Another Morning’s Musings

Please Just Shut Up, Already

OK, so you think President Obama applied for the Nobel Prize? Have you done any reading on how recipients are selected? Do you know the criteria? And, what is the guy supposed to do, insult the world by not accepting, insult most by not showing up? Recently, goobers by the scads have mouthed off on how Obama doesn’t deserve the prize and how he ought to be somewhere else pitching for jobs instead of showing up to accept a prize. On the other hand, you got another bunch who is muttering that he has insulted Norway because he didn’t add more time in Norway to meet the king and all the rest of swells who make up the committee and rituals which normally go along with the award. And? What if the guy, upon notice of the award said, “Oh shit, I don’t really know what I did to deserve this.” Was he as leader of our nation supposed to say that and insult the ones who awarded it to him? What would a gracious person do; what would a politician do; what would John Boehner do; what would you do?

I do not know myself if he “deserves” it; I am not happy that he has not got our asses out of expensive wars because I do not know that we are any safer for being in them; I am displeased with his lack of speed in ending the corruption that is killing our financial and medical complexes. However, when it comes to “deserving,” I can’t come to grips with why our crooked bankers and crooked politicians are not getting what they deserve. I know we would be better off directing our energies making sure that the politicians who have not minded the store, that all the bureaucrats who get paid for ignoring rules and laws, and that all the financial wizards that lined their pockets while letting 97 percent of this nation go down the toilet get what they deserve.

In case you did not know it, two concepts are at play here. Our preceding president and his administration was so abysmally horrible and truly despised by the world that our current President seems to have captured the imagination of hope that much of the world has for our future. Second, in case you hadn’t looked, the rest of the world ain’t mostly white. I suspect that this man, by managing to become our first President of color, has suggested for many, in places foreign, that just maybe some justice and equality might be around the corner for them.
I do not know who deserves a Nobel Prize, and Obama is not the only American to receive it under some suspicion. I do care and hope his speech is well done and that he builds some good will around the world with his world. See, I want him to do well because I want this country to do well. It’s that simple.

Health What, Redux

A bit back, I was trying to explain my frustration and confusion and anger over what had happened when I decided to deal with a small independent pharmacy instead of a larger chain. I wrote my local politicians about what I perceive as conflicts of interest in the way Medco, the state’s pharmaceutical provider is allowed to do business. I did get a response though from one senator’s executive assistant that the senator and she had been waiting, as of November 30, since June 6 of this year to meet with the lobbyist from Medco. However, the lobbyist is on record, I guess, of stating that he “preferred that we come to him instead of drafting a bill to correct it.” In this statement the “we” is the senator and assistants and the “it” refers to a similar complaint that my pharmacist had filed regarding the same issues. As of this morning, my pharmacist had heard not from an elected official but from the legislative aide and has heard not from Medco, and I do not know if the lobbyist has ever met with the good senator or not. As for me, I have yet to hear personally from either of my district’s politicians. I guess I will get my lobbyist to go see them.

Maybe She Will just Float off with the Polar Bears; They Would Probably Get Food Poisoning

Sara Palin who has the depth of logic and intellect of a WalMart birdbath is at the global warming issue, again. I won’t dare go into just how vapid this quitter is but when she yabbles about the non-existence of global warming, I quote Alaska’s Senator Murkowski’s comments to Hillary Clinton during the latter’s confirmation hearings: Murkowski- “The loss of summer sea ice from climate change is having a truly dramatic effect on the Arctic, and the Bush administration saw this unfolding.” Clinton-“You know, maybe because the change has been relatively rapid with the melting of the sea ice, people haven't kept up with what is going on in the Arctic, and I -- when I was in your office and you were telling me about how cruise ships now are going to Point Barrow, I was shocked.” Murkowski-“So were the people at Point Barrow. So were the people at Point Barrow! I mean, look on the map. It's the northernmost place in the United States, and it's not a place that one would have thought previously was on the tour for cruise ships.” And earlier Murkowski- “we have opportunities, when it comes to a leadership role, in collaboration on research, on environmental issues, on issues as they relate to commerce, and we're seeing more of those issues present themselves as we see a world out there that is more and more free of sea ice.”
Do any of you so called conservative Republicans out there who support Palin ever read anything or are you, like Pat Buchannan, too busy trying to look down her blouse or trying to catch a shot of beaver at a book signing? How come Alaska’s Senator knows that Alaska is melting away, and the state’s former gov and wannabe political pundit/candidate hasn’t a clue? I hope that the helicopter she uses for shooting wolves doesn’t run out of gas; the pilot might not find a spot of ice to set down on. Jeeeesh want a maroooon. I do hope she runs out of political gas.