Monday Musings

BP is evidently close to putting a better cap on the well and the goal is to collect 100% of the oil being leaked. I do hope they are able to do this and the Gulf is able to be cleaned. This is a disaster of monumental proportions. The well is close to a mile underwater. I can’t fathom how it was drilled in the first place. I would think we need to be assured we can manage wells that deep.

Trading spies with Russia sounds weird to me. Evidently the spies in the United States had information mostly findable on Google and didn’t do a lot of damage. I’m wondering what the American spies found out. I’m not really sure any of us can really analyze if this was a good trade or not as we don’t know all the details; and never will.

The perfect ending to the story was LeBron James having a press conference at an inner city gym in Akron or Cleveland telling people he would never leave his home area and was committed to the people of the hard-working Midwestern area that has always been his home. It would have been the right thing to do and it would have been a good thing to do. Unfortunately, in this day and age ‘good’ and ‘right’ only seems to happen in fiction.

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he's considering running for president in 2012 and expects to make a decision by early next year. I’m sure people are holding their breath in excitement waiting for him to make his decision.

There is something striking, to me, in the immigration debate. For all the comments about the Arizona law, it is difficult for me to make a lot of comments. I do not live in Arizona and have never been to Arizona and I don’t really have a grasp of the kind of problems the people of Arizona are facing.

But here is what I do know. The border between the United States and Mexico has been porous for as long as I can recall. The problem, at least to me, is that we have two competing signs up on the border. One says, “Keep Out!” The other one says, “Help Wanted!” People come across the border because people not only hire them, but people want to hire them for illegally low wages. We will not be able to enforce the “Keep Out” until we stop people from hiring illegal people for illegal wages. And, this little detail is the one that never makes the news and the root problem of the whole problem.

Speaking of illegal immigration, there is also the human slave trade issue. Increasingly, more and more people are smuggled into the United States from Asia and Eastern Europe especially, to work for slave wages or to ‘pay off’ their trip. Many end up abused in the sex trade. Not a lot of clamor about this in Washington, D.C. these days.

Jesse Jackson criticized Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert on Sunday, saying Gilbert sees LeBron James as a "runaway slave'' and that the owner's comments after the free-agent forward decided to join the Miami Heat put the player in danger. Jackson indicated that Gilbert saw himself as the owner of James and not the team. Jackson also conveniently left out all the money Gilbert offered James and all the perks that James received by Gilbert over the years to reward James for playing for Cleveland. Referring to a modern day professional athlete as a ‘slave’ dishonors those who actually were and are slaves.

Recent tapes are demonstrating that Mel Gibson is a racist and a sexist, and all around nasty guy. People are shocked the world over. Next thing they may do is tell us that the artist formerly known as Prince, Prince, and the artist formerly known as Prince is now known as Prince, is odd.

Lindsey Lohan is incredibly talented and beautiful and in trouble. I’m wondering of the judge was overly harsh on her because Lohan is a celebrity, or if the judge is actually going to save Lindsey’s life with this? I really hate to see young people like her go down the tubes.

Barbara Walters is 80. That is difficult to believe.

Jonathan Alter writes that Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner should have to debate on national television. Have them debate on what their role as the Speaker would be and how they would guide the House of Representatives, and what their ideas are for the future. I agree.