Sarah Palin's "Talk To The Hand" Job

Sarah Palin's big fluffy head full of hair is back in the news, sneering at President Obama in ways infantile, amusing, and entirely untruthful. But what else is to be expected. The Tea Party movement which seems to have spontaneously arisen not from the appearance of national debt and bad policy, but from the appearance of a black president, was the perfect platform for Palin to demonstrate once again that a true fool, unlike the jester, is internally blind, deaf, and dumb.

And if you are one of the blind mice being led, or if you are one of the cynically astute defending her political finger painting and give support to such nonsense, then you will deserve the eventual outcome that comes with fluffing her head with thousands of dollars.

"Now, a year later, I've got to ask supporters of all that," she told tea partiers, "How's that hopey, changey stuff working out for you?" sing song-ed Sarah, amusing herself and the sheep in the fields, whose money was in her pocket.

To see someone so intellectually vapid given such adoration by an equally simpleminded populace is annoying, but will turn entertaining when Palin goes on to fight tooth and nail come 2012 to take her prize-the presidency. All of which is why Obama is perhaps a bit too passive in his approach to actually achieving any of his major legislative goals. Undoubtedly he realizes that Palin will gum up the Republican machine and make for much merriment. But he shouldn't assume that he cannot be blindsided by someone in-house, posing a takeover. We doubt Hillary Clinton is inclined to just watch from the sidelines if an opportunity presents itself.

In any case Palin has her hand firmly around the simple units of her followers, and wherever she pulls and tugs, they will surely follow in rigid formation.

 (Sarah's Policy Pimp Hand: Talk To It, Read It, Remember It)

Here, if we talk to the hand (of Palin), we can see how she plans to solve the myriad problems facing our country: tax cuts, energy (reforms?), lift American spirits. Okay, not exactly her solutions, just the talking or bullet points. But can we really expect realistic, detailed solutions from a woman who literally has to look at her hand to remember her three talking points? This woman who imagines herself the equal of Obama, a man who stood and faced a room full of the opposition, sans teleprompter, and faced them down.

Nobody has yet found the way to force her to sit down and answer any questions in detail, and solutions in her head, like tax cuts, have nothing to do with the problems we face. Cutting taxes does not solve financial collapse. Nor does it stop health care companies, like Anthem Blue Cross in California, from suddenly getting the delusional fortitude to attempt to raise the prices on private insurance premiums by 30-39%.

Palin would need a hand as big as her head to fit an adequate analysis of health reform issues, but unfortunately we are only guaranteed that her head, sans filling, will keep growing to the point of unbearable loftiness.

Other News:

• Wall Street is peeved. How dare you bail us out, then say nasty things about us, and then try to keep us from destabilizing the economy again. Take that Democrat! No money for you! Republicans are smugly enjoying this, although, the average supporter of smug Republican politicians does not seem to realize their party is speaking populism with one tongue, and fellating the industry with the other. Perhaps Obama needs to tone down the rhetoric, while at the same time pointing out Republican lack of regulatory action. 

•  Senator Shelby, Republican of Alabama, holds people and country at gunpoint. Eventually this type of thing has to stop, or Obama has to make it painfully embarrassing for someone to pull this off. 

• Lovers of the status quo need to understand the implications of doing nothing on health care reform. But they won't. And hospitals will suffer. And costs will continue to rise. And Palin will be elected in 2012. And China will invade. And we will all be killed. So please, please realize that doing nothing is actually worse than doing something. (No really, we will all be killed by Chinese death panels if nothing is done).  

Obama, Outlandishly Normative (And Not The Radical You Dreamed Or Feared He Was)

When Obama recently did his question and answer with Republicans last week, he pointed out to them that if the opposition joins in demonizing him with outlandish inaccuracy, that it would make it impossible for them to do necessary compromises to reach a deal. The adjacent but obvious point was that the Republicans ought not to nix every piece of legislation just because they don't get everything they want, especially given the reality that they are the minority and that the Democrats have accepted Republican proposals they themselves did not favor.

My guess is that Republicans will learn nothing from the exchange, just as they learn nothing from the ridiculousness of beginning a meeting with the the black president they have demonized, by reading a letter from a little black child. (The one in a million black child whose family may have voted Republican. And while we think more blacks should be voting Republican, this episode speaks to the nonsense that Republicans are far too adept at pulling off).

