Saturday, August 28, 2010

I'm Disturbed and there is little humor in this post...

Rant #1 
Today was the Glenn Beck march in DC which he claimed was a nonpolitical event yet then invited the most political person out there to speak (Sarah Palin). Al Sharpton did a counter march because today was the anniversary of the I Have  Dream Speech and saw the Beck rally as an affront. And because he is Al Sharpton he cannot stay away from anything he can construe as racist (WHAT? Did you call it dark out tonight? You are rascist!)

Having been in DC for more than a decade I get caught up in these things. But then I realize and hope that most of America went on with their lives today and the real outcome of both marches today will be: nothing. Because the solutions to our problems do not lie in the extremes. 


Yet I feel the need to write...

It's time to put the race card and the religion card away. Government isn't supposed to have either one in it. Someone needs to play the jobs card, the border securing card, the infrastructure card and the education card. 

Fundamentally I believe in the Tea Party Movement - Reduce the scope of the Federal government so it stops meddling in the free market to redistribute wealth, give power back to the states and be fiscally responsible (Fun Fact: China and Japan own 44% of our debt). I am not sure how these beliefs got construed as racist. That all being said, I do not side with what the movement has become - re: Glenn Beck and the religious right hijacking it with social issues). But it bothers me to NO END when seemingly intelligent people debase their intelligence and use the word TeaBagger when describing anyone who might agree with the fundamental ideas. 

Rant #2
This week I saw a posting on John Dennis' (he is running against Pelosi) Facebook age about Nancy Pelosi. I admit I have not done my due diligence on this guy because at this point I would vote for Lucifer himself in that election because I fundamentally disagree with everything that woman stands for and all of her actions since the Democrats took control of Congress. But Mr Dennis decided to call her the Wicked Witch of the West and superimpose her face on the Wizard of Oz Character. I actually felt compelled to post a comment that maybe he should try a little decorum and be serious since we have some big and serious problems in this country right now. The other 60 commentators thought he was funny and cheered him on. Sigh. 

Almost One out of every 10 Americans don't have a job yet our politicians are trying to outsnark each other. 


Rant #3
I am still disappointed in O and I will never get over it. 5 rounds of golf on vacation - Really? 9.6% unemployment? Foreclosures rising? I don't care how many more vacation days Bush took - YOU were supposed to be different. 

If I were the President and Congress (which I would never be because I have a soul that isn't for sale and a brain that works): I would have not taken a recess. I would have called an emergency session to hold hearings and get idea on how to fix this economy. NOW. I would have listened to EVERYONE - CEOs and Unions, Blue collar and white collar, religious and non religious, gay, straight, white,  black, red, purple polkadotted. And taken the best ideas and voted on them. 


Maybe even come up with a long lasting plan that doesn't revolve around HANDOUTS of 99 months of unemployment checks and tax credits for housing that artificially prop up the economy. That is just prolonging the pain.The housing market fell apart when the credits ended. No one wants to be employed when the checks come for doing nothing so we will have to keep borrowing (from China) to pay for these checks.   

Yea right...Then I woke up from my dream of a perfect world and watched Glenn Beck invoke God and watched Al Sharpton pretend that he is the rightful owner of MLK's legacy ... 


The DL
Here is what is really happening: We have an election coming up so the Republicans are going to block everything to not give the Democrats any wins before the election. The Democrats are going to continue to feed proposals that have no chance of passing but sound nice because they are handouts and entitlements.  As obstructionist as the GOP has been the left has been as unimaginative in trying to find any idea or plan that doesn't involved giving away stuff we don't have the money to pay for (uh, Hey China, can you spot me again?).  

In sum, we are screwed. 








Saturday, August 7, 2010

Lost in Translation

As Ive been researching my upcoming trip to Italy, I have been using the Google Chrome feature which translates web pages into English. This is a literal translation done by a computer so the translations are usually awkward. 

Example from a little wine shop where you bring in the food you buy at the nearby market to have with some wine: 

Italian -  L'Osteria del Sole è un viaggio nel tempo intorno a un bicchiere di vino, dove si può portare la pietanza e mangiare sul tavolone mentre si parla del mondo.

Computer Translation - L'Osteria del Sole is a trip back in time around a glass of wine, where you can bring in your own food and eat the plank while speaking world.

Er? Eat plank? I read the Italian and the better translation would have been along the lines of:

L'Osteria del Sole is a trip back in time with a glass of wine, where you can bring in food and eat at the communal tables while chatting about the world (or discussing current events, or shooting the breeze etc...you get the point)

Since the auto-translation is so poor, many web pages have the little British or American flag directly on them to cater to tourists. I click on this if it is available and assumed (incorrectly)  that since it was part of the website that maybe they actually translated the content correctly as opposed to the very literal computer programmed stuff I was seeing with Google. 

Not. 


Sooo, I was enjoying myself tonight researching where I will feed my face in Florence which is a crucial decision cause I only have one night...and found this well-reviewed restaurant that looked great. The directions were as follows and I learned a new Italian word today:

The Trattoria Quattro Leoni (4 Lions) was founded in 1550: located in Piazza della Passera (passera is the Florentine locution for pussy), a part of the old Florence that you can't find on the maps.


It goes onto to explain that there used to be a brothel located in the square, which I suppose makes sense...