Rainy and 50 degrees most of the day.
"Behold the politician.
Self-preservation is his ambition.
He thrives in the D. of C.,
Where he was sent by you and me.
...
He gains votes ever and anew
By taking money from everybody and giving it to a few,
While explaining that every penny
Was extracted from the few to be given to the many.
Some politicians are Republican, some Democratic,
And their feud is dramatic,
But except for the name
They are identically the same."
A marvelously perceptive poem by Ogden Nash..one of many in his book: A Penny Saved is Impossible.
01. Politics
OK, OK I was wrong.....
It looks like Mitch McConnell will become the leader of the Republican-controlled Senate, at least for the next two years. As Archie used to say on the Duffee's Tavern radio show: "What a revoltin' development!"
What is the plan for the Republicans in 2015 anyway?
Senator Bernie Sanders spells it out in a recent speech, mentioning how it echoes the goals of one half of the Koch Brothers (David), when he was running for Vice President of the Libertarian Party in 1980. His goals, according to Bernie.. are the current goals in some of the Republican Party.
a. Repeal of federal campaign finance laws and the Federal Election Commission.
b. Abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.
c. Repeal of Social Security.
d. Abolition of the Postal Service.
e. Repeal of minimum wage laws.
f. The complete separation of education and government.
g. Abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency.
h. Abolition of all "aid to the poor" programs.
And of course.. now the Republicans will be embolden to try again to gut Obamacare.
So.. if I've paraphrased parts of Bernie's speech correctly, a group of Republicans want to repeal almost every piece of legislation passed since the Great Depression to protect the elderly, sick and the poor, as well as the members of the middle class.
Hey, guys, remember what happened to Marie Antoinette and her crowd. And so.. "Don't mess with my Social Security!"
02. Time to Think
The November 2nd, 2014 edition of the New York Times Magazine was extremely interesting to me. Several great articles, especially:
a. The story by Theo Padnos who was kidnapped in Syria and held captive by Islamic militants for two years. In that time, he was tortured and was under the threat of beheading every single day. He survived by writing a novel in his head about his home state of Vermont.
It was as hard for me to try and understand the thinking of his captors as it was for me to try and understand the thinking of Nazi officers in WWII. This story will stay with me for a long time.
b. Suki Kim taught English to students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology in North Korea. Because he was observed for 24 hours a day, he was very careful of what he said to anyone, including his students. At one time, students asked him how America's "National Assembly" worked. Suki carefully indicated that the people, through their representative and senators make the laws in the US... while the students were in a nation where all laws are made by the "Beloved Leader". He did not want the students to get their brains working too much because they, as he, were observed carefully for any "deviation" from the leader's rules for thinking.
c. The world's largest floating "boat" is called Prelude, and is being built in South Korea. It is over 530 yards long (1/3rd of a mile), and 80 yards wide. It's bigger than six aircraft carriers. It took six full size pages of the magazine to show a picture of this monstrosity. What is this weird thing?
It is a "giant liquefied-natural-gas refinery." What ever the hell that is. Anyway.. it's big!
d. Douglas Emlen is a dung beetle expert. He has observed that some male dung beetles grow massive horns to help them push dung into cave-holes in the ground and to fend off other dung beetles who want to mate with the female dung beetle, who, impressed with the large horns, attaches herself to the dung ball and is pushed into the hole by the happy male. So, evolution has favored the big-horned dung beetle, right?
Well, not exactly, because just as the big-horned beetle is doing his pushing, a smaller beetle with no horns is tunneling up under where the dung will be and he finally steals the female away from the bigger male, and wins. So, for a while, no horns is uppermost.. and for a while, big horns is uppermost... this is evolution.
Douglas relates all this to the current political climate in the world. The United States' massive armament is almost controlling the world, while a few able Chinese hackers is almost bringing us down. I may not be explaining this very well, but maybe you get the picture.
03. Today in Westminster, Maryland
a. 10 am .. Genealogy Group meeting to discuss family similarity. During the meeting, I was physically compared to Ted Kennedy. I've been told that before, and it doesn't bother me, because Ted was a hero of mine. As I've written in these pages before, Ted Kennedy and my Uncle Allen Vaughan died on the same day and I made my Massachusetts eulogy cover both of them... "both of my heroes."
b. Some folks at the meeting convinced me that I should further my DNA investigations by trying the program at Ancestry.com. Elaine said she would like to do that too and I will so treat her.
c. 3:30 pm.. off to the Mistletoe Mart.. an annual showing and selling of juried items. A couple of our friends were not in the show this year and it was a disappointment to Elaine.
(1) The lavender farm. We always buy honey and dip and lavender stuff from them. They retired this year.
(2) Elaine's pottery company. She always buys something from them.. they just didn't show up this year.
(3) The old stuff store.. old toys and advertising material. They also retired.
Right now I'm nursing massive heartburn from the Carroll County BBQ that I consumed just after I spilled half a pint of milk all over the table.
While in line at the food concession, a lady next to me said: "Hey, Joe Vaughan".. it was a lady I had not seen since I used to emcee senior conventions in the 1990's. And, guess what, I did not have a "Joe Vaughan Fan Club" pen with me to give to her. I must remember to be prepared because fame is fleeting.
We did run into Jan Flora and her husband. Jan is one of the few persons (along with Elaine) that looks younger today than she did ten years ago. A real nice person... not many of those still around.
One other strange thing happened today... Elaine got a letter from IRS saying that she had a $1.20 refund from her 2011 income tax. However, in the same mailing, she got another letter from IRS saying that her $1.20 refund will be used to cover some money she owes for 2012 taxes. Easy come, easy go.
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Genug!
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