Tag: questions

Scott Walker, Gray Davis: The Recall Question


Let me tell you a secret: I was not happy about the Wisconsin recall vote that attempted, unsuccessfully, to get rid of Governor Scott Walker. I’m not referring to the OUTCOME of the vote; I’m talking about having the vote in the first place. Walker was duly elected in 2010 for a four-year term and started fulfilling his campaign pledge to make draconian cuts to the budget and state personnel. Just a year into his term, a movement to unseat him began.

It reminded me of the California recall of Governor Gray Davis (pictured) in 2003, mere months after he was re-elected in 2002, tied to an electricity price crisis manipulated in part by the failed business, Enron. Davis was replaced by some actor from Austria.

It is said that the idea of recall is “pure democracy”, with the people able to right wrongs. Then why does it feel so undemocratic to me?

There has been a lot of talk about what the Wisconsin vote MEANS. It may not MEAN anything. “Folks were polled at 60 percent voting against this recall because they think leadership change ought to occur via regular elections and not recalls and that a majority of those polled voted against recall while still expressing supports for unions.”

It seems to me that one should limit the recall to an official who has committed a grievous crime or betrayed the office in some way. New York, which not have the recall option, managed to get rid of its governor, Eliot Spitzer, through threats of legal action after his prostitution addiction came to light.

And the propositions that are allowed on the ballot in California seem to contradict each other every other year, making it an even more difficult state to govern.

The Wisconsin situation does show, yet again, how much money controls politics more than ever before, and that is most unhealthy for democracy, as the person in this video suggests.

But what say you?

 

Unforgivable QUESTION

What public figure have you admired who said or did something so egregiously wrong in your view that you still haven’t quite forgiven him or her?

When I wrote about the death of Mike Wallace of CBS News’ 60 Minutes, I was moved by a comment by Arthur@AmeriNZ: “I have a troubled reaction to Mike Wallace…I did enjoy many of his interviews, and I grew up with his version of Biography. However, he also did CBS Reports: The Homosexuals for which I have a really tough time forgiving him. Noted activist Wayne Besen called that broadcast ‘the single most destructive hour of antigay propaganda in our nation’s history.’ And it was.”

Seems to me that in order to have such feelings, it has to be from someone you liked and respected. If Congressman (R-FL) Allen West says that about 80 members of the Democratic Party are members of the Communist Party, it doesn’t matter much to me, because West has been, and is increasingly moreso, a doofus. But when someone you admire lets you down, it’s another issue entirely.

I’m sure I have lots of examples in my personal life, but the one in the public arena involved the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He was running for President in the 1984 campaign, and I was inclined to at least consider supporting him. But when news of the ethnic slur against Jews came out early in 1984, it was all over for me. The initial denial by Jackson, followed by his conspiracy theory, did not help matters at all. Though I did love him on Saturday Night Live.

What public figure have you admired who said or did something so egregiously wrong in your view that you still haven’t quite forgiven him or her?

Erasing the Deceased QUESTION

How do you handle the written records of a deceased friend or loved one? Do you purge them right away, or is it a gradual process?

(Weird – I scheduled this particular post for this day a couple of weeks ago, before vacation. Didn’t know I’d be writing so much about dead people this week.)

I still have a print address book; you know, the kind made of paper. And when someone dies, I never know when to erase that person’s name. It seems that doing so means they are REALLY dead. The only time I’m likely to drop someone is if the book falls apart, I buy a new one, then rewrite the names in the new book, but only the living.

It’s no easier for me in my electronic address book. Deleting someone, especially someone I cared for, is tricky. I suspect that my mother’s still in the system, and she passed away over a year ago.

When Albert Wood from my choir died on Ash Wednesday, his logo picture kept showing up on my Facebook home page. But I didn’t want to “unfriend” my late friend, especially since people keep writing “to” him. A side issue: Are Users’ Facebook Profiles Are Part Of ‘Digital Estates’?

How do you handle the written records of a deceased friend or loved one? Do you purge them right away, or is it a gradual process? And should relatives be able to get access to their loved ones’ social media after they die?
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In the non-human category, SamuraiFrog says goodbye

Not a villainous bone in my body

The real problem is that I think about this far too literally. I might want to have the power of Galactus, but the notion that I could consume whole worlds, and the souls therein is so awful to contemplate.

Hi, Chris-

Recently came across your blog, and I really have been enjoying it, especially your Holy Week post, which was sacrilegious, but funny. I added the blog to my blogroll, which, BTW, was my old blog for five years. (Oh, and to others who might want to be added – please let me know.)

I’ve enjoyed the fact that you’ve been going to other blogs I enjoy, such as Byzantium Shores, even when I disagree with you.

But I am having a bear of a time answering your questions:

Can we do another one?

Well, theoretically, yes.

How about what VILLAIN would you most like to be? Or bad guy, evil spirit, etc. Also, what’s the coolest villain, etc.? (Might not be the same; they’re definitely not for me.)

So the real problem is that I think about this far too literally. I might want to have the power of Galactus, but the notion that I could consume whole worlds, and the souls therein is so awful to contemplate. I believe I thought Goldfinger was COOL when I was a kid, but then later felt that suffocation is a lousy way to die.

The only “villains” I ever was drawn to were either silly and not all that harmful, such as Superman’s foe, Mister Mxyzptlk, or the ones that aren’t really evil (Robin Hood, Zorro), or ones who are conflicted (the Hulk, Batman’s Two-Face).

That said, I always was interested in Loki, Thor’s half-brother, at least from the period I was reading comic books, through 1994; I mention this only because characters evolve and I haven’t kept track of him in almost two decades. I think it’s the family dynamic as much as the villain himself that intrigued me.

The Green Goblin, Spider-Man’s arch-rival, as a villain, didn’t interest me as much as the fact that Norman, and then later Harry Osborn were known to Peter Parker, even if Peter didn’t know the man behind the mask at the time.

So, villainy doesn’t interest me that much, except in context. That’s as good as I can answer this question, I’m afraid.

Hey, maybe YOU can answer this question in YOUR blog, Chris. Or anyone else can, for that matter.

UNANSWERABLE QUESTION about God and religion

If, as is posited by many people (and I would tend to agree), that the major religions of the world share a great deal of commonality, why has religion been the source of so much violence and pain?

Not a new question, of course, but one I think about a LOT.

And after reading this post, I wonder if the busyness of our lives is contrary to finding a spiritual place.

From The Bad Chemicals, used by permission.

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