Category Archives: General

Thanksgiving Day, 2009

Blogblah

Blogblah

Happy Thanksgiving Day.

My holiday wish for you is that this holiday becomes just one more day of giving thanks, that you find a way to be thankful every single day for the family and friends in your life, for your health, for the material abundance in your life.

If you are reading this, it’s likely that you own a computer and that you are in a warm and safe place. Think about that! Think of the millions upon millions in this world with no shelter, no electricity, no computer, no nothing. If you’re reading this, you are very likely blessed every single day of the year, not just the last week of November.

This year, I’ve been engaged in a gratitude project. Every morning, I write a list of at least two dozen things that make me grateful. I’m alive, I’m sober, I’m healthy, I have a home and a car, I have family that loves me, friends that comfort and delight me. Some days, I can’t stop at 24 and just keep going. One day, I found 100 things in my life for which I could express heartfelt gratitude. I actually believe the list could be endless. Yes, I think I am just that blessed. For one thing, there are far more than 100 people who have blessed me by being in my life, including high school teachers who inspired me and law school professors who disciplined my intellect. I’ve had mentors in at least three professions. I’m one lucky guy.

Sometimes, I feel sorry for myself. I’m on the number one hit parade of pity party givers (or takers, as you like it). I can get really down. Oh, boo hoo, John. Things didn’t go your way. Someone said something you didn’t like. Your little feelers got hurt. I think I’ll just crawl off and eat worms and die.

Sometimes, I get taken over by envy. Who wants a Mid-Life Chrysler convertible when someone else has a nifty Ferrari?

When I get to feeling sorry for myself, I’ve found a great way to battle that feeling. I just remind myself that the starving children of Darfur are gathering in a prayer circle to express their dismay at how life’s treating me. The image makes me feel a little ridiculous.

May you feel deeply blessed this day and every day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Blogblah

November 19, 2009 Part II updated

shut up, he explained

shut up, he explained


A majority of Republicans do not believe that Obama was the legitimate winner of the 2008 presidential election; they believe ACORN stole the election for him — which would mean there were 9.5 million illegitimate votes for Obama, an election fraud that is incomprehensible.
Here is the poll by Public Policy Polling.
Only very few Democrats and Independents think ACORN was much of a factor and this view is held by about 26% of all Americans but 56% of Republicans.
Flabbergasting. I’m nonplussed. Here’s some analysis by TPM since I’m too gobsmacked to really go into it.

UPDATE: The right wingnut Hoffman in NY-23 who shouldered the GOP candidate aside and then lost to U.S. Rep. B. Owens (D-NY) now wants to “un-concede” the election because, of course, ACORN stole his election. At least that’s what he tells Glen Beck.

November 11, 2009

Today, President Obama spoke at a memorial at Ft. Hood. Of those killed, wounded, and those who ran to help in the emergency, he said:

“We need not look to the past for greatness, because it is before our very eyes.”

Here is John Dickerson’s summary of Obama’s speech in Slate online:

It was a song of America’s values, sung by a man who has been questioned, since the Democratic primaries, for being, as Hillary Clinton’s strategist Mark Penn put it, “not fundamentally American.” During the campaign, he had to make television ads insisting he shared American values. As president, he has contended with opponents who compare him with Hitler because of his … health care plan. Today’s speech is unlikely to mollify his most ardent foes, and it won’t make health care reform any easier. But it should make it harder for anyone to question his patriotism.

Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic Online thought it was “Best Speech Obama’s Given Since … Maybe Ever”:

Today, at Ft. Hood. I guarantee: they’ll be teaching this one in rhetoric classes. It was that good. My gloss won’t do it justice. Yes, I’m having a Chris Matthews-chill-running-up-my-leg moment, but sometimes, the man, the moment and the words come together and meet the challenge. Obama had to lead a nation’s grieving; he had to try and address the thorny issues of Islam and terrorism; to be firm; to express the spirit of America, using familiar, comforting tropes in a way that didn’t sound trite

If you have not heard or read his 15 minute address, I believe it will be a speech quoted and read for decades to come. It brought tears to my eyes.