I'm a Libertarian living in Humboldt County, CA. I've lived here in Eureka since 1973 and joined the Libertarian Party in 1992. This blog will mostly focus on local political issues, but I may stray into state and national issues as well, when I can't help myself. Please post your comments by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of each post. Although I do moderate comments, you need not be a registered user to post them.
I wanted to stay away from the obligatory New Year posts, editorials and news stories that everyone feels compelled to write as we end the year, so I will. I'll let J.D. Tuccille, over at the Disloyal Opposition blog, do it for me.
Labels: b
posted by Fred Mangels @ 6:50 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
My plan was to quit drinking on New Year's Day. I'm starting to have serious second thoughts however. Watching the utter implosion of the country that I love so much has definite advantages from the vantage-point of the bottom of an empty vodka bottle. In fact it can be a lot of fun! Better to giggle when shit-faced than to weep with your faculties intact. The last ten years have been such a complete train wreck that it is difficult - if not impossible - to take it all in in any other condition than complete, alcohol-induced giddiness. When one is forced to witness the total decline of what used to be a grand civilization, it generally is a good rule-of-thumb to have an artificial stimulant at the ready. Heroin is too expensive and marijuana gives me terrible anxiety attacks. So make it one for my baby and one more for the road, Joe....
By the way, after being forced to live in it for ten whole years, I have yet to figure out what we're supposed to call the first decade of the twentieth century - The Hundreds? the The Aughts? The OH!'s? I think it's interesting that we can't even define it. Whatever the name, it's a safe bet that it will not be remembered as one of the shining hours of American history. As weird as the sixties were, much good came out of that tumultuous period: the Civil and Voting Rights Acts, manned missions to the moon, the Peace Corp, the Women's Movement, carrot cake - lots of neat stuff. What good came from the decade which is about to mercifully end? Survivor? Michele Bachmann?? Jackass??? Have another sip. I'll join you.
Or maybe it was all just a horrible nightmare? Of course I'm being facetious, but there were more-than-a-few times during this hideous decade - particularly during the years in which the Bush Mob were in power - that I would awaken suddenly in the middle of the night and say out loud,
"Did I dream that?"
"Is Bush actually president?"
"Did we seriously invade Iraq?"
"Are the Spice Girls really number one?"
And a special tip of the old fedora to George W. Bush. Anyone who can make me nostalgic for the likes of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan has a certain talent, no doubt about it. His entire eight-year-reign seems almost surreal in hindsight. In a twisted and cynical paraphrasing of Charles Dickens, "It was the worst of times. It was the worst of times." What a long, strange trip it's been. As the great Hunter Thompson liked to say, "Buy the Ticket. Take the ride."
It's unnerving to even contemplate where the end of the following decade will find us. Men in my family tend not to live much into their sixties so I am partially comforted by the idea that I won't be around to deal with it (I turned fifty-one on August 16). Then again, they occasionally get lucky. My uncle Jerry Degan turned eighty-three recently so who knows? One thing is certain, though - unless the American people (as well as the people of the planet earth) radically readjust their thinking, there is not a hell of a lot of hope for humanity. It is my belief that we must take a hard turn to the left - and not the timid baby steps we took in 2009. Are you listening, Mr. President?
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
Yep tom. I agree with you about needing a stiff drink. The thought of having to tout government "health care" even caused Max Baucus to fortify himself with enough demon rum to put Teddy Kennedy to spinning on his spit in hell.
I tried to post the list of the new laws now set to be in effect as of this morning,but the space given here to post wasn't nearly enough to cover all of them.I shortened things up a bit,ended up with the same result.I was going to,and perhaps will,if I can get to it,just provide a link.But I just that it was too funny...err...maybe not so funny to do so,that the list far exceeded the given space here.So,if one is a friend of ambiguous laws,the start to the new decade for you,is off to a good one.
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