Saturday, January 21, 2012

       
[1738 - Ethan Allen, Revolutionary War General, leader of Green Mountain Boys, born in Litchfield, Connecticut]

   
[1824 - Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Confederate General, born in Clarksburg, Virginia (now West Virginia)]

[1897 - J.(Joseph) Carrol Naish, actor, born
in New York City]

          
[1922 - (David) Paul Scofield, Academy and Tony award-winning actor, born in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, UK]

   
[1922 - Telly (Aristotelis) Savalas, Emmy Award-winning actor, born in Garden City,
New York]

      
[1924 - Benny (Alfred Hawthorne) Hill, comedian, born in Southampton, England]

          
[1926 - Steve (Stephen L.) Reeves, bodybuilder, actor, born in Glasgow, Montana]

   
[1939 - Wolfman Jack (Robert Weston Smith), disc jockey, born in Brooklyn]

[1976 - Concorde SST aircraft begins regular commercial service]

Four More Years?

The widespread dissatisfaction with government incompetence that swept Barack Obama into the presidency in 2008 has not been quieted by some baby steps in the right direction. The Nation is impatient with the new leader whose style is coalition building when what we hoped for was some serious ass-kicking of the politicians and Wall Street crowd who ran the nation's economy into the ditch. Indeed, coalition building requires willing partners, and Washington seems to be populated with zealous ideologues so that the Obama approach is clearly not working.

Much has been made of the election of the first African-American to the Presidency of the United States of America. While the symbolic and cultural importance of that event cannot be denied, it is really not so surprising. The genetic evidence suggests that the male DNA of the human race can be traced to a single individual who lived in the Horn of Africa tens of thousands of years ago. If one believes more in science than theology when it comes to the origin of our species, all the current human inhabitants of the world are African, and all the citizens of this great nation are African-American. In any event, that card can only be played once.

So, one might have expected the GOP to field a candidate who could give the sitting president a serious run for the nation's highest office. Apparently, that is not going to happen. What remains of the field of GOP hopefuls are a handful of right wing ideologues whose only ideas about solving the economic woes are the thoroughly discredited policies of deregulation, and reliance on run amok free market capitalism, that Bush and Company followed to bring on the financial meltdown. None of those policies address the income inequality that has savaged the middle class and shattered the American dream for millions of citizens who have lost their homes, lost their jobs, and can't send their kids to college. The idea that a field of one-per centers who clearly don't understand or give a damn about the 99% could take on the rich and powerful elite, who have bought and paid for all three branches of government, is ludicrous.

Doesn't my Country deserve a candidate for president that we can vote for instead of being forced to pick the one that poses the least threat to our democracy?

William's Whimsical Words:

The part of 'Savior of the Nation' had already been taken by fellows named Lincoln and Roosevelt when President Obama arrived on the scene, so perhaps we expected too much of him.

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