Today I am mourning the passing of my father, who died yesterday after a recurrence of prostate cancer that overtook him swiftly. He was a fighter to the end, brave and strong.
Here at the GTL, our liberal values of equality and dignity, of fighting back, and the knowledge of human nature that causes politics and greed, come from this man.
Ben Wilensky would give you the shirt off his back, a book from his shelf, his time and kindness. Bottles of wine and whiskey, a grin from ear to ear, an impromptu history lesson. A deep laugh. A wide and bottomless forgiveness.
He would not suffer a fool. He lived his life away from the foolish entrapments of his time.
Our heart goes out to his wife of thirty-five years, my stepmother Millie, the true love of his life. Like an amputee, she will learn to go on with part of herself taken away. We will all support her and each other, and our communities.
We will be refraining from further posts for a week, more or less, while my father settles into his new home in the cosmos and we try to settle into our suddenly diminished lives.
L'Chaim. Shanti.
For now,
GTL out.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
It's Gonna Be A Big Book...
Karl Rove is going to name names.
I can see the reviews now: Too many characters. Too repetitive.
Too depressing?
Rove blames "Bush haters" for never accepting the C-Minus Man as presidential material.
How ironic is it that the party who refused to accept the legitimacy of Bill Clinton, one of the most popular presidents of our time, and who actively fought for his impeachment long before there was any evidence of any high crime or misdemeanor, now absurdly excoriates the 70% of the population who are disgusted with their man for the same infraction.
Clinton was never "really" the choice of the people. He owed his success to Ross Perot splitting the Republican vote, or so the ditto-heads explained. Remember that? So going after him from moment one was fair - it wasn't like he was the "real" candidate of choice... they seem to forget that Bush lost the popular election by over half a million votes and that in the eyes of the world Bush was measurably less "legit" than Clinton ever was, either before or after his impeachment.
Apparently, the Right is out of ammo and desperate enough to throw their own playbook over the ramparts... it won't hurt anyone but may serve as a distraction.
I can see the reviews now: Too many characters. Too repetitive.
Too depressing?
Rove blames "Bush haters" for never accepting the C-Minus Man as presidential material.
How ironic is it that the party who refused to accept the legitimacy of Bill Clinton, one of the most popular presidents of our time, and who actively fought for his impeachment long before there was any evidence of any high crime or misdemeanor, now absurdly excoriates the 70% of the population who are disgusted with their man for the same infraction.
Clinton was never "really" the choice of the people. He owed his success to Ross Perot splitting the Republican vote, or so the ditto-heads explained. Remember that? So going after him from moment one was fair - it wasn't like he was the "real" candidate of choice... they seem to forget that Bush lost the popular election by over half a million votes and that in the eyes of the world Bush was measurably less "legit" than Clinton ever was, either before or after his impeachment.
Apparently, the Right is out of ammo and desperate enough to throw their own playbook over the ramparts... it won't hurt anyone but may serve as a distraction.
Friday, December 05, 2008
One President At A Time?
I have owned two Chevys, a '76 Nova and a 1985 Impala; an '87 Nissan Pulsar; an '88 Mazda 323; an '88 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, and a 1998 Toyota Camry. I loved them all in one way or another. But the Japanese cars outclassed ours by a mile.
It saddens me to say that I will likely never buy another American car.
And apparently, I am not alone.
From my perch here in the psych ward where I work, it seems like the insanity in our society is on the outside of our magnetically-sealed double doors even more so than within them.
Today, new miserable unemployment numbers show Americans in free fall all over. Half a million jobs lost in one month, the largest increase in thirty years. We have the CEO's of Ford, Chrysler, and GM sitting humbly in a row before the House of Representatives, publicly shamed in a rolling Kabuki perp-walk across the highways of America, behind the wheels of their own doomed vehicles.
Forcing an incompetent though fabulously rich executive to travel this way is fun, and in better times would cheer us up significantly. But today it's a different story. Today our economy is on the line.
Segments of our economy were already toppling like dominoes before the big three called for their own new welfare program. The bankruptcies and defaults spawned by auto crisis have only just begun. The dominoes will fall faster and faster and millions of people will be left with nothing, no home, no health coverage for their families. True Depression-era poverty seems to be right around the corner if something decisive is not done immediately, and in such a way as to restore to the equation that tenuous tendril of civilization: public confidence.
Barack Obama has some bold ideas for an enormous works project to stimulate the economy from the bottom up and top down simultaneously. We all hope these plans will succeed. But he's right that, at the moment, he is not the the president and can do nothing but draw up plans and, in the words of his opponents, "measure the drapes."
He is quite right to remind us that there is already a man in the big chair.
So my question today, as the descent into economic disaster quickens, is where the Hell is George W. Bush?
The man is still president, and he isn't out of the hot seat yet. Even if W's actual leadership abilities and suitability as president were fictional - and it's becoming clear they were - it is a few weeks too early for the man to drop his pretense of strong moral fiber and calm, mature stewardship. We have seen fleeting images of the man, grinning from ear to ear, shoulder not to the grindstone, barely containing his glee over finally being able to flee Washington for his life, and beat a hasty retreat to his new three million dollar home in comfortingly Red Dallas.
As unbelievable as it may be, there are millions of Americans who need this man to calm their fears and stall what appears to be a perhaps inevitable disaster from gaining momentum.
Where is the man?
It saddens me to say that I will likely never buy another American car.
And apparently, I am not alone.
From my perch here in the psych ward where I work, it seems like the insanity in our society is on the outside of our magnetically-sealed double doors even more so than within them.
Today, new miserable unemployment numbers show Americans in free fall all over. Half a million jobs lost in one month, the largest increase in thirty years. We have the CEO's of Ford, Chrysler, and GM sitting humbly in a row before the House of Representatives, publicly shamed in a rolling Kabuki perp-walk across the highways of America, behind the wheels of their own doomed vehicles.
Forcing an incompetent though fabulously rich executive to travel this way is fun, and in better times would cheer us up significantly. But today it's a different story. Today our economy is on the line.
Segments of our economy were already toppling like dominoes before the big three called for their own new welfare program. The bankruptcies and defaults spawned by auto crisis have only just begun. The dominoes will fall faster and faster and millions of people will be left with nothing, no home, no health coverage for their families. True Depression-era poverty seems to be right around the corner if something decisive is not done immediately, and in such a way as to restore to the equation that tenuous tendril of civilization: public confidence.
Barack Obama has some bold ideas for an enormous works project to stimulate the economy from the bottom up and top down simultaneously. We all hope these plans will succeed. But he's right that, at the moment, he is not the the president and can do nothing but draw up plans and, in the words of his opponents, "measure the drapes."
He is quite right to remind us that there is already a man in the big chair.
So my question today, as the descent into economic disaster quickens, is where the Hell is George W. Bush?
The man is still president, and he isn't out of the hot seat yet. Even if W's actual leadership abilities and suitability as president were fictional - and it's becoming clear they were - it is a few weeks too early for the man to drop his pretense of strong moral fiber and calm, mature stewardship. We have seen fleeting images of the man, grinning from ear to ear, shoulder not to the grindstone, barely containing his glee over finally being able to flee Washington for his life, and beat a hasty retreat to his new three million dollar home in comfortingly Red Dallas.
As unbelievable as it may be, there are millions of Americans who need this man to calm their fears and stall what appears to be a perhaps inevitable disaster from gaining momentum.
Where is the man?
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