Oy

It's a new month, but some things never change.

The wife and I are up in Arkansas for a few days to spend some time with my aging father. We'll be with him for his 84th birthday. Probably like most 84-year-olds, my father is in declining mental health. He's not bad physically, mostly because I and my three siblings convinced him to work with a personal trainer to regain his strength after a fall and extended hospital stay early this year.

But his mind is showing some obvious signs of decay. He's certainly not to the babbling fool stage yet, but he's moving down that road. He's a hardcore Republican, so in one sense, he's already a babbling fool. Sorry, couldn't help that one.

He's very sympathetic with the Tea Party and thinks Sarah Palin is "smart" and Glenn Beck "makes a lot of sense." I could go further and suggest that anyone who actually believes the demagogues on the right should be committed to a facility, but that would be silly. Maybe not wrong, but silly.

He, like the Teabaggers, thinks he's paying too much in taxes. He, like most of the Teabaggers, does not think that he got a tax cut under Obama, when he and they did. Earlier today he is railing that he's paying too much in taxes. He's Taxed Enough Already!

My wife tells him that the average American's tax rate is actually in the 15-20% range, which I believe is a very reasonable tax rate, for those of us who are not rich, by American standards. He agrees that 15-20% is not unreasonable, but he's sure his tax rate is much higher than that.

So, he eventually scurries off and digs up several of his most-recent tax returns, to try and prove us wrong. Sure enough, one year his effective tax rate was 16.5%. Another year it is 14.2%. Another year it was actually 9.8%! Yet another year it came in at 5.5%!!

So he comes back to us bragging about how low his tax rate is, and "See! I told you that I was paying less than 15% in taxes!"

(sigh) No, an hour ago, you disagreed with our 15-20% tax rate average. You claimed you were paying more than that. And now that you discover that we were right, you claim that that is what you had claimed all along.

Is it being a Republican, or is it his mental decline? Well, he is a Republican, after all. In my experience, they're born liars. It's like they can't help themselves. And then they try to take credit for something that they previously disagreed with, if they think it is to their advantage.

And one more example that I perceive as his decline: he's wearing the same clothes today, Monday, that he was wearing Saturday when we got here. He's sleeping in his clothes. Yesterday, he was working outside a bit and his shirt was almost totally soaked in sweat. Will he take a shower? Later, perhaps, when his clothes start disintegrating off of his body.

As people are living longer and longer, their bodies are lasting longer than their minds. It's pretty sad. I have no doubt that millions of other Americans are going through similar things with their elders. Good luck to all of you.