I was shocked and appalled at yesterday's cheery "Get well soon, Arlen!", where the kossacks all pat themselves on the back for bein better than the republicans.
I guess I'm not politically correct enough to blog here.
I'm an ageist.
Like Thomas Sowell, I personally think John McCain is too old to serve as president.
Update:
CAN WE TALK ABOUT AGE NOW?
Specter has a recurrence of Hodgkins.
During the last 15 years, Specter has had to deal with a brain tumor, bypass surgery and cardiac arrest in addition to cancer.
Specter is 2 years away from 80.
Incidence of Alzheimers is 1 in 5 over 80 years of age.
Specter has lost part of his brain.
Specter has been in ill health for 15 years. How many votes has he missed because of illness?
Congress exists to serve the will of the citizens.
If a congressman can't do his job, he should have the grace to retire.
UPDATED:
more thoughtful for David Kroning--
okfine
The fact that aged people govern is a cultural hangover from the EEA (environment of evolutionary advantage).
The older you were, the more knowledge had been experiencially accumulated.
That is also the origin of the cultural stereotype of age equating wisdom.
We live in the Age of Information.
experiencial data is "flattened", anyone can harvest a lifetime of info from books, media, and the interwebs.
Age-related infirmity is also a fact.
Illness, shortterm memory loss, inflexibilty of mental paradigms, inability and/or unwillingness to assimilate and/or learn new paradigms, all documented.
Your chances of becoming debilitated by some kind of malignant cancer are exponential after age 65.
I wish Arlen Specter well...in retirement.
even more thoughtful:
Age-related infirmity may compromise a congressperson's ability to determine if they should retire, as well as their judgement on other issues.
They will not be voted out because entrenched cronism and social networking benefit their constiuencies far more than good judgement or good legislation. That is why national term limits always fail.
The Founders wanted a citizen congress that was truly representative,
not a buncha lawyers with virtual lifetime appointments.