Et Tu, Brute?

The WaPo had so much going on this morning I barely knew where to start. Lil Scotty Mclelland's article had 812 975 comments when I looked at it and I'm willing to bet that lots of **##'s got removed. A quick impression of the article reminds me of the story of Aron Ralston, the climber who cut off his own arm with a pocketknife to survive. Somebody's figured out there were war crimes and is doing their best to avoid being charged with one while at the same time trying to provide imaginary cover for those left behind. And Katrina was a costly blunder. No kidding.

While still smiling More... at the image of Lil Scotty realizing he had been had and hoping that he has a loyal security detail, I moved on to the right whining about how MSNBC is too left leaning and how they don't like Lil John McCain as much as they like Lil Obama, knowing full well that they had to turn their attention somewhere as soon as they got rid of Lil Hillary. Now that was a hatchet job, with several people wielding the hatchets. Sort of like the stories on John Edwards haircut. Designed to do nothing to further policy or decent political discussions and quite a lot to do with making sure that the candidate they were in love with had no viable competition. After enduring all these years of Fox News I have little to no sympathy for people who whine about the press.

But the Meyerson article, oh Mr. Meyerson, you raised my blood pressure so high, the first thing that I did was reach for my Fosinopril. Let me state first that Hillary was neither my first or second choice in the California primary, but neither one of them were still running, but their names were still on the ballot by the time it was our turn to vote. So, as is usual out here in California, we had to pick the lesser of two evils and it wasn't Obama. Sigh, I'm really tired non-choices like that. Anyway, back to your article.

Hillary's campaign ruined democracy and feminism? Are you serious?Blow it out your ass. Oops, I see you already did. The Democratic Party (they're in the Constitution where?) had no right to exclude the votes of the people of Florida and Michigan, no matter what time frame they held their election in, because they are citizens of the United States and deserve to have their votes counted. Period. And if Obama had won those states he wouldn't want those delegates seated? Get real.

The hypocrisy of anyone talking about Indiana's photo ID requirement in order to vote and then disregarding the votes of thousands of people in two other states is mind boggling. Not quite as mind boggling as accusing women of ruining democracy while you briefly mention the rampant sexism in the united campaign against Hillary and then you attack her supporters for complaining about it, but it's darned close. From start to finish, this race hasn't been about policy issues, it's been about hair, clothes and makeup. Throw in a little bowling and a shot of whiskey (if I was her I would have been so grateful to have had an excuse for a drink since the press hounded her almost as much as they do Paris or Britney neither one of which are anywhere near the same intelligence or contributions to society) with the guys and you have a campaign.

I'm a feminist because I'm a woman. I consider myself the equal of any man under normal circumstances. And the abnormal ones would be so abnormal that whatever sex you are will be one of the last things on your mind. While I may not be able to heave boulders due to brute strength (is that needed anymore?), I am quite capable of using a lever and gravity to accomplish the same task. The odds are that a man invented the hammer, the javelin and the sword, but a woman invented the wheel, pulley, lever and pivot. You develop what you need to survive. Or conquer, as the case may be.

Now that we're supposedly in the 21st century, the skills needed to survive are quite different since we don't have anything left to conquer except each other. And what a shame that is. Nowadays this can be done way too efficiently and requires no brute strength (and judging by reduced requirements to join the military, a minimum of intelligence) at all. Just because one is tall, short, white, brown, black, blue eyed, brown eyed, male, female, rich, poor, right handed, left handed, religious or nonreligious, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindi, Muslim, skinny, fat, young or old does not automatically infer competency, incompetency, superiority, stupidity or a tendency towards evil. To say that the women who support Clinton and want the delegates seated is to make a mockery of both democracy and feminism while showing a complete disregard for the people of the two states not being represented and a whopping display of misogyny because women are being so vocal about how their candidate got marginalized, all under the cloak of rules instead of common sense and compassion. But those are traits that come to people who think and who have spent more than enough time clinging to the bottom rung of the ladder to recognize when someone is stamping on their fingers and trying to make them fall off into nonexistence.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the only way we are ever going to have fair elections in this country is if we have a national primary, followed by the national elections thirty days later. Between television, radio and the internet people will have plenty of opportunity to explore their candidate and the press will have less of an opportunity to choose our candidates for us.

And that's what most of the press and Mr. Meyerson are really afraid of.

3Bs and Debsweb.

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

An Open Letter To Work Comp

This is a personal rant and if one of the Barbarians could bring a printed copy to our next outing, I would greatly appreciate it. I don't have a printer and need a copy for my records. Plus, I need to vent.

My worker's comp representative never returns my phone calls and after leaving her a message last week about the latest refusal to hire me for a job that I really wanted, and which could have substantially improved the quality of my life, I finally received the doctor's determination yesterday and I have to say that I disagree. Not only did it not address my issues, but after two years and a private investigator, More... they are still trying to blame it on a previous injury. One I have never had. And just for the record, I have never complained about my ankle. It has never been twisted or strained, was never mentioned as part of the work comp injury and I really don't understand why it was included in the QME report. I read for a hobby, I don't ski, play tennis or basketball, jog or do any type of high impact sports. I have never had a broken bone.

