A USAID Press Release: Without Comment

From USAID Administrator, Henrietta H. Fore: Humanitarian Assistance to CubaSaturday September 20, 11:03 pm ET

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Cuba has suffered great damage from multiple hurricanes since the end of August. In response, the U.S. government has offered -- on four separate occasions -- to provide the Cuban people with up to $5 million in emergency humanitarian assistance to those in dire need. Some of this assistance will soon arrive through relief and humanitarian organizations on the ground. More is needed to help the Cuban people in the aftermath of these disasters.

Yesterday, the U.S. government made a fourth unconditional offer of aid: to provide relief supplies composed of family emergency shelters and household kits directly to Cuban relief services. Some of these kits include roofing materials and lumber for residential repair which will assist up to 48,000 Cuban people affected by the hurricanes.

Our offers of direct assistance are unprecedented. The American people want to help the people of Cuba. We want them to have critical assistance now. Moving humanitarian assistance to those who desperately need it should be everyone's top priority. The American people stand ready to help.

Note: This hurricane season has also devastated the neighboring island of
Haiti. The U.S. government has mobilized nearly $30 million for
food, shelter, water, and relief commodities (hygiene kits, water
jugs, plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, and cooking materials) for
the people of Haiti. Just last week, to facilitate the movement
and distribution of emergency relief supplies, the U.S. government
pledged $2 million for emergency repair to key bridges and roads.

FACT SHEET

U.S. Offers New Direct Humanitarian Aid to Cuban Government; Humanitarian
Organizations Set to Move U.S. Aid to Cuba

The U.S. Government has made a fourth offer of critical humanitarian assistance to the people of Cuba in the aftermath of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. In response to Cuba's humanitarian needs USAID is moving forward to provide up to $5 million in emergency relief to Cuban hurricane victims through international relief agencies and non-governmental organizations.
In summary, the U.S. government has officially offered assistance to Cuba on four separate occasions:

September 3, 2008: The U.S. government issued a disaster declaration (on
Hurricane Gustav) and provided $100,000 in cash
relief assistance to humanitarian organizations on
the ground.

The U.S. government also offered to provide a
humanitarian assessment team to assist in producing
rapid emergency assessments of health, sanitation,
water, shelter and food.

September 12, 2008: The U.S. government provided an additional $100,000
(on Hurricane Ike) in cash assistance to relief
organizations on the ground, and affirmed our
intention to channel assistance through international
organizations. The U.S. government reiterated its
offer to provide a humanitarian assessment team.

September 13, 2008: The U.S. government announced up to $5 million in a
relief package that included an unconditional offer
of humanitarian assistance to benefit 135,000 Cuban
hurricane victims. Despite the Cuban Government's
rejection of this offer, international relief
agencies and non-governmental organizations will
receive U.S. government funding for emergency relief
assistance.

September 19, 2008: The U.S. government offered to unconditionally
provide additional relief supplies directly to Cuba
relief services at a value of approximately $6.3
million. These supplies are composed of family
emergency shelters and household kits which will
assist up to 48,000 Cubans affected by the
hurricanes.

The U.S. government will continue to monitor the situation in Cuba. For more information about USAID and its programs go to www.usaid.gov .

The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, have provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for nearly 50 years.

Public Information: 202-712-4810

www.usaid.gov
(Boldface mine)

Obligatory Boomer Bashing Quote

What the Greatest Generation handed down to us -- the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved -- the baby boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end, have frittered away.

-from the Buchanan piece cited below. Got to love the "frittered."

Sunday Tenets

The Third Law of Motion. Patrick Buchanan weighs in on the whole financial mess with an obituary of sorts over at HumanEvents. Lest you get too down, over at TownHall, Larry Kudlow has a piece reminding us of the resilience of this country. Neither one of these commentators is one I tend to subscribe to, since I consider Buchanan something of a racist and Kudlow too much of a Pollyanna. Still, both are true. And as a final public service, read how the New York Times advises safeguarding your money.

