The United States is the only industrialized country to award diplomatic posts as political spoils, often to wealthy campaign contributors in an outmoded system that rivals the patronage practices of banana republics, dictatorships and two-bit monarchies.” (See link below.)

Interesting article here about the circus that the Obama ambassador appointment regime has become. Luxembourg, Hungary, Norway and other countries have been graced with ambassadors whose only qualification has been bundling contributions to get Obama’s sorry ass elected.

Max Baucus, ambassador now to China, gets off lightly in this article even as he knows nothing about China. (Many have interpreted his public stammering as a Cantonese dialect – that might have played a part in the appointment.) But the idea that he is somehow fit to be ambassador to such an important country is nonsense. He was chosen to get him out of the senate to make room for John Walsh, the top-down “choice” of a Montana Democrats to take Baucus’ seat this fall. (The new Senator from Montana will be Rep Steve Daines. He’s a Republican, a fitting senator for this mostly Republican state whose Republican Party leadership has for too long conceded the senate seat to Baucus with only token opposite because … Baucus is a cloaked Republican.)

The article notes how Obama, who pledged to limit the abuse of the ambassador-appointment process, has instead abused it beyond any before him in modern politics. It’s just one more piece of evidence Obama is, as Nader described him, nothing but a “con man.”
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PS: Most readers, politically in-astute, will interpret this article to conclude that I am a Republican, that I support Daines. Not true. I simply conclude that of our two choices (only) for public office, Democrats somehow manage to consistently top Republicans in sleaze.

Pain makes people grow up faster, makes them smarter, stronger.

There’s something about Billings … the place makes me want to swing my fists and not stop until I get to city limits.

It’s unfair, I know – a whole damned city, 100,000 people, creeps me out. I probably know a hundred people here. But I was part of it until 2001, and feel it every time I return – the redneck right wingers with their homespun all-knowingness and the comfortable liberals who are more interested in cliche art than real people. (I think there is a small part of Richard Adams’ Watership Down devoted to them.)

Perhaps it’s the liberals that make me swing hardest. They have populated Montana avenue with their trendy stores, built a new library, have their own magazines to honor one another as they listen to YPR and vote for Democrats.

I guess I prefer the redneck right-wingers. At least they are on the outside true to the inside. The liberals are so full of pretense. (There are some pwoggies around, I know. I just don’t know where anymore.)
Continue reading “It’s over, Billings, and really, it’s not you. It’s me.” →

[Swede Synopsis: People should not eat each other’s internal organs. That’s wrong. Proceed to comments.]

Over the past quarter century I’ve been exploring and adjusting, feeling embarrassment at mistakes and shock at new findings. There is no destination port on this journey, but not a day goes by that I don’t feel closer to some “truth.” The problem: truth can be so ugly as to be unbearable so that most either avoid it or turn away in disgust. They are upset not by what I view as “truth,” or something like it, but rather that I must hate my country!

I don’t hate the United States of America. People are the same everywhere. This country was blessed with two oceans and abundant resources. It could thrive in internal peace without being destroyed by the internecine warfare of Europe. I’ve traveled some – Europe, Canada, Mexico and Asia, and will do more. But each return home is welcome. I belong in this country.
Continue reading “Internal organs of dissent” →

[Swede Synopsis: Corporations are collectives. Proceed to comment section.]

Billy Bob entered the voting booth that November day to get it done early, before the crowds arrived. He caught the smell of coffee from the nearby cafeteria – his polling place is the local grade school. Seated at a long table were the aging troopers, mostly women, with large floppy registers full of names. He found his and signed and then entered the booth to do his duty.
Continue reading “Public Citizen” →

[Swede Synopsis: Multiculturalism good thing. Advance to comment section.]

This falls under the “Why am I not surprised?” header, but the truth is, I am surprised. One of the nicest moments during the Superbowl was a rendition of America the Beautiful sung in many languages and including a woman in head garb. Zounds! There’s a controversy now among the small-minded, but about the wrong topic.

It was sponsored by the biggest pusher of high-fructose corn syrup in the world, the Coca Cola Company. HFCS is just another form of sugar, and as the name states, has higher fructose-to-sucrose ratio than table sugar. The body does treat fructose in a different manner than sucrose, but for us non-scientists, it helps just to think of it all as “sugar.”

Science journalist Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories, suggests here and there that sugar ought to be classified as a poison. While apples may not be harmful, perhaps even beneficial in some manner, drinking a glass of apple juice is the equivalent of eating four apples at a sitting, literally dousing the body with sugar. A 20 ounce Coca Cola is the equivalent of eating four glazed donuts – neither is good for us, but somehow Coke evades the spotlight while donuts are criminalized. How many Americans now start their day with four glazed donuts a Coke?

When New York Mayor Bloomberg tried to limit soda sizes, he was quickly demonized, and no doubt there were board meetings in Atlanta about how to respond. The usual bullshit about how market choice trumps good public policy won out, and Coke still flows in huge quantities there. “Information” is unwelcome in our “free market,” while advertising can hype any kind of shit and call it Shinola.

In Mexico, now officially the most obese country in the world, the government’s response to its health crisis has been to urge people to limit their daily intake of Coke. No doubt there are board meetings going on in Atlanta. Those death merchants, those high-profile sponsors of obesity and diabetes, are worried again about their freedom to market their poison. NAFTA means that corporate privilege trumps good public policy in Mexico, just like here.

But it was a nice ad. No doubt they intended to stir up a controversy. As long as the name is spelled correctly, the Coca Cola Company will reap millions in free advertising from a single paid one.

[Swede Synopsis: Tea Party is an advertising gimmick. Skip to comments.]

Professional and college football as they exist today are the stepchildren of gambling. Without that, they’d be but a minor obsession.

I used to care about teams and get some personal validation from their victories. This started as a child when I attached to the Milwaukee Braves and a Green Bay Packers. My mother’s family lived backed there, and I felt a connection. It did not hurt that they were really good teams.
Continue reading “So sorry, great city. You’re still great.” →