Troops:

Jon Oliver, in a Daily Show segment about the right wing’s lament that we’re “losing our country,” came up with an insight that rocked me to my socks, partly because it’s so damned obvious – once you see it.

We used to live in a simpler time.  Right?

Almost everyone [not just right wingers] laments: “When I was growing up, it used to be like…FILL IN THE BLANK.  But nowadays….”  We all do this.

But the right wing is escalating this commonplace nostalgia to a toxic attack, in which Obama is, according to Hannity [et al], “literally ripping apart the foundation of the America that we knew and grew up in.” [Actual quote.]

This is making a pathology of nostalgia.

Why were the old days, seemingly in every generation, better?

This is a riddle that has puzzled the best of us – why has it seemed to every generation that we’re sliding down hill to hell?

Famously, Socrates: “Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders, and love chatter in places of exercise.  They no longer rise when elders enter the room.  They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”

Please do yourself a favor and watch this brilliant clip BEFORE you read my spoiler [below the link], as Oliver examines the “good old days”. [Glen Beck is priceless!]  [5:46]  Daily Show

The spoiler:  The key phrase [as Oliver points out] is “when I was growing up.”  We were CHILDREN, for God’s sake!  Of COURSE the world was simpler and golden and uncomplicated in the “old days.”  We were children, with no care in the world [relative to adulthood].  Wow – or should I say, Duh.

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Obama, Personally

Conservatives have real policy disagreements with libs [taxes, unions, states' rights], or delusional issues [FEMA is building concentration camps], or actual outright fabrications [Obama was born in Nigeria, he's a Muslim, he proposed death panels, health care will cover illegals... ]  [Though it should!!  If you or I fell sick in Europe, we'd be cared for... a discussion for another day.]

But let’s narrow the focus to the absurd things for which the conservatives have mocked or criticized Obama as a person.

- his “celebrity,” his “elitism,” his “cosmopolitan” style [during the campaign]  [he had the effrontery to be educated. he was at the top of his class, while McCain was at the bottom.  uppity.]

- they actually mocked his background as a community organizer

- unpatriotic: doesn’t wear a flag pin

- he spoke on a stage with columns = it’s the “temple of Obama”

- unpatriotic:  he didn’t visit the wounded troops in Iraq;  oh wait, he did?  then he’s using the troops as a backdrop for PR purposes

- he uses a teleprompter  [this is the one that fries me]

- speaking to schoolchildren about studying and doing well in school [same thing as communist indoctrination, as in North Korea.]

- “dithering” for 3 weeks on Afghanistan strategy [the Bush admin dithered a mere 7 years]

- “censoring” Fox News

- proposing to try the Nigerian suspect in a U.S. court [as Bush successfully did with shoe-bomber Richard Reid.]

[OK, some of these were not strictly personal, but REALLY!]

If I’ve missed any, send them along.

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On the Flight

This is a first-hand account of what it was like to be on the flight with the Nigerian underpants bomber.  It is long, but good. Huffington Post

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The UK Desk

There is a critically acclaimed sitcom, The Office, and, try as I might, I’ve never been able to get on board with it.  Just can’t get its rhythms or viewpoint or whatever.  I find it downright annoying.  But I knew it was a US adaptation of a British original, written/directed by, and starring Rickie Gervais [Paul et al - he's my Eddie Izzard], so I thought I’d give the original a shot, and I LOVED it.  Gervais makes himself the butt of most of the jokes [he said in an interview with Jon, "before someone else does."]  He’s a master of wincing, uncomfortable humor.  If you have Instant View in Netflix, here is Series 1:  The Office

Not everyone’s cuppa, I’m sure, but he suits me to a tea.

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An idea I’ve been seeing in the blogosphere that may have merit:  move your money.  Break up the banks

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From Harper’s Index

Percentage change since President Obama’s inauguration in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq:  -16

Percentage change in the number of armed private contractors working for the United States there:  +52

Ratio of journalists to delegates among registered attendees at this fall’s G20 meeting in Pittsburgh:  5:1

Ratio of Katie Couric’s salary to the total operating expenses of NPR’s 17 foreign bureaus:  3:2

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Is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s? – Nietzsche

Oh, and look who goes to jail:  the guy who exposes a massive tax fraud:  Whistle blower

Ta ta, y’all

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