Super Bowl ad

The Focus on the Family television ad that caused all the ruckus for having been shown during the Super Bowl is here. To me, the problem isn't with the ad itself--I don't find it worthy of so much grousing, indeed, I find it pleasant--but with the fact that it was the first "advocacy" ad that CBS had agreed to air, and that at the end of the rather lighthearted, inoffensive ad, a referral appeared, guiding viewers to the Focus website, where much more strident anti-abortion messages appeared. Although I am of the mind that thinks there are much greater problems with America--and America's media--I can't get over how a national network, using public airwaves, is granted the power to air the Focus ad while refusing to show ads that focus, with similar decorum, on a woman's right to attend to personal medical conditions.

To my fellow writers...

Read this and weep.

There's just no accounting for taste

I mean, to some, I suppose this is just peachy. To me, it's a bit extreme, especially the part about the soil in the girl's lungs.

Extra, extra!

Here, finally, is some important news.

Gutsy people

These two doctors have more guts than I do. Very effective, too.

What's in a word?

Check out Rasmussen's daily tracking poll of Obama's job performance. This page shows the numbers (strong approval percentage minus strong disapproval percentage), going back to Obama's first day as president, and, as Rasmussen notes, the -4% as of the poll dated 2/1/10 is the highest number for months, rising sharply from the depths in the last two days, following Obama's SOTU address. Amazing how fickle the American public is, how gullible and susceptible to being swayed by good oratory.

Scary, actually.

Too much to bear?

Losing Zinn and Salinger. I suppose they had to die sometime, but during the same week?

Why they hate us...

Check out the last line of this brief news story. Doesn't it say all there is to say about the callousness of our presence in these foreign places?

In case you missed it...

Nigeria, which over the past decade has become a nightmare of death and destruction, isn't some tiny African outpost. It has a population almost half of that of the United States, even with all the killing.

If I were living in Caracas...

I'd be holding my ears, because "shock and awe" are on the way.

Wait and see

Obama is going to deliver his first State of the Union Address on January 27. We're told it's going to be a "no more Mr. Nice Guy" speech. He's just rehired David Plouffe, who was so important in his successful Presidential campaign, to bring some potency to his administration. Well, we can get a glimpse of what Plouffe has in mind from this recent essay by Plouffe, and I must tell you I don't see very much to be hopeful about. To be sure, Plouffe says some good things, but I see no spark, no truly populist venting--certainly no significant policy suggestions--in the essay.

I'll be listening to Obama's speech with heightened interest. (I haven't watched a SOU address for years, for obvious reasons.) There's had better be some fire and brimstone--and some serious effective "change"--in Obama's speech or else he'll be guilty of what I despised so much about the Bush administration: repackaging instead of rethinking.

Obama should propose an increase in income tax on the wealthy; a re-imposition of the estate tax (since its going to go back into effect soon anyway, Obama need not suggest an enactment by Congress, but simply inaction, which Congress seems capable of doing nowadays, if nothing else); a vigorous jobs program, including federal money for job-creation, particularly in green industries and green energy efforts; strict controls and limits on lending and banking; ending both wars (certainly ending the Iraq occupation), and something bold and decisive I haven't included above. This last I'll leave to Obama and his folks--that's why they get the big bucks.

Actions, not words, Mr. President. Words don't work anymore. If you've learned anything in this first year, it's that.