The Law of Opposites. Since politics is never too far away these days... I have been pleasantly surprised to find among the pages of Newsweek, the work of a reporter by the name of Andrew Romano. Read his column about the low blows being landed in which he avoids glib answers and actually tries to get at fact. Amazing. Watch this young man.

Murphy's Law. And in other news, the destruction of the world is going to have to wait a while longer. The infamous collider in Geneva has been damaged and will be out for at least two months. Mechanical failure.

Law of Averages. Because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there. Residents of Blackstone, VA are having a hard time convincing wild life experts that there are cougars roaming in their midst. Biggest problem, nary a one has been caught on the motion-sensitive cameras that "dot" forests in the East. Article here.

Religious Law. And in the ongoing jihad against tobacco.... Here's an interesting examination of smoking in Muslim cultures under the guise of the difficulties faced by tokers during the Holy Month of Ramadan. Enlightening

Let's Talk About the "Dignity" of Cuba: A Vituperation

In his latest, the blogger in chief, aka fidel castro, ostensibly clings to the tattered dignity of Cuba by rejecting US aid, while pressing for a lifting, even if temporary (watch that camel!), of the embargo and the cash only terms of sales. He insists on the party line, which he may or may not have originated, that Cuba can not accept "charity" from a country which maintains an embargo against it. Cuba will, however, "purchase" what it needs. This posturing would be laughable if it were not so tragic, if 11 million human beings were not being held hostage to one man's vanity and a ruling cadre's obsession with power.

Memo to the uninitiated: Cuba does not pay its bills. If they could not pay in better times- better relative to, say, Haiti or Somalia- when they were still living off of the the century of development they misappropriated, how in the world will they be able to pay after having squandered those, the disaster magnified to unimaginable proportions by two hurricanes? As pointed out on Babalu, it would seem it is infinitely more honorable to steal than to accept humanitarian aid for a humanitarian crisis.

The "dignity" of Cuba would seem to be something trotted out arbitrarily. Apparently, it does not bother the regime when it goes hat in hat, begging, to countries around the world; when, infantile, it suckled on the Russian and now clings to the Venezuelan teat; when it turns its citizen-slaves into a cash crop like cattle or rice? What dignity, when he and his dim-witted cohorts have trashed one of the once premier economies of the region; when they have turned the Pearl of the Antilles into the Great Mendicant of the Caribbean? And the once yearly pilgrimage to the UN, sniveling about the embargo. What, is the UN really going to dictate to a sovereign nation with whom it can and cannot trade?

If they really cared about the dignity of Cuba, they would care about the indignities they have visited upon the Cuban people. They would free them to utilize their God-given talents. They would get out of the way and allow them the help they need to realize the most basic of living conditions, so that the people can recuperate not only from the hurricanes, but also from the half century maelstrom that has enveloped the nation. Dignity, my a__!

Economic Primer: Part II

At a time when large numbers of voters are apparently turning to the Dems because of the financial mess, it is ever the more imperative that voters educate themselves to what went wrong. It is a truism that an educated public is essential to democracy. Sadly, many of our mainstream media organs have turned into political propaganda arms of the parties. So it is terribly reassuring to run into Time's cover story this week. The story by Andy Serwer and Allan Sloan is a definite must read, containing the best explanations I have come across, particularly of the nearly incomprehensible credit default swaps.

As a matter of interest and a behind the scenes peek at what took place before the collapse of Lehman, you might want to take a gander at "How the Masters of the Universe ran amok and cost us the earth" at The Scotsman, a most interesting entry. Aw, I confess I really like the allusion, both to the cartoon and Bonfire of the Vanities.

So what is being done? In addition to the essential takeover of Fannie, Freddie, the infusion of capital into the system, President Bush yesterday announced a number of other steps. Read the text of his remarks here. My favorite section:

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued new rules temporarily suspending the practice of short selling on the stocks of financial institutions. This is intended to prevent investors from intentionally driving down particular stocks for their own personal gain.
The SEC is also requiring certain investors to disclose their short selling and has launched rigorous enforcement actions to detect fraud and manipulation in the market. Anyone engaging in illegal financial transactions will be caught and persecuted.

