A Hillary Clinton Thought

Maybe Hillary Clinton decided to say something nice about Nancy Reagan by talking about her stance on stem cell research, and had a brain fart and said "HIV/AIDS" instead? If so, that was her second mistake. Her first was wanting to pander to the right-wing nuts in the first place.

In a situation like this, where the deceased isn't worthy of adulation but you want to be respectful, all you do is offer condolences to the family. That's it. Hillary, in trying to score points with conservatives -- who will never, ever, show her the same courtesy -- offended many of her core supporters (in November, if not necessarily during the primaries) -- people of a certain age who lived through the days of the despicable Reagan administration. In case you weren't alive then, or somehow have forgotten that bastard, here's Dan Savage's rant.

Nancy supported her husband's evil, reportedly abandoned her friend Rock Hudson when AIDS was killing him, and only started advocating for stem-cell research after Ronnie was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. And her puerile "Just Say No" anti-drug effort, if anything, did more harm than good.

If Donald Trump becomes our 45th President, remember this day.

Money's Too Tight (To Mention)

If you know music of the 1980s then you know this song by Simply Red, although a couple of things seem to have slipped my memory. First, I didn't really remember the direct jabs at Ronald and Nancy Reagan near the end of the song. In addition, according to Wikipedia this was the band's first single, released in 1985, with their first big smash "Holding Back The Years" not coming out until 1986. Somehow I had them reversed in my mind.

At any rate I think some artist should cover it now, updating the lyrics to refer to Mitt Romney and some other GOP frauds instead of the Reagans.

Anniversary Weekend

While waiting for the Super Bowl, here are a few brief thoughts on a events being remembered from the recent and distant past.

One year ago yesterday was the anniversary of the car crash that took the life of Brendan Burke. Here's a fine article that talks about his legacy -- what his coming out, followed by his tragic death, means for gay hockey players and leagues, as well as the eventual coming out by someone in the NHL.

Also one year ago yesterday, Snowmageddon. 28.5 inches of snow officially here. And a few days later, another foot-plus, which would be the third storm that dumped a foot or more on us. But I think this winter has been worse. Because of the couple of large storms and a number of smaller ones, our snowfall total was actually running ahead of last year's total at this time (although now we're behind again, since we didn't have another abominable snowfall in the last couple of days). And the cold has been relentless. At least today and tomorrow the highs will be in the 40s, giving us a little break.

And it seems that 100 years ago today, Ronald Reagan was born, and there's a lot of talk about his presidency as a result. Unfortunately, his policies live on, repackaged and twisted into even more despicable form by the current GOP. For me, June 5th, the day in 2004 when Reagan finally died, is the day to commemorate.

Restore Sanity?

I'll try and write about the three movies I recently saw in the coming days. But first, a political rant, with Election Day almost here -- and, by the way, make sure you all vote. There's no excuse whatsoever not to vote.

I was amused by the flurry of Twitter activity today revolving around the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" held in Washington. Co-hosted by Comedy Central stars Jon Stewart (pushing sanity) and Stephen Colbert (in character, representing fear), it seemed to be a response to the rally of right-wing nuts back in August, and a plea for kinder, gentler political discourse.

I didn't watch it. Perhaps it was entertaining. (Yes, there were entertainers there, from Sheryl Crow to Mavis Staples to Ozzy Osbourne and the former Cat Stevens, Yusuf Islam.) Perhaps it was more than an unusual vehicle to promote "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." But for my money, it was a waste. It's the same old "let's find common ground" message that has failed for the last 30 years, since Ronald Reagan took office and began his reign of terror. Democrats, liberals, progressives, whatever you want to call yourselves, you need to get this into your heads once and for all: THERE IS NO COMMON GROUND WITH THESE PEOPLE. They are out to defeat you and destroy you. They will never play nice. They'll pretend to do it, and then stab you in the back the first chance they get.

This is why the Republicans are likely to regain control of the House and, at the least, gain a number of seats in the Senate.