Dated Commentary
on the World Dated Commentary
on the World This is a running dialog giving me a place to comment upon
issues of the day without cluttering up the primary dialog.
Fox News does not qualify as a news channel. Fox News is a PAC: it seems we have a President so illiterate that we need a full-time TV channel to explain what he is doing and what he is saying with the majority of air time spent advertising his agenda.
I like to think of myself as open-minded enough to listen to opposing viewpoints. Fox News is an opposing viewpoint -- full time. But this is such a hacked, radically positioned channel that I finally took it off my TV channel list. If you have read my diatribes, you know this.
Yesterday while in the bank waiting for the cash advance I needed to buy my lots, I listened to the TV aimed at the waiting line. Good concept: you forget how long you are in line. The TV, in Yuma, Arizona, had on -- of course -- Fox News. Fox was 'reporting' the news of the morning: two young girls in Zion, Illinois found dead in the local park. On listening to them describe this exceedingly sad event, I broke out laughing. The cashier, manager, and others looked at me like I was the crazy one here. What I was laughing at was, while the camera show police scouring the site, the 'newscasters' were arguing over whether the site was a "crime scene". Now. If you want to argue whether a house of prostitution is a crime scene, you might have an issue. Two girls found dead -- daughters of two families -- stabbed to death -- anywhere is a crime scene. This does not have to be debated. The lights of the life of 4 people have just been brutally extinguished and the 'newscasters' are debating if there is a crime here? I guess life and death are not as meaningful to the radical right as it is to normal people.
You know I get tired of hearing the politically right newscasters
telling me that he news has a liberal bias. Quite the contrary it
has a right-wing conservative bias. When I get a chance I like to
relax to NPR but that is rare. I like NPR because it gives me a
balance to the left of the crap I have had to endure on the other
networks. But there is a greater problem that we do not see in
the US and world travelers seem to also see. The US news is too
full of itself. We spend hours listening to the runaway
bride. We spend hours talking about freedom fries as opposed to
French Fries because we want to ignore France. We already ignore
France -- as we ignore the legitimate opinions of all of the persons
in the remainder of the world. The US news seems to run the
American
world view that only the US counts and that only the US has toilets and
that only the US has Interstate highways and so on. It only takes
one trip to anywhere else in the world to see that not only is the rest
of the world in equal existence and amenities but in many locations is
way ahead of the US in almost every aspect. I do not want
to say anywhere is totally better but we really ought to accept that
the rest of the world is not the third world. In order to
understand and know this we must travel. The news could tell us
but it does not. But in any case, our news could help by giving
us a world view rather than solely a peep
show to the world through the current administration's eyes.
I have no idea who is winning this war in Washington. I know us citizens are losing. We are now getting radical judges in exchange for the Senate having the opportunity to vote them in. We complain that Putin is removing civil rights and democracy in Russia and reinstating a dictatorship. Mr. Bush is doing the exact same thing here. Both are doing it because they claim they need it to enforce freedom. It makes me sick to think that there is such a great number of American citizens who are buying this crock of shit. The concept of appointing judges being the means to maintain a theocracy in place of our republic is very frightening. We have a President which is so divisive that he has forced a polarity in our country each having its own set of truths. These sets are mutually exclusive. You buy into one or you buy into the other. People cannot even discuss the issues because there can be no agreement on where to start the discussion. You cannot have understanding without some level of reality, affinity, and communication (Thank you Mr. Hubbard). Affinity is being destroyed because Mr. Bush is straining our reality. I think that Mr. Hubbard defined reality as anything that two people agree upon.
Mr. Bush: please stop talking down to me like I am the one who is
ignorant. I resent you saying "The people have to
understand". I resent that attitude from anyone -- I
especially resent it from a public official. It is difficult to
resent more the words from a person so illiterate that he must make up
incorrect definitions when speaking down to me! If you must
insult my intelligence, do so with appropriate language.
The Liberals are at it again. A "Liberal" is someone who wants to expand the government's authority by passing additional laws and interpreting the current laws expansively. Right? Well, the Congress, or at least the House has passed the anti-flag burning amendment again. The Senate is expected to also pass this. This is a serious expansion of government authority and exactly contrary to the intent of our country's founders. Contrary? Remember that the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments, were written with the specific intent to contain government authority? So now we are forcing a law restricting the nature of non-violent protest of government activity. This form of protest is specifically what the very first amendment is all about:: freedom of speech and expression. The right to protest has always been our right. We have strangled this right in the last century. Milwaukee and other cities have passed laws permitting the police to arrest any group of people (greater than 2) who might be starting a protest. We have required permits and bonds for protest parades. We have paid increasing lip service to one of our most important rights.
Now we are saying that a protest which is not harmful but also not popular, is to be against the law. The exact reason that this is upsetting to some people is the reason that it is our right. A protest which does not raise the public interest is not a protest. Taking another chunk out of our basic rights is just the first step to further forcing us to be a homogenous society. Just what we need: a whole society of American flag-waving, white Christian Republicans.
