We join with Sid in mourning the untimely passing of Helene Tendrich, our friend and reader of this blog.
GONE 
Sid Bolotin
My dear friend Hélène passed yesterday
No, not passed, she fucking died
Too young
Too soon
And I am pissed
Eight years of volunteering at hospice
Endless studying of Zen Buddhism’s
Principles/tenets of life being what it is
Countless workshops/studies of spirituality
Are not enough to quell my sorrowful anger
Like Job in the bible
I rage at God as to why
No answer is forthcoming
The question is meaningless
A non-question can have no answer
Helene and Lew
Mika’s I-Pad
The other day I was watching
“Morning Joe” on MSNBC. Hosts Joe
Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were talking about something which was in the
news with their guests and as is usual on this program, all of the day’s papers
(New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, New York Daily News,
Washington Post, USA Today, etc.) were spread out on the table before them.
Mika and Joe on "Morning Joe"
“Wait,” Mika
interjected. “I just read a column about
that. Let me get it and show it to
you.” But instead of reaching for whatever
paper the column was in, Mika pulled out her IPad and started looking for the
article on line. Within twenty seconds
or so, she had it and was quoting from it.
It was then that I knew that
newspapers were really finished.
Americans will have to find something else to spread on the floor when
they are painting or something to crumple up and stuff into the box along with
the dishes they are packing away. But if
these newspapers go out of business, as many have, what news sources will be
available on your IPad, laptop or desktop?
Unreliable blogs like the one you are reading? I hope not. Or will the surviving newspapers
become online publications for which you will be paying a subscription price
not unlike what you are now paying for a printed publication to be delivered to
your doorstep? Within a few years, that
may be the only alternative.
When that day comes, there
will be just a few reliable major national news sources and numerous local news
sources. None will be printed on paper
and we will make our online choices and pay for them, just as we pay for paper
subscriptions today. Or else go
“uninformed,” “misinformed” or dependent
on the snippets of news which TV provides.
Jack Lippman
The Real
Issues in the Presidential Race
There
are real issues involved in the Presidential election. You wouldn’t know it, however, from listening
to what the President and Mitt Romney are saying, whenever they get near a
microphone. The real issues include:
1. People must be put back to work.
Jobs must be created. Jobs
must be recaptured from overseas outsourcing.
Employed people spend money, pay
taxes and don’t collect unemployment benefits.
2. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid (as much as those receiving
benefits love these programs) and other “entitlement” programs must be revamped
before they bankrupt the nation.
3. Sources of revenue to fund these things and
the rest of what the government does, including a reduced military
establishment must be found. There are
only so many spending cuts that are
possible and tax loopholes that can
be closed, so new sources of revenue
must be found, including increased taxes.
4. The nation’s
exploding debt must be realistically managed, just as personal debt, including credit card debt and student loans must be put under control. They are both manifestations of the same
problem: How far beyond one’s current means
can an individual or a nation spend through the miracle of borrowing without
courting disaster?
5. Regulation
of Wall Street and the banking industry must be tightened or loosened,
depending on where you stand.
6. The
real estate crisis, involving many Americans losing their homes, and
reducing the value of the homes of those who aren’t losing them must be
solved.
7. Our infrastructure
is in dire need of repair. Roads and bridges are crumbling.
8. Whether belt-tightening
austerity is the solution or government
pump priming to boost the economy is the answer must be decided. You can’t have it both ways.
9. Does tax
relief for the wealthy and businesses enable them to invest in job creation or is trickle-down
economics a fairy tale?
10. Our educational system must be revised so that American kids are
competitive with those from other nations in science, technology, engineering and math.
11. No
American should ever go to bed hungry.
12. No
American should go without health care.
13. Go
back and read Number 1 on this list.
That’s where it all starts.
Basically, both parties
agree about foreign policy, so these are the only things which the Presidential
candidates should be talking about.
Anything else is hogwash. Over the next few months, this blog will address these issues. Your ideas are welcome. Mine will be Keynesian.
JL
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Our family of web sites includes: www.computerdrek.com - www.politicaldrek.com - www.sportsdrek.com - www.healthdrek.com.
Check all of them out, find out what “drek” really means and feel free to submit your thoughts and articles for publication on these sites, which, while still “under construction,” already contain some interesting content.
Additional new material will continue to be posted on www.politicaldrek.com until the Presidential election. New material will resume being added to the other three “drek” sites after November of 2012.
Jack
Lippman
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