And the foolishness goes on and on and on and on...

I know...I know...I've really been a slacker. Honestly, I've been working on a couple of things that are very funny but just haven't had the energy to finish them. I'll try to work on those over the next couple of days. And I actually have a chance to write for a couple of semi-legitimate websites so I need to send them some pieces that they will actually appreciate.

I have a hole in my mouth from having a tooth pulled (no insurance to cover a root canal and a crown to save it and you wonder why I want a public option) and even though it feels 200% better to have it out of my head, the pain leading up to it was very distracting. Maybe I have a low tolerance for pain. All I know is that when my wonderful dentist finally pulled it he said, "Wow...no wonder you were in pain!" This after five days of antibiotics! I didn't want to ask him about that statement or see the tooth; the tooth that was causing me enough pain to moan in my sleep so loudly that one of my cats actually got in my ear and meowed until I woke up.

But, I must write this one piece because it is just making me mad and sad. What in the Wide World of Sports do these school administrators and parents think our President is going to say to their kids on Tuesday? (Slim Pickens, Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles - anyone?) Do they think he is going to hypnotize them so that when they turn 18 a secret word will be uttered across the airways that will automatically awaken them, tell them to march to the voting booths like the undead and vote a straight Democratic ticket? Or maybe he's going to don a mustache and uniform, put thousands of our troops around him, and have our children stand and pledge allegience to him. Or, and this is my favorite, maybe he is going to just stand up there at the beginning of class and say "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller...," over and over again! Or maybe, just maybe, he's going to welcome them back to school, stress the importance of STAYING in school and working hard and talk about how that with an education these students will be on the path to living their dreams. Oh I don't know - call me naive - but I think it's probably the last one - I tend to look at facts. Prove me wrong!

I actually sat down and cried tonight after I listened to the news about this furor (or Fuhrer as the right wingers would call it) over a speech by our President. Why would I cry you might ask (or not)? First, I think the disrespect shown to the office of the Presidency of our country and to this President in particular is shameful. He is our President - get used to it and get over it! Second, one of the states highlighted on a map of the U.S. that had high numbers of complaints, parents pulling their kids out of school, administrators banning the speech, people going mad and running in the streets naked was Texas. We're a big state - we show up loud and large when we're one of about 10 out of 50 states that are having these political seizures.

I used to be proud to say I was a Texan. I used to argue with people that disputed I wasn't a true Texan because I was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I'm not so proud this last month. In fact, I haven't been proud in several months and for the first time EVER, I'm thinking of moving out of this great state. I feel like an alien in my own hometown, my own home state and among many of my friends.

I've heard our governor talk about secession from the U.S. - you know he's really Hedley Lamar with good hair telling his gunslinging sidekicks, "Now go do that voodoo that you do so well!" (another nod to Mel). I've heard people talk on our capitol steps about blood being spilled over all of this hate and vitriol. I've heard folks elected to Congress and the Senate to represent our state either agree with the "birthers" and "deathers" (those who talk about death panels), or at the very least not dispute them. I've attended a town hall meeting (and I use that term loosely) where part of the discussion included personal responsibility for our health (I agree with that) and the woman next to me said in a loud voice, "Yeah, penalize the obese people!" And when the question was raised, and answered, about how many of our citizens were unisured a man across the theater from where I sat yelled out, "Let the 45 million die!" Let the 45 million die. If I had been sitting next to him I would have calmly turned to him and said, "Sir, I'm one of those 45 million. Do you want to look me in the eye and say that?" Anonymity hides cowardice - I doubt he could look me in the eye after that.

But, people have a problem with our President speaking to our kids in school?! Ronald Reagan spoke to school children around the country - in fact, he spoke about the benefits of tax cuts (policy). George Bush 41 spoke to our kids and he asked them to write letters to him telling him what he could do for them (jeez...didn't President Obama just pull that same request out because of so much of an outrage about it). But our new, young, vibrant President with kids of his own in junior high and elementary school can't speak to our kids about staying in school and studying hard, overcoming hardships to succeed, not letting obstacles stand in their way - you know...like Bill Cosby? Smacks of something other than concern for the kids. You draw your own conclusions on that.