SeniorJunior

THE JOY OF PUBLICATION II I said it before; I'll say it again. There is something special about seeing one's letter in a paper. This one is in the April 21, 2010 The Independent one of our East Mountain weeklies. The publisher Wally Gordon interviewed three of the local "Tea Party" organizers after a small rally. He used "Passion" in his headline. It was a good piece, quite fair, and used many quotes from the three ladies. One of them, a Mrs. Cooper, said she "didn't believe in health insurance, didn't have it and wouldn't use it if she did." She also said "death panels" were in the health care reform law. I was moved to write a letter. (You probably have to click it to read it.) I even got a "fan" call from a guy happy to see another liberal in the East Mountains.

The Frumster Some of my best friends are Republicans. Seriously. However, only a tiny fraction are ultra-right-wingers. (Note the restraint. I did not say " wingnuts ," which I think reflects the poison in our polarization.) For the record, I think two strong parties with opposing, well-defined ideas for solving our problems and facilitating The Pursuit of Happiness, Justice for All, etc, is the way it oughta be here in the U.S.A. However, the collapse of the current Republican Party into internecine warfare between the Tea Partiers and the Big Tenters is NOT helping the Repubs define their ideas for solutions and facilitations . David Frum , ex-W guy and author of "Comeback; Conservatism That Can Win Again," vividly spells out the problem with the Tea Party approach; NO SOLUTIONS. Check it out. So I say (in awe of myself for my open mindedness) that if David Frum suddenly replaced Sen Jim DeMint /Michael Steele as the main conservative thinker,