Half A Poem

Short version for distribution

3-7-16

Moment

Wet day, rainy day
Last fire of the season day
Mountains on the right
Hide behind the cloud walls day
Mountains on the left
Bright and shady
Beneath their clouded crochet day
Bored dogs sleeping
Timeout keeping
Sun slipping under
Instead of breaking out day
I love you day

"We've got to stop being the stupid party."

Why am I so hard on today's Conservatives? I think the best answer came from a Conservative. During an interview with the author, C-SPAN quoted from Matt Lewis's book, Too Dumb to Fail, "Somewhere between Reagan's 30 minute speech in 1964 and the most recent government shutdown, the Conservatives movement became neither conservative nor a movement. Hijacked by the divisive and the dumb, it now finds itself hostage to emotions and irrational thinking. It became more personal and less principled--more flippant and less thoughtful. It became mean. It became lazy. It became it's own worst enemy."

The author later added during the interview, "...but there's no doubt that, In recent years, we've seen the dumbing down of Conservatism". Later he added "…because of the political milieu, even the smart Conservatives are forced to play dumb."

He went on to make a number of statements which were entirely counterfactual, indicating that he's not entirely exempt from the gullibility and stupidity of contemporary Conservatism. For example, he repeated the old, entirely unfounded, declaration that Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. Nevertheless, I agree with his essential points in regard to what went wrong with the movement.

Almost every criticism I make about today's Conservatives is also made by this dedicated Conservative. What I oppose isn't the concept of reasonable caution in moving forward, what I oppose is emotionalism, extremism, and a hatred of rational thought. When an entire political party is dedicated to a constant state of outrage over lies, deceits, and half-truths; you can bet that something is very wrong with that party.
Permit me to repeat, I am not particularly fond of the Democratic Party, but when you have two bad choices; one of which is merely bad while the other is absolutely horrific, you take the merely bad.

I could go on and repeat myself like an older, wiser Marco Rubio, but I won't.

Another Old Poem

Fire mutters
Fire flutters
Raindrops making bubbleships
Small birds sipping nectar
Golf course empty
Quail mobbing peanuts
Good day

Old Poem I Never Posted

Night train
Rumbling by
Bye bye train
Night train
My train
Lullaby train

Sleepy train
Loving train
Pop Pop's train
Dream train
My train
Lullaby train

On Hearts And Valentine's Day

A poem for my four lost lambs on Valentine's Day. Not my best work, but heartfelt.

My body has a heart,
four chambers and that's all

There's another heart
tucked in my soul
The chambers there are numerous,
maybe endless;
I don't know

My body's heart
Is full of blood,
my soul's heart
partly empty

Chambers there
so full of love,
you'd think there was no room;
but there is always room,
as long as there is love

It hurts to have a hollow heart,
even partly so,
but better a painful, empty room
than one closed off;
filled with rubble and despair

There's always room for you
to come and fill my heart

2-9-16

As always, all my love. As always, I am here. Papa






Sent from my iPad

Republicans Are Rubber, Dems Are Glue...

The article:
http://winningdemocrats.com/historians-have-declared-george-w-bush-to-be-the-worst-president-here-is-why-infographic/

-- 61 PERCENT OF HISTORIANS RATED GEORGE W BUSH’S PRESIDENCY AS THE WORST IN HISTORY. ADDITIONALLY, 109 PROFESSIONAL HISTORIANS JUDGED THE BUSH PRESIDENCY A TOTAL FAILURE, WHILE ONLY 1.8 PERCENT CALLED IT SUCCESSFUL --

My response:

So why do Republicans try to declare highly effective Obama as the worst president ever? Listen to a pair of kindergarteners fight on the playground. "I'm not a poopyhead! You're the poppyhead!"

That's why.

The Patriot Game All Over Again

The Bundys strike again! Lead by their brilliant and charismatic leader, Al Bundy (you remember him don't you?), armed ranchers have seized control of a small government office. They demand that the federal government create a state of total anarchy in which the man with the most money and the most guns can do whatever the hell he wants and the rest of us are forced to obey. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Well, it does if you're wealthy and have a lot of guns.

To put this in context, let's take a look at some recent news. If you're an unarmed group of black people angrily, but peacefully, protesting against police brutality, you are vicious, dangerous thugs who must be met with massive police force which includes military equipment. However, if you are a well armed group of white ranchers who have stated their intention to kill anyone who dares to stand up to them (including the police and US military personnel), your case is stamped "Fragile: Handle With Care!"

Or to make another comparison, if you're a 12-year-old little boy playing with a toy gun and you happen to be Black, the instant response is "Shoot on sight! Shoot to kill!" On the other hand, if you are a fatigue and mask wearing group of open carry militiamen marching around a mosque to threaten families at worship, the response is, "Have a nice day sir."

It needs to be said again, so I'll say it. Pointing out actual, existing racism is not playing the race card. It's telling the truth. Refusing to face the truth and accusing anyone who does so of playing the race card is playing the stupidity card.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… Remember all those great old Clint Eastwood westerns? You know, the ones where he faced the wealthy, well armed ranchers and shot them all down? I genuinely do prefer nonviolent solutions, but it seems odd to me that the extremists who most idolize Clint Eastwood are the very people that Eastwood spent his movie career killing.