subject and that it would be in the national interest to actually negotiate with them to reach a compromise.   In fact, the very notion of a compromise is anathema to them.  To reach a compromise is admit they didn't have all the answers.

And this is why we have the Speaker of the House walking out of discussions with the President and frantically trying to pull his House majority together, including the Tea Party zealots, to make a symbolic, but meaningless (because it has no chance of passing the Senate), effort to raise the debt ceiling by further debilitating the middle class.  The Republicant Party has sold itself to the Tea Party egomaniacs and corporate interests and can't reach out to actually negotiate. 

While I think the Republicant Party has made egomania and hypocrisy an art form, politicians of both major political parties seem to believe they are the font of all knowledge.  We need to throw them all out.

These are very scary times we live in.