Americas greatest problem is that it ignores the fact that the world is composed of many races, many religions, and many beliefs. You do not believe this? Remember "freedom fries"? The Peace Corps was great because many Americans went overseas and returned understanding exactly that American flag-waving, white Christians are the minority.
I would hope the National Rifle Association is against this amendment. If "they" can pass an amendment restricting protest to only to government-approved formats, when are they going to pass an amendment restricting ownership to only government-approved guns?
The president is about to nominate two persons (I would rather use a
different word) to the Supreme Court. I figure he has two more to
go after these. From his history, we can presume that he shall
nominate two contstitution-rewriting, creationist, anti-abortion,
activists. We are talking about putting religious monuments
in our courthouses. We are talking about changing the law of the
land in many ways: including reversing our abortion laws.
The original colonies were primarily formed by religious
groups. Many states had a primary religion. Because their
previous residences had persecuted these beliefs, their followers fled
to America. These people were afraid that government could take
their religion away. Ergo, freedom of religion: separation of
church from state. The courts have historically said that
separation of church and state is just that: keep religion out of state
business. Permit all religion exercise except where it is
harmful. Now these Christians want to change that.
I have been amazed that the Republicans have their hats on so
backwards. They claim that separation actually means
integration. They want religion established in our government
offices, schools, and shopping malls. They want religious relics
in our courtrooms. They want prayers and creationism in our
schools. They want public and private buildings to be decorated
for religious holidays. We have worked hard to make access to
religion available to everyone on an equal basis. We even protect
the people who have no religion. It has taken a long time to get
here and now they want to roll back the clock with new rules?
Like I say. I am amazed that there are so many people who cannot
think their way out of a paper bag.
My friend, Beeman, I always admire his insight, suggested that if
they permit prayer in schools, will the Christians get upset when their
kid in a predominately Moslem neighborhood, comes home from school
calling God, Allah? I moved my kids from Dallas when my daughter
started calling me sir and asked about her friend talking with Jesus.
Oh. And about talking to Jesus. I have read most of the
Christian Bible. It seems that Jesus taught about love and
discipline and good things. He had little tolerance for things
that did not behave as they should, for example a fig tree with sour
figs. In a state with so many Jesus-talkers, I wonder why they
still teach that beating children in schools is a good thing and the
extension of this violence creating a large prison population with many
of them killed in retribution for their crimes is also a good thing.
And we exorcised a poor woman singer and her friends because they
apologized to a crowd in a foreign country that our President was among
those with similar violent, Jesus-talking, beliefs? Sometimes I
wished I bought music so I could buy some Dixie Chicks albums. I
mean many Texans are in jail for killing only one person. I have
lost track of the American body count in Iraq and I would not even
venture a guess at how many other, non-Americans have been killed.
I know. I hear about him on the news all of the time. I
mean we have a liar for a President. He is one of the best con
men that I have ever seen. What is it now? Let's try the
gas crisis which he has so successfully manipulated. When he took
office 5 years ago, he rescinded the requirement for improved
manufacturers average gas mileage: what's good for GM is good for
America. Foo. Now we have gas prices double what they were
then and still rising. Why? Demand is way up. True it
is up around the world. But it is up in the USA - a lot.
SUVs are treated as small trucks and not cars and therefore do not fit
into the car regulations. Even the relaxed ones. Instead of
re-instating the thrown out restrictions, he has caused Congress to
give tax breaks to people who buy the economical cars -- and he says
that this will not solve the problem that he has caused. I mean
both address the same problem: restrict average usage or have consumers
choose to use less on the average. But then if we want to make
the playing field equal in both choices, then the tax breaks are 5
years late. Of course, I disagree with the tax breaks. Just
make small trucks follow the same rules as automobiles and we stop this
anachronism.
We have seen how he can devastate anyone who disagrees with
him. Look what happened to the Dixie Chicks. I see the news
commentators so afraid to be neutral that they ware falling on top of
each other leaning so far to the right so that they do not get the
Dixie Chick treatment. News media left leaning? Fat
chance. I almost long for the days of Spiro Agnew and Abby
Hoffman. They gave you definitions of the left and the right
so distant that you had free choice to pick where in the middle u
wished
to be. Now the choice is far right or radical right. I mean
Fox news should not be permitted to call itself news. It is a PAC
organization with the sole purpose of supporting the Bush
doctrines. I mean, listen to the other networks. You hear
news and more news and junk about movie stars and sports activities and
an unbelievable deluge of news leaders and commercials. Turn to
Fox and what do you hear? A constant diatribe against how stupid
the left is. No news. Just diatribes. Just statements
about "Fair and Balanced". Bullshit. I have no interest at
all listening to negative monologs claiming to be news. If they
were really "Fair and Balanced" they would have Bill Maher on for 12
hours a day. I would still not watch them because although I
agree with Bill's points, after a while I get tired of hearing
them. I got tired of Fox a long time ago and removed it from my
channel list so that I would not even see it as I flipped channels.
