Don't let the door hit you on the backside!

So...we won't have Michele Bachmann to kick around anymore. No more crazy histrionics from the crazy lady from Minnesota to sigh and shake our heads about.

Well, never mind. We'll still have Louie Gohmert and Virginia Foxx and too many others like them so there'll still be plenty of silliness in Congress. But, once her current term is up, no more Bachmannisms like these:

If you look at FDR, LBJ, and Barack Obama, this is really the final leap to socialism [...] they’re trying to consolidate power, so we need to do everything we can to thwart them at every turn to make sure that they aren’t able to, for all time, secure a power base that for all time can never be defeated.(link)

The news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would, I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out are they are pro-America or anti-America.(link)

The real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums.(link)

Absolutely, I'm very concerned that [Barack Obama] may have anti-American views.(link)

One thing people know about me is I’m a substantive, serious person.(link)

Yes, Bachmann is such a substantive, serious person that she has a solid record of accomplishment in her years as a Congresswoman.

Michele Bachmann's Complete Legislative History (source: www.govtrack.us)

THINGS ATTEMPTED BY MICHELE BACHMANN	THINGS ACCOMPLISHED BY MICHELE BACHMANN
Bills Sponsored	58
Referred to Committee (aka: went nowhere)	53
Reported by Committee (Got out of committee)	1 H.R. 850 (112th): To facilitate a proposed project in the Lower St. Croix Wild and Scenic River, and for other purposes.
Agreed To (Simple Resolution)	3 H.Res. 373 (111th): Expressing support for designation of the month of September as “National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month" H.Res. 923 (110th): Recognizing the State of Minnesota’s 150th anniversary. H.Res. 789 (110th): Honoring public child welfare agencies, nonprofit organizations and private entities providing services for foster children.
Passed House	1 H.R. 45: To repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010
Signed Into Law	0

I guess we should be grateful that Bachmann was not a more effective legislator.

There is plenty of speculation as to why she is leaving just now. She's under investigation for ethical violations. The latest polls from Minnesota show her a couple of points behind her likely challenger in next year's elections. There have been reports that she has been investigating a move to Iowa and that she may resurface there and run again in the future. That's if she survives the ethics investigations, I guess. Or maybe she'll join her good buddy Allen West on Fox News, the retirement community for failed tea partiers.

(Hat tip to Daily Kos for collecting the Bachmannisms and to Jason Linkins of Huffington Post for the chart of her accomplishments.)

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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