Parlor Wit

President George W. Bush has indicated that he intends to write his life story. The working title is, “If I Did It.”

There are rumors that Vice-President Richard Cheney will also produce a memoir. His will be ghost-written. The title is expected to be, “So? Go F*** Yourself!”


- Alex Budarin [for Fox viewers, let me point out that this is satire]

Two Years!

It is hard to believe that two years have passed since I started this blog. And I didn’t think I would have enough material for 6 months!

It has been a labor of love, in service to thoughts I had to share. I believe we all have an effect on the world around us. Even small actions can have, through a causal chain of events, large results. This blog has been part of my small effort to improve the world around me, and to encourage others to do the same.

I am grateful to Blogspot for having made it possible for me to express myself in this fashion, free of charge. I probably could not do it otherwise.

I am grateful also to George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Karl Rove, Bill Frist, Tom Delay and Rick Santorum. I was inspired to blog by their arrogance, ignorance, recklessness, destructiveness, medieval beliefs and criminal activity.

It is my hope that, by challenging their actions and beliefs, I have inspired others to do likewise.

Democratic Partisans

I know that there are people complaining about “partisanship” in Washington, the “tone” in Washington, and the lack of civility in current U.S. politics. But I find it hard to sympathize with them. Partly this is because Republicans make frequent, vehement, inflammatory rhetoric directed at liberals, Democratic leaders, and Democrats in general. Right-wing Republicans write books with titles like:
"Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism" [Sean Hannity]
"If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans" [Ann H. Coulter]
"The Road to Hell is Paved with Democrats" [Richard H. Collins]
They deserve nothing in reply but scorn and ridicule.

Beyond the name-calling, there is a more important struggle: authoritarian Republicans have sought, repeatedly and forcefully, to ignore and undermine the U.S. Constitution. Their goal has been to impose their “religiously correct” beliefs and their fantasies of national and world domination. Although I believe in cooperation and compromise, I also believe in limits. Democrats should never compromise the national Constitution to satisfy the demands of authoritarian religious beliefs, paranoia, and prejudice. The Constitution is the contract upon which our democratic national cooperative is based. For this reason we must struggle continuously against authoritarian Republicans. We must be partisans in the name of democracy, to defend the principles and vision upon which our country was founded, and upon which our democratic social cooperative depends for its survival.

Parlor Wit

If you want a government that doesn't give a damn for the quality of your life, vote Republican.

http://www.imvotingrepublican.com/

Parlor Wit

Quotations from our baseball player and accidental philosopher, Yogi Berra:

If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be.

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.

The future isn't what it used to be.

You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.

Project for a New Global Village Century

For a few days it looked like a war might break out. Colombian soldiers entered a frontier area of Ecuador and killed a number of people in a camp operated there by FARC, the guerilla group that has fought the Colombian government and terrorized Colombians for 40 years. The President of Ecuador was angry. The President of Venezuela was also angry. He knew that FARC personnel also inhabited his frontier with Colombia. The President of Colombia felt the action was fully justified. So there was much chest-thumping and bellowing. Threats were issued and armies were moved into position. And then something marvelous happened. Like members of a village, when they gathered together with fellow “villagers” – leaders from other countries in their region – they found a way to solve their dispute peacefully.

This meeting had been arranged by “The Rio Group”, said to have been “created in 1986 to be a political forum for Latin American heads of state.” I had never heard of “the Rio Group” before, and the news about their meeting and successful resolution impressed me. It was then I realized the extent to which international political cooperatives are evolving around the world, including really effective ones at the regional level. It was the kind of news that gives me hope for our future as a global village. Because our global village faces serious problems which require international solutions:

• Water crises in several regions
• Increased global energy demands
• Growing food crises in different regions
• Diseases with pandemic potential
• Natural catastrophes
• Regional conflicts and civil wars

If we do nothing, we all lose. If we try to solve them as individuals, we will accomplish little. It is always best when fellow villagers join together to solve what is, or could become, a common problem. But this requires a mature outlook, not one locked in childish egotism. Let us declare the end of our childhood as global villagers, and, for the sake of our children, assume our status as the elders responsible for their future. Their future demands that we create the political cooperatives, regional and topical, which are necessary to solve these problems now.