Curtis Dahlgren
The good news, bad news, and the really UGLY news!
By Curtis Dahlgren
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." — Voltaire (1694-1778)
THAT IS "SO 18TH CENTURY," EH? So trite. Such an anachronistic "notion." A platitude?
Sarah Palin spoke at the capitol in Wisconsin last weekend and she said she felt right at home weather-wise (Green Bay got a foot of snow the other day). I'm not so sure she felt the same way about the protestors banging on pots and pans, blowing air horns, and wetting their pants. Newspaper accounts in no way did justice to the "time" that was had by all at the Tea Party.
Myself, I couldn't afford to attend due to the high price of gasoline, but I've heard plenty of personal accounts over talk radio. The university students felt so threatened by the speech by a 14-year-old girl that they tried to shout her down too. One tea partier was called "nothing but a rich slut" by the University crowd! Takes one to know one? And the tax payer in question probably has a family income much lower than the average teacher's family!
The "good news" recently was the so-called budget compromise passed by Congress. Though touted as a $38 billion "cut" in spending, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) calculated it as closer to $362 million — which would be approximately $1.10 per man, woman, and child (those must be the cuts the Prez ordered his Cabinet to look for two years ago)!
In other bad news, the International Monetary Fund and Standard & Poor's have issued formal warnings about the "State" of the Union's financial shape (the piggy bank is empty). The White House shot back that those were just "political" statements (unlike Oboma's speech to the Nation last week). With emphasis on the "Poor" in S & P, I'm being a little bit facetious in all this.
The really UGLY news is JoAnne Kloppenberg's failure to concede the Wisconsin race for Supreme Court. On top of millions of dollars in other unnecessary expenses (damage to the Capitol building, cost of security during protests, teacher "sick days" ETC.), now Wisconsin local governments must foot the bill for her idiotic "recount." At least we know now what kind of a JUDGE she would have made:
She thought 204 votes ahead was enough to call for a victory speech, but a negative vote between 7 and 8 thousand votes "seems suspect" and is reason to call for a state-wide recall? No lack of "independence" there, eh? Where's the beef, JoAnne? Where's the j-u-d-g-m-e-n-t ??
A make-up day for just one school district, Racine, on account of the sick-out by union teachers, will cost taxpayers (those reliable suckers) over $400,000 — for just one day! State-wide totals for such nonsense haven't been tabulated yet (and may never be)! Thank the Lord I moved out of Wisconsin while I could still afford to MOVE.
Wisconsin teachers and the POTUS either don't comprehend the size of our deficits, or they're secretly laughing up their sleeves. The mainstream media certainly do "enjoy" the mindless protesting!
But to give credit where it sometimes is due, last Sunday's Wisconsin State Journal published an excellent editorial concerning Paul Ryan, the Prez, and the deficits. Just a couple of excerpts:
"America can't wait another two years for bipartisan agreement. Our nation needs a reasonable deal to stabilize its debt by summer . . . The financial markets need reassuring that American can and will pay down its pile of IOUs . . .
"There aren't enough rich Americans to tax at even 100 percent of their incomes to close such a staggering gap. Moreover, the wealthy just got hit to help pay for Obama's health care law. . .
"If Obama thinks Ryan's spending cuts would create 'a fundamentally different America,' just wait until the credit markets turn against us. That would make Ryan's cuts seem modest."
Just send in the clowns. Send in the old hippies, and their young comrades, to "protest." That'll solve everything — like protests made Greece solvent and Egypt FREE (a little sarcasm there). Lenny Bruce once said, "There's nothing sadder than an old hipster."