Also of particular interest is the government's insuring money market accounts. In theory, money market accounts are not insured, although in some cases it is less clear cut. One money market fund already lowered the share redemption value from 1 dollar to 90 cents. Keep an eye on this one.

Now according to this article, the bailout could cost half a trillion dollars. I've seen estimates as high as a trillion. Which brings me to the reason voters need to know what is going on. The present Democrat proposals encompass increased taxes and increased government spending. Raising taxes in a time of economic difficulty would seem disastrous. As to increased spending, with the tab the taxpayers are going to pick up, it would seem more prudent to cut back government spending in all but the necessary. The government like any private individual is going to have to tighten its belt. Is it possible that Obama would react to present conditions by putting his greatest society package on hold? Possible. But what does he do about all those who voted for that agenda? ???

It's in the News, Che

I once knew an Argentinian whose every other word seemed to be "che," the expression not the murderer, which is incidentally how the murderer acquired the epithet. Reminds me of a cute story, cute at least to me. I was in Miami Beach during the height of the South American buying frenzy in the '80's, when this poor Argentian gentleman was abandoned by his family which was supervising the loading of their manifold packages, this being Miami. Unfortunately they left him in charge of the near life-sized inflated Shamu, the killer whale. My last glimpses of said gentleman had him sitting astride the beast, frantically rocking, as if it were a bucking Bronc, in a seemingly futile effort to deflate the beast while the crammed taxi awaited him, all the time lamenting "pero, che, quien se le occure comprar este bicho?"

That's it for the lighter note, unless you count Humberto Fontova's acerbic take on Benicio del Toro and the Soderbergh movie. Read his article on WorldNet Daily here. I can take consolation in this article from Spain I came across via Penultimos Dias which touching the movie asks whether it is not time to deconstruct the myth? After all if the Che had had his way, "today all of South America would be a pathetic Cuba." Article in Spanish here.

A Political Pulse?

It's come to my attention that PBS, doubtless counting on the particular bent of their habitues, is conducting a poll as to the fitness of Sarah Palin for the office of VP. When I first received an email making the rounds, the number of 70% nay. Since then the situation has reversed. I am not telling you what you should think. I leave that to the other side. But if you should happen to support Ms. Palin, and even if you don't, you can vote here.

In other election news, I ran into a woman with a McCain/Palin shirt today and almost had a fit of the vapors. The impact of this run-in was furthered when there were a handful of McCain supporters with signs at a busy local intersection. We, of course, beeped, setting off a crescendo of car horns. It was marvelous.

H/T fermi

McCain's Take on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Circa 2005

I heard this yesterday and found it on Babalu today. Since the remarks are from 2005, it was pretty prescient of McCain who professes that economics is not his strong suit. By the way, go to Cigar Mike's post here to find the top recipients of the mortgage giants' money. (Boldface mine.)

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator's examination of the company's accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.

For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs--and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO's report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO's report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

How'd We Get Here?

Like those who touch Rumi's elephant in a dark house, it seems a whole mess of people are running around pontificating on the basis of a surreptitious feel of one portion of the pachyderm's anatomy. It's Bush's, no, Clinton's fault. It's a failure of regulators. It's those greedy Wall Street types. It's us.

Your erstwhile correspondent, knowing that these situations are invariably complex, has been investigating. I have no pretensions to great knowledge. This much is evident to any one who takes the time to read about the current situation. It would seem to implicate a whole host of characters. In 1999 President Clinton signed the repeal of the Glass Segall Act of 1933 which had previously separated banks from brokerages and left a regulatory open window, so to speak. In the race to get in on the scads of money from the Real Estate bubble, the instrument of choice was the bundled mortgages. The bundles contained all sorts of mortgages and were not easily quantifiable, obvious in hindsight. Mortgages were given to people who most obviously could not afford them. People got way in over their heads, taking on mortgages they could not afford, figuring they would hit a payday before their interest only ended. The present government coming off of the tech bust did nothing to staunch the flow. Let the good times roll. Alas, it had to end. The banks got hit; the mortgage companies got clobbered.

