The Case for Change

Hugh Hewitt has launched "The Obama Project: The Case for Change," linked here, 50 reasons why no sane American should vote for Obama in 2012.

I've always wanted to see all of Obama's big screw-ups spelled out in one giant master list, but somehow I thought the task would be too daunting. But now, coutesy of Hugh, here it is. The article brought back some really painful memories, but it's required reading. This disturbing list is quite an impressive array of presidential disasters, with a long runway fraught with peril still ahead before the 2012 election.

Let's HOPE for CHANGE in 2012.

Update: More reasons added.

Easter Sunday

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.

~ Matthew 28:6

Wired to Read

I received a Kindle for Christmas from my daughter. As a lifelong book-lover, I've looked askance at e-readers since their appearance a few years ago. How could any modern gadget possibly rival the look and feel of your favorite book? Having reveled for endless hours in untold thousands of paper books since age 4, I was completely disinterested. It never occurred to me even to investigate the brave new world of e-reading.

Never. Until I got a Kindle.

Well, since it was a gift, I decided I should give the Kindle a try. One download later, it was like I was hooked on e-crack. They're smart, those Amazon geeks. The screen is not backlit, so the print actually looks like that on a book page. No eyestrain, and you need a light to read. Reading glasses aren't needed--the font size can be adjusted. Classics are available for free--F-R-E-E-!!! Many books are just a dollar or two. Bestsellers can be downloaded--in seconds--for considerably less than the hard cover price. There's no fear of running out of space, as this little slice of reading heaven can hold more than 3,500 books. I can now board an airplane with an entire library tossed into my carry-on.

So now, I've had to assign myself a book budget. Otherwise I know I'll go hog-wild buying books. The other night I set up a "collection" (that's Kindle-speak) named "Childhood Favorites." I went berserk downloading all the books I repeatedly read cover-to-cover as I was growing up--including, of course, The Phantom Tollbooth. At $6+, that was the most expensive item. Did I care? When I could have the first three books of the Anne of Green Gables series for 89 cents? And Little Women and Black Beauty, both for F-R-E-E? Ha! Library late fees, I laugh at you!

Currently I'm rereading Black Beauty, which in my childhood I never noticed was quite a forceful indictment against animal cruelty. I'm debating which childhood favorite to rediscover next. But meanwhile, my reading glasses are still getting a workout. I'm in the midst of reading the hard cover of Extraordinary, Ordinary People, the autobiography of Condoleezza Rice, which is on loan to me from a friend. I had actually purchased that hard cover book for his birthday gift. Somehow, I think the book-lover's honored tradition of the "lending library" will continue for a long time.

For reader exchanges alone, paper books need to survive. I insist that paper books are mandatory. Because nobody's going to touch my Kindle.

Steyn Says It Best

Mark Steyn perfectly nails the destructive arrogance of the current administration in Ending Medicare, or ending America?, linked here. As usual, he can make you laugh through his vivid and acerbic depiction of bad news.

My favorite paragraph is below:

"America, 2011: A man gets driven in a motorcade to sneer at a man who has to drive himself to work. A guy who has never generated a dime of wealth, never had to make payroll, never worked at any job other than his own tireless self-promotion literally cannot comprehend that out there, beyond the far fringes of the motorcade outriders, are people who drive a long distance to jobs whose economic viability is greatly diminished when getting there costs twice as much as the buck-eighty-per-gallon it cost back at the dawn of the Hopeychangey Era."

Steyn is incredulous that we are passively witnessing our own demise through the incompetence of our current government. "The death of the greatest nation in the history of the planet," I heard him term our dire financial situation in one radio interview. If only our "leaders" would be as passionately concerned about our longterm fiscal health as Steyn, a Canadian schooled in Britain who chose the U.S.A. to settle for life and career. He is someone who understands the critical importance of our country to the world.

Sadly, that is a fact that seems beyond the grasp of too many of our current "leaders."

Hopeless Change

Politicians have been rearranged

But in Washington, nothing has “change”d.

If you’re searching for “hope”

Good luck as you cope

With "leaders" now fully deranged.

History Close to Home

Every time an old person dies it's like a library has burned down.

~ Unknown

Her name was Helen; she was my mother-in-law for thirty-eight years.

As the end of World War II drew near, Helen and her parents fled with the clothes on their backs as Stalin's tanks rolled triumphantly towards her village in Latvia. Those who stayed behind, including many in her family, were executed, imprisoned, or became serfs to the brutal rule of Soviet Communism.

She spent seven years in displaced persons camps, first in a German camp, later escaping to an American camp that held out hope of immigration to the U.S. She married her husband, my late father-in-law, in the camps. Her eldest child and only daughter died of pneumonia at age three in the hospital barracks. That same day, she gave birth to her first son, Peter. When Peter was still an infant, Helen arrived in the U.S. with her husband, child, and parents.

She spoke no English, but learned enough to get by while working as a nurse's aide. She had a second son in America, took care of her parents up until their deaths, worked hard and prayed faithfully every day of her life. In later years, she cared for her ill husband for years before his death, and then she nursed a sick family friend until his death. Five years ago she endured the death from cancer of her son Peter, my husband.

