HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA
By T Blogger | July 2, 2008
Two hundred and thirty-two years ago representatives of thirteen loosely aligned colonies produced an open letter to the king of England. This document put to paper the notion that it was time for the people in these colonies to cut the umbilical cord that bound them to an increasingly abusive motherland. And so began the greatest success story in the history of the world.
We live in a country that people are literally dying to get to. The United States of America is the best place on the planet to live. It has once again become trendy to accentuate the negative when speaking about our great nation. I would like to suggest that, at least for a day or two, we Americans institute a moratorium on bad-mouthing ourselves .
Happy birthday, America. May God bless you and keep you through many more.
©2008, Tom Weeks
Topics: General Good Stuff | 1 Comment »
NO ONE TO VOTE FOR
By T Blogger | June 4, 2008
In the presidential election of 2000 I voted for Harry Browne, the Libertarian Party’s candidate. I could not, in good conscience, vote for Al Gore, who I believed to be developmentally challenged (I still feel that way about big Al). I couldn’t vote for George W. Bush because I knew absolutely nothing about him, and because I was not a big fan of his dad. I felt pretty good about my vote until big Al and the Democrats tried to steal the election from the man who had obviously won. When the Democrats tried to use lawyers and judges to get what the voters had denied them, I had a minor epiphany. It became crystal clear to me that the Democrats cared a lot less about the country than they did about political power, and I started to doubt the wisdom of voting for Mr. Browne.
On September 11, 2001 the frat boy from Texas stepped up the the plate and I was horrified to realize that my wasted vote could have resulted in Al Gore being in the White House when we were attacked. I promised myself never to waste another vote, and in 2004 I voted for Bush.
But now it’s 2008 and I have no one to vote for. John McCain is an honest-to-God war hero, but that “R” after his name is a lie. He’s a big government Democrat, and Senator Obama is a Socialist. It is a shame that one of them has to win! This country is on the brink of sliding into the stagnant sea of Socialism and multiculturalism that is drowning western Europe, and we have no one running for the presidency who will lift a finger to stop the slide.
The country is in deep trouble. I have a damaged heart and will be 66 years old next month, so I probably won’t be around when the exceptional America I grew up in finally fades to insignificance. I take no comfort in that realization.
©2008, Tom Weeks
Topics: General Good Stuff | No Comments »
Nancy Grace — Television’s Worst of the Worst?
By T Blogger | May 22, 2008
I’ll admit right up front that I watch too much television. And until I discovered CNN’s harrier-in-chief, Nancy Grace, I honestly thought I had seen the worst of the worst. Boy was I wrong! This mouth without a brain has managed to incorporate every bad aspect of 24 hour news, talk shows, lawyer shows and political roundtables into her hour-long rant-fest, without including anything productive, useful, informative, or even entertaining.
During the Duke “rape” case fiasco, she harangued everyone willing to subject himself/herself to her relentless accusatory interrogation, and came up with some of the most insane “theories” and predictions about the outcome of the case imaginable. Then, when the case went south, she took a day off and never again uttered a word about it — no apology, no admission of the ridiculousness of her demeanor when she “reported” about the case. Unlike Gilda Radner’s Emily Litella on Saturday Night Live, she didn’t even have the “Grace” (pun intended) to offer up a “Never mind.”
She’s at it again. When the Texas Child Protective Services raided the Yearning For Zion ranch in Texas and yanked 468 kids away from their mothers because of a phony phone call from a 33 year-old woman in Colorado Springs claiming to be 16 year-old “victim” of abuse on the YFZ ranch in Texas, The Nancy squealed in delight.
When a judge starting telling the parents of these 468 kids how they were going to have to live their lives, Nancy was ecstatic. She assured us unwashed non-legal geniuses out here in TV land that judges know best. But, lo and behold, a three judge appellate court has ruled that Texas Child Protective Services had absolutely no legal basis for snatching these kids from their homes. Now Nancy rants out of the other spittle-specked side of her mouth. According to Mizz Grace, these THREE judges and their UNANIMOUS decision are just plain stupid. Go figure.
