Curtis Dahlgren
Groundhog Day: Good news and bad news (or, "suffering fools gladly?")
By Curtis Dahlgren
Once more the Heavenly Power
Makes all things new,
And domes the red-plowed hills
With loving blue;
The black birds have their wills . . [etc]
— Tennyson (1809-92)
EGYPT IN CHAOS; MARINES IN CAIRO; FATE OF SUEZ IN QUESTION; BUT THE DOW JONES AVERAGE IS BULLISH (with emphasis on the "Bull"). Some more good news and bad news:
The Packers made it to Dallas, but the wind-chill factor there is zero and the sleet is blowing sideways. Spring is just around the corner, but two storms are blanketing 2,200 miles of the country with snow-white (possibly 4 to 8 feet drifts in the Midwest). Government-paid economists are optimistic, but who knows what's going to happen to the price of fuel and food? Even Laredo, Texas went from the nation's high on Sunday (89) to 27 degrees on Tuesday. Mr. Gore, please answer your phone. The Nobel committee is calling. They want their money back.
Weather-wise, it's beautiful up here in the Banana Belt of the Upper Peninsula. The sun is shining and even my dog Brandy has spring fever. He spent an hour in the woods this morning barking at the wildlife or whatever's out there. He's sitting beside me, and when the melting snow on his belly has dried off, we'll go to the library to post this column this morning. Even da birds are "tweeting," eh?
To start with the News-Lite, how 'bout that Super Bowl game? I'm thinking it could end in a tie, using Rush Limbaugh's environmental wacko method of predicting (the least "offensive" team name is favored by the enviro-mentals). They hate "steelers" and "meat packers" both, of course. The Packers have a double challenge, because a lot of that iron for the steel came from right here in the frozen tundra of Packerland North. And the greenies hate mining like nothing else — even while driving down the road in their electric hybrids filled with Rare-earth metals (and their noses in the air).
I am not "rambling." I know what a one-point speech is, but this is not a one-point column — I'm multi-tasking! There's so much to write about that I'm behind on my reading, too. I'm trying to start "My Father and I." Here's a sample from the dust-jacket (a used book I bought for $1.29):
"On Tuesday, October 6, 1981, in a Boston apartment, an Egyptian woman named Camelia Mohammed sat watching television as the leader of her country, President Anwar el-Sadat, was gunned down by assassins. None of her friends, professors, or fellow students at Boston University knew of the relationship between her and the man who had been shot. True to her religion, Camelia shed no more than a single tear for the dead man. It was only when moved by the unexpected sympathy of her writing professor that Camelia finally allowed herself to weep and admitted that the Egyptian president was, in fact, her father.
"Camelia had come to Boston with her seventeen-year-old daughter to earn her master's degree and to start a new life. At her father's request she had hidden her true identity for fear of Arab assassins. Once settled in Boston, she planned to write a letter to her father that would make sense of their loving, sometimes turbulent relationship. That letter could no longer be written, but in this extraordinarily moving book Camelia has spoken to her father from the heart . . .
"Anwar el-Sadat was a visionary statesman who brought Egypt triumphantly into the world theater and allied his country with the West. He was a profoundly spiritual man, a devout Muslim who valued his roots as a fellah, or peasant, from a rural Egyptian village. . .
"Camelia Sadat has written a powerful, intimate memoir of the extraordinary man who was her hather and of her own ultimately successful search for identity. She has also written a vivid, fascinating account of her native land that spans the last seventy years, a period of momentous social and political change . . . Camelia Sadat lives with her daughter in Needham, Massachusetts." [the book was published in 1985 by Macmillan]
Yes, as is obvious by news reports coming out of the Middle East, our "reporters" could use some education on the region over the last 70 years, and this little book review was my way of sliding gently into the "fray." My mother's maiden name was Greenberg, so whether there's any Israelite blood on my father's side or not, the Egyptians and I go a long way back — all the way back to Moses and Joseph, and his Egyptian wife.
The president of the U.S. says that Mubarak "must listen to the people" - but he didn't listen to his own people last year during the "health" care debate.
He says that the riots and arson in Egypt are "a democracy movement" — but he ignored a real democracy movement in Iran last year (and those 'student protesters' are still being hanged in Tehran. Like the Tea party, I guess some "democracy movements" are less equal than others.
