Been thinking about our troops when they come home, if they come home. Let’s ruminate.
The Big Guys will be okay. They will still have the same jobs with high pay, but the little guys with little education and less hope who enlisted at least to earn some self-respect and possibly an education are the ones I am thinking about.
Many of our troops enlisted out of loyalty to those already serving, and that will be an inner badge of courage that can never be taken away. Those who enlisted out of patriotism to their country may find that to be a badge without meaning to them anymore.
Getting to the nittygritty, however, what are their prospects when they come home? Where will the new jobs be? Will they have to compete with the people holding the jobs they want or need, the ones who didn’t go to war with them, the ones who could have enlisted, but didn’t?
What about their qualifications? They have all seen HORROR close-up, and that will never leave them. It will be with them waking or sleeping. Those who have been in actual combat will have special skills, killing and cruelty, but they are not in much demand, and besides we have football players and other civilians here who will compete.
Many of our troops will bear the obvious badges of honor that we all can see, such as grievous head and facial wounds and missing or prosthetic limbs. Adjustment to civilian jobs may be difficult or impossible for them, and our present leaders apparently don’t have them on their front burners.
Welcome home, guys and gals!
Ethics on the battlefield
After hearing U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., explain his program to keep veterans off the streets, I couldn't help but think of Rome.
During the middle republic, military legions consisted of landowners, who, although required to supply their own equipment, weapons and armor, did not suffer the ravages of battle worrying about homelessness upon their return.
A recent Newsweek story puts the number of homeless Iraq war veterans between 500 and 1,000, a shameful, shocking red flag considering that, unlike the Vietnam era, the homelessness is taking root not just before the war ends, but in the midst of a surge. This wave of homelessness indicates many things -- misguided and myopic government spending, lack of insight among policymakers, decaying social infrastructure, toxic levels of a "suck-it-up" mind-set among soldiers -- but most of all, it indicates the extent to which civilians have grown divorced from the military. The days of military service as public service have largely ended, and our mentality is a far cry from Rome's plough-and-sword system.
Today, we non-military citizens tend to think of the military as "over there," a view that is inaccurate, dangerous and unkind. Inaccurate, because the military is not a monolith; it is people. Dangerous, because it encourages apathy among civilians, military disdain for civilians and a level of military autonomy that, history teaches, can lead to chaos. Unkind, because it allows us to look the other way when warriors come home emotionally, physically and spiritually scarred by acts carried out in our collective name.
Many Americans don't want anything to do with the military, and that is a problem. Mandatory conscription would quickly eliminate the "us versus them" gap, but any attempt at making service mandatory would probably incite outrage.
Hi, everybody, I got home on Tuesday and am so glad to be Back. I will require all day help for a number of weeks, and there are a ton of papers and bills to take care of, so things will be slow for a while.
I have some very interesting things to write about my stay first in the rest home and then in a recovery home. I got new furniture for my “office,” but will have to learn the computer again, as well as rearranging the office. LittleBill has walked all over my keyboard and is now on my lap helping correct the mistakes he made.
Have also written a couple of political things while I was there.
Thanks to everyone for your cards, calls, emails, and comments. I have missed all of you tremendously.
Love to all.
Tuesday is as good day as any to demonstrate bipartisanship, so. . . .
Columnist Johann Hari recently infiltrated an annual National Review-sponsored cruise so that he could discover What Conservatives Say When They Think We Aren't Listening. Seminars were designed to exhume the conservative corpse and discover its cause of death on the black night of 7 November, 2006.
I have excerpted from the forest some of the more coherent trees which Hari relates.
