President Obama: the Antichrist or Devil Personified?

      That’s how, in the minds and hearts of many Americans he’s regarded as being, who cringe-often with faces turned crimson red-at the revolting thought of his reelection.

      Now, usually I’m nonplussed and don’t give a damn about the personal, often venomous, attacks on incumbent presidents and the hate-filled ads, even when they assail, not only his performance in office, but his very character and morality.

      But what I find sets this president apart from others in our history, who were maligned and ridiculed-a la President Jefferson, who was called every name in the books for his long-lasting affair with a black slave, Sally Hemings, is the questioning of his right to be in office by upwards of 40 percent of Republican voters, who, according to the most recent polls, consider him to be a Kenyan by birth not an American.

      And with Republican candidate Rick Santorium even going so far as to bring his loyalty to this country into doubt: “Obama’s agenda has followed some phony ideal, some phony theology–oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology” (said in CBS 2/19 interview.) And that ” he’s crushing  Judea-Christian principles in this country to serve that theology” (spoken at a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio this weekend.)

       But leave it to Ann Coulter, that spitfire, social and political commentator, who holds Liberals in such contempt that she would begrudge them the air we breath and cast ‘em into “Davey’s locker,” to come up with the all-time topper, by referring to then candidate Obama (in a  2008 CBS interview), no less than five times within a span of 2 minutes as “B. Hussein Obama.” And then saying, “he wouldn’t be running if he weren’t half black.”

       When later asked why she chose to highlight his middle name, her answer: “because it’s funny.” 

      And to show their contempt, if not out-and-out hatred for President Obama, from the starting number of Republican candidates down to the remaining four, they’ve all made it a point to intentionally refer to him  only by his last name, rather than accord him the respect he’s due as the occupant of the White House.

      Just goes to show, folks, that down deep they’re shallow. And that while the true sentiments of many, who regard allowing that black man to live in the White House for another term, gives them the heebie-jeebies (if not nausea), they’re only expressed  in the privacy of their homes or amongst themselves.

      For the reality is, that it will be the determining factor in the General Election, no “if’s, and’s or but’s” about it, except, of course, for those who’ll prefer to keep living in a bubble.

Opening up the floodgates on same-sex marriage debate

      Gee whiz! Never thought I’d see the day, nor I’m sure did the editor, when a blog could open the floodgates to the torrent of comments that engulfed Patch for days on end, passing the 100 mark with ease.

     Nor, did I ever think such a social issue as that, along with abortion and contraception, would take center stage in the country’s political discussions. 

      And no doubt, even Commissioner Frazier, the prime mover for the Board’s  proclamation declaring Feb. 7-14 as “Marriage Week” was taken back by the outpouring of largely negative public comments, that far surpassed the public giving a “thumbs-down” for her open defiance of man-made laws by flouting the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court against invoking the name of a specific deity in prayers offered in public buildings.

      That gave me a chuckle at the time. For she apparently believes, as that Hebrew National brand of hot dogs advertises, “we answer to a higher authority.”    

      And to say, as she did in her speech during that open meeting, that “the healthier, safer, most successful road for children is to be raised by one man and one woman,” and that “a vote for same-sex marriage is a vote against children” borders on the absurd and a non sequitur flying in the face of reality.

      I base that on a groundbreaking study conducted by researchers at the University of Virginia and George Washington University, who found  “that children adopted (or thru a surrogate) by gay couples develop just as well as those raised by heterosexual couples, contrary to the deeply entrenched beliefs that children need one male and one female parent for optimal development.”

      And any doubts I had on that score were removed by my own observations years ago, when, for instance, my former lesbian sister-in-law and her partner adopted two children at the tender age of 6 and 8, with the boy growing up to become a surgeon at a top-notch hospital, and the girl a corporate lawyer for a Fortune 500  company. Both of whom credited their parents and success in life to their upbringing in a loving home.

