Will the Grownups Please Come Back and Take Charge?

Donovan — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:45:15 +0000

I try to remember that people with whom I disagree on politics are usually sincere and I, therefore, try to keep my tone moderate. But I have to be honest. This flap over the President’s proposed online message to kids next week on the first day of school makes me very angry and I’m running out of patience with people who:

disrupt town hall meetings on health care reform
run around accusing the President of being a foriegner, terrorist, or worse
throw out wacky and totally unsubstantiated claims like death panels

Democracy only works if we all chose to engage in a thoughtful, respectful manner. If necessary, it’s OK to jettison the respectful part. But citizens absolutely have to be thoughtful and informed. And that’s not happening. The idiots have taken over the discourse.

I don’t use that word, idiot, lightly. Calling people idiots isn’t thoughtful or helpful; I will admit that. There are people I like and respect who will read this and think I’m talking about them which makes me nervous about this post. But I honestly don’t know what else to say about the wave of silliness that has engulfed our country. It’s idiotic.

We often lament the lack of civic engagement in our country. Kids don’t vote or seem to understand how government works. The parents who are stopping schools from running the President’s message are contributing to this problem. At one time, people taught their kids to respect officials like the President just because that’s just appropriate behavior. Not any more.

Do you really think the President is going to give some political speech to the kids? Or try to indoctrinate them into some socialistic cult of personality? Do you really think that? Really?

Get real! He’s going to give a bland “work hard, stay in school, don’t use drugs” message just like Presidents and other celebrities have been doing for years. Reagan and the first Bush did it. So have others. What’s the big deal?

I’m going to close with a video clip from yesterday’s Morning Joe program on MSNBC. Joe Scarborough, host and former Republican Congressman, makes the argument against this insanity far better than I.

NOTE: MSNBC uses a frame for their video that is not supported in WordPress so I can’t embed the video in my post. The link shown above will take you to the video.

New?

Donovan — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:28:00 +0000

Interesting article in the NY Times about the “new” GM. The “new” corporation is emerging from bankruptcy and everyone is excited about the direction the giant automaker is going. I have to say that I’m skeptical and a bit troubled by this whole thing. GM was allowed to sell all it’s valuable assets to a “new” GM while it’s old liabilities stayed with the “old” GM that that will continue to go through bankruptcy. Creditors of the “old” GM will likely get very little, while those of the “new” GM will probably do alright. Since when is this how it works? We didn’t force the banks to go through this kind of process; we just shoveled obscene amounts of taxpayer money at them so they could keep up their old, criminal tricks.

Not that this new approach is much better. Pardon me for saying that it doesn’t take a Harvard MBA to resurrect a corporation that is allowed to cherry-pick the assets and liabilities it keeps. Wish someone would let me do that. I’ll keep the car loan and the mortgage, please. You can take the credit card debt.

What really troubles me is that the liabilities that the “new” GM is shedding include a ton of lawsuits and settlements from consumers who got hurt in defective GM cars. Looks like they are just going to lose. That is seriously wrong.

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Will the Grownups Please Come Back and Take Charge?

New?