dagblog - Comments for "Merry Christmas"

Shabbat Shalom, friend. Great

Perry MacNeil — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 21:04:13 +0000

Shabbat Shalom, friend. Great piece of writing and your perceptions are right-on. Marching orders heard and taken to heart. Will most definitely be following in my reader. Keep up the good work and keep fighting the good fight!

Most of the Senate Dems, it

Elusive Trope — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 06:13:54 +0000

In reply to Beautifully and well said.

Most of the Senate Dems, it would appear, are looking to do something about that broken system, or so it would seem, according to NY Times article. Looks like it will be up to good old Harry to decide whether he wants to be remember as the Senate leader who put the Senate back on the path to being a functioning member of our government.

Beautifully and well said.

Barth — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 23:17:38 +0000

In reply to Merry Christmas and Shabbat

Beautifully and well said. The Senate, and, hence, our system of government, is broken and all of what happens has to be looked at through that inescapable prism.

Merry Christmas and Shabbat

Elusive Trope — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 18:09:47 +0000

In reply to Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Shabbat Shalom, Barth. Another excellent blog, one that sums up as best as any what faces us in the coming two years as well as how far we have come in the past two. There may be points where those with decent hearts can disagree, and even fundamentally disagree regarding what exactly are our marching orders (personally, I basically agree with on this front), but you provide a well-articulated place to have a dialogue about how we are to move forward.

The Rachel Maddow quote about what has been accomplished is something every liberal needs to somehow reconcile with how they view this president and the Democratic congress. For me, it is ridiculous to start from a place to say that is no difference between the two parties. A lot of similiarities collectively? Yes. A lot of the same corruption and catering to the wealthy elites? Yes. But do we really think that things would have been just about the same had McCain and Republicans controlled Congress.

The usual response to this, which is quite valid and with which must reconciled as well, is that we can't judge the Democrats by the bar set by the Republicans. It is not enough to simply say that they aren't as bad as the Republicans. Just as we don't approach abuse in our legal system by saying 'well, it ain't as bad as it in Russia or Saudi Arabia.'

What we can do is make a serious and sincere attempt to see what is there, to try to put our expectations in the context of what is rather than what should be in an ideal world, and then we might have a more clear idea how me we might move closer to that ideal world. If we can, then might be a few more people having a Christmas that is merry, a little less suffering upon which to pray about.

Peace.

Yes, that is the only thing

Barth — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 17:46:49 +0000

In reply to He looks for the better

Yes, that is the only thing to say.

But you are right: Randy Newman captured Silent Cal perfectly and what the Republican Party is all about. In fact, when his successor confronted roughly the same flood in roughly the same place, his reaction was pretty much the same thing as Randy Newman described:

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has
done
To this poor crackers land."

He could have said "heck of a job, fattie"

Loved your post about Christmases of old. Perfect.

He looks for the better

Richard Day — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 17:27:48 +0000

In reply to Merry Christmas

He looks for the better angels in people trying to destroy him and harm us.

And happy holidays to you Barth.

I just do not know how to communicate with the other side, as it were. I watched part of a panel on the wonders of Cal Coolidge today.

Amity Shlaes wrote a book on Calvin Coolidge. How proud is she of this great president who brought the Federal Budget from six billion dollars to 2.9 billion dollars when he left the Presidency in March of 1929.

Of course they have an answer to the quiry of how well things worked out six months later. I really to not wish to hear it though.

She even bragged about the fact that Cal did nothing about the Louisiana Flood of 1927--except to send Hoover down there to give the wretched his best regards. I infer that she does not particularly like Randy Newman.

I mean, she is proud of all of this. What am I supposed to say to this Ms. Scrooge?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year?