Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Rush In A Rant

It seems that the whole country has gone berserk over the recent incident on the Northwest flight into Detroit on Christmas day. For those who are hibernating on the mountaintop, a young Nigerian attempted to light an explosive on the plane. Fortunately, some passengers noticed what he was doing and put a stop to his evil plan.

Now everybody is trying to figure out what to do protect us and make us totally secure in this country. Rush Limbaugh, in his characteristically angry style, has suggested that all Muslims be required to go through a separate checkout line. He doesn't explain how we will identify all Muslims. Maybe they should be required to wear green armbands, or have a large M tattooed into their forheads.

The unfortunate part about Rush's rant is that so many people actually believe that his anger is good thinking. From my perspective, we may have more to worry about from that crowd than the few radical Muslims that might slip through our grasp.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Republicans in a Panic

Republicans are in a panic these days over the situation in Congress with the healthcare bill. They have fought that all the way in both the House and now in the Senate. Now, it appears that Democrats are going to actually be able to pass this legislation. Of course it has some problems like any other complex piece of legislation does. In general, however, the healthcare proposal will make good law. So, why are Republicans in such a panic? Because it appears that Obama will be successful in fulfilling his promise for healthcare reform. And remember the stated goal of Republican is for Obama to fail. Now that it looks like he might succeed, there is indeed grounds for them to panic

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Within Two Minutes

I watched with much interest president Obama's speech to the nation regarding the war in Afghanistan. From my perspective, he laid out a clear plan, starting with a short history of our involvement in Afghanistan, the reason why got involved, and what our goals are there now. He carefully linked our military action to the devastating attack on America on September 11, 2001. If we do not destroy the terrorist network, he claimed, they will attack us again. we are not there to occupy the country or even to engage in nation building. Our military has two functions: disrupted the Al Qaeda network so that it cannot export terrorism, and train the Afghan armed forces so they can keep their own people safe and secure.

Within two minutes of his speech the commentators at Fox News were disparaging Obama and his message to theAmerican people. Listening to their critique it appeared that it was a pre-planned generic criticism which was intended to fit no matter what Obama said. Fox News seems to have two rules regarding our current president. Rule one is: everything Obama says or does is bad. Rule two is: in the unlikely event that Obama does or says something good, refer immediately to rule one. Too bad they can't be more patriotic and put the good of the nation ahead of their own rancor and hatred.