SeniorJunior

Ok, call me slow to catch on. What's happening on the right wing side of the great American divide is scary. There is something going on that is so much like rabid racism that I am at a loss to give it a proper name. This name needs to be one with the emotional impact of "racism," or perhaps worse. More on that later. Let's harken back to "all Irish have lice." Or "lazy, shiftless Nigras." Or "Theivin,' scheming Kikes." You get my drift. Gross generalizations about some ethnic group or another that demonized them. Sort of humankind at its worst, whipping up hatred and mindless prejudice toward them among the unthinking mob. That unthinking mob might include any of us. You, maybe, unless you are really determined to be a thinking person. Which of course you are. Of course. What's happening in certain quarters of the Right has a direct bloodline relationship to this kind of repugnant activity. I've been hearing

Something about GWBush's pronunciation elicits a confounded response from some of his constituents. For instance, in his speech yesterday supporting a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage, the phrase "institution of marriage" was repeated several times. In Bushspeak it came out "the inshitushun of mairge." I've heard from several Bush supporters that this sets their teeth on edge. The anti-GWB folks get all giddy about how dumb it sounds. It distracts from his message - whether you agree or disagree with that message. A decent speech coach could fix that. A simple run through with GW reading and the coach taking a few notes would result in a gentle admonition for the Prez to be just a shade less mush mouthed. Hey, it's not even a Texas accent. I know; I'm from Texas.

The Trials of Toby On an oppressive afternoon in Bay City, Texas, the shadow of a thunderstorm cloud slides across an older, very modest neighborhood, eclipsing the glaring sun but having no effect on the temperature. In an airless backyard a bone-thin Airedale starts pacing nervously in his six-by-four foot cage. Thunder rumbles and the dog trembles. Thunderstorms have been frightening and uncomfortable experiences for his whole life. And there are a lot of thunderstorms in Bay City. The dog is almost seven years old. His whole life has been in cages, mostly the one he is in as the storm approaches. His lower teeth between his fangs are worn away from gnawing at his cage out of boredom and frustration. His coat is matted and filthy from living with his own excrement. His owner cleans the cage once a week, and feeds him once a day. Airedales are very affectionate creatures, and the occasional visits by the backyard puppy mill owner are the highlights of this one’s life. When he hears t

OK, I have to admit that I have been worked up about this for a while. Here is a suggestion: If every one of us wrote something like this to all the credit card companies and banks we do business with (with copies to your Congress Person, The Prez and the local cops), it might shape them up a bit. LETTER TO BANKS, CREDIT CARD AND CREDIT DATA COMPANIES This is to put you on notice that it is your responsibility to prevent “identity theft.” If you decide to give some criminal a credit card in my name that means you didn’t check to see if you were giving credit to the right person. Or perhaps you actually sent a credit card with my name on it to the wrong person. I had nothing to do with either of these stupid decisions, and I am not in any way responsible for them. If you allow someone other than me to tap into my bank account, it means you didn’t fulfill your business responsibility of monitoring withdrawals. It’s my money in your trust, and any theft from my account is your responsib

Checking Your Credit Card Bills Diligently? I'm sure you've read about the 243,000 hotels.com names, e-mail addresses and credit card numbers gone missing on the stolen Ernst & Young laptop? (Check the Seattle Post-Intelligencer site.) Of course there was another delay in notifying us that our IDs were floating around crimesville. Ernst & Young "deeply regrets..." etc. and if you get proactive - call a toll free number, etc. - Ernst & Young will let you "enroll" in a free credit monitoring service to be aware of when you start getting ripped off. MAIN ISSUE: If some ID thief spends some of your credit, will E & Y "regret" enough to assume responsibility? Or how about the credit entity that lets some scuzzbag falsely use your credentials by not carefully checking to see if it's really you? Will they eat the loss? Hello, Washington.... hello state governments... it's time to write legislation that makes the ban