Monday Musings: January 10. 2011

According to the Pew Research for People and the Press - “Distrust, Discontent, Anger and Partisan Rancor”, report of April 2010:

“Tea Party backers have even more negative views about government than the public more broadly. Fully 43% of those who agree with the Tea Party movement are angry with the federal government, compared with 21% of the general public. Among those who agree strongly, 61% are angry with the government. Similarly, 24% of those who agree with the Tea Party movement say they never trust the government in Washington to do what is right (including 34% who strongly agree with the Tea Party movement); 11% of the general public says the same.

In addition, 73% of Tea Party backers say the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms, including 57% who say the government is a major threat. Among those who strongly agree with the movement, 86% say the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms and 73% say it is a major threat. By comparison, the general public is divided. Nearly half (48%) say the government threatens their personal rights and freedoms, including 30% who say it is a major threat, while 50% say it does not threaten their rights and freedoms.”

Add to that, 47% of Tea Party members own a gun, compared with only 33% of the general population (also according to Pew).

I’m not going to suggest that such correlations necessarily mean that self-described Tea Party supporters are more violent, or prone to commit or support violent acts against the government. But when there’s enough smoke, reasonable people might be forgiven thinking there is a fire somewhere.

Add to this, the influence of Fox News and similar media outlets, who have undertaken a deliberate campaign of mis-information designed to fan the flames of Tea Party mistrust - because it makes for great ratings, and even greater revenues for them, while their pundits enjoy even brisker book sales and public appearance ticket receipts. It isn’t ideology that drives that train - it’s money.

More smoke.

Follow this up with the apparent fact that Tea Party gatherings seemed to me at least to have a much greater potential for out-of-control behavior, often resulting in violence.

Thicker smoke.

I hope you will forgive me for at least perceiving at least a small cause and effect correlation there.

“We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry,” Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said on Saturday after the shooting.

Naw. Do ya think? Prejudice and bigotry can extend beyond race and ethnicity. It can easily extend to political associations and simple fundamental beliefs.

 “There is a need for some reflection here — what is too far now?”  an unnamed Republican senator told Politico. “What was too far when Oklahoma City happened is accepted now. There’s been a desensitizing. These town halls and cable TV and talk radio, everybody’s trying to outdo each other.”

We going to have to suffer through days and weeks now of Republicans and Tea Party types asking that we all tone it down, become more civil and move on. They’re already suggesting that ‘there are extremes on both sides’. Yes, there probably are, but I haven’t spotted nearly as many on the left as the right. Unfortunately, the caustic political rhetoric of this last election cycle - much to the occasional chagrin of Liberals - has been loudest on the right. The Tea Party seems to be naturally inclined to shot self in foot with inflammatory talk.

I hadn’t heard any Liberals or Dems suggesting that it might be time for “Second Amendment remedies”, had you? Which Democrat marked opponents with target crosshairs, suggesting they needed to be “taken out”? Quick! Quick! Name one.

But Nevadans can all rest assured that Congressman Dean Heller, R-NV ain’t worried ‘bout nuttin. Yup. Yup. He’s not worried about his personal safety.

“There has never been a moment that I felt that my safety as a member of Congress has been put at risk,” said Heller, R-Carson City. “I wouldn’t anticipate, unless this becomes more of a pattern, that anything would change at this point.”

Has this man been living on the same planet as the rest of us? A “pattern”? How about 104 school mass shootings? How about Oklahoma City, and Fort Hood - politically motivated? A freaking “pattern”? Dean, pull your head out.

As a late relative in New Hampshire used to say: “Don’t worry ‘bout nothin’, cause nothin’s gonna be all right.”

I’ll tell you what the real tragedy of all this could be. That come a year from now, and nothing has changed. We’ll have ‘moved on’ to the next crisis. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of moving on before having made a good faith and BIPARTISAN attempt to fix what’s wrong.

Read what my collegue, Blue Lyon has to say. She has some gooood stuff over there. Rather than bloggers inciting violence, some of us are appalled by it.

A couple of days ago, I was laying in the Lazyboy, with my gimp knee elevated, ice pack on, reading a relatively short (eight pages) monograph/tutorial ‘Understanding the Federal Deficit and National Debt’ by Our Fiscal Security/Demos.

I alternate between that kind of thing, Cooking Channel and DIY Channel. What I’d give to have a really great novel to read right now, but for the life of me, I can’t pick one.

