Thursday, February 26, 2009

I have been reliably informed that the purpose of satire is always to illuminate, not perpetuate.
Satire is the political cartoon's reason for being. Can anyone out there actually claim that the Post's ignoble excuse of a cartoon met that definition? It did convince me of one irrefutable fact; there is a whale of a lot of work left to be done.
Freedom entails responsibility; responsibility to monitor your own behavior so that it does not infringe upon any one else's rights to liberty or opportunity. John Stuart Mills is credited with the saying "Your liberty ends where my nose begins".
In every way possible, the Post and their cartoon let us down.
Did you know that John Wilkes Boothe was a white supremacist; that it is actually that kind of mindless scum that ended the life of a brilliantly kind man? Lincoln was assassinated on april 15, 1865, and in that particular year, the 15th was Good Friday, the same day Jesus was nailed to the cross.
The Christian Right is certainly becoming an oxymoron for me .
I have really grown to love the transparency of the hospital setting. It doesn't take long to separate the wheat from the chaff as regards the people you are working with . The work is very intimate, so people who are predjudiced leave because they consider themselves too good for that kind of work. That is good for us because there is so much more oxygen to breathe!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

During the Bush years, I constantly felt as though we were all stuck in some scene from "Animal Farm" or "1984", and now forever in my mind I will think of them as the Orwellian years. You think in your mind about what those books were like and the way we were constantly bombarded with facts which turned out to be lies, dire warnings of danger were we not to climb on that bus of insanity, and a simply astounding breach in the armour of our constitution.
I feel as though we have been delivered. We have been transported back to the land of rationality and it is safe for our minds to come out of hiding.
I think part of Mr. Obama's great charm is that he reminds us of Jimmy Stewart. He is tall, stalwart, staunch, determined, committed to his own values and confident yet humble; he is the ultimate "good guy". And I am very grateful to be finally getting a good night's sleep again.

Friday, February 20, 2009

The Post

I still can't stop thinking about this, and I wish I could, because the post is all about the past, not the present or the future that MOST of us want. I had to do my CPR yesterday(training) and a very young nurse told me she thought that "too much was being made" of the editorial cartoon. And all I could think was that her sense of "white Privilege" was nearly palpable.
Now my question is, how do I trust the fairness and decency of this person? She passed her boards, so she can't be stupid.
Back during the primaries, the illegal alien question was always coming up. During the primaries , Mitt Romney said he would just "round them all up and ship them back! Would he have started with the Irish first? Because they are the biggest group of illegals; maybe no one notices them because they are white. oh my God I need a little icon that laughs and cries at the same time! The utter insensitivity of his stance appalled me, but his stupidity surprised me, because he is supposed to be such a financial genius. So start adding up how much it would cost to locate these 12 million people, house them and return them to their country of origin. There went the stimulus package. And you know, I just don't like mean-spirited people, and that stance was mean. I've met people who have literally crawled here to have their shot at freedom and opportunity. Where would I be if my ancestors had been turned away? Would I even be?
Mr. Obama has a 5 point plan for a legal path to citizenship: pay a fine for entering illegally, pay back taxes, back social security, learn to speak English and apply for citizenship. Bingo! This is a humane approach, and the beauty of it is, the illegals pay for it! And they can just pay a little at a time........we're all living pay check to pay check anyway. And just for a litle reality check, we could afford 50 million illegal aliens if we weren't dropping bombs all over the place.
I only bring this up because Rupert Murdoch recently became a citizen. What is the procedure for getting him out of the country, 'cause he's using up way too much oxygen!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The New York Post really sucks

I can not believe that so-called political cartoon that appeared in the post. And even more, I can't believe the editor/author et al have the nerve to blithely explain it away as something other than what it is.
Clearly this is thinly disguised domestic terrorism. There are probably 30% or so of people in the country who just don't get it, either because they are terminally stupid or morally bankrupt.
I really can see only one response to Rupert Murdoch, and that is to boycott all of his companies and all of his products. I realize that the guys who deliver the papers have to make a buck, but it would be nice if they were in a position to refuse to even touch those newspapers. I already thought no one should watch Fox news. Now I think we should watch nothing of theirs...not even American Idol.
I love Mr. and Mrs. Obama. I feel somehow like they are our brother and sister. There is nothing paternalistic about him, and she is, finally, a modern woman. They are simply trying to work shoulder to shoulder with us, and then we turn on our tv's and see something like this.
Rupert Murdoch and his minions should be ashamed of themselves. They are nothing but hateful, bigotted and inciteful, and this should be treated as a hate crime. The person who allowed this to go to press should be arrested, and there should be a huge fine levied against this corporation. Kudos to Rev Al Sharpton. Boycott anything to do with Rupert Murdoch. Start boycotting anything that is even advertised in these venues and we might see some result.