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Be all that as it may, meanwhile:
'In other news…'
27th September 2010
Monday: I tried to surface at two, having written till 8 this morning on my short story, 'After the Rain', but I couldn't manage it. And so, less than an hour before sundown I arose. I must say I am glad of the writing time last night; it is too rare these days to devote time to purely fictional prose.
And so, all I managed was a bit of weeding up the back, accompanied by Cadbury, who likes to try to grab the weeds from me as I pull them out. Last job was to squirt Missus Inkletter's legs, by accident (that's my story and I'm sticking with it), when I watered the motherinlaw tongues out the front. She got a fright and called out loud, for the neighbourhood to hear, "What are you doing to me!"
I then spent the whole evening, but for a short break, in front of Aunty, with Cadbury on my lap.
Lateline: The (Leigh) Sales Graph: Ms Sales looked beautifully turned out with an ivory jacket set off nicely with a full ellipse ruffled collar, and black camisole, avoiding any lack of contrast issues with her skin, and crowned with a convex flaring hair style to finish the superb effect. Subtle-effect makeup, especially the eye shadow tint, conspired to support the effective appeal of professionalism and beauty. And the only jewellery was a set of tiny pearl earrings. She is a rather blessed woman.
Picture coming…
Her first interview, on-screen, was with Senator Christine Milne in Canberra, who also looked beautiful in, no, not a green jacket, but a vivid pink one. They discussed the climate change committee that the Labor Government is putting together, and Ms Milne's role in it.
Picture coming…
Ms Sales' long interview (12 minutes) soon had me paying attention. She was speaking in-studio with Grover Norquist, the President of Americans for Tax Reform. Mr Norquist was immaculately attired in a dark grey pinstriped suit and pale blue shirt with a silvery gold dimpled tie.
Picture coming…
Let me start at the finish: Ms Sales ended with "There are many more things I'd like to ask about, but we're out of time." I only wish she could have had him for another hour, to investigate whether he has anything profound and intelligent to say about some of the other interesting causes he's involved in, because he certainly didn't treat us to much along those lines in this interview.
Ms Sales struck me as having the holes in Mr Norquist's arguments, which were largely about the role of and size of government in the U.S.A., all worked out, if not before she met him, certainly on the run with him in the studio.
Now while I think it's a bit strong of people who think Mr Norquist's a conservative nutter, whose output with regard to taxation and governmental activity has a quality bearing an uncanny correspondence to the quality of thought of George W. Bush, that is, low grade, I can understand how they arrived at such a view, if this is how he always presents his arguments. However, Ms Sales valiantly tried to pin Mr Norquist down to delineate specifically what he would have the US Government do to reduce its tax take and its size, and, embarrassingly to himself, without (doubtless) him realising it, his ideas were so simplistic, he sounded like a fundamentalist religionist quoting scripture.
It is dumb to try to to solve the many excruciating problems of the US Government with equally silly, simplistic, and stupid, not to mention dogmatic, 'solutions'. Many of Mr Norquist's prescriptions, as brief as they were, gave away their naiveté. Take this: "We've wasted almost a trillion dollars and nothing has happened." Mr Norquist, any thinking person would admit that the recent stimulus and emergency spending in the US has involved great waste, but don't insult our intelligence and make a fool of yourself by claiming 'nothing' helpful has happened. I again refer to my previous religious fanatic reference.
Ms Sales gently confronted Mr Norquist with the fact that the market "doesn't always operate efficiently", and tried to keep up a focus on the minutiae of his answers to the problems faced by his nation. She properly brought up the little problem to his arguments regarding the superiority of the Republican side of politics concerning smaller spending of the Bush Junior years, and his reply bumbled on and finally landed on the line that it's now a different Republican Party. I would ask, And a different basic philosophy?
Now I wonder if Mr Norquist, and I suspect he might, would have some enlightenment to share with us concerning his laudable interests in building economic bridges between ethnic and religious minorities and the greater market.
I can say that he didn't do his small government cause much justice with the arguments he used tonight. Maybe we caught him on a bad day. He should take a sabbatical, and formulate a credible method for transitioning his nation, any nation, from big wasteful government, to better government, and practice describing it clearly in a few minutes.
I also wonder if he is aware (I doubt it), that many of the things he believes in, with regard to small and non-intrusive government, belong to a far off era when the average citizen is so advanced in character and intelligence that he/she is essentially self governing.
I do hope Ms Sales can get him again and explore his efforts with his other causes, to see if he can redeem himself. Maybe an on-screen interview from his part of the world might be able to be arranged.
I took a walk about half three, and the breeze put a slight chill into the night that otherwise wouldn't have fazed me.
My time at the keyboard was interspersed during the night with three loadings of the dishwasher; I had not kept up with Janny's cooking for a little while.
I picked up The Dear Leader at 8 a.m., and took him for blood tests locally. It took an hour, so I read from Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' while waiting. I was very tired by the time I returned him to his place then me to ours. Yet back to the keyboard it was for more writing.
+paytontedwithlove+
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