Don Quixokie

Dear President Obama I always credit you with saving this nation's bacon from falling into the abyss of a New Great Depression at the beginning of your first term. I also really like what you did for marriage equality and the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. And most recently, your initiatives on gun control. In most other regards, however, you are the third term of the Bush/Cheney White House: You gave an umbrella to the war criminals of the previous administration; you exchange the policy of torture with drone assassination which are proving as fine tuned and precise as brain surgury with a baseball bat. [On that note, some advice. The people who engineered 9/11 (World Trade Center edition) were our FRIENDS once upon a time. They were the mujahadeen trained and armed by the CIA against Russia. Osama bin Laden and even Sadam Hussein were OUR creatures at one time. How do you see this working out, killing their children and blowing up wedding parties, in 20 years tim...

After the Newtown Massacre of Innocents, I have followed your statements with interests Mr LaPierre. Never before have I heard the argument that the only way to put out a fire is to throw more wood on top of it. Color me AMAZED. Amazing too is your assertion that the ONLY thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Maybe you've been seeing spree shootings in some parallel dimension. Here in this universe it is usually a jammed chamber followed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, if the shooter isn't tackled by would be victims when he's reloading that stops a bad guys. Obviously, being forced to reload more often would give victims more chances to disarm their attacker, though you deny that point. Maybe logic works differently in that other universe you and other gun rights activists see so clearly. Everyone else has to live and be killed in this world. It was interesting how absolutely agnostic you were regarding the gun show loop-...

As everyone who has been paying attention should know, the Republicans are pursuing raising the age of entitlement (Social Security, Medicare) and trying to call that entitlement reform. Brilliant, effective! A significant chunk of retirees won't won't survive long enough to collect SSI and Medicare, there by shrinking demand for these entitlements. THERE'S your savings, Nancy Pelosi! THAT'S the money! THAT'S what you were missing! There is a phrase that describes this type of policy, and it was the Republicans who were in white-knuckled terror and outrage when they accuse President Obama of it. Now the Republicans in Congress ARE the DEATH PANEL! I've a suggestion. Everyone reading this who is an American and who is likely to be impacted by this legislation, should it become law, please do this: If you you die between the age of retirement as it is NOW (12-28-2012) and the new age of entitlement eligibility - have it included in your WILL that you have...

In the 2012 election, two states voted to legalize recreational marijuana. Some things are so damn awesome and wonderful, they merit examination. What this means now and in the future is nothing short of incredible. It's the only area of the states rights' argument that I agree with. Though now legal in Colorado and Washington, pot remains illegal under federal law. Whether the Feds will violate the will of the people or allow all states to write their own marijuana laws is the question we wait to see answered. However, in those two states at least, enforcement of the drug war on pot is scaling back. They will test whether or not taxation of pot will indeed be an effective source of state revenue. I can only imagine it will be a better source than state lotteries as you won't need to face odds equivalent to be struck by lightening or eaten by a shark to get some joy. One thing NOT discussed, yet, is the implications for their respective Depts of Corrections. Those s...

[During the Obama administration] There are some things that are just so stupid and ugly that they demand examination. The escalation of the killing and threat of ground war between the Israelis and and the Palestinians in Gaza are a prime example.. Let me make this clear. I'm not a Muslim. But I really don't think that Christ would be copacetic with the actions of the Israelis either. What I am is enough of a historian to be absolutely disgusted. It was the asymmetrical and l-sided nature of the Middle East Conflict that fostered the  use of suicide bombs and terrorist attacks in the first place...a suicide car bomb being one of the few things that could be made on the cheap and nasty that could destroy a tank. Asymmetrical and lop-sided. We can talk all we want about how barbaric and fanatical the Palestinians are. But this is only one side in this conflict armed with tanks, helicopter gunships, and jets. As of this writing (11-19-12 9PM CT), the body count is ab...

Within the catastrophe of Hurricane Sandy there is a golden opportunity, if we choose to make a virtue out of necessity. The utter destruction of century old infrastructure means it must be rebuilt...and CAN be rebuilt with state of the art technology and with the eye toward survivng another Sandy. Sandy has necessitated infrastructure investment far beyond what would have been possible even with a cooperative House and Senate. History is a marvelous teacher. It was the reconstruction of the infrastructures of Japan and Germany after WW 2 which modernized them. Natural disasters destroy infrastructure as thoroughly as war. In the case of the devastation left by Sandy, armies of construction workers and engineers will be at work for years if not decades rebuilding and refitting in New York and New Jersey. What do you call that? God's own stimulus plan. We are also looking a a crash course clinic in getting and delivering aid to populous disaster ravaged areas. The lessons w...

The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare has created or uncovered a huge shortage of primary care physicians. Ominous, yes? There is a vast opportunity hidden in this crisis. Conservatives have made much about doctors claiming that they'd rather give up their practice than operate under Obamacare. If the burdens of Obamacare is so onerous to physicians, then that can be remedied with subsidies made directly to doctors who participate rather than insurance middle men. That's for the short term. The fact is that the Federal government has an unmatched ability to promote specific industries and make fertile specific fields of endeavor, witness the World War 2 and post-World War deficit promotion of manufacturing which created the greatest economic expansion the world had ever known. For the long term, America needs an investment on the scale of the GI Bill for education for future primary care physicians. The GI Bill, no less that the government's inve...