THE SECOND HALF OF THE FIRST YEAR!

Believe it or not, I have friends and relatives who would be considered to be pretty far out on the right wing politically. I do. And I love them. They have qualities and aspects about them that are endearing and engaging. In some respects, they are intelligent. But unquestionably, they are naive, emotionally stunted and unable to do more than espouse angry, inane dogma rather than common sense on many subjects of relevance to our political discourse today. The right wing is retrogressive, anti-growth, anti-change, anti-sex, anti-women, anti-anything-other-than a white, male oligarchy that no longer represents the world at large. In other words, they are dinosaurs. They are going extinct, as I have written before. It's too bad. In some cases, these are good people. They are just so afraid of change and of their own feelings and impulses that they crave rigid adherence to a righteous authority that doesn't exist. The are devastated by the reality that the leaders of their institutions and corporations have been lying and fleecing them for nearly a half a century, so devastated that they are in denial. "The free market! The free market!" They cry - as if continuing to trust Daddy is the answer, even though Daddy is a drunk and a cheat and a philanderer.

That being said, I don't really have any friends who I would consider to be on the far left wing. Interesting, huh? You see, I find the far left to be very unappealing personally, in some ways worse than the ignorant and angrily dogmatic far right. I find the far left to be de-energized, pseudo-sexual, open-minded but not open in their emotional bodies, and therefore relentlessly intellectual in a way that lacks wisdom, grace and real juice. In some ways, like Al Gore, the left is more correct on the policies that matter to our world's well-being today, but they are useless in implementing those policies. Al Gore's insincere dry mouth presentation made it impossible for me to vote for him in 2000. Of course, I couldn't vote for Bush, either, because he was a childish moron, so I didn't vote. Same in 2004.

Obama is different. He is neither far left nor far right. He is simply an adult, but that is a rare commodity in politics today. Indeed. So, in 2008, I voted. I am still hopeful about the results of that choice, even though the left and right are doing eveything they can to thwart the president's efforts. We shall see. So begins the second six months.