We hear from Mr. Bush that there is no energy crisis. At least
we did until recently. We hear from Mr. Bush that if we do not
eliminate Social Security as we know it, it will self-destruct all by
itself. Fixing it before self-destruction is not in his
agenda. We hear that there is no global warming. He seems
to be the only world leader who believes this. The others may not
agree on the solution but they are trying. Mr. Bush is afraid
that the Kyoto treaty will cost AMerican jobs. He is concerned
about AMerican jobs? Then why does he say that exporting the jobs
overseas and retraining technically skilled people in the community
colleges on how to flip hamburgers is a good thing?
I have said it before but it must be repeated. MR. Bush went
to the EU saying no AMerican job threat -- no treaty. He also
said that he would cancel the ABM treaty at the same time. They
said ABM was not the problem. Star Wars was not the
solution. The problem was terrorism and he should start taking it
seriously. He repeated his ABM threat on the same trip with
PResident Putin and other world leaders. Putin, overwhelmed with
the Chechens, repeated the EU statement: the terrorists are in your
back your and you had better take them seriously. The other
world leaders said the same. We have a president who takes pride in not
listening to anyone that does not parrot his opinions.
What was the very first thing that Bin Laden said after the 9-11
attack? That the attack had been in the works for 5 years but
the timing was due to the belligerent statement by Bush in his
round-the-world trip pushing Star Wars and flipping off comments about
terrorists. You want to ignore us? Great. The easier
to nail you. But do we hear anyone playing these thins
back? Not if they want to keep their licenses.
In the 60's, there were protests over the Big Brother growth of
government. Throughout our country's history, police were
required to identify themselves to citizens upon demand. Citizens
could walk the streets freely without fear of the police. Now the
opposite is true. Police can arrest you for refusing to identify
yourself. They are nationalizing driver licenses. You will
now need a passport for travel. You will wait for stupid
physical examinations at transportation facilities if you do not stamp
666 on
your forehead -- or some such mechanism.
Exaggeration? Read the news. It is already being done.
I have lived a long time. While I was in high school in the
early 60's we learned that the Civil War was fought over "state's
rights" and not slavery. This was a lie. The "state right"
in question was slavery. The South lost that war but by
assassinating Lincoln got to keep a revised form of slavery for another
hundred years. I have lived in the South. Both in Dallas
and in Boca Raton. The remnants of slavery are sickening.
The difference in education expectations and abilities is visible
everywhere. Oh. I
repeat Texas is a Southern State -- never
a western state. El paso, maybe but I do not think so. The
only thing western about Texas is its climate. Tex-Mex food
sucks. But that has little to do with their race problem except
as an example of their hypocrisy.
Every time I see the Stars and Bars, I see a racist. I will
not touch him. I will not wave at him. I will not greet
him. I am a bigot: I hate racists. In San Jose, my best
friends were Pakistanis. In Boca, my best friends were black or
Vietnamese. The best man at my wedding was black. The
absolutely most talented woman in the movies today is Halle
Berry. One of my favorite actors is the black man who played
against Kevin Kostner in the Robin Hood movies and has had several
movies against Ashley Judd. I
become angry when I see people waving their S&B flags stating that
they are
racist. I like the Mexican posters: "Not even the
appearance of corruption". The best motto is still "When in
doubt, don't". The Stars and Bars has no place waving in front of
homes (as in Texas and other Southern states). It has no place on
pseudo-license plates. It has no place on window stickers.
The Stars and Bars is a symbol of evil and should only be seen in
history books. It is time for the United States of America to
grow up. There are more races than Caucasian. There are
more languages than American-English. There are more cultures,
more beliefs, more opinions, and more climates than found in the
contiguous 48 states. The Stars and Bars is seen by the rest of
the world as the symbol of racism and isolationism in the US of A and
we really need to improve our image.
It is too early for me to finish my thoughts on this disaster. It is Friday , 4 days after the hurricane. I am sincerely disappointed and hurt and frustrated and saddened. There is nothing I can do. I am so financially overextended that even ten dollars would come out of my food budget. Going there would serve no purpose. You have read what has happened to me over the past couple of years. But here are little bits and pieces.
I drove 2,000 miles ten years ago to board up my house to prevent damage from Hurricane Andrew. You can read about it there. Basically I had delivered Bree to the U of A, had the Dodge in the garage for a new AC compressor in Phoenix, and watched the news about the hurricane just sitting off the Florida coast -- getting stronger. On Tuesday I knew I had to cut my vacation short and rush back to Boca. The hurricane came, the damage was done and nobody had evacuated because they did not know the terrible forces of a hurricane. Shoot people -- you live in a hurricane alley, I just got here. And I shivered in my bed that night. Since Andrew 10 years ago, several major hurricanes have hit the area and people know how bad they are. You can see a hurricane coming days ahead of time. They predict its path fairly accurately. This is not like an earthquake where you can only predict that one will happen and the general area but not the size, time, or exact location. I shall always flee the path of a hurricane. I cannot worry about a ubiquitous earthquake. These people did not flee. They died. They are dying. No money? No car? Not enough brains to save your own baby's life? Many reasons but if they did not flee, why did the government (Mr. Bush's crew) demand an evacuation? Maybe because he is a Republican and thought the Mayors or the Governors should have done this. Maybe they should have. Someone should have. They are the reason so many people have died.
