Change

I’m disobeying my president, and listening to Him Whom Must Not Be Listened To, and thinking about something a regular commenter at Protein Wisdom had offered during the 2008 campaign—that recent presidential election history suggests a 16-year cycle of “change” outcomes that would seem to include 2008.

Prior to last November there had been only three occasions of “change” elections: 1960, 1976 and 1992.

I was struck by something about each of those election years and their subsequent political directions: that each successive “change” election was undone by voters in half the time it took them to undo the previous one.

I’m not sure this is telling, since although Kennedy has been canonized by the media because of the circumstances of his death (that he had been pre-canonized in life probably contributed to that) there is some reason to question whether he would have won re-election in 1964 had he lived. Furthermore, the “undoing” of Clinton’s election (Republican ascendancy in the 1994 congressional elections) nevertheless saw him serve out two full terms despite the overturning of the direction of his forst two years, and increasing disgrace over the course of his second term.

Still, while the Kennedy-Johnson presidency lasted eight years, and Jimmy Crater was ousted by voters after only four, the fact remains that the “change” Clinton supposedly represented in 1992 evaporated two years later when his party was relegated to the minority in Congress. (I’ll further point out that I’m referring specifically to political reversals. In a republic, that’s the only respectable way to go about it.)

Is there some way politically that 0bama’s “change” “mandate” could be overturned by this time next year? If so, we may be in for a very interesting year.

Oh. Uh, Hi…

Sorry, I didn’t realize anyone was still hanging around. A little distracted these days.

I have churned out some thoughtsy stuff for a Facebook thread, that I may decide to develop into a post. Or not.

A bunch of non-internet stuff going on. Got a family member dealing with a pretty serious diagnosis, and another who would probably be doing even better dealing with a diagnosis of her own, if she weren’t also worrying about the other family member’s diagnosis. Also another, non-health thing that now we can only wait and see about but has some slight chance of meaning even less time for blogging for an unknown but certainly finite amount of time. Which would actually be good news over the long haul but panic-inducing at first.

Happy thoughts happily accepted.

Thanks for the well wishes in all threads where expressed, and in e-mails.

The serious diagnosis has a glimmer of good news, in that the doctors believe they have caught it before it spread. She will have surgery, but first they’ll run her through a round of chemo beginning next week. We’re cautiously optimistic.

The less serious diagnosis for the other jasminlive member wasn’t the main reason for worry, rather a related problem wasn’t getting better as she improved on other fronts. She had an appointment yesterday, however, where she was told it’s normal for this particular type of side symptom to take longer clearing up. For the record, this one is somewhat closer to home than the other.

The non-health thing is wending its way through channels. Rather than risk running out of things to chew while we wait, we’ve enacted a strict fingernail-rationing plan.

My Stimulus Plan

You know, I knew sooner or later I’d be able to say, “Don’t blame me, I voted for Palin,” but I had no idea that day would come less than three weeks into the 0bama presidency.

Anyway, here’s a stimulus plan I could get behind:

We issue each member of Congress an attendant armed with a cattle prod. Said attendant would follow said member of Congress everywhere (okay, maybe not into airport men’s room stalls) and listen carefully to what he says.

Whenever the pol gives evidence of thinking about pork, earmarks, meeting a lobbyist, or paying off a special-interest group that supported his last re-election campaign, the attendant would give him a jolt with the cattle prod.

Also, anytime the attendant senses that the pol is doing or saying something meant to sway the attendant’s judgment, he uses the cattle prod—twice.

This will stimulate the better members of Congress to stop regarding taxpayers’ money as the engine of their own political fortunes. It will also stimulate the less savory members of Congress to re-examine their career choices and perhaps go into door-to-door vacuum cleaner sales.

With judiciously placed video cameras on www.chaturbaterooms.com, it could also create some decent educational television.

Fair Enough

Last week, I decided to take Little Dude to the Fair. We’d been given free passes by my friend Patty and he’d never been, so it made sense that we’d go together. Except he threw one of his three allotted fits per year. I insisted and of course I won.