That would be bad enough, but the situation was further exacerbated by those bundled mortgages, now debt instruments, MBS's. Here it gets really complicated. There's them who bought them, and then there's them who insured them. Suffice to say, there were two problems. One, those mortgage bundles were essentially a pig in a poke. Second, things were so good that many a financial giant got a bit carried away in leveraging. In other words, they invested way more than even whatever they value they placed on the debt instruments.

Here's where the fear part of the fear and greed equation come in. As it became obvious that there were problems with the mortgages, their imputed worth plummeted, leaving the giants in the lurch, as in they didn't have the resources to meet their increased obligations. It's even more complicated still, but my point is that this is one failure that has many fathers. And before the Dems get all holier than thou, they, too, have been complicit. Take a look at the top five recipients of the largess of Fannie/Freddie. One's initials are B.O., pardon the double pun.

Now what is really scary is that the vultures are circling. Remember oil speculators? Now we have the shorts. Here's greed. We now have rampant rumor mongering, driving down the price of a company's stock and lining the pockets of those who have shorted it. At the same time, the declining share price forces the company to come up with yet more money to cover the difference. So in essence, a viable if not robust company can be trashed. They are systematically working their way through the weak and weakened. Lehman, done. Merrill Lynch made a deal with Bank of America. AIG had to be rescued by the Government. Now they're after Morgan Stanley. Washington Mutual is auctioning itself off, and Goldman is probably next. They're even after GE.

I go through this exercise because to use the current financial crisis as a Rorschach blot for a particular political point of view does the country a disservice and solves nothing. And because too often the news these days gives us slogans instead of facts.

*

Once When We Were Young and Foolish

Here's an interesting video of Dick Morris explaining how he became a Republican. What was interesting was how closely it paralleled my own experience. Yes, I not only once (once was enough) voted for Jimmy Carter, I actually voted for George McGovern. I also migrated to the Republican camp as I explained earlier here.

Every day, it seems, despite the liberal mind set that only illiterate louts differ, more and more celebrities are coming out of the political closet or seeing the light. One convert, David Zucker, to a more conservative point of view- I don't think he's a Republican- will premiere his new movie An American Carol on Oct. 3. Be there or be square. Go here, if you want to join the movement behind the movie and become an American Caroler.

Book Shorts

Both Stephanie Barron and Elizabeth Peters have new books out in which they bid adieu, at least temporarily, to their much loved heroines. After nine novels, Barron dispenses with her Jane Austen character, a foregone conclusion after- for obvious historical reasons- she killed off Jane's love interest, Lord Harold Trowbridge. Still, I miss Jane. Murder mysteries set in the court of Queen Victoria seem to be all the thing these days. See Anne Perry's latest. Barron's A Flaw in the Blood begins with a secret summons from Victoria as Albert lays dying. This time, however, the reception Barron's Patrick Fitzgerald receives is quite chilly and the midnight meeting almost gets him killed. So begins a race against death to unravel the mystery. I won't give it away, because it is surprising. Of interest is the appearance in the novel, although not literally because he's dead at the time of the events, of actual historical personage John Snow. Think cholera epidemic and last year's The Ghost Map.

Elizabeth Peters departs from the Amelia Peabody series to return to earlier heroine Vicky Bliss. I cannot tell you the paroxysms of delight I experienced when a discovered there was to be a new Vicky Bliss. The adventures of Ms. Bliss, coupled with the antics of Herr Doktor Schmidt, her romance novel writing boss at the Berlin Museum, as well as the regular appearances of bad boy John Smythe, make for entertaining reading. Alas, as Peters explains the question of time- Bliss hasn't aged in near a decade but time has marched on- in the foreword to The Laughter of Dead Kings, I find she cites "the horror in Iraq." If I wanted political commentary, I would not pick up a murder mystery. Is Ms. Peters only writing the book for those who oppose the Iraq war, or does she presume that anyone literate would be against it? As a consequence, I don't know if it was the annoyance which stayed with me or the new domesticity of Vicky and beau, but the novel did not warm up until the end. There were some nifty surprises, but I'd recommend the earlier ones.