I attended the U. of Wisconsin twice, 1970-71 the last time I quit for good, and the old hippies must be shedding tears of nostalgia — even though they got whipped by the silent majority in the ensuing Supreme Court election. I simply cannot resist including some more quotations this week. One of the best used books I ever found was "The Book of Quotes" by Barbara Rowes (1979, Ballantine). I quote from it often, and often forget to give proper credit. SO — here are some examples:
"The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children." — The Duke of Windsor
"The easiest way to convince my kids that they don't really need something is to get it for them." — Joan Collins
"They take their tactics from Castro and their money from Daddy." — Spiro Agnew
"I've got nothin', Ma, to live up to." — Bob Dylan
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness." — Allen Ginsberg
"Young people are moving away from feeling guilty about sleeping with somebody to feeling guilty if they're not sleeping with someone." — Margaret Mead
"Of all the 'isms' that have plagued this century, ageism is the most stupid. It's time to declare war on the mindless Youth Cult that has our time in its grip, demoralizing our people, weakening our system . . wasting our experience . . " — Garson Kanin
"I'll never make the mistake of being 70 again." — Casey Stengel (upon being fired by Yanks)
"Being 70 is not a sin." — Golda Meir
"A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices." — Edward R. Murrow
"It all depends what 'is' is." — Wm. Jefferson Blythe Clinton
"We youths say 'like' all the time because we mistrust reality. It takes a certain commitment to say something is. Inserting 'like' gives you a bit more running room." — James Kunen
"Today's conformity is . . retreat from controversiality." — Herman Kahn
"If a guy wants to wear his hair down to his @$$, I'm not revolted by it. But I don't look at him and say, 'Now there's a fella I'd like to spend next winter with. . .
"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." — John Wayne
"Life is like an onion: you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep." — Carl Sandburg
P.S. It's hard to follow those "acts," but I just want to mention the Easter breakfast at the White House the other day, and one curious thing. The President said:
"There's 'something about the Resurrection' that puts everything in perspective."
Is that an understatement or what? And who writes his stuff anyway? In the first place, is he serious? We all know he's not serious about balancing the budget, so it's hard to know how to take that 'Resurrection' statement.
His Marxist professors and Muslim friends can take it any way they want to, I suppose. Like, there is something about that Resurrection (laughing) — "what a fairy tale"!
The Truth is "slip sliding away" in High Places. The late, great, ones like John Stuart Mill are now so passe, like yesterday's underwear:
"We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still."
TELL THAT TO THE ANTI-TEA PARTIERS.
© Curtis Dahlgren
April 22, 2011
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." — Voltaire (1694-1778)
THAT IS "SO 18TH CENTURY," EH? So trite. Such an anachronistic "notion." A platitude?
Sarah Palin spoke at the capitol in Wisconsin last weekend and she said she felt right at home weather-wise (Green Bay got a foot of snow the other day). I'm not so sure she felt the same way about the protestors banging on pots and pans, blowing air horns, and wetting their pants. Newspaper accounts in no way did justice to the "time" that was had by all at the Tea Party.
Myself, I couldn't afford to attend due to the high price of gasoline, but I've heard plenty of personal accounts over talk radio. The university students felt so threatened by the speech by a 14-year-old girl that they tried to shout her down too. One tea partier was called "nothing but a rich slut" by the University crowd! Takes one to know one? And the tax payer in question probably has a family income much lower than the average teacher's family!
The "good news" recently was the so-called budget compromise passed by Congress. Though touted as a $38 billion "cut" in spending, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) calculated it as closer to $362 million — which would be approximately $1.10 per man, woman, and child (those must be the cuts the Prez ordered his Cabinet to look for two years ago)!
In other bad news, the International Monetary Fund and Standard & Poor's have issued formal warnings about the "State" of the Union's financial shape (the piggy bank is empty). The White House shot back that those were just "political" statements (unlike Oboma's speech to the Nation last week). With emphasis on the "Poor" in S & P, I'm being a little bit facetious in all this.
The really UGLY news is JoAnne Kloppenberg's failure to concede the Wisconsin race for Supreme Court. On top of millions of dollars in other unnecessary expenses (damage to the Capitol building, cost of security during protests, teacher "sick days" ETC.), now Wisconsin local governments must foot the bill for her idiotic "recount." At least we know now what kind of a JUDGE she would have made:
She thought 204 votes ahead was enough to call for a victory speech, but a negative vote between 7 and 8 thousand votes "seems suspect" and is reason to call for a state-wide recall? No lack of "independence" there, eh? Where's the beef, JoAnne? Where's the j-u-d-g-m-e-n-t ??
