Fathers Day Blog
This week lets talk about greed and the oil spill crisis, World Cup Soccer, and the Presidents recent address to the nation...
Happy Father's Day, Boggies. Sadly I could not spend time with my Dad on this Father's Day but I will be up there to visit him soon.
I hope to hear his voice on the phone today. Mom is usually pretty good about calling from the Nursing Home and letting Dad mumble a little into the phone. Dad is a stroke victim and those mumbles are all I get any more. But you know what. I can hear it in his voice that my Dad loves me and is proud of me. And it gives me a moment for me to tell him I love him back.
I used to think Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Valentines Day were all invented by greeting card and florists companies in order to sell a ton more product. Even if that were the case, its still good to have these days to stop for a moment to appreciate the folks who mean something to you.
The President's Oval Office Address
Lets be honest, unless President Obama stood before those cameras and said the Oil Spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was over, no one was going to be completely happy. And as it turned out, though he did give us a couple things to be hopeful about, he was honest and explained how complicated the problem really was and how its going to take an Apollo-type effort by all of us to find an end to it and solutions that will keep this sort of thing from happening again. And another Apollo-like effort to find alternative resources so we do not have to find ourselves in this predicament again.
This whole event is not about government inefficiencies. Its not about lack of leadership in the White House. Its about the amount of power and influence we have given away to corporations during the last decade. I'm not going to lay that blame 100% on the Republicans, although it was the Bush-Cheney policies that opened the door. There have been plenty of government officials on both sides of the party lines who have bowed to the will of corporations over the good of the people. And that's the price we are all paying right now.
BP is a foreign corporation yet somehow they have been allowed to drill in American waters. Now all the pleas we have heard from the right wingers about "Drill Baby Drill" has been in the name of making America more energy self sufficient. Do we get more energy self sufficient by allowing foreign operations do the drilling? This whole thing reveals that was all a big lie and the only loyalty the oil companies and those government officials in their pockets had were to their own bank accounts. Not America.
There's the problem. The last administration and many others who took campaign money from the oil companies allowed all this to happen. They lessened off shore restrictions. The wing of the government tasked to oversee these operations has been exposed to be incredibly corrupt. And here we are.
Greed brought us here. What will lead us out?
World Cup Soccer
Here in the United States, most of us simply do not understand the attraction the rest of the world has with soccer. But thanks to the World Cup I am starting to understand it better.
I think Americans would appreciate the game better if American football camera coverage was employed to the coverage of the game. From what I can tell, the rest of the world loves the broad aerial camera view that gives us a wide view of half the field. Thats cool. I get that. It lets us see the ball on the field and the developing attack as the other players position themselves to move towards the goal.
But we here in America like our action up close and brutal. There is no doubt the interaction between players can be damn brutal in soccer. But the high cheap seat coverage of the cameras just do not capture it. I think American audiences would really love soccer if there were more cameras picking up the small battles constantly going on between the players. Up close. Personal.
I am very happy to see the American team doing so well. But I am also having fun watching the smaller countries that are competing kick for kick with major countries. In a lot of ways this whole thing reminds me of the Olympics. There is a certain joy that comes from seeing an underdog third world country surprise a more developed country.
I am rooting for a few teams. But mostly the good ol' USA.
I hope to hear his voice on the phone today. Mom is usually pretty good about calling from the Nursing Home and letting Dad mumble a little into the phone. Dad is a stroke victim and those mumbles are all I get any more. But you know what. I can hear it in his voice that my Dad loves me and is proud of me. And it gives me a moment for me to tell him I love him back.
I used to think Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Valentines Day were all invented by greeting card and florists companies in order to sell a ton more product. Even if that were the case, its still good to have these days to stop for a moment to appreciate the folks who mean something to you.
The President's Oval Office Address
Lets be honest, unless President Obama stood before those cameras and said the Oil Spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was over, no one was going to be completely happy. And as it turned out, though he did give us a couple things to be hopeful about, he was honest and explained how complicated the problem really was and how its going to take an Apollo-type effort by all of us to find an end to it and solutions that will keep this sort of thing from happening again. And another Apollo-like effort to find alternative resources so we do not have to find ourselves in this predicament again.
This whole event is not about government inefficiencies. Its not about lack of leadership in the White House. Its about the amount of power and influence we have given away to corporations during the last decade. I'm not going to lay that blame 100% on the Republicans, although it was the Bush-Cheney policies that opened the door. There have been plenty of government officials on both sides of the party lines who have bowed to the will of corporations over the good of the people. And that's the price we are all paying right now.
BP is a foreign corporation yet somehow they have been allowed to drill in American waters. Now all the pleas we have heard from the right wingers about "Drill Baby Drill" has been in the name of making America more energy self sufficient. Do we get more energy self sufficient by allowing foreign operations do the drilling? This whole thing reveals that was all a big lie and the only loyalty the oil companies and those government officials in their pockets had were to their own bank accounts. Not America.
There's the problem. The last administration and many others who took campaign money from the oil companies allowed all this to happen. They lessened off shore restrictions. The wing of the government tasked to oversee these operations has been exposed to be incredibly corrupt. And here we are.
Greed brought us here. What will lead us out?
World Cup Soccer
Here in the United States, most of us simply do not understand the attraction the rest of the world has with soccer. But thanks to the World Cup I am starting to understand it better.
I think Americans would appreciate the game better if American football camera coverage was employed to the coverage of the game. From what I can tell, the rest of the world loves the broad aerial camera view that gives us a wide view of half the field. Thats cool. I get that. It lets us see the ball on the field and the developing attack as the other players position themselves to move towards the goal.
But we here in America like our action up close and brutal. There is no doubt the interaction between players can be damn brutal in soccer. But the high cheap seat coverage of the cameras just do not capture it. I think American audiences would really love soccer if there were more cameras picking up the small battles constantly going on between the players. Up close. Personal.
I am very happy to see the American team doing so well. But I am also having fun watching the smaller countries that are competing kick for kick with major countries. In a lot of ways this whole thing reminds me of the Olympics. There is a certain joy that comes from seeing an underdog third world country surprise a more developed country.
I am rooting for a few teams. But mostly the good ol' USA.