I was not born (Nor even conceived)  when Senator Joe McCarthy spun the "red scare" into political hay that spanned more than a decade, beginning with a speech, and ending with the fall of a titan...McCarthy himself.

"Better Dead Than Red"

By the time I was a kid, McCarthy had fallen far, and teenagers intent on pissing off their parents would read books by Marx, or about Trotsky. Others would carry Mao's "Little Red Book", in part because it was cool to embrace anything your parents hated. I learned about the McCarthy era in school. I heard about Red baiting, and knew of the havoc it wreaked on lives from every walk of life. I even examined communism as a political system. The conclusion I drew was that it was one of those things that looked nifty on paper...but could not survive human translation. Russia, Cuba, China---they all had systems that ran rampant with corruption. Human nature, being what it is...you were never going to make anyone happily accept "just the same" as everyone else. They would find ways to finesse the system---be it bribery, graft, or simply manipulating the party line. I was not in love with capitalism---but I understood that it had a better shot than political ideology.

I can't help but notice parallels between the end of the Red Scare, and the failure of Mitt Romney to beat Obama last week.

During the McCarthy Era, you could LITERALLY destroy someone by whispering that they might be a communist. You could lose your job, and be literally "unemployable" if your boss thought you had "red leanings". It might be a lie, spread by the guy at the desk next to you...or the receptionist you yelled at a week ago...or just about anyone for anything...or nothing at all. You would still suffer the taint.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

By the time I got to college, it was no longer cool to claim to be a communist, or a socialist just to get laid. (That happened a lot in the 60's, I understand.) The people didn't quite understand that a mere decade before, that label had been used to destroy, and defame. It turned the Cold War into something very real, and very personal to our citizens. But in the early 70's, if you claimed to be a communist, you were just...well...sort of goofy in my town.  We were worried about the Draft, Viet Nam...and we literally had no time, or interest in HISTORY. McCarthy and his whole freak show of hate and paranoia were over.

That is...until Ronald Reagan became president. He is wrongly credited by some for "ending the cold war". In reality, Soviet Communism had collapsed into itself. The population were not their grandfathers, who may have fought the Tzar. Too many generations had been born into a stunted, stilted society, where individual brilliance and initiative got you no where. So...why bother? Look at 50 years of art,literature, films...and you will hunt in vain for sparks of genius. The Russians were smart...but they had no where to apply it...and eventually they fostered a thriving black market, a corrupt government, and a penchant for alcoholism. Once the true believers died off, there was no glue holding it all together. Reagan and his Star Wars tech had little to do with the disintegration of the USSR.

But people BOUGHT that. Since the "communist menace" was over, the new boogieman became "socialism". (Is anyone else as mind blown as I am about how IGNORANT people are about the definitions of "communism" and socialism, and their insistence to use the two interchangeably?) If ANOTHER country did something, it was "socialism". We had Social Security LONG before Welfare existed...but that wasn't "socialism". My parents generation collected VA bennies to go to college, and low interest loans to buy homes---two programs that CAUSED the boom times of the 50's...but NO ONE called that "socialism". When O'Reilly and Stewart sparred recently, Stewart pinned him down with the question "Didn't you dad collect money from social programs?" O'Reilly denied it...vehemently. Stewart started ticking them off. The Levittown house O'Reilly grew up in...the money his dad used to go to college...even the social security and medicaid he had collected later. O'Reilly nearly lost it. His father had a "serious disease", and had paid for disability insurance. That wasn't the same. But as Stewart pushed on, it was clear that Senior O'Reilly actually HAD...and unless you are in the 1 percent, it's hard to find someone who HASN'T.

Did you send your kids to private school? Strong chance they used Title 6 to pay for the school books they used. That's a Government PROGRAM that has existed since the mid 60's. I remember when the nuns MADE us right letters to our congressmen in Penmanship classes...asking them to extend Title six another year...and it's still around, though possibly under a different name. It was used by religious institutions, as well as secular schools. But for a long time, people were caught up in "welfare leeches" thinking. Very Ayn Rand. "Well there are people on welfare who live better than I do..." Another fallacy from the Reagan years...debunked a hundred times...but hey...why worry about truth?