Even the idea that Obama is some left wing person intent on destroying the United States and unwilling to stand up for American interests is absurd. He has taken the fight to Afghanistan and other regions as hard or harder than the previous Republican administration. He has called for more nuclear power in addition to offshore drilling and has met weapons commitments from the Bush administration.

Ignoring the question of whether we should be selling weapons to Taiwan, the fact is that we are, and it speaks to Obama not being the person Republicans like to claim he is.

(It's also interesting reading comments by Americans to various articles, with their certainty that Taiwan ought not to be part of China, and despite the fact that using the same logic you could make an argument that Hawaii ought not to be part of the U.S. if they so chose to stray.  In both cases you have land areas largely controlled and populated by peoples from a larger land mass. It's also important to remember that aborigines aside, the people who moved into Taiwan (ROC led by Chiang Kai-shek) and controlled it, worked under the assumption that China proper and China Taiwan were all one one part.)

Even Obama's support for increased nuclear weapons funding is his attempt to compromise with Republicans by making sure our arsenal is modern and secure, while simultaneously seeking Republican support for upcoming nuclear arms reduction deals with the Russians. This tightrope, as Jonathan Landay of McClatchy calls it, is not the work of a man hell bent on pushing the country radically left.

Nor does the arming of certain countries in the Middle East with Patiot Missile systems or adding permanent patrols of Aegis cruisers suggest that Obama is any less concerned with American security than any other president.

Even the President's talk of a spending freeze is reflected in a budget that does not seem the work of a radical. He cuts where he can, leaving entitlements, including defense spending, alone.

The Republicans have painted, and worked the oils on the canvas, and have used grand hyperbole and outright untruth in order to allow themselves to do nothing. The reason they want to do nothing is to preserve the power of action and progress for when they are again in control. That is supreme cynicism and one usually expects, or hopes, that the majority of people in a party can find enough compelling reasons to step out of tactician mode and into the role of governing.

Republicans should be seeking to get their names behind some legislation, accepting joint victory, rather than handing us all total loss.

Other News:

• Jeb is out of the bushes, making noises and sounding presidential. Since we actually like a portion of what the Bush's have done, or hoped to do, we will give him a look when that time comes.

• A British look at why people are stupid, and vote against their own interests. Left out though, are certain liberal tendencies to condescend and dismiss closely held beliefs of many Americans.

• Elective Death movement on the move. Now this is what Palin really should be paying attention to, but since she doesn't really read, it may sneak up on her.

• RINO (Republican In Name Only) Scott Brown supports abortion rights. Maybe Massachusetts voters did know what they were getting. Not sure Republicans did, in praising him and tossing him into robo-calls (thank you McCain).

• Here, the SEC, under Bush, allows investment banks to increase debt, and they do, using it for some rather risky speculations that we are crying over today. Slate argues that allowing partnerships to go public and increase debt were root causes of our problems. Yea that and people not paying their mortgages.

300: Obama the Greek Fights the Republican Persians, and Survives

Obama gave a State of the Union speech this last week that refused to apologize, that reminded people of the truth, and that confronted his critics sometimes directly. It was a worthy speech, and did about as much as could be expected, given the difficulties of getting Republicans to extend their thought patterns beyond tax cuts for business. (The same businesses who are woefully underrepresented in the governments yearly income stream, compared to individuals.

Obama went even further, taking time out to accept an invitation from Republicans to speak with them face to face on issues. In the process of confronting their outright lies about him imposing some socialist monarchy on the country, he also managed to put the fire to the idea that he is a man dependent on teleprompters to convey deep thoughts. Those who readily accepted that caricature and lie will go on believing the lie, and look increasingly simpleminded in the process.

Questions were asked respectfully (for the most part), although some questioners took long minutes of speechifying to get there. As in the House of Commons, the questions were blunt and sometimes pointed. But Obama came right back at them, citing chapter and verse from legislation and nonpartisan government reports, appearing to be at his wonkish best.

“I’m having fun,” he said at one point.

(Christian Science Monitor)

You can watch the video here,  and see Obama facing the opposition British style, and without having his own party on hand to toss him softball questions in which to regather his thoughts. I cringe at the thought of Palin even attempting to do something like this, had she been president, let alone actually attempt such off the cuff dialogue in standard interviews with critics.

