Sunday Evening Reflections

Roughly three weeks ago, we suffered severe weather damage - i.e., driving rains with 60+ mph wind gusts - to the roof of a portion of our home.  The short term verdict: we need a new roof on the 25 by 28 foot "great room" portion of our home (pictured below) and depending on the severity of the water damage, we may need structural repairs and most certainly plaster repairs and repainting. First thing in the morning tomorrow, the first in depth assessment will be dome.  In preparation, the husband and I had to shift all of the furniture to one corner of the room and move patio furniture off of the deck that surrounds the great room.  The prospect of major construction work is, needless to say, less than welcome.

As a welcome escape, once the tasks at home were completed, we headed to a friend's home in Virginia Beach which we refer to as the "Country Club" for the 40th birthday of another friend.  Our friend's home is beautiful and sits on a fresh water lake and has a salt water pool where surprisingly competitive volley ball games take place (the more madras punch consumed, the better the playing gets). After a winter from Hell by Tidewater Virginia standards, the party was a welcomed embrace of one of the most beautiful days with 80 degree temperatures that we have had to date. The camaraderie was great as is always the case and the crowd of party goers covered a range of gays from cute 20 somethings to relative fossils like myself.  

What I found perhaps most uplifting from the party is the way in which the young gays are so much more self-accepting than those of my generation were at similar ages.  While there is much more to be dome in terms of securing full LGBT equality, compared to when I was in my early twenties - being gay was deemed a clinical form of mental illness until I was almost 22 - the changes for the better have been cataclysmic.  It is what makes me want to continue the fight against anti-gay bigotry and religious based ignorance until the battle is fully won.  No one should ever hate themselves or feel that suicide is the best option.    Today energized me again to keep up the struggle.  A few photos from this afternoon with these "extended family members" are set out below.

View toward the lake - the husband is in the center right with the blond hair

The rainbow flag in the background

The love and support that I  - and the husband - have found from this amazing group of guys is something special.   It is our own fraternity of sorts and I count myself lucky to have come to know these guys.  Despite the hi jinks and sometimes bawdy jokes and ribald commentary, these guys are the genuine item.  If I needed someone to guard my back, I'd pick these guys any day over the "godly folks."  Being a good and moral person does not require one to be a Bible thumping modern day Pharisee.

David Brooks: Thurston Howell Romney

I realize that I've already beaten up on Mitt Romney's incredibly contemptuous statements on 47% of the American population, but conservative columnist David Brooks' column in the New York Times entitled "Thurston Howell Romney" is simply too good to pass up. I generally disagree with most of Brooks' positions and views, but today his analysis was spot on.  It's pretty bad when even conservative columnists are piling on and bashing Romney for his greed, insensitivity and stupidity.  In my view, they simply finally realized that Romney is a self-centered, arrogant bastard who thinks he's entitled to be president simply because he wants to be president.  Here are some excerpts:

In 1960, government transfers to individuals totaled $24 billion. By 2010, that total was 100 times as large. Even after adjusting for inflation, entitlement transfers to individuals have grown by more than 700 percent over the last 50 years. This spending surge, Eberstadt notes, has increased faster under Republican administrations than Democratic ones.  

There are sensible conclusions to be drawn from these facts. You could say that the entitlement state is growing at an unsustainable rate and will bankrupt the country. You could also say that America is spending way too much on health care for the elderly and way too little on young families and investments in the future.

But these are not the sensible arguments that Mitt Romney made at a fund-raiser earlier this year.
Forty-seven percent of the country, he said, are people “who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”

This comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that he really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare? 

It suggests that Romney doesn’t know much about the culture of America. Yes, the entitlement state has expanded, but America remains one of the hardest-working nations on earth. Americans work longer hours than just about anyone else.

The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent poor. 

Romney’s comments also reveal that he has lost any sense of the social compact. In 1987, during Ronald Reagan’s second term, 62 percent of Republicans believed that the government has a responsibility to help those who can’t help themselves. Now, according to the Pew Research Center, only 40 percent of Republicans believe that. 

The final thing the comment suggests is that Romney knows nothing about ambition and motivation. The formula he sketches is this: People who are forced to make it on their own have drive. People who receive benefits have dependency.   But, of course, no middle-class parent acts as if this is true.

[A]s a description of America today, Romney’s comment is a country-club fantasy. It’s what self-satisfied millionaires say to each other. It reinforces every negative view people have about Romney.  

He’s running a depressingly inept presidential campaign. Mr. Romney, your entitlement reform ideas are essential, but when will the incompetence stop? 

 Brooks is in good company in bashing Romney.  Peggy Noonan has slammed Romney in the Wall Street Journal :

What should Mitt Romney do now? He should peer deep into the abyss. He should look straight into the heart of darkness where lies a Republican defeat in a year the Republican presidential candidate almost couldn’t lose. He should imagine what it will mean for the country, for a great political philosophy, conservatism, for his party and, last, for himself. He must look down unblinkingly.

[H]is comments released last night and made months ago at the private fundraiser in Boca Raton, Fla. Mr. Romney has relearned what four years ago Sen. Barack Obama learned: There’s no such thing as private when you’re a candidate with a mic. There’s someone who doesn’t like you in that audience. There’s someone with a cellphone.

This is not how big leaders talk, it’s how shallow campaign operatives talk: They slice and dice the electorate like that, they see everything as determined by this interest or that. They’re usually young enough and dumb enough that nobody holds it against them, but they don’t know anything. They don’t know much about America.

We are a big, complicated nation. And we are human beings. We are people. We have souls. We are complex. We are not data points. Many things go into our decisions and our political affiliations.
You have to be sophisticated to know that. And if you’re operating at the top of national politics, you’re supposed to be sophisticated.

As for those workers who don’t pay any income taxes, they pay payroll taxes—Social Security and Medicare. They want to rise in the world and make more money. They’d like to file a 1040 because that will mean they got a raise or a better job.   They too are potential Romney voters, because they’re suffering under the no-growth economy.

So: Romney’s theory of the case is all wrong. His understanding of the political topography is wrong.