While I'm Away

As I fly off the California I will leave you with something to ponder. I got this from a friend and thought it a great way to say adieu for now.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!!!

Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest:
Each morning your bank would deposit $ 86,400.00 in your private account for your use.
However, this prize had rules, just as any game has certain rules.
The first set of rules would be:

1. Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you.
2. You may not simply transfer money into some other account.
3. You may only spend it.

Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $ 86,400.00 for that day.
The second set of rules:

1. The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, “It’s over, the game is over!”
2. It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.

What would you personally do?
You would buy anything and everything you wanted, right?
Not only for yourself, but for all people you love, right?
Even for people you don’t know, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, right?

You would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right?
ACTUALLY, THIS GAME IS REALITY!!
Each of us is in possession of such a “magical” bank.
We just can’t seem to see it.
THE MAGICAL BANK IS TIME!
Each awakening morning we receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life,
And when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.
What we haven’t lived up that day is forever lost.
Yesterday is forever gone.

Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time…….WITHOUT WARNING.

WELL, what will you do with your 86,400 seconds?
Aren’t they worth so much more than the same amount in dollars?

Think about that, and always think of this:
Enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.
So take care of yourself, and enjoy life!

Here’s wishing you a wonderfully beautiful day!!!

Memorial Day

Memorial at Gettysburg

Happy Memorial Day

Memorial Day was known as Decoration Day when I was a child. The Veterans sold Buddy Poppies and I was always thrilled when my Grandfather bought one for me. They were red silk flowers with a tag attached. I think the connection between heroin and poppies ended that custom.

Decoration Day began to honor the Civil War dead. My maternal great grandfather's fought in the Civil War in the Ohio regiment so this was a very meaningful day for my grandparents. Grandpa's dad took a ball (bullet) in the elbow and was unable to bend that arm the rest of his life. Grandma's dad was wounded and taken prisoner by the South. He was not expected to live and so the Rebels gave him back to the Yankees. He lived, but was never very well after the war.

Instead of picnics, the importance of this day was one of honoring the dead and my grandmother tended the graves of the departed family members. She bought masses of flowers and I always thought it was a shame that we couldn't have them at home instead of leaving them in front of monuments. The dead can't smell.

While you are enjoying a day off and families are gathering for fun and food, take time to remember the Veterans who died to make our freedom possible.

Sayonara, Adieu, Adios For Now

Now it can be told. For two weeks I have been in a big hurry as I typed comments in your blogs. I have made so many errors that I thought I was losing it. I hope you will understand that this has been a busy time for me because I am getting ready to go visit my daughters and grandchildren for several weeks. I leave on Tuesday for California. You probably won't be seeing my name in your comments until some time after June 15.

I am collecting the names of the blogs that I am unable to post comments on. For those of you who have not seen a comment from me, there is a good reason. I have tried commenting via my Google account, my URL, and my name ID. I have tried signing in first before writing the comment and all variations of making the @#$% thing work. For some reason, there is a glitch between my blog and yours and my comments vanish when I try to post them. Here are some of the blogs that I read but am unable to comment on: Along the Way, Friko's Musings, Sylvia From Over the Hill, Drinks Before Dinner, Looking to the Sun and Stars, and Yum Yum Cafe.

Suggestions have been made on how to leave a comment, such as repeating it. I have tried all of them to no avail. Perhaps I need to use a different server. Blog Spot can really infuriate me at times. Like Scarlett, I will think about that tomorrow.

Did you notice my age change? Today I became 85. I still can't believe I have lived this long. I am like the energizer bunny, I just keep on going. I must have inherited the genes from my great grandmothers. My Mom was only 67 when she died. I am not sure about my father. I guess I need to do some research, but I believe he was 74.