Republicans Attempt To Transplant Cornel West's Soul Into Obama, Using Witchcraft

Sometimes you have to think carefully and read between the lines when some conservatives (and whites) express dislike for famous black people. Tiger Woods was previously tolerated, excepted even, though grudgingly in certain quarters, as his talent far eclipsed everyone else in his field, and his lifestyle was subdued enough to not be used against him. Until now, what with his copulations across America. His recent penile (and juvenile) activities have allowed those who disliked him for being cocky (and black), to justify that dislike further. Often enough blacks in the public eye provide that ammunition, and certain people are far too willing to fortify their innate bias with that ammunition, while ignoring similar actions in non-blacks.

Of famous black people, Denzel Washington is one of the few that manages to avoid the type of casual and over-sized dislike that extends to so many others. (We might toss Morgan Freeman into the bucket as as well, as both men seem to lead subdued quiet lives out of the spotlight). Tiger was kind of in there, disliked primarily by older white golf fans who are unhappy to see Jack Nicklaus' achievements threatened, but accepted as a "good black" by most others. Until he went on his rabbit rampage across white daughter America.

But I digress, because I wanted to point out that every now and then the irksome and casual mockery and derision and dislike is well earned. In Cornel West we have a man that is generally respected and accepted by blacks (though I would debate the awareness of him among all class levels of people of either race), and accepted by a certain type of well educated liberal white person. However he is trivialized by others, by conservatives, and rightly so.

Indeed the way conservatives look at Cornel, seeing his preen and pomp and intellectual fingerpainting for what it is, is the way they are hoping the world will eventually look at President Obama when they are done shaping public opinion of him. Cornel always seems to be talking and never coming to anything profound or useful, quilting words together in a drapery that covers the fact that he has said nothing at all.

Obama is a man with far more substance and intellect, but he is in the target zone, and Republicans are making a mighty effort to tamp down any achievements so that their verbal diminution of the man will prove prophetic.

You can see some of Cornell's fluff on display in an quick interview he gave with the times. On the one hand, it's interesting to see how people live, and how he travels each weekend around the country. This would be an interesting light profile if the person in question was someone with a bit more heft. But it's Cornel West, and his flitting about the country only reinforces the idea that the man doesn't have a solid foundation. The profile reads as fluff on fluff.

The New York Times intro says:

Cornel West, 56, has many roles: Princeton professor, philosopher, fiery orator, civil rights activist, classical violinist and actor (in two “Matrix” movies). On weekends, Dr. West travels the country delivering lectures, being, in his own words, “a bluesman in the life of the mind, a jazzman in the world of ideas, forever on the move.”

This is the man Obama does not want to become, or be characterized as. He does not want to be a celebrated totem without weight and depth. He does not want to be seen as fickle, of flipping here and there, words on fire, accomplishments slight. A little less conversation and a little more action should be the order of the day for Obama, and for all Democrats. Otherwise, they risk being marginalized inside of a destiny they can control.

Republican Scott Brown Rides Wave of Stupidity To Elevated Status

Republicans are happy. The voters of Massachusetts are insane. In a state with a habit of voting in Democrats, they opted for Scott Brown, a photogenic conservative cutout. Why now, and to what end? The usual reasons, sort of the Fox news type of reasons: that the public is angry over the status quo, angry over Obama, and angry over the direction of health care and unemployment.

Shenanigans to all that. Voters are not nearly smart enough to focus their attention on the major problems, or divine solutions to those problems. They are reflexively reacting directly to politics, and not economics or an understanding of legislation creation, or the dynamics of saving a financial system. This last one is how they can wonder what Obama has done for them economically, the reality of total collapse unseen and averted via methods they know not of. The blind (Brown) leading the blind.

I recall talking with a coworker about illegal immigration, and how some left leaning professors (redundant words I know) were offering cell phone devices to illegals so that they could better navigate difficult border crossings. My coworker's solution? Offer citizenship to anyone who comes over. She also made the argument that this would not encourage others to follow, and that these workers would continue to do the jobs Americans are unwilling to do.

Our response was that if you legalize every illegal person here, without attempting to stem the tide or restrict the numbers, a huge portion of Mexico would soon arrive on our doorstep. While the illegals coming across the border now seem like an unstoppable tide, offering legal status and citizenship would give the magnet of jobs a whole new power. Even those comfortable and wealthy Mexicans, comfy in Mexico City and other areas, would make the flight or road trip to pick up their new status. Live in Mexico, vacation in Denver.

