I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Anonymous

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/us/politics/indelible-image-of-a-boys-pat-on-obamas-head-hangs-in-white-house.html

In case this got "lost" in my long post above - I just LOVE LOVE it...

IllinoisLady

Ah......Paul Newman and I think Warren Beaty was someone of note when I was a young teen --- sigh, such a long time ago now.  In later years I think he fell pretty much out of favor --- don't recall the movie but think he did a movie with Natalie Wood that sparked all the good feeling about him. 

Alexandria -- I like your take on the empty chair.  I'm sure my family is not talking much about the "odd" convention behavior and finding  ways to make it be all right.  I'm also sure they won't say anything at all to me.  They pretty well know --- if they have never seen anyone die laughing.....today just could be the day if they bring that up.   

This probably really dates me, but I still adore the movie "Gone With The Wind".  I have the original book with all the gorgeous pictures in it.

Tons of rain last night....which probably  moved on to you WR afterwards.  We waded to our car from the restaurant last night.  Left here it was dry as a bone.  I didn't care as I was so happy to see some REAL rain at long last, but would have been nice had it come down slower.  The showers of today and tomorrow should be much slower. 

Alexandria --yay.

Jackie

P.S. Sun....that is a fantastic pic.  I think I saw it a long time ago, but had forgotten about it. 

IllinoisLady: • In separateness lies the world's great misery, in compassion lies the world's great strength. Buddha.
Dx 9/27/2007, IDC, 5cm, Stage II, Grade 3, 0/3 nodes, ER+/PR-, HER2-

CLC

Sunflowers...that picture is so moving.  Of course, the picture says volumes about race and the impact of Obama's presidency on race.  For me, that picture also says so much about Obama's character.  A man who has nothing to prove.  A man who can bow down to a little boy without feeling threatened.  A man who "gets" kids.  A politician without an ego trip...or at least a sense of play.

It is a good reminder to me personally, because I have such immense doubt about his integrity at this point.  I have felt so let down by his environmental failures.  This picture is a bit reassuring.  Of course, I will vote for him, and while I do, I will try to keep this image in my mind so it isn't quite as conflicted.

Anonymous

CLC

I understand what you mean about feeling "let down" - and then I remember, the "meeting" which took place the day of his inauguration, when legislators and "pundits" met to come up with a PLAN: Just Say No.  Someone posted about it a while ago.  I hadn't heard of it before.  So, I give the President a great deal of latitude, and come back to the same experience you had looking at the picture - a truly wonderful, warm hearted, wise, confident human being.  I trust him to keep doing the very best he can do, given the circumstances.

Can't ever remember so much vitriol in the political discourse.  I think that is much more of a factor in my own feeling than a questioning of the President's integrity.  He fought and fought for the ACA - when many others said it was a "lost cause." Having all people, regardless of pre-existing conditions able to get medical insurance is a daily reminder to me of where his heart is.

kayfh

You can't believe how hopeful today's conversation has made me. That and uploading The Upworthiest. Thank you all.

CLC

Sunflowers...yes...but then there is Monsanto, Cargill and the like.  And, really, I have a hard time getting beyond a willingness to let so many more gmo's go to market and continuing revolving doors between federal agencies and large agribusiness corporations.  Food being monopolized by a handful of companies with horrible records on labor, environment, health and safety of food, animal welfare...I just feel betrayed.  I care about agribusiness issues just as much as healthcare issues.  I believe they are both about health.   Our children's health.

Then add his actually pushing hydrofracking.  It makes me so sad.

I will vote for him, because the alternative is horrifying.  But we are talking about a failure to lead on what I believe is the single most pressing issues we humans are facing...protecting our home.

 ETA...sorry to post this on the heals of kayf's thanks for uplifting...  I put a quash on that...:(

kayfh

No. Don't think you squashed anything. It's just really, really nice to know that there is a large, engaged, life affirming community out there. All around me really. It's easy to think that you are alone.

crazy4carrots

Doncha just love Dave Barry?

