A Kinder, Gentler America

Exists in our imagination, not in reality. In reality, we treat people who need help as a disgusting drain on the system. No matter what the circumstances or how innocent they may be. And if they aren't from this country, we won't and don't give them the care and consideration that an American would expect to receive in a foreign country under the same circumstances. And we call ourselves civilized. More... There is going to come a time, most likely in the near future, when we will need the type of help that China or Burma currently need and the world will turn its back on us. And we will complain mightily, totally forgetting all of the cruel, insensitive and depraved actions we have taken against those who we have determined are less than human. White American humans that is.

And then there are the Israelis. The usual bullets against stones, with the normal result. I know my position isn't popular, Ireland has been one of the safest places in the world recently and who would have predicted that back in the 70s?

While I empathize with Damien Cave, imagine being an Iraqi veteran and trying to readjust to society in an America that doesn't care. Without the job, the money, or the contacts.

No, they didn't. The trauma and drama is something that will affect ALL those kids for many years to come. While there is something definitely wrong with the way the elders practice their lifestyle, the kids did not deserve to have their lives totally destroyed. 400 kids, forcibly separated from the only love they had ever known. You bet it was wrong. But then, this is the state that also contains Waco. And Crawford.

Do you like oral sex? How about some velvet handcuffs, feathers and a major tickle session before getting down to those three minutes that are supposed to satisfy? Do you like the lights on? Do you prefer to physically be with someone of your own sex? Do you like to do it in the shower? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you might be a deviant. At least according to the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that is currently being worked on. By appointees of the current Bush administration. The definition of normal sex (according to the American Psychiatric Association, that bastion of people who determine what is normal and what isn't) is being worked on once again. I think they discovered that some people don't even do it under the covers. Oh, the horror.

Okay, enough funning around, back to the world we live in now. Only in America can one lose one's home for a $68 dental bill. My potted tomatoes (if the wind doesn't blow them away today) are worth more than that bill. In what world do you take someone's place of residence in lieu of smaller items? There are people who have larger outstanding phone or cable bills and they are still living in their homes, but with satellite and cell phones instead. Can indentured servitude for parking tickets be far behind?

3Bsand Debsweb

Tuesday EuroBlogging: London

Interesting times in London these days, as you can imagine. I was stopped by a British Transit Police officer from taking video of Victoria Station's fascinating architecture, but for the most part, we managed to narrowly skirt all the real excitement. Safely in our hotel room, we saw on TV that one of the terminals at Heathrow was being evacuated because of a suspicious package, after we'd arrived there without incident earlier in the morning, and that someone had been stabbed outside Victoria Station about a half an hour before we came through there. We had fish and chips (and a couple of pints) in a pub off Leicester square, where -- again, as we found out later -- earlier in the day, the new Harry Potter movie had made its European debut.

This trip hasn't done anything so far to diminish my hatred for commercial air travel. I paid almost $1,700 so that the two of us could be shoehorned into one working and one broken seat (a different pair of seats than I meticulously chose when I booked the flight months ago) on an Air France Airbus 340 -- a glorified cattle car with wings -- and endure service that ranged from perfunctory to indifferent to rude. Never mind that it was an overnight flight, and not being able to sleep on the plane basically burned part of a precious day of a short stay in London, as we were forced to regroup before doing anything.

A well-executed, accessible, and efficient public transit system is a measure of how much respect a nation or city has for its citizens. In America, we not only lack that respect, but we have insult added to injury by having the most wasteful and expensive transit system possible -- individual private vehicle ownership -- forced on us, for the profit of the automobile and oil industries and others whose political clout prevents the development of decent transit options.

But, with the air travel over (until it's time to come home), this will be a car-free, train-intensive trip. With some help from information desk, I got all set up on their payment system, and we whisked our way from Heathrow and around town on the Tube (London's subway system). The longest we waited for a train all day was about 90 seconds.

Between the London Tube, Eurostar, the German rail system, the panoramic scenic trains in the Swiss Alps, and the overnight sleeper train to Amsterdam, we're going to sample some well-thought-out, well-run, working transportation systems (and visit some interesting places as a fringe benefit), and that will be a real vacation.

Mind the gap as you alight!

Holiday in Montenegro

Kotor and the Bay of Kotor (the only fjord in Southern Europe), Montenegro, 1988.