Let Freedom Ring--and the Cash Register along with it

The gg really hates to post on politics, but today I was out in the car and made the mistake of tuning in briefly to the Sean Hannity show. If there is anything or anyone who can make me grouchy, it's Sean Hannity. The guy could deliver a simple weather report and just the sound of his voice would drive my grouch meter to never before experienced heights. Today, of course, Sean was focused on the Ft. Hood killings and the shooter Hasan. No need to wait for the facts--Sean has already labeled Hasan a "terrorist," so terrorist it is. But what really got my blood percolating through the old veins was that Sean proceeded to blame Obama for this dreadful act. Never mind reports that the FBI knew about Hasan as early as 2007 and that most of the communications with the Muslim cleric took place during 2008 (i.e. when Obama was still a U.S. Senator and one George W. Bush was President)--it's still Obama's fault pure and simple. The gg has no water to carry for Barack Obama. I like some of the things he has done and is doing, and I don't like some other things he has done and is doing. I suspect it will continue that way for me. I felt the same way about Presidents Bush, Clinton, George Herbert Walker Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Barack Obama was elected as our President by a fairly significant margin. Contrary to his predecessor, he won not only the electoral vote but the popular vote as well. (One can only imagine what Hannity would be saying if Obama had had to resort to the Supreme Court to make him President.) The point is that elections have consequences and the consequence of the 2008 presidential election is that Barack Obama is now the President of the United States and, as such, deserves at least some modicum of respect (at least the same amount as Sean insisted was due to George W. Bush). Today, President Obama went to Fort Hood,visited with the families of the slain and wounded soldiers and delivered a fine speech at the memorial service for the soldiers. Had he not done that, Sean would have excoriated him unmercifully (which he proceeded to do anyway). In his speech, the President promised that justice would be meted out to the perpetrator, in the President's words "in this life and in the next life." The President spoke words with which all Americans should have been able to agee, notwithstanding their grievances--some petty and some real--with the President on other matters. But not Sean Hannity. No, something inside of Sean insists that, 24-7, he must loyally deceive, mislead, misrepresent, lie and hate this President and anyone else who doesn't share the Hannity world view. Sean and others like him talk a lot about rights and freedom. When it comes to the rights of others, they have a history of insisting that with every right and freedom comes a corresponding responsibility. Except that, in their own case, they don't seem to live by that mantra. If they did, they would realize that their right and freedom to go on the radio every day and spew forth their hate and intolerance would get them imprisoned in many other countries, and even beheaded in some. So you would think that in exchange for this unique right and freedom they have they would at least be humbled enough to see fit to exercise the responsibility to tell the whole truth, to not mislead and deceive their audience, to not lie and to not incite hatred (among other things). So on this day-- even if only this day--I held out some hope that even Sean Hannity could find common ground with President Obama's remarks at Fort Hood. But again, I came away disappointed. To his unsuspecting audience (and I believe most of them truly are unsuspecting), he led them to believe that everything known about the perpetrator Hasan came to light since Obama has been President and that Obama alone is responsibe for the political correctness that caused it to be suppressed. (But one shouldn't be surprised by this tactic. After all, to hear Sean tell it, the bank bailouts were begun by Obama,not Bush). You have to wonder about the psyche of a guy who makes his living (and a damn good one at that)deceiving, misleading, misrepresenting and lying on the radio and on TV every day and night (at least Rush doesn't have a nightly TV show). How do you live with yourself? Sean likes his callers to refer to him as a "great American." He may well be one. But in the gg's book, a "great American" is not someone who despises everthing there is about the President of the United States--yes, HIS President--and is not someone who resorts to lies, deceit, innuendo and misrepresentation to undermine him at every turn. "Great Un-American" would be a more accurate moniker for Sean. Frankly, I've grown weary of all this right-left, red state-blue state divide in our country. Sean plays that for all it's worth, but I think it's driving us into a hell-hole. Now that I've said all that you probably think I'm no longer grouchy. You would be wrong. But I do feel much better, thank you.

If they want you to take the same pill twice, why do they give you so many to begin with?

The gg knows he's a tad behind in his posting schedule, but I've been a bit under the weather the past week. But not to worry, being sick affords lots of opportunities for grouchiness. For starters, there's that small print on the pill bottles. It seems to me that with an aging population, most prescriptions these days are written for us geezers, the age group most likely to be visually challenged to begin with. And yet the pharmacists seem to be in a race to see who can use the smallest font on their pill bottle instructions. When I was finally able to make out the fine print on my latest pill bottle, I found these instructions to be amusing enough to at least offset some of my grouchiness: "Take one pill twice daily." I don't know about the rest of you, but that sounds like a dang good trick to me. I guess one best leave it to the good old imagination to figure out the best (only?) way to take that pill once, retrieve it and swallow it again later in the day. And then finally there is the problem with opening the pill bottle. I usually keep a set of tools and a blow torch handy for opening cans, jars, etc. around my house and now it looks like I'm going to have to use the full arsenal to open my pill bottles. All of this because some low-life nincompoop decided some years ago it would be cool to spike a bottle of Tylenol on the drugstore shelf. This was enough to send my blood pressure and grouch meter skyrocketing again simultaneously.