If one ever wanted proof that this world has gone crazy, our recent over-reaction to hog flu is good evidence.  Why do I call it hog flu?  If you have ever been on a farm, you know you don’t slop the swine, you slop the hogs.  And hog is better than pig, my friends tell me, because pig conjurs up Piglet, Winnie the Pooh, etc, and those lovable fellows can’t possibly be associated with anything bad (I personally think the tiger is kind of scary).  These are the kind of important things we discuss at the lunch table at work.

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I love reading the news headlines and connecting things up, trying to make sense of this chaotic world (mostly an impossible task).  In this post I will comment on three of today’s headlines that fit together in a strange Steve Moore way: (1) Arlen Specter becomes a Republican (CNN, ABC news); (2) Mary Ann Glendon declines Notre Dame award (Boston Globe); (3) More in US switch religious affiliations (Boston Globe).

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Fox News commentators and other vocal and sycophantic apologists for the extreme right have been mouthing off a lot recently about the Obama government being fascist.  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!  These disciples of Machiavelli and Himmler think that if they say anything often and loud enough, people will start believing it (unfortunately, they are often right).  In other words, they are practicing what Orwell called double-speak.  It became so strident that even Bill O’Reilly, that paramour of high decibel ranting, spoke out to say he felt just as free as always.

Flirtations with fascism were very common in the Bush Whitehouse, led by the now irrelevant Cheney, Rove, and Rumsfeld.  The first two never learned to shut their yaps and live with the fact that their brand of politics, at least for now, is recognized for what it really is, divisive for the country at best and criminally insane at worst. 

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In an earilier post I lauded Mr. Obama’s choice of Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, and Science Advisor, John Holdren.  Now I am beginning to wonder if our President listens to them.

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Monday is Patriots’ Day here in Massachussetts.  This state is one of contradictions.  It is one of the most Puritan states in the U.S. with its blue laws, while at the same time it is the most liberal, the first to allow same-sex marriage.  In the western part you have a haven for old hippies and and other people who enjoy alternative life styles, but around old Bean Town you will find a large contingent of conservative Catholics that are very vocal about their conservative beliefs.  

The good old Commonwealth was a full participant in the underground railway that helped run-away slaves along their way to freedom as well as the location of some of the most violent protests against school busing in the nation.  It is the home of that lion of the Senate, that broker of compromises and masterful legislator, who is all for protecting the environment and alternative forms of energy as long as those windmills aren’t in his back yard.

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How times have changed!  I presume we are still exporting our unhealthy franchises like Burger King and MacDonald’s to Latin America, but now Latin America is fighting back.  Pollo Campero, or “Country Chicken,” is now in Chelsea, MA, and selling chickens like crazy.  The Costa Rican chain has invaded our shores.

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The gap in my blog is due to Easter.  I get caught up in the whole tradition every year and have not been able to come up with a way to just stay home and write – or read.

Perpetuating the usual biological contradictions of chocolate Easter bunnies giving rise to chocolate Easter eggs occupies part of my time, of course.  At least when I was a kid I got some of the chocolate booty.  Now I can’t eat it.  But I still buy it for everyone else.  Rather my wife does.  Together with the Easter basket, etc.

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Some of the pundits are already rating President Obama’s trip to Europe a major success.  He was a superstar and his wife did OK too, people say.  However, it’s obvious that he didn’t get all he wanted.

First of all, no real help in Afghanistan.  While I’m of the opinion that the biggest opium producer in the world is just not worth it, I guess Mr. Obama wants to continue the long tradition of trying to win futile wars there.  Nostalgia for Viet Nam perhaps?  He went to Harvard after all and the spirit of JFK might still be lurking around.  The Soviet Union tried and failed in Afghanistan (partly because we were helping the Afghan rebels).  You’d think we’d learn by their mistakes.  I’m sure Mr. Putin is laughing at us for getting embroiled in yet another war.

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Two gross errors were present in my recent blog post “The ‘silent coup’ is no longer silent…’.”  I apologize for them.  I try to check and re-check my facts, but sometimes I just get it wrong.  While these errors do not affect the spirit of that post, I will correct them.  I do not want to mislead readers.

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The banking industry/government coup is now confirmed.  Simon Johnson (see the Atlantic article) is correct.  There is indeed an oligarchy formed by Congress and the bankers and they are in control.  Neither we nor Obama and his crew can do anything about it (it’s not certain the President really wants to).  We ceded our rights to do anything about it a long time ago, of course, comfortably living our little fantasy that Congress really represents us, the middle class.

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