And that has been happening for over a decade. The idea that the "spin" could make something palatable...that people were really sort of stupid. If you could get them ANGRY, they would not THINK about how you could possibly keep cutting taxes...and still maintain an infrastructure we all NEEDED to survive. They would not consider how 20 years of job out sourcing resulted in very few "good jobs" for the remaining populace. They might miss the point that while every previous war before resulted in a boom economy, the LAST one bled us dry...or why.

Easier to call ANYTHING that might actually benefit the majority of the nation SOCIALISM...and watch people back away in horror. The Tea Party were an example of people who were enjoying government benefits---while trying to make sure that others did not. They threw the word "entitlements" around while they were dead certain that THEIR bacon wasn't the same thing. But something happened in the last year. The pendulum swung BACK. "Big Government" wasn't quite as scary as "Big Business". People who felt burdened by taxes actually started wondering why it was important to cut the taxes for the 1 percent...while not doing a damned thing for the 99 who remained. During the Red Scare, people went along with the persecution, and the public shunning more out of fear than actual belief. Arthur Miller penned the Crucible...on the surface a play about the Salem Witch Hunts...but in fact, a scathing condemnation of McCarthy, and the whole debacle of red baiting.

BUT...eventually the awful fiction becomes too much.

Eventually, you understand that the next one in the cross hairs could be you...or someone you love. Seven hundred MILLION dollars was spend on this election by the GOP, to convince people that Obama was Satan...or worse. Even the best economists in the world claimed his programs mirrored REAGAN's...so it was sort of hard to accept that he was a darker skinned version of Chairman Mao. Maybe at the key moment, people paused...and wonder what a multimillionaire. who made most of his money as a corporate raider was actually going to do, not to help the affluent like him...but the average Joe...like us. McCarthy failed. Like Romney, he was shocked when he did. And his "followers" were also sure it was some sort of plot. But maybe it was just as simple as the deep need to believe that America really IS better.

We will rise...because we can.

I just finished an article that said that Paul Ryan wanted to make part of the focus on this last election a "war on poverty", but was shouted down.

His war would have included DEEP cuts in programs that keep the poor from starving...which sounds a lot more like a War On The Poor...than on Poverty. He was devout in his belief that if we stopped feeding them, the Poor would find their own way. (Of course, he never got over his teen aged crush on Ayn Rand...another story completely.)

Funny thing...with so many people having issues paying their bills, and working as hard as they can to keep heart and soul together, demonizing the poor starts to look like a bad idea. In the last four years, a lot of us have learned just how little you need to do wrong (including nothing) to end up in poverty. Taxes suck...no debating that...but the insane inflation of the last two decades is hurting us more than taxes...a tiny fact many ignore. I was not a huge fan of Nixon, but he was literally the last President who took inflation seriously, and tried to cope with it in a substantive way. Since he was in office, there has been an over reliance on stupid tricks, band-aids, and pure bunkum. When they sold the US on a "service economy", people were persuaded that we didn't need to make stuff...or even grow our own food. We were all going to get better paying jobs providing "services". I recall asking back then how that would work if the economy tanked.

People STARED at me in horror.

Openly GAPED. What sort of nay saying commie bitch was I? How DARE I be negative? Didn't I believe in AMERICA?

Actually...I did, and I do.

But I also believe in gravity...what goes up, must come down.

During the Reagan years, they used the word "momentum" a lot. You pushed something to the top of the hill, and momentum would carry it down for you. Neat...until you had to push it back up again. I look back at the economy, and what they did, and it's a bit chilling. People got rich "on paper". The more money they "made", the greater risk they were willing to take, to acquire more. It was all about business, golden parachutes, and "getting YOURS". They talked glowingly about "family values"...but encouraged an entire generation of parents to abandon their kids to get more money. I'm not sure when it became subversive to disagree with the spin doctors...but it happened. The simple act of doing the math, and saying "But that can't possibly work." was an act of infidelity.  Since Reagan, I counted three significant "housing booms"...but nothing like the last.

