Ted Kennedy was a consummate politician . Having emerged from the shadow of his notable brethren, he was a popular senator (46 years in the senate) and a lightning rod for trouble and controversy.
My father was a staunch Democrat and Kennedy supporter, and he was proud to display the Christmas card we got from newly minted Senator Teddy back in the 60's. It stayed on the mantel long into the summer. Even then, I knew that holiday greeting had cost my father a few bucks in campaign contributions.
As I grew older, I grew away from party loyalty. I became disillusioned by the influence of special interests, and tired of schoolyard partisan bickering. I proudly declared myself an independent. But, in truth I had become cynical and about politicians and apathetic about politics. I felt then and still believe that most politicians are in it for the glory and gold, and regardless of their affiliation, they are not to be trusted. Any casual search of the news at any given time will affirm that my distrust is well placed.
I have not been happy with the representation of my state in the senate for many years. Rich guys like Kennedy and Kerry are old school politicians with no new ideas. Furthermore, they cannot identify with the lives of their constituents. Few of us can identify with guys who spend their weekends partying with the rich and famous, sailing on huge boats and who can do pretty much anything they want. Then, feeling guilty about their privilege, they cast their votes for the most socialistic measures (if they bother to go back to DC to vote.)
Despite this, I must relate that I have a special warm feeling for Ted Kennedy. In 1990, I was working for a company that had been acquired by a firm from California. The new management came into town and "cleaned house." I and a few dozen other managers came to work one morning to find ourselves laid off, with gray envelopes containing a severance agreement.
I had been working there for less than a year but the standard severance for lay-off was 1 month's pay. But the new management were surprised by the recent Kennedy sponsored "Plant Closing Law" which demanded that the employees get 30 days notice before a lay-off. Since we had already been terminated, the new company had to kick-in another month's pay. For that extra month, I had Ted Kennedy to thank.
The rest of them I would not trust to change the oil on my van. Someone should check to see where Hillary Clinton was last night. She was none too happy when Ted endorsed BO during the primary fights.
8/26/2009
8/19/2009
Why I didn't Enter the Best Tomato Contest this year
This is what home grown tomatoes are supposed to look like at this time of year
<=========
This is what my tomatoes look like.
The weather in New England was not very good for tomato growing this year. During June and July we had the rainiest and coolest summer in memory. August has been seasonal but my poor golfball sized Jetstars need a lot of catching up if I am going to have ripe tomatoes before frost.
Like the folk singer says, "Thays only two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and home grown termaters." Amen to that.
8/14/2009
Remembering Woodstock 1969
Man, who could forget that moment in history, forty years ago, when we gathered, half a million strong, for those few days of Peace, Love and Music? OK, so maybe I was not there, but I heard about it on the radio. Hey, my wife and I had jobs in those days; responsibilities - rent, careers, and a baby on-the-way.
It was actually a memorable summer for us - but, not because of any music concert. In July we had taken a cruise to Bermuda as a sort of delayed honeymoon. We were young, clean cut, and had probably never heard of Jimmi Hendrix or Janis Joplin. We were still under the musical influence of Bobby Darren and The Kingston Trio. The gathering at Woodstock would never have appeared on our radar. We were trying to break-in, not drop-out. We did not even know anyone that did drugs or practiced free love.
One of my musical memories was driving through the Sumner Tunnel in Boston and hearing an unfamiliar but haunting song that was playing loudly on someones 8 track tape. (In those days there was no radio reception in the tunnels). The vocal harmony was magnetic and thrilling to me, but I did not recognize the artists. It was only when the Woodstock movie came out, I was able to identify the group and the song - "Judy Blue Eyes" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and (I think) Young. Ok, I know what you are thinking, I was out of touch. So sue me.
When the story came out about Woodstock - 3 days of sharing close proximity with masses of drugged out hippies who had not bathed recently, dancing in the mud and blocking your view of the stage, standing in line for the few porta-potties with 399,000 other bursting bladders, I was secretly glad that I was not there. I say 'secretly', because as I later discovered everyone thought you were cool if you could claim to have been there. Only a clueless dolt would admit that a) he didn't go and b) did not regret missing it.
Most of the performers at Woodstock are probably dead by now, if not forgotten. And, most of the attendees who survived drugs and STD's would be at the age where they are in or close to retirement. For me, it is hard to believe that forty years have passed like an express train in the night.
