A Plate Full of Brownies It's been a while since I broke out the Brownies, so here they are. There is, of course, a reason for their prolonged absence; we can't just give these things away. No longer able to limit the presitigious Brown Eye Award to any single deserving candidate, I wanted to have medals made, like in the Olympics, but that's just too expensive. On with it then, in triplicate: I normally agree with columnist Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, but I fail to understand her hysteria about the new pope, Joseph "Benedict" Ratzinger. He is apparently just too conservative for her liking. Who did she have in mind, Richard Simmons? She snippily pointed out that the new guy was involved in Hitler Youth (as were most young Germans at that place and time), berated him for having run the Vatican office formerly known as "the Inquisition" and parroted disdain for him, calling him "God's Rottweiler." Now, see, that's going too far. I know Dowd didn't coin that particular phrase, but she takes the low road in using it as part of her criticism. Slandering my fellow Catholic as a Nazi and a torturer, that doesn't bother me. It's indelicate, but hers is an opinion piece, so I find no fault with that. But to pick on innocent animals about which she obviously knows very little goes beyond the pale. What exactly is she saying about the freshly anointed pontiff by making such a comparison? That he prefers his meat raw? That he has big, googly eyes that make you chuckle every time you look at him? That he has hair on his back? Or is she suggesting hat he's a strong and loyal purebred, fierce when he has to be, and so fearless that one can't help but sleep for eight hours with one of them in the room? I doubt that she knows the Rottweiler is a dog of Welsh origin, bred to herd sheep. So what is it about Rotties that makes Maureen Dowd go crazy? She must have been seated next to one when it had to sneeze... At a time when inflation is outpacing wage growth, President Bush has signed a bill making it harder for Americans to escape their debts through bankruptcy. Time after time, as the bill was crafted, exemptions were proposed by Democrats which were mowed down in lockstep by Republicans. Let's cut some slack, those bleeding hearts said, for the disabled veteran of the Guard or Reserves who no longer has enough limbs to support himself, whose health-care coverage evaporated when the military relegated him to inactive status. Let's be lenient, they begged, on people who have disabling medical conditions, and staggering bills to match. Let's be fair, they implored, to those who are financially burdened as they care for their elderly parents, honoring of one of the Ten Commandments. Each time, draconian Republicans said the same thing: Nyet. Nyet. Nyet. Bush says this protectionism of banks and credit card companies amounts to "restoring integrity to the bankruptcy process," as if millionaires like himself and his cronies in Congress are even remotely in touch with the average fiscal American. He added, "Bankruptcy should always be a last resort in our legal system." That sounds great coming from him, just like when he said that war is a last resort in our foreign policy. "If someone does not pay his or her debts, the rest of society ends up paying them," the president said, which is correct. Society has to pay for bankruptcies all the time. Most of them are chicken-feed, but then there's the Enron kind of bankruptcy, which costs taxpayers a whole lot more. Bush knows all about the Enron case, because the defendants are close friends of his; this bill contains loopholes that protect their kinds of assets. "This practical reform will help ensure that debtors make a good-faith effort to repay as much as they can afford," according to Dubya. Someone should ask him why there aren't practical reforms in place to pay down the deficit that he has racked up, wherein our nation's wealthiest citizens and corporations would make a good-faith effort to pay as much in taxes as they can afford... How Bush can be so blithe about how cruel this appears is a mystery. He ought to hire some smarter advisors, or if he already has plenty, he should listen to them. There are many qualified, intelligent people who would love to help their country out in these challenging times. John Bolton, however, would not be one of those people. Bush's nominee to represent the United States in the U.N. finds himself all dressed up with noplace to go, as the Senate committee responsible for his fate at this moment has put him on the shelf. It turns out he's just too controversial a figure for some of the committee members. Not only has he shown a dark, Cheney-esque persona when it comes to his selective beliefs of intelligence analysis, he is also alleged to have been verbally abusive to his subordinates. One brave whistle-blower regaled the committee with stories of Bolton chasing her down hotel hallways, throwing things at her, and sliding "threatening letters" under the door of her room. That's beyond unfit for office - that's downright creepy. It was enough to turn Ohio Senator George Voinovich off completely. He already announced his opposition to Bolton's nomination, which is why the committee delayed the vote. Out of 10 Republicans on a panel of 18 lawmakers, two others (Chuck Hagel and Lincoln Chafee) are wavering after getting a negative vibe from Colin Powell in private conversations about Bolton. Bush claims the Democrats are playing politics with his nominee, but it sure doesn't look that way. Anyone who was paying attention knew Bolton was no good back in October of 2002, when North Korea announced its nuclear aspirations to the world. A communist official walked up to Bolton in a hallway and flat-out told him that Pyongyang had The Bomb. Bolton was asked, practically with a poke in the chest, "What are you going to do about it?" Two and a half years later, the Bush administration hasn't done anything about it, and North Korea's proliferation has been expanding ever since. They say that politics makes strange bedfellows, and here they are. Maureen Dowd, George W. Bush and John Bolton: This year's trifecta for the Brown Eye Awards. Paul Heller 04/25/05 << back to the archives
	All site contents © 2005, Paul F. Heller