Survey Analysis
Work in a Downturn
Depression fears loom in the euro zone as unemployment figures reach record highs
Newsies in the 21st Century
Internet-based news has gone leaps and bounds from its modest routes, but have citizens made the full switch?
Getting Women into the Boardroom
It is no secret that men outnumber women in the boardroom, but is there room for change?
Meat or Veg?
Main Content
The Silly Season
This must be a confusing time for those in Europe and around the world to try to figure out what America is up to.
We’re not certain ourselves. Many are applauding President Obama and his operatives for their deft handling of the demise of Osama Bin Laden. But one American—with or without presidential aspirations—seemed unimpressed, telling a crowd that “Our leaders are stupid, they are stupid people.” Donald Trump, the real estate tycoon and reality television host, may have ended his pseudo-presidential campaign before it never started.
Politics is all blood-sport these days. Everyone is admonishing anyone that we need to get our fiscal house in order, that a collapse is imminent unless spending and our debt are reduced. You would think our leaders would coalesce in the country’s best interest. But with pockets empty and surrounded by a world full of tumult (the Arab Spring, Afghanistan, rising food and gas prices, nuclear meltdown, global austerity), republicans seem preoccupied with abortion, Planned Parenthood, not listening to National Public Radio and never, for any reason, good or bad, raising taxes.
Democrats often seem equally tone deaf. They want to end tax breaks to big oil companies because, I guess, most big oil companies are well run and make tons of money. Watch out Apple, Facebook and Google. Don’t let success get the best of you.
Yet, rising out of the ashes were the feel-good-stories that charm Americans, allowing us to momentarily ease up on each other. A royal wedding preoccupied us for at least a week. Who was invited? Who wasn’t? Didn’t Pippa steal the show? It was a healthy distraction. Then our politicians quickly put the gloves back on.
Though, they hardly bothered to lace them. Michelle Bachmann, republican from Minnesota and non-revolutionary war expert, wants to run for the presidency. In preparation, she went to New Hampshire and informed her audience that “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord.” No, not really. That would be Massachusetts. Newt Gingrich, remember him, is also running for the presidency as a republican. Some say he is an “idea factory.” When asked why he had been unfaithful in his marriages, Newt responded that “There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.” That’s from an idea factory?
Newt and his third wife are, by the way, both publishing books soon. They want everyone who buys them to know that we Americans live in an exceptional country. Exceptionalism is a hot word in politics. Some of our politicians cannot fathom living one day in an unexceptional country. But who can accurately say what country is exceptional and which aren’t? I’ve never spent time in Lapland (not a country, but part of one) but I imagine it to be exceptionally beautiful. The poet Dylan Thomas, from Wales, once wrote that “December in my memory is white as Lapland.”
Newt’s wife’s book is a children’s book. Good for her. Good for them. But here’s the thing: why do so many people who suddenly find themselves in the limelight feel compelled to pen a children’s book? Maybe Pippa’s writing one, too!
The aforementioned Trump, to his credit, is apparently not writing a children’s book. Good thing, too, because F-bombs filled a recent public speech of his. Trump came up rather empty when his oft-repeated requests for President Obama to release his long-form birth certificate prompted President Obama to release his long-form birth certificate. I’m not sure what the ‘birther’ uproar was all about anyway. While I haven’t been to Lapland, I have been to Hawaii. Like our president, I would have loved to have been born there.
It’s exceptional!