Second, if you increase immigration to 20 million or 40 million Mexicans, you suppress wages in any industries they choose to enter. The reason Americans don't go into migrant farming, is because they don't like being treated like crap, and definitely don't like being treated like crap for a wage that you can't support a family on, and, they don't have the luxury of seeing their dollar performing above its pay grade back in Mexico.

But nevertheless, this was her solution to the problem of illegal immigration. "We will never get a wall built," she said, bowing to the  political reality in her mind, and thus, "We might as well legalize them so that their income supports the tax base."  And this was a very smart woman saying this.

In this world, there is no cost to accepting an infinite number of Mexicans, who, while paying taxes, are paying at reduced rates, from reduced salaries, while suppressing existing salaries of native citizens, and burdening the teetering health system with families that are larger than the standard American average. This, in a nation, that cannot finance the needs of its existing citizens that exists on a higher tax base without the help of Big Brother (the Chinese, and their surplus dollars).

That solution is an experiment worthy of much greater mental pondering.

I am sure many smart people went out to vote in Massachusetts. They voted for gridlock and know nothing-ism, and that's what they will ultimately get... nothing. No change whatsoever.

Other News:

• China will soon be the second strongest kid in class, knocking Japan down to third. Growth spurt creates much confidence. Strongest kid not overly concerned. 

• Obama threatens to make banks less promiscuous. Or rather, to choose between being promiscuous or living in the house. Goldman, as we predicted a while back, will "get out of the house" and probably drop its bank holding status. When Goldman accepted that status, and when everyone was saying that everything is different now, we refused to wear the current fashion, knowing that Goldman will evolve to the form that best suits what it knows how to do. Human nature is constant.  They may not make as much money without access to cheap government financing, but they were making money hand over fist without that. It's all judo to them. 

Rush Limbaugh Defecates On the Dead, And Eats Them

Someone got bored, and the World TV channel heats up. Not in a good way. It's seems a bit odd to see an earthquake doing major devastation in this hemisphere to those who can bare it the least, and that is what we have. Haiti has a truly vivid history, a historical history even, what with their struggles against Napoleon and slavery and powers great and greater. It was even odder to see such a devastating quake hit the island of Hispaniola and leave the Dominican Republic largely unaffected. You just imagine that if something hits the one and devastates, the other two thirds of the island should take a hit as well.

We made an attempt in our classroom (on Wednesday or so) to focus some attention in that direction, asking the kids a hypothetical question about what they would do for Haiti if they were the president of the Dominican Republic. The answers ranged from immediate and broad assistance to some rather "let them pull themselves up from the rubble by their cold, bloody, bootstraps" tough talk (from an 11 year old). With important Haitian officials dead, the question of who does what, and who imposes some order, is important.

Its effects were greatly magnified, said the UN, because the earthquake hit a densely populated capital city rather than a remote rural area, devastating so many of the organisations and people who would normally lead a rescue effort. "It meant that the civil service, police, emergency services, all the organisations which would normally have key roles in responding to a major disaster were affected," said Stephanie Bunker, of the UN office for co-ordination of humanitarian affairs in New York.

(Guardian, UK)

It is often hard for people to find the right balance when it comes to the difficulties of others. When do you act, because if you don't, nobody will, or when is it a recurring problem and one that repeats due to the freewill choices made by the perceived victim. Often, when it's a natural disaster, we dispense with the moral judgments and are willing to pony up. Often. Not always.

Rush Limbaugh took his typical line, and lie, from his vulture perch atop Mt. Cynical Millionaire:

"This [the earthquake] will play right into Obama's hands," said Limbaugh. "He's humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the black community – both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. This is made to order for them."

Limbaugh also warned Americans against donating money. "Besides, we've already donated to Haiti. It's called the US income tax," he said.

(Guardian, UK)

We remember a passing headline that said the witch doctors in Haiti were also throwing in their two cents, which, truth be told, has a negative value in the trillions, given the state of Haiti over the years before this current devastation. The lives and leaders that we choose are important, as well the culture that we foster, so that it can be argued that this natural disaster is made worse by freewill choices across history by those in Haiti. But that is not an argument against helping, nor is it seemly for one such as Limbaugh to accuse others of politicizing tragedy when others are directly aiding the suffering, while Rush lines his roost with money from advertisers during a more interesting news cycle. Leave it to him, to defecate on the dead, and eat their corpses to feed his own appetites.

