Hitting the roof

Posted on May 16, 2011 by 40andover

Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, even the Republicans, Boehner himself, have acknowledged the catastrophic nature of our nation’s defaulting on its obligations. Yet, lawmakers are trying to leverage our need to raise the debt ceiling to exact political points.

Yes, lawmakers think they can play brinksmanship with our future. The mere fact that our politicians would keep the world — and us — in suspense until August will erode our creditworthiness abroad and the global confidence in our economy. We think of us as a society where our word is our bond. Well, look in the mirror. It isn’t pretty.

Imagine how you would view a country so divided in their “parliament” that one side is willing to risk ruin to have its way — slash and burn tactics. So, just because we are the United States of America, you think we can mess with this stuff, without ramifications? If you do, you are arrogant AND crazy.

Am I good with so much debt? No way. I pay my credit cards on time. I can afford my mortgage and could pay it off tomorrow. I believe that a person, a family, a country must live within its means. If we need to spend more, then someone needs a second (part-time) job. We didn’t do that and fought two wars and gave tax cuts to people like me who never asked for one, didn’t need one and didn’t want one. So, now we have to live with the consequences. And I am willing to pay more in taxes to clean up George Bush’s and Trent Lott’s and Bill Frist’s nightmare.

It is important to note that the GOP — under whose governance drove us into this debt hole — is the party that is playing it to the bone. Not because they are arrogant; but because they are hypocrites. And the hypocrisy is so galling that it makes me want to go to the Congress and shout: “WORRY ABOUT US AND NOT YOUR POLL NUMBERS, YOUR JOBS AND YOUR POWER!!!!!!! FIX IT NOW.” If there is a report of a middle-aged lunatic screaming in the House of Representatives, you’ll know that I may be off-line for a while, in federal custody.

I think we have to raise the debt ceiling, not only because the credit of our great nation is at stake, but because it makes sense. And, although I am an unabashed and unapologetic liberal, I am conservative in my investments and my rationale for raising the debt ceiling is, to my mind, steeped in the rudiments of getting out of debt and on a sustainable course.

It is, perhaps, counter-intuitive that a shirt-maker in bankruptcy should be allowed to borrow MORE in order to pay workers to stitch together the pieces of cloth so that they become shirts. Scraps of cloth are worthless; however, a completed shirt sells for something. That differential is presumably more than the amount borrowed. The net effect is that there is a meaningful exit from bankruptcy where the assets of the company are maximized to pay off debts and re-emerge on sounder footing.

We have many fights ahead about just how we re-emerge from this mess a stronger nation, indivisible, with liberty, FAIRNESS and justice for all. Let’s give ourselves some breathing room, for our sakes and the future of our country.

You may disagree with me on principle (IFOB (Italian friend of blogger) and JR (old friend from Camp Wingate/Camp Kirkland): go at me) but you can’t disagree with the necessity and exigencies of the circumstances — with a no-win choice, you must choose to raise the roof.

It makes me wonder

Posted on May 9, 2011 by 40andover

People always say that two people can view the same set of events from the almost identical vantage points and have three different versions.

I posted earlier on Facebook that I was walking by a group of men outside a neighborhood bodega, “chewing the fat” about Osama Bin Laden. “How did the man manage three wives holed up in the same house for five years?” Clearly, proof positive that he was a worthy adversary of the United States of America.

I did not take that away from the unfolding events. (I will say that I was happy that his kids were able to go out and play. Judaism teaches that the sins of the fathers are not inherited by their children.)

I didn’t immediately think the wives were complicit or victims. Those kind of knee-jerk conclusions simply marginalize them as cardboard cut-outs to fit our view of women in the fringes of a culture, religion and world view we have not even begun to understand.

I also did not take away, as Herman Cain did, that President Obama may have “dithered” before making the decision. On what basis does Mr. Godfather’s Pizza say this?

Here is what I took away from this:

The president made a decision that would make him a hero if it worked, or a pariah like Jimmy Carter, if it didn’t.
The decision rocked an unsteady alliance with Pakistan, an unstable country with lots of nuclear warheads.
The killing will incite retaliation.
If Osama Bin Laden was a continuing terror mastermind, then this is what had to be done.
If he was the isolated, broken man that some videos suggest, then this was a vengeful and stupid mission with untold consequences dripping in blood.

Dear Paul

Posted on April 12, 2011 by 40andover

Dear Paul:

I am not a Ryan, but I know members of your extended family.

I know you come from such a good family, with strong community values based in religious precepts, like the one about taking care of the poor and the stranger. Or the other one about not putting a stone in the way of a blind person. And even though Rabbi Hillel said, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” that is totally in sync with the Christian Bible.

