Closer to home we have the labor fight in Wisconsin. Some on the left are complaining loudly that the president hasn’t done more, but they are not considering that letting states work out issues without the federal government leaping in is part of our makeup. If this had happened in the last administration, would they have wanted the federal government to intervene? The more time this takes to play out, the more people are being educated about the importance of unions and the attitudes of the wealthy (i.e., the wealthy don’t give a damn about the workers—just listen to that prank phone call). That should be news to no one, but sadly too many people think it’s not true. Unions were created to protect workers. My own father—a conservative every day he was on earth–always said, “I’ve worked with unions and I’ve worked without them and I’d always choose union.”

And, finally, right in my own home . . . 85 Pounds o’ Love is getting his stitches and drain out today (we hope). If that happens, we can finally ditch the lampshade and he can have a bath. Fingers crossed it happens . . .

Update: Originally I had ended this entry with the word “idiots.” But I’ve decided that’s too harsh. Not everyone in every public media is bad. And we all know I have some personal investment in my stated views. But it’s so frustrating to see people not doing their jobs . . . just satisfied to  grab the first thing and toss it out there without any thought. People keep saying we need to be more civil. We also need to think more (as my students have heard me say so many times). But thinking is haaard and it takes tiiime and sometimes we’re wrong and we hate to ever admit we’re wrong and so we don’t . . . And that doesn’t get us anywhere, does it?

I had quite a scare yesterday. I was petting my dog and ran my hands down his sides because he likes to be scratched the entire length of his spine. I stopped when I found a huge lump—the size of my hand—on his side. My heart stopped as well.

This boy, the Wild Man, is 10. He is a Golden retriever. When a person falls in love with this breed, a person has to accept that cancer in later years is a big possibility. He was due for his shots anyway, so I made an appointment immediately. We were in the vet’s office an hour later.

By the time we got there, my mind had gone to lipoma. After all, he’s 10. A fatty tumor would not be a surprise. And that’s what the vet thought, too, until he stuck a needle in it and liquid (not fat) came out. It’s a cyst. Not life-threatening, but if it doesn’t disappear on its own it will have to be removed.

A woman at the vet’s who was buying cat food petted my dog and cried about the Irish setter she had to put to sleep 30 years ago. I understand. I can still cry easily about the Fogg and Ask.

We came home and ol’ 85 Pounds of Love slept the rest of the day (he does that after his shots). He seemed a little stiff when it was time for the evening walk but he did okay.

This morning, however, my poor dog didn’t want to get up. He’s got some pain (probably from that needle) and it hurts to stand up. I gave him a pill and brought his bowls upstairs so he wouldn’t have to negotiate the stairs. He ate his regular food but liked the cooked ground beef part of his breakfast best (and licked the bowl with gusto). I know he’s going to get better now.

But he’s 10. And we’ll live this again, I know.

Okay, I’ve had enough of January and we’re only a little past mid-point. But it’s been cold-cold pretty much solid since November and we’ve had very little of the good snow.  It was February last year when we had that double-blizzard wallop. I’m not asking for THAT again, but I’d like to have one good snow and then spring. Please.

What’s next? This week (give or take) most people in government and TV will talk in respectful tones. Next week they’ll be voting on repealing the health-care bill. I’m guessing the rhetoric will not be what it would have been if Tucson hadn’t happened.

But then, over the course of the next weeks and months, it’ll start to get louder and louder once again. I doubt there will be any more gun references (“surveyor’s marks”? Just how stupid do they think people are??). But there will be insults and hooded references and name calling. Eventually yesterday’s events will just be an “oh yeah, I remember that.” People will say it was just the work of some deranged guy. But it wasn’t. We all know where it came from, even if we don’t want to admit it.

What could be done now to change this path? First, politicians could stop their inflammatory comments, their “us vs. them” attitude. I read that congresspeople used to eat lunch with each other even if they were opposing parties but that doesn’t happen anymore. There could be some civility—for example, no yelling at the president during the State of the Union (or even shaking one’s head and mouthing “no”). There could be some public respect for opponents. Politicians should remember that anytime they lied about an opponent, they were participating in what happened yesterday. According to this article, they are doing some “soul searching.” In some cases, they’re first going to have to remember they have a soul.

What else can be done? TV has played a large role in this tragedy as well (hence the Farnsworth reference above). How about having talk shows where people with differing opinions appear on the same show and actually debate a subject? That does not mean yelling, interrupting, or lying. That means presenting the facts and debating the pros and cons. That means—and I think this would probably be the most difficult part—the commentator and all the participants would have to know the subject, know what they are talking about. If they did, they could then educate the viewers about the subject. And the viewer could make an informed decision.

But there’s the rub. Reasoned discussion is not “good TV.” It does not bring high ratings. It’s booorrring. So instead they stick with Jerry Springer-style politics, only everyone keeps his or her clothes on.

Believe it or not, this is exactly what Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity was about. All politicians and TV talking heads should be forced to listen to Stewart’s ending speech over and over until they understand his point. Even Rachel Maddow, who had him on her show afterwards because she didn’t think she should be lumped in with those other guys. (HuffPo owns it, too—they’re very good at the “us vs. them” attitude and the half-truth reporting.)

So a little over a day after this horrific act we ask: Will anything change? God, I hope so (and yes, that’s a prayer).

Update: Well, it’s been two days and things just seem to be getting crazier, not saner.  There’s been a lot of “wasn’t me, it was him/them/her!” What all the finger-pointers need to accept is that Hate Breeds Hate. Period. And if they choose to spread Hate, they will have no control over what other people do with that Hate. And that’s what they can’t bring themselves to admit.  And because they can’t, I guess we’re closer to the beginning of this than the end of it. What a shame.

Yeah, kid, we feel the same way . . .

It’s part-time, which works for me with my visits to my mother. It is at the institution I wanted most to work in. I’m going to be able to dress up and put on makeup and jewelry (when you work at home for 20 years you don’t take stuff like that for granted!). The people I’ve met all seem really nice. It’s an academic environment. And I’ll learn a lot. At the moment I know how to use libraries, but now I’ll learn it in-depth. I don’t see how this could be better.