Other News:

• A RINO (Republican In Name Only) loose in Massachusetts, and Democrat politicians not good at hunting and killing it. We predict, however, that the voters will kill this contender for Kennedy's Senate seat.

• Do you code-switch? Talk duck to ducks, turkey to turkeys? Or are you McCain's nasally monotone, to everyone, all the time? Slate takes a look.

• Billionaire Bloomberg  wins Chile presidency, using his Chilean based Avatar Sebastian Pinera.

Sarah Palin (Like Curious George) Gets a Job, While Obama Talks Hard

Obama is taking a hard look at taxing the bankers in some as yet unexplained fashion. This might be a mistake, given the current state of New York and their dependence on the financial services industry. This is one of those slippery slope things, and structuring it just right would be difficult; many companies would find ways to offset any reductions in income. Singling out certain industries financially while not exactly addressing the fundamental issues that caused systemic stress is not the right path, as Businessweek points out. The U.K. has attempted a variation by taxing banker bonuses, and we don't see that helping their economy in the least.

Kleinbard said the U.K. is already struggling to make its 50 percent tax on bank employee bonuses of more than 25,000 pounds ($40,400) stick. Some U.K. banks are moving to absorb the tax while London Mayor Boris Johnson frets that higher taxes may drive 9,000 bankers out of the country.

(Businessweek.com)

Unfortunately the voices of populists and armchair critics are loud, so it's better to be seen doing something, even if it's quite stupid. Obama would be better served talking health care and seeking meaningful financial oversight reform, while letting the companies focus on making money.

Other News:

Via Dealbreaker, we have Jamie Dimon speaking out against the populist rumblings over banker bonuses. The most assuring comment by the J.P. Morgan head is that "commercial real estate is a train wreck but it's already happened." It's something that the average person does not really focus on, given all the housing carnage. It would be nice to see that second foot (or first foot?) of commercial property slip by unnoticed.

Sarah Palin gets a new job in a highly structured environment. Tellingly, Fox did not really give our Populist and Chief her own show, where, she might have to engage with a wide variety of people knowledgeable in politics, history or public affairs. She will make comments. Mostly vapid ones. And mostly on the shows of smarter and more cunning hosts, like O'Reilly, who can toss her soft floaters for her to hit out of the ballpark. Don't knock her beliefs, religion, or personal background. Knock her stupidity and ignorance on issues, and the ego that allows her to think she can slide in and do political calculus with only a knowledge of basic addition.

China Grabs Car Market, Jaron Lanier Speaks To Reality

What do you call a liberal without a car? An environmentalist. What do you call a conservative without a car? Broke. Chinese, pursuing some happier middle ground, flush with cash and not particularly focused 24/7 on carbon footprint size, are buying automobiles at a great clip. This has moved China to the front of the list as the world's largest car market, overtaking the U.S. The score? 13.5 million China -10.4 million US. That liberal we mentioned will be a bit disturbed at this, but we don't begrudge China the right to do what every country in the West has long done. Conservatives of course are disturbed too, since they still view China through a 1960's framework, and won't be happy till the Chinese shed their communist-in-appearance government, or collapse.

The Guardian tells us their market grew by 45% or so in 2009, causing a shift in focus to that market among some car makers.

This isolated stat tells us a great deal about how strong the economic reorientation of the world is, which leads us to a unrelated yet related screed put out by Jaron Lanier, an American scientist and pioneer of the virtual reality concept.  His book You Are Not A Gadget will be out in a week or so, and he has a very perceptive piece in the Wall Street Journal in which he decries the move toward utopian internet conceits that present a creativity numbing collectivization as something beneficial to society. In some ways it's the last thing you might expect to hear from the mouth of a computer nerd type, if you were to pull him out of a hat of computer nerds. After all, open source and Wikipedia-like collaboration are often praised as the ideal, and it takes an astute mind to see where that kind of thing leads, not to mention what it does to existing creative endeavors.

He states:

There's a dominant dogma in the online culture of the moment that collectives make the best stuff, but it hasn't proven to be true. The most sophisticated, influential and lucrative examples of computer code—like the page-rank algorithms in the top search engines or Adobe's Flash— always turn out to be the results of proprietary development. Indeed, the adored iPhone came out of what many regard as the most closed, tyrannically managed software-development shop on Earth.