I know a few people who became realtors, and for decades, the mantra was "real estate is the only investment that long term, keeps its value." They pointed to the figures since World War Two. A couple of things. That was an observation...a rule of thumb...not NATURAL law. There was no force of physics, science, or anything else remotely binding to it. But if you did the math---just looked at the numbers...you understood the flaw in the logic. Returning vets of World War Two did buy homes...using VA mortgages. (Yeah...socialism, but we never CALLED it that.) Affordable meant something you could cover with an NON-executive salary. Average Joe could work in a factory...and cover the mortgage. Hell...he could even afford a car...vacations...maybe even college if the kids were smart. He could pay his bills---even if someone got sick---and not lose his house in the process. Amazingly...they didn't NEED health insurance. When they DID get health insurance, it covered the entire cost...no co-pays...no deductibles...and the insurance companies STILL made money.

And then...inflation. Our parents didn't use credit, other then to buy a house...and MAYBE finance a car...they saved. If they couldn't afford it, they skipped it. They budgeted, they cut corners...and when most of them retired, all the equity in their homes was intact. It hadn't been chipped away, to pay for "disposables". Twenty years ago, a friend of mine bought a home with her new husband. The base cost was 200K...a figure that made me dizzy. We had a town House that hadn't run HALF that...but by then I'd been paying a mortgage for five years, so I knew how much money they would need, just to pay for their shiny new house. As they showed us their new place, she pointed out the "Upgrades". Huh? "Better carpet". A nicer mantle for the fireplace...ceramic tile in the kitchen. Each item was another 20K added to the price. "How did you afford that?" I asked.

"Oh they just rolled it into the mortgage." she said. "They did that with the closing costs too."

Now maybe I am the dolt here...but I think of mortgages LONG TERM. You know...as if you actually will HAVE to pay them off, over 25 years? I had recently acquired a healthy respect for "compound interest"...and as I looked around, I couldn't imagine WHY they added literally Hundreds of thousands to their debt...for something they were going to have to replace in less than ten years. Even without interest...20K for CARPET? What was it...hand loomed Bakatari---made by blind virgins? No...just a better grade of Berber. 

A year later, when we visited, I noticed there wasn't a lot of furniture in the house. Yes, they had acquired a cherry dining room set...but the rooms were mostly empty. When it got cold, they were "careful" about turning on the heat. When it was hot, they used fans---not the central air. The BILLS, she whispered. She also missed an important point when they bought. Taxes would go up. She thought her "mortgage" payments would stay exactly the same. Technically yes. But they slammed them for more equity after two years---based on taxes, insurance, etc, all that had gotten higher. There used to be a rule of thumb for calculating what a mortgage would cost you, long term. Triple. So their price (with upgrades) of 260K was going to long term cost them...780K.

I mention this for a reason. The town she bought in? Brick NJ. Even if they had done everything "right", a storm named Sandy could have just destroyed the house they paid a fortune for two decades ago. The insurance industry stopped selling "flood" and storm insurance all along the East Coast after Katrina---and they were on the wrong side of the Parkway. I was offered a bare bones policy through FEMA, but it only covered 25K in damage as a max...structure only. (And I lived 50 miles inland)

What went "wrong" with our economy did not start recently.  It began when we thought we could spend more than we could afford, plunged ourselves into insane debt, and then started using credit cards so we could spend 130 percent a year when we were only MAKING a 100.

People are not stupid...not really. But they were told to ignore the math...that "prosperity" would pay for their every dream...they every whim. Want a new kitchen? Borrow against the house. Want a lavish trip? Tap the home equity! Don't deprive yourself...max out that plastic...they'll up your limit.  And while all this was happening, the cost of a car shot up to what I remember people paying for homes. Homes went stellar...but hey...real estate ONLY goes up...and don't BUY the car...LEASE it. Then in three years you can trade it in for a newer one. (Unless of course you put too many MILES on it...but that's another tale.) I know people who pay half as much each month for their cell phones, as I do for my mortgage...with taxes and insurance.

