Three for the Road

Jokin’ Jo

The recent death of singer Jo Stafford reminds me that one of the funniest “comedy albums” of all time has to be the one she did with her husband Paul Weston. It’s called “Jonathan and Darlene” and features, as her obituary says, “numbers on which she sang painfully off-key and he played miserable piano.” But there’s more to it than that. Her singing is not totally off-key – just enough to excruciate (and, in my case, infect with a severe case of the giggles). And his piano playing – well, let’s say you have to be awfully good to play that badly. All in all it’s very subtle and hilarious performance.

Der Obama’s Face

Another blogger (http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/) asks why Barack Obama “advocated a ‘civilian national security force’ that is ‘just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded’ as the nation's military.” Yeah, I know it sounds scary – an American Gestapo? But frankly, I don’t think there’s any cause for alarm. Look at the statement again. Obama wants the national security force to be “just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded as the nation’s military.” But under Obama – as under his recent Democratic predecessors, i.e. Carter and Clinton – the military is bound to suffer huge budget cuts and be rendered weak, hollow, and impotent. So a domestic security force that matches that would be no problem.

Just Wondering…

I know I’m not the first one to bring this up, but it bears repeating. If the result of NAFTA has been the flight of all our jobs to Mexico, why are the Mexicans all sneaking up here to find work?