Afghanistan
A
few more Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since I suggested that the
President issue an executive order, bringing all of our troops home from that
country, even if it meant disrupting airline schedules to get enough planes to get
the job started and completed in a day or so, destroying as much equipment as
possible before we leave. No western
country has ever been able to exert lasting control over the collection of
tribes, yaks, goats and rock piles which constitute that “country,” whose chief
crop is poppies for making opium. Last
week their excuse for a President said if push ever came to shove between the
United States and Pakistan (our true enemy in that area), he would side with
Pakistan. How many more deaths are needed before we just leave?
Florida Developers
On
a few occasions in the past I have written that there is a special room in hell
for Florida builders. Many homeowners
throughout South Florida will readily agree to that. That’s why I was cheered to read in the
papers that developer Dan Catafumo was being chased by BankAtlantic for some
money they claim his corporations owed them.
I hope Dan’s lawyers know enough legal tricks to get him out of repaying
the bank. That’s because BankAtlantic
CEO Alan Levan is none other than the former CEO of Levitt Homes (and still
connected with its former parent, Levitt Corporation), which nicely hid under
the mantle of bankruptcy to avoid living up to obligations to both individual
home buyers and homeowners’ associations which were trying to collect from
Levitt for things in their communities which weren’t quite right. It’s really a tough call as to which one will
get a bunk in that special room nearest to the flames, but I would like it to
be Levan.
More
on CSF
And
for those of you who are interested, Classical South Florida’s on-the-air
pledge drive last week fell short of its goal.
I let the gentle folks at CSF know that I hoped this blog played some
small part in making that happen.
Politickler
#5
Herman
Cain has blown it on three fronts simultaneously.
(1.) A recent TV commercial showed his
campaign manager dragging on a cigarette.
Most commentators have taken this as a “body language” message that Cain
opposes the regulations that a “nanny state” imposes, such as telling you where
you can and cannot smoke. In matters like that he is for “choice.” Well, he better not have any “pro-choice”
bumper stickers around because it may confuse his conservative followers who
think he is “anti-choice” when it comes to abortion. He seems to think you can
have it both ways.
(2.) In an interview with Bill O’Reilly, Cain said that we
have to watch out for China’s efforts to develop nuclear technology,
manifesting his ignorance of the fact that China has had nuclear weapons for
over 40 years.
(3.) Cain’s reaction to suggestions that he had a history of
harassing female employees showed him to be ill-prepared to respond to these
charges in a coherent manner.
Make what
you want of these three items but I think that collectively, they illustrate
that Cain is not “able” to be President and is finished as a candidate for the
Republican nomination. And
in regard to that nomination, you can stop watching the debates and other
incidental reporting of the race for it.
Some of the candidates never caught fire and others that did, like
Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry and most recently, Herman Cain, are fizzling
out. Although the conservative wing of
the G.O.P., which is intent on undoing everything that happened from the New
Deal onward, will have trouble stomaching his traditional establishment
Republicanism, Mitt Romney will be their candidate. For Vice President, he would be well-served
to pick Newt Gingrich who knows his way around Washington.
The real question is whether conservative
Republicans will turn out to vote for Mitt, in view of his introducing
compulsory health insurance while governor of Massachusetts and his record of
flip-flopping on almost every issue in the campaign. I think they will because their primary
object is to defeat Barack Obama, over and above any other considerations. If Porky Pig were
the best choice to accomplish that, they would nominate him, but all they have is Romney. “Th ...Th ...Thaaat’s all Folks!”
Jack Lippman
***
*** ***
And here’s a short story
which Sid Bolotin hoped would make it into a “Halloween” posting, which we didn’t
have. It almost didn’t make it into this
posting either.
Mommy's Little Helper
Sid
Bolotin
“Mommy,”
asked Sarah for the umpteenth time, “why does Joey have that between his legs?
I don’t have one.”
“Hushup!”
snapped her mother, Blanche. “Stop asking that. Every time I change your
brother’s diaper you start up with the question. Enough already. You’re only
four. When you get older you’ll understand.”
“But
I want to know now.” pouted Sarah. “I don’t want to wait. Why won’t you tell
me? Why don’t I have one? Do you have one? Does daddy?”
“God,
give me strength.” groaned Blanche as she finished diapering Joey and lay him
on his back on the floor of the living room where she could keep an eye on him
from the kitchen.
“O.k., Sarah, come help me prepare
vegetables.” she announced hoping that the activity would distract her
daughter’s unending, persistent quest for the answer to “why?”. She was at her
wit’s end and ready to explode. It was fine for her husband and their
pediatrician to tell her to wait it out until Sarah got older. They didn’t have
to spend each day being assaulted with a
never-ending
barrage of the same question over and over.
As
she half walked, half hopped alongside her mother on their way to the kitchen,
Sarah pestered again, “Please, mommy, please tell me. Why does Joey have it,
and I don’t? And what makes it grow? I like to see it grow.”
“Enough
already!” Blanche screeched. “Stop asking me again and again! Little boys have
that for a little while until the doctor comes and cuts it off. All right? Now
you know. Now go back into the living room and watch television. I’ll do the
veggies myself.”
Hurt
and tearfully bewildered at her mother’s anger, Sarah settled herself onto the
floor in front of the TV and leaned against the coffee table.
“Gee,
Joey,” she whimpered angrily to her baby brother lying next to her, “why did
mommy get so angry? I was only asking.”
Joey
responded to the sound of his sister’s voice with energetic arm waving, smiling
gurgles, and a little more spittle.
As
she turned her head to glare at her mother bustling in the kitchen, Sarah
spotted Blanche’s sewing basket on the table.
“Why
wait for the doctor? Why don’t I help mommy out right now?” she whispered as
she reached for the scissors.
***
*** ***
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JL
***
*** ***
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