December 10, 2008
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those were the days
Hope you'll recommend my posts via your favorite social media. Just don't copy the material as your own.
December 6, 2008
by infmom
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Warner Brothers for the new age
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“That’s Politics, Doc!” the story of the 2008 election
Starring
- Barack Obama as Bugs Bunny
- John McCain as Daffy Duck
- Joe Biden as Foghorn Leghorn
- Sarah Palin as Yosemite Sam
Special appearances by:
- Hillary Clinton as Tweety Bird
- Mitt Romney as Marty the Martian
- Karl Rove as Porky Pig
- Rush Limbaugh as Elmer Fudd
- Bill O’Reilly as the Tasmanian Devil
- Bill Clinton as Pepe Le Pew
AND
George W. Bush as Wile E. Coyote
Hope you'll recommend my posts via your favorite social media. Just don't copy the material as your own.November 27, 2008
by infmom
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Give thanks for the liberals
Since the presidential election in the USA, there has been more than the usual (if you can imagine that) grousing, thundering, and carrying-on about “the liberals.” Mostly from the same blowhards who crowed like Chanticleer back in 1994 when they used clever PR and glittering generalities to fool the American public into thinking they had the answers.
And, unfortunately, the teaching of history is so boring in so many American schools that the people who listen to blowhards don’t have any foundation for telling them they’re full of manure.
So let’s consider the liberals.
Without the liberals, the USA would not exist. The liberals of the day believed it was their duty to overthrow the established colonial governments, and they put it in writing. Can you imagine today’s conservatives, fuming about the election of a “liberal” president, gladly throwing in their lot with a bunch of radicals who wanted to dump the King?
Without the liberals, women would not have the right to vote.
Without the liberals, slavery would have lasted a lot longer in the USA.
Without the liberals, contraceptives would be illegal (dispensing them to unmarried people was still illegal in many states well into the 1970s).
Without the liberals, Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham could never have married. The year their son Barack Jr. was born, interracial marriage was still against the law in sixteen states.
Without the liberals, Barack Obama Jr. might only have had the option of a “separate but equal” segregated school. He might have been prevented from voting. He might never have been able to run for public office.
Without the liberals, girls would still be second-class citizens in school and it would be legal to give all the benefits to boys and stick the girls with the leftovers because they were just girls. Women could still be legally barred from most occupations.
Without the liberals there would have been no tax cuts during the Kennedy administration. The conservatives of the day fought against them tooth and nail, because they were adamantly against deficit spending.
Would you really want to live in a place where the liberals never pushed for human progress? There are still such conservative oases out there–only problem is, most of the people in them hate Americans, even the conservatives, and it’s anyone’s guess how long any American seeking to escape the liberals would live.
Hope you'll recommend my posts via your favorite social media. Just don't copy the material as your own.November 14, 2008
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An end to the butts
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As I walked across the incredibly littered campus today, it occurred to me that what the world needs is a deposit on cigarettes.
Charge a deposit of a quarter per cigarette (or the worldwide equivalent). If you want to avoid paying the deposit, you have to bring in 20 butts per pack. Whoever collects the taxes on cigarettes would provide retailers with appropriate containers and empty them out periodically.
Just think how fast the ground would be de-littered if the butts were actually worth something.
Hope you'll recommend my posts via your favorite social media. Just don't copy the material as your own.November 9, 2008
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A time to grow
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In the aftermath of the election, I have seen people who normally are even-tempered and courteous writing messages that ought to be labeled with a skull and crossbones or a Mr. Yuk symbol. These folks are livid that Obama won the election and they are predicting dire consequences for pretty much the entire universe.
Where on earth do they get this sour point of view? Judging by what I’ve seen, Fox News is a primary culprit, but there are other “conservative” news sources contributing to the flow of bile as well. When Chris Wallace appeared on the Daily Show the other night, they played some clips of his Fox News colleages snickering about Obama’s aunt, the alleged illegal immigrant, and cattily wondering if she’s registered to vote. Chris Wallace had the good grace to look embarrassed.
Many of these same people greeted Dubya as a newfound saviour and gloated that their guy won, and told those of us who predicted he’d be a disaster to suck it up and get with the program. Now that the predictions have come true, they’re telling us Obama will be worse. Buh?
Oh, if Molly Ivins were only still with us. She’d set them straight in short order.
Last year, I wrote a series of posts titled “Ten ways to take a stand against ignorance.” There is a prologue of sorts here, and the main series starts here. One of the things I suggested was that we learn something new every day. In today’s Productivity 501 blog, one that I read every day precisely because it’s a good way to learn new things, author Mark Shead says much the same thing: Stretch yourself.