Here’s the big problem with your budget:

No amount of spending cuts is going to get us out of the hole caused by waging war in Iraq, Afghanistan and, now, Libya.

Paying for these requires tax increases. (Remember when the GOP just put the Iraq and Afghanistan tabs on the credit card and, oops, forgot to put these line items in the budget??????)

Cut all you want from social programs, etc. Go on.

But one year from now, when the deficit is still essentially as large as it now, there will need to be a tax increase on all Americans.

All you will have done is gutted the social compact that each generation has with another: we will not leave those vulnerable in our society — the young and the old — to fend for themselves. The very social compact that makes America great.

What are you thinking?

More tales from the City

Posted on April 11, 2011 by 40andover

These past days, I have been lost in the old days and vignettes from childhood.

I remember that my parents often threw cocktail parties for my mother’s colleagues in the advertising and cosmetics industries. My mother knew everyone’s cigarette preferences and she filled silver cases with the preferred brands and laid them on the coffee table.

And women had those tortoise cigarette holders that made smoking look so cool.

People drank Manhattans, Rob Roys and martinis (gin and very dry) and gimlets. People drank blended scotch whiskey and Gordon’s gin back then. I guess there weren’t that many other choices. Twists of lemon, little onions and olives were in dishes, and there was a bottle (?) of bitters, ready to finish off the drinks. My parents converted a closet in the foyer into a bar with an open front that faced into the living room.

A hired waiter passed hors d’oeuvres to men in slicked back hair and square hankies in the front pockets of their thin-lapeled suits and women (including Mom) who had Jackie Kennedy hairdos and dresses with shoulder wraps. No one dressed like Lady Bird Johnson.

We would come out in our matching pajamas and say good night. And then Mom or Dad would tuck us in bed. As soon as they were out of sight, we would creep back to the closed door closest to the “action” and listen and giggle until we were discovered and sent back to bed.

Only in retrospect, can I place the end of those heady days as around 1968. I am guessing that it all ended as a result of social upheaval from the 1968 assassinations and the Vietnam War. And because raising three children in the city was expensive.

Everyone tells me I ought to watch Mad Men. But I prefer the memories.

The New Me (In the Test, Day 7-ish)

Posted on March 20, 2011 by 40andover

It is hard to describe how I feel as I watch the events unfold around the world, but let me try:

say you are in a bath (reading a book, sipping red wine in the hypothetical awesomely fabulous Manhattan apartment) and you pull the stopper to let the water drain. At that exact second, you hear a big BANG from somewhere. So what do you do? You put the stopper back in the drain and shiver a little.

Powerless and with shivers of fear. (FYI: I don’t live in the hypothetical fabulous apartment, I am drinking an unfortunate Sauvignon Blanc (I don’t even like white wine) and I have no time to expand my intellectual acumen (maybe when my son is 10).)

In truth, I never thought anything was out of my control until TLP (the little prince) was born. Now, I worry about the world after I am dead because (I hope) he (and his children) will still be alive. THAT makes what we do now even more important. Because we all know that the harvest reaped in two generations will be directly related to the seeds we sow now.

My mom always believed that if you can’t change the big things, then start with the little things, but you must always, always, strive to repair the world (tikkun olam) — תיקון עולם

Here is the difference between Mom and me. Mom just did things. I, first, need a whole new outfit and work-out regimen.

Did you think I could stay so serious and not deflect my fears, hopes and dreams by lapsing into (sometimes, forced) humor? DO YOU KNOW ME?

Sooo, deflectors are engaged.

One has to have strength to repair the world, no?

Ok, so let’s critique my old gym regimen, also known as, NP2 — “no pain, no pain”:

3 times a week, get on the stationary bike for 30 minutes, but quit after 25 minutes. Don’t even break a sweat.

Think about doing sit-ups. Hyper-ventilate about the anxiety of dealing with my expanding midriff. Suck in my stomach and do something else.

Do push-ups because I actually can do them. And not the girl-y ones, either.

Do back muscle exercises because I don’t want to stoop too much in my dotage.

Talk to some people, less now that some gym friends have moved to other locations.

Notice the time and realize I have to get home.

There was a time when I could suck in my tummy, arch my back a little and my stomach would be flat and my breasts “perky”. One cannot leave on memories of prior glory. Starting tomorrow (because I am drinking wine and might hurt myself if I tried it out now):

My new, Spring, regimen, also known as SPB2 — “some pain, but buff”:

Buy some new outfits for my new gym state of mind.

