HAPPY THANKSGIVING
The Dow is down. . .a lot. We are still in Iraq notwithstanding an election a year ago that made it pretty clear 70% of us do not want to be. Lawyers are being arrested in Pakistan while Taliban are being set free. The home run king has been indicted. Global warming proceeds apace as the US bides its (and the world's) time, which we now know is rapidly running out. Broadway is black, as effectively are Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, SNL and a whole host of other shows (OK, this very last reality -- namely, the other shows -- may not be so bad). And the only Republican making any sense is the libertarian, Ron Paul.
So what precisely are we thankful for this Thanksgiving?
Those of spiritual bent, myself included, thank God for the bounty, fortune, and sheer good luck which many of us enjoy. To that should be added thanks for our friends, family and good health. But let's be honest here. After the usual suspects, the candidate list for thanks this year is a little thin. Absent the annual turkey whose life he just saved, very few outside his family and the GOP base are thanking W for his performance this year; I bet Cheney has even lost some members of his family. And Rudy never had a lot of his family to begin with, so he doesn't make the cut. The Dems are not getting thanks because they have not done what we elected them to do. Their only excuse -- the GOP minority threat of filibuster -- shows you cannot even be thankful for our system of government. After all, 60 votes are needed in the Senate to do anything, making majority rule somewhat beside the point (and therefore perhaps not worthy of the thanks we give it. . . or the Founding Fathers). As a lawyer, I would always like to be able to at least thank the Supreme Court. But they entered a semi-permanent realm of no thank you after Bush v. Gore. Perhaps one day they will be entitled to forgiveness. . .but never thanks.
I thank my wife. . .for marrying me and for being a great stepmother. But that's not unique in any way to 2007, and I thanked her last year as well. There's of course no harm in repeating the thanks. But the holiday is an annual one, so I think good form at least requires some additions to the list that constitute a basis for thanks au courant as it were. For the same reason, thanking my parents and sister is fine but doesn't really save 2007. Ditto, my children, although my soon not to be teenage son is back among the living (after a very short, but typical, adolescence). So I thank him (and Colorado College, which seems to have been more responsible for this certainly than me) for that. And I thank his friend Max, who is one of the inspirations for my blogging (though others may not thank Max, for the same reason).
I thank my dog, who is cute and always friendly (albeit blind). But not my cat, who is often mean and wakes me up at 6 am every day in ways that I do not find amusing. I thank my mother-in-law (obviously for my wife, but also for refusing to allow me to do the cleaning and for the cookies she sneaks into the house). I even thank my erstwhile right wing (he says he is now an "Independent") radio talk show host cousin, who has me on his show from time to time, to the consternation of the right wing.
OK, I admit it. I do have reasons to celebrate this holiday. And can now eat turkey, mashed potatoes and apple pie in abundance, having given due thanks.
But c'mon people. Let's improve the list for 2008. My cat is not going to get any better.
The Dow is down. . .a lot. We are still in Iraq notwithstanding an election a year ago that made it pretty clear 70% of us do not want to be. Lawyers are being arrested in Pakistan while Taliban are being set free. The home run king has been indicted. Global warming proceeds apace as the US bides its (and the world's) time, which we now know is rapidly running out. Broadway is black, as effectively are Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, SNL and a whole host of other shows (OK, this very last reality -- namely, the other shows -- may not be so bad). And the only Republican making any sense is the libertarian, Ron Paul.
So what precisely are we thankful for this Thanksgiving?
Those of spiritual bent, myself included, thank God for the bounty, fortune, and sheer good luck which many of us enjoy. To that should be added thanks for our friends, family and good health. But let's be honest here. After the usual suspects, the candidate list for thanks this year is a little thin. Absent the annual turkey whose life he just saved, very few outside his family and the GOP base are thanking W for his performance this year; I bet Cheney has even lost some members of his family. And Rudy never had a lot of his family to begin with, so he doesn't make the cut. The Dems are not getting thanks because they have not done what we elected them to do. Their only excuse -- the GOP minority threat of filibuster -- shows you cannot even be thankful for our system of government. After all, 60 votes are needed in the Senate to do anything, making majority rule somewhat beside the point (and therefore perhaps not worthy of the thanks we give it. . . or the Founding Fathers). As a lawyer, I would always like to be able to at least thank the Supreme Court. But they entered a semi-permanent realm of no thank you after Bush v. Gore. Perhaps one day they will be entitled to forgiveness. . .but never thanks.
I thank my wife. . .for marrying me and for being a great stepmother. But that's not unique in any way to 2007, and I thanked her last year as well. There's of course no harm in repeating the thanks. But the holiday is an annual one, so I think good form at least requires some additions to the list that constitute a basis for thanks au courant as it were. For the same reason, thanking my parents and sister is fine but doesn't really save 2007. Ditto, my children, although my soon not to be teenage son is back among the living (after a very short, but typical, adolescence). So I thank him (and Colorado College, which seems to have been more responsible for this certainly than me) for that. And I thank his friend Max, who is one of the inspirations for my blogging (though others may not thank Max, for the same reason).
I thank my dog, who is cute and always friendly (albeit blind). But not my cat, who is often mean and wakes me up at 6 am every day in ways that I do not find amusing. I thank my mother-in-law (obviously for my wife, but also for refusing to allow me to do the cleaning and for the cookies she sneaks into the house). I even thank my erstwhile right wing (he says he is now an "Independent") radio talk show host cousin, who has me on his show from time to time, to the consternation of the right wing.
OK, I admit it. I do have reasons to celebrate this holiday. And can now eat turkey, mashed potatoes and apple pie in abundance, having given due thanks.
But c'mon people. Let's improve the list for 2008. My cat is not going to get any better.
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