Someone, Please Help Me...

I cannot understand President Obama's fixation on what he calls "high-speed rail". He has mentioned it several times including during at least one State of the Union Address.

The other day I heard him bring it up again.

If you understand something about the United States of America or the world or economics-in-general that I'm missing, please clue me in.

I'm searching to understand how a bullet train is going to:make us more competitive relative to China, or how it will make us safer from terrorists, or how it will free us from dependence on foreign oil, or how it will get nearly 10% of our working population back to work, or how it will defeat the menace of anthropogenic global warming, or how it will make our children perform better in math and science, or how it will close the wage gap between men and women or blacks and whites, or how it will make government more responsible and accountable to the tax payer, or how it will make Muslims feel better about their contribution to the world of mathematics, or how it will put more teachers in the classroom and more police on our streets, or how it will protect social security recipients and other pensioners, or how it will help us make healthier choices when we shop or eat in restaurants, or how it will reform immigration, or how it will make housing affordable for every American, or how it will help reign in Wall Street bonuses, or how it will curb CEO compensation, or how it will stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, or how it will make deep water oil exploration safer, or how it will ensure democracy in Egypt, or how it will get our soldiers out of Iraq or Afghanistan.

Those are ALL things that President Obama has said are his priorities.

In light of that, I think high-speed rail is a distraction. Keep it simple, Mr. President.

Taylor Swift...

My nine-year old daughter thinks that Taylor Swift is just about the best thing that's ever happened to music. (I happen to think that not much good has happened to music in 20-or-so years.)

And today, her best friend gave her a Taylor Swift CD. Now it's playing over and over and over and over in my kitchen CD player while the girls make Valentine's Day crafts. At least I think it is playing over and over and over and over, but maybe it's just that the songs all kind of sound alike to me.

But as I think about Taylor Swift's songs I think, She's pretty open, brave, vulnerable. I think she's being pretty honest - dressed up with artistic license, to be sure - about how she's felt and how she feels.

Not that I think that she's overly profound or that I have any overly profound thoughts on her music.

I do think, though, that if we were more honest and more open and maybe even a little bit more vulnerable when we talk with each other, we might have more meaningful relationships.

If we really wanted to know how the people we meet are when we ask, "How's it going?"; if we really meant we were doing well when we said, "Good!", what do you think would happen?

Just Some Thoughts...

I just have to get two things off my chest. This won't be pretty or too well-crafted, but I need to get this out.

1. Egypt is headed for an Islamist government. Just as the Iranians in 1979 thought that they were simply overthrowing a tyrant, so the Egyptians think today.

Just as the Iranians thought that they would enjoy greater freedoms under another leader, so the Egyptians think today. Just as the Iranians found their revolution hijacked by Islamists, so the Egyptians will very soon.

And just as the Iranians live under the terrible tyranny of shariah law administered at the ungodly hands of corrupt clerics, so will the Egyptians.

2. John Boehner has been accused of having at least two affairs with lobbyists and staffers. The accusation does not surprise me, and if this turns out to be true, it will surprise me even less.

When he forced the congressman (whose name escapes me now) who shouted "You lie!" during President Obama's State of the Union address to apologize, I knew that he was a person void of integrity and full of cowardice - a perfect example of the corruption that has infected the Republican Party from the inside out.

Can there be any wonder at the reasons "Tea Partiers" are angry, disillusioned, and just plain fed-up?