It was actually a memorable summer for us - but, not because of any music concert. In July we had taken a cruise to Bermuda as a sort of delayed honeymoon. We were young, clean cut, and had probably never heard of Jimmi Hendrix or Janis Joplin. We were still under the musical influence of Bobby Darren and The Kingston Trio. The gathering at Woodstock would never have appeared on our radar. We were trying to break-in, not drop-out. We did not even know anyone that did drugs or practiced free love.
One of my musical memories was driving through the Sumner Tunnel in Boston and hearing an unfamiliar but haunting song that was playing loudly on someones 8 track tape. (In those days there was no radio reception in the tunnels). The vocal harmony was magnetic and thrilling to me, but I did not recognize the artists. It was only when the Woodstock movie came out, I was able to identify the group and the song - "Judy Blue Eyes" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and (I think) Young. Ok, I know what you are thinking, I was out of touch. So sue me.
When the story came out about Woodstock - 3 days of sharing close proximity with masses of drugged out hippies who had not bathed recently, dancing in the mud and blocking your view of the stage, standing in line for the few porta-potties with 399,000 other bursting bladders, I was secretly glad that I was not there. I say 'secretly', because as I later discovered everyone thought you were cool if you could claim to have been there. Only a clueless dolt would admit that a) he didn't go and b) did not regret missing it.
Most of the performers at Woodstock are probably dead by now, if not forgotten. And, most of the attendees who survived drugs and STD's would be at the age where they are in or close to retirement. For me, it is hard to believe that forty years have passed like an express train in the night.
8/07/2009
I reported myself to the White House
Since the pre-election campaign, anything Barak Obama does is the stuff of imagination and wing-nut controversy. The recent attempt by the Obama administration to survey the American Street - specifically aimed at identifying misinformation about healthcare - was posted on the White House website. You probably saw it.
This request for rumors, of course, was predictably condemned by right wing blogs/talk radio as a brownshirt conspiracy to get neighbors to turn-in neighbors who held the 'wrong' views.
To me it just seemed like an efficient way to collect a list of rumors so that they could be addressed. Anyhow, when someone asks my opinion... they get it.
----- Original Message -----
From: DEN
To: flag@whitehouse.gov
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 08:45
Subject: rumors about healthcare
I am opposed to "improvement" in the healthcare system that will make it worse for those of us who have worked, contributed and retired assuming a certain level of access to healthcare. I believe that the other countries that have government-run healthcare systems, such as England and Canada have inferior programs to that which exists in the US for the majority of us in the middle class. Besides, these countries have a much tighter enforcement of immigration laws and they do not provide virtually free services for up to 20 million illegal immigrants - as we would.
I am absolutely opposed to lawmakers dictating a level of healthcare for me that they themselves do not participate in.
I believe no one should vote for a bill unless they have personally read it; I think this would slow down the spending of money that we do not have, and that would be a good thing.
I do not feel confident that the Obama healthcare plan is a real plan at all, and all we get are snippets of what might be in and what might be out, I feel uneasy about it.
I am an independent, voted for Obama, hoping for the best. I like the way he is handling foreign policy, but am fearful that the bailouts have been a huge waste of money. I am retired and have lost nearly 50% of my nestegg in recent downturn. I am still hopeful but getting more pessimistic with every news cycle.
Here are some of the scary stories that I have heard:
1) the Healthcare bill has provisions to attach citizens bank accounts and make withdrawals without notice
2) I will eventually be forced to change my healthcare plan to the government run plan, then I will be treated just like everyone who has never contributed to social security, or even paid taxes.
3) With 50 million people being added to the system, decisions about my health will be made on a purely economic basis. The government will decide who gets what services.
4) Young non-citizens will get preferred treatment over older citizens.
5) People who have retired under company pension plans will find that the plan that they expected to have will be involuntarily switched to the government(public) option at the discretion of the company.
I think the administration needs to address these and other concerns with honesty and concise language. President Obama has not proved to be a good spokesman for this program - he rambles all over the place when asked specific questions (It's probably just as well that the only thing anyone recalls from the failed healthcare press conference is the "Cambridge cops acted stupidly")
Yours truly,
=====================================
If I get in trouble, somebody please bail me out.
This request for rumors, of course, was predictably condemned by right wing blogs/talk radio as a brownshirt conspiracy to get neighbors to turn-in neighbors who held the 'wrong' views.
To me it just seemed like an efficient way to collect a list of rumors so that they could be addressed. Anyhow, when someone asks my opinion... they get it.
