OK Folks, it's post number 350, and so it has to be a good one. Can't have another major milestone go by with just some mediocre observations or moderately humorous YouTube clip... OK - so I'll include a YouTube clip, but it has relevance to something else.
First things first... Mrs Koda informed me of a grave error on my part several weeks ago. When discussing a practice in the LDS Church wherein the men pair up and visit homes to keep people in line, I made reference to there being just two families in our neighborhood whom we can call on when things get tough, and whom we trust. In so saying I excluded a rather important family who lives in the next city, and in fact the only friend of Mrs Koda who knows about these blogs, and knows the fully extent of my feelings towards the religion in which I was raised.
I'm not sure if she would like to be named by name, but... EB - you and your family are definitely great friends, and I apologize for not including you in the original post... Would including you in a post like this be considered that much more prestigious? OK, given that it's on this blog, so I guess not... But I tried!!
Next of the agenda... My wife and I faced a critical juncture in our quest for eternal salvation yesterday. LDS Faithful may not find my account of it too flattering, but for the rest of my readers... Check it out on my other blog - but only after you get done reading through this fantastic post. I'll put a link at the end.
Next... Politics, and to keep it fair, I want to do a bit of a critique aimed at both sides of the political aisle. I'll start with the right, since it's about a lady, and there's the old maxim of ladies first - likely from the days of chivalry, but that's an interesting topic I may touch on later.
So Sarah Palin has a new book out... Going Rogue. She came to Salt Lake for a book signing, and I doubt if Jesus himself would have garnered quite such a reception. There was even all night coverage of the line of over-weight and politically clueless who lined up in the sub-zero temps to get her autograph. Comments were usually along the lines of "What do you like about Sarah Palin?" "She's awesome and I like the way she thinks" "What is it about her thinking that you like?" "I just like the way she thinks and I just like her." They were non-committal, obviously clueless comments by people who've been told to like her and aren't quite sure why. Actually comments which I think would rival any of the mindless dribble spewed forth by Palin during her Katie Couric interview. But hey, to each his own and they aren't really the target of my critique.
Going Rogue. Interesting title, but like the following mash-up of clips from the Princess Bride...
She keeps using the word "Rogue" and "Maverick", but I do not think she knows what that means. Sarah, in case you happen to read this in the midst of your daily perusal of all newspapers and all other news sources...
Parroting the party line and saying you're a maverick, does not you a maverick make. You did nothing roguish or mavericky on the campaign trail, other than to make a laughing stock out of yourself, your state and the McCain campaign - but I think Bushy already pulled that one of for the Republicans with his "God told me to invade Iraq" and similar comments, so it's hardly original.
But I'll leave the poor, poor lady alone, goodness knows she has enough to worry about.
Moving to the other side of the aisle, it looks like we may be getting close to a final bill for health-care reform, and last week I received the equivalent of a victory letter, via email, from the President himself. I'm glad something is being done, but I would hardly call it a victory.
Here are the problems I have with it...
1. One of the things I like about Mr. Obama when he ran for office was his talking of cleaning up Washington, and getting the lobbyists and all the money out of it. Sadly the story of health-care is one of the insurance industry paying off senators and congressman and spending copious quantities of money to defeat the bill. It hit home when I was sent an email asking for money to support the bill, since money was needed to counteract the millions spent by the insurance industry folks. I'm sorry, you need my money to pass a bill?!?! I voted for you in the last election... NOW DO WHAT YOU SAID YOU WOULD DO!!! Why is money even an issue?!? Shouldn't it be about right and wrong, and what's best for those you represent? I mean the people not your corporate sponsors.
2. The public option got taken out, and who knows what other piece have been added or removed to "buy" the votes of those already bought and paid for by the insurance industry. You almost have some kind of health-care passed, but it's hardly a victory. I guess on the plus side, it was just an email, and not some dog and pony show on an aircraft carrier.
I know my hopes for the president were way to optimistic and I was expecting him to fall short on a couple of things, but I think he's really dropped the ball on the health-care thing.
Finally, I spoke with a friend over Christmas. He's actually the nut job that sent me the text about Obama putting chemicals in the water to stop people breeding. I try and avoid politics with friends like that. Obviously I think he's delusional and obviously a puppet for hacks like Limbaugh and Beck, but he would probably think the same thing about me and my political leanings. And after the nasty things I said about those who dropped my as a facebook friend after I voiced some disgust at my son's teacher preventing him from seeing the President's adrress to school children, that would show me to be the same narrow minded prick I think all of them were.
To be fair I do like to hear the opposite side of the argument, but if I could offer some advise...
Whining about all the taxes you have to pay to Obama... You do realize you're being taxed at the same rate as you were under Bush, right?!?
Whining about all the corporate bailouts.... You do remember this happened while Bush was president, right?!?
Whining about government controlling industry... You do realize that these were all companies that needed bailouts, and that the men who's salaries are being capped are the ones who perpetrated the events which culminated in the decimation of your 401K... Right?!?
Mr. Obama has made his fair share of screw-ups and dick moves, but if you're going to paint him with a broad brush, at least consider what your guy did, and what Mr. McCain would have done, had he gotten elected.
Anyway that's it for magnificent post #350. In hind site it wasn't all that magnificent or amazing, so please accept my apologies for wasting your time.
If you would like to waste some more time...
Here's the account of yesterday's proceedings involving me and the Mrs.
The Price of Salvation
And on the topic of Chivalry. Pure Mormonism had an interesting take on that in a post which was just posted there.
When Mormons Take The Lord's Name In Vain
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