Are these FLDS people strange? Yes. Is it possible that some children have been mistreated or even sexually molested? Absolutely. Has the State of Texas produced any evidence that children have been abused or molested? According to the Texas three judge panel — No. That’s why they told the people holding these kids to send them home. In their haste to do the legally correct thing, however, these three stupid judges did the unthinkable — they forgot to check with Nancy Grace. How could they have left The Nancy out of their deliberations? Note to all judges in America: check with Nancy Grace before making any major decisions. Duh!
I wish this woman would stop reminding her viewers that she’s from Georgia. It’s embarrassing to this Georgian.
Copyright 2008, Tom Weeks
Topics: General Good Stuff | 2 Comments »
TRANSCENDENTAL OBAMAFICATION
By T Blogger | March 19, 2008
I watched and listened to every word of Barack Obama’s “Big Speech”. Since my formal education is in language and literature (B.A., English; M.A., Linguistics), I love a well turned phrase. Unlike the fawning main stream media, however, Obama’s flowery oratory left me more in a state of confusion than awe.
Obama thrust himself into the political spotlight by characterizing himself as a “post racial” politician. Anyone who listened carefully to his speech on March 18, 2008 has to realize that either that characterization was a lie, or that Obama has changed his mind. The reasons for Obama’s apparent change of direction are not that difficult to surmise. In the mostly white state of Iowa, Obama’s color-blind rehashing of the same old same old of Democrat politics played well and he won. After that, however, it began to be apparent that there was, in fact, a racial component to his candidacy. In later primaries and caucuses Obama was winning with impressive margins in predominately black precincts. With a ready made voting bloc like that, the beatific idea of “transcending race” probably lost some of its luster. Obama, the quintessential professional politician, began to straddle the several thin lines that define identity politics. He had to convince his black constituency that he was “one of them”, while convincing old line white Democrats that he was above all that divisive racial stuff. It was working pretty well until his mentor-in-residence, the Right Reverend Jeremiah Wright, was exposed to some of the same scrutiny that is usually reserved for conservative clerics like Falwell and Robertson.
Hence the “Big Speech”, in which Obama said the following (paraphrased by me in non-Messianic prose)
I don’t agree with Rev. Wright’s condemnation of his country in general and “Rich White People” in particular, BUT…Many people do and we need to listen to them.
We need to get beyond race and get to national “unity”, BUT… it is vitally important that we continue to talk incessantly about race.
The welfare system probably helped to weaken the black family, BUT… if we only had universal health care and more government “programs” things would be a lot better.
Huh?
After weeding through all the carefully crafted obfuscations in his speech, my impression is that Mr. Obama has taken at least a baby step toward becoming the candidate of racial politics — has begun to sound a bit like Jackson, Sharpton and Wright might sound if they had Ivy League educations.
Copyright 2008, Tom Weeks
Topics: Current Events, Good Stuff About Politics | No Comments »
Eliot Spitzer sings James Taylor
By T Blogger | March 12, 2008
Alas poor Eliot, I knew him well….
Another sanctimonious crusader seems to be hoist by his own petard. The great dragonslayer, who often appeared to derive entirely too much pleasure from destroying businesses and the men who ran them, has come a cropper.
Spitzer often referred to himself as a “steamroller”. James Taylor, another citizen of New York state, recorded a little ditty in the early seventies that seems almost prophetic:
Well I’m a steamroller baby
I wanna roll all over you
Yes I’m a steamroller for your love, babe
I’d like nothing better than to roll all over you
I’m gonna inject your soul with some sweet rock & roll
And shoot you full of rhythm and blues
—James Taylor “Steamroller” , from Sweet Baby James
Need anyone say more?
Copyright 2008, Tom Weeks
Topics: Current Events, Good Stuff About Politics | 1 Comment »
