Blog Post Gets Published

My thanks to The Town Talk for publishing a recent blog post of mine, "17 More Months?". You can find it on their site here, "Vote Now, Vote Often".

17 More Months?

Is it really necessary to wait until next November to replace Pres. Bush? Even then it won't be until mid-January when his successor would take office, then a couple months to get the new cabinet installed and confirmed. By this rate it would be two years before change would take place. I say if American Idol can hold a vote in four hours and release the results the next day, so can the American electorate. Let's line up all the candidates, have Simon rake them over, then let us vote. A Bush resignation or impeachment would help nothing with Cheney and Pelosi in line for the throne. At the rate Bush is going we're going to restart the Cold War in a few weeks. It's time to go back to Crawford and chop some wood. I say voting begins at 9pm/8pm Central. Don't forget you can vote as many times as you like!

Dobson Slams Thompson

Here's another "sinner" to throw into the fire today:
James Dobson Says Thompson Not Christian Enough To Be Prez

Dobson declared that Sen. Fred Thompson, star of NBC's Law & Order and possble Republican candidate for President, was "not a Christian" and therefore should not be supported by the Christian base of the party. Thompson's spokesperson said that he was in fact baptized into the Church of Christ. Dobson counters that Thompson is not Evangelical and does not talk openly about his faith.

I was already outraged over the virtual campaign of some right-wing ideologues bashing U.S. Senator David Vitter (LA) for supporting Rudy Guiliani for President. The Dead Pelican and others have been on a crusade to slam Guiliani for his record on social issues and throw Vitter under the bus for his support, although he has been praised by the same critics, up until now, as a fantastic Senator and advocate for the welfare of Louisiana.

I was set to pull the lever for Guiliani just to spite them, until I sat up and took notice of Thompson as a possible candidate. Thompson has a conservative stand on social issues, but he doesn't carry the water for the Christian right, which is all the more reason for me to support him. We need a President to lead this country, not a Pastor to patronize his parishoners. Dobson should stick with telling mom's how to potty train their kids on his radio show. Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jesse Jackson, Richard Land, and the gang embarass the hell out of many who have until now identified themselves as "Christian." I think the label has got a bum reputation. I'm all for calling ourselves something else. There's no way to get them to switch to "hypocrits" for the sake of truth in advertising.

Reflections on Emptiness

A lot of wisdom can be found in fiction, if you read the right authors. My love of Robert James Waller has taken me to his non-fictional collection of essays called Old Songs In a New Cafe. My respect and love of his work grows with every page I read. Two of his essays, "Slow Waltz for Georgia Ann" and "The Turning of Fifty" are priceless treasures of love and wisdom. I want to share one such nugget from the latter:

When you feel yourself starting to become whole, it's all right to accept positions of power, but not before then. The overriding problem with our country, and our world in general, is that we are, in large part, managed by incompetents. Most of these are men who have spent their lives seeking power rather than themselves.

My contempt for politicians has grown to new heights in recent years with none exempt. When I read such a statement about "men who have spent their lives seeking power rather than themselves," I cannot help but think of the names Bush, Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton, and so on. I think no better candidates have been found as examples of T.S. Elliot's "Hollow Men." Yet for all their foolishness, we endure them. We reward them. We praise them. We elect them again and again.

Can we find those who have spent their lives seeking themselves to serve? An exceptionally poignant article by Thomas Sowell appeared in most of the nation's papers yesterday entitled, "The Washington Meat Grinder," in which he says:

This country needs to be able to draw on its best people from every walk of life and from every part of the political spectrum. But the nation is not going to get them if going to Washington means seeing the honorable reputation of a lifetime dragged through the mud just because someone disagrees with you on a political issue...

Washington has become a political meat grinder where character assassination is standard procedure. Clever and glib people say "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen." But the far larger question is whether the country can afford to repel people who are desperately needed but who may have too much self-respect to let political pygmies smear their character.

These are dangerous times indeed and the consequences of incompetence run amuck is grave, but perhaps Elliot is right,

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Yuletide Hypocrisy Lingers Past Epiphany

My wife asked me if I needed help picking up my jaw during our Sunday morning drive to church. It had literally dropped when she read the elementary school marquee aloud to me. It read "Great Americans' Day, January 16, School Closed." I suppose that I should not have been so taken back considering we were driving through a small rural town in Central Louisiana, but I was stunned and saddened. A number of thoughts came to mind.

I wondered if the schools on the west end of the parish in the predominantly black parish seat displayed "Great Americans' Day." Somehow I doubt it. I have yet to understand how one school principal has the authority to single handedly change a federal holiday adopted by Congress in 1983, signed by Pres. Ronald Reagan into law, and ratified in the state of Louisiana as a paid holiday for state workers. Does redesignating the holiday at will imply that the school principal and staff wish to have the day off without pay?

It should be noted that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday is listed as a holiday on January 16, 2006 by the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. House of Representatives, the White House, the LA State Department of Education, and neighboring parish school boards. "Great Americans' Day" is not a federal holiday, and a Google search lists few places that observe the day sometime in either February or March.

It is interesting to note that the same demographic residing in this rural community represent the same "Christian" segment of our population that protested the replacement of "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" only a few weeks earlier. No one should be forced to celebrate a holiday they do not believe in, but a public entity such as a school should not be used to promote a political agenda or practice "reverse political correctness," otherwise known as discrimination. An appropriate resolution might be to require the school principal and students to actually study the life and message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a great American.

Change for Louisiana?

"We believe Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco will announce she will not be a candidate for re-election." - Babs Zimmerman, KALB Newschannel 5, Alexandria, LA.

Aside from giving away dogs and cats, Babs Zimmerman shows up on KALB on occasion to opine on Louisiana politics and call election returns. She was all but giddy on live television the night Kathleen Blanco was leading Bobby Jindal in returns for Governor. Her political leanings are difficult to hide. That is why I find it all the more interesting that she predicted that Blanco will not run for re-election. I'm still not sure who "we" represents in the transcript of her on air segment to which I've linked. I would have to imagine she must have been near tears to make such a prediction, given her glee and optimism for Blanco's ascension. Time will prove whether she is right, but the ball has started rolling down hill once the Governor's most enthusiastic supporters join her opponents in declaring her political demise.