September 23, 2010

Beware of the Ides of November….

G.O.P. Cites Tax Cuts and Health Care as Main Focus

NOTE: The rich can bypass this posting without injury

I am not a “blind” supporter of any political party. Don’t listen to either major party. Frankly, I wish we had more options when it came to political parties. Just imagine- a country with just Coke or Pepsi, when it comes to soft drinks.

Vote selfish in November – what is economically good for me and my children. That means, you will have to spend about 15 minutes a day reading/listening to the news. Only an informed electorate can save America from the Democrats, Republicans, Tea Partyers. . .

The new health care law,with all its flaws and uncertainties, is likely the best damn thing that has happened to this country. No more insurance company denials of payment for: “”pre-existing conditions” “lying, when you did not tell me you had cat-scratch fever when you were 3″

What has the Republicans offered except obstructionism? If I have missed something, please let me know.

September 21, 2010

Blind Reporting of Ivory Tower/Political Bable

Recession May Be Over, but Joblessness Remains

I heard yesterday this loud shout of joy from the unemployment lines across, as Archie Bunker would say, the US of A. Wasn’t sure what the joy was all about, till I read the NY Times headline. Yeah, sure the recession was over in June 2009. It is like being dead and being unaware of it.
As the old joke goes: It is a recession when my neighbor losses her job, but it is a depression when I lose mine. I am still wondering what obfuscation of truth stopped the powers that be from calling the current state of economic affairs a depression.

And the timing: Is there an election around the corner?

September 20, 2010

Do you love your children?

The national debt is about $13.5 T (trillion). This means each one of us (man, woman and child) should add about $45 K (thousand) to our other debts.

Enjoy your wars and shopping.

Fervently, I hope this poll is wrong…

The Mood of Voters: Men Are Fuming, Women Despairing

“. . . women . . . , the poll suggests . . may stay home this year. . . giving more of the decision-making to men by default. . . “:

Two thoughts came to mind as I read this: (1) For all these years, I thought women wanted to get out of the house. (2) Referring to people who would not exercise their authority, my mother’s favourite saying was: If you do not sit in your chair, a dog will. Got that ladies, about giving default authority to men.
Just think of pocket-book (“economy” for the educated types) issues. You may conclude that the Democratic party might be better. What sayeth, all you’all?
By way of full disclosure, I am a rationalist -for now it means a liberal independent with Democratic party leanings.

September 17, 2010

Docs don’t study much about drugs either when in med school

Teaching Doctors About Nutrition and Diet

Physicians are almost always consulted by the media about drug related issues. It is well known among “pharmacy” circles that the medical curriculum has been de-emphasizing subjects such as pharmacology and therapeutics – topics that deal with the safe and effective use of drugs -over the last several last decades. Imagine – they are the ones that get to write the prescriptions!

September 16, 2010

So, who in the Government wants to field this one?

Poverty Rate Rose Sharply in 2009, Says Census Bureau
Yes, I am sure the “haves” will brush it off and gives us reasons: Like, we had a bad few years, blah, blah, blah . . . . But, does explanation matter much?. I am not sure what the tea party is all about. But, if it is anti-incumbent, then I say: Right on! Let us be an equal opportunity “firer”,and clean up the whole mess. If people is/are “boss”, let us show it by firing a whole lot of them in November. The newbies will remember what happened to the last group.

September 15, 2010

Taxing the rich- has it ever worked?

Lieberman Favors Extension of Bush-Era Tax Rates

By worked, I mean has it really helped the common man?. Isn’t it true that federal income tax, as we know it now, was first introduced to “soak” the rich?

From Fighting Terrorists to Fighting Corruption: It is getting “curiouser and curiosier” in the Land of Afghans

U.S. Debates Karzai’s Place in Fighting Corruption

We need to fight the mid-week blues. Unfortunately, like phantom leg pain in amputees, even the unemployed go into this Wednesday funk. So, let us , as a diversion, imagine that Hamid Karzai loudly proclaims that he wants to root out corruption in the United States. Everybody in Afghanistan will laugh and all the camels there will, quite likely, miss the humor. Let us laugh with the Afghans – after all, we are trying to help them. If nothing, laughter might alleviate the Wednesday depression without the annoying side-effects of SSRIs.

September 13, 2010

Democrats “wimping”, again

In Ad Wars, Democrats Shy From Ties to Own Party

These three instant thoughts crossed my mind, when I read the “. . . Shy[ing] . . .” headline:

1. “Your greatest strength is the weakness of your convictions” (line from the TV sitcom The Golden Girls)
2. Cowards die a thousand deaths . . . (from Indian stories on Rajput bravery)
3. It is such Democratic wimping that gave us 8 years of George W. Bush and 2 wars (based on my 40+ years as an American observer)

Obama appears to have lost his “fire”. I agree he should have done more for Main Street than for Wall Street, but he is our best bet, compared to the Republicans -especially the “ideas-bankrupt-John -A.- Boehner” types who are gleefully looking for an American train wreck. Come this November, if he becomes the Speaker of the House, then we Americans would have spoken quite unwisely.
[By way of full disclosure, I am an independent (I prefer “rationalist”, but that would require a lengthy explanation) who is more sympathetic to the current Democratic administration/Congress and think that, at least, they are weakly trying/trying weakly to help the declining middle class and the growing poor.

September 10, 2010

A look back to days of the American Revolution

We are still at war in/with 2 countries, though the Obama administration says that the war in Iraq is over. Our stated goal is to change/capture the “hearts and minds “ of the peoples there. If that is not war, I do not what is.
To put things in perspective about the elitist ruling class, the following quote from Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” (page 79, paper back edition) is quite illuminative:“ Ruling elites seem to have learned through the generations – consciously or not – that war makes them more secure against internal trouble.”