Because I am older than most of you I would like to pass on the secrets of my longevity. To be honest, I don['t have a clue. I wish I could tell you that I have discovered the fountain of youth, but it is not so. I can't give you a regimen to follow. I try to live a healthy lifestyle, but have to confess that I fail miserably. I have been downright slothful for several years, although I have recently started exercising again. I do eat a healthy breakfast and a salad each day, but beyond that I am not accountable. There are nights when my dinner is just popcorn; other times it might be ice cream. If the ice cream has chocolate, caramel and nuts in it I am in heaven. It's no surprise that I am about 15 pounds overweight. Should I worry? Nah! I will just be grateful for another day and get on with it.

I hope life is good for all of you. I will pop in when I get back , if not sooner.

Texas Ranger

Race In America

I found this clip so funny that I wanted to share it with those of you who may have missed it. Jon Stewart really nails it.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
On Topic: In the News - Race in America
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

I wonder when everyone will begin to accept the fact that we are all just people; good, bad and a little of both. It is so easy to stereotype a race using a few bad apples as the template. Of course, this goes for religion, culture, or anything else that is different from ourselves.

No one will convince me that the sudden rush to emulate Arizona's immigration reform bill does not have underlying prejudice. 17 States are thinking about passing such unAmerican legislation. You may ask, what is unAmerican about it. Well, our country was founded by immigrants and the words on a palque inside the Statue of Liberty are of the poem by Emma Lazarus.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

If your ancestors came from England (as did mine) would you be so quick to deny citizenship to the ones that have lived here illegally for many years?

A Poem by Suranga

In my recent post featuring a Saguaro in bloom I received this poem in the comment section from Ugich Konitari. I want to share it with you.

Ugich lives in India and if you haven't visited her blog Gappa you are missing a rare treat. Obviously, English is not her native tongue, but she writes far better than I do. Here is a link to her blog. http://kaimhanta.blogspot.com/

Thank you, Suranga. Enjoy her poem.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The unknown cactus in a yard near you...." and the Saguaro with its myriad uses of blossoms, inspired this:

Green in peace,
Pink health blossoms,
from the,
very expressive,
democratic cactus;
They stand,
waving hands,
arms raised,
shouting,
"yes, we can,
yes, we can!"


.... And the Guv,
rethinking,
the latest law,
rolls up the window,
as her car passes
a Saguaro ,
that says,
"Be tough,
look tough,
for the good of all,
but remember,
unless you blossom
in empathy,
you are useless in this world.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

People may wonder why I love this State considering the stupid and irrational laws passed by our Republican legislature (I believe they are Conservative Christians all) and signed by the current governor. Suranga's poem and the photo that inspired it might help you to understand.

The desert is not neutral; you either love it or hate it. I happen to love it and so I stay. Tucson is left leaning and the right wing group reside it the Phoenix area. Of course, you can find all types in both cities.

It all set me thinking and wondering for the umpteenth time how Conservative Christians can read their Bible and justify the positions they take. This morning I read an article that states my belief better than I can. The original article contains references to Bible verses that prove to me that the conservatives are flat out wrong. If you want to read the entire article including the referenced Bible verses here is the link. I will follow it with excerpts from the article.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25490.htm

Why Are So Many Christians Conservative? By Mike Lux

The most fundamental difference between progressives and conservatives is that question of which side you are on. Conservatives believe that the rich and powerful got that way because they deserve to be, that society owes its prosperity to the prosperous, and that government's job when they have to make choices is to side with those businesspeople who are doing well, because all good things trickle down from them. Progressives, on the other hand, believe it is the poor and those who are ill-treated who need the most help from their government, and that prosperity comes from all of us -- the worker as well as the employer, the consumer as well as the seller, the struggling entrepreneur trying to make it as well as the wealthy who already have.

Between Glenn Beck's conspiracy theories about Christian social justice (Since Communists and Nazis both used the words "social" and "justice," sometimes even together, the phrase must be bad) ------and Sarah Palin's "spiritual warfare,".------

I am always puzzled by how people who claim to be followers of the Jesus I read about in the Bible can be political conservatives.

High-profile preachers who claim to speak for Christianity but preach a brand of narrow, intolerant conservatism ------ it's important to have a sense of just how different the Bible is from how conservative Christians represent it.