This would be a good time for some more of those "priceless Liberal quotations" if I had more time. For example, the Prez and John McCain both scold the Tea partiers: "We must be CIVIL, dammit!" [that's a German word for "enough already"].
However, a year or two ago, when trying to stir up "Wall Street hate," he said, "People are right to be angry. I'm angry! I don't want to quell anger." Like I said, some passion is more equal than others (I guess!). With a liberal, the only thing that counts is how you feel about it.
The iconic intellectual giant Susan Sontag put it this way:
"The intellectual life is about your feelings."
Hubert H. Humphry once said:
"Oh my friend; it's not what they take away from you that counts — it's what you do with what you have left!"
It's hard to "argue" with that kind of logic (impossible in fact). Libs feel "Can't we all just get along and sit together?" Haha. Michael Savage says that Congressmen are "supposed" to argue, because that's what we pay them to do!
Arguing may not change the other side of the aisle, but the common ordinary CITIZEN is starting to come around. Especially when his car is stuck in four-foot snow drifts. And his electric car runs out of "juice."
P.S. The worst-magazine-of-the-week is a tie this week between TIME (for it's cover "photo" of Ronald Reagan with his arm around Barack Oboma) and ROLLING STONE — for the article "Who's to Blame; The 12 politicians and corporate executives most responsible for blocking efforts to halt global warming (if you're stuck in a snow drift, I wonder if you can read the article online?).
By the way, this is the first time I've ever opened the pages of Rolling Stone. When I first heard about it, I thought it had something to do with the Garden Tomb and Christ's Resurrection.
But anyway, I'm insulted that I didn't make their list of global warming skeptics. But no one from British Petroleum made the list either. However, Sarah Palin (surprise, surprise) came in at #3 (I guess because more than half of the candidates she endorsed last year had won, and because she said we should be drilling more safely in Alaska instead of a mile deep in the Gulf).
Like I said, there's no "reasoning" with these people (the enviro-mentals), but this is still a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."
THAT'S THE GOOD NEWS.
[SO FAR, ANYWAY!]
PPPS: When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee to the mountains (not to the sea shore). More to come.
© Curtis Dahlgren
February 1, 2011
Once more the Heavenly Power
Makes all things new,
And domes the red-plowed hills
With loving blue;
The black birds have their wills . . [etc]
— Tennyson (1809-92)
EGYPT IN CHAOS; MARINES IN CAIRO; FATE OF SUEZ IN QUESTION; BUT THE DOW JONES AVERAGE IS BULLISH (with emphasis on the "Bull"). Some more good news and bad news:
The Packers made it to Dallas, but the wind-chill factor there is zero and the sleet is blowing sideways. Spring is just around the corner, but two storms are blanketing 2,200 miles of the country with snow-white (possibly 4 to 8 feet drifts in the Midwest). Government-paid economists are optimistic, but who knows what's going to happen to the price of fuel and food? Even Laredo, Texas went from the nation's high on Sunday (89) to 27 degrees on Tuesday. Mr. Gore, please answer your phone. The Nobel committee is calling. They want their money back.
Weather-wise, it's beautiful up here in the Banana Belt of the Upper Peninsula. The sun is shining and even my dog Brandy has spring fever. He spent an hour in the woods this morning barking at the wildlife or whatever's out there. He's sitting beside me, and when the melting snow on his belly has dried off, we'll go to the library to post this column this morning. Even da birds are "tweeting," eh?
To start with the News-Lite, how 'bout that Super Bowl game? I'm thinking it could end in a tie, using Rush Limbaugh's environmental wacko method of predicting (the least "offensive" team name is favored by the enviro-mentals). They hate "steelers" and "meat packers" both, of course. The Packers have a double challenge, because a lot of that iron for the steel came from right here in the frozen tundra of Packerland North. And the greenies hate mining like nothing else — even while driving down the road in their electric hybrids filled with Rare-earth metals (and their noses in the air).
