A Mouse Tail (this one's for you Dad)

Once upon a time there was a girl, and one frigid day in January, she moved to a magical place full of power and mystique. Although this place was beautiful and magnificent in its grandeur, the city contained a dirty secret behind its walls and bellow its streets – MICE and lots of ’em!

If you’ll recall, I had been dealing with ONE mouse (I was in constant denial that there was ever more than one) that I affectionately called Peebs. The cunning little dude successfully ate all the peanut butter clean off the traps without so much as splitting a single hair, let alone getting his head chopped off. This was no ordinary mouse. He was smart, tricky, and elusive. For several months I put a lot of faith in wives tales and dryer sheets and hoped against hope that Peebs would just leave. But he didn’t. And I dealt with it for a while, but he became more daring with each passing day. The little vermin showed himself on many occasions even when guests were over and pooped where he pleased. We rearranged our kitchen, but that didn’t deter him.

The last straw finally came. Peebs ate my birthday cake. MY BIRTHDAY CAKE! Not any of the other roommates, but mine. Me who lived off of the kitchen, me who had sleepless nights wondering what that noise was and if the mouse would climb up my bed and eat my eyes. A line had been crossed. It was him or me. I was paying rent so Peebs had to go.

Peebs put up a good fight. He brought in the troops for reinforcement and they were cunning little guys. But we were smarter and more resilient. Before the traps were set, Tara and I noticed three mice (Peebs, Hammy, and Swiss) were in our empty recycle bin trying to jump into our trash can. We did the first thing that popped into our minds and trapped them in the can with a lid. We decided the best way to dispose of them was to put a peanut butter-covered poison cube in the trash can and place them outside in the freezing cold. So we did. Tara duct taped the lid shut for good measure and put the can in the backyard where it remained until two days ago when Tara and I finally disposed of it (if you’re wondering the 3 mice were still in there – I checked).

Although we had a small victory with the conquest at Recycle Bin, there was no time to rest on our laurels. Peebs had been defeated, yes, but his troops were as persistent as ever to conquer our kitchen. So out came the D-Con – grade A, top notch, inescapable traps.

At final count, we entrapped and disposed of fourteen little rodents within about twelve days. Some traps remain as a precaution, but it seems that if any mice survived Operation Annihilation, then they quickly retreated and set up camp elsewhere.

And the girl lived (and slept) happily ever after.

And at no point in time were they ever rats, Dad!

Time to get Serial

It’s been almost a year since I’ve posted to this blog on a consistent basis. I think it’s about time I get serial about this thing. And I really hope I mean it this time. Here’s the plan: try and do a month by month overview of 2008 since April and then fill in the blank for 2009. I’ll tell the stories that are interesting, pertinent, etc.

But first a story that has a happy ending (depending on who you were rooting for)…

Hurry on over to Puerto Rico

“What’s the hurry? You’re in Vieques.” That was their motto and I didn’t question it. Why should I? I was on a small island hundreds of miles away from DC – away from the inauguration, away from the crowds, away from the cold, and away from the hustle and bustle of life. With the sun overhead, a book in my hand, and the sand between my toes I hadn’t a care in the world.

Torrey didn’t want to stick around DC during the chaos of the inauguration. Who could blame him? I’d been there and done that two other times, and for a guy I voted for. A crowd of millions in freezing temperatures was not appealing to me. When Dad put the kibosh on a ski trip, I jumped on board Torrey’s Puerto Rico trip. We left Monday for the island territory. The following morning we were on a ten-seater prop plane headed for the tiny island of Vieques, known for its bioluminescence bay and a one time weapons testing site for the US Navy (they left in 2003). Vieques was the perfect island getaway. We stayed at a cute little island guesthouse on the Atlantic side – Casa de Amistad. Using el Publico, we made our way to the Carribean side of the island where the beaches are said to be unmatched in beauty. Tor and I grabbed a quick bite to eat coincidentally enough at one of the few establishments that had American cable and the very thing we were trying to escape – the inauguration.

After a quick bite to eat, we strolled along the beach until we reached an adequately sandy area. What joy to be away from it all! What relief!!!

I wish I could tell you something exciting, but I did nothing. Soaked up the sun, swam in the water, and decompressed, that’s what I did. Torrey did swim out far while snorkeling and I’m pretty sure I saw a fin of sorts. Whether it was friend or foe, we’ll never know.

