Thoughts, Post Independence Day, 2010
Sometimes it’s just a struggle to concentrate these days on just one topic with which to regale you when visiting this blog. From time to time I may compromise by doing a post consisting of a collection of mini-rants and ramblings. Caution: this blog has liberal tendencies, conservatives read at your own risk.
This is one such post. Two, technically.
The Green and White dodge a bullet!
It’s been a couple of weeks now since I feared the worst. Will the world end in 2012? Nah, there’s no money in it for anyone. The well-dressed doomsayer would just waste it on neon clapboards anyway.
No, my greatest fears, while sometimes paranoid and oft times unfounded, remain securely locked in the recesses of my mind. Firmly held back by the voices in my head. For now. It gives the voices something positive to do, saving me from the embarrassment of having to explain their whereabouts when I go over the deep end.
Voices aside, my latest rambling shouts out to the Green and White--Michigan State University. Naturally. The MSU men’s basketball program dodged a potentially fatal bullet recently. If you weren’t aware (or your nervous system is constantly bombarded by the unnatural hues of blue and corn hemorrhaging through the visible light spectrum) there was the possible defection of men’s hoops coach Tom Izzo to the bright lights of Cleveland, OH.
Or did it?
Coach Izzo briefly flirted with the thought of leaving collegiate sports when the Cavs management dazzled the Yooper native with an almost obscene amount of green (appropriate here, don’t you think) to walk over to the dark side. Not to mention an opportunity to coach one of the greatest players the game has ever seen, LeBron James.
But there were two huge obstacles standing between Tom and the Cavaliers (actually three if you include the mere thought of the basketball dynasty he carefully built at MSU imploding). The first being LeBron James. There was no guarantee the focal point of the Cav’s offense was even staying with the team. His free agency is in full force. The second, and most important? Tom’s fans within and outside the University. ‘Nuf said there, I think.
Let’s recap. Michigan State University or Cleveland? Money, lots and lots of it. LeBron James, maybe. Okay, the money was totally obscene--all that green--and I’d of shamelessly gathered it up without looking back. Maybe roll in it naked in the privacy of my own bedroom. Who wouldn’t? Tom, of course. He remains true to the Green and White. Who was worried? Yeah, yeah. Nothing more to read here. Let’s move it along.
Thanks for nuthin’
I want to take a moment to thank our congressmen and women, as well as our senators, on both sides of the aisle for....wait for it...NOTHING. Congress has gone home for the July 4 holiday. But not before they chose to walk away from a vote on an extension for benefits for the jobless, nor a vote on reigning in the excesses of Wall Street.
So the score remains, Wall Street one, the jobless voter, the underemployed, small business, the struggling family, the shrinking middle class, schools, seniors, the uninsurable, the States... nothing. Zippo. Seems fair, wouldn’t you say? (That is sarcasm, just so no one misinterprets what I am trying to convey.)
Apparently, to our lawmakers, ‘We the People’ are meaningless non-entities. If we aren’t a special interest group we’re unimportant. If we can’t be traded on the stock exchange, we’re of no use, or importance, to the men and women we voted into office.
And why should they care?
They’ve got the best health insurance money can buy–for life. Not us. God forbid there should be a national health plan like that! I hear the pay isn't half bad, either.
Most politicians have lifted nothing heavier than their forks in the pursuit to put food on the table. In some ways they’re more entitled than the minorities they rail against.
When they leave office they’ll most likely saunter over to K Street and make even bigger bucks as lobbyists. No fear of missing a meal there. They’re set. For life. (See a recurring theme?)
Here’s what we “The People” get
One law-maker for the Republicans went so far as to suggest the retirement age for Social Security be raised to 70, as well as including cuts to said program, to pay for the wars. How’s that again? Another senator of the same persuasion is blocking Wall Street reform to guarantee that the taxpayer, not banks, pay for the cost of the bill.
Just because the Party of No believes some voters are writing off the Dems doesn’t necessarily mean those same voters are even thinking of turning to the same nay-sayers for refuge (or the Tea Party for that matter). The Dems, on the other hand, are doing no one any favors by refusing to stand up to the Republicans or to stand up for the people of this great nation who voted for them. Needless to say banks and insurance companies have no such fear. (See, recurring theme.)
The fact that my voice isn’t necessarily heard doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion. I do. So do many others like me. Unfortunately we weren’t recently bailed out. So, bottom lining it, we won’t be heard. (Again with the recurring theme.) Is there an app for that?