Finally, the devastation left by Hurricane Ike is bad enough, but the storm reminded me of Erik Larsson's excellent book, Isaac's Storm, which details the 1900 hurricane which hit Galveston and killed over five thousand people. Cuba figures in that one, too. In the days before radar, a fatal decision was made to ignore the reports of a hurricane coming from the weather service in Cuba. If you like nonfiction and haven't read it, pick up a copy. It's worth it.

Today's Quote

Bottom line, if Barack and Biden get in office you’re going to need a case of lipstick because you’re going to be kissing a lot of gelatinous big government backside like never before.

-from the Doug Giles piece cited below.

Sunday Stories: Of Cosmetics and the Cosmos

Where to start? An embarrassment of riches this week.

Beyond the Atom. In an exciting development, scientist Lyn Evans, dubbed "Evans the Atom," may destroy the planet if he has not done so already. I'm only half kidding. Seeking to understand the beginnings of the universe, he and other scientists in what is billed as the world's biggest experiment began firing up a 17 mile collider near Geneva. Some scientists fear that the experiment could create black holes in the Earth. If nothing else, the "nerds in nightshirts" are having a lot of fun, witness the "Physics Rap" that has become an internet sensation. Cute Daily Mail article here with link to rap. Updated info from LA Times here, and Hawking's doubts that they will find the "God Particle" here.

About that Crack'd Mirror. Bush may have looked into his soul, but Putin looked to his sway. He maintains that Bush, while a nice guy, is not in charge: as he phrases it is "the court that makes the King." Read it at the Times, the Brit one.

A La Main left. Speaking of the arcane, Elizabeth Spiers in Fortune magazine does as good a job explaining the mortgage mess as I've seen. Basically if you bundle mortgages, you could be and were buying a pig in a poke. All these high falutin' things that are so removed from the source scare me. Remember those professors with the hedge fund that went bust?

Of Shiny Promises. Bruce Bialosky continues the pig metaphor in this article on TownHall in which he delves into the misleading Obama claim that he will cut taxes on the middle class. Seems 40% of Americans don't pay income taxes at all, but instead receive money from the government. The rationale is that they pay social security taxes. Obama would increase these payments and drop another 15% from the tax rolls. I'd like to know if its possible to get more back than you paid in. As Doug Giles writes in this, you can put lipstick on a socialist.... It smacks of income redistribution to me.

On the Gender Front. "Xena" Palin as this piece dubs her is apparently causing much disarray in the enemy camp. Seriously, Sarah Baxter in the Times, the Brit one, writes a pretty incisive and somewhat entertaining analysis of Palin's effect on the campaign at the moment. And as I suggested in an earlier post, Palin's candidacy and the response has led to a new examination of the gender question. Read Allison Linn's article on MSNBC here

Literary Interlude: On His Blindness

On His Blindness

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."
-John Milton

Meanderings: Stick a Fork

The phone rings a few nights ago. It is the little one, who is now not quite so little. In fact, she is calling from a gala in Washington, DC. She is there, having flown in from LA, because she has won a scholarship for film school from a very worthy Hispanic arts group. She is thrilled, overwhelmed by some of the heavy hitters she has spoken with.... I am thrilled for her. The kid deserves it.

...Years ago before I was truly old enough to understand, let alone appreciate, the thought, I was reading the Times Sunday Magazine. Yeah, I've been known to read it once or twice. Anyway, there was an essay in which the writer maintained that there came a time in the life of every man when he realized that he would never ever play short stop for a major league team. I'm taking liberties with the precise wording, as I am depending on memory here. "Oh, kinda silly," I thought. Still it stayed with me.

Then for years as I rejected the rat race, hesitated to put myself out there, relegated my needs to those of others, pooh-pooed my dreams, wondered what my dreams were, I always had a sense that there would be time. There would be time, once I knew. But then, the once seemingly endless stretch of that commodity yawning before me evaporated, almost at once.

