Tea Party serves tepid brew and Bristol Palin can't dance

I've spent almost forty years as a teacher of the performing arts and have had to judge countless presentations. Some young people had that undeniable spark and some worked at it to such a degree that they were able to transcend the footlights and connect with the audience.

Poor Bristol Palin, victim of the haters and buoyed up by the tea party supporters was incapable of creating that invisible connection. She never should have been on the dance floor past week four. Brandy had it. Rick Fox had it in spades. Audrina certainly had enough of it to last longer than she did. Even Florence Henderson still retained a bit of that fiery ember. All right, Bristol was slightly better than the "The Hoff"and a few of the others and could execute most of the steps most of the time but the deadpan glaze and the oft-times clumsy footwork took away so much from her performance that her placement in the finals was a travesty. Should have been Brandy up there with Jennifer Grey and either Kyle, Rick or Audrina.

At least, despite the politics, the best dancer won the day.

I don't understand it!!!

Let's see what's happening in Obamaland

Health care? They don’t want it. Control over the banking industry that has taken them to the brink of disaster. Nope, that might be construed as interference in the capital marketplace. Extend the unemployment benefits to those who were devastated by the aforementioned banking collapse? Are you kidding? That is…socialism… oooh! They want to have a war in Afghanistan because Osama just might be there...or near there. The Taliban, who took down the twin towers, actually came from Saudi Arabia but they are their friends so they can’t fight with them. I know. I’m being much too simplistic. I do remember, however that it was the vast expenditures on the war in Afghanistan that brought down the mighty Soviet Union.

Does any of this make sense?

Let’s go closer to home.

Canadian politics. We like to think that we are smarter and more reasonable than our neighbors to the south, yet we are permanently fractured. The Bloc, a regional party, born in and representing only Quebec has rendered our national parties incapable of forming a majority government. How did we let this happen? The opposition is so fearful of what might occur in yet another futile election that they waive democratic rights . Let’s prorogue parliament. Okay. Let's have the unelected Senate defeat the new environment bill. Why not? Let's extend our support of the war in Afghanistan without debate in the chamber. Okeedokee. Let’s buy some helicopters and Jets while the country continues to stagnate under a debt load previously unthinkable. $16,000,000,000? Just a lot of zeroes. Who cares?

And even closer.

Our premier resigns and the B.C. liberals are in total disarray. What does the opposition do? Well, they don’t gather round the leader and demonstrate that they, at least, can be depended upon to show strength in government. Nope. They gather, like the Senators in Julius Caesar’s Rome, with knives hidden in the folds of their togas. Makes sense doesn’t it?

I could go on but I want you to come back to this blog weekly while I eviscerate in my most curmudgeonly fashion, the events of the times. Next week Briston Palin and the Tea Party.