Another One Bites....
Our daughter Anna, like her siblings, grew up in Iowa. Some good fortune in her life has led to an upcoming wedding with David, a native of Idaho. They will make their home in Ohio. My question: might all this be hard to explain to the portion of Anna's co-workers who communicate only in Spanish? Hay, caramba!
I've concluded that after all the noise of several decades that soccer is finally here in the US to stay. A sprinkling of Americans play in foreign leagues, and the USL (Is that correct?) in this country is drawing good crowds who mostly know when to cheer and what the yellow card means. But I knew we had crossed some kind of line the other day when I saw a trio of Americans trying to pick over the schedule for next year's European Cup. They were using terms like "group of death" with straight faces and had no problem picking the favorites, but what impressed me most was the fact that all this discussion was taking place on TV even though play doesn't begin for over six months, and the US isn't in it at all!
Finally, there's the "Herman, we hardly knew ye" portion of this entry. Mr. Cain shoveled out all the "my family, my wife, blah, blah" cliches as he reluctantly put his campaign for president into the bun warmer, where it's liable to stay.
I have no special dislike for Cain, but have to wonder about just what people ever saw in him as a possible president. His speeches seemed to have little content other than he doesn't trust Muslims no matter WHERE they're from, that he's against abortion, but murky as to who should be in charge of enforcing his preference, and that he's almost proud of knowing little or nothing about the rest of the world ("beki, beki, beki..").
Yes, he had a proposal - the easy-to-remember 9/9/9 plan. It took a couple of people with calculators about three minutes to figure out that the plan was yet another "don't tax the rich AT ALL' play that would do nothing to solve yearly deficits, but much to completely transfer the weight of taxation entirely to the middle and lower classes. Cain didn't really give any more details, but went on repeating "9" enough to remind us of background sounds on a Beatle cut from the white album.
The Cain campaign, in fact, had a kind of Potemkin village quality about it. He had no one doing actual organizing in the early primary or caucus states, and his views on things like defense seemed to boil down to saying that leaders do what the generals and defense company lobbyists want. Any more questions?
The strangest aspect of all this, it seems to me, is this: Cain exits the campaign still declaring his innocence in matters sexual although he has more than one accuser. None of these accusers were pure enough to be believed by the TV bullies at Fox News, but it becomes harder to say all FIVE are liars. But regardless, the person who appears most likely to scoop up the Cain followers is - Newt Gingrich, who, if you know anything at all about, it's that he cheated on TWO wives. ALL THIS, folks, comes your way courtesy of the Republican Party, the "pro-family values" folks who will keep insisting that they're good guys even as another candidate bites the dust.
I've concluded that after all the noise of several decades that soccer is finally here in the US to stay. A sprinkling of Americans play in foreign leagues, and the USL (Is that correct?) in this country is drawing good crowds who mostly know when to cheer and what the yellow card means. But I knew we had crossed some kind of line the other day when I saw a trio of Americans trying to pick over the schedule for next year's European Cup. They were using terms like "group of death" with straight faces and had no problem picking the favorites, but what impressed me most was the fact that all this discussion was taking place on TV even though play doesn't begin for over six months, and the US isn't in it at all!
Finally, there's the "Herman, we hardly knew ye" portion of this entry. Mr. Cain shoveled out all the "my family, my wife, blah, blah" cliches as he reluctantly put his campaign for president into the bun warmer, where it's liable to stay.
I have no special dislike for Cain, but have to wonder about just what people ever saw in him as a possible president. His speeches seemed to have little content other than he doesn't trust Muslims no matter WHERE they're from, that he's against abortion, but murky as to who should be in charge of enforcing his preference, and that he's almost proud of knowing little or nothing about the rest of the world ("beki, beki, beki..").
Yes, he had a proposal - the easy-to-remember 9/9/9 plan. It took a couple of people with calculators about three minutes to figure out that the plan was yet another "don't tax the rich AT ALL' play that would do nothing to solve yearly deficits, but much to completely transfer the weight of taxation entirely to the middle and lower classes. Cain didn't really give any more details, but went on repeating "9" enough to remind us of background sounds on a Beatle cut from the white album.
The Cain campaign, in fact, had a kind of Potemkin village quality about it. He had no one doing actual organizing in the early primary or caucus states, and his views on things like defense seemed to boil down to saying that leaders do what the generals and defense company lobbyists want. Any more questions?
The strangest aspect of all this, it seems to me, is this: Cain exits the campaign still declaring his innocence in matters sexual although he has more than one accuser. None of these accusers were pure enough to be believed by the TV bullies at Fox News, but it becomes harder to say all FIVE are liars. But regardless, the person who appears most likely to scoop up the Cain followers is - Newt Gingrich, who, if you know anything at all about, it's that he cheated on TWO wives. ALL THIS, folks, comes your way courtesy of the Republican Party, the "pro-family values" folks who will keep insisting that they're good guys even as another candidate bites the dust.
posted by Mark at 9:10 AM
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