It is 4 days after and they knew 4 days before. This is a week. People are dying because they have no water and no food and no medical supplies. Our government (Mr. Bush) can send troops around the world to feed other countries but he cannot send food 500 miles to feed our dying people. This is wrong. I hope that the life of each baby that died there this week hurts him as much as it hurts me. Every time I hear that another baby has died, I catch my breath.
A talking TV head pointed out that it took one day for Congress to show up in Washington and pass a bill to deal with the Shiavo woman -- one woman already dead. It took a week to pass a bill to feed millions of people -- and the food has not yet arrived.
My woman friend, Amynah Vadsaria, from San Jose is an NICU (look it up) nurse. A very good one. She saved the lives of babies every week. She is married now and has a good husband, a loving mother, and two little girls. She now works in a gas station. It is sad to me that nurses in this country after working hard for an education and working in an environment that is hazardous to their health (AIDS travels by blood in hospitals better than anywhere else), are paid so little and treated with so little respect that Amynah now works at a gas station. And it is safer than where she was. It is sad to me that I shall never see her again.
I heard Mr. Bush today -- talking on site. He reiterated what the people have been hearing all week: help is on its way. The few helicopters that have not gone home after being shot at that are rescuing people from their roofs are doing a good job. He said nothing about hundreds of trucks arriving to provide food, water, and shelter to the people dying on the streets in front of him. Maybe there are no trucks. Maybe because the people are poor and black. I keep hearing that and I do not want to believe it. Better men than I are repeating it over and over on the TV.
It reminds me of the Mayor of Detroit in July of 1967 banging on the table demanding federal troops to save his burning city while President Johnson, Cyrus Vance, and Governor Romney just tried to look good for the cameras and tried to put on a good face to the rest of the country.
Mr. Bush sat for 7 minutes after being informed about the 911 airplanes before he decided that something should be done -- something more valuable than reading a story to the grade school kids. He is slowing down or maybe there were more Texas Republicans in the New York financial district than in the flooded district. He had a week: H-day minus 4 days until plus 4 days and still all he could do was brag about how great are the people who had done nothing to save lives.
I listen to mayors screaming the anger while seeing their people
die. I hear
from the federal people passing the buck. Once upon a time we had
a President who said: "the buck stops here" -- and meant it. Now
we have people saying " I didn't not know" and "it was not in my job
description". Enough. It just makes me angry. when all I should
feel is sad..
And as we see from the FEMA director being recalled, just because
our Congress could not stop unqualified lackey / crony appointments by
the worst president in this manner since U.S. Grant, does not mean the
public will ot eventually see the damage that these bad appointments
do. But the cost of discovery is high. In this case,
discovery cost lives and world-wide goodwill. New Orleans will
recover within ten years. The damage to our courts may take
centuries to correct.
As my close friends understand, I am a very conservative person so
pissed off at the right-wing radical attitudes of the current
Republicans that I disown all of them. My attitude toward
Washington on the Katrina issue is that Bush has babies up in heaven
complaining about him. I know that the Bush/Rove team is blaming
the local governments on not complaining loudly enough that they needed
help. There is the field of drowned school buses that should have
been mobilized to export people. There is the governor who
refused to turn over her National Guard to President Bush. There
are a myriad of excuses that the President can hide behind. Ad
infinitum.
Yesterday I was standing out in back of my RV re-aiming my satellite
dish since we had some pretty good winds and it needed to be
reamed. While I was doing this another member walked up to me and
we started talking. Usually I think the Washington Republicans
are so far right that no one in their right mind could really support
them. I almost choked yesterday.
The man started talking about bleeding heart liberals and the
Hurricane Katrina disaster. We should not spend a dime of Federal
or charity money rescuing these people as they deserve what they
got. They were warned that the hurricane was coming and they
should have left town. Yeah. Been there. Done That.
SO far our country has not made stupidity a capital offense. He
went further so say that blaming the President for a local problem was
wrong. Trying to make the disaster a Federal problem was also
wrong. Leave Louisiana and Mississippi alone to settle their own
problems and get on with life.
I guess people will always disappoint me. I mean I always need
company when I am down here in Mexico. I do get sort of lonely at
times. I am used to people with far right opinions. But not
that far right. I was happy when he left and I was able to
continue my satellite aiming in peace. I think of the Republican
right as heartless. I mean that is the issue isn't it:
heartless versus bleeding-heart? This man had a heart of
stone. I was wrong: there are people who are as far right as the
current administration. Sad.