It was then I began to understand. There comes a time when you know. You know that certain achievements are now beyond your physical abilities, when you realize that you no longer have the time to reach others. I thought I had made peace with that notion. But speaking on that phone that evening, drowning in the illness and dysfunction which surrounds me, rattling around the house by myself, grateful for the lonely intimacy of peace, I thought, "I'm done. My life is over." And so it is.

Actually, my story is done; the rest is denouement. The story is about her and the millions of others just coming into their own in a world of infinite possibility. This is not necessarily bad, as there is a great deal of relief there. I don't have to worry about achieving. I don't have to worry about romance. It's about being now. I can get joy from the rays streaming through the curtains as I write this. Tomorrow I will cultivate the garden and glory in the sunshine even as the sweat running into my eyes starts to sting. I will live in the moment, a luxury not afforded the younger.

And as I hung up the phone that night, I had to acknowledge that I never took the big chances. I never had that kind of confidence. I never mortgaged my future to a dream. But then that's not quite true. By following the precepts I was taught, maintaining the primacy of family above all, I was risking all. I just didn't know it. But now I do.

In Which I Defend President Bush, Definitely!

The incomparable and sometimes indefensible Anne Coulter hits it out of the ballpark in her column today. Those of us who work in liberal land have learned that discretion is the better part of valor when it comes to our sitting President, as the feeblest of defenses often leads to one's interlocutor forcibly removing handfuls of hair from his or her own pate while gesticulating wildly and frothing at the mouth. Don't believe me? It even has a name: Bush Derangement Syndrome.

My reticence has nothing to do, then, with my feelings toward W. Simply put, he has been a most misunderestimated leader. Yes, he has disappointed. But he has, nonetheless, kept us safe. As I am fond of thinking, every jihadi who died in Iraq is one less on the streets of San Francisco. But that's a simplistic way of characterizing an entire administration.

But back to Anne Coulter who in her incisive way zeroes in on the laudable in the very epithet so often used to put down the President:

George Bush is Gary Cooper in the classic western "High Noon." The sheriff is about to leave office when a marauding gang is coming to town. He could leave, but he waits to face the killers as all his friends and all the townspeople, who supported him during his years of keeping them safe, slowly abandon him. In the end, he walks alone to meet the killers, because someone has to.

That's Bush. Name one other person in Washington who would be willing to stand alone if he had to, because someone had to.

OK, there is one, but she's not in Washington yet. Appropriately, at the end of "High Noon," Cooper is surrounded by the last two highwaymen when, suddenly, his wife (Grace Kelly) appears out of nowhere and blows away one of the killers! The aging sheriff is saved by a beautiful, gun-toting woman.

I am old enough to remember the contempt heaped upon Reagan while he was in office. The verdict of history is often not the same one pronounced by contemporaries.

The entire column here.

In Which I Defend Obama, Maybe...

C'mon folks, is there one among you who hasn't put the proverbial hoof in mouth? I think it is entirely conceivable that Mr. Barack Obama was not consciously picturing Gov. Palin when he made the now infamous "lipstick" remark. First is the question of derivation, that is to say that the economy and the market have been in the headlines as of late, which may very well have influenced his choice of figurative language. "Putting lipstick on a pig" is a time honored way of describing talking up a dud stock. See, the economy, stock market, lipstick, pig. Trust me, I know a bit about loose association.

There is another way to view this flap and that is to picture Mr. Obama as a Machiavellian strategist. You see, Mr. Obama there; he's got himself some right "plausible deniability." It is undoubtedly suspicious that the two images he used relate to females in an unfavorable way. This way, he gets to say "Oops, I didn't mean that." Now just for the fun of it, let's assume that he had no conscious purpose in using the lipstick and fish analogies. Could it be that subconsciously Gov. Palin weighs so heavily and unfavorably in his mind that those were the images that came spontaneously to his previously golden tongue?

In any case, he could check with his running mate as to how difficult it can be to remove said extremity from one's esophagus. Remember "clean and articulate"? There's no hope for it, he's gonna have to take the blow back. That's the way of all politics. But this time, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Co-incidence?

