Gone Dark
I have gone dark lately and you might wonder why. On the other hand you might not care or – more likely – you have not noticed.
Bless me father for I have sinned. It has been nearly four weeks since my last article. I did write some toasts (more about that in a moment) but did not publish them, so it is a publishing darkness more than a writing darkness.
There are reasons that some will call excuses but so what.
I spent a week in San Francisco watching son number two get married. That’s Willy with the big smile and his father’s haircut. Tracy looks pleased too. Welcome to LibertyPell, Tracy.
Now you understand the toast writing.
The woman on the left with her hand on her head is Mina, the daughter. She hates politics because it is so smarmy, and she always advises me to write about something else – anything else. Bet she did not think I’d write about her.
Unlike his sister, Willy has not always hated politics. In fact he is a persuasive advocate of a capitalist perspective – one of the few in San Francisco. In the past, he has been more philosophical in his approach and a nimble popper of hypocrisy bubbles.
Willy has given up on the subject and that is the big news.
He just can’t stand it anymore and has removed all things political from his reading list.
For the last month or so, I have felt the same way.
Are we the only ones or could it be a trend? Have the Democrats and Republicans finally succeeded in destroying all interest in electing a president? Worse, are the two parties trying to squeeze out everyone intelligent to make their self serving chicanery easier?
Some think the two-party system is part of our Constitutional fabric. It’s not. In fact, the people who figured all of this out in the late 1700s hated political parties. 2016 could be a good reason why.
Here is a foolproof bit of free political advice that will work equally well for both Democrats and Republicans in 2016.
Fire your candidate and replace him or her with virtually anyone. Both are so widely despised that the relief of someone new should be quite sufficient to win the whole thing.
How many more people do we want to say that they have gone dark?
GARRARD GLENN, September 16, 2016 at 6:57 pm said:
Let there be light.
I nominate Bill Weld, V.P. running mate of confused, bumpkin presidential candidate Gary Johnson. Weld
hitched his wagon to a “libertarian” candidate whose policies are all over the map, and make no sense. But
Weld, old-fashioned northeast moderate Republican, makes a lot of sense. Too bad his genus is nearly extinct.
In the batter’s box, we have Anthony Weiner, sextologist and former Democratic congressman and New York City mayoral candidate. His uncontrollable sexting activities have reduced him to a mere shadow of his former self, and he has even suffered a separation from his bride, one Huma Abedin, right-hand woman to Hillary Clinton. Professionally and socially he is persona-non-grata. As president, he would be universally shunned and ignored. Frankly, I think the office of the presidency could use a rest, while the country decides whether they want to elect qualified candidates to the office ever again, or not. Weiner as president would dramatize and render abundantly clear that pressing need. Meanwhile, the other two branches of government would proceed as usual, perhaps taking up a good deal of the slack provided by the paralyzed Weiner.
Haven Pell, September 17, 2016 at 8:44 am said:
Weld to Weiner: the sublime to the ridiculous
Maybe politics is like drug addiction? You have to hit rock bottom before recovery can occur.
Oscarina Luculla Smyth, September 16, 2016 at 10:24 pm said:
Not sure how the paralyzed Weiner got into the convo.
Don’t know Exactly why we have come to the point of choosing between Worse and Worser.
Maybe it’s because America didn’t get it right from the start. See Requiem for America with Noam Chomsky. On day one we put authority in the hands of white male land owners and sanctified protection of the minority. Guess which minority.
See what greed hath wrought in our so called democracy. We need, more than anything, a fairy godmother (I don’t mean Hillary) who could flick her wand over this land, in fact this orb, and grant us equal education. Overnight. And see what happens.
Haven Pell, September 17, 2016 at 8:46 am said:
Education would certainly be a positive. We should overcome our impatience for immediate results and begin now.
Lord Albert, September 17, 2016 at 12:03 am said:
Ah Haven, Last saw your nippers in 2002. Does Willy play proper tennis? Best wishes, Lord Albert
Haven Pell, September 17, 2016 at 8:48 am said:
he lives in SF. So, no. On the other hand if you would like to paddle a small boat down a rushing river or climb a frightening cliff, he is your guy.
Kate Urquhart, September 17, 2016 at 8:45 pm said:
Lol, Haven. Willy, the ultimate sport thrill-seeker. Congratulations on a second Pell wedding! And yes, I agree with you. This presidential election has resulted in complete apathy for me. Worse and worser. We can do better America. C’mon.
Haven Pell, September 18, 2016 at 8:45 am said:
I love worse and worser. Thank you Kate
Graeme Holloway, September 17, 2016 at 2:55 am said:
Interesting that the founding fathers did not like parties. I see them as undemocratic. If a policy only just gets through at the party level and the other party are completely against it then you have about 70 to 75% of the parliament against it and yet it becomes policy. My time on a local council found a particular policy may be pushed by a particular group because they felt strongly about it and then another policy may be pushed by another group this time with cross over members ie voting on their own personal ( and electorate) thoughts always rather than any party line because there wasn’t any party involvement in that Australian local government council.
Haven Pell, September 17, 2016 at 8:49 am said:
parties seem best at diverting resources to their operatives. The rest is the overhead necessary to achieve that objective
James Walton, September 17, 2016 at 3:22 am said:
I nominate Mickey Mouse. Oh, wait, you’ve already got two Mickey Mouse candidates……
For any who might not be fully au fait with that description, here in the UK anything that is flaky or that doesn’t work properly is liable to be called ‘Mickey Mouse’. As in, ‘Security at Boston Airport is a bit Mickey Mouse’, or ‘Bill Clinton’s foreign policy was very Mickey Mouse’. Often, English slang words rhyme with something – ‘He’s a bit Ginger’- but not I think in this case
Haven Pell, September 17, 2016 at 8:54 am said:
we have the same concept for Mickey Mouse but not the cockney rhyming slang. Well, except on libertyPell, where we have Troppo Berk. Troppo is an Australian abbreviation for going tropical (or crazy. Berk, might have something to do with the Berkshire Hunt.
Please assume that LP has clever readers who can figure that out rather than explaining it
Ashley Higgins, September 17, 2016 at 7:43 am said:
Ah, the old fin de siècle pessimism rears its head but without the hope for a new beginning.
Ashley Higgins, September 17, 2016 at 7:52 am said:
“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”
—Lord Melbourne (1779-1848),
Haven Pell, September 17, 2016 at 8:57 am said:
by this point at the last fin de siecle we were part way through the Battle of the Somme where a million people died.
So, I guess things have improved since then.
Haven Pell, September 17, 2016 at 8:58 am said:
Sounds like he kind of teed things up for H. L. Mencken
DALE JENKINS, September 29, 2016 at 3:04 pm said:
This campaign is so terrible. Is there any way we can flip the slates upside down and have an election with Mike Pence, Tim Kaine, and Bill Weld as the candidates for President? After three years and mega-billions spent, we end up HERE?
Haven Pell, September 29, 2016 at 3:47 pm said:
That would be an excellent answer.
I tried to add your picture but could not make it work