It’s essential reading for anybody who might open their mouth to make comments about the national debt. Bottom line: we’re headed in the wrong direction. We need to stop worrying about short term deficits that are the inevitable result of efforts to get us out of recession - and will go down once the recession is over - and focus on the long term deficits that are the inevitable result of ballooning healthcare costs - that will result from the half-assed health plan that the Republicans enjoy referring to as Obamacare. Actually, it was their half-assed plan to begin with, and was enacted with the help a bunch of scared Dems.

I hope you’ll read it and become better informed.

We just watched a pretty durn good piece about the addictive nature of slot machines on CBS ‘60 minutes’.  It strikes very close to home. Watch and then I’ll explain.

We had an elderly female relative in our family that was, without doubt, addicted to gambling. Particularly slot machines. She passed away a number of years ago. It wasn’t funny, watching the arguments, after she gambled away her monthly checks, the stones out of her wedding bands and left markers all over Reno. It was terribly sad.

Also very sad have been the friends who’ve had businesses nearly destroyed here in the Reno area, by trusted employees who embezzled to fed their gambling habit. The one I’m thinking over got more than $35,000 from a friend who had a small business. The large non-profit that I worked for, the Nevada Wing, Civil Air Patrol was victimized by a long-time trusted employee who embezzled over $250,000 to feed his gambling habit.

That was taxpayer money. Yours and mine, that should’ve been going to vital search and rescue efforts.

I can’t recount how many people I’ve known who’ve let gambling destroy their lives. Take their jobs, health, homes and more. They end up on ‘the dole’. You and me, the taxpayers, get to pick up the tab and the pieces. Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania isn’t telling you about the huge bill that comes due to communities and cash-strapped states thanks to ‘gaming’.

At the end of the day, I can’t think of anything stupider than taxpayer subsidized gambling to get states out of fiscal crisis. If gambling were a solution, then why is Nevada in the tank fiscally? Why do we have the most archaic, regressive tax structure in the country? Why do we top the charts in unemployment, if gambling were the panacea that Gov. Rendell says it is?

He says we don’t get it. No, Governor, you’re the one who doesn’t get it. Five will get you ten, that Rendell is getting paid by gambling interests.

The knee is better, and the swelling has gone down by half - with the help of hot packs now. However, gimping around on crutches, holding my right leg up while occasionally touching down to earth on tip-toe has cause a secondary problem. The right calf muscle shortened up and I now have a giant ‘charley horse’ in that area. I’ve been trying to walk without the crutches, flat on my right foot, to lengthen it out. But I think I’ll call a physical therapist friend tomorrow.

I think I’m looking at a good two weeks off from skiing. As one of my readers pointed out, “don’t re-injure an injury.”

Good advice. But it didn’t keep me from mopping and vacuuming yesterday. And doing laundry. I can’t help myself.

We had a wonderful dinner the other night with two couples - one that lives here in the South Hills neighborhood - and it was a super evening. Drinks, conversation, great food prepared with love, and board games. Can life get any better than that?

Our host/neighbor had the original version of Sequence. Her parents actually knew the originator/inventor of the game, originally called ‘Gimme Five’. Next to ‘Apples to Apples’, it’s one of my favorite games. One of those ‘build and block’ games, it’s not difficult to learn, and you can easily play teams. We played gals against the guys.

No, I’m not gonna say who won.

Natacha had to re-take Statistics down at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. She had her final exam today, and she thinks she’ll get an A for the course. Well done! That’s gonna keep the old GPA up there for further scholarships. Bravo. She’s also moved to a new place, an effeciency room that is much closer ( a five minute walk ) to class, that is also much cheaper. School begins again on Wednesday.

Well, Mr. Maven is rooting and hollering over a Bowl game in the living room. I guess I’ll go put some truly amazing ‘Gringo Albondigas’ soup in front of him.

Finally - I’d ask one thing of you all. Please craft your comments carefully henceforth. I encourage you to say what’s on your mind, but please do it with some bit of civility. I don’t wish to become like the people I rage against, and I’d rather you didn’t either.

Please check out the post on Impurely Maven about gun rights.

Cheers.

Have a great week.

-maven

Update on Sunday, January 9, 2011 at 20:52 by mavenandmeddler

There will be a lot of discussion about mental health services vis a vis the shooter in Arizonia. For a really comprehensive look at this part of it all, please read what The Desert Beacon has posted.

She takes it from the larger sense, right down to what’s been happening right here in Nevada:

an excerpt:

Before anyone in Nevada is tempted to pass judgment on Arizona’s situation in terms of mental and behavioral health services, we should note that in 2006 Nevada received a “D” grade from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and the same “D” grade three years later in 2009.  In health promotion and measurement terms (evidence based practices, emergency room waiting time, quantity of psychiatric beds) Nevada got an “F.”