Just Asking . . .

English: iPhone 4. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Random questions that may (or may not) be too much for Twitter . . .

Why would a Republican-dominated Congress decide so quickly to fund President Obama's new war against the Islamic State?  Are they afraid of seeming unpatriotic?  If so, isn't that the way Democrats felt when they voted to authorize George W. Bush's wars?

When is Hillary Clinton going to tell us whether or not she's running in 2016, and get it over with?

Why do politicians and the media think the public really cares about how their tax dollars are spent?  Is it really ours to begin with?

Do you really want to split up California?

Why does Stewart Mills III, who's running as a Republican against incumbent Democrat Rick Nolan in Minnesota's 8th Congressional District, look like a trust-fund surfer dude who needed something to do?

Why is Senator Al Franken, the former "Saturday Night Live" satirist turned serious politician, leading the polls?  Why is Mike McFadden, Franken's GOP challenger, trying to be funny in his TV commercials when we know that he'd vote with his party every time if he's elected?

Despite leading in the polls, why is Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton so vulnerable?

Whatever happened to the Independence Party?

Is John Kline so screwed up as a congressman that he's being targeted for defeat by HBO comedian Bill Maher?

Is it possible that health insurer Preferred One bit off more than they could chew before leaving the MNSure exchange?

Doesn't the voice of Siri sound an awful lot like Daria Morgendorffer?

Why do we que up for the latest thing in smartphones when we know that we'll be junking them in a few months for the next latest thing?

With so many Kardashian family-related shows on its air, shouldn't the E! network rebrand itself as The K! Channel?

Are the women in ads for online dating services really single?  Or are they just models/actresses whose boyfriends/husbands urged them to take the gig?

OK, you don't have to answer that last one.

9/11: Unfinished Business

English: President George W. Bush and President-elect Barack Obama meet in the Oval Office of the White House Monday, November 10, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history, it's time once again to take up arms against a foe that could be a threat to the so-called "homeland" that we really don't know much about.  Just like Ho Chi Minh, Saddam Hussein and the Taliban.

Their name is ISIS.  Or is it ISIL?  Whatever their name is, they're another terrorist organization based in the Middle East bent on spreading death, destruction, and the imposition of their fundamentalist brand of Islam on the entire world.  Just like Al Qaeda and its spinoffs.  ISIS/ISIL is reputedly more dangerous and better funded than Al Qaeda ever was, having swallowed up chunks of Syria and Iraq by taking advantage of political instability in both countries.

ISIS/ISIL has gotten the world's attention through kidnappings of Westerners and beheadings, and have succeeded in getting some Europeans and Americans to join them through such recruitment tools as the Internet.

If ISIS/ISIL is as brutal as some government officials say they are, then what has President Barack Obama done about it?  Well, so far he's ordered airstrikes inside Iraq to take the pressure off the friendly forces battling back the insurgents, helped form a new coalition government to replace the old corrupt one, and sent some soldiers to provide more security to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

But all that doesn't seem to be enough.  So the President made a nationwide address Wednesday night to tell us what more he can do to meet the threat ISIS/ISIL supposedly poses.  Such as more airstrikes (which will now include Syria, whether Bashir Assad likes it or not), more military advisers, more aid to those fighting ISIS/ISIL, and an attempt at putting together a worldwide coalition to help defeat the terrorists.  The President has even promised no American "boots" on Iraqi soil.  Let's see how long that lasts.

President Obama has said this new conflict could take awhile.  After more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, is this country up for another battle against an enemy that may or may not live up to the hype?  Airstrikes are effective for only so long, because "shock and awe" has a way of turning into "been there, done that".  And in the Middle East, you don't have to win the war to score points among true believers if you hang around long enough.

Barack Obama became President with a mandate to end the wars that George W. Bush started.  And he has.  But with poll numbers dropping like a rock as his time in the White House is almost done, Obama has chosen to stake his legacy (and risk the security of the nation) on a new war that he might not be able to finish.  Is he, and other war hawks, right about ISIS/ISIL?   Let's hope it doesn't take another 9/11 to find out.

Joan Rivers (1933-2014): Something to Talk About

English: Joan Rivers at Musto's 25th Anniversary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the male-dominated world of comedy, Joan Rivers was not everyone's cup of tea.  She got laughs for telling it like it was, and sometimes she got in trouble for it.  When Rivers wasn't doing standup, she could usually be found at award shows and other formal occasions (when they let her on the property) skewering certain female celebrities for their choice of evening wear.  This was at a point when people actually started caring about such things.

Rivers was a trail blazer who has influenced scores of female comedians, some of whom have imitated her caustic style.  She never got her own sitcom, like Roseanne Barr or Phyllis Diller.  But she did become the first woman to host a late night talk show, which just happened to be the very first program ever broadcast on the Fox network, launched in 1986.

Legend has it that, in order for Rivers to do the Fox show, she first had to leave her cushy gig as permanent guest host of "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson".  Unfortunately, she neglected to inform Carson of her plans.  Carson, then one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, promptly cut Rivers off and banned her from his show (she didn't return until Jimmy Fallon's first night a few months ago).  "The Late Show" lasted less than a year on Fox.

To date, Rivers remains one of the few women who have ever fronted a late night talk show.  Fox is no longer in that business, having decided to put its money into sitcom reruns and news on its local stations.

Life outside comedy wasn't easy for Rivers.  Her husband, whom she often joked about in her act, committed suicide.  And her relationship with daughter Melissa wasn't always the greatest.

Joan Rivers often asked in her act "Can we talk?"  She stopped talking for good at the age of 81, following complications from minor throat surgery.  Now we're the ones who are talking about her.