Dinesh D'Souza:
It's customary to say we lost the Vietnam war, but who's 'we'? The left won by demanding America's humiliation.. . . of course politics is about class. Republicans are the party of winners, Democrats are the party of losers.Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan's one-time nominee to the Supreme Court, mumbled from beneath low-hanging jowls:
The coverage of this war is unbelievable. Even Fox News is unbelievable. You'd think we're the only ones dying. Enemy casualties aren't covered. We're doing an excellent job killing them.Rich Lowry, the preppy, handsome 38-year-old editor of National Review, says,
The American public isn't concluding we're losing in Iraq for any irrational reason. They're looking at the cold, hard facts. I wish it was true that, because we're a superpower, we can't lose. But it's not.The ageing historian Bernard Lewis - who was deputed to stiffen Dick Cheney's spine in the run-up to the war - declares,
The election in the US is being seen by the bin Ladenists as a victory on a par with the collapse of the Soviet Union. We should be prepared for whatever comes next.Norman Podhoretz and William Buckley are adversaries on the topic of Bush and his Iraquagmire. Podhoretz, looking in Buckley's direction, says,
I have lots of ex-friends on the left; it looks like I'm going to have some ex-friends on the right, too. . . . There were WMD, and they were shipped to Syria … This picture of a country in total chaos with no security is false. It has been a triumph. It couldn't have gone better. . . . There was nobody better than Don Rumsfeld. This defeatist talk only contributes to the impression we are losing, when I think we're winning.pertaining to Islamophobia and Iraq, Buckley confides in an interview,
. . . . what animated the conservative core for 40 years was the Soviet menace, plus the rise of dogmatic socialism. That's pretty well gone. . . .I think the prudent Reagan would have figured here, and the prudent Reagan would have shunned a commitment of the kind that we are now engaged in… I think he would have attempted to find some sort of assurance that any exposure by the United States would be exposure to a challenge the dimensions of which we could predict. . . . found a strongman to replace Saddam. . .James O'Beirne is husband to National Review's Kate O'Beirne and was Rumsfeld's Pentagon personnel director who staffed Iraqi occupational authority based upon personal loyalty to Bush:
The civilized countries should invade all the oil-owning places in the Middle East and run them properly. We won't take the money ourselves, but we'll manage it so the money isn't going to terrorists.Mark Steyn, author of America Alone bemoans a fact that Muslims are procreating faster than
European races . . . who are too self-absorbed to breed . . . large-scale evacuation operations circa 2015. . . Greater France remorselessly evolve[s] into Greater Bosnia.Here endeth my weekly duty to the spirit of bipartisanship. I've done my best to provide fairness, balance and equal time.
Hi all my adoring fans in NASCar-Land.
I'm taking a moment from the last practice before Sunday's race to let you all know that I'm doing okay. I've been lying here on my bed of pain after falling and braking my hip with internal fractures a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, my surgeon was able to put it together again with a screw of some sort. (They say it was just strength of character and from heavy-duty drugs that pulled me through.)
Hey mark, don't let that son of a bitch do that to you again! Next him just knock him the hell out of the race.
Sorry, I've got distracted by an accident. Where was I?
Oh Yes, They say I will rise from my bed of pain, any day now, just in time to get back home to a new table set up for my computer, and catch up with all of you.
Hugs & Kisses
Some people have said, in appraising George Bush, that he is a “nice guy”. Being a party clown does not qualify a person for membership in any intellectually motivated groups.
If he were a man with any moral capacity at all, he would drop to his knees before his God, take full responsibility for the dreadful hubris which has driven him to sacrifice so many human lives, and beg for forgiveness.
Victory through size and strength alone is hollow and meaningless.
Settlement through mutual acknowledgement of personal and national error and overeach is the only possible basis for peace. Each side deserves recognition without condescension of its values, needs, and rights.
Courage is exemplified by public acknowledgement of a true leader to those whom he has harmed, both his “enemies” and his adherents.
I have bad news to share. Little Bill has fallen while on a dog walk yesterday. She's recovering and expects to be back soon. In the mean time she wishes that none of her readers forget to stop by and leave a comment once in a while. And she has three words she wanted me to leave you with:
Impeach the Beasts!
When Bush gave his victory speech about why he chose to veto the stem cell reseach legislation again on the basis of his personal religious beliefs, he was surrounded, as usual, by adoring invited fans who clapped approvingly at his decision.
It might have been more balanced in this great Democracy of ours if he had included the loved ones of those who have died of diseases that stem cell research might have saved, and who, therefore, were not able to be present.
6/20/07
This is just about the best article I have ever read about environmentalism and activism. One of the most interesting and well-thought-out you will ever read. It should remind each and every one of us that we have responsibility.
