The new door, however, opens from the middle, left-to-right, and we walk out of it near the center. This morning (like the previous few mornings), the dogs gathered near the right-hand side of the door, waiting impatiently for me to affix their leashes. When I had them all hooked up, and opened the door – the confusion began. You could almost hear them saying “WTF?”, complete with confused faces, as the door swung toward them. “This never used to happen!” Eventually we got it sorted out, and left on our walk...
Three things were much on my mind this morning...
The Supreme Court's decision on ObamaCare is the topper – those few men and women are about to decide something (well, let their decision be known) that has a huge impact on my country and on me personally. A thought I read from Dave Carter expresses it just about perfectly:
“The very idea that we sit on the edge of our seats, eyes toward Washington DC, waiting on the deliberations and dispositions of nine mortals to tell us how much of our liberty we get to retain is preposterous.”Yup, that's it, Dave. And yet...here I am, on the edge of my seat. And I have utterly no idea how they will rule. Just a couple hours from the time I write these words, we'll all find out...
Jerry Brown just signed California's (yet again) insane budget, replete with all the usual gimmicks he forswore – and with a new one that tops all the previous gimmicks. This budget assumes that the compliant sheeple of California will approve a massive tax hike in the November election. Now the Democratic propaganda engine will swing into action, proclaiming to the sheeple that the sky will fall (and damn soon!) if we don't approve these taxes. The dollars available to pay for this propaganda are awesome in their quantity, as every single organization that depends on public funding is, of course, wildly enthusiastic about these new taxes. The teachers, public employees, police, fire, prison guards, and all the other vast army of state employees are represented by unions – and these unions have collected (not necessarily with the consent of their members!) vast hoards of cash to pay for this propaganda. I am afraid the chances for passage of these tax hikes are reasonably good. We may be headed down the same spiral that Greece is in the thrall of...
And then there's Fast and Furious, which infuriates me – both the program itself, and the subsequent cover-up of it. Given the invocation of executive privilege, I'm finding it more and more plausible that not only did the knowledge of Fast and Furious extend to the White House (including Obama himself), but that it might have been ordered from there. The partisan reaction to it no longer surprises me, but it certainly dismays me to see that because they are Democrats (or because they are black, or both) duly elected Representatives and Senators are refusing to hold Holder in contempt – when he so clearly is in contempt of Congress' request for information (which is itself equally clearly within their purview). There are precious few Democrats who have committed to voting for the contempt motion later today. For some reason this partisan reaction is even more depressing to me than the rest of the Fast and Furious mess...
But despite all these less-than-happy thoughts running around in my head, the walk was as beautiful as ever. The Milky Way glowed overhead, and the dogs were, as always, full of delight and joy. Cool breezes intermittently puffed down the hill above us, carrying with them the wonderful smells of the chaparral. The morning was quiet and peaceful, and the dogs and I felt like we owned it completely...