It makes me wonder. When the San Andreas fault splits and California is split into what is left and what fell into the ocean, will he feel the same? I doubt that there will be a 4-day warning but then we are already warned that within ten years there will be a major earthquake. What if a major storm comes down from Alberta and seriously injures Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, and Buffalo, there may be a warning but will it also be their fault for living there? What about a serious drought hitting Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas? Is it the residents fault? A drought takes a long time. Should the people have moved? What does it take before the nation shares its emotions and money with people in a disaster. I wonder how the man felt about the tsunami? I figure he figures it is not our business because it happened around the world. If he understood that our oceanographic and atmospheric instruments knew that the tsunami was coming 8 hours before it hit and we did not tell anyone, is that a reason to withhold emotions? Maybe I am a bleeding-heart liberal after all. When people die. When children die. When everything a family owns suddenly falls into the sea or is blown away by the wind, I feel saddened. When something could have saved this, I feel angry. People who feel otherwise disappoint me. I guess people will always disappoint me.
Rita is about to hit the Texas coast: President Bush is taking
every photo op his tribe can contrive. I am listening to people
who evacuated New Orleans having to leave Galveston and bemoaning "Why
does this have to happen to us?" Fewer people died from Katrina
than expected. Blame is being cast around everywhere. You
know where I place the blame. But there is a real problem here.
You have read what goes on in my life. Some of it my fault. Much
of it not. But it is my life. Things happen. You have
very little control over what happens to you. What you do have
control over is what you do about them and how you feel about
them. Some things are preventable. When a hurricane is
heading toward you, you leave. If you do not, then you may
die. This is not hard. To a great degree more people
lived through Katrina than might have. Anyone who stays in
Galveston for Rita has a death wish. I guess I am tired of
hearing what is happening to other people when they do not do the
simple things to protect themselves. Yes, all levels of
government blew it badly. But you know what I think of government
"protection". When something happens to me, I check to make sure
I have all my body parts, thank God, and see what it takes to get on
with my life. I have a great daughter who worries about me.
I have great friends who give me shelter in a storm. I have
better health than I deserve. And I expect to wake up in the
morning feeling better than I do tonight. I should ask for more?
What is there to say? More inept cronyism of inept cronies. This time it is a young, anti-abortion, right-wing radical, Christian. Women's rights in this country just took a giant step backward. Maybe back to the turn of the 20th Century: not 2000 -- back to 1900.
Now we have even worse cronyism: an anti-woman rights woman for the
court. More ineptitude: she has no federal experience other than
as a Bush crony. As the guy said: Power corrupts.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
In 1996 the Republicans nominated a man for President who had
been bailed out of any job he had ever undertaken. Was best known
for his ability to deceive and avoid responsibility. For example,
drug usage and not showing up for National Guard duty. As
governor of the country's oil producing state, almost ran it
bankrupt. Managed to ride his father's coattails into the
nomination. And when he lost the election his brother bailed him
out by confusing the Florida election process until his judges and
friends could line up the right set of laws and decisions to make him
the PResident.
By the way, I did not like his father as President but his father
was one of the most qualified president of the 20th century. I
mean: 8 years as VP; head of the CIA, ambassador to the UN, and
whatever. Who could ask for better credentials? The son.
however only had serious backing by radical groups with lots of
financial and political power..
So, now as President of the country running on the platform of
uniting the country, becomes the most divisive PResident in my lifetime
if not history. If this is not enough, he decides to alienate the
world. He goes around the world claiming to abandon the SALT
treaty in order to implement his flamboyantly expensive Star Wars
defense system and making the claim that terrorists are not a
problem. Neither is global warming as he insults the entire
European Union with his arrogance. He pissed of one guy so badly
that he decided to prove the President wrong and rescheduled his
airplane attack to prove the President is incapable of his
primary duty as President: assure the domestic tranquility and defense.
So now that Bush has been proved incompetent at his job and has
insulted the world, he claims success. The guy has a silver
tongue. He also would put the devil as a snake to shame.
His ability to mobilize the worst parts of our society: the
gunslingers, the bankers and insurers, and the religious radical right,
is pretty evident.
5 years later, when he has had the opportunity to activate the
government into what he wants it to be at great expense: starting a war
that his father did not finish but about which nobody else cared;
creating massive debts enriching his banks and insurance companies;
putting women's rights back in the closet; etc. His best
opportunity to demonstrate how successful he has been in creating a
mobile, emergency system to handle terrorist and natural acts: he
ignores the hurricane that could have demonstrated his prowess.
This makes sense as for 5 years, he has dismantled the very departments
that he has claimed to be enriching. What if they gave a
hurricane and nobody showed up? To paraphrase an 1960's
chant. Then, of course, maybe New Orleans is a Democratic
stronghold that he would rather have go away.