Overpopulation Solutions as I See Them
It is both encouraging and alarming that there are so many letters and articles these days about overpopulation—encouraging because of growing awareness of the problem, and alarming to realize that it may already be too late, that human beings are breeding themselves to extinction and taking the rest of the world’s creatures with us.
War, hunger, illiteracy, disease, violence, mental illness, and hatred between groups and nations are not discrete problems. Overpopulation is the BIG problem. It is worldwide, and it is a web in which we are all enmeshed.
Let’s start with some irrefutable facts:
1. The earth is of unchanging size.
2. The earth’s resources are finite, and rapidly being depleted, especially by the developed and developing nations, the United States leading the pack.
3. Human beings, like all creatures, do not live forever. We die at different ages from different causes—some old, some young, some ill, some healthy—but we will all die.
Envision two cows in a corral with barely enough food to keep one alive. Obviously, one will die. Almost certainly both will eat some of the food, so both will die.
Some humans live in big corrals with plenty of food for the body, the mind, and the soul. But millions are living in tiny corrals with little or nothing to sustain them. And as the numbers of each increase, they draw ever closer to each other. Folks, it just ain’t gonna work.
There is only one possible solution. Humans will have to start dying faster than they are being born. Following are my suggestions for partial solutions, written for this nation, but imperative in some form for all:
1. In the future the number ofchildren per family should be limited to one for all those on public support and two for all others, irrespective of religious belief or personal wealth, and it should be strictly enforced. Birth contnrol should range all the way from abstinence to abortion and sterilization. The method should be the prerogative of the woman, and it should be fully funded by the government for those who cannot afford it.
2. The Hippocratic Oath (first do no harm) should be rethought, both for the benefit of the people involved and for their caregivers. The evolution of scientific knowledge with regard to prolonging life can frequently result in more harm than good.
3. Babies born with no chance for any quality of life should be allowed to die mercifully at birth, at the request of their parents, and with their consent.
4. All adults should be made aware of and sign a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (or similar legal document) stating how they should be cared for in case of catastrophic injury or illness. In the case of children, or adults who have left no instructions and are beyond the ability to do so, their families or their surrogates should be allowed to make the decision for them, rather than having them drag on forever unable to make the decision for themselves.
5. Suicide should be relieved of its stigma, and the humane means of accomplishing it made available to those who want to choose that course for any reason, physical, mental, or emotional.
And then, of course, there is the final solution, of unending war, pestilence, starvation, and violence of every sort, marching over the face of the earth as I write—the option-of-choice of the compassionate religious right.
6/16/07
For many of us, it's the only medicine!
Click on the above item and you'll see the trailer; afterwards, you'll see more options at the bottom of the frame!
Good night, good luck and good health to you! Otherwise. . . .
T'was six in the morning and I was in bed, 
All's Well
That’s alright, Mr. President, happy we could help. Just give us a call anytime. You’ll
probably need more troops in Iraq, and of course, Iran is coming up soon.
We learned all about patriotism in the second grade, when we learned to recite the pledge of allegiance and didn’t even know what the words meant. And we’ve remembered it just that way all these years. Those of us who, like Vice President Cheney, haven’t enlisted because we had more important things to do, will think about our troops and pray for them often during this sacred Memorial Day weekend while we are watching the games and NASCAR. (Just between the two of us, some of us even have tickets. I hope you were lucky enough to get one.)
That’s all right, Mr. President, any time. Just give us a call. And have a nice day.
5/23/07
I have spent the entire morning, bent like a cashew, working at my computer. At one point, my cat Loudy jumped on my work table and spoke to me nose to nose. I was too busy to pay attention to him, so he finally gave up and jumped down.
When I finally turned to the work table, I discovered that he had peed on everything, today’s Chronicle, a number of articles I planned to address, including several especially great Jon Carrolls I was going to copy and mail to friends. They are all out in the back yard as I speak, plastered by a fairly strong breeze--against fences I hope.
Loudy must have really been mad at me, because there was quite a sizable lake to clean up as well. If you sense a vague smell of cat pee on your computer, blame him, not me.
(Note: By coincidence, I mentioned cat pee in an email to a friend the other day, saying that when I couldn’t smell it in my home anymore, I wouldn’t want to live here. That will give you some idea of my lifestyle at the age of 84.)
