IP: "Freely"
DATE: 07/21/2007 23:22:08 / MOOD: N/A
Musings on the Newsings by Ian Punnett
Because I had to work on so many lawns as a kid (both my family lawns and those of our church because my dad was on the "grounds committee" it was never a chore I looked forward to much.
Lately, however, lawn work is giving me much peace. Having a completely green and healthy lawn has become somewhat of an obsession this summer and I really enjoying it. After years of seeing spectacular lawns as only a reflection of the middle-class suburban values which shaped me and only begrudgingly doing just enough lawn work to avoid being the neighborhood eyesore, I have found joy in helping one small piece of the planet to flower and flourish.
Perhaps succumbing to the simple joy of the picture perfect lawn is just another sign of aging.
But maybe it has less to do with feeling older and more with feeling vulnerable. The world seems a little out of control to me these days. According to so many knowledgeable US generals, the war we are fighting is unwinnable on its current trajectory but the White House keeps saying it needs more time, more billions and more lives. The White House says that we are winning the War on Terror and that by fighting in Iraq we are keeping Al Qaeda on the defense which makes us all safer. Meanwhile, President Bush own Director of Homeland Security says that Al Qaeda is very likely here and in such sufficient pre-9/11 numbers that he has a bad feeling that something major is coming this summer. The President appropriately touts the recent gains on Wall Street to show that our economy is robust yet I never had so many friends who are underemployed, in transition, just doing what they can to take care of their families.
I keep having the suspicious feeling that if we really, really were winning the War on Terror, national property values would be on the rise not decline, more employers would be adding great paying jobs and the economy would be expanding everywhere and not just in the Dow Jones and I wouldn be spending so much time getting soaked moving my sprinklers around my flourescent green lawn.
How long will my valley be so green?
As CBS News reported:
"A check of the calendar shows time swiftly running out for President Bush. Eighteen months from today, a new president takes the oath of office."
Regardless of whether the next president eighteen months from now is a Republican or a Democrat, I just be glad to have President Bush out of office. Of course, I also did breathe a sigh of relief when the president recovered quickly from his colonoscopy and Vice President Dick Cheney was no longer technically president today. I have never been so thankful to know that once more President Bush was still in office.
I know people who know him well and they say he is a swell guy and all I really respect the way he loves both his daughters there is just something about Dick Cheney that has always scared me stupid. Here just how much the guy weirds me out.
When I heard that Dick Cheney had spent his "presidency" fishing on Saturday morning at his getaway home in Maryland, all I could picture was Fredo Corleone getting whacked and tossed over the side of a rowboat in Godfather II.
Isn that so unfair? While my wife and I were shopping for annuals at St. Paul Farmer Market, I counting the minutes until Dick Cheney is no longer Commander-in-Chief because my distrust of him and the goals of this administration runs so deep.
Cheney spent his entire temporary presidency relaxing and fishing with friends in Maryland and I picturing him running murderously amok. That may say more about me than it does about him.
Still, if I were you, I would never go fishing with Dick Cheney in Guantanamo Bay, if you know what I mean . . .
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Ian Punnett's Blog
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That is a pretty fantastic blog, Ian is pretty even keel on his show but he totally let it out perfectly on this blog.
I like his comments on Wall Street and the Dow Jones, people keep pointing to that on saying "How great things are" but how much is really going to the middle and lower class or are the rich are just getting richer and getting more of "theirs". I don't hear to many people saying this.
I like his comments on Wall Street and the Dow Jones, people keep pointing to that on saying "How great things are" but how much is really going to the middle and lower class or are the rich are just getting richer and getting more of "theirs". I don't hear to many people saying this.