----- Original Message -----
From: DEN
To: flag@whitehouse.gov
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 08:45
Subject: rumors about healthcare
I am opposed to "improvement" in the healthcare system that will make it worse for those of us who have worked, contributed and retired assuming a certain level of access to healthcare. I believe that the other countries that have government-run healthcare systems, such as England and Canada have inferior programs to that which exists in the US for the majority of us in the middle class. Besides, these countries have a much tighter enforcement of immigration laws and they do not provide virtually free services for up to 20 million illegal immigrants - as we would.
I am absolutely opposed to lawmakers dictating a level of healthcare for me that they themselves do not participate in.
I believe no one should vote for a bill unless they have personally read it; I think this would slow down the spending of money that we do not have, and that would be a good thing.
I do not feel confident that the Obama healthcare plan is a real plan at all, and all we get are snippets of what might be in and what might be out, I feel uneasy about it.
I am an independent, voted for Obama, hoping for the best. I like the way he is handling foreign policy, but am fearful that the bailouts have been a huge waste of money. I am retired and have lost nearly 50% of my nestegg in recent downturn. I am still hopeful but getting more pessimistic with every news cycle.
Here are some of the scary stories that I have heard:
1) the Healthcare bill has provisions to attach citizens bank accounts and make withdrawals without notice
2) I will eventually be forced to change my healthcare plan to the government run plan, then I will be treated just like everyone who has never contributed to social security, or even paid taxes.
3) With 50 million people being added to the system, decisions about my health will be made on a purely economic basis. The government will decide who gets what services.
4) Young non-citizens will get preferred treatment over older citizens.
5) People who have retired under company pension plans will find that the plan that they expected to have will be involuntarily switched to the government(public) option at the discretion of the company.
I think the administration needs to address these and other concerns with honesty and concise language. President Obama has not proved to be a good spokesman for this program - he rambles all over the place when asked specific questions (It's probably just as well that the only thing anyone recalls from the failed healthcare press conference is the "Cambridge cops acted stupidly")
Yours truly,
=====================================
If I get in trouble, somebody please bail me out.
8/03/2009
Why the Yankees Suck
I have never taken a course in Social Anthropology, but even an English Lit major can observe that most human behavior is instinctive. Discrimination is a natural (built-in) characteristic of our species - and indeed most mammals. We are, by nature, tribal.
We distrust strangers from other tribes. Xenophobia is a natural fear mechanism that has characterized social groups since the days of the cavemen. Granted, in more advanced (ie, educated) circles, we prefer to think we are civilized - i.e., as a society we teach our children to consciously suppress those inborn fears and tendencies in order to live peaceably with others.
I recall the lines from a 1960's Kingston Trio song titled The Merry Minuet
"The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans. The Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans hate the Dutch
and I don't like anybody very much!"
If you have ever played a team sport or rooted for a team, you have experienced the passion of "Us versus Them". We are bold, good-looking, talented and strong, whereas They are craven, weak and worthy of our scorn.
Rooting for athletic teams has been the international mechanism that allows the mass of non-playing people to give full vent to those primal urges of tribalism which we supress in our attempts to be "civilized." The term "Fan" is derivative of "Fanatic" implying the craziness that is implicit in such mindless loyalty to a bunch of sports workers who get paid to dress up in funny outfits and compete with each other for the entertainment of an audience. (Sometimes, in less civilized places, the audience joins in the fight).
Come to think of it, politics as a lot like professional sports - except for the funny outfits.
We distrust strangers from other tribes. Xenophobia is a natural fear mechanism that has characterized social groups since the days of the cavemen. Granted, in more advanced (ie, educated) circles, we prefer to think we are civilized - i.e., as a society we teach our children to consciously suppress those inborn fears and tendencies in order to live peaceably with others.
I recall the lines from a 1960's Kingston Trio song titled The Merry Minuet
"The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans. The Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans hate the Dutch
and I don't like anybody very much!"
If you have ever played a team sport or rooted for a team, you have experienced the passion of "Us versus Them". We are bold, good-looking, talented and strong, whereas They are craven, weak and worthy of our scorn.
Rooting for athletic teams has been the international mechanism that allows the mass of non-playing people to give full vent to those primal urges of tribalism which we supress in our attempts to be "civilized." The term "Fan" is derivative of "Fanatic" implying the craziness that is implicit in such mindless loyalty to a bunch of sports workers who get paid to dress up in funny outfits and compete with each other for the entertainment of an audience. (Sometimes, in less civilized places, the audience joins in the fight).
Come to think of it, politics as a lot like professional sports - except for the funny outfits.
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