I'm Bushed!

I was sore at the time of my last post, sore from hiking the AT and sore at Bush. The hiking soreness is slowly getting better, but the Bush soreness gets worse.

It's hard to believe that a leader can be so consistently and publically wrong as is GWB! I don't think he "disassembles" (dissembles), I just think he's a well-meaning dumb guy who just happens to be president of the United States. So this week the Terry Shaivo autopsy comes out proving that all the right-wing hullabaloo was just hot air...the only true statement was Tom Delay's, where he claimed Terry was just as alive as he is! Then the updated information about global warming, showing conclusively that Republican reluctance to accept the scientific facts has put all of us back for the long term. We need to get serious about reducing energy usage and greenhouse emissions, and we need to be in the forefront of getting all other countries to follow on this important issue for our kids. Then, of course, we sadly learned of many more Iraq casualties this week, more than two years after the "cakewalk" and "mission accomplished". You just got to believe there was a more effective way to deal with the Saddam problem, but the train left the station on its way to Chaos a long time ago. Thank goodness for elections! One has to believe that GWB, his staff goofballs and their allies in congress will be history sooner rather than later. They have certainly earned the "boot".

One last scream relating to politics - the NPR matter. Cutting NPR's funding while the right wing has pretty much purchased the public airwaves is a scandal! Yes, many of NPR's in-house people are center and left leaning, as are personalities like Garrison Keillor. But many conservatives also get their voice on programs like All Things Considered, Science Friday, and others...voice that liberals never get on trash like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage. Perhaps silencing critics is GWB's idea of democracy (Iran is a good model), but this guy is furious. Strange behavior for a life-long Christian Republican MBA like me!

On the Democrat side, another goofball congressman is all exercised about the four year old boy who died (sadly) at Disney World. He wants lots more regulation. Typical of democrats - one death in 8 million riders and we have a big problem for national government to get into! As an EMT I know that strange things happen to susceptible people who appear healthy...that's life. Sometimes I think there needs to be an SAT test for people who run for office...a minimally functioning brain and a little education is not too much to ask, is it?

So, Life Hiker has got his mind cleared about our sad government. On to more mundane matters. A friend who has had a leukemia relapse is home pending another bone marrow transplant - thank heaven for modern medicine! My new grandson just took his first real steps at just under one year of age. We got some rain after a dry spell in upstate New York, just in time for the LPGA golf tournament just down the road. I worked the overnight on the ambulance and got to sleep because nobody needed help on Wednesday night. And yes, my 84 year old mother is married again to a great guy...what a world!

On with the hike of my life...see you next time.