A make-up day for just one school district, Racine, on account of the sick-out by union teachers, will cost taxpayers (those reliable suckers) over $400,000 — for just one day! State-wide totals for such nonsense haven't been tabulated yet (and may never be)! Thank the Lord I moved out of Wisconsin while I could still afford to MOVE.
Wisconsin teachers and the POTUS either don't comprehend the size of our deficits, or they're secretly laughing up their sleeves. The mainstream media certainly do "enjoy" the mindless protesting!
But to give credit where it sometimes is due, last Sunday's Wisconsin State Journal published an excellent editorial concerning Paul Ryan, the Prez, and the deficits. Just a couple of excerpts:
"America can't wait another two years for bipartisan agreement. Our nation needs a reasonable deal to stabilize its debt by summer . . . The financial markets need reassuring that American can and will pay down its pile of IOUs . . .
"There aren't enough rich Americans to tax at even 100 percent of their incomes to close such a staggering gap. Moreover, the wealthy just got hit to help pay for Obama's health care law. . .
"If Obama thinks Ryan's spending cuts would create 'a fundamentally different America,' just wait until the credit markets turn against us. That would make Ryan's cuts seem modest."
Just send in the clowns. Send in the old hippies, and their young comrades, to "protest." That'll solve everything — like protests made Greece solvent and Egypt FREE (a little sarcasm there). Lenny Bruce once said, "There's nothing sadder than an old hipster."
I attended the U. of Wisconsin twice, 1970-71 the last time I quit for good, and the old hippies must be shedding tears of nostalgia — even though they got whipped by the silent majority in the ensuing Supreme Court election. I simply cannot resist including some more quotations this week. One of the best used books I ever found was "The Book of Quotes" by Barbara Rowes (1979, Ballantine). I quote from it often, and often forget to give proper credit. SO — here are some examples:
"The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children." — The Duke of Windsor
"The easiest way to convince my kids that they don't really need something is to get it for them." — Joan Collins
"They take their tactics from Castro and their money from Daddy." — Spiro Agnew
"I've got nothin', Ma, to live up to." — Bob Dylan
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness." — Allen Ginsberg
"Young people are moving away from feeling guilty about sleeping with somebody to feeling guilty if they're not sleeping with someone." — Margaret Mead
"Of all the 'isms' that have plagued this century, ageism is the most stupid. It's time to declare war on the mindless Youth Cult that has our time in its grip, demoralizing our people, weakening our system . . wasting our experience . . " — Garson Kanin
"I'll never make the mistake of being 70 again." — Casey Stengel (upon being fired by Yanks)
"Being 70 is not a sin." — Golda Meir
"A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices." — Edward R. Murrow
"It all depends what 'is' is." — Wm. Jefferson Blythe Clinton
"We youths say 'like' all the time because we mistrust reality. It takes a certain commitment to say something is. Inserting 'like' gives you a bit more running room." — James Kunen
"Today's conformity is . . retreat from controversiality." — Herman Kahn
"If a guy wants to wear his hair down to his @$$, I'm not revolted by it. But I don't look at him and say, 'Now there's a fella I'd like to spend next winter with. . .
"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." — John Wayne
"Life is like an onion: you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep." — Carl Sandburg
P.S. It's hard to follow those "acts," but I just want to mention the Easter breakfast at the White House the other day, and one curious thing. The President said:
"There's 'something about the Resurrection' that puts everything in perspective."
Is that an understatement or what? And who writes his stuff anyway? In the first place, is he serious? We all know he's not serious about balancing the budget, so it's hard to know how to take that 'Resurrection' statement.
His Marxist professors and Muslim friends can take it any way they want to, I suppose. Like, there is something about that Resurrection (laughing) — "what a fairy tale"!
The Truth is "slip sliding away" in High Places. The late, great, ones like John Stuart Mill are now so passe, like yesterday's underwear:
"We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still."
TELL THAT TO THE ANTI-TEA PARTIERS.
© Curtis Dahlgren
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(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