We hear that maybe the President is racially bigoted as the reason
for ignoring the plight of the people foraging for food and shelter
from the storm. I would not dignify that with a comment either
way. That he is a bigot is obvious. Racial? He knows.
His wife declares that it is not so. But he is a financial
bigot. He has no interest in the poor. He has no knowledge
of what it is to be hungry. Not hungry one time. Not hungry
ten times. But what it is to be hungry as a way of life. I
see a book "The ethics of a beautiful woman" or something like
that. Interesting and maybe valuable. More valuable would
be a book on the ethics of hunger in our country. I have been
there and did not like it. Through serious lucky breaks and hard
work I now live on the beach in Mexico listening to the surf pound a
100 meters from my door.
Then there is a great photo op: a second hurricane. He shows
up with all his troops and photographers and says that he will sit in
the middle of the operations center and watch them work to make sure
that they all play nicely. When asked if this would interfere
with the work, he ignored the question. When it was repeated
louder, he turned around and stated he would not interfere. Two
hours later he was on his way to Colorado SPrings. A safe distance from
being able to interfere.
And where is he now that the damage is being recovered?
Sending crony companies in to make millions of dollars on phony repair
costs. For example, $2845 for a $30 tarp to be placed on each
repairable home in New Orleans.
He then goes on to appoint the most incompetent people imaginable to
the Supreme Court in his hopes to further demean women and put our
country back into the 18th century. He man Roberts with a very
strong Republican Senate gets into the Court with no substantial
argument from reasonable people. Why not? They know that
the Republicans can change the laws to make appointing judges even
easier if they argue. And they know what is coming down the pipe:
another nomination. This time the President outdoes himself: he
appoints someone with no experience in the courts at all but will vote
forever in the direction of her benefactor. Even the Republican
Senate is applied. People as the PResident to withdraw her.
People ask her to withdraw herself. WHo wants her there?
The President is known to reward out of proportion of service any crony
that has given him lip service throughout his dismal career.
Other supporters are the women who want back-alley abortions and women
to go back into the home as housewives. Is it a coincidence that
we have suddenly seen a survey stating that children with their mother
at home grow up to be better housewives, parents, and churchgoers?
I am sure I left a lot out. But I cry for the country that my
children live in. It will take decades to recover from this
abomination of a President.
People rejoiced when the Do-Not-Call List became a national thing
rather than a local thing. I lived in Florida when Florida did it
earlier. The list is a sick joke on the country. The
exemptions are those that you are trying most to get rid of: e.g.
political campaigns, charities, newspapers and magazines. That is
the best part. What is worst is that any solicitor can obtain the
list. Wow! A brand new list of telephone numbers to
call. When I was in sales, such a list was invaluable: people
with no sales resistance put themselves on such lists in the same way
they put "No Solicitor" signs on their doors. The calls got so
bad after we put our name on the list that we paid for a second
telephone number (on the same line) and only answered its ring.
All calls to the listed number were ignored. We got very rude and
obscene messages on the answering machine from solicitors who found
they were never answered. We were glad to leave Florida. I
was horrified to find out that the problem had gone national.
Now I have no land line phone and can just hear about the woes of
other people. The number of solicitation calls on my cell phone
is low enough that I can just yell at them and call back to have my
name taken off their list.
The worst part is the Federal talking heads denying the problem and
saying they are doing a good job. More 1984 doublespeak.
Sad.
I just listened to a supporter of the police offer the worst possible justification for accepting the cops beating up citizens. He had just listened to a woman witness saying that the man had walked up to a policeman and asking a question. The man did not threaten the policeman and the policeman and his friends just attacked the man as then seen on the tape. The justification offered was that police never attack a person without cause and this woman is not telling the truth -- either intentionally or because she is insane (she cannot relate the real world to what she sees with her eyes).
If the cops can convince a judge that this is a valid argument, we are
all in serious trouble of losing any rights that we thought were in the
Constitution and fought over after the Declaration of
Independence. We know our rights have been seriously curtailed
over the last 40 years and in the last 5 years the legacy of Mr.
Ashcroft is being seriously felt. But to see the argument that
cops do not hurt you without just cause is the absolute abandonment of
the concept of freedom in this country. More?
I hear the United State is a nation of laws. I guess it
is. I guess I know it is. Far too many laws. We have
laws saying what laws cannot be laws. Some of these are
good. For example, Roe Versus Wade. But you know, we
live in a land where people are afraid of the laws. Or at least
the law enforcers. We hear the New Orleans police chief saying
that the cops must have had a reason to beat up the old man because
they would not beat him up for no reason. But the lawyers
are defending the police on the grounds that they are under such stress
from the hurricanes that they would do this without a
reason. Sorry. The laws in the US of A are as screwed up as
those enforcing them. This all leads to the establishment of a
police state. The police have terrible powers compared to 30
years ago. Now they can arrest you for not identifying
yourself. as a citizen I should have the right to privacy;
including the right of anominity.
