BY WILLIAM C. HENRY On March 31st Peggy Noonan authored a piece for the Wall Street Journal entitled “Not-So-Smooth Operator” in which she feebly attempted to articulate her opinion(s) as to why President Obama was increasingly coming across as devious and dishonest. Well, Peggy, all I can say is — and, trust me, there are a multitude of things about this administration with which even I take exception — that after reading it I have come to the inescapable conclusion that America should finally grant you the recognition you so richly deserve as one of this country’s most cognitive and astute judges […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: You Don’t Have To Be An M.D. To Understand That Health Care Ain’t Broccoli
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Yes, I know it’s been debated nearly to death, but a careful reading of some of the more visceral right-wing commentaries (and that includes those of a certain four Supreme Court Justices — I’d say five but one is a mute) in support of a rollback of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (that’s ObamaCare for you cliché conservatives) has lead me to wonder why the media haven’t examined more closely these naysayers’ rather “feeble and infirmed” arguments. So, break out the Extra Strength Excedrin, Tea Partiers, Dr. William is about to offer a few informed rebuttals and interpretations on the subject. Oh, and by the way, […]
AFPAK: The Darkness At The End Of The Tunnel
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY At best, two of our highest-level politicians are loonies. However, it’s the “at worst” (I’ll leave it up to the reader’s imagination) characterization I fear is by far the more befitting. In any event, if you see either of them or know of their whereabouts, DO attempt to contact! Here’s the inescapable reality, Mr. President and Mr. #1 Wannabe: With each passing day it’s becoming more and more evident that the American people are finally fed up — they want us out of there NOW, not next year or the year after — with the incessant lies, obfuscations and […]
MITT ROMNEY: Ugly On The Inside
[Artwork by DONKEYHOTEY] BY WILLIAM C. HENRY I’ve long felt that if you want to learn something about the character of a Presidential candidate, do a little “spotting” of the backgrounds and beliefs of those they’re “nesting” with. In the case of the likely Republican finalist, a careful scoping reveals no less than a bevy of buzzards. Nowhere in this carrion banquet masquerading as the Republican primary can the maxim patch “guilty by association” be more justly sewn than onto the empty suit aka Mitt Romney. Mitt’s that “paragon of virtue” (their words, not mine) who installed Robert Bork and Frank VanderSloot as his top legal […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The Devil You Know
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY The best part about creating this fantasy face-off was coming to the realization that determining its outcome wasn’t going to be the slam dunk this old-school liberal had anticipated. As you would no doubt agree, discovering where a politician actually stands on a given issue (as opposed to where they say they stand) can be a pretty eye-opening experience, sometimes revealing previously arrived at conclusions to have been ill-informed rushes to judgement unsupported by facts on the ground. Although I regard this as by far the “best available” match-up for the discerning American voter, the chance of a real-life Presidential […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The Dark Art Of Convincing White Middle Class America To Vote Against Itself
[Click to enlarge] BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Rarely has a political party so craftily cozened a majority of its naive yet trusting adherents as has the current Republican edition with its sham economic policies. Take for example convincing their blue- (and even many white–) collar disciples that a further lessening of the already absurdly low tax burden on the wealthy — many of whom for nearly a decade have paid an unconscionably lower percentage of their income in taxes than middle-class wage earners — will assuredly result in a mutually beneficial “trickling down” of vast improvement to their already-shattered-by-the-VERY-SAME-POLICIES lives. No doubt, but watch […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Free Bradley Manning
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Never before has a supposedly sophisticated military establishment demonstrated such spitefully infantile behavior over a wholly contrived crisis brought on by its own colossally bungling incompetence. You guessed it. I’m talking about that back-in-the-news stupendously-exaggerated-harm-to-national-security Bradley Manning/Wikileaks saga the Pentagon is so determined to prove itself the fool over. No matter the number of embarrassing government-negative exposés, or the considerable public pressure being brought on Bradley’s behalf, the matter continues to prove itself a blatant travesty the injustice of which is exceeded only by the inability and/or unwillingness of its brass-laden pursuers to display so much as a smidgen of contrition or even canine-level […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: I, Misanthrope
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY A question from a friend (to whom I attribute perhaps unwarranted powers of observation) following a recent discussion on the sorry state of Republican politics got me to wondering just how my true sentiments concerning that cauldron of cacophony, callousness and cowardice should “properly” be categorized. The question was, “When did the symptoms of your misanthropy first appear?” Well, although momentarily taken aback, I quickly realized that perhaps an opportunity “too good to refuse” had just been dropped into my proverbial absence of a lap. So, with albeit a little skirting of the issues now and then, and […]
BEST OF: Sh*t My Uncle Said In 2011
EDITOR’S NOTE: OK, admittedly it’s not a very original title, but it IS accurate. William C. Henry is better known to me as ‘Uncle Bill.’ He’s always been a man of strong opinions and a persuasive argument-maker, but I was a little surprised to learn — after re-connecting with him after a prolonged period of radio silence — that his current perspective so closely mirrors that of Phawker. Which is refreshing, to say the least, since most (white) people seem to turn into Fox News zombies when they get to be his age (early 70s, FYI). Not Uncle Bill. It […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: War Is Over, The Drugs Won
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Watching Rick Perry have a brain fart over which departments he was going to dismantle immediately upon assuming the Presidency got me to wondering why none of the Republican Presidential wannabes are pledging to axe the only federal “agency” that truly is, and always has been, a bona fide American anathema. I’m talking about the one Richard Nixon euphemistically dubbed the “War on Drugs,” and later christened the Drug Enforcement Administration or D.E.A.; an utterly useless bureaucracy that has never accomplished even a smidgen of its chartered reason for being; a tribute to phony promise, false […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: A Man For No Reasons
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY “Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The phoniest, pettiest, most hypocritical politician to ever ply the trade has proclaimed he wants to become your President.” Such is the headline that should have blazed across the front page of every newspaper and online news source in America on May 11, 2011, the day Newt Gingrich became convinced that the passage of time had obscured his true persona to the point that he just might be able to pull off a run for the highest office in the land. And, although the aforestated somewhat uncomplimentary hyperbole could probably attach to […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: America, Harms Dealer
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY “A Manhattan federal grand jury on Wednesday convicted Russian arms trader Viktor Bout of four counts of conspiracy to sell anti-aircraft weapons and other arms to purported Colombian rebels to kill Americans. He faces a term of 25 years to life in prison.” Thus began a Washington Post article last week describing the end of the two-decade-long career of the man known alternately as “Merchant of Death” and “Lord of War,” who shall live out the rest of his day in infamy as the most prolific independent purveyor of illicit weaponry ever to ply the detestable trade. […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: It’s All About You
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Do you consider yourself a “political” being? Politically speaking, do you have an anger “tipping point”? If so, is that the point at which you take action, or when you just let it slide? Are you–with sincerest apologies to Mr. Faulkner and The Bard–“but another walking shadow, a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. Is yours but a tale told to a mirror, full of harrumphs and a harangue or two, signifying nothing.” Pretty funny stuff, huh? Except I’ve never been more serious. These questions are at the very heart […]