I mentioned my conservative grandfather in an earlier post.  He was an interesting guy.  He used to smoke cigarettes in an FDR style cigarette holder.  He was a vivid teller of stories and anecdotes,  fun to be around.  If a family member said something he disapproved of he wouldn't have a fit.  He'd chomp down hard on his cigarette holder.

He told me he began his political life as a socialist, but then evolved into a hardcore anti-communist Republican.  He used to invoke Churchill's maxim that if you're not a socialist as a young man you have no heart; but that if you're not a conservative by the time you're older, then you have no brains (or something to that effect).

I haven't given up on my socialist tendencies.  I'm 59 point something years old.  I guess I have no brains.  I'm almost sure that we're not in Kansas anymore.

Like a lot of people my age I was radicalized by the war in Vietnam.  And like a lot of people my age I was a minor soldier/casualty during the sexual revolution.

I continue to be disturbed by our government's foreign policy and by our inability as a country to provide an adequate health care safety net for our people.

And by the way, Mitt, corporations are not people.  No matter what the Supremes say.  I'm in total agreement with the Occupy Wall Street sign which read:

I'LL BELIEVE

CORPORATIONS ARE PEOPLE

WHEN TEXAS EXECUTES ONE.