Do Michelle Obama arm exercises because we all deserve to look like we could go sleeveless on national TV.

Do something cardio for 40 minutes. And actually break a “glow” but no sweat because I am becoming more genteel (and eccentric) as I age.

Stop watching the TV because next year Oxford English Dictionary will declare “pundit” a synonym of “idiot” and people who watch pundits “vidiots”.

I promise, Mom, in the midst of my self-absorption, I won’t forget about tikkun olam. For your grandson and your great grandchildren. For everyone’s children and grandchildren.

תיקון עולם

It has begun

Posted on March 19, 2011 by 40andover

I listened to the news and tears welled up. Another crisis where the highest casualties will be innocent civilians.

Money,

power,

oil.

A lethal trifecta.

The Test: End of Day 2.

Posted on March 16, 2011 by 40andover

Ah, ’tis the Spring of my Content. (Apologies to Willy Shakespeare.) Because the Test continues.

COB (colleague of blogger) felt bad that I thought he was stacking the deck against my being upbeat for one month (the Test), so he was in and out of my office all day saying cheery and pithy things. He also wants to be known as THE COB, because there can be no other colleague who merits mention in the blog. Well, he is right about that.

I am trying, really.

But there is so much static interference.

Yet, I didn’t curse the man who crushed my arm by swinging open a door and catching my arm. The EXCRUCIATING pain only lasted a few minutes and the bruise is not so bad. So, I remain cheery and hopeful and am spreading that karma like a boomerang, I tell you.

I am waiting for POB (partner of blogger) for our Wednesday night date. I arrive early and sit at the bar. The drunk man at the other end (who is talking too loud to be ignored) is pontificating to his poor date about 1888 Germany being an example of an evolved society. Funny, how it devolved into chaos and demagoguery in just a few, short decades. But I digress.

Ok, so I am being grateful for all that I have and now I hear the drunk man claiming that, although he is Caucasian, he is Indo-European because we all descended from that part of the world. So, now he gets to go off on Indians and Europeans. Whoa. He needs to stop, because even I am offended and our family fled Germany and Central Europe.

But using his theory, he can rail on whomever because we all came from Adam and Eve. He, on the other hand, definitely came from apes or, possibly, the ever-adaptive rodent family.

Ok, a history book is committing suicide every minute this guy speaks.

I am good with his being pedantic, insufferable, and patronizing because I am focusing on the good in the world notwithstanding the current chaos. So, THE COB, you haven’t won this bet yet. I am in a good place.

But I am drawn again into his conversation because his date is countering his ramblings with a little fact checking. Mobile Google is awesome. She is in solid fighting form now that she decided there is no future in him. So, if I could paraphrase, “Dumb@ss, you got your facts from reenactments on the History Channel”.

He realizes, too, that this date is going nowhere. So, he says he is rich. Dude, you need the wealth of a Saudi prince to save this date and she sounds like she has too much pride for that anyway. Good for her. Tragic for you.

Now this is adding to my month of contentment and karmatic equanimity. Boy meets girl, gets drunk and offends everyone within earshot. Girl ditches boy with facts, fabulous diction and perfect grammar. Boy tries to get girl back with money. Girl gets the check.

In full disclosure, I negotiated a clause in the Test that I could think about the people, not only in Japan, but all over, whose lives have ended, or been upended, by natural and man-made disasters. So, in the midst of my ramblings, I don’t forget about them and their suffering. I hope that relief comes in time.

The Test

Posted on March 15, 2011 by 40andover

COB (colleague of blogger) is tired of my doom and gloom. (Really? I thought it part of my magnetic personality. . . .)

And that, in and of itself, is shocking, since COB was discussing that the end of the world could occur on December 21, 2012. Something about the Mayan calendar, Nostradamus and planetary alignments. Not that COB BELIEVES it, or anything. But he was just putting it out there.

Probably to stack the odds before he dared me to be hopeful and cheerful for one month. ONE MONTH.

In case you didn’t read carefully enough, I was challenged to be hopeful and cheerful for one month. (COB is a poker player and probably has side bets on whether I will sink into despair in 5 minutes, 10 minutes or 2 weeks.)

I think it is funny that people are talking about the end of the world being in 21 months away, since Japan lies devastated (and its nuclear rods laid bare) by an earthquake and then tsunami, Libya is in civil war, Bahrain and Yemen are in chaos, the Ivory Coast is a bloodbath, we are in two wars, our deficit is out of control, the recession hasn’t ended for most Americans and we have a dysfunctional Congress, and on and on and on. Sounds like the end of days now.

BUT, I digress, comme d’habitude.

