Was Lincoln Wrong?

Abe Lincoln was reputed to have said,"God must have loved poor people because he made so many of them" A modern update might be, "God must have loved gays and Lesbians, because he surely  made a lot them. " The current political rhetoric rules that you cannot believe anything from people whose politics is not yours. If a woman wearing men's clothes runs in saying the house is on fire, a lot of people would want to hear it from a Tea Party" individual. The author of a current book named "Drift" uses her research and reportorial skills to detail astonishing misuse of taxpayer funds. But, does Paul Ryan believe her? Is he not in favor of saving money?Is it the wrong reporter? Wrong money? What is Wrong?

Is the devil really your father?

A couple of Sunday school kids were arguing if there really is a Devil. One terminated the day's discussion with the statement "I think it's like Santa Claus, it is really your father". With Christmas Day streaking toward us at high speed, the timing of the Metropolitan Opera's simulcast of Gounod's Faust was sure to confuse the devout. For centuries, the story of Dr. Faustus has twitted the creative energies of many composers. Opera News for November had quite a scholarly article or the subject while omitting two versions which are favorites of this blogger. The two extra favorites are Boito's Mefistofele and the Broadway version, titled Damyankees. As a maturing liberal student of electrical engineering (and Detroit Tigers fan) he ethought it most clever of the aging realtor to demand an "escape clause". The Broadway writer must have gotten the idea from Boito. The Devil promises nothing but pleasures for 24 years; If any pleasure causes Faust to say "Stay. Thou art beautiful". the Devil wins Faust's soul. But, in 24 years, Faust has not said the magic words. Back in his study, he opens his Bible and immediately he has a vision of a beautiful land where the potholes get filled and the laws are just(The rich pay their share of taxes) ; as the heavenly chorus swells, Faust says ""Arrestate!); the devil starts sinking into the earth yelling "Faust.Faust!". As the chorus and orchestra get to or over the EPA level for permitted sound level, nobody feels sorry for the Devil.

Is Bad Hair a Felony?

In the past week, a former governor of the state of Illinois, famous for his ample black hair, was sentenced to 14 years in state prison for his offenses. Meanwhile, a blowhard named Donald Trump threatened to sponsor a debate for GOP presidential candidates until a total lack of interest became manifest. Mr Trump has for a long time been famous for a flagrant combover of the hairs of his head, plus perhaps augmentations. There has been no published threat of prosecution of Mr Trump for hair offenses. Now, to this writer, it appears that there is a shortage of space for incarceration of the likes of MR's Trump or Blagoyovich and that prison capacity should be reserved for those who are proven threats to the health of society. The fates of the gentlemen just mentioned should be grouped with smokers of hashish; The scarce resources of the state should be devoted to the nourishment of deserving poor, children and the aged. Other offenses should be punished by fines and similar penalties. Those who continue to grow hair should be left to do it. If cash becomes less scarce, some might be devoted to providing hats to those individuals who no longer can protect their bare scalps.from ultraviolet radiation.

Is America Great?

How did it get that way? By people working together. To work together, people must be moved to cooperation for a shared objective. There lies the intractable problem. Some people wish to render to the "guvmint" as little as possible of their wealth; apparently their recollection of how they obtained this wealth is that they gathered up gold nuggets among the manna that came from heaven. There is a departure from good sense here that acts as though God will maintain tax-free the superhighways he has given us, along with the free military complex. Others of us understand that our elected legislators levied taxes to pay for filling the inevitable potholes, to feed our troops in Afghanistan and buy the ammunition they so freely use, to fuel their humvees and to pay the salaries of cavalierly congresspersons who swore an oath to a radical of apparent Swedish background to obey him a rather than to uphold their oath of office and to pass the laws that will protect the less rich 99% of the citizenry and begin to retrieve the shameful gains of the super-rich. Grover Norquist must have learned a lot from Mephistofele

Carla Fiorina was Bill Hewlett's Babe Herman

Fasten your seat belts, all 8 our faithful blogreaders are in for a bumpy ride. First, you have to be old enough to remember when baseball preoccupied the minds of much of the male population. Before you become really absorbed, you must bear in mind that most of what your blogger remembers comes from reading history. Thus, your blogger's recollections.
Casey Stengel spent two or three years as player-manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, which assemblage contained a slugging outfielder named Babe Herman; Herman was not dumber than an ox, but not much smarter either. Early in one game, as he tended left field, he tried to catch an easy flyball; he wandered around out there and finally let it fall untouched. Casey lectured him gently but hoped for better. In a succeeding inning he let another one drop. Furiously, Casey jerked Herman and substituted himself. On the next fly to left, he wandered around and he let it fall: at the end of the inning, he stormed in and yelled at Herman "See, you've got left field so screwed up nobody can play it!"
William Hewlett and David Packard got their start selling audio generators to Walt Disney to make weird sounds in the movie "Fantasia" They progressed to manufacturing a wide variety of electronic instruments that were crucial to the World War II effort. After the war, IBM found they could sell computing machines for over 100 kilo dollars. HP thought they could sell a more modest machine for a few kilodollars, but found they were getting too massive, so they split off the instrument division, called it Agilent, and then hired an ambitious young woman called Carly Fiorina to run the computer division, which assumed the name Hewlett Packard. Carly, under the impression that HP could corner the computer market, thought she should merge with another hardware company, not realizing that the big profits come from selling printers ink a milliliter at a time, and soon she succumbed to stockholder restlessness. The next CEO, from a software company, proposed they depart the computer business entirely. The present CEO has greatly dissipating a sizeable nest egg, earned by putting sellers and buyers of lawnmowers together, in an unsuccessful run at the governorship of California.
Finally, perhaps, maybe Bill and Dave are too tough an act to follow.

Credibility of two well-known black female persons

In his hearings related to his joining the Supreme Court and never agAIN DOING doing any useful work, Clarence Thomas heard (and resented) some very uncomplimentary testimony from a professor of law from Oklahoma named Anita Hill. In a recent Newsweek, we find one Stanford grad whom many of us hoped for much better from, named Condolezza Rice, that George Bush did so care about the New Orleans black folk drowning or becoming homeless in Hurricanes Katrina. I believe Anita Hill, I do't believe Condi Rice

Clarence Thomas should be impeached and replaced

How does such a scofflaw keep his office? He failed to declare and pay income tax on about a million dollars. He does none of the work. He never has written an independant opinion; Once he finds out Scalia's opinion, he is content simply to echo it. The American people pay for and should receive much more from him.