We somehow became the RICHEST poor people in the world...and we never saw it coming.

So...time for a new start. We can get real about what we can afford...or we can lose it all.  But as my generation struggles to keep their homes against the specter of foreclosures, the NEW generation is plunging into mortgage sized debt...to pay for college, so they can "make their own lives" someday. And I have to ask the question. HOW will they afford homes, and cars when they may spend 20 years paying that off? How are they going to "fuel the economy", when they won't have a dime to use to it? My generation sort of expected Mom and Dad to leave them money...but most of us will be lucky to die debt free.

Rules of thumb: Debt is bad.

                        Interest is evil.

                        Oh...and ANYONE can end up poor...no matter how "smart" they think they are.

So what Ryan missed is that the War on The Poor, was a war on us all.

Nope.

Obama wasn't perfect.

I did not love everything he said, or did.

But very few people are "true believers", conservative, or liberal.

Fewer can be counted on to pull the lever, no matter what. You want them to make a major change? Give them the idea that they can have something BETTER.

Six months ago, 40 percent of the GOP COULD NOT STAND ROMNEY. They flatly loathed him---and would have taken ANYONE else but him. He only remained because the other dozen were so bat shit insane, that even the staunchest could not stand them. That is NOT the recipe for political success.

I have maintained for a long time that the GOP didn't WANT to win this one. The economic disaster that began LONG before the 2008 election will take another six years to sort out...and no one wants to be in catbird seat till it has.  I say this because I am actually trying to give the GOP some credit.  Surely they have SOMEONE more worthy of POTUS than the weird ragbag of carnies and circus geeks they trotted out this time? I've met a lot of conservatives, and some are bright, thoughtful people. (Even If I don't accept their views.) But A lot of their best and brightest of the past would have KICKED those weird bastards out of their houses---not to mention their party. I was not fond of Nixon...but I never would have called him stupid.

My friend @Ikwa mentioned Chris Christie last week---making supportive comments about Obama's reaction to the Sandy disaster. I dismissed it, in part because I think Christie is a blowhard...but I have to admit...I am re-thinking it. Not that I think CC is a hero. Not at all. But...in the face of a wicked natural disaster, and a LOT of misery, CC took a hard look at things...and said "Screw this...my state needs help." It's all well and good to say "No---we're just fine"...but pride is a very EXPENSIVE commodity. Louisiana's Governor LOVES to say that he never actually ASKED for help after Katrina...or the BP spill. (Nice try, Jindall.) After TWO disasters, he still spouts the nonsense about smaller federal government...all the while latching onto the Tit of aid for all he is worth.

But Jindall still has Presidential aspirations.

Somehow, I think Christie finally figured it out. They love calling him "Rock Star"...but they were never going to give him Slot One...or even Two. My thought is that after they conned Christine Todd Whitman into resigning as Governor, they assumed ALL the politicos in NJ were blithering idiots. (A decent cabinet seat, I might have understood...but Head of the EPA? Under Bush 2? What sort of moron gives up a powerful Governors seat for THAT?) So, I think all the cards fell into place. And to be fair, I think Christie was as shook up as anyone---to see the wreckage left by Sandy. But as i told Ikwa, I also think it was the final wake up call. When your state has been torn APART, do you want your next leader to be someone who has talked longingly of destroying FEMA? This was the second bad storm in two years...and weather is not something we control. Add that to the losses after two bad blizzards...and anyone might start THINKING about the whole "each state should take care of their own" concept.

So I think Christie said "screw that noise".

And he gave Obama his due.

THEN they tried to spank him.

