Ups and Downs

Led by the bloviating buffoon of bullshit, Rush Limbaugh, the Party of No keeps attacking President Obama's economic recovery initiative claiming that it will not, cannot, and must not work.

While that appears to be the unshakable belief of those who worship at the FOX/Limbaugh Church of the Perpetually Frightened and Ignorant, the data presented in the graph below suggest that the truth is not to be found in their catechism.

Consider the following as you examine the graph:

1. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act which regulated the banking industry for over sixty years occurred during the Clinton administration (1999); but the Republican'ts controlled both houses of Congress at the time.

2. The housing market bubble swelled and popped during the presidency of George W. Bush and another GOP dominated Congress.

3. And when did Barack Obama take office? Look way down there at the very rock bottom of the curve - January 2009 right where the rebound begins.

Click on the graph to enlarge it or here to view its source.

Letterboxing

Letterboxing is an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber stamp artistry in a charming "treasure hunt" style outdoor quest. A wide variety of adventures can be found to suit all ages and experience levels. (from the Letterboxing web site, linked above)

***

My wife learned about Letterboxing two weeks ago from a former student whose children are roughly the ages or our grandchildren and who love to do the activities. We decided to try it, and it was a blast.

Our first adventure took us to the Logan Elm State Memoriala few miles south of Circleville, Ohio. We chose that site in part because there were multiple letterboxes hidden there. We figured if we failed to find one letterbox we'd surely be able to find another.

As it turned out, we located three of four - not bad for newbies to the activity. However, of those three, we only opened two. We were itching to retrieve the third found letterbox from its hiding place, but we decided against scratching that itch in deference to the prodigious growth of poison ivy protecting its lair.

So, on a sunny afternoon in July, our grandchildren were exposed to a bit of Ohio history, learned how to use a compass to take a bearing, and had a great deal of fun in the process.

I made a Smilebox of our adventure using some of the pictures my wife and I took. I hope you like it.

Oh! In case you're wondering, Letterboxers use trail names. Our son and his wife didn't really name their children Pink Moo and Mr. Calvin.

Make a Smilebox postcard

To find out more about Letterboxing, visit letterboxing.org or simply click the link below:

http://letterboxing.org/faq/faq.html

Free Ice Cream

Today's offering is yet another "Reply All" response on my part to a blindly-forwarded email message from a friend who believes FOX Noise, Rush Limbaugh, and anonymously written screeds from his inbox which tell him that anything President Obama wants to do is bad for America.

Here's the forwarded message which inspired today's rant:

ONE OF THE BEST EXPLANATIONS OF WHY OBAMA WON THE ELECTION

From a teacher in the Nashville area

"We are worried about "the cow" when it is all about the "Ice Cream."

The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third grade this year.

The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest. I decided we would have an election for a class president. We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote. To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have. We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot.

The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids.

I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never seen Olivia's mother.

The day arrived when they were to make their speeches.

Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best. Everyone applauded and he sat down.

Now is was Olivia's turn to speak. Her speech was concise. She said, "If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream."

She sat down. The class went wild. "Yes! Yes! We want ice cream."

She surely would say more. She did not have to.

A discussion followed.

How did she plan to pay for the ice cream?

She wasn't sure.

Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it.

She didn't know.

The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream. Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a landslide.

Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and 52 percent of the people reacted like nine year olds.They want ice cream.

The other 48 percent know

They're going to have to feed the cow and clean up the mess.

Remember, the government cannot give anything to anyone ---

that they have not first taken away from someone else.

Now my response:

Once again, John, you have chosen to ignore the facts and instead to lap up and regurgitate the prepared bullshit of the right-wing.

Both as a candidate and as President, Barack Obama never made any claims regarding free government handouts which your blindly forwarded, anonymously written ("From a teacher in the Nashville area") piece of inanity suggests.

From the bold type and its position at the end of the message you sent, I take it that your entire objection to President Obama's presidency and economic strategy is found in the statement:

Remember, the government cannot give anything to anyone ---

that they (sic) have not first taken away from someone else.

In response, let me point out a few facts:

1. Besides being poorly written, the sentence above ignores the fact that in America, we are the government, as in:

We the People of the United states, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

2. It restates the obvious. (Governments are funded with tax dollars.) Duh!

3. It suggests a patently false conclusion based on fear-mongering right-wing ideology devoid of any factual information to support it. (Collecting taxes is somehow akin to stealing, and Barack Obama wants to steal your money and give it to people who don't deserve it.)

You are, of course, free to stick your head "where the sun don't shine" and to believe whatever you like. But I would like to think that you are at least slightly interested in the truth.