5/23/07
There as a very fine article on the power that Falwell accrued to himself and his Moral Majority and the harm that he has done to the separation of powers and freedom in general in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution written by Cynthia Tucker on 5/20/07, titled Falwell Was GOP’s Prophet of Intolerance. Go to ajc.com/opinion for the article. Falwell’s influence, unfortunately, like Bush’s, will be felt for a long time. Remember how hard it used to be to believe Americans used to burn “witches” at the stake?
5/22/07
And Another Thing—About Immigration
What is all this crap about Mexicans bringing down wages in this country? Employees don’t bring down wages--employers do. It stands to reason that Mexicans are not saying, “Oh, please don’t pay me a living wage! Pay me less.” It is the venality of the employers which forces them to pay less in wages. Likewise, American consumers are delighted to pay less for what Mexicans produce, even if that means the Mexicans who produced it can barely eke out a living.
And the news today is that American farmers are unable to find workers as a result of the crackdown on immigration, legal or not. The result is, not that Americans are flooding into the fields to take these newly available jobs, but that no one is there to work for slave wages, so now the fruit and vegetables are rotting in the fields. Oh, my heart bleeds for the suffering of our generous American people!
5/23/07
As I understand it, both Houses of Congress have agreed to knuckle under, at least for now, to Bush’s demand that there be no benchmarks on withdrawing from Iraq, and they will continue to support our troops. Polite language dictates that I should express my disappointment. But that just doesn’t cut it. I am goddam mad, especially at the Democrats who voted for it.
This doesn’t really support our troops, it just keeps them in harm’s way, susceptible to death and dismemberment for a longer time. And the cause is not really “freedom and democracy” for the people of the Middle East. It is personal victory of a very little man with an enormous ego. Rather than exercising control as a co-equal branch of government over a man running out of control, this just validates his illegal and immoral war against another nation. Because we followed him into the war to begin with, regardless of the Great Lie, we as a nation do not have a right to win this war any more than he has.
As a result of this decision, many more human beings will perish, most of them innocents, and hatred for this man and this country will continue to grow, both abroad and here at home. Why didn’t the Congressmen and women who disagreed with him as the sole Decider force him to take full responsibility for his decision?
Bolstered by this victory, Bush’s ego can only grow larger, and his support by those who are easily susceptible to propaganda, as well as those who stand to profit by his success, will also find reason to continue their support. Running for, or seizing further time as Head of State beyond January, 2009 has assuredly crossed his mind.
The Democrats had a chance to save this godforsaken land, and they crapped it up.
5/22/07
You Would Never Have Guessed
Captain Kangaroo passed away on January 23, 2004 as age 76 , which is odd, because he always looked to be 76. (DOB: 6/27/27 ) His death reminded me of the following story.
Some people have been a bit offended that the actor, Lee Marvin, is buried in a grave alongside 3- and 4-star generals at Arlington National Cemetery . His marker gives his name, rank (PVT) and service (USMC). Nothing else. 
Here's a guy who was only a famous movie star who served his time, why the heck does he rate burial with these guys? Well, following is the amazing answer:
I always liked Lee Marvin, but didn't know the extent of his Corps experiences.
In a time when many Hollywood stars served their country in the armed forces often in rear echelon posts where they were carefully protected, only to be trotted out to perform for the cameras in war bond promotions, Lee Marvin was a genuine hero. He won the Navy Cross at Iwo Jima . There is only one higher Naval award... the Medal Of Honor!
If that is a surprising comment on the true character of the man, he credits his sergeant with an even greater show of bravery.
Dialog from "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson": His guest was Lee Marvin Johnny said, "Lee, I'll bet a lot of people are unaware that you were a Marine in the initial landing at Iwo Jima ...and that during the course of that action you earned the Navy Cross and w! ere seve rely wounded."
"Yeah, yeah... I got shot square in the bottom and they gave me the Cross for securing a hot spot about halfway up Suribachi. Bad thing about getting shot up on a mountain is guys getting' shot hauling you down. But,Johnny, at Iwo I served under the bravest man I ever knew... We both got the Cross the same day, but what he did for his Cross made mine look cheap in comparison. That dumb guy actually stood up on Red beach and directed his troops to move forward and get the hell off the beach. Bullets flying by, with mortar rounds landing everywhere and he stood there as the main target of gunfire so that he could get his men to safety. He did this on more than one occasion because his men's safety was more important than his own life.