Lord...they were not watching those outtakes on You Tube, were they? Christie does not take kind to critique...from ANYONE. He also knew his future with the GOP was limited. If they had taken him seriously, he would have been Romney's Vice President...not Ryan. But who did they pick? The PRETTY BOY. Mr. Six Pack Abs. Up until that nonsense, I think Christie was firmly on board. I think he was probably already having doubts...and then Sandy descended...and that was all she wrote. I think it changed other people's minds too. Easy to be pragmatic when you have running water, power, heat...not so simple when you don't. And the NY views struck a lot of people hard too...too close to 9-11. Which leads to the uneasy thought...what if it happens to US? Do we really want to be alone in the dark, when the wolf is at our door?  And suddenly it's not about "hand outs", but merely a hand, to help you get to your feet.

I think that's why Obama won.

Not because we are such great people...but because of a shrieking HOWLING bitch of a storm...named Sandy.

Bruce Springsteen, you just might be a prophet...

Wonder who will head for Canada?

Nope...they have social medicine...can't go there.

Well...I'm sure Texas will welcome the ex-repatriates...

I have ID out the yin yang....all forms.

Talk to you kids later!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f17fWth3YgA&feature=share

Had to share this with the undecided...

There will always be ONE song that kills you...every time.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/fray/howtosavealife.html

It's on You tube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjVQ36NhbMk

I got in a tussle last night with HP poster.

Perhaps you heard about the tragedy---a nanny stabbed two of her charges, and tried to kill herself. One child is dead...the other clinging to life. Most of the posters want her to fry...but I had a slightly different perspective.

1. The woman is clearly mentally unstable.

2. The parents traveled to her home land in South America to meet her family before they hired her...most would agree, that's an expensive screening method.

3. They quarreled with her over additional duties a month before the disaster.

4. In that month...they didn't notice anything...ANYTHING that would be a red flag?

When Desi was young, I ran into a sticky problem at one of her swim classes. Two young boys came each week with a young nanny---and the girl was clearly overwhelmed by the job. One day, she slammed one of the kids into a locker...and I wanted to do something. But what? I had no idea who the parents were...had never seen them. I mentioned it to the women who ran the swim class...they just shrugged. "It happens". I got my chance a few weeks later, when the boys showed up with their grandparents.  There were at least two other moms like me, but I was the one who walked over, gave them my number, and suggested that the parents give me a call, because I thought the nanny was abusing the  kids.

That night, I got a call from the Mom. She was a mid-level executive with Verizon. She thanked me for telling the grandparents...yada yadda...but as the conversation developed, it was clear that SHE HAD NO INTENTION of doing ANYTHING. She'd been through several nannies---and this one was the best. She was so busy---and on and on. At one point, she said something about "You have no idea how difficult it is...being a working parent."

Actually...I did. I worked nights and weekends so I could be available for my daughter...so I could make things like swim classes. We didn't have the income to afford a live in nanny---nor a house lavish enough to house one. And I wanted to raise my daughter myself...so we made the commitment to less income, so Desi could have an at home parent. But had I chosen differently, I would have not only FIRED a nanny for slamming my kid around, I would have called the police...and possibly jumped her myself. For damned certain, had a stranger contacted me, i would have DONE something. Excuses don't cut it.

Now the joker at Huff Post claimed I was in the wrong...because I hadn't done ENOUGH. He didn't think much of my waiting to contact the grandparents.

Oh really? I wonder when he last did "something" aside from looking the other way.

It's a hard call. I thought I had done the right thing. The other moms didn't do anything. The teachers looked the other way. I was not happy with myself for not doing something sooner...but I DID do something. Later, a friend who was in the class with us told me she was not surprised.  She said some people just didn't take parenting the same way we did. They considered the financial end to be the be all and end all. They were "providing" for their kids.  Just like the NY parents. But I also know people who didn't want to pay more than $200 a week for their child care...who paid 2K a MONTH...for parking.  So they hired illegals. They hired college kids. If they insisted on white nannies, they hired Mormon girls, and supplied them with room and board.

