Wives and Lovers ... smitten with the works of Richard Bausch, I recently read one of his novels, Wives and Lovers ... 3 short novels that are gripping, start to finish. I recently wrote a school paper on Bausch’s short stories and titled it American Verismo (i.e., verismo opera) and while the author (in an interview) claims none of his stories are actually real, what he writes about couldn’t be more real; the struggles and challenges and adventures life presents at every turn. I read this collection of short novels for my own sake (as an aside from the MFA program) ... because this author should be read again and again.
Upcoming TK reviews (as I find the time, which I’m really very short on of late) include:
Barry Graham’s, The Champion’s New Clothes (which I’ve started and am enjoying no end).
Sandra Ruttan’s, Harvest of Ruins (up next in the cue and something I’ve been looking forward to reading)
Declan Burke, Absolute Zero (another I’ve been anxious to read).
And now, the Christie factor ...
Some cheer at the above “let them eat cake” attitude of Mr. Christie. Others (most) see this as the class warfare the have nots are faced with. An attitude that says: If you can’t afford to pay $38K in property taxes (i.e., if you’re not loaded), tough noogies. He’s telling us he’s done well, Mr. Christie is ... and so if we haven’t done as well, tough shit. Some imbeciles on the right cheer for Christie’s rebuke of taxpayers who can’t afford private schools for their kids and his never ending defense of the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us. Others look at this and smile (moi, for one) ... because it is this attitude that is gathering momentum (protestors) on Wall Street; it is Christie’s attitude that the people are starting to realize is nothing more than a slap in our collective faces. Let us eat cake? How about you push your fat self away from the table, Jumbo?
Democrats already know he’s no Sarah Palin. The big man can talk the talk and walk the walk money men adore; he tells unions how it will be, like it or not, and he plays to the crowd already conned into thinking the closer to a free market we get, the better things will be. Translation: he’s pro big business, anti worker, exactly what the Republican Party loves. Coming on the heels of the disaster Obama has been to the American worker, those running businesses will continue to have the cake-walk environment established by a Democratic President who skipped his chance to bat for the little guy by ducking his campaign promises to unions (for one thing). So, unless this whale from New Jersey (Christie, not me) has some very big-ass skeletons in his closet, should he run, Mr. Obama will be one and done.
Which is all the more reason, democratic loyalists claim, to make sure Obama doesn’t lose in 2012, because the other guys will be worse.
Worse than Obama for the working man? Really? That’s possible?
Instead of being “disappointed” with The One, try looking at the facts of what he’s done to the working man these last three years (how corporations wound with up record profits (and bonuses) via his bailout and workers have never been in worse shape) and then look at ALL the options out there instead of pointing fingers at the other major party and shitting your pants. Yes, Christie will side with big business and against the American worker exactly the way he did in Jersey. And this is why voting either party nets the same result, pro big business/corporations, anti-worker. Or why didn’t President Obama support the unions he pledged he would defend if collective bargaining were ever threatened?
We sent him a pair. Did yous?
That’s three pizza’s he’s signaling for above ... pies, not slices ...
Well, the picture below ... not exactly in YOUR favor ...
Leave it to the banks ... when all else fails (and to maintain record profits), banks will now charge the consumer with their own version of a tax (a monthly user fee) ... where are the Ayn Randers now?
The Capitalist Police State ... last week when 90 pound protestors tried to film the police, they were pepper-sprayed and abused while being arrested. Yesterday the NYPD upped the anti and picked off 500 protestors on the Brooklyn Bridge.
In addition to what they view as excessive force and unfair treatment of minorities, including Muslims, the movement is also protesting against home foreclosures, high unemployment and the 2008 bailouts.
Filmmaker Michael Moore and actress Susan Sarandon have stopped by the protesters' camp, which is plastered with posters with anti-Wall Street slogans and has a kitchen and library, to offer their support.
While TK wonders where the so-called champions of the little guy were during all this the last few weeks, all we hear are the sounds of silence. The President, so used to dumping the little guy when the little guy most needs his support (see Wisconsin teachers union, et al), is campaigning ... or on vacation again, one of the two. Local Democrats are hiding, as is their way, while Susan Sarandon and Michael Moore show up (at least they do that much). And Republicans, no doubt, are having a good old time watching the video clips of police dragging kids across Wall Street.
Bills at Bengals today ... the wife received her two presents (Bills home and away t-shirts) and today we’ll be wearing the white as we travel to Cincinnati for a battle with the Bengals. This is one of those sleeper games you mark as a WIN on your schedule and then lose ... but our beloved New York State Buffalo Bills seem to have the right attitude right now and I don’t see them sleepwalked just yet. Bills 30, Bengals 20.
Go Bills!
—Knucks
And how 'bout those Buffalo Jills!