"Good evening. I stand before you tonight as the lieutenant governor of a critical swing state, as well as a member of a minority group and CEO of the nation's third-largest manufacturer of curtain rods.

"Yes, I am living the American Dream. But let me tell you about my childhood. My family was dirt poor. In fact, we didn't even have enough dirt to go around. We all had to share one small dirt clod. At bath time, you would smear the clod onto yourself and sit in the bathtub; then, when you were done, you would smear the clod onto the next family member. The dirt didn't get washed away, because we also had no water. For that matter, we didn't have a real bathtub. We had to sit in an imaginary bathtub. And not a fancy imaginary bathtub, either: It was a nasty old used imaginary bathtub.

"But we did not complain. We did not ask the government for a handout. And do you know why? Because we also could not afford vocal chords." 

YramAL

I love Dave Barry! For some reason, I thought he wasn't writing anymore. Maybe we just don't get him in our papers here. 

Mary 

208sandy

Lindasa - I LOVE Dave Barry - where is he writing these days?

pupmom

CLC, once again you and I are of a like mind!  I am bitterly dissappointed with Obama on environmental and animal rights issues.

I seriously thought about sitting out this election, until Romney picked Ryan. I simply cannot allow that man to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. I could maybe live with Romney but NOT Ryan. 

crazy4carrots

Looking from the outside in:  There may be up to 3 new Supreme Court appointees during the next 4 years. Something to consider when deciding for whom to vote......

pupmom

Linda, I agree. There are so many reasons, including SC picks, why I can't ignore this election. I am very unhappy with Obama, however.

ananda8

Yes, I  am disappointed. I'm going to vote for him anyway because Ryan scares the heck out of me and Ryan will be every bit as powerful as Cheney was. Romney is an empty suit.

The Dems need to wake up as start organizing to get those without government ID the proper stuff so they can vote.  People also need to re-register in Florida and those other States that have been purging their voter rolls.  I am hearing nothing about this.  The Dems need to learn how to do grass roots as well as Ron Paul supporters.  Heck the Ron Paul people may be willing to teach the Dems after the shafting they took from the credentials committee of the Repub convention.

Anonymous

Yeah, Dave Barry.  WHERE DID YOU FIND HIM?  I was sure he had retired from writing - except for his "annual review" of the year.  Which is always priceless.  HE'S HERE: http://www.miamiherald.com/dave_barry/

Agree with CLC - re:food.  My current hero on that front is Mark Bittman, also of course Alice Waters, for a long time.  But Mark has been especially and effectively vocal on this issue too.  Also David Kessler ( who took on tobacco when he was head of FDA) has a fabulous book: The End of Overeating.  Learned a KEY word that GMA ( Grocery Manufacturers of America) teaches - "hyperpalatibility" - terrifying. Kessler, Bittman, quite a few others, are organizing to do to "food" ( or what some people call food today) what Kessler, Congressman Waxman & several State Attorney Generals did to tobacco.

1Athena1

Great Dave Barry piece Linda. My biggest disappointment with Obama has to do with his overly friendly stance twards Wall Street (though the GOP has done the brunt of the work in trying to stifle all reform there) and his unwillingness to more forcefully go after torture by the US.

I hope in his second term he feels that he did what he could with the other side and feels able to move ahead more aggresively perhaps for a second stimulus package and and strengthening banking rules, for two.... I do read about Lincoln and see what a student Obama is of the man. History often doesn't record how indecisive great leaders can be. The problem with Obama is that he shares government with too many small minds, and the media is at one of its lowest points in history.

People thought the 'black man' had to be ultra-liberal and when he wasn't they were disappointed. They didn't carefully read what he wrote and listen to what he said. Obama is, to me, center to center right. I voted for him knowing I would have to accept a far more conservative person then myself, if you will (nobody as liberal as me would get elected anyway).

People also need to remember that Obama promised health reform legislation by the end of his first term but delivered much sooner. The big disappointment --one which people so easily forget-- is that the law ended up being one of the biggest private giveaways, and that it is far from universal coverage. But lies about how it is an expansion of government have clouded the easily led media's view.

