Nobody # 785

Sunday, September 20, 2009
Nobody # 785

Nobody Asked Me But:

As we face the hatred always remember that silence gives consent.

Action: The Bruins and Dodgers win yesterday, and the Trojans lose.

Reaction: “This must be love, because it feels so good.”<<<

Good morning “all.” Today’s Nobody contains more quotes than usual, because I found them very interesting. Perhaps you will too.

HEROES OF THE WEEK

Lisa De Pasquale, event director of next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference who said in rejecting a request for a panel on whether Obama is a native-born U.S. citizen: “It would fill a room. "But so would a two-headed monkey.”

David Frum, a conservative author and speechwriter for President George W. Bush on Far Right fever: “They are wild accusations and the paranoid delusions coming from the fever swamps."

Washington GOP strategist Jon Henke: "Death panels' is not a substantive contribution to the discussion. It's a cartoon."<<<

VILLAINS OF THE WEEK

It’s another high school sports season opening, which means that many parents of Southern California athletes are scrambling in search of temporary homes or phony addresses. It’s transfer time! Illegal recruiting season is over and now it is time for the payoff. Top athletes are enrolled in their new schools, transferred by cheating parents to the athletic factories of cheating coaches. AND NOTHING IS DONE ABOUT IT!


The problem gets worse by the year and is one more example of our messed up society. Withdrawing tempts me more by the day.<<<

LOOKING BACK

It was Margaret Chase Smith, our country’s first woman Senator, who, early in the McCarthy years, warned her fellow Republicans with words that they would do well to read again today – that they were not going to achieve election victories by riding on "the Four Horsemen of Calumny -- Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear."

A SMALL THRILL – BUT IT WAS ALL MINE

Last Monday night we were watching the British mystery on PBS. It took place in Oxford, where, at one point, a character was sitting at a table, one of a group that spilled over the sidewalk and into part of the street. When we were in Oxford I sat at one of those the same outdoor tables and enjoyed what was arguably my best ice cream ever.

JACK KRAMER

Jack Kramer died last week at the age of 88. He was my first tennis hero and his legendary matches with “Pancho” Gonzales, another early favorite of mine, were some of the best ever.<<<

HEARD WHILE CRUISING ON THE FAR RIGHT

Our current financial crisis was planned at the time by the people who fled with the baby Barack out of Kenya and into Oahu.

STEVE BREEN Steve Breen is the cartoonist for the San Diego Union Tribune. I thought that his cartoon from last week was priceless.<<<

WHAT I’M READING

Non-fiction – Ted Kennedy’s memoir. I started it Tuesday and, although it has been a busy week and I am not far in, what I have read so far is fascinating.

Fiction - I recently finished the final book of Robert Ferrigno’s Assassination trilogy, “Heart of the Assassin.” In the series Ferrigno writes of a post-conflagration America divided into two nations – an Islamic one centered in the Pacific Northwest and a Christian Bible-belt one in the Southeast. Both are threatened by the militarily powerful Mexico bent on reclaiming the land stolen (they got that right) in 1848. “Heart” is a satisfying conclusion to this series and, like the others, gets a grade of double-F (for fun and fascinating.<<<

ACTION/REACTION

Action: Man-up. Man-crush. Man machine, etc.

Reaction: Shall we call this the “time of masculine insecurity?”

Reaction # 2: To paraphrase the Bard – I think (HE) duth protest too much.

Action: “Arizona Governor Brewer cites God-given aid in governing.”

Reaction: No wonder California is in such a mess. God is spending all Her time in Phoenix.

Reaction # 2: Is it finally time for me to admit that God is a Republican?

Action: "There is not a racist bone in my dad's body." Alan Wilson (Joe’s son).

Reaction: Some muscles and connective tissue, sure, but no bones.

Action: Busloads of anti-Obama protesters rode from Mississippi to Washington D.C. wearing white T-shirts identifying themselves as “Freedom Riders.”

Reaction: They should be ashamed. But if they were capable of that emotion, they would never have borrowed such a noble name for such a common cause.

Action: In a letter to LA Times Business columnist, someone wrote – A citizen who accepts personal responsibility for his welfare has no real problem getting health insurance.

Reaction: What???

Action: Dinner with Palin goes for $63,500

Reaction: And she supplies the nuts.

KUDOS FOR CARTER

Jimmy, that is, for calling out bigotry last week.<<<

HISTORY

History Question: What was Dick Nixon’s greatest accomplishment?

History answer: He created a nostalgia for LBJ.

CNN

Below is the CNN question of the day for last Wednesday and the responses:

What is the greatest source of anxiety you have experienced with e-mail?
Technical issues 18%
Spam 45%
Number of e-mails 14%
Sent an e-mail I should not have 22%

I don’t know about you but I chose number 4. I tend toward the impulsive and have sent a few Es that I wanted back as soon as I clicked Send.<<<

THE TRUTH HURTS - OR AT LEAST IT SHOULD

"All other industrialized societies guarantee health care for everybody – young or old, rich or poor, native or immigrant.”

“The U.S. is the only developed nation where medical bankruptcies occur.”

(The above was taken from the Sept. 21st, 2009 issue of Newsweek.)

While we are in New York City this week and next I am going to make a Wednesday night stop in SoHo at the Housing Works Bookstore and take advantage of their “speed shrinking.” Every Wednesday a panel of eight psychiatrists and psychologists give free three-minute advice
I am hoping they can tell me why I am addicted to writing all these Nobodies.<<<

Speaking of NYC, here is a picture of the hotel in which we will be staying.

Later days!




















jt sessions.