This week back to an organized OpinionList into categories. Don’t hate me because I’m structured.

POLITICS

Martin Bashir: The Daily Beast reports “Weeks after taking a leave of absence for insulting Sarah Palin, Martin Bashir quits his MSNBC show.” Bashir called Sarah Palin a “world-class idiot” with a “long-deceased mind” after she compared our country’s fiscal issues to slavery. As far as I’m concerned, he was just speaking the truth. However, he might have gone a bit too far when he said, “She confirms if anyone truly qualified for a dose of discipline from Thomas Thistlewood, she would be the outstanding candidate.”  Thistlewood was a slave owner who used to force slaves to urinate and defecate in each other’s mouths. It is very likely that Bashir did not quit but was asked to leave by the network that is not The Left’s answer to Fox News. Speaking of Fox, why aren’t its commentators asked to leave when they insult, grossly distort, and lie about President Obama?

Back Down, Bachmann: Michele Bachmann is at it again. She is now claiming that President Obama has “rewritten the Constitution,” and that he’s acting like a dictator. Of course, President Obama has not re-written the Constitution and, as usual, she has no idea what she’s talking about. If President Obama were a dictator she and her GOP buddies would be at the very least imprisoned for political malpractice, obstruction of governance, and gross stupidity. Too bad President Obama can’t and won’t actually become a dictator.

So Wrong To Be Right: I really thought that I had been driven to temporary insanity by the GOP during the shutdown/default crises. I even thought that I was turning a bit paranoid when I wrote the post Impeachment: The GOP’s Endgame. But, actually, I was infinitely lucid. Dana Milbank of The Washington Post reports, “History will record that on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary met to consider the impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama.”

President Obama Plays Hardball: Reuters reports that yesterday, President Obama told Chris Matthews that “Republicans who control the House of Representatives have to be ’embarrassed’ by their inability to produce legislation such as an immigration overhaul.” I’m so glad to see the President pointing the finger and pointing out the truth. But as much as I like him, his remark is inherently flawed. You can’t be embarrassed when you have no conscience.

TECHNOLOGY

No iPhone, No iPresident: I would never run for President. Apart from the fact that, unlike Sarah Palin, I know my limitations; apart from the fact that my skin does not by any measure have the required thickness to deal with today’s toxic GOP,  I just found out that the President cannot have an iPhone for security reasons. That’s the clincher.

More Than OK….Great: Did you know that those who have myopia can now wear contact lenses while they sleep, take them out in the morning, and see perfectly during the day? I found out on Wednesday when I took my son to the optometrist to ask about contact lenses for him. These lenses are called Orthokeratology lenses (OK).  I can’t stop talking about them. But there are further good news, they are now being tested for those who need reading glasses (usually after the age of 40). I’m not saying that I need reading glasses, I’m saying that now it looks like I never will.

WORLD

Mandela Is Gone, Will Never Be Forgotten: We wake up today to the news that Nelson Mandela has passed away. Hundreds if not thousands of articles are running about his death and his life. Most are laudatory, others look back at his life and question some of his choices, like his close friendship with Cuba’s Fidel Castro. I detest extremism from the right as well as from the left. I am no fan of Fidel Castro and it surprises me that someone as kind as Mandela could have such a friend. But beyond that I see a man who spent 27 years in prison in order to free his people from a system that judged them to be inferior and oppressed them. That kind of man deserves our respect and our recognition no matter what we feel about some of his decisions. That kind of man, after a life filled with struggle and pain, deserves to rest in peace . I have no doubt that he is doing so.

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