The Petulant Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin
"Let's go shoot us sumthin."

Who is this guy, Ted Cruz,  who forced the US government to shut down and cost the country approximately $24-26 billion? He is the same guy who threatened to force the US government to default on its debt. Have to wonder what he was thinking when he took the oath of office. Is he really committed to promoting "the general Welfare"?

Well, "Ted" Cruz is really Rafael Edward Cruz, born in Calgary, Canada, the son of a Cuban immigrant and an American mother. And you are thinking, since his father was an immigrant and little Teddy was born in a foreign country, he would be in favor of comprehensive immigration reform. You would be wrong. As an old Polish friend once suggested, "The last immigrant to get into the country is the one who wants to close the door behind him."

Like other Republicans such as Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, Rafael Edward Cruz prefers to be called Ted rather than the name they received from their parents. What's wrong with Rafa Cruz? The tennis star, Rafael Nadal is quite proud of his name. Is it perchance that "Rafa Cruz" has the ring of being Spanish? God forbid that a Tea Party poster boy's name sounds too Spanish. The right wing is quite comfortable with Rafael becoming Ted, but if President Barack Hussein Obama had tried to change his name, Fox Network, Donald Trump and Michelle Bachmann would be screaming day and night that the president  was trying to conceal something.

And since Teddy is already campaigning to become the Republican presidential candidate in 2016, the question arises as to whether Mr. Cruz is "a natural born citizen," as required by the Constitution. If not, he would not be able to be president.  But since the Republicans were able to justify the candidacy of John McCain (born outside of the country), they would have no problem with this issue -- unless of course, the candidate had black skin like President Obama. (For the record, Mr Trump etc., there is no question Mr. Obama's mother was a citizen and he was born in the USA. Therefore his status fits the constitutional requirements whereas those of  McCain or Cruz are more questionable.)

Mr. Cruz is a freshman senator from the state of Texas -- the state whose governor talks about seceding from the Union. Is it a surprise that he comes to Washington and tries to strangle and bankrupt the government?  A violation of his oath of office?

And then there is is the issue of health care. Mr. Cruz and his allies in the House shut down the government in an attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act. He and his GOP allies did not want poor Americans to have health care insurance. During his grand-standing quasi filibuster, he was asked about his personal health care insurance. Everyone presumed that he had the "Cadillac" insurance plan that Congress had granted itself. He hesitated and then admitted that he "probably" was not on that plan. Very, very interesting. Was he purchasing his own health insurance? You gotta be kidding. He was on his wife's super health insurance policy paid for by Goldman Sach's. Very interesting! Goldman Sachs was the company who was able to profit from the collapse of prime mortgage rated bonds in the summer of 2007. This company employs Cruz's wife as a manager in Houston and pays for Teddy's deluxe health care insurance. But I'm sure we all can be positive that Teddy will be objective on any legislation that Goldman lobbyists send to the Senate.

Teddy Cruz, once described as "a charming sociopath" (Jason Stanfird,1/30.13), recently commented: "I believe in Jesus who died to save himself, not enable lazy followers to be dependent on him." An interesting take on Christianity, more in line with the gospel of selfishness and greed proposed by the atheist Ayn Rand who is so popular among Republicans than it is with the Gospels of the New Testament -- love thy neighbor and such. Is he suggesting a selfish Jesus? Please Ted, spare us from your attempt to remake Christianity in an effort to justify your unchristian policies. 

In the interest of brevity, I will simply list items that speak to the character of the Junior Senator from Texas:

• Ann Coulter who describes herself as a "mean-spirited, bigoted conservative" refers to Ted as "my love."
• Cruz is trying to hold up the nomination of Tom Wheeler to the FCC until Wheeler agrees not to enforce the law which demands disclosure of the real funders of "dark money" groups who run salacious attack ads.*
• He informs us that it is their own fault that the poor live in squalor.
• He suggests that God told him to force a government shutdown. God talks to Republicans. He told George W. Bush to start the Iraq War.
• He compared his attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act with the fight against Nazi Germany.
• He opposed FEMA aid for the victims of Hurricane Sandy although Texas collects the more FEMA aid than any other state.
• Ken Cucinelli, Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia, did not want to be photographed with Cruz.
• Cruz' father supported the Communist dictator, Fidel Castro, who overthrew the democratically elected Cuban government. He later parted ways with Castro and immigrated to this country.
• Cruz and Palin protested the closing of the WWII Memorial in spite of the fact that he and House Republicans caused the shutdown.

For the sake of the country and common sense, let's hope Mr. Cruz was prophetic when he predicted: "Twenty years from now if there is some obscure trivial pursuits question, I am confident I will be the answer."

* Mr. Cruz  later agreed to the nomination after, according to him, he had received assurance that Mr Wheeler would not press for full disclosure of funders. 

The Psalter, A Novel

Michael Romano, a Catholic priest, paleographer, and archivist, learns that various people or groups are intensely interested in a medieval Psalter -- a book of psalms and prayers. In fact, someone is so interested that they killed the Pope's secretary to get it.

After some study, Michael discovers the Psalter is not what it appears to be. An original Aramaic text had been erased in the ninth century and the parchment was used for a Psalter. But, of course, it is the original, erased text, that is of interest.

Is it the Vatican that is trying to prevent Michael from finding and revealing apocryphal accounts of Jesus' life written by 1st century disciples? Perhaps, but there is another group who is willing to murder in order to get their hands on these parchments.

An interesting aspect of the novel is that the author switches back and forth between the present and ninth century Rome at the time the documents were being erased and used for Psalters. Galen Watson's account of medieval history may be questioned by some, but his version makes for interesting reading. And, one must remember this is a novel.

Many may want to compare The Psalter to Dan Brown's novels; and although it may have the same tension between fact and fiction, it lacks the polish of a DaVinci Code. It will, however, appeal to Brown's readers.