Little Wolf's World

Over the last month the 3 sons of one of my brothers all had milestones in their lives.  The eldest of the three graduated from High School.  The middle one had his confirmation a week later, and finally the youngest had his Bar Mitzvah this past weekend.

 

I found it interesting that these three had happened all in the same year.  And to make matters even more hectic for the family this year, my brother had a milestone birthday in February.  Big year for a 5 person family.

While I don't think the Democrats are doing everything correctly, they do seem to be putting the playing the election year politics game better this time than they had recenlty.

 

I like that they proposed a minimum wage increase, even though it was unlikely to pass.  The Republicans have gotten good at this kind of masterbatory politics.  The whole thing with the Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage, the Flag Burning Amendment, the non-binding resolution that basically said "We will win the War On Terror." 

 

The Democratic proposal to strategically withdraw the troops from Iraq and the Minimum wage are both good political moves.  It is about time that they start to push some issues instead of standing around and wringing their hands saying, "Oh we can't do anything." 

 

 

After my rant I needed to do something lighter.

 

I was preparing to brush my teach the other night and realized that all of my toothbrushes (3 at home, 1 at work, don't ask why I have 3 at home I'm not completely sure how that happened and I have bought them all.) as well as the tongue scrapper that I have are all purple.

 

I like the color purple, but that seems a little ridiculous.

 

Below is the complete text of a statement made by Mr. Bush on North Korea after the meetings with the European Union today in Vienna.

 

When I read this quick story, I had to restrain myself from laughing.  The first statement that really go to me was "The North Koreans have made agreements with us in the past and we expect them to keep their agreements."   Sort of like we have signed the Geneva Convention agreements but are finding ways to ignore them, by designating people as enemy combatants instead of Prisoners Of War.

 

The other statement that really got me was:"It should make people nervous when non-transparent regimes, that have announced that they've got nuclear warheads, fire missiles.  This is not the way you conduct business in the world. This is not the way that peaceful nations conduct their affairs"

No as we all know non-transparent resgimes that have announced they have nuclear warheads, and is the only country to have ever used anuclear weapon, conducts business in the world, as a peaceful nation, by invading other countries.

 

Okay enough rant for one lunch.

 

The President is using the 'Bully Pulpit' to make the defense of marriage an issue again this election year.  He is working closely with Presidential hopeful Dr. Bill Frist to get an amendment defending marriage by getting a Constitutional Amendment  to prevent same-sex couples from getting married.

 

I have thought about this long and hard, or at least since last Thursday, and I've decide to through my hat in the Constitutional Amendment ring in defense of families in this country.  As such I am hear by proposing a Constitutional Amendment banning marriage. 

 

Yes think of all the improvements in society we would have without marriage. No divorce for one.  After all you can't get a divorce if you aren't married to begin with.  The tracking of the statistics that go with this blight on our society will drop dramatically if we eliminate the whole practice of marriage.  This would also eliminate the damage done to children whose parents get divorced, and after all this is about the kids.

 

We would also completely eliminate spousal abuse.  After all you can't abuse your spouse if you can't get married.  Oh think of the improvement in society if we don't have to worry about spousal abuse.

 

For those who have a problem with it, it would also eliminate inter-racial marriage.  After all you can't have an inter-racial marriage if you don't have marriage.

 

Another thing that this will eliminate is adultry.  After all if you aren't married you can't actually cheat on your spouse.

 

These are just the tip of the preverbial iceberg.  I'm sure as I move forward with my campaign more advantages to the elimination of marriage in this country will come out.  Please feel free to help me come up with additional social ills that we can eliminate with a Constitutional Amendment banning marriage.

 

On Friday, prior to Shabbat, Wife and I went to see X-Men: The Last Stand.  I enjoyed the movie.  There were some small things I didn't like, but as with all adaptions the material will be changed somewhat to fit the media in which is being used. 

 

Two specifics I wanted to talk about, one is the lack of NightCrawler.  Nightcrawler was/is one of my favorite X-Men characters from the comics and I was sorry he wasn't included in the movie.  The other is that they introduced a large number of 'X Universe' characters in this movie, some of them were good, and others, well not so.  They did introduce a couple that I liked from the comics that I have always liked and used them well.

 

Overall, if you liked the first two movies I don't think you will be disappointed.  If you are a fan of the comics, it may leave something to be desired.

 

I also saw Wedding Crashers over the weekend. I hadn't seen the movie, and from many of the commercials thought it looked somewhat stupid.  As I didn't have to pay for it and I was out voted, though I didn't really express my opinion, 3 to 1 on the subject we watched it. (We were at my Sister-in-Law's when we watched it.)  The movie was quite enjoyable.  It was much funnier, and at some points more endearing, than I had thought it would be.  I did enjoy it very very much, and if you are one of those who haven't seen it I do recommend it. (Just as a warning, it does have some nudity and language in it if you are sensitive to those kinds of things.)

 

As indicated elsewhere, I also attended a live preformance of Grease this weekend. (Aren't holiday weekends fun.)  I have seen the movie a number of times, but had never seen the play.  I thought the play was very good.  While essentially the same story there were a few differences that made for an enjoyable evening.

 

Well that is the entertainment report.  I probably won't have a chance to post anything else before this evening, so I hope one and all have a wonderful Shabbat and that Shavuot isn't to fattening or exhausting for anyone.

 

 

Over the weekend Wife and I were having a political discussion with her sister and brother-in-law while at a dinner theater for a preformance of Grease.  It wasn't very long but it really was something telling about the problems that the Republicans are going to be having over the next several years.

 

Wife is a 'Reagan Republican,' Brother-in-law is a registered Independent with Democratic leanings, Sister I am not really sure about but is probably and independent, and I am a registered Democrat.

 

Wife has always been a stanch Republican for as long as I have know her and I don't believe that she has ever voted for a Democrat.  (The only possible exception is if she voted for Clinton for a second term, and I don't remember.)

 

Wife was annoyed with the Republican party with their passage of the Terri Shiavo bill last year.  But that was just the beginning of her disillusionment.  She doesn't like the direction that this administration is taking the country in terms of civil liberties.  She has complained several times to me that she doesn't understand why the President and the Republican controlled Congress seem to feel a constant need to take away our Constitutional freedoms. (Yes we do discuss things, and she has her own opinions dispite what that last statement may sound like to those who have been reading my opinions of the Unitary Executive.)  She has been getting more upset with the ballooning deficit and the situation in Iraq. (We were both in favor of the invasion of Iraq. Now we are both upset with how poorly the conflict is being executed.) Wife was upset with the Republican Congressional leadership and their complaints about the seizure of items from Representative Jefferson's offices on the Hill.  (Her comment was something about why is okay to take away our civil liberties but they can't have non-Capital Hill police seize things from a Congressional office with a court issued warrant to conduct the investigation at that location. (There was also something about warrant-less wire taps in the rant, but I am not sure where that was.)

 

Wife has said a number of times over the last 12 to 18 months "I want to know where my Republican Party has gone?"  and "Why do the right-wing extremists have to have control of the party, can't they just form their own party?"

 

Those last two statements are really the telling part.  The Republican Party, recently, has moved so far away from the center of their own party that they can no longer attract the interest of the truly moderate Republican.

 

The final statement that Wife made, this weekend as a matter of fact, and the one that prompted this post.  "If things don't change soon, I think I am going to change my party affiliation and become a Democrat."

 

Why are the Republican's going to have problems over the next few years.  They are becoming a narrowly focused party of the far right and they are lossing the middle ground that put them in power in the first place.  (Of course lots of corruption isn't going to help at all either.)