If O'Rielly cannot come to the homeless

Over the last few weeks, Bill O'Reilly has outdone himself attacking John Edward's vow to "never forget" the plight of poverty-stricken Americans, specifically homeless veterans. In fact, O'Reilly claims there are no homeless veterans--and he's been looking. Well, apparently, the non-existent homeless veterans are planning to visit Fox Studios today with a petition demanding an apology from O'Reilly. I'm betting that O'Reilly will call in sick or take an extended lunch, but I doubt that he will meet with the homeless, even if they camp on his doorstep for the next two weeks. But it's one of those developing stories that promises to be interesting, if not amusing. 

Notes on the job hunt

If you fail an Excel test the first time, be sure to study, and study well, for the second opportunity or you will blow that as well. I know this from bitter personal experience. My job hunt limps along, as I slog through one waisted interview after another. I figured my life as a writer has effectively ended, so what about customer service--the fall back of more than 40 years ago. Well, them thar jobs have all gone to India. Receptionists are young, and more attractive then I. And all of them have exceptional Excel skills. All I want is the chance to answer someone's phones and send out their mail. My Excel skills will improve as I use Excel and as long as I have Excel for Dummies at my side. Being unemployed and under-educated at 61 is the pits. So, stay in school kids, and learn your Excel well.

God bless the insurance companies

I had another of those long, miserable days marked by long, miserable conversations about health insurance. I am uninsurable because I have a chronic disease. So, I thought to throw myself on the mercy of the state. It was a long fall onto hard ground. Well, yes, there is a sort of program that I can apply to but no it will not pay for chemotherapy. Do we love this story or what? I'd have a better chance if I was the unwed mother of several. So, I can kick myself for poor planning or I can kick myself for poor planning, but I cannot hope to have access to care because I planned poorly. As each hour of this enforced retirement passes, I feel more isolated, more obsolete and more alone. I have too much time to review my past sins, mistakes, and foolishness, and I just don't see any way out. I passed panic long ago and went directly to outright terror. I cannot believe that I cannot get a job. I cannot believe that I am superfluous. How's that for hubris? Things could be worse, is my new mantra. But really, being dead is better than this. I kid you not.

Hillary Clinton: The Villeinous Victim

There is something about Hillary Clinton that brings out the worst even in misogynists. Either she is a villein or a victim, but she is just never who she is.  Yet, Hillary never refers to her husband's extracurricular activities unless asked, and she is always asked. No one ever asked Ronald Reagan about his failed marriage, or the short time between his marriage to Nancy Davis and the appearance of the eldest child. But the salacious questions about Democrats never seem to end, particularly when it comes to Bill Clinton. And no one ever asks how an investigation into a land deal somehow focuses on the President's interesting hobbies. But the Republicans will have us believe that Hillary runs as the victim of a cheating husband--that is, when she is not the architect of everything that went wrong with the current administration.

The opposition stubbornly clings to the fiction that Hillary got where she is because of her husband and his infidelities. Not only is that insulting, it simply is untrue. MSNBC's Chris Matthews was recently made to apologize for positing on his TV show that Hillary got where she was because her husband cheated on her. The people of New York seem to think that Hillary is a good senator. 

As a woman, Hillary has to work twice as hard for recognition that comes easily to her male counterparts. There are a lot of women in the US who honestly believe that women should not be allowed to run for elected office. The second class citizenship of women in the United States is well documented. As a woman who is bucking the system, Hillary is running an uphill battled, and I don't think she is helped when people drag her dirty laundry out for a second or third or fourth look.  He cheated on her, which should have remained private, and how they dealt with it is private. If you don't like her politics, don't vote for her. If you don't like her voting record, don't vote for. But don't make your decision based on what you think she should have done, or what you have done, when resolving a personal situation.  Hillary Clinton is a victim only in that is the role the opposition has cast her. And maybe we should ask why that, of all her other decisions, sticks in the collective craw the most.

And some point we will have a female head of state. It's bound to happen. Maybe it will be Hillary Clinton, maybe not. But I would hate to think that she lost an election because she remained married to an unfaithful man. And if that is the benchmark, why doesn't it apply equally to men?