Good rainy Sunday morning. Have you been bombarded by insulting, demeaning campaign ads yet? Well, I’m ready to throw in the towel, and we still have 3 months to go. I’m tired of hearing about Paul Ryan and his Mother in “The Villages,” which reminds me of an old BBC show that has been locked in the back of my mind for decades. I have an older brother, Dr Jim, who would stay up late with me and we’d watch a cult classic called “The Prisoner.” It was about a British spy, Patrick McGoohan, who finds himself living a lie captured in this beautiful seaside resort called “The Village” where he is monitored at all times by a bubble-like Rover, foreshadowing “The Truman Show.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zalndXdxriI&feature=fvwrel
“I am not a number, I’m a free man!” Hallucinogenic drugs and mind control mix to keep McGoohan’s character in line, to give evil Number 2 the information he so desperately desires. The Village’s population, hundreds of diverse people are all referred to by numbers, and go along with the pretense. Which is maybe why I thought that somehow Ryan was mesmerizing these FL Village people into believing that he really did have their best interests at heart? Just as Ryan has been backing away from his favorite author, Ayn Rand, he is bringing up themes from the great paradox of governments everywhere – individualism vs collectivism.
And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I read an article in the Washington Post that inferred that Mitt’s selflessness, his philanthropy, his willingness to give so much to charity makes up for his puny tax returns. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romneys-equating-of-taxes-and-charitable-giving-sparks-debate/2012/08/18/63bea3e6-e891-11e1-936a-b801f1abab19_story.html?fb_ref=sm_btn_fb “Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney…responded to questions about how much he pays in taxes by suggesting that people should take into account his total contributions to the government and charities.” What do you think?
Well, I don’t know about you, but giving roughly half of your tax-exempt donations to a charity called the Mormon Church doesn’t cut it with me. So if you’re a single parent and all of a sudden, you’ve lost your job and you find yourself applying for food stamps, maybe you could stop for a minute, and just call up the church? Making a choice this November between a Republican and a Democrat could never be clearer. If half the American population thinks that entitlements like Medicare and Social Security and Pell Grants are hand-outs that will keep you from becoming your own best, prosperous self, then maybe we are all heading to The Villages?
MountainMornings 