Happy Holidays-Pat Robertson-NYC Transit Strike

Happy Holidays. And, encompassed in that expression for all the years of my life (raised Roman Catholic) are two yearly events: Christmas and New Years. Period. No attempt to degrade, denigrate, piss on the celebration of Christ's birth as represented in the New Testament.

Dubya's administration has been built on the rock of hot buttons: insidious terrorism, gay marriage, abortion, theory of evolution, pansy-assed liberal political correctness and, yes, the "war on Christmas."

There is no "war" on Christmas. This is a hot button perpetrated by Dubya's running scared administration and the media wingnuts who have bought into this latest hot button non-issue to include Bill O'Reilley, Cavuto, Tucker Carlson, etc. And, of course, the usual Christian fundamentalistic suspects -- Dobson, Robertson, etc.-- are just absolutely giddy with this phoney baloney bullshit hot button.

Dubya's base voraciously feeds on hot buttons like surly curs on the sweet suet of real or imagined (nylabone) meaty appendages.

Happy Holidays!

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Pat Robertson says I'm an atheist and a cultist because I happen to believe in the Theory of Evolution. I won't quote (much of) the old gentleman who I sincerely believe is suffering a wee bit of dementia these days. The link will take you to Media Matters where you can even watch a video of this poor, old, confused dipshit who says, "And the fact that somebody comes along and says, 'We are not sure that it's accurate, it's a theory and not a fact' -- how can you say it's a fact? You are talking about 10 to 15 billion years ago. Who was there?" No shit, Sherlock, Oh, you poor, pathetic old man. That's why it's called a "theory,"

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Finally, this morning, about 7 million New Yorkers are stuck without public transit due to a strike of transit workers. Mayor Bloomberg says the strike is costing the city over $4Million a day. The dispute seems to center on--what else?--percentage of wage increases and benefit packages for new hires. Interestingly (to me, at least) is that one of the things the Transit Authority is attempting to do with the new contract is revise the manner in which pension benefits are administered. After seeing the failure of so many pension plans in this country and the utter devastation of elderly folk who depended upon what they had thought were guaranteed benefits through their "golden years," I'm an advocate of pension reform for those plans which are inadequately administered and not fully funded. Even here in Colorado, the state's pension plan, called PERA, is in big trouble, significantly underfunded and historically mismanaged.

I understand the transit workers' issues. But, then, I myself spent twenty-three years as a "public servant" and not once, ever--even as bad as things occasionally became during my tenure as a public servant--was there an inclination to strike. Being a public servant--in any capacity--does, I believe, carry with it an additional responsibility beyond that which private sector workers contend. A public servant must first, last and always devote their efforts to the best interests of the city or the state or, indeed, the nation under which they serve. That does not include the shutdown of the transit system of the one of the greatest city's on the face of the earth during the holiday season.

Reminder to Dubya: YOU are a public servant!