ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS MERRY CHRISTMAS

I’m not a religious person. In fact, I’m an agnostic and a secularist. I don’t believe Jesus Christ was born on December 25. But I deeply enjoy Christmas. What I enjoy most is giving presents, especially to my grandkids, and the joy on the children’s faces. Children appreciate presents more than adults, even when it is not what they expected. If they don’t like a present, they will not hesitate to tell you so, and hearing the truth from them is enjoyable.

I enjoy seeing the smile on people’s faces during Christmas, which is an indication that they, too, are enjoying the festivities.

And I will not say “Happy Holidays,” when I mean Merry Christmas.

Of course, my enjoyment is somewhat dampened by the commercialization and the argument over whether to use the term “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.” Hey, I accept this small flaw in the idea of Christmas. To do otherwise would be to be a Scrooge.

So, MERRY CHRISTMAS.

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS WE’VE HEARD THIS BEFORE

During the war in Iraq, we never read any negative reports on the progress of the war. I suppose that in wars, it is the natural reaction of the administration to report only good news—the military is always progressing in its drive to defeat the enemy.

The Obama administration is no different. In the report recently released to the public, it claims progress is being made. However, certain of the President’s words should raise red flags. He said that progress hasn’t “come fast enough,” and the report describes the progress as fragile. The timeline for withdrawing troops next summer is on track.

Some reasons why we should leave as soon as possible: The President of Afghanistan is a crook, and runs a government based on corruption.

The Afghan people do not trust government, any government.

The Taliban and al Qaeda continue to have a safe haven in Pakistan.

Most of all, we can’t do what England and Russia failed to do: make Afghanistan a western-style nation.

 

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS OBAMA DOING HIS JOB

The president’s critics on the right deride him as a radical socialist seething with anti-American rage. To them, he’s a frightening success who has transformed the federal government, ruined the economy, and undermined national security. To the left, Obama is a tragic failure who squandered his chance for dramatic change: no single-payer health-care plan, no heated battle against Wall Street, and endless war in Afghanistan. If the president is struggling these days, the critics say, it’s perhaps because he’s out of touch with Americans, and even at odds with his own principles.

In his article in Newsweek dated November 17, James T. Kloppenberg, defends President Obama’s presidency. As he notes, critics notwithstanding, Obama “is doing exactly what he said he would do.” He refers readers to Obama’s two books Dreams From My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006) for confirmation.

The purists on the left and right accuse the President of not doing what they think he ought to be doing. They in effect want to tell him what he must do in the name of the American people (always be skeptical of anyone who says he or she is acting for the American people, or even more dangerous, acts as if they know what the American people want).

For those on the right, the main goal is to defeat President Obama in the 2012 elections. This means demonizing him and any policy he favors. Their idea of bipartisanship is to just say “no” to anything the President wants to do. Why? Because the American people don’t like what this President is doing.

The left’s self-defeating attitude is if the President doesn’t do exactly what he promised or, better yet, what they think he ought to do in the name of those nonrich folks, they’ll abandon him in the next election. Man, that’ll teach him and the next Democratic president a lesson. That this course of action will return the governing of the nation to the Republicans and Sarah Palin and her ick seems to have escaped them.

The right-wingers ain’t gonna change their attitude. But you on the left remember this: politics is the art of compromise.

 

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS SARAH PALIN HAS AN ANTI-PALIN FAN IN RUSSIA

Sarah Plain may be able to see Russia from Alaska, but I wonder if she really wants to see it because at least one writer in Moscow doesn’t think very much of her.

I first read the story in an African American blog about a columnist in Russia who wrote an “hilarious” piece on Sarah Palin. You can read the story here.

In an article titled “Spankin’ Sarah Palin: A clown short of a circus” the columnist says what he thinks about Sarah in the first paragraph:

I have already called Sarah Palin a pith-headed bimbo from the back of beyond, in this column. I shall now go one step further. By attacking the democratically elected President of the United States of America at a sensitive time in her country’s history, she shows the tact of a boorish drunkard bawling obscenities at a funeral.

The rest of the article is just as funny, funny as the first paragraph. No one has captured our dear Sarah as has this Moscow columnist.