The past couple of years, Helen was in a nursing home on the East coast. At the very end, her surviving son and her only granddaughter--my daughter Kristine--were both with her. I'm so grateful they were there; after all she had given in life, Helen deserved that comfort.

Helen died today, at the age of 93. Now all those personal stories of loss, pain, terror, hardship, and hope in the wake of the second World War have gone with her. I will never be so close to a person who experienced firsthand the great global cataclysm that was World War II. It's not just a part of my life that's ended; it's a chapter of history gone, one often overlooked and almost forgotten. I wrote about it several years ago; it's linked here. If you can find the time, please read it, because the story of the Baltic states is now untold. Not enough people know what the people of the Baltic republics suffered. In view of today's headlines, the story of tyranny and how it flourishes in silence is worth relearning.

As for Helen, I can never thank her enough for her son, for my children, for the love she showed all of us. For the delicious gingerbread cookies at Christmas, for the pierogs on special occasions, for the apple pie from heaven, for all she did for everyone.

Paldies, Mom. Thank you. Please give Pete a kiss for me, too.

Just One Daughter

You may be just someone in the world, but you are the world to someone.
~ Anonymous

The scenes from Japan following the earthquakes and tsunami are all terrible, but it’s hard to conceptualize such devastation. The sheer vastness of the disaster overwhelms our comprehension.

Of the hundreds of images I’ve seen, the entire tragedy can be compressed into this one photo of two parents looking at the body of their daughter inside a mangled car. No matter how many pictures I see of fires raging through cities, smoke billowing from nuclear plants, piles of twisted debris, or cargo bins scattered like broken Legos, I come back to this one photo of a family in ruins.

The mother is crouching and reaching into the wreckage towards her dead daughter; the father is standing back a bit, arms slack at his sides, as though trying to absorb the shock of his loss and the fact that he is unable to help. This picture tells one family’s story. These bereft parents represent untold thousands of personal tragedies that are unfolding across Japan.

Devastation can strike any country at any time. In our busy and comfortable lives, we can easily forget that we are mortal. For now, it is Japan’s turn to remind us.

Fate vs. Free Will

The newly released film, The Adjustment Bureau, confronts the eternal question of free will vs. predetermined fate. Do human beings exist in the confines of one or the other, or are both forces at work in each individual life?

Because this concept is a compelling one, and because I heard the director interviewed last week, I decided to see this movie. Was that fate or free will? There's no telling, but it was an entertaining decision. Matt Damon is pitch-perfect as David Norris, the charismatic political candidate who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful Elise, played with soulful enthusiasm by Emily Blunt.

However, their love affair is "off plan," according to the Adjustment Bureau enforcers. These mysterious, super-human beings control and direct our destinies. Whether they are angels, devils, or something altogether different is not addressed. But one thing is for certain--they can really ruin your day.

There are some humorous aspects to these creatures that I suspect are unintended. For example, they need to be wearing some kind of hat to have any powers at all--even a baseball cap will do. Water impedes their effectiveness, putting the viewer in mind of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West. Also, during the movie's innumerable chase scenes, the Bureaucrats are in constant search of which magical door to open next to continue pursuit of their target. For a film junkie like myself, that's too close to the Marx Brothers for serious viewing.

But the film moves at a rapid clip, with the action always layering towards the satisfying conclusion. Set in New York City, the exterior shots give a gritty feel for the city and some lovely panoramic scenes. While in the theater, I had the sense of watching a lengthy, upgraded episode of The Twilight Zone. "You unlock this door with the key of imagination..."

And don't forget your '50s style fedora.

Oscar Ennui

We are such stuff as dreams are made on...

~ The Tempest, Wm. Shakespeare

Really? Well, once upon a time, Hollywood seemed such a place to me.

Never have I been more detached from Oscar proceedings than I am this year. I've seen one nominated movie in the theater and two on DVD. Aside from that, I'm completely uninformed, and happily so.

The King's Speech, which represents my one trip to the movies, was an excellent film. Whatever prizes it collects will seem justified to me. I watched Toy Story 3 on DVD and thought it inferior to the previous two movies. Inception, another DVD pick, would more aptly have been titled Incomprehensible. Good acting, quality production--nonsensical story.

I'll watch the pageant tonight, as I always have since my teenage years. It's a personal tradition. But sadly, never have I cared less who might win.

Educational Wasteland

"I get paid whether you learn or not."

- American teacher, quoted by a former student, in Waiting for Superman

The current government workers' stand-off with the Wisconsin governor over entitlements provides a timely background story for a viewing of Waiting for Superman, the award-winning documentary about the sorry state of our nation's public schools.

Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of Washington D.C. schools--which are, ironically, the worst in the nation--puts it best. She remarks that the teachers' unions are "all about protecting the adults." In the unions' calculated war to protect teacher tenure and taxpayer-funded pensions and healthcare, it's the children, especially poor ones, who are left out of the equation.

If you care about education in America, watch this film. It will make you angry, break your heart, and offer a ray of hope at the end. Waiting for Superman is a movie every parent should see.