We now have an opportunity to make progress and rectify some of the wrongs of the past. It won’t happen overnight, but if we-the-people pull together, we can prove to the naysayers that it’s long past time they pulled the plug on Fox News.
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November 5, 2008
by infmom
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My cousin the President
Image by Renegade98 via Flickr
Last year sometime I idly put one of my maternal great-great-grandfathers’ names into a Google search, just to see what turned up. What turned up was Barack Obama’s family tree.
No, we don’t share a relative that close. I did some figuring, though, and as it turns out, Barack Obama’s mother and I are tenth cousins, whch means my kids are Obama’s 11th cousins. That’s good enough for me! We are all descendants of Nathaniel FitzRandolph, who lived in the mid 17th century.
My branch of the FitzRandolph family scooted across the border from New Jersey to New Brunswick come the Revolution, and left behind lands on which Princeton University (and the FitzRandolph Gate) sit today. They were Canadian forever more, or at least until my grandmother re-crossed the border during WWII and became an American citizen, when my mother was 16.
My mother was delighted to hear about this relationship and I know she would have voted enthusiastically for Cousin Barack had she lived. My mother took great delight in politics and in activism and she was, for the most part, a progressive.  She would have loathed Sarah Palin, you betcha.
I expect my grandmother would have felt the same way. I bet she’s already bustled up to Obama’s grandmother and welcomed her long-lost cousin to a happy afterlife.
My dad’s parents had many good and admirable qualities, but they were Republicans to the core and racists to boot. The thought of them spinning in their graves right now makes me happy.
Hope you'll recommend my posts via your favorite social media. Just don't copy the material as your own.November 3, 2008
by infmom
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The apparently blank message
Apologies to Twitter, RSS and email subscribers, my post last night came through either horribly mangled or blank. It’s a video of my “GOP Blues” song parody and it plays just fine on the site.
As a first-time video creator (and poster) I obviously have a lot to learn!
Give it a look, if you like, and let me know what you think.
Hope you'll recommend my posts via your favorite social media. Just don't copy the material as your own.November 2, 2008
by infmom
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GOP Blues
I took down the video of “GOP Blues” because it’s out of date and I want to post a new one.
Hope you'll recommend my posts via your favorite social media. Just don't copy the material as your own.October 30, 2008
by infmom
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Stop the hate. No on 8.
Today marks the 39th anniversary of my husband’s and my first date and I could think of no better way to celebrate it than to say we need to stand up to the bigotry of religious groups who wouldn’t know Jesus if he came back tomorrow and kicked them in the butt.
Which, come to think of it, he really needs to do.
Hope you'll recommend my posts via your favorite social media. Just don't copy the material as your own.October 25, 2008
by infmom
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Sitcoms
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I have come to the conclusion that I’m too old and cranky to appreciate situation comedies any more. Or maybe I’m just, in the immortal words of the Muppet Show, too hip for the room.
Or maybe not. Does anyone find any of the current crop of half-hour sitcoms genuinely funny? If you turn off the sound and watch the closed-captions, are there really any jokes there at all? I don’t think so, but then again I can’t stand to be in the room long enough to finish a show these days, much less pay attention to what’s supposedly entertaining us on the screen.
The thing is, a lot of sitcoms used to be funny and witty and well written. Oh sure, every era had its share of stinkers, but just put any of the classic Norman Lear shows–All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons, Good Times before it got blown to bits by “DynOMite”–up against what passes for comedy these days and you’ll see. One “Hello? … that’s MRS. Findlay!” out of Bea Arthur beats any number of wise-ass kids (JJ’s dyn-o-mite descendants, alas) any day of the week.
And, of course, the classic sitcoms had to be written so adults would get all the risque double-entendres and situations, while kids would not. No bad language. No rude gestures. It took a higher level of writing talent to get that accomplished. Nowadays they just drop a few language bombs and have done with it.
Oh, the joys of days gone by. I Love Lucy was well into reruns by the time my parents got a TV, so maybe it was just entertaining to kids my age, but I don’t think so. It wouldn’t still be running otherwise. The Sixties had I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster (could there be any better pairing than John Astin and Marty Ingels?), The Addams Family, The Munsters, and Norman Lear’s finest.
Then came Cheers, Night Court, and Taxi. Family Ties. Square Pegs. The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda. M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show and Alice. The Cosby Show and the all-too brief Police Squad.
Now what do we have? I dunno.  I haven’t cared enough to watch.
Hope you'll recommend my posts via your favorite social media. Just don't copy the material as your own.
