Michael Braun's Blog

Unrelated to the poem posted below, Amos and Steph got engaged this weekend! Congratulations! It couldn’t have happened to two nicer people.

A Newly Married Man
By Michael Braun
Written October 19, 2008

A newly married man
in the starched tight cotton.
The new speckled suit fills his shoulders out.
Mother not too close, still straightens his hair.
Wife laughs and twirls the flower girl.
Frills and fancy – where’s a seat when he needs one?

A newly married man
in a mortgage, in a spot.
When work stops wife pays the bills.
Find what he likes to try again means afternoons
and the soaps. Stagnant, he fills in name, address,
and never mails it.

It was him who asked her, pushed for an early date.
He picked the bed and the methods.
He picked the house and signed the deed.
And now he picks up the clothes and tidies the kitchen.
He makes his own impotence from his matured hurry.

John McCain is busy saying stupid things again! His latest bent has been that Obama’s tax proposals are akin to socialism! It’s quite a claim, when you think about it. Remember – McCain initially voted against the Bush tax cuts that gave thousands and thousands to the rich, and very little to everyone else. He said it would increase wealth disparity. Lo and behold, it did! John McCain was right. Now, when a candidate comes along and proposes to push things back in the way they should be (by increasing taxes on those top earners who benefited so much in the last 8 years) and giving a sizeable tax cut to the middle class (see how much your will be here), John McCain is up in arms.

But wait! I recall a few weeks ago, Sarah Palin was baying about her issue of the day. It had something to do with patriotism and taxes. She said that paying taxes was NOT patriotic. Probably because paying taxes is like socialism. And because Obama wants to raise taxes on 95% of Americans…

Stop right there! Obama wants to LOWER taxes for 95% of Americans – thus they will pay less taxes, be more patriotic, and less socialist. 5% of Americans will pay more taxes, and will, by her logic, become less patriotic and more socialist. Not to act the utilitarian here, but if you use McCain/Palin/Bush logic here, Obama will actually increase patriotism. So basically, McCain has been smoking a little too much on that “underdog” pipe. Too bad it’s soon to be the “loser” pipe.

I find it sickening that Republicans would attack Obama as a socialist. Are you fucking serious?

In other news, Colin Powell, noted socialist and former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has endorsed Obama. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, McCain.