Carter Bashes Bush

Yes, this is old news. However, AOL Journals will not accept my new entries from my Apple: I am posting from someone else's Dell. AOL is horrible when it comes to being user-friendly for Mac support.

Jimmy Carter, probably the worst president in my memory, tried to salvage his own reputation by bashing the current President as being the worst in history with regard to his administration's effect on the world. He later recanted saying that he was referring to W vis-a-vis Nixon. Earlier, the winner of the Nobel "Peace" Prize, even attacked Blair for his "apparent subservience" to Bush as to the Iraq war. This lover of despots and other American "victims" cannot seem to condemn or even criticize (other than in a mild perfunctory manner) Castro, Chavez, etc. Perhaps, he will ask his benighted brother Bush to teach his Sunday school class in an effort to reach out to him and promote world peace and ecumenical love.

Rev. Jerry Falwell R.I.P.

This morning the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority and incredibly influential Christian conservative activist, died at the age of 73. The founder of Liberty University, a media empire, and pastor of the 22,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, helped remake the GOP from Rockefeller Republicans into Reagan Republicans with a strong emphasis on social conservative values. The often politically apathetic conservative Christians were convinced to rally against the liberal policies of abortion, homosexual rights, and pornography. His efforts helped elect Reagan and a Republican Senate in 1980.

Cf. http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/famed-televangelist-dies-at-age-73/20070515124309990001.

TN Teacher Terror

According to the AP, two Scales Elementary School educators who staged a gun attack on 69 sixth grade students on a field trip to a state park a la VA Tech were suspended. Schools director Marilyn Mathis, said that Quentin Masters, a teacher, and Don Bartch,  an assistant
principal, were suspended without pay for neglect of duty and unprofessional conduct. The students were told that there had been a random shooting and that the shooter was on the loose. They were instructed to get under tables or to lie on the floor and told that this
was not a drill. A teacher, disguised in hooded sweats, beat on the window and pulled on the doors. According to one student, kids were crying and praying, and that the teachers laughed after telling the kids that it was a prank. Alisha Graves, a parent of one of the students,
stated, "This was not a good experience. . . they were terrified." Bartch claimed, "The scenario was intended as a learning experience."

Teachers, leave those kids alone!

Cf. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,272333,00.html and FNC Fox & Friends (05/15/07).

Hospitals Gouge Neediest

According to Health Affairs (May-June issue), American hospitals charged uninsured patients an average of 2.5 times what it charges health insurers. For profits' markup was more pronounced at a 4.1 ratio whereas public hospitals upped the ante by a ratio of 2.49. The study by the 2004 study's author, Gerard F. Anderson, director for the Center for Hospital Finance and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, stated "Over time, the uninsured have been paying higher and higher prices for hospital care compared to what the insured population pays. The markup on hospital care for these individuals, especially for those who can afford it least, are unjustifiable." If this basic inequity is not corrected, universal health care will remedy the problem. Satisfactorily or not may be an open question.

Cf. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/08/AR2007050800576.html.

QEII: Guest, Not Ruler

Isn't it wild how W treats QEII (Queen Elizabeth II of the UK) as American royalty and one to fawn over with the utmost deference? The White House is feting the English monarch with a white-tie dinner and acting as if we had lost the Revolutionary War to King George III. Americans should not bow, should not curtsey, and should not not look her in the eye. She is our guest, and we are her equal. Let's act like it!  We are now Americans: no longer British subjects!

Black Reagan? Not! JFK? Maybe.

According to the UK's TimesOnline, Obama has been labeled the "black Ronald Reagan" for his optimism. Perhaps, for his optimism, but definitely not for his wit, wisdom, and policies. A more apt appellation is the "black JFK." Obama seems to represent an attractive candidate that appeals to both sides of the aisle: this Senator of a mixed racial and faith heritage seems to be one that could bridge the chasm of discord that separates red America from blue America. As Matthew Dowd, W's 2004 top campaign strategist, said, "I think that we should design campaigns that appeal, not to 51% of the people, but bring the country together as a whole." As Bush's popularity plummets to the nadir of Presidential approval at 28% otherwise experienced only by, perhaps, our most competency-challenged President, Jimmy Carter, according to the latest poll by Newsweek, one does look to someone who can be like Reagan. Obama does provide a sunny optimism that reminds one somewhat of the great Gipper but more of the left's Camelot.

P.S. Oprah put her incredible heft behind another O, Obama, on the Larry King Show last week.

Cf. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1752381.ece;
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-08-bush-approval_x.htm;
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18505030/site/newsweek; and
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/business/media/07oprah.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.

Boris Yeltsin R.I.P.

Today, the first democratically elected president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, was laid to rest in Moscow. Fittingly, his memorial service was held in Christ the Saviour Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox cathedral, which Yeltsin had rebuilt after it was razed by the atheist despot Stalin. Further, the father of democracy in the former USSR was interred in Novodevichye Cemetery among Everypersons as opposed to the Kremlin, the burial place of his repressive, Communist CCCP predecessors. He was honored with a national day of mourning as his countrymen and world leaders, including his successor President Vladimir Putin, his antecessor and critic
Mikhail Gorbachev, former U.S. Presidents (Bush and Clinton), whilom U.K. Prime Minister John Major, and Solidarity leader and Polish President Lech Walesa, bid the great Russian leader adieu. Thank you, Mr. President, for standing up against tyranny and oppression and for democracy and freedom.

Cf. http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1262483,00.html; http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/24/russia.yeltsin/index.html; and http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,21626293-401,00.html?from=public_rss.