The thing is...you are letting a stranger take care of your children. Most of the time, it works out fine. But sometimes...

So...wrong and right. I was accused of doing "wrong", because I waited to contact a family. But the same label was not applied to a family that missed the point that their nanny was melting down. I wonder how many times a day they saw her---or talked to her. I wonder if they wrote off her behavior to being upset about their criticism of her house keeping skills? She had told her family she had been hired to care for the kids---not to clean the house. The parents say they offered to pay her extra...but seriously...sounds like they were trying for cheap labor. They already had one paid servant...why bother with another?

And I am not BLAMING the parents. We do what we think or feel is correct. I know of no one who did the wrong thing on purpose. But kids are not getting the care they need. Even the best, most loving child care is NOT a parent. I've often wondered if the sudden spike in ADD kids hasn't come in part from people assuming kids will raise themselves...because the last two decades haven't been about much else. The thing is...if you do the wrong thing, no matter how good your intentions...you can't take it back. I'm sure those NY parents wish they never hired that woman now...but their grief changes nothing. Kids deserve better. They don't ask to be born. When we choose to have them, they deserve the best we know how...not just the best we can do...or can hire someone else to  do for us.

I have an appointment with a specialist in the morning...and frankly, I am dreading it.

The foot surgery last year was supposed to save the tendon, and restore my mobility---at least that was MY idea. When the implant saved the tendon, the doctor in NJ was quite pleased...despite the MRSA. But my foot took forever to heal...and no, I am not diabetic. It hurt brutally---bone pain, for a long time. I got back limited mobility---but I can't walk more than a few blocks, or stand for longer than an hour, without a long recovery period (usually two days).

I'm not bitching. Just the facts.

Think about your life...think about trying to fit it into ONE HOUR a day.

Not an hour and fifteen...60 minutes TOTAL.

Every step...every trip to the bathroom...every up and down the stairs...all of it is counted in the total.  So as anxious as I am to see YET another doctor...I NEED my life back. I need to be able to walk. And for the last six months, there has been no improvement. I was writing to a friend today about the pain scale they use...you know...when they ask you how much something hurts, on a scale of 1-10. That amuses the HELL out of me. I don't usually bother a doctor with less than a 6-7...no lie, no joke. My average day is 5-6. I don't bother with pain meds for less than a six---and try to tough it out til 7.

I won't lie...when it hits 7, I am cranky...and yes, i usually cry. If I can't break it, an hour at 7 results in me not being very articulate. If I were a fox or something, I would probably want to gnaw off the part that hurts about then.  I've been in ER's when some jerk admits to a TWO. A TWO? You went to a damned emergency room for a TWO? Weenie. If I were the staff, I would tell you to get the FUCK out for a two. For a small kid, fine...no pain is ok for a kid. But Jesus...GROW a pair.  Anyway...I need to be able to work. I need to be able to take care of myself.  I need to walk.

So I will go to another doctor...let him poke and prod me.

I will tell him what worked in the past...or didn't...and hope he will respect that while he has the degree, I have the decade plus of experience with Chronic Pain. I am not going there to waste his time...and I am hoping this one will LISTEN. Better...I'm hoping he has something in his bag of tricks that might actually help. I am SO not about "pain control" at this point. NO meds please...just...maybe...if you could...FIX the damned thing? I don't want to trade one pain for another. I don't really like the idea of surgery again...but if you could make it work? I watch people walking around---just having a stroll...and I am so ENVIOUS. I want that again. I want to walk a few blocks---and not have to count my steps, or minutes. I want to go to a museum---or a botanical garden and not have to use one of those stupid carts...because it hurts too much to walk myself. I want to go to Salem with my daughter...and not have to be limited to just a few places...I want that So much...

So...good thoughts, please? I don't need perfect...but better than an hour would be...well...pretty spectacular.

Wish me luck...I don't want to yell at this one...

The obvious question...who do you want in charge if a disaster hits your town, or region?

I am betting you don't want to hear "You're on your OWN, kid."