After a few minutes in the car, Billy Idol (LD’s choice…sometimes he gloms onto things very intensely) blasting, Mr. Crankypants apologized tearfully. I told him thanks and that I loved him. Never stopped. Not because of the tantrum. He wiped dry his eyes and leaned over to kiss me. Then it was rockin’ to the music the entire way to the fairgrounds.

Once there, we headed in and just missed the monster truck demo (LD so wanted to see it). Instead, we stopped at the pig races. You haven’t had the complete fair-going experience without pig races. He giggled and laughed and had fun. We walked over to where the monster trucks had been and saw they were giving rides in one monster firetruck so I gave him money and let him go have his fun. I couldn’t do it because of the huge steps to get into the thing, but he was happy to go on his own. In fact, he wanted to go again. And again. I wouldn’t let him (big meanie that I am) because there was lots more to see.

We stopped briefly for food and to see the giant horse. It was big. Biggest damn horse I’ve ever seen. Couldn’t get a photo from www.jasminelive.online because two people monopolized the only good photo spot for 15 minutes and we had places to go. Oh well.

We hit the art exhibits and found two of my mom’s paintings. She won third place on both. One was a beautiful sunset (deserving more than 3rd place) and the other was a painting of a portrait of Little Dude I’d taken last year. As soon as LD saw it, he turned six shades of red. I don’t know why. It was really quite sweet. Maybe it was because people walking by recognized him. We then lingered a long time in the student photography gallery. There was some incredible work in there. There was also some not so great work. While there, Boston started to play and we got a free listen. LD rocked out some more (I do have him quite well-listened in classic rock) and we finally bopped on out toward the midway.

Once on the midway, we passed games and had to try a few different ticket booths before we found one with a relatively short line. LD was quite content to hit rides he could do on his own. (God, it kills me to not be able to go on these things with him. If I did, they’d be taking me out of there on a stretcher. Freakin’ back.) We were able to go on the ferris wheel together, though and we enjoyed it immensely. His other favorite? Bumper cars. I also discovered he liked the funhouse. Good thing, too, because there were several different kinds and he tried all but two. And he had fun. Lots and lots of fun.

I can’t remember getting so many kisses for forcing a he to do such a “horrible thing!” as going to the fair. We laugh about it now. In fact, we were laughing about it soon after his little blow up. Hey, if that’s the worst reaction I get from him a couple times a year, I think we’re doing okay. The heat sure as hell didn’t help matters. Thankfully, it was cooler in Del Mar.

On our way home, we stopped off at Denny’s for a late night snack. We didn’t get home until around 1am, but it was worth it.

Confused, But Happy

I’m sorta struggling to figure out where I’m supposed to put links and everything with WordPress. I’m afraid to attempt too much on my own because I don’t want to break anything. I’m good at that. Breaking blogs. Please bear with me as I make slow but eventual progress with my sidebar, m’kay? Thanks!

I kind of don’t mind not being able to figure things out on my own. This has allowed ample time for me to watch the Deadliest Catch marathon on Discovery. In a way, it’s like catching up with old friends, even though these are episodes I’ve already seen. The Rollo and Maverick are around and even the Aleutian Ballad was there for part of the day. Just watching the ice, snow, and frigid water seems to have cooled things off around here by a few degrees.

It’s really a wonder that the producers have been able to maintain five seasons of interesting footage. And it’s more than interesting. It’s compelling. Always has been. Still is. The weather, the seas, the boats, the men, the crab…all add up to something bigger and better than regular “reality” programming. (I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating.) Frankly, revisiting older episodes is like going through the family photo album, or maybe your high school yearbook. Since several boats are no longer featured on the show, we don’t know what’s going on with them. I know I’m not the only one wondering what the crews are up to.

I’m off to sort through photos now. Again. I’ve been lounging too long today. Two days of “doing stuff” has left me quite sore and in need of meds. Thank God for Deadliest Catch marathons to keep me company!

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