First time in my lifetime we have had a president I agree with. I am happy we are getting a second term.

alexandria58

Hi all,

    Also agree that I was disappointed in Obama - on so many issues, the environment, the give-aways to the rich and comfortable, even the health care law, which was what John McCain had essentially proposed.

     I am voting for him nevertheless.

     I have to say that the vitriol over his center right policies would surprise me - if he weren't a black man.  I do believe that the hate has little to do with his rather centrist if not moderately conservative policies and much more to do with his essential identity.  Why else would we have the birthers?  That's why the empty chair is so appropriate as an image for the haters - the hatred is for the scary black man of their imagination.

YramAL

This, I think, is the difference between us and the others who come over to monitor our thread. We can admit what we don't like about President Obama. We're not a total "rah rah" bunch over all his policies and everything he does. I doubt that they ever admit that there is anything they don't like about their politicians. They may in private, but never in public.

I do not care for Obama's educational policies. I think he has been pretty much a big zero there. I will still be voting for him.

I think a lot of people had overly high expectations for the change that Pres. Obama could make. I think he's been blocked virtually every step of the way, by people whose only strategy was to make sure that Obama could get nothing done so that he would not be elected for a second term. I'm hoping that if he is elected, he will use that executive privilege that the Republicans so abhor(even though George W. Bush used it more that Pres. Obama ever did) to actually get some things done. 

Mary 

rosemary-b

I will not comment aboutpoliics. My DH said I should not watch tv until after the election because I get so upset by lying.

On another note, we picked up a new Maine Coon kitten today. We went to a breeder because our last shelter cat has cost us over $3000 in the  last year. Yikes!

She is tortiseshell and tabby mix or torbie. She is parked under my chair now. She hissed a little at Baxter but he is not upset at all.

rosemary-b

CLC

Oh my gosh...Not only lying, but can't even make up a remotely believable lie. This is what you get when a person not only lacks ethics, but also gets stuck at about the age of 7.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/09/01/160433290/fact-check-paul-ryan-exaggerates-marathon-claim

208sandy

Oh Rosemary - she's precious!

1Athena1

I saw that, CLC. Good for Runner's World's for investigating.

Now if they could examine Marco Rubio's ludicrous claims about how America spreads freedom. We didn't like Castro - because we supported Batista, the dictator who preceded him. That Cuban-American song and dance is such nonsense.

ETA: Clarify: we have spread both freedom and oppression - each one when it suits us, empire that we are. It was Reagan's woman, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, who wrote "Dictatorships and Double Standards: Rationalism and Reason in Politics," an influential book in which she not only championed but also explained that view. We have supported dictatorships in Chile, the Philippines, caused one to appear in Cambodia, tiptoed around Apartheid and taken credit for a few "liberations." So Rubio's assessment is delusional. Pet peeve of mine, as I lived in S FL and like many there had to put up with the Cuban-American revisionists.

1Athena1

ETA Re: conversation about Real Men (as in Lions) I would add Cary Grant to the list. Christopher Plummer as a young man too.

kayfh

Omar Sharif as a young man

RetiredLibby

Jeff Daniels doing the Will McAvoy speech -- as Jeff Daniels!

Belinda44

Anyone catch Jon Stewart last night?  Great show!  He said, in part:

"This president has issues, and there are very legitimate debates to be had about his
policies and actions and successes and/or failures as president [...] but I
could never wrap my head around why the world and the president that Republicans
describe bares so little resemblance to the world and the president I
experience. And now I know why: there is a President Obama that only Republicans
can see." 

Also, Ditto on Cary Grant and one of my classic favs....Bogart in "Casablanca."

alexandria58

Rosemary - AWW!

Just rewatched Casblanca.  What a great movie!  Bogart was wonderful in it.

On  good looking young men - my biggest crush from my teenage years - David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin.  Sigh.

pupmom

Rosemary, I love your kitty! She's so adorable!

pupmom

Brad Pitt as Achilles In "Troy," pant, pant.