(Wall Street Journal)

He goes on to link this idea of collectivization and the free software as a pathway to American economic stagnation.  Jaron captures this dichotomy in a way many others are far too content to ignore.

Digital collectivism might seem participatory and democratic, but it's painting us into a corner from which we will have to concoct an awkward escape. It is strange to me that this isn't more obvious to many of my Silicon Valley colleagues.

The U.S. made a fateful decision in the late 20th century to routinely cede manufacturing and other physical-world labors to foreign competitors so that we could focus more on lucrative, comfortable intellectual activities like design, entertainment and the creation of other types of intellectual property. That formulation still works for certain products that remain within a system of proprietary control, like Apple's iPhone.

Unfortunately, we were also making another decision at the same time: that the very idea of intellectual property impedes information flow and sharing. Over the last decade, many of us cheered as a lot of software, music and news became free, but we were shooting ourselves in the collective feet.

(Wall Street Journal)

It's good to see people thinking about this, and every time we read stats like that from China, which is becoming a source and repository for all things, our eyebrow rises in concern. The pathway out of this is not to see China's rise as evil, or something to fear, but rather a challenge by another good team. I am glad that some guy in China can for the first time can get a vehicle and drive across his country, or take a date into Shanghai to eat McDonald's. But we err to close our eyes and not make sure that Americans are holding our own competitively while being good stewards of our own assets, whether they are physical, intellectual, or the people who create both.

Other News:

• The disillusion of home owners. The newspapers are forever leading people from one extreme to the other. Here, home ownership is not cracked up to be what the newspapers were telling you it was during the market peak. Way to shape shift N.Y. Times.

• California comes begging. We had no idea they would seek to fulfill one of our 2010 predictions so fast. Whether they get the money from the Feds is another story.

Gumby Creator Dies, and What Will Davey and Goliath Say!

Art Clokey, the animator who created Gumby and the stop motion animation series Davey and Goliath died yesterday. I had no idea who was responsible for those two contributions to my life, but the creations made for many happy moments, day after day.

Back in the early seventies my pocket size Gumby was one of my favorite companions. He was maybe two inches tall and whenever we were loaded into the green Dodge Dart to go from Queens to Brooklyn, or Manhattan to Queens, or across this part of the city into that part, some clone of Gumby was along for the ride. He was small, portable, and with a face always reflecting a good mood. Bendable, flexible, no drama.

We lost several of him between the cracks or under the the seats. It was a special euphoria-- gold, oil, space!-- to reach under the front seat and feel that rubber body and slide the hand back (don't cut yourself on the other junk under there) and pull an old yet newly discovered Gumby back into the light of our world. "It's mine," one or the other of us claimed. But he, it ?,  was probably mine, not my sister's, since I am the one writing about him now, and the one who has a Gumby even today. (This recent clone of Gumby fell into the hands of a female coworker from a couple of years back, who went on to shun me Amish style for a period (verbal sins for insulting her future boyfriend, and calling her, inappropriately, "kiddie pool"). She found it  in her heart to return him to me late last year, along with a swell Christmas gift of a scarf. I had forgotten this particular Gumby, that he was out there, hostaged, and for a while he had Stockholm syndrome and wanted to go back to her. (Or maybe I was projecting).

Clokey was also responsible for Davey and Goliath, a cartoon sponsored by Lutherans and which always featured a lesson to be learned by all. I loved the show, but hated Goliath and sometimes felt like beating him for his dopey temperament.

The cartoon was claymation like all the Christmas cartoons; we were always taught Santa was not real, but rather a happy artifice based on a historical man, and used by the godless to take the Christmas focus off of Jesus. As long as we got that clear, our father let us watch all the holiday cartoons, and without constant commentary, unlike nearly everything else.

Since Davey and Goliath was a religious program, though not from our strain of charismatic, conservative Christianity (prayer, praise music, faith healing, tongues), it was programming we could watch without fear of a "no" upon request. Other shows, like Zoom or The Electric Company or some of the later episodes of The Waltons were frowned upon. My father did not want us getting crazy teen ideas, and doing teen things, and getting all rebellious; he had done enough drugs during the 1960's to know when free thinking godless hippie shit was seeping into children's programming. The Public Broadcasting Service as mental crack, before crack existed.

Ark Clokey. Now dead and joined with the billions who have gone before. The afterlife just got more entertaining.