Back to sweetness and light and kumbaya. A dare is a dare and I have my pride. So, forget the images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Forget images of breadlines during the Depression. Forget the daily carnage for an acre or two of oil fields. I am going to be happy, hopeful and cheery, Gosh darn it.

So, here is what I did today to make good on the dare:

When I was at the gym, I didn’t tell the stinky man that he was curling my nose hairs, as we took turns on the same machine.
I made sure that all elderly, infirm or pregnant people on the bus had seats. (Yes, I know I am too pampered to hang with humanity, but the recession hasn’t ended.)
I swore to POB (partner of blogger) that I would take a time-out from the 24-hours news REcycle, where the object is to scare us more than to provide information. (Note to self: If Wolf Blitzer or Anderson Cooper is at the nuclear power plant in Japan, it can’t be releasing THAT much radiation.)
I kissed and hugged my son, as I asked G-d (and whomever else with power over these things) to protect him from the chaos.

Not bad for my first few hours of Blogger-High-On-Happiness.

At the shores of Tripoli

Posted on March 3, 2011 by 40andover

Nero, Caligula, Hitler, King George, Idi Amin. These are the names of some leaders who were raving lunatics. They were vicious, evil and certifiably coo-coo.

But Moamar Qadafi really takes the madman bloodlust to a new level.

Does anyone else think he talks like Charlie Sheen and looks eerily like Michael Jackson (odd skin tone and propensity toward make-up).

Except that we mechanisms to deal with a psychotic Hollywood star or a dead and alleged pedophile pop-star.

Qadafi will not leave voluntarily. He will savage his people to stay in power.

A no-fly zone cannot be a unilateral US action. It is hard to enforce and, if we engage, we have to be in for the long haul. Forget what Dick and Rummy told us about easy-win, easy-out strategies in Iraq. Stupid then; stupid now.

President Obama is pursuing the right strategy to make the military re-think killing fellow Libyans. John Wayne McCain is being contrarian. How many wars can we fight? If the US steps in overtly, it gives Qadafi leverage as a revolutionary against imperialist powers.

We have a moral obligation not to allow the slaughter. But we have to be intelligent about it. We have to look before we leap.

May Allah bless and save the Libyan people.

Last Day (and Last Supper)

Posted on February 25, 2011 by 40andover

You would think that I had enough self-respect not to make a reference to the Last Supper. But I don’t.

Before I start on today’s adventures, I must mention that during the visit to the Jewish Ghetto, we stopped at the Piazza del 13th (?) del Ottobre. (Sorry, IFOB, that I butchered the name of the plaza.) It is the place where the Nazis rounded up the Jews and took them to Auschwitz on October 13th (?), 1943. We were standing in the piazza and, as if on cue, a police car passes nearby, blaring Anne Frank noise (eeeeee-awwwwwww eeeeee-awwwwwww). It is the sound that makes every Jew shutter. The ambulances have a different noise, I noticed (eeeee-eeeee eeeee-eeeee). Now I have completed the tale of devastation and triumph of world Jewry. Phew.

Today, our only aim was to shop. Shop for things that are made here in Rome and not in Milan or elsewhere. And of course look in the churches and walk in the piazzas along the way. That is one thing about Rome, a church on every corner and lovely piazzas. There is even an Episcopal Church that had Irish dancers and a bagpipe outside, trying to get worshippers to come inside. Now that is a tough sell in the seat of Roman Catholicism.

So not a lot of things made in Rome. We had to search out artsy areas, a hard thing for foreigners because it is so easy to get lost in Rome. And, I get bored of shopping in less than an hour. POB (partner of blogger) wanted to shop and so TLP (our son, the little prince) and I had to schlep along. Mind-numbing and exhausting. Some things but nothing really. Milan would be the city for shopping.

So, nothing really absurd or crazy happened today. We found some groovy areas that we would love to visit next time.

TLP had a great time in spite of his pre-trip whinings. POB relaxed by mid-week despite her stress about traveling. I got stressed as the week went on, because I was almost totally out of touch with everything in the US. I did check in with the office daily and my secretary and colleague texted me as necessary. I heard snippets of news — Dow tumbled on oil supply fears and not because of a massacre in Tripoli, Berlusconi’s Bill Clinton problems, Obama’s not defending DOMA anymore. Other than the massacre, I really don’t care. Monday I will care.

I think this means I actually had a vacation. A real vacation. But wait, the journey home is tomorrow. So, I shouldn’t jinx it.

40 — oh wait, yikes!! 50 — andoverblog

Aging and living in urban US

Category Archives: THE WORLD