Our Nation’s Hate

As far as I can tell the “facts” in the email are absolutely made up. There is not a shred of truth to it. But, to the sender it doesn’t make any difference because it’s just ammunition in an ideological war.

obama-poll.jpg

Nearly three million people have voted in the MSNBC poll at the top of this entry. It’s non-scientific in its methodology, but it’s incredibly telling nonetheless. Our country has no center in political opinion. The vast majority of the votes are for the two extremes.

We are a nation divided. I love Obama. I hate Obama. There, literally, is no middle ground.

It’s sad because we’ve come to the point where people are so stridently driven by dogma, they’d rather see their ideas used than see success. That is why to many Rush Limbaugh’s January 21 pronouncement is so upsetting and to others so enabling.

So I shamelessly say, no, I want him to fail, if his agenda is a far- left collectivism, some people say socialism, as a conservative heartfelt, deeply, why would I want socialism to succeed?

I have often said I’d use the Psychic Friends Network to forecast the weather if it worked. Rush’s words are the antithesis of that thought.

This morning I got an email from someone I don’t recognize.

News Alert:

The US Navy has stated that the Navy seals could have acted faster and rescued the captain of the Maersk Alabama last week, but had to wait until the White House could confirm that none of the pirates were related to Obama.

That quote comes from a forwarded email nestled within the one sent to me. The sender, the unknown Andre Lefebvre, adds:

That S.O.B. will destroy this country.

You just watch.

One morning, very soon, everybody, in the U. S., will wake-up and find out that they have lost all of their rights and it will be too late to do anything about it.

As far as I can tell the “facts” in the email are absolutely made up. There is not a shred of truth to it. But, to the sender it doesn’t make any difference because it’s just ammunition in an ideological war.

The exact actions the president takes on any given day are much less important to this person than the overall political bent. And, I suspect, he’d say what he said even knowing it was false because it might injure his enemy–Obama.

This country needs to be righted economically. Then we have a whole lot of healing to do. The vitriol and hate from right-to-left and back again isn’t healthy.

Thanks to my friend Woody who sent along the MSNBC poll not realizing it would produce this.

Poker Night With The Boys

With Helaine gone, and me alone, it was the perfect night to have some friends over to play poker. They were scheduled to arrive at 7:00pm. I had six here by 6:45pm.

First, it’s nice to entertain. When I lived in Philadelphia as a bachelor, I did everything humanly possible to keep friends from my place. I’m a little more prepared now. Helaine may be away, but her influence is here.

This was an eclectic group of ten. There were Jeff, Matt and Erik from work, Tim and Steve who went to high school with Erik, Woody, Rick, Dennis and Ashley who drove in from Boston.

Ashley actually writes about poker for a few magazines. In a good and just world, he won’t write about my bad play… or bad hosting. If there are points to be made from what he experienced, he’ll make them gently.

There was beer and soda and snacks and lots of good conversation. At its essence, poker at home is really about conversation. Card playing is secondary.