We met a nice couple at our hotel and pal’d around with them the rest of the trip. We went to a local bar and chatted with the islanders- mostly about life on Vieques and why so many people throw in the proverbial towel regarding life in the states to retreat to the island life. What an enticing idea…

The next day was much of the same. Sandy beaches, clear blue water, and a tropical storm thrown in for good measure. I’m sure it’s the island god’s way to force lazy beach bums to actually get up and find/explore a new beach, which is what we did.

Our stint on the island came quickly to an end. Before I knew it, I was on a ferry headed for the main island followed by a plane ride back to the states, back to reality. The reality of a cold winter and a presidential term just beginning. Back to being in a hurry.

"You're the life blood of me"

I can't add any words. It's all there in the lyrics - the warmth you give at sunrise, your sunsets put music in a soul, the smell of the rain on your skin

So on this day of love, I confess it all. I LOVE YOU ARIZONA! Your mountains, your deserts, your streams. Happy Statehood day Arizona!

Oh, and Happy Birthday to my favorite opera singer Renee Fleming!!!

Economic turmoil affects actors

I had a dream last night. Definitely not as profound as Dr. King's. I must be craving Wendy's or something because in my dream my friends and I specifically sought out a Wendy's. Now this must be a sign of how bad the economy is doing because working back in the kitchen was Christine Lahti (Chicago Hope) and John Heard (Home Alone). Why those two people, I haven't the foggiest. But there they were, and not even doing that well. I think they were about to get fired when we came in for burgers and fries.

Interesting...

HEADLINES 4 YEARS AGO:
"Republicans spending $42 million on inauguration while troops die in unarmored Humvees."
"Bush extravaganza exceeds any reason during tough economic times."
"Fat cats get their $42 million inauguration party while ordinary Americans get the shaft."

HEADLINES THIS MONTH:
"Historic Obama inauguration will cost only $150 million."
"Obama Spends $150 million on inauguration; America Needs a Big Party."
"Everyman Obama shows America how to celebrate."
"Citibank executives contribute $8 million to Obama inauguration."

For the record...

...I was proud to be an American long before it was the cool thing to be.

What was and will be

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year's, Felize Cumplianos and all that other good stuff that I've missed!!! So I pretty much failed at this blogging thing towards the last quarter of 2008. You could even say the last two quarters of 2008. I make no promises in this post. In fact, it'll probably be another week or two before I can realistically jump back into things. My computer has failed me. If it is beyone repair, then a new one I must get. Until that happens, posts will be few and far between.

But I can't leave you without giving you a glimpse of what I've been doing. Opera, opera opera! I've introduced tons of newbies to the artform, watched Renee Fleming perform numerous times, met Placido Domingo, saw Patti LuPone go postal on a guy taking pictures at the 2nd to last Gypsy, went to Maine and didn't eat lobster (sorry dad), joined the unemployed, watched John McEnroe lose, and come Monday I will find myself on the sandy beaches of Puerto Rico avoiding anything and everything Obama-inauguration.

So hold tight. I'll get my life back on track after a little irresponsibility in Puerto Rico and the blog will be up and running once the computer sitch has been resolved.

But in the meantime, shoot me an email or something and let me know how you all have been. Or don't.

The Decency of George W. Bush

By Michael Gerson

Washington Post Op-Ed
Election Day 2008 must have been filled with rueful paradoxes for the sitting president. Iraq -- the issue that dominated George W. Bush's presidency for 5 1/2 bitter, controversial years -- is on the verge of a miraculous peace. And yet this accomplishment did little to revive Bush's political standing -- or to prevent his party from relegating him to a silent role.

The achievement is historic. In 2006, Iraq had descended into a sectarian killing spree that seemed likely to stop only when the supply of victims was exhausted. Showing Truman-like stubbornness, Bush pushed to escalate a war that most Americans -- and some at the Pentagon -- had already mentally abandoned.

The result? A Sunni tribal revolt against their al-Qaeda oppressors, an effective campaign against Shiite militias in Baghdad and Basra, and the flight of jihadists from Iraq to less deadly battlefields. In a more stable atmosphere, Iraq's politicians have made dramatic political progress. Iraqi military and police forces have grown in size and effectiveness and now fully control 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces. And in the month before Election Day, American combat deaths matched the lowest monthly total of the entire war.