      Plus, my watching that documentary in 2006 based on Rosie O’Donnell’s cruise for gay families-the first-ever such venture-convinced me all the more that children in same-sex marriages were as joyful, well-adjusted and raised with the same loving care as any other kids. 

      As O’Donnell said, “maybe people will get a chance to see what they’re afraid of, and dispel the illusion that with gays it’s all about sex, when it’s our role as parents that united us on this cruise.”

      And don’t tell me, that the 1.7 million kids-according to a 2006 federal study, who call the streets home every year, as well as the 754,00, who as reported by the National Child Abuse and Neglect data system were victims of child maltreatment in 2010-wouldn’t be much better off in living with, yes, gay couples who were willing and able to provide them with an opportunity for a better and more productive life.

      Simply stated, the whole issue of gay marriage, with or without children, may be best summed up in my father’s words of wisdom passed on to me:”To live and let live.”

      And for the life of me, I’ll never understand all the fuss over same-sex marriage, when the traditional form of marriage has, in recent times, proven to be no more sacrosanct than the Golden Rule, what with upwards of 50 percent ending in divorce.

      Happy Valentine’s Day to you love birds out there. And keep giving your kids all the love you can, hard to do as it may be at times. 

     .

Who’ll be taking the Presidential Oath of Offiice on Jan. 20, 2013?

      It should be stated at the outset that my leapfrogging over the primaries that far ahead was prompted by two reasons

      First, because 2012 is also Leap Year, which occurs nearly every 4 years as a concept that has existed for more than 2000 years, and is still associated with modern folklore and superstition and a popular day for women to propose marriage to men.

      But those years are long gone for me when I could turn a young woman’s head in my direction, and refraining from answering the phone and venturing outdoors, for fear of being entrapped by some scheming female waiting in hiding.

      And secondly, because I can see absolutely no sense in waiting until the nomination process in both parties are concluded to know who’ll emerge victorious and square off in the General Election held on Tuesday, November 6.

      For barring a third-party appearing on the scene between now and then, that would work more to the detriment of the GOP nominee than to the president’s reelection prospects, it will be that plutocrat-usually a pompous person in higher income and social prominence-Mitt Romney who’ll be debating President Obama on the world’s stage.

      The only question is, whether he’ll be able to hold his own in the substantive and rhetorical exchanges, or be outclassed to the degree that Nixon was by Kennedy in their 1960 debates.

      But they will never match the excitement and hoopla that surrounded the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, where crowds of 10,000 or more would attend them as they crisscrossed Illinois.

     Will the 2012 election results be as lopsided in either candidate’s favor as, say, Grant winning all 286 electoral votes vs Horace Greely in 1872, and FDR winning all but 8 electoral votes in the 1936 race against Governor Al Landon?

      Or will it be a squeaker, as most polls and pundits indicate it’ll be And perhaps be the squeakest and disputed election since the one in 2000, which was decided by the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Bush in Bush vs Gore on December 12th?

      And among other very close elections in the 20th century were in 1960, with Kennedy beating Nixon by less than 100,000 votes (or 0.1 percent) in the popular vote and by 303 to 219 in the Electoral College; and with Carter prevailing over Ford  in 1976 by the slimest margin in the Electoral College, and Carter leading by 200,000 votes in the popular votes.

      But we can safely eliminate the possibility of this election resulting in a tie vote in the Electoral College-such as occurred in the election of 1800, when the Federalists nominated John Adams to  be President and Charles Pinckney to be Vice President, and with the Democratic-Republicans nominating Jefferson as President and Aaron Burr as Vice President, and then making the mistake of assigning both of them the same number of electoral votes.

      Thus, since neither had the majority, the election was turned over to the House of Representatives (as the Constitution then provided for), where the House voted 36 times before selecting Jefferson over Burr.

      What a blessing that turned out to be for our young nation, when what that became known as the Burr Conspiracy, where he conspired with others to carve out his own empire, by attempting to detach the Western States and Louisiana Territory from the Union, came to light. For which, he was arrested by Jefferson and tried for treason, but not convicted for lack of direct evidence. 