Conservative Christians' primary argument regarding Jesus and politics is that all he cared about was spiritual matters and an individual's relationship with God. As a result, they say, all those references from Jesus about helping the poor relate only to private charity, not to society as a whole. Their belief is that Jesus, and the New Testament in general, is focused on one thing and one thing only: how do people get into heaven.

The Jesus of the New Testament was of course extremely concerned with spiritual matters: ---- if you actually read the Gospels, it is clear that Jesus' main concern in terms of the people whose fates he cared about was for the poor, the oppressed, and the outcast. Comment after comment and story after story in the Gospels about Jesus relates to the treatment of the poor, generosity to those in need, mercy to the outcast, and scorn for the wealthy and powerful. And his philosophy is embedded with the central importance of taking care of others, loving others, treating others as you would want to be treated. There is no virtue of selfishness here, there is no "greed is good," there is no invisible hand of the market or looking out for Number One first. There is nothing about poor people being lazy, nothing about the undeserving poor being leeches on society, nothing about how I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps so everyone else should, too. There is nothing about how in nature, "the lions eat the weak," and therefore we shouldn't help the poor because it weakens them. There is nothing about charity or welfare corrupting a person's spirit.

What there is: quote after quote about compassion for the poor. In Jesus' very first sermon of his ministry, the place where he launched his public career, he stated the reason he had come: to bring good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, to help the oppressed go free, and that he was here to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord -- which in Jewish tradition meant the year that poor debtors were forgiven their debts to bankers and the wealthy.

And he was a really serious class warrior, too -- he wasn't just into helping the poor; he didn't seem to like rich folks very much.

I have never heard a conservative Christian quote any of these verses (found in the article)-- not once, The one verse they always quote (and I mean always) is the one time in which Jesus says that "the poor will always be with us." The reason they love this quote so much is that they interpret that line to mean that in spite of everything else Jesus said about the poor, that since the poor will always be with us, we don't need to worry about trying to help them. Apparently since the poor will always be with us, we can go ahead and screw them. But Jesus making a prediction that there will always be oppressive societies doesn't mean he wanted us to join the oppressors. By clinging desperately to that one verse in the Bible, and ignoring all the others about the poor and the rich, Christian conservatives show themselves to be hypocrites, plain and simple.

The Jesus of the New Testament ---- repeatedly blessed mercy, gentleness, peacemaking, community, and taking care of each other. He lifted up the poor and oppressed, and spoke poorly of the wealthy and powerful. If anyone in modern society talked like he did, you can bet your bottom dollar that conservatives would condemn that person as a class warrior, a socialist.

Jesus is not exactly the only Bible character concerned with issues of social and economic justice. All of the first five books of the Torah (the Old Testament for Christians) talk a lot about justice for the poor; the Psalms are full of verses about the helping poor; every Old Testament prophet castigates the Jewish people (and yes, their governments) for mistreating the poor. And in the New Testament, there are some dynamite passages promoting progressive thinking aside from all of the Jesus quotations I mentioned.

Judeo-Christian scripture is a rich and complicated work of literature. Written over the course of (at least) several hundred years by dozens of different authors, there are a variety of perspectives and many times outright contradictions in the theology and the politics of the writing (if it's all inspired word for word by God, He seems to have changed his mind a lot). But one thing is extremely certain: the poor seem to be who God is most concerned about. Yes, there are a few quotations (four, if I remember right) trashing gay people, along with quite a few more about the right way to do animal sacrifice and to be careful about eating shellfish and hanging out with women who are menstruating. But mercy, kindness, and concern for the poor and the weak and the outcast seems to matter a lot more, with literally several hundred verses referencing those agenda items. If you are a progressive, that is a pretty good ratio.

More May Color

I am continuing with the photo journey down my street.
The plant in the middle of this photo is an ornamental grass in bloom. Please notice the bumps on the top of the Saguaro. They are buds that will turn into creamy white blossoms. See the result on the last photo posted.