For years, critics of the Iraq war asked the mocking question: "What would victory look like?" If progress continues, it might look something like what we've seen.

But Air Force One -- normally seen swooping into battleground states for rallies during presidential elections -- was mainly parked during this campaign. President Bush appeared with John McCain in public a total of three times -- and appeared in McCain's rhetoric as a foil far more often than that.

This seems to be Bush's current fate: Even success brings no praise. And the reasons probably concern Iraq. The absence of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in the aftermath of the war was a massive blow. The early conduct of the Iraq occupation was terribly ineffective. Hopes that the war had turned a corner -- repeatedly raised by Iraqis voting with purple fingers and approving a constitution -- were dashed too many times, until many Americans became unwilling to believe anymore.

Initial failures in Iraq acted like a solar eclipse, blocking the light on every other achievement. But those achievements, with the eclipse finally passing, are considerable by the measure of any presidency. Because of the passage of Medicare Part D, nearly 10 million low-income seniors are receiving prescription drugs at little or no cost. No Child Left Behind education reform has helped raise the average reading scores of fourth-graders to their highest level in 15 years, and narrowed the achievement gap between white and African American children. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has helped provide treatment for more than 1.7 million people and compassionate care for at least 2.7 million orphans and vulnerable children. And the decision to pursue the surge in Iraq will be studied as a model of presidential leadership.

These achievements, it is true, have limited constituencies to praise them. Many conservatives view Medicare, education reform and foreign assistance as heresies. Many liberals refuse to concede Bush's humanity, much less his achievements.

But that humanity is precisely what I will remember. I have seen President Bush show more loyalty than he has been given, more generosity than he has received. I have seen his buoyancy under the weight of malice and his forgiveness of faithless friends. Again and again, I have seen the natural tug of his pride swiftly overcome by a deeper decency -- a decency that is privately engaging and publicly consequential.

Before the Group of Eight summit in 2005, the White House senior staff overwhelmingly opposed a new initiative to fight malaria in Africa for reasons of cost and ideology -- a measure designed to save hundreds of thousands of lives, mainly of children under 5. In the crucial policy meeting, one person supported it: the president of the United States, shutting off debate with a moral certitude that others have criticized. I saw how this moral framework led him to an immediate identification with the dying African child, the Chinese dissident, the Sudanese former slave, the Burmese women's advocate. It is one reason I will never be cynical about government -- or about President Bush.

For some, this image of Bush is so detached from their own conception that it must be rejected. That is, perhaps, understandable. But it means little to me. Because I have seen the decency of George W. Bush.

The writer was a speechwriter and policy adviser to President Bush from 2000 to 2006. His e-mail address ismichaelgerson@cfr.org.

I'm just saying...

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

By Orson Scott Card
Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism.

An open letter to the local daily paper ˜ almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration. It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans. What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor ˜ which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house ˜ along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)

Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?

I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. 'Housing-gate,' no doubt. Or 'Fannie-gate.'

Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.

As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled 'Do Facts Matter?' ( http://snipurl.com/457townhall_com] ): ' Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury.'

These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... The Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!

What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?

Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.

And after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing. If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.

But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an 'adviser' to the Obama campaign ˜ because that campaign had sought his advice ˜ you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.

You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.

If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.

If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.

There are precedents. Even though President Bush and his administration never said that Iraq sponsored or was linked to 9/11, you could not stand the fact that Americans had that misapprehension ˜ so you pounded us with the fact that there was no such link. (Along the way, you created the false impression that Bush had lied to them and said that there was a connection.)

If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as hard to correct that false impression.

Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie ˜ that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad ˜ even bad weather ˜ on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth ˜ even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means . That's how trust is earned.

Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time ˜ and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.

Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter ˜ while you ignored the story of John Edwards's own adultery for many months.

So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?

Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?

You might want to remember the way the National Organization of Women threw away their integrity by supporting Bill Clinton despite his well-known pattern of sexual exploitation of powerless women. Who listens to NOW anymore? We know they stand for nothing; they have no principles.

That's where you are right now.

It's not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven and earth to get the true story out there.

If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.

Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.

You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.

This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.

If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe ˜ and vote as if ˜ President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.

If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats ˜ including Barack Obama ˜ and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans ˜ then you are not journalists by any standard.

You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.

This article first appeared in The Rhinoceros Times of Greensboro, North Carolina.