Category Archives: Random Blogging

Interesting Observation

My granddaughter Sarah currently lives in Wales; she is attending the University of Wales and will graduate this summer. She reads the Guardian, and this morning sent me the following text message.

“Taken from the comment and debate section of the Guardian this morning: ‘what you need to say and do to be credible in the Republican Party essentially deprives you of credibility outside it. The Republicans recognize this, but like an obese glutton at an all-you-can-eat buffet, they just can’t seem to help themselves.'”

The comment was in response to an article on “The American Right, Stuck in a Hyperbolic World,” and I think it captured the current dynamic perfectly. Right now, for example, it looks quite likely that the House GOP will shut down government, despite Democrats’ willingness to meet their demands halfway. (The Republicans want 60 billion in cuts; Democrats are offering 30 billion.) They seem absolutely oblivious to the damage indiscriminate cuts will do to the still-fragile recovery–and equally oblivious to the political damage their posturing is inflicting.

As the commenter noted, they just can’t help themselves.

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Have You No Shame, Sir?

I think what is most appalling about the crop of new “Tea Party” governors, is the absolute impunity with which they use their positions for personal, as well as political gain. In my tradition, we call this sort of behavior “chutzpah.” In English, I think the word is “criminal.”

Factoids to Ponder…..

As we prepare to lay off teachers, deal a body blow to Planned Parenthood’s ability to provide health care for poor women, further eviscerate civics education, etc., etc., etc.–a few things to ponder (h/t to Greg Kueterman):

  • A Tomahawk missile cost 569,000 in FY99
  • Factoring in inflation, they probably cost 736,000 =/- today
  • The U.S. fired 110 of these missiles just on Monday, or 81 million dollars worth
  • That’s 33 times the amount NPR receives in grants each year from the Corporation on Public Broadcasting.

Just sayin’……..

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Welcome to Never-Neverland

I know my posts sound increasingly frustrated these days. Here is just one example of why that is.

According to Talking Points Memo,

“Thirty-one Republicans on the House Energy And Commerce Committee — the entire Republican contingent on the panel — declined on Tuesday to vote in support of the very idea that climate change exists.

Democrats on the panel had suggested three amendments that said climate change is a real thing, is caused by humans and has potentially dire consequences for the future. The amendments came on a Republican bill to block the EPA from offering regulations to mitigate the results of global climate shifts. The global scientific community is in near unanimous agreement that climate change is real, and that humans contribute to it.

None of the 31 Republicans on the committee would vote yes on any of the amendments..”

I know that every legislative body and every political party has its nuts and ideologues. But thirty-one members of the GOP and U.S. Congress voting against reality really boggles the imagination. There are plenty of aspects of reality that I don’t like–beginning with the fact that science denial is making the world more dangerous for my children and grandchildren–but that doesn’t mean I can blithely pretend they don’t exist. Refusing to acknowledge facts in evidence is suicidal for individuals and societies alike.

The fact that these people were elected in what I can only assume were fair and free elections is infinitely depressing. But it really happened and their decisions have real consequences.

And whether they choose to ignore it or not, climate change is accelerating, and the consequences of their refusal to acknowledge that reality and deal with it will affect believers and nonbelievers alike.

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Customer Disservice

It must be nice to be Apple.

I keep hearing that the economy is still depressed, but the news clearly hasn’t reached the purveyors of cool. Like many others, I have been waiting for the release of the IPad 2. I was not sufficiently techno-crazy to line up on the first day they were released, so I figured I’d wait until the middle of the following week. Today was the day.

Now, I live downtown, and the only Apple store in Indianapolis is on the far north side, so I did what any prudent person would: I called. And called. And called. Fifteen times, as a matter of fact. The phone was never answered. So (despite my husband’s prediction that they wouldn’t have any in stock) we drove the 86 blocks to the bedlam that is the Apple Store.

When I finally found one of the numerous clerks to help me, he confirmed my husband’s prediction: No IPads in stock. When would they get another shipment? “We get stuff every day, but we don’t know what’s coming–sometimes there are IPads, sometimes not.” Could I order one? No, all orders needed to be handled online. Was there some reason no one was answering the phone?  “We only have one operator, and when new products come out, she can’t keep up. Happens all the time.” Has it ever occurred to you to put extra operators on duty when new products come out? No.

I think Apple’s marketing strategy is: make them beg for it. The more arrogant we are, the more they’ll want it.

So I came home and–like the consumerist sheep I have become–I ordered online.

It will be four to five weeks for the IPad to be delivered. No estimates on when I’ll regain my self-respect.

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