Forsythia in my planter.



A large cactus.

This is a Saguaro in blossom. The O'odham Indians knock the fruit off with long poles and make jam, jelly, candy and other goodies from it. To see how this fruit is harvested click on the link below.

http://www.saguaro-juniper.com/i_and_i/cacti/saguaros/saguaro_processing
/saguaro_harvest.html

May Time

Life has been getting in the way of blogging for me this past week. I haven't had time to read blogs and make comments. I'm sorry I have been neglectful. This situation is not likely to change for a while. Instead of writing a post I am going to show you what I did today. I rode around my street and took the following photos. This is May time in Tucson.

The top photo is of a Palo Verde in Bloom. Palo Verde means green stick. The bark on these trees is green; hence the name.


This one is of an unknown cactus in a yard near me.



These are Oleander bushes.

Oil, oil everywhere

Citizen K posted these videos on his blog. I think they say it all and so I promised to post them, too. Fox network refused to run the first one claiming it was too confusing. Did you find it confusing? Those poor simpletons on Fox have a lot of trouble understanding issues they don't agree with, don't they?




The news

The "No's" Are At It Again

" Obama could have nominated Moses for the Supreme Court and the Republicans would be asking for his birth certificate." so said Senator Patrick Leahey, Democrat. He certainly had that right. It seems that the only agenda that the Republican party has is to make sure that they scuttle everything Obama tries to accomplish.

The party of "No" has not come up with a single plausible way to create jobs, reign in the banks, end the wars, or help the economy. Their mission is to stop Obama PERIOD.

And so this negative GOP party are still refusing, after over a year, to approve nominees to head committees requested by the President. The result is that vital work does not get done, the country suffers and the people blame Obama.

Predictably, the RNC is criticizing Elana Kagan, the president's nominee for the Supreme Court even before her nomination.

Following is an article from the Huffington Post by Doug Kendall, President of Constitutional Accountability Center. I have edited it for brevity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan, and Our Constitution Today

Before President Obama even finished announcing Elena Kagan as his Supreme Court nominee, the Republican National Committee (RNC) was up with an attack memo questioning Kagan's commitment to our Constitution, asking, ominously, whether she "still views the Constitution 'as originally drafted and conceived' as 'defective'?"

The RNC had to look long and hard to find something to attack. They came up with a tribute Kagan delivered on the death of Justice Thurgood Marshall, for whom Kagan clerked. She notes that Marshall, the great grandson of a slave, viewed the Constitution, which as originally drafted allowed slavery to flourish in the American south, as "defective," at least in that regard.(Slavery)

Kagan quotes a speech delivered by Justice Marshall on the Bicentennial of our Constitution that chronicles the arc of our constitutional progress. Marshall notes that it "took a bloody civil war before the Thirteenth Amendment could be adopted to abolish slavery." He hails the Fourteenth Amendment for "ensuring protection of life, liberty and property of all persons," but explains that it took almost a century for those rights to be meaningfully enforced in this country. He declares his intention to celebrate the bicentennial of the Constitution by recognizing that "several amendments, a civil war, and [a] momentous social transformation" were necessary to "attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today."

Not only is this history unimpeachable, it is hard to imagine anyone living Marshall's life seeing the Constitution differently. If Marshall's speech can be critiqued it is for this one reason: the great Justice seemed unable or unwilling, in this instance, to acknowledge the genius of our founders in many areas, while also critiquing their undeniable flaws such as the willingness to acquiesce to slavery. General Kagan clearly is able to see both the founders' genius and their flaws. In a powerful speech of her own delivered in 2007at West Point, then-Dean Kagan spoke to the cadets about the Constitution and the rule of law. Kagan explained that in a bold break from all prior world and military history, our 1787 founders demanded in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution that military officers and every other government official swear loyalty not to a General or a President, but to the Constitution. Kagan called fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law "the foundation stone of our society," and she gave powerful examples of what fidelity to the Constitution and the law entails.