That Sergeant and I have been lifelong friends. When they brought me off Suribachi we passed the Sergeant and he lit a smoke and passed it to me, lying on my belly on the litter and said, "Where'd they get you Lee?" "Well Bob... if you make it home before me, tell Mom to sell the outhouse!"
Johnny, I'm not lying, Sergeant Keeshan was the bravest man I ever knew. The Sergeant's name is Bob Keeshan. You and the world know him as Captain Kangaroo."
On another note, there was this wimpy little man (who just passed away) on PBS, gentle and quiet. Mr. Rogers is another of those you would least suspect of being anything but what he now portrays to our youth. But Mr. Rogers was a U.S. Navy Seal, combat-proven in Vietnam with over twenty-five confirmed kills to his name. He wore a long-sleeved sweater on TV, to cover the many tattoos on his forearm and biceps. He was a master in small arms and hand-to-hand combat, able to disarm or kill in a heartbeat
After the war Mr. Rogers became an ordained Presbyterian minister and therefore a pacifist. Vowing to never harm another human and also dedicating the rest of his life to trying to help lead children on the right path in life. He hid away the tattoos and his past life and won our hearts with his quiet wit and charm.
America's real heroes don't flaunt what they did; they quietly go about their day-to-day lives, doing what they do best. They earned our respect and the freedoms that we all enjoy. Look around and see if you can find one of those heroes in your midst. Often, they are the ones you'd least suspect, but would most like to have on your side if anything ever happened.
Take the time to thank anyone that has fought for our freedom. With encouragement they could be the next Captain Kangaroo or Mr.Rogers
Send this on, will you please? Nothing will happens to you if you don't, but you will be telling others what a HERO is made of.
With his usual style and incisiveness, Scheer sees the upcoming talks between Iran and the Bush administration in Baghdad with Iran definitely in control and the U.S. in a secondary role. If he is correct, and it looks as though he is, it should be a very interesting meeting.
For those of you more practiced than I on the computer, his article, entitled U.S. Cozies up to Nearly Nuclear Iran, appeared in full in the San Francisco Chronicle for 5/16/07.
5/20/07
The compromise worked out on how illegal immigrants can eventually earn a right to citizenship in America is still so punishing that it would seem to me as unachievable in a normal lifetime.
Return to Mexico or elsewhere where pay is so low and unemployment so high would involve separation from loved ones for long periods of time. Attempting to hide in this country and hope you wouldn’t be found, drug running across the border, and suicide all seem tempting possibilities.
What really grabbed my attention, though, was the future envisioned by our leaders, in which immigrants who are educated and skilled will be sought and and encouraged to come to this great country. It’s so American! Wouldn’t it occur to anyone that solutions lie in helping those in need rather than US? (The initials, U.S., are so apt.) How would it be if we encouraged Mexicans and citizens of similar countries with education and skills to stay in their home countries and encouraged Americans with education and skills to join them in a renewal of the Marhsall Plan? Don’t our churches teach anything like this, or do they just concentrate on religion?
5/20/07
The three major tools of awareness that come to mind for me are birdwatching, hiking, and sailing. Each involves the individual’s independent and personal response to Nature, the mind reacting to what Nature presents during the activity. The participant has to have chosen the activity in the first place, and therefore it is humanly impossible to see Nature without thinking about it.
The next three tools, in order of importance, are education, study, and established religion, the first two involving available information and the third involving unbending indoctrination.
Those of us who were born early in the 20th century were and are probably aware that the19th century, the birth of the Industrial Revolution, made a huge difference in what was available to make life choices easier and more available. Those of us who are around now are increasingly aware how fast the choices are changing, and not all for the good. People born after World War II feel less connected to Nature, and therefore independent of Nature. Many do not even know where the food they eat comes from or how it is raised and harvested, or by whom.
Life for many Americans involves reclining on a moral and eithical chaise longue, dangling the grapes of availability and greed upon their lips. But, increasingly, even for them there is change in the air. Nowhere is that change more apparent than in the oil crisis and the part it MUST play in our changing way of life. Like the birds and the mountains and the sea, our choices for the future are becoming less and less free, and Awareness is staring us in the face, giving us a last chance.