Think we are not in a police state? The freeway you drive on
every day or on vacation is dedicated to a police officer. It is
not dedicated to Thomas Jefferson or George Washington. It is
dedicated so that we will be reminded that the police officers own the
road..
If you have read my history, you know my experience with Hurricane
Andrew: drove 2000 miles to board up my house and to buy emergency
supplies. In Boca Raton, I was one of a handful. A couple
of days later the common complaint at the coffee klatch was "Why
didn't they tell me how bad a hurricane is?" So now another
hurricane arrives. Wilma. The 7th serious hurricane of the
season. Every night for two months we hear about hurricane damage
and recovery. So what am I hearing on the news from the people on
the east coast of FLorida? "It is only a category 2. How
come it can do so much damage?" When we moved to Florida, I
informed my 11-year-old daughter that she was going to have to get used
to a lower class of dumb. I did not realize then how prophetic
this would be. Do you have to be told how mach damage a 120 mph
wind can do? Add the quantity of rain associated with a
hurricane. Add the fact that the average height above sea level
of the entire state is 18 inches. Add all of these things and you
have a disaster. Add the stupidity of south Florida and the
disaster multiples. One sentence: when you have a disaster
staring you in the face, bundle up and leave. ANy hurricane is,
by definition, a disaster. I wrote it. I am angry with the
attitude and it is time to go to bed.
Every day on the news you hear more frightening results of having
the current regime in power. We hear that they want to raise
college costs and remove educational deductions from the new tax
scheme. Our current tax schedules demonstrate that the total cost
of a university education is paid for with increased taxes within 10
years of graduation. WIth this rate of return, the Feds should be
paying everyone to obtain a college education. This would raise
our taxable income to cover this expense and make our country more
competitive worldwide. No. The Republicans want to restrict
university education to the already rich. The Feds should (I hate
this word) take a lesson from the citizens of Kalamazoo: college paid
for ALL high school graduates.
I do not need to explain how insidious the addition of religion
fairy tales to the science curriculum is. As I said before, I
have no problem with teaching religion in schools -- as philosophy or
history. Teaching religion as science is a different
matter. Trying to balance a beam with the weight congregated on
opposite ends des not make anything better. It is better to teach
the two things separately than trying to poison analytical minds with
the nonsense of trying to make them one.
Nobody believes me when I say Bush has suppressed free speech in
this country similar to a previous German despot. Here is another
example. The IRS has removed the tax-free status of a church
because the pastor gave an anti-Iraq war sermon. The given reason
is that churches (or other tax-free organizations) cannot interfere
with politics. How many churches are going to lose their tax-free
status when their pastor tells its members to write their Senators in
support of Mr. Bush's Supreme Court nominee for the sole reason that
that nominee will attempt to revoke Roe Versus Wade? At my last
church the pastor did such in favor of a nominee and we did not lose
our tax status. But -- Bush was not President then. But if
Bush had been President then the status still would not have been lost
because that position agrees -- as opposed to disagrees -- with Herr
Bush.
I left my previous church membership because the church secretary
accused me to all of her friends of having amorous intentions towards
her daughter. Then the pastor told me to apologize to the woman
or leave the church. The evening before I had gone to the woman
and apologized for whatever I needed to apologize for and asked how we
could work things out. Since the matter was now out of my hands,
I left.
When we moved to Florida, I attended to a Baptist church until the
pastor called conscientious objectors cowards in his Sunday
sermon. When I asked him about it, he claimed it was a matter of
opinion and mine was in the minority.
These things were 16 years ago. Since then we have seen major
changes in the world. The Taliban blew up the Buddhist statues
and cut off the teenager girls feet. Nobody cared. Saudi
radical Moslems flew planes into our big buildings. We appointed
then elected a religious zealot into office. He bombed the Afghan
desert back to the sand ages. He invaded a foreign country and
deposed its leader. He attempted to appoint a woman to the
Supreme Court, the highest court in our country, with her ONLY
qualification that she shared his religious beliefs.
With all of this, three groups have taken over what used to be the
greatest democratic republic in the history of the world: the
religious right, the gun lobby, and the money brokers (banks, life
insurance, the independently wealthy).
I understand the gun lobby and the money people. Our
presidential monkey evolved from a Texas ranch and grew up among the
country's monied gentry in a state with the city (Dallas) which claims
that the only reason it exists is because of money.
But the Christian religious right has taken over the to a degree
from which we must now call our country a theocracy. A statue of
the Ten Commandments (and its advocating judge) is now a martyr even
though such a statue seems to directly violate the Ten Commandments
itself and is certainly a direct violation of Jesus' teaching of
give unto Rome, etc. and our Constitution requiring separation of
church and state.
From the President on down to every Christian minister in the
country, the attempts are growing and are expected to succeed by
placement of zealots to critical positions of authority to reverse laws
which took 200 years to get into place in a democratic process to
support women's rights and the separtion of fairy tales from reality.