The biggest difference between conservatives and liberals on the Supreme Court today is not the silly dispute about whether the Constitution is living or dead, it's about how much weight to accord the Amendments that have been ratified over the past 200 years. Conservatives tend to treat the Amendments -- particularly the post-Civil War 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and the 19th Amendment, which secured political equality for women - as tinkering around the constitutional edges; liberals think these Amendments changed the entire fabric of the document.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More Cacti blooms. Until the Saguaros flaunt their blossoms this will probably be the last of this year's crop.

Notice: After four hours spent trying to change the size of the text I have bowed to Bloggers demand that the text either must be too large or too small. Sorry about that, but I have given up fighting to post the draft the way the original is on my composition. I hope you can read the small print and don't think I am shouting with the big print. (Well, maybe I am.)

E-Mail Surprises

An update to my previous post: For any of you who still think the Arizona law against illegal immigration has merit I beg you to click on the following link and read it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/glenn-beck-immigration-an_b_566404.html

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

E-mail brings some interesting things. The following video is just hilarious. I hope the link works because you will love it. This video came in today's mail.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yesterday I received an invitation from Mutual of Omaha to have an "aha moment" taped in their Airstream video bus that will be located at our zoo. They found me through this blog. You never know who might read your blog, do you? Because of the logistics in getting there, I declined the invitation so you won't be seeing me on their 'Aha moments' web site. It might have been fun, though.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Then several days before I received the following:

See my new badge? The translation is: "It's worth keeping an eye on this blog". I am honored to receive this award from Chris. He is from England, but lives in France. I am humbled to know that my blog is being read in many countries.

To accept this award I am to link to Chris' blog

http://bitsnbobsshowntell.blogspot.com/

and to add the links to ten blogs I find interesting. This is always the hard part, because I find all the blogs I read are interesting. So, if I have forgotten you, please don't take it personally. I am just going down the list and randomly picking out ten.

1. The Rant by Tom Degan. An excellent post on politics. Tom writes in a very humorous style. Tom is a master at irony. He always 'nails it.'
http://tomdegan.blogspot.com/

2. 20th Century Woman by Anne. She always has something fascinating to say.
http://20thcenturywoman.com/


3. A Piece of My Mind by Betty. We share political views and often write on the same subject. It's no secret that I always love to read her blog.
http://bettysnewtrick.blogspot.com/


4. Baino's Banter written by Helen in Australia. She has a delicious sense of humor and posts often.
http://bainosbanter.blogspot.com/

5. Birds On a Wire by Paula. Paula's posts are always excellent and well researched. I wish I could write half as well.
http://www.birdsonawireblog.com/index.html

6. Citizen K by Paul. His posts are always well worth reading. He is very literate and well informed. His knowledge of politics is phenomenal.
http://killiansaid.blogspot.com/

7. Friko's Musings by Ursula. She writes from the U. K. and I have learned so much about her world. Always an interesting post.
http://frikosmusings.blogspot.com/

8. Santiago Dreaming by Colleen. I wouldn't miss reading her post for anything.
http://santiagodreaming.blogspot.com/

9. Rinkly Rimes by Brenda. She is also an Australian and is so talented. She writes very clever rhymes on any and all subjects with photos that are a tie-in to her poems. She is so prolific I am constantly amazed at her ability to do so daily (or oftener).
http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/

10. Writerquake by Lydia. Lydia has an 'old postcard' day and writes on many subjects. I have found much inspiration on her blog.
http://writerquake.blogspot.com/

There you have it. I know that many I have listed will not want to play this game, but I decided that they were worthy of the award, whether they wanted it or not.

To those of you that do want to accept the terms of this award I hope you will notify me when it is posted. Thanks to all ten of you for writing such excellent blogs.

Arizona's Shame II

By now all the arguments, for and against, have been heard regarding the law mistakenly titled "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods", as it continues to head the news. I will repeat my arguments against this misguided law.

• A suspect is guilty until proven innocent under this anti-immigration law.
• 
  
• The unintended consequences are already apparent. Tourists and conventions will avoid this state because it appears to be racist.

