My Opinion about...

Here is my current opinion on several recent news events:

THE PROFESSOR AND THE COP...It was quite ridiculous and a big over-reaction by Cambridge police to arrest and haul a guy down to the police station merely because he was mad and yelling at them. Police should have thick skins in their job. But I also think the professor, right off the bat, jumped to stereotypical conclusions about the police, when the cop was probably just trying to do his job. As police have to think about the potential for getting killed when they arrive at a scene, their job is not easy. President Obama was right about the numbers--that more blacks and Hispanics are profiled by the police generally. But he stepped into a trivial incident in Cambridge that allowed the biased FOX network to have a field day and try to chip some middle class votes away from him. (Obama's middle class voter concerns should be about job creation and reducing unemployment.) As for the cop and the professor, I guess I would conclude that if I had a dollar for every moment I have encountered a swaggering cop and an arrogant professor, I would be rich.

UNIVERSAL RESPONSE...Whenever someone says "Do you know who I am?" as a way of trying to intimidate, I think there should be an acceptable universal response. Here is my suggestion: "Are you Rutherford B. Hayes?"

SARAH PALIN...She rambles.

SARAH PALIN, SECOND THOUGHT...Well, she rambles and rambles. Bad impression of Tina Fey. Get off the stage. Go do something you might be good at. But I don't think it is fishing. Did you see her in her hip waders that one time? She was fishing with nets. With nets! I didn't see any honest fishing poles. Just nets! That's not fishing! That's cheating at catching fish!

THE MOTHER-IN-LAW...I just watched again the movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" with Ethel Merman as the mother-in-law from hell. Whenever I see Sarah Palin now, I think of two people: 1). Tina Fey, whose impersonation helped to save the democracy; and 2). The son-in-law. O.K., what is his name? Levi Johnston. I think there should be a media rule that when Sarah Palin gets broadcast time, the media should always cut to the counterpoint of the son-in-law on some talk show, dissing his mother-in-law (although they aren't officially Republican "family values" relatives until he puts a ring on the finger of Palin's daughter, right?). I love it. If we are going to be subjected to the Palin "drama," then I want to see the counterpoint son-in-law. Of course, Palin created Levi's undeserved celebrity status, by using him and her other children as props, prancing them around on the Republican stage. In his case, he served as the "make amends" and "step up to the responsibility" concerning the early baby, that Palin needed for her "family values" plank. I thought he looked uncomfortable at the time. When she can't control him or use him anymore, naturally she frustated and doesn't like it. The media and comedians should leave children of politicians alone ONLY if those politicians leave their own children alone and out of the spotlight. If the children are political props, then they have been inserted into the public discussion. The reason I don't follow Sandy and Malachy, or whatever the Obama daughters' names are, is because I voted for their father and not for them, I don't care what they do, and I wish them well in trying to carve out a happy childhood.

HEALTH CARE...Well, see, I can actually get to a subject that matters. America needs a single-payer system. Why Congress makes it hard is baffling to me--Just look globally at the great health care systems that work for all those other democracies of the industrial world. The model is out there. And it shouldn't include the insurance industry.