And where are we? Public schools are now teaching the Adam and Eve
fairy tale about the creation of the world -- only not mentioning names
and not calling it Creationism. Now it is "Intelligent
Design". We learned the fallacy of the Intelligent Design
argument in the first 6 weeks of philosophy class in college.
About the same time that I taught our Chemistry professor the fallacy
of the Bohr atom model.
As bad as this praying to images is that now we have
pseudo-pharmacists suing their
employer for enforcing a state law. These pseudo-professionals
are suing Walgreen's because these zealots have moral objections to
dispensing doctor-prescribed medications. Walgreen's offered
these pseudo-professionals alternate jobs -- but these deviants would
rather sue than perform. So Walgreen's is put in the position of
either violating state laws or firing zealots. The solution is
simple: if you do not want to do your job, quit. Become a teacher
of fairy tales. There must be a demand for them. Leave
professional jobs to professionals.
Get your fairy tales out of my life. Go back to the hell that
you live in and leave the real world alone. Because of my health
situation, I have worked hard to better understand my relationship with
my creator. I know I have short-comings but I think that it is
really time to step up to the plate and help Him and not just sit back
and watch. I can no longer tell people I am a Christian. I
am ashamed to carry that title.
I have said before and it always grates on me: the Bush
Administration are masters of the 1984 concept of "Double Speak".
We have the "Privacy Act" where we must sign our acknowledgement that
the medical profession will divulge our medical information to any
government agency that wants it.
We have the "Patriot Act". The very conceppt of this act is
that we give up our civil rights to permit the Bush Administration to
run rough-shod through the world -- and the lives that have died to
give us what used to be freedoms. My girlfriend refuses to email
me and hangs up the phone whenever I say something controversial.
She is afraid she will lose her immigration status and be
exported. It seems to come as a surprise to many that the
President has been listening in on phone calls. She has refused
to talk on the phone about her homeland for 5 years.
I am too close to Arizona right now. Do you know where the
term 'zealot' came from? The zealots were a group of patriots in
Isreal that refused to accept the Roman occupation. They carried
swords in direct violation of the Roman order that only Romans could
have weapons. Some have claimed Jesus lived with the Zealots
during the years that are undocumented. We know he zealots among
his apostles. The issue? In those days being a patriot
meant making choices. You could be killed for wearing a sword and
indicating that you did not accept the occupation. Most people
just lived with it. Many accepted the party line that it was good
for them. After all, the Romans hated war and strife. They
settled wars by occupying countries that were not peaceful. Today
we are occupied by the remains of the Roman Empire (the Christian
RIght). Many are wearing their swrds (MoveOn.org), Many of
us are just accepting it (the 'Silent Majority') and some are even
supporting the occupation by claiming that id the President says it is
so, it must be so. If he said that Iraq needed to be occupied, he
occupied it. If he said we must give up free speech to accomplish
this, we gave up free speech.
Bush is a big bully. He acts like a bully. He
swaggers. He talks in fragments. He initalizes aggression
against anyone he percieves as a threat to imself. he has
admonished the newspaper that revealed his phone snooping. Nobody
has publicized that his unpatriotic "Patriot Act" enables him to read
all emails and most other communication. His man, Ashcroft, says
that our right to pricacy ends at our front door. And I suspect
that he has found ways to get past our front door other than by
listening to our phone calls.
Bully? The bully selects his target. He picks on the guy
most likely to not fight back. North Korea and Iran are more
serious threats to the world and the USA than Iraq and Afghanistan.
But we have not attacked North Korean and Iran. If the bully had
more soldiers, we would have -- and they know it and have made a point
of telling the rest of the world that they would defend themselves
hoping that the bully will hear.
Too close to Arizona? Too many people here will close your
mouth before you open it if they think you will bad mouth their bully
gang leader. One of my best friends is always baiting me with
comment supportive of the bully. So far I have always
demured. I have valued his friendship more than wanting to have a
politcal battle. The problem is that this President has forced us
into sides following two sets of the 'truth'. Have you ever
wondered why Scientology is so successful? They start with very
elementary courses and live with a dictionary in their hands. You
start with words which have slightly shaded meaning from the common
usage. There is nothing wrong with the Scientology
definition. It is in the book But after a while so many
words have such a shade on them that discussion with non-Scientologists
end up in frustration because you end up with conclusions contrary to
what you believe. With Bush if you accept all of his words, you
end up with a polical definition of patriot that is the exact opposite
of what our patriotic forefathers fought for -- and his supported
actually believe that he and they are patriots. This is what is
so frightening about this regime. They have so successfully
brainwashed such a large portion of our country. Many now believe
that we have a divine right to overthrow a political system we do not
like. He choosew to whom we give financial aid based upon
religous beliefs (Bush refuses aid to AIDS-ridden countries that give
out birth control pills to unmarried women). And more of the
same. I wish I were as eloquent as many of the writers I read in
these areas.