• Mexican nationals, who normally add to Arizona's economy, will be reluctant to shop here.
• 
  
• It will cost Arizona much needed funds to fight the coming lawsuits.
• 
  
• Arizona's image has been tarnished world wide. The residents of this state are perceived to be backward and lacking in compassion.
• 
  
• The law does nothing to address the real problem of human and drug trafficking and the accompanying violence. Those criminals are already expert at evading the law officers. Nothing will change after this law is enforced.
• 
  
• It is very divisive, pitting Anglos against Hispanics.
• 
  
• There is no way to enforce it without racial profiling as Tucson's sheriff, Clarence Dupnik. has made clear. (He is refusing to enforce the law.)
• 
  
• It will separate families of those undocumented immigrants who are caught without their papers. Constitutional law makes children born in the U. S. automatic citizens, whether the extremists like it or not. If parents are deported, what shall we do with the children?
• 
  
• It will make life more unpleasant for legal citizens who happen to have dark skin and brown eyes.
  

• It will overwhelm our Department of Immigration with more undocumented immigrants to lock up and the cost will be astronomical in money and human lives.

In defense of this law I found only one valid argument; it shines a light on a very pressing problem that needs to be resolved. It may, or may not, force the lawmakers in Washington to deal with the issue. However, it was the very same ones who applaud this Arizona law who defeated George Bush's sensible attempt at Immigration Reform by screaming "Amnesty" and demanding that all 11 million undocumented immigrants be deported. How illogical is that?

Political opportunists like Arizona Senators, John McCain and John Kyle have an ad running in Arizona with their own unworkable solution to securing our borders. They will put 30,000 National Guardmen and Federal troops on the border and build more fence. I think most of the National Guard is in Afghanistan and I would applaud that part of their proposal if it would bring those guys home to safeguard our borders. As to the fence; fences can be breached so easily that it is almost pathetic that some people think this is a solution. We are not a medieval walled city. Even though the fence will keep some out, it is so expensive that it isn't worth the cost.

George Will calls the opposition to this law, liberal hysteria. He bases part of his argument on the fact that it has been a federal law since 1952 that every alien have proof in his possession of a receipt or certificate of alien registration. While this is true, it is quite another matter to require a proof that you are here legally
(Like having proof that the car you are driving is registered) as opposed to giving the police the authority to stop and demand to see the papers of any person who looks like he/she might be an undocumented immigrant. That is where the comparison to Nazi Germany is relevant.

George Will goes on to say that Cardinal Mahony's statement comparing asking for papers to Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia is a liberal tradition. He basis this vile argument on FDR's talk of returning tho the 1920's as the "spirit of Fascism".

This morning Frank Rich, NYT, tied this law into what is happening with the Tea Party movement. Here are a few paragraph's from his commentary.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The more you examine the law’s (AZ law) provisions and proponents, the more you realize that it’s the latest and (so far) most vicious battle in a far broader movement that is not just about illegal immigrants — and that is steadily increasing its annexation of one of America’s two major political parties.

Arizonans, like all Americans, have every right to be furious about Washington’s protracted and bipartisan failure to address the immigration stalemate----- is hardly tantamount to being a bigot. But the Arizona law expressing that anger is bigoted, and in a very particular way. The law dovetails seamlessly with the national “Take Back America” crusade that has attended the rise of Barack Obama and the accelerating demographic shift our first African-American president represents.

The crowd that wants Latinos to show their papers if there’s a “reasonable suspicion” of illegality is often the same crowd still demanding that the president produce a document proving his own citizenship. Lest there be any doubt of that confluence, Rush Limbaugh hammered the point home after Obama criticized Arizona’s action. “I can understand Obama being touchy on the subject of producing your papers,” he said. “Maybe he’s afraid somebody’s going to ask him for his.” Or, as Glenn Beck chimed in about the president last week: “What has he said that sounds like American?”