Contrary to the "free ice cream" metaphor used by the anonymous writer, candidate Obama spoke openly and often about the sacrifice and hard work which would be required of all Americans in order to bring about the changes he said were needed and on which he based his campaign.

February 5, 2008:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080225/NEWS09/802250372

May 26, 2008:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/05/26/obama_asks_graduates_for_sacrifice_service/

July 2, 2008:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpiOXogBDr0 (last half of linked video)

You can disagree about the necessity and scope of those changes, but to say that he promised anything for free is a bald-faced lie.

Furthermore, had you bothered to listen - specifically to his reply to the right-wing shill, Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (AKA "Joe the Plumber") - you would have heard Obama speaking directly and openly about redistribution of wealth. He used the term "spreading the wealth around" in his reply to Wurzelbacher and explained his intention to raise taxes on the top 5% of the population.

That top 5% is comprised of the same folks whose tax reductions under the Bush administration shifted the burden of paying for government services (including Bush's war of choice in Iraq) downward onto the remaining 95% of the population.

Watch the full Joe the Plumber encounter here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRPbCSSXyp0

This time, pay attention.

Obama was honest. Those whom you have chosen to believe and whose email diatribes you blindly forward are not. They listened. They heard what Obama said. They recognized that the largess bestowed on them by George W. Bush might come to an end, and they immediately began a campaign designed to dupe folks like you into believing that your taxes would go up if theirs did.

If you're looking for free ice cream, you'll find it in the claim that cutting taxes for the wealthiest 5% of the population will benefit you and the other 95% of the population via "trickle-down" economics. In fact, my friend, it is not just free ice cream. It is a bullshit sundae with whipped cream and a cherry on top.

Answer two simple questions:

1. Do you really think you're in the same economic bracket as the top 5% of Americans?

2. Are you better off today than you were in 2000?

I know I'm not.

The great irony, of course is that the message you sent decrying the childish greed and naivete of an anonymous third grade class is itself a blatant appeal to greed and self-interest. It relies on fear-mongering and is designed to undermine the efforts of a man who is trying "to promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" for all Americans, not just the top 5%.

If you are unable to recognize cause-and-effect economic reality after eight years of right-wing doublespeak (even longer if you count Reagan's economic sleight of hand), I suggest that you simply sign your retirement portfolio over to the super-rich, sit back, and let the good times trickle on down to you just as they have since last October.

Morality Play

Below you'll find a poetic perspective

Which calls into question self-righteous invective

As bellowed by Rush and the GOP core

Against empathic judges like Sotomayor.

Of Ensign and Sanford they speak not a word;

For to censure their dalliance might cause discord.

So, thumping their Bibles, unread I dare say,

They safeguard the dream of the old KKK.

George A. Denino

7/16/09

Note: The article below is taken from the July 16, 2009 issue of Questions & Answers, a free email newsletter to which I subscribe. It is written by Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong. To sign up for the newsletter, click on the link above, scroll to the bottom of the web page to which your browser will take you, and submit your email address.

The Shady Ladies

Tad Evans, a retired Episcopal priest and the grandson of the well known and well remembered Walter Russell Bowie, sent the following verse that he attributes without certainty to English Bible scholar Michael Donald Goulder. One of my columns on "The Shady Ladies" of Matthew's genealogy inspired Tad to pass this along. I thought it too much fun to keep it to myself and so I run it today in place of the "Question and Answer" feature.

I hope you both enjoy it and that it sends you back to your Bibles to read Matthew 1:1-17 on which it is based and to check out his references to the Hebrew Scriptures.

– John Shelby Spong

Exceedingly odd is the means by which
God has directed our path to the heavenly shore.
Of the girls from whose line the true light was to shine,
There was one an adulteress, one was a whore.

There was Tamar who bore what we all should deplore:
A fine pair of twins to her father-in-law.

And Rahab, the harlot, her sins were as scarlet,
As red as the thread she hung from her door.
Yet alone of her nation she came to salvation,
And lived to be mother of Boaz of yore.

And he married Ruth, a Gentile uncouth,
In a manner quite counter to Biblical lore,

And from her there did spring blessed David, the king,
Who walked on his palace one morning and spied
The wife of Uriah from whom he did sire,
A baby who died, Oh and princes, a score.

And a mother, unmarried, it was, too, who carried,
God's son whom she laid in a cradle of straw,
That the moral might wait at the Heavenly Gate,
While sinners and publicans go in before,
Who have not earned their place, but received it by grace,
And have found them a righteousness, not of the law.