Monday, March 22, 2010

A Republican Waterloo?

Health Care Reform passed, and look what you got, GOP. Nothing.
I have been very critical of the presidents handling of this thing, but from where I am sitting right now, he is looking pretty good. I still think that he should have used the capital he had post election and just shot this thing through immediately. Instead we got the Town Hall Crazies last August that gave rise to Glenn Beck who fanned the flames of the Tea Party. All of this put Republican leadership into a position that working with the Pelosi and the President was tantamount to sitting down for schnitzel and borscht with Hitler and Stalin.
Well the bill passed regardless of the party of "no" said or did. Now what is going to happen when it becomes really popular, which it will. Entitlement programs are always really popular. Look at one of the big Republican talking points opposing Health Care Reform was that it would deplete Medicare. While that was stupid, but at least based somewhere on planet earth. Unlike their other talking points of "death panels", and this being the last stop from commie-brown shirts marching down your street.
I've never been a fan of David Frum, but I'm posting his post on blog because he seems to be one of the few conservative who hasn't lost his mind. I've seen him on Bill Maher, and know that he was a G.W. Bushie and a big proponent of the Iraq War, neither of these things will ever get you much love from me. But the current state of his GOP is beyond laughable, at this point it is sad, and Frum sees it. The Tea-partiers are people carrying Gadsdens Flags, getting all of their information from FOX and spouting ignorance about "my America", "liberty", "state's rights" and whatever other clap-trap their eating up with two spoons from the Becks, Palins and Limbaughs of the world. This is not what makes a strong opposition party, it makes a pathetic one. One which no thinking person, would want any part of or take seriously. And democracy needs dissenting voices to be strong especially our "2-party only" arrangement. Frum sees it, sees the wasted opportunity this bill provided, and sees that his party has become nothing but a group "to sell sleep number beds to" over the radio. Waterloo | FrumForum

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

PS22 Chorus "LISZTOMANIA" Phoenix

This is so completely fantastic I can't stand it.
Awesome cute kids, doing an awesome job on a really cool tune.
This teacher really seems to have made a connection with these kids and is producing beautiful results.

YouTube - PS22 Chorus "LISZTOMANIA" Phoenix

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Jerry Large | Distrust of politics is out of hand | Seattle Times Newspaper

Dude is right on the money here.

Jerry Large | Distrust of politics is out of hand | Seattle Times Newspaper

BIg Ben in trouble again.

I am sure my millions and millions of readers already know that Ben Roethlisberger has been accused of sexual assault this week. This is the second such accusation for Big Ben in a year. Now all of this plays into the stereotype of the star athlete who doesn't have to play by the rules. And while this may be unfair, and too easy. I will not shy away from it here, because I have a gigantic beef with Big Ben steaming from the most poorly officiated Super Bowl in the history of the NFL; Super Bowl XL. Roethlisberger himself benefited from a touchdown that was late called and looked to be a yard short, and that was the second in a series of bad calls that all went Pittsburgh way. So this leads to the question: When and where did Big Ben learn that he didn't have to play by the rules? I'd guess: Detroit - February 2006.

The Hurt Locker

Saw "The Hurt Locker" last night. I've heard that it will win the big award tonight, and I hope it does. I've now seen 6 or 7 of the 10 nominees, and I really enjoyed most of them, with maybe the exception of "Inglourious Basterds" which I thought was just okay. Something about altering the history of WWII for fantasy sake rubs me the wrong way.

"The Hurt Locker" succeeds on a number of different levels, it is a movie about the most politicially charged War of my lifetime without any politics, which is no small feat. One of the things I walked away with was how war changes people, how we ask these people to do amazing things that have no real translation once they come back home. The movie had a very real quality about it, these were not recognizable Hollywood types doing recognizable Hollywood action movie things. The characters while particulary heroic were hormented, conflicted but in a very real and very human way.

I think that it is important that Americans think about Iraq in a very real way, and recognize what we are asking of our people to do effects them, ourselves and others in a very profound ways that have consequences.