I am not "rambling." I know what a one-point speech is, but this is not a one-point column — I'm multi-tasking! There's so much to write about that I'm behind on my reading, too. I'm trying to start "My Father and I." Here's a sample from the dust-jacket (a used book I bought for $1.29):
"On Tuesday, October 6, 1981, in a Boston apartment, an Egyptian woman named Camelia Mohammed sat watching television as the leader of her country, President Anwar el-Sadat, was gunned down by assassins. None of her friends, professors, or fellow students at Boston University knew of the relationship between her and the man who had been shot. True to her religion, Camelia shed no more than a single tear for the dead man. It was only when moved by the unexpected sympathy of her writing professor that Camelia finally allowed herself to weep and admitted that the Egyptian president was, in fact, her father.
"Camelia had come to Boston with her seventeen-year-old daughter to earn her master's degree and to start a new life. At her father's request she had hidden her true identity for fear of Arab assassins. Once settled in Boston, she planned to write a letter to her father that would make sense of their loving, sometimes turbulent relationship. That letter could no longer be written, but in this extraordinarily moving book Camelia has spoken to her father from the heart . . .
"Anwar el-Sadat was a visionary statesman who brought Egypt triumphantly into the world theater and allied his country with the West. He was a profoundly spiritual man, a devout Muslim who valued his roots as a fellah, or peasant, from a rural Egyptian village. . .
"Camelia Sadat has written a powerful, intimate memoir of the extraordinary man who was her hather and of her own ultimately successful search for identity. She has also written a vivid, fascinating account of her native land that spans the last seventy years, a period of momentous social and political change . . . Camelia Sadat lives with her daughter in Needham, Massachusetts." [the book was published in 1985 by Macmillan]
Yes, as is obvious by news reports coming out of the Middle East, our "reporters" could use some education on the region over the last 70 years, and this little book review was my way of sliding gently into the "fray." My mother's maiden name was Greenberg, so whether there's any Israelite blood on my father's side or not, the Egyptians and I go a long way back — all the way back to Moses and Joseph, and his Egyptian wife.
The president of the U.S. says that Mubarak "must listen to the people" - but he didn't listen to his own people last year during the "health" care debate.
He says that the riots and arson in Egypt are "a democracy movement" — but he ignored a real democracy movement in Iran last year (and those 'student protesters' are still being hanged in Tehran. Like the Tea party, I guess some "democracy movements" are less equal than others.
This would be a good time for some more of those "priceless Liberal quotations" if I had more time. For example, the Prez and John McCain both scold the Tea partiers: "We must be CIVIL, dammit!" [that's a German word for "enough already"].
However, a year or two ago, when trying to stir up "Wall Street hate," he said, "People are right to be angry. I'm angry! I don't want to quell anger." Like I said, some passion is more equal than others (I guess!). With a liberal, the only thing that counts is how you feel about it.
The iconic intellectual giant Susan Sontag put it this way:
"The intellectual life is about your feelings."
Hubert H. Humphry once said:
"Oh my friend; it's not what they take away from you that counts — it's what you do with what you have left!"
It's hard to "argue" with that kind of logic (impossible in fact). Libs feel "Can't we all just get along and sit together?" Haha. Michael Savage says that Congressmen are "supposed" to argue, because that's what we pay them to do!
Arguing may not change the other side of the aisle, but the common ordinary CITIZEN is starting to come around. Especially when his car is stuck in four-foot snow drifts. And his electric car runs out of "juice."
P.S. The worst-magazine-of-the-week is a tie this week between TIME (for it's cover "photo" of Ronald Reagan with his arm around Barack Oboma) and ROLLING STONE — for the article "Who's to Blame; The 12 politicians and corporate executives most responsible for blocking efforts to halt global warming (if you're stuck in a snow drift, I wonder if you can read the article online?).
By the way, this is the first time I've ever opened the pages of Rolling Stone. When I first heard about it, I thought it had something to do with the Garden Tomb and Christ's Resurrection.
But anyway, I'm insulted that I didn't make their list of global warming skeptics. But no one from British Petroleum made the list either. However, Sarah Palin (surprise, surprise) came in at #3 (I guess because more than half of the candidates she endorsed last year had won, and because she said we should be drilling more safely in Alaska instead of a mile deep in the Gulf).
Like I said, there's no "reasoning" with these people (the enviro-mentals), but this is still a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."
THAT'S THE GOOD NEWS.
[SO FAR, ANYWAY!]
PPPS: When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee to the mountains (not to the sea shore). More to come.
© Curtis Dahlgren
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
