Have I gone mad?

View 741 Monday, September 10, 2012

I have been under the weather for a week, but I am recovering. Thanks to all who were concerned.

The election drags on. The Democrats managed to restore God but not Divine Providence to their platform, but just barely, and if you watched the event they probably didn’t – they certainly didn’t get any 2/3 majority, and it sounded to me as if there were as many ‘no’ votes as well as boos as there were ayes. Of course the amendment covered both restoring “God given” talents and Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and which one was so unpopular as to inspire no votes and boos is not entirely clear.

Chicago teachers strike for higher pay. According to Drudge and other sources, they are the highest paid teachers in the country – I’d have thought that California had that distinction but perhaps not. The schools were sort of open in that free breakfast was served to a bunch of kids already on food stamps, but perhaps that has been misreported. Meanwhile the LA teachers are upset about a free breakfast program: apparently requiring the children to get to school early enough to have a free breakfast in the cafeteria didn’t get enough turnout, so the LA school district is now serving breakfast in the classrooms. This gets more kids taking their free breakfast — a lot more showed up for that – but upsets the teachers who are faced with the residue and the lost teaching time.

I must have misunderstood all this. Perhaps my summer cold has driven me out of my mind.

I am inundated with minor chores, some pleasurable – I have to take some signed contracts to the Post Office – and I haven’t a lot of energy, but I am recovering. Thanks to all who have been patient. And I’ll try to do a big mail bag tonight.

In reading this over I seem to have left out the most important message: Don’t Panic. It’s still the silly season. There is a strong move on the part of one party to make the whole thought of the election disgusting so that people will simply stop paying attention. This gives the biggest advantage to those who have professionalized election politics.

Machiavelli described much of this five hundred years ago.

Self government requires that the governed take some part in government. Freedom is not free.