Swing your partner, do-si-do . . .

I just ate one-half a box of girl scout cookies and a quart of milk. It began as just two cookies, but there is some evil ingredient in the do-si-dos that ensnares me in their peanut buttery crunchiness.

So now I'm feeling badly. My stomach is distended and my guilt is expanded. But why feel guilty? I bought them from girl scouts, for heavens sake. How bad can they be? Is it so wrong to enjoy a bit of life while giving to charity?

Which brings me to the question, what is life all about after all?

I think it is like a game of computer solitaire. For generations and generations new hands are dealt. Some generations do very well, others not so well. But each plays the hand as best they can.

But a generation will come that will do it all. All the cards will fall in place and boom!! the stacks of cards will explode and bounce in a triumphant dance because the game has been won as the combination of player and cards was finally perfect.

What is in those cookies, anyway?

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Thurvey 2/10/2011

The Thursday survey questions of the week:

How would you cut federal spending? Be specific.

or

Black Swan? Great movie or great hype?

Snowblindness

I like snow. It makes my yard so beautiful, white and smooth. It covers the leaves and sticks that I never raked. The broken grill that I meant to throw away becomes a cottony sculpture. The stack of flower pots and recyclables that should have been put up or hauled away months ago disappears for the moment. The beautiful snow covers up a lot of things.

There was a time, a couple of long months ago, that we were dreaming of a White Christmas in Dixie. And we got one. Then we got a snowy week to begin the new year. Then we got a surprise ice snow storm to begin February. Then we got a couple or three inches last night.

I'm ready to wake up from that dreaming.

I still like snowfall. But I live in Alabama where it is supposed to be the occasional unexpected holiday, sometimes skipping a couple of years. Something we like to dream about.

And now it seems the national unconsciousness is dreaming of budget cuts.

Cut the Budget!!! Yeah!!!

Better start listing the school closings.

Slogans and mantras do not solve large economic problems. They simply provide a nice, simple covering for complex and sometimes dirty things that lie underneath their shiny surfaces.
Today there is talk of dramatic cuts in government programs. The cuts would do away with the Public Broadcasting System as we know it. NPR, WBHM, and probably Alabama Public TV would not survive in their present form. Public television in Alabama has provided educational programming for generations of Alabamians, supplementing a sometimes wanting education system, actually a pioneer in the nation for such endeavors. And public radio is a last bastion of old school news objectivity. Who's gonna complain about that? Probably a lot of people, but there will be one less place for their voices to be heard.

Legal help for the poor. Gone. Who's gonna complain about that? Certainly not the poor. We know they have no voice.

Environmental Protection Agency. Gone. Who's gonna complain about that? No one except the tree huggers and a couple of owls. And that couple may not be around long to complain the way things are headed.

Policemen. Prisons. Teachers. Courts. Judges. Aid to children. Who's gonna complain?

Just frills. We don't need to be throwing money away on such services.

So yeah!! Cut the Budget!!! Cut the Budget!! Cut the Budget! Cut the Budget. Cut the Budget?

When the snow melts, the ugly things re-appear, uglier than ever.



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Thurvey

After a rather extensive hiatus, the public will prevails, and the Thurvey is back. For those of you unfamiliar with the Thurvey, it is merely a Thursday survey. Rather than another rambling post by me, which this intro is in danger of becoming, I simply ask a question and you post comments in response to the survey question. If you are not blog comment experienced, I would love to be your first. Just click on the little word "comment" below the post and follow the instructions. Be anonymous if you wish. Anonymous Chicken. Just kidding.


The Thurvey question is:

What is the cause, if there is a common one, of the protests and resulting changes/revolutions in many of the governments in Africa and Middle East? What role should the USA take and why?

Alternatively, for those who wish for a more light-hearted question:

Super Bowl. What would be your dream half-time show?

So there it is. Let the people speak.

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