Today, Anastasio Blanco broached an idea that seems to have been percolating in a few minds, including mine. What if these hurricanes signal the beginning of the end for the Havana Commission? It is an idea that you tend to beat back in your mind. First and foremost, there is the suffering occurring in Cuba this very minute. Second, nothing seems to kill off the malignancy that has been eating away at the island for a half century.

Still, I'll leave you with these quirky factoids:
1. The hurricane is named Ike. Eisenhower? A stretch, I know.
2. Ike entered the Bay of Nipe, the same place where the Virgin appeared to the three storm-tossed fishermen. (Incidentally also the setting for much of Telex from Cuba.)
3. The first hurricane hit the tobacco growing region; this one, their mining concerns. Two of the regime's major sources of foreign currency.
4. The Santeria Priests this year- although maintaining fidel's inviolability- did make noises about nature. I figured they had gotten politically correct and took it to mean global warming.
(Twilight zone music.)

Seriously, I suspect that our relationship with the island nation will change based on the humanitarian crisis. Whether for good or for ill, I who have not one iota of ESP cannot predict.

Just How Far Have Women Come?

(I was originally going to post this one in the round up, but it demanded a bit more.)

Much has been said and written about Sarah Palin and her role as a mother, including the duties incumbent upon her as such. There has been a near universal volte face pulled by political parties, feminists, and media types. It would be easy to accuse Democrats & Co of hypocrisy, which is true, and leave it at that, but that would not be complete.

Some of Ms. Palin's chief critics are working mothers themselves. Here we witness hypocrisy of different stripe. Working women are reacting out of their own experience. They know the challenges and omissions of working outside the home. And most of them don't have a male at home to pick up the slack. There is a suspicion, at least, that someone is getting short changed. The idea that anyone would be vice president- just how much does one do- while raising five children sends shivers down the spine. But it is a case of "Do as I say and not as I do."

Many women are not in high-powered careers nor are they working to put food on the table, at least they wouldn't be if they didn't have the SUV and nifty car, both of recent vintage, in the driveway of the McMansion. And what ever happened to Formica? Why does everyone need to have granite countertops? Question them and you will find that they believe they have to work, yet they but help support the household in the style to which they feel entitled. At the same time, they are exhausted. They fear that on some level their children are deprived. I know it sounds harsh, but I've been there.

Frankly, it is up to Gov. Palin and her family to make these calls. I would not presume to judge her choices. I do know that perhaps it is time to rethink some of the feminist tenets we have held dear for so long. Let me be clear. Some women have no choice. Others are called to achieve something. I do not advocate a return to the "bad old days." I remember them. But the reactions to the Palin situation would seem to indicate that perhaps it is time to begin a new discussion.

Sunday Stories: The Political Edition

An embarassment of riches this week.

Northern Exposure. In a piece that's reminscent of the affectionate treatment hitherto reserved for the Obamameister, Nathan Thornburgh in Time gives us a slice of Palin life in Wasilla, AK. A good local color piece.

Pinky and the Brain. To be honest, I've never thought of McCain in terms of his intelligence; his character has always been to the fore. Perhaps I've been the victim of the media bias discussed here at Bloggers for McCain. Caroline B Glick in this Townhall column voices what I have come to suspect, namely that I have underestimated the man. Shrewd cookie, that old Ol' Mac. Tomorrow, he takes over the world.

Cold Case. At the National Review Online, Bill Whittle says it for me and for many others when he professes himself proud of the GOP. McCain's sincerity, his love of country, willingness to accept responsibility, and optimistic vision of America made me proud. Read it here. (Got this one from Babalu)

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Here's a pretty cogent explanation of the Fannie/Freddie morass from John Schoen on MSNBC. Either way, it ain't gonna be pretty. I refer to my earlier post on the state of our economy. Also in terms of explanations, there's an interesting discussion of which two Americas here.

Cheaters. Don't blame them. Genetics made them do it. Swedish researchers have found that a goodly portion of men share the same cheating with other philandering rodents. Other scientists are not so sure. Read it here.

Murder, She Wrote. A Swedish magazine inadvertently confused two herbs in their recipe, making the result potentially life threatening. The story here, followed by an exploration of more toxic seasonings.