      His being exposed for his treasonable coduct must have brought a smile to Alexander Hamiliton’s face as he laid in his grave, who he’d killed in a dual in 1804, after Hamilton shot his gun in the air.

      Quote of the Day: “We get who we deserve.”  Ben Franklin’s comment on elections.

Playing ‘King of the Hill’ is a rough and tumble game

      And I had the black and blue marks to prove it, in that children’s game. The object of which is to stay on top of a large hill or pile, while other players attempt to knock the current King off of it.

      Ordinarily, pushing is the most common way of doing it, but there are rougher variations where punching or kicking is allowed.

      And I can recall instances of when  pulling off shoes of others and hair pulling in scrambling to reach the top were considered as fair play 

      The name of that game has become a metaphor for any sort of competitive activity, such as that currently underway among the wannabe nominee for president in the Republican Party.

      Now, while Mitt Romney reigns as the King of the Hill going into the battle royal within the Republican Party and conservative movement in South Carolina, he could still be toppled from his lofty position  by a series of gaffes and overconfidence by believing he’s already the de facto nominee, no matter how ferociously those biting at his heels may wound him there and in upcoming primaries.

      And given that state is known for its anything goes in its negative ads campaigns, and has been the graveyard for many frontrunners-a la presidential candidate Sen. Mc Cain, who after winning handily in New Hampshire, suffered a crushing defeat there to G. W. Bush, due in large part to the scurrilous accusations hurled at him by unscrupulous sources, like alleging that he had fathered  rather than adopted a black child, or that he was “off his rocker” as a result of his imprisonment in Vietnam.  

      But perhaps the biggest hurdle he has to overcome if he is to remain in the “cat-bird     seat” are the charges of his doing more flip-flops from his earlier positions-on abortion rights, stem cell research, gay rights, gun rights, and universal health care-than Olympic gymnasts ever do in the floor exercises competition.

      And therein reveals the glaring differences between him and his father, George Romney, who also went from the boardroom to the presidential campaign trail.

      For he was a hard-core centrist, who as his former campaign aide Keith Molin said of him, that he “never tacked back to the right and faced charges of flip-flopping as his son has.”

     But then again, as writer Roberto Loiederman points out in the op-ed page of the Jan. 5th edition of the Baltimore Sun, that “Mitt Romney has changed his prior moderate views on hot-button issues because it would have been political suicide not to do so.”

      He then goes on to say, “that whereas George Romney showed courage in changing his pro-war stance on the Vietnam War-claming that military brass had brainwashed him into believing rosy predictions about its successful conclusion-his son has taken the expedient route by telling voters what he thinks they want to hear.”

      That he chose to do an about-face on his heretofore stated principles reminds me of     several apt quotes: “The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.” (W. Summerset Maugham”…”The moral losses of expediency far outweight the temporary gains.” (Wendel Wilkie)…”Expedients are for the hour, principles for the ages.” (Henry Ward Beecher)

      Quote of the week: “The hen is the noblest of creatures, ’cause she only cackles when the eggs are laid.” Abraham Lincoln

My New Year Resolutions are to make none

      Never have. Never will. For I couldn’t see any sense in lying to myself or others that I could keep them for longer than one day, much less than throughout the year. 

      For to believe I could would be as fatuous as my pledging to be less critical of the commissioners in the New Year.    