To the “Take Back America” right, the illegitimate Obama is Illegal Alien No. 1. It’s no surprise that of the 35 members of the Arizona House who voted for the immigration law (the entire Republican caucus), 31 voted soon after for another new law that would require all presidential candidates to produce birth certificates to qualify for inclusion on the state’s 2012 ballot. With the whole country now watching Arizona, that “birther” bill was abruptly yanked Thursday.

The legislators who voted for both it and the immigration law were exclusively Republicans, but what happened in the Arizona G.O.P. is not staying in Arizona. Officials in at least 10 other states are now teeing up their own new immigration legislation. They are doing so even in un-Arizonan places like Ohio, Missouri, Maryland and Nebraska, none of them on the Department of Homeland Security’s 2009 list of the 10 states that contain three-quarters of America’s illegal immigrant population.

The one group of Republicans that has been forthright in criticizing the Arizona law is the Bush circle: Jeb Bush, the former speechwriter Michael Gerson, the Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge, the adviser Mark McKinnon and, with somewhat more equivocal language, Karl Rove. McKinnon and Rove know well that Latino-bashing will ultimately prove political suicide in a century when Hispanic Americans are well on their way to becoming the largest minority in the country and are already the swing voters in many critical states.

The Bushies, however, have no power and no juice in the new conservative order. The former president is nearly as reviled in some Tea Party circles as Obama is.

When Graham had the gall to work with Chuck Schumer of New York on an immigration reform bill, the hard-line Americans for Legal Immigration punished him by spreading rumors about his private life as loudly as possible. Graham has been backing away from supporting the immigration bill ever since.

It’s harder and harder to cling to the conventional wisdom that the Tea Party is merely an element in the G.O.P., not the party’s controlling force — the tail that’s wagging the snarling dog. It’s also hard to maintain that the Tea Party’s nuttier elements are merely a fringe of a fringe.

The Times/CBS poll of the Tea Party movement found that only 41 percent of its supporters believe that the president was born in the United States.

The angry right and its apologists also keep insisting that race has nothing to do with their political passions. Thus Sarah Palin explained that it’s Obama and the “lamestream media” that are responsible for “perpetuating this myth that racial profiling is a part” of Arizona’s law. So how does that profiling work without race or ethnicity, exactly? Brian Bilbray, a Republican Congressman from California and another supporter of the law, rode to the rescue by suggesting “they will look at the kind of dress you wear.” Wise Latinas better start shopping at Talbots!

In this Alice in Wonderland inversion of reality, it’s politically incorrect to entertain a reasonable suspicion that race may be at least a factor in what drives an action like the Arizona immigration law. Any racism in America, it turns out, is directed at whites. Beck called Obama a “racist.” Newt Gingrich called Sonia Sotomayor a “Latina woman racist.” When Obama put up a routine YouTube video calling for the Democratic base to mobilize last week — which he defined as “young people, African-Americans, Latinos and women” — the Republican National Committee attacked him for playing the race card.

The rage of 2010 is far more incendiary than anything that went down in 1988, and it will soon leap from illegal immigration to other issues in other states. Boycott the Diamondbacks and Phoenix’s convention hotels if you want to punish Arizona, but don’t for a second believe that it will stop the fire next time.

Rain

I tried to edit this so it would fit, but Blog Spot kept doing it's own thing (as usual). But I liked this sweet story so will post it 'as is.'

Rain

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an
appointment at 9:00 am.

I took his vital
signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone
would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and , decided, since I
was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was
well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to
remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of
his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as
he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to
the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her
health.

He told me that she had been there
for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

As we
talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late.

He
replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in
five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, 'And you still go every
morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?'

He smiled as he
patted my hand and said,

'She doesn't
know me, but I still know who she is.'

I had to hold back
tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought,

'That is
the kind of love I want in my life.'

True love is
neither physical, nor romantic.

True love is an
acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not
be.


The
happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make
the best of everything they have.

'Life isn't about
how to survive the storm,
But how to dance in the
rain.'