The lawnmower is in the shed for the winter, the leaves are raked and burned, the rain barrels are emptied and stored, I took one last frosty ride in the porta-bote to run the gas out of the little outboard and put that away for the season, and after the snow last week, I finally took up the dock. Yesterday was absolutely beautiful, and I was able to accomplish most of the outdoor cleanup which is so much more unpleasant when the cold wind is blowing. In about three weeks, it will probably start to get ugly up here in the Great White North, and more than one of our resident weather experts has predicted a snowy winter. Something about furry caterpillars, or was it squirrels wearing snowshoes? I have the Weather Channel doplar radar for our area set up as a “favorite” in my web browser, and with one click of the mouse, I can watch the weather blow in from the West. Bring it on Jack Frost, I’m ready. Heeeeere’s Johnny (cryptic reference to “The Shining”)!
Last Tuesday marked the mid term elections in the U.S. and it was described as a bloodbath by more than one political pundit. In a news conference the next day, Obama himself called it “a shellacking” for his party. America made a right turn as Republicans won back the House and made some headway in the Senate as well. As I predicted, those starry eyed “Yes-We-Cans,” filled with hopeful elation when the evil/stupid king was dethroned two years ago, have now turned on the new “good” king like a pack of wolves. With unemployment still hovering well over 9 per cent, Americans blame Obama and his donkeys for not making the mess go away. I’m not an Obamaniac (although his command of the English language is a refreshing change over the profound ineloquence of his predecessor), but come on people. Are we all so naïve as to assume that this is one man’s (or one party’s) fault? If you lived larger than you can afford, if you bought a house that was beyond your means, or if you profited handsomely from the Wall Street lottery in the 80s and 90s, then didn’t you and I willingly contribute to the downfall of our economy? Contrary to popular belief, America is a democracy, and we the electorate screwed it up. Maybe Bush left the barn door open, but it was open long before he took office. The fact is, we say we want leadership, but when it starts to hurt, we scream for the next guy. It’s political suicide to propose painful solutions. Here’s a novel idea: level the playing field. Absolutely, limit campaign contributions, but ALSO make every winning candidate accountable for his or her ridiculous promises. No excuses, if you lie, and don’t deliver on an outrageously unrealistic campaign promise, your war chest is depleted by (pick a number) $50,000. Companies have performance reviews, and employees are held accountable, why not politicians as well? Wouldn’t it be great if we could simply look up a political candidate’s record for delivering on his or her promises? Then, we the voting public, might become invested in the democratic process again instead of voting for the bonehead who makes the biggest promises. Accountability is a vanishing characteristic. They say Obama hasn’t done a good job of pointing to his successes. That might actually be true, and the fact is, I haven’t got a clue who started the mess we’re in, or who is capable of fixing it. I do know that I have grown weary of all the lying S.O.B.s who claim it was the other guy. But my point is that we the voters share the blame for this pandemic of bad leaders. Toronto just elected a new Mayor, Rob Ford, and the big issues in this last election were high taxes and a bloated city government. Ford’s slogan: “Stop the gravy train!” Judging by his girth, he’s no stranger to gravy himself, and allegedly he had a somewhat checkered career as a councilman in Etobicoke. He may soon be eating crow with a little gravy on the side. O.K. my bi-annual angry political rant is over (hah!).
The Federal Reserve is about to dump another $600 Billion on the American taxpayers in order to “stimulate” the economy. Time to start printing money again. In five years, the U.S. greenback will be worth about one sheet of Charmin. If you’re flying, you might want to avoid taking an Airbus A380. It seems one of their Rolls Royce engines exploded in midair near Singapore spewing debris all over some Indonesian island. A volcano on Mt. Merapi in Indonesia has erupted for the second time in a month, spewing super-heated pyroclastic gas and ash on the surrounding population. Hurricane Tomas just barreled through Haiti and Cuba. Boy those Haitians really can’t catch a break, can they? First they’re hammered by the big earthquake in January, which leaves over a million Haitians homeless, and then, when they’re already living in tents, BANG!, a hurricane. Kinda makes a couple of months of snow look like a piece of cake, eh? (that’s Canadian for “know-what-I-mean?). Next week, we’re back to “happy” reports.
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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