      Here are some randomly selected New Year quotes to start your year with a hearty laugh or at least with a wry smile:

      o “New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody, save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks and humbug resolutions.” (Mark Twain)

      o “Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve; old age is when you’re forced to.” (Bill Vaughan)

      o “May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions.” (Joey Adams)

      o “New Year Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time (James Agate)

      o “An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in; a pessimist stays up late to make sure the old year leaves.” (Anonymous)

      o “The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk, with the drunkenness culminating on New Year’s Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you’re married to.” (P. J. O’Rourke)

      o “Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.” (Oscar Wilde)

      o “Drop last year into the silent limbo of the past; and let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.” (Brooks Atkinson)

      o “Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.” (Anonymous)

      o “From New Year’s on the outlook brightens; good humor lost in a mood of failure returns.” (Leonard Bernstein)

      o “A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.” (Anonymous)

      o “Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year; even when a new century begins, it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.” (Thomas Mann)

      o “Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people; so overweight people are now average…which means you have met your New Year’s resolution.” (Jay Leno)

      o “Happiness is too many things these days for anyone to wish it on anyone lightly; so let’s just wish each other a bile-less New Year and let it go at that.” (Judith Crist)

      o “Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility; and breaking them is part of the cycle.” (Eric Zorn) 

      o “It wouldn’t be New Year’s if I didn’t have regrets.” (William Thomas)

      o “One resolution I have made, and try to keep, is this: To rise above the little things.” (John Burroughs)

      Now, despite my skepticism about the value, or the lack thereof, in making resolutions, I’ve always made a daily resolution for God’s ears alone: “To be a better man for you and me.”

      And that he has let me remain on earth for eight decades is, so I’d like to think, a sign that he hasn’t given up on me completely.

All I wanted for Christmas was what I always want

       And that’s for peace on earth and my own peace of mind. And it’s a toss-up as to which has proven to be more elusive and difficult to attain.  

        Now, each year at Christmastime brings back fond memories to me, as I’m sure it does you, of joyous ones (especially in our youth).

        But it also evokes the unpleasant thoughts of not being able to share them with loved ones who are no longer with us.

       The Christmas, that forever sticks in my memory, is the one I spent in the frozen mountains of Korea, where nothing grew in that battle-scarred terrain, except for the length of the icicles hanging from the top of our sandbag bunkers; and where frostbite was as much of an enemy as the opposing forces. 

        I’d celebrated Christmas by eating two instead of just one can of beef stew in the box of C-rations, and paying $50 for a bottle of rot-gut whiskey smuggled up to the frontlines to share with my tank crew.

        But I’ve gotten ahead of myself. For the main reason for writing this blog was to wish one and all the happiest of holiday seasons, and to offer my sincere sympathy if you didn’t get the gifts you so wanted; and had to wait in long lines to exchange those out-of-fashion or wrong-sized clothing or worthless kitchen gadgets.

      Speaking of receiving gifts, I can’t help but wonder whether the commissioners got the gifts they’d asked for in the lists they faxed to Santa’s solar-heated home in the North Pole.

      Now, even though I of course have no way of knowing what was on their lists, if I were to hazard a guess as to what they were, they might have been something like this: 

      o For Howard. A timer, like those used in chess tournaments, that he could use to allot commissioners a limited amount of time in which to make their spiel. He could be more generous with his cohorts than he is with those standing at the microphone in public meetings, who are limited to 3 minutes. I’d recommend setting the timer for them at, say, a maximum of 9 minutes. (Heck, it takes Rothschild more than 3 minutes to get warmed up.)

      o For Shoemaker. Boxes of petitions for voters to sign urging Rothschild to throw his hat in the ring for the 6th congressional seat (currently occupied by the rusted-out, Roscoe Bartlett). For there’s no one more motivated than him to spearhead that grassroot movement, who’d give his eye teeth to see his nemesis going to Washington to spread his balderdash, not to mention his then regaining the title of VP. 

      o For Frazier. The courage (and gall) to present to this board the proposed policy changes she’d made in her first term, in which she argued vehemently (forgive me RR for using one of your favorite terms) for (1) eliminating all zoning laws; (2) removing the cap on building permits; (3) prohibiting recreational activities from being held on Sundays on county property; and (4) banning the annual Wine Festival from being held on county property.

       o For Rothschild. I doubt if he asked for anything, believing as I’m sure he does that handing out baskets of food to the needy and toys to their kids during the holiday season is nothing more than a thinly veiled, socialist plot-backed by the armed forces of the U.N. Agenda 21-to capture the minds and hearts of the proletariat they’ll need to fill the ranks in its invasion army, which was formed in order to keep this nation from (in again using Rothschild’s words) “going over the precipice.”  

      o For Rousch. Material things he doesn’t need or would have asked for, what with that fat retirement package he undoubtedly received after slaving away mixing cement for so many years at that giant cement company. But if he’d agreed to read it, I’d gladly pay (if the board won’t) for a book on speaking effectively and succinctly.