Each of us has a responsibility to respond to Nature in our own way and with our own capacities, and each of us has capacities, however small. (As I said in an earlier post, even picking up cigarette butts and paper clips is a gesture of caring for Nature.) Those of us who can afford more must accept that we are also the people who can give up more. For us, the three major tools and the second group of tools are all available. For those who have not had the advantage of the three major tools, the next three, education, study, and religion must become available, hopefully by teachers who have accepted Awareness as a religion.
5/19/07
Quote of the Week goes to Bill Maher:
New Rule: You can't send the National Guard to Iraq and then claim it's still here. The helicopters, the Humvees, the men... Like Dorothy and Toto, they're not in Kansas anymore. Sorry, Mr. President, but the last documented case of a National Guardsman able to be in two places at one time...was you.
I just woke up from a refreshing nap that rather cleared my thinking. The first words I heard were Rep. John Boehner, Minority Leader of the House, saying words to the effect that “we can’t win the war in Iraq if the funds for our troops are withheld if we don’t meet the benchmarks.” My question is “how can we win a war that isn’t our war to win or lose?” It’s a civil war between two other sides, and we have just chosen to inject ourselves into the middle of it.
Is There Pattern Here?
From Monsters & Critics: When Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni recently suggested Ehud Olmert should step aside and let her be prime minister, nobody batted an eye over the fact she is a woman.
Golda Meir laid that debate to rest in Israel nearly 40 years ago.
Britain had Margaret Thatcher, Pakistan had Benazir Bhutto and India had Indira Gandhi. Women hold high office in a dozen countries around the world, in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, from Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines.
So why has the United States, where Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, never elected a woman to the White House?
Andrew Reynolds, a professor at the University of North Carolina. says, Women have tended to have two main pathways to high office:
The rules of the game are set up to the advantage of the dominant majority bloc, which is not just Democrat or Republican but is wealthy white males.Reynolds says the USA is on the latter track but lags many of its European counterparts. Only 16 percent of lawmakers in the U.S. Congress are women. Compared to countries of similar wealth, one would expect 30 to 50 percent.
You get more and more women in parliament and then you get more and more women in the Cabinet, and then you sort of have this critical mass where it becomes no longer surprising that a woman makes it into being president or prime minister.
Women have more difficulty being elected in presidential systems. Historically, some 69 percent of women leaders have been prime ministers with only 31 percent from presidential systems.It's a piece of the puzzle, she said, but there are greater challenges.
The single biggest obstacle in this country is that voters are uncomfortable with the idea of a woman who is commander in chief. That's due to gender stereotypes.Susan Carroll, a senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics, said women seeking the presidency still had to address the perception that they were less able than men to deal with military issues and international crises. For example, Clinton, a New York Democrat, has tried to address the issue by sitting on the Senate Armed Services Committee and taking a strong stance on terrorism during debates. It also may be a factor in Clinton's refusal to apologize for her Iraq war vote, an issue that has caused her difficulty among many Democratic constituents.
I don't think Hillary Clinton has the options that other candidates have,' she said. 'She cannot for a moment appear to be weak on defense or admit to any kind of failing like that.Women also have been hampered by media coverage, which often focuses on their viability as candidates rather than their message. And structural issues have made it difficult for women as well as minorities to pursue the presidency. Carroll:
One of the biggest barriers is simply that we haven't had one. People have to get used to the idea.
Women have been seeking the U.S. presidency since Victoria Clafin Woodhull ran on the Equal Rights Party ticket against Ulysses S. Grant and Horace Greeley in 1872. Despite the difficulties, Gordon says the United States would eventually elect a woman.It's not a question of if but when. And yeah, I think the time is now.
If You Want to Know if Spot Loves You So, It’s in His Tail
Every dog lover knows how a pooch expresses its feelings.
Ears close to the head, tense posture, and tail straight out from the body means “don’t mess with me.” Ears perked up, wriggly body and vigorously wagging tail means “I am sooo happy to see you!”
