Yesterday my dear friend in Germany called me.  She's been through all the ups and downs of the Bush years with me (well, there must have been some "ups" but I can't recall them) and has oftened sympathized with the disappointment I feel in my country's direction.

She, like many Germans, retains a different memory of the USA, one from her childhood.  One from when we were a country that did extraordinary things sometimes, things to be proud of.

She told me about "The Raisin Bombers."

Indulge me, please.  One of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs is A Pirate Looks at 40.  Somehow it reaches out to that part of me that sometimes longs for a different world, different challenges, different opportunities.  And sometimes you look back at a bright moment of opportunity and wonder if it'll ever come back.  

Yes I am a pirate
two hundred years too late.
The cannons don't thunder
there's nothing to plunder
I'm an over-forty victim of Fate.
Arriving too late....
              ---A Pirate Looks at Forty
                 from Boats, Beaches, Bars and Ballads,
                 Jimmy Buffett

I'm looking at 58 this week and it's got me thinking about the miracles of the past year, from the candidacy of Barack Obama to the Peace Prize for Al Gore and the ICCC.

Maybe I get to be a pirate again after all.

Sometimes a little history is in order to understand the evolution of U.S. law and the rights we assume have always been ours.  There's some real food for thought in the kernels of history...and those of you who considering the relative importance of the next choice for SCOTUS and POTUS vs. "Our Constitutional Rights" may enjoy (or need) some context.

America tells an enthralling tale of liberty and justice and rights.  And no, even some of the ones you take for granted now (like the Fourth Amendment protection against wiretapping) weren't always rights, even in my lifetime.

Be a good neighbor:  Stow those fireworks.  Resist the temptation to buy them, resist the temptation to set them off in your neighborhood.  Don't become your local "terrorist."

Believe it or not, it's NOT unpatriotic to celebrate the Fourth without snap-crackle-pop.

Yesterday when I watched KO, I found myself disturbed both by Obama's announcement that he intended to continue the Office of Faith Based Initiatives, and by KO's reaction to it.  Talk about a soup of conflicting feelings.  Then I started thinking.  (Yeah, sometimes I actually do that.)

It's been some morning.  It started with 428 wolves, then I came here read Granny Doc's diary, and NCrissieB's diary, and a couple of others, and I just want to weep.  Can't you see the big picture?

I'm an old radical who raised her kids on the following meme (long ago, when the drug war began), "If you want to see people give away freedom, make them scared.  Make them feel threatened."

We're about to get a helluva scare.  Are you doing your bit to minimize it?  Or are you just waiting for the government to deal with it?  Because if you're waiting, you can probably flush the Constitution.

There's an elephant in the room, and we're busy picking at its toes.

Of course you don't remember McGovern.  Why?  Because he didn't get elected.

The old lady will try one last time...

As you sit whining over your beer, your wine or your weed, depending on your persuasion, complaining about being betrayed, may I suggest you take a deep breath and consider what you really want to happen in the election and what you really want to start happening next year?

I watched EVAN ALMIGHTY this past weekend, and apart from laughing and grinning because we've all been in that place where our best laid plans arouse nothing but laughter from the universe, I discovered something so freaking profound I had to share it.  And you should share your story too.

Pat yourselves on the back!

MoveOn.org is about to pledge to disband its 527 in response to Obama's call for campaign financing from small contributors.

From MoveOn.org:

Now, in Barack Obama, we have a Presidential candidate who has based his campaign on precisely that kind of new politics—a people-driven politics focused on the outside-of-the-beltway consensus around Iraq, climate change, and health care, not the gridlock in Washington.

I had an interesting conversation with my lawn guy yesterday.  I think it should put us all on notice about a little bit of what is going on out here...And the fact we have to use every opportunity to fight the fear.

Time to wake up and smell the coffee... and trust me, the coffee isn't a cup you want to drink.  (Or maybe you've already developed a taste for this brew...)

I had an epiphany last night about my generation and the mess this country has been steadily getting into.  Put on your 3-D glasses, folks younger than 45. Then try to imagine....

Much to my amazement, this primary seems to have become more of a gender war than a race war, the exact reverse of what I expected.  Sorry to say, there's plenty of reason for that.  Obama needs to cross that particular line, too, because this entire primary season is about beating history in order to get to a better future.

More below.

The real terrorists this country needs to fear are the health insurance industry and the health care industry.  Each day 45 million Americans live in fear and take huge risks because of them.  This is just one story.