      Quote of the week: “A good conscience is a continual Christmas.”  Ben Franklin

‘Ding Dong-The Wicked Witch is Dead’

      One could just as easily substitute Kim Jong II name in the title of that song of rejoicing sung by the Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz, whose death on Monday was greeted throughout the free world with a sigh of relief (however tentatively), unlike the response it got from those on the streets of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, who upon hearing the news of his dying, reportedly wailed in grief, kneeling on the ground or bowing repeatedly.

      As his grief-stricken son and heir-apparent, Kim Jong Un, lamented: ‘How could the heavens be so cruel?…Please come back general… We cannot believe you’re gone….”

      He’ll be the next Kim Jong to rule the country, beginning with  its founder. Kim Jong I, then by his father. That only goes to prove three “Jong’s” don’t make a right.

      That his father was a loony-tune was borne out by his obsessions: spending $800,000 a year in importing  Hennessy’s cognac; wearing stylish elevator shoes, that added four inches to his five-foot two height; breeding oversized rabbits to feed the starving people; consuming lobsters and roast donkey meat at every chance he got, watching over and over such U. S. movies as Rambo and Friday the 13th; and with his having a complete collection of Daffy Duck cartoons and memorabilia. (It figures that he could relate to his exploits.)

      But by no means was he the only son who followed in the footsteps of  a tyrannical father in recent history. For before he was ousted in 1986, Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed “Baby Doc,” ruled Hati with an iron hand for 15 years after his father, Francois “Papa Doc Duvalier, died, and used his father’s security apparatus to continue ruling in a totalitarian manner. Upon his fleeing to Paris, France, where he lived a luxurious life style, it was alleged that he had embezzled at least $500 million from Hati during his rule. 

      And Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, his father’s favorite son and heir apparent, who was feted by the West as a “moderniser” who would guide Libia along the path of democracy, chose family loyalty over reform when the rebellion began. And the urbane image he’d cultivated over the years as a friend of the West were dispelled upon his being captured in robes and a beard, proving that he turned out to be very much his father’s son.

      But there are also many notable instances of where the “apple did fall far from the tree,” such as:

      o King David and his son Absalom, who waged a war against his father and who ended up hanging in midair by his long hair caught in the thick branches of a large oak tree  when riding a mule; and when Joab found him there, plunged three javelins into his heart. (Let that be a warning to the long-haired kids of today riding dirt bikes in the woods.)

      o Ben Franklin and his illegitimate son William, who unlike his father was a steadfast Loyalist throughout the war of Independence, who served as the last Colonial Governor of New Jersey; and which tore the two apart from thereon, despite his father’s efforts to reconcile their differences.

       o General Douglas MacArthur and his only son Arthur, who truly did march to a different drummer than his father and grandpa, who were both legendary military leaders and recipients of the Medal of Honor; and who went so far in order to show his disdain for the military environment in which he was raised, as to change his still unknown last name and live in relative obscurity in New York City where, according to a forme aid to General MacArthur, he became a concert pianist and writer. 

       So far, me and five sons (albeit that I lost one-but only for the time being in my mind-on his fourth tour in Iraq at the age of 54) have been able to maintain more than a semblance of a normal-however that’s defined-father-sons relationship over the years, strained as it was at times by my shortcomings as a father. For as Robert Frost said, “You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love; you have to deserve your father’s.”

      Quote of the week: “It’s easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.”  Pope John XXIII