But there is another, newly discovered, feature of dog body language that may surprise attentive pet owners and experts in canine behavior. When dogs feel fundamentally positive about something or someone, their tails wag more to the right side of their rumps. When they have negative feelings, their tail wagging is biased to the left.
A study describing the phenomenon, “Asymmetric tail-wagging responses by dogs to different emotive stimuli,” appeared in the March 20 issue of Current Biology. The authors are Giorgio Vallortigara, a neuroscientist at the University of Trieste in Italy, and two veterinarians, Angelo Quaranta and Marcello Siniscalchi, at the University of Bari, also in Italy.
Have you noticed that starting early in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the motive of the U.S. was retribution, which moved on to self-defense, thence to killing or capturing the “enemy”, whoever they might be, and finally to winning. In short, it is now motivated by the same emotions that characterize American sports, WINNING.
There has been little mention of bringing PEACE among peoples, which can only begin if all sides come to the table, and only succeed if all sides achieve a sense of deserved recognition.
Bush, our leader who claims (no, brags) to be motivated by the teachings of Christ, cannot conceive of shared success in any endeavor. His promised veto of the bill for funding of our armed forces is an excellent example of his inability even to recognize the growing wish of most Americans to get them out of harms way. For him to accept this bill with the amendment calling for a time for withdrawal would be for him the ultimate humiliation.
As was pointed out by someone on CNN just now, Nancy Pelosi is in a very awkward position, because if Bush and Cheney were both impeached (AND IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THEY GO TOGETHER) she would become president. Nevertheless, the people of this country must continue to press for impeachment of these two dangerous men.
5/1/07
Going back in time to the point when GWBush was first running for president, his famous statement, “I’m a uniter, not a divider,” now appears more and more likely not words of earnest assurance on his part, but a stroke of genious on the part of the speech writer who thought them up.
In a similar vein, the excessive use of religious reference by the president has also been part of the ploy to win the support of the religious community, especially those who are easily led to accept the words of the Bible as the Word of God. Singing songs in church while waving one’s upraised arms from side to side have much the same psychological effect as the hysteria created by the cheerleaders at a sports event on the thousands of spectators in the audience, spreading even from there by radio and television to fans in their homes.
The growing mountain of deception on the part of the administration, spreading as it is from member to member and department to department, is hard to understand in terms of unifying moral and ethical values among the American populace.
How easy it was to impeach Bill Clinton for the high crime of lying about sex, but how hard it seems to be to find people who support and/or believe in George Bush who would even consider impeaching him! Even many Democrats are afraid to stand tall with the likes of John Murtha and Dennis Kucinich, who apparently almost alone courageously have their fingers pressed into the dike against which the flood of governmental usurpation is pressing.
Meanwhile, in England, Prince Harry has made his final decision to go with his fellow men to join the hopeless battle in the Middle East. God bless Prince Harry!
If you like the swill that this bozo dishes out, then be sure to shop and buy from his advertizers:
While you're making up your mind if you really want to bother getting involved, listen and watch as Limbaugh plays "Barack The Magic Negro" on his show.Trying to catch everyone up on Moyers' recent and upcoming activities. on PBS. He had a special last night (Wednesday) entitled Buying the War. Truly alarming and disgusting! If you missed it, be SURE to get it on film on the internet.
In addition, his regular series, The Bill Moyers Journal, will be back beginning on Friday, on PBS. It will be from 8 to 9 on the west coast, and probably close to the same time in the evenings elsewhere.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html
This is a really great article by Robert Scheer.
It was he, of course, who as the Commander in Chief planned the invasion of and made the final decisions on the conduct of the Iraq War following the attack upon the Twin Towers in New York. He and his chief advisor Dick Cheney started a war which they proclaimed would be over in a matter of days, then weeks, followed by months and then years, with the prospect of decades to shield them from blame upon leaving office in 2009.
Bush’s promised veto of the proposed support for our troops by Congress today, with the proviso that there will be a time for withdrawal included, will, of course, put off the funds getting to the troops still farther into the future. I have emailed both Congressional leaders suggesting that if he will not agree to a plan for withdrawal they include in their proposal a demand that he institute a draft of those who have been comfortable with those who are presently fighting and dying for us without joining them.
4/26/07
Hope it won't hurt you too much to risk a chuckle!