Work comp believes that my toe (the one that's fused with two screws in it) is only 5% disabled. The toe itself may be only 5%, but it affects the quality of my life every day, both waking and sleeping. The weight of the covers on the toe wakes me up at least five times a night. And heaven forbid that I get twisted under the covers. That pain is a real eye opener, complete with stars.

Previous to the injury I walked my dog daily, could move quickly through Costco at least 25 times a shift and had successfully taken off 50 pounds. Just by walking daily. Since the accident I have been unable to walk my dog around the park without my knee swelling and my toe becoming numb, red and I am unable to stand in an anatomically correct manner. I have always had good posture (courtesy of the Army) until recently but now I find that I balance most of the weight on my left leg and hip which is causing its own little problems with my back. I am constantly shifting my weight from side to side and if forced to stand more than a few minutes (like in a grocery line) I look for ways to prop my right foot higher than the left.

I have also regained 45 of the 50 pounds (and my dog has gained five), can no longer walk more than a mile without pain and have to use a step stool to get things off the back of my kitchen shelves since I can't stand on my toes. It's a good think I'm not a ballerina. It's a bad thing that I am 5'1".

My work and everything that I have been trained to do requires that I stand for 8 to 9 hours with constant walking in between, so saying that I am fully able to return to work is a crock and is a decision made by someone who thinks that walking to their car constitutes getting around. Who cares if I can't and could never do squats? As I told Dr. B, this was first noticed at fourteen (not 17) when my dad came back from Korea and was showing us how the natives sat. I now walk on the outside of my foot because my big toe only contacts the ground if I deliberately force it by rolling my foot to the inside with every step and then my knee has sharp lances of pain horizontally across the kneecap. In what way am I capable of working a 10 hour shift on my feet, carrying an average of 40 pounds at the same time and then do it all over again the next day? And the day after that.

Previous to the injury I wore a size 6 shoe, a 6 1/2 if they were of the skinny variety. Now I require a 7 to 7 1/2. They must be completely flat with a hard sole, a rounded toe and a large toe box to accommodate the angle the toe is fused at. For some reason, the scar from the fusion is exactly where the edge of the top flap of the shoe presses on the foot and the pain located on the ball of the foot, where most people put pressure while walking or running. Any type of heel is totally out of the question. I have taken witnesses (you should try shopping for these requirements if you don't believe me) to show the difficulty of buying shoes. I usually spend about three hours, seven or eight stores and end up with a pair of sneakers or sandals with an adjustable strap across the top of the foot. The sneakers have soft tops and don't put pressure on the fusion. Sandals are for casual summer wear.

The shoes the doctors recommend start at $250 a pair and are not covered by work comp, (but work comp is willing to pay me $230 a week, which I use for rent, food and gas. All my other bills obviously fell by the wayside and I'm still trying to get the money together to declare bankruptcy), they still look like sneakers and none of them are appropriate for dress wear. You know, the stuff you are supposed to wear when you go to an important function or, in my case, job interviews. I have been told to my face that my footwear is not appropriate for work. Or interviews. Isn't that special, to say nothing of embarrassing. When I was in the Army, my platoon sergeant used to try and match the shine on his jump boots with mine. Now I wish long dresses were in again so I can hide my shoes.

Previous to this injury I had my own personal chef business. I was only doing the weekend work for Aidell's to try and get my foot in the door (Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart started somewhere) and to earn a little extra money for my 50th birthday. Well, my personal chef business is history, all the money I spent training, buying extra equipment, designing and running my own web page has been wasted. For my birthday I was poor and in pain and the birthday this coming Monday doesn't look much better and in many ways worse because now I have no savings at all. Cooking holiday dinners (something I've done for most of my life) for family and friends practically destroys me. I have to take way too many breaks which makes dinner later than usual and the next two days I lay around taking aspirin, icing the knee and toe and moaning in pain.

Speaking of pain, let me reiterate this one more time since the doctors seem to have a hard time reading a chart or listening when they ask you what your allergies are. I am ALLERGIC to NSAIDS (they affect my breathing adversely), I am also ALLERGIC to morphine codeine, tylenol, hydrocodone, oxycodone, fentanyl, tramadol (Ultram), talwin, and amesec, to name a few. I don't make a big fuss about my pain because there isn't anything other than demerol that works on me and I would prefer to save that for something like a car accident or other major trauma. So no, low dose NSAIDs and opioids aren't an option.

After the tsunami in the Indian Ocean I wondered if I would be able to run fast in an emergency. Due to the size of my breasts, this was impossible so I opted to have them reduced. While now it doesn't hurt my chest to run, I still can't move in a hurry because I can no longer push off with the injured foot. As a matter of fact, anything that requires stretching the leg and pointing the toe causes painful cramps and spasms in the calf and directly behind the knee. None of this was an issue before my accident. By the way, have you spoken with my former supervisor who saw me within 30 minutes of the accident and can testify that the knee was swollen, purple and immobile? Or that I used to move quite quickly while at work?

When work comp decided not to approve acupuncture as a modality, it put me out of business. Yes, I am an Acupuncturist and used to be licensed by the State of California. At one time it was determined that acupuncturists weren't capable of running a case appropriately. Well, I was the primary care on a few cases and believe me, I ran a much tighter ship than the one I've been sinking on for the last two years. Pain was assessed every time, you guys didn't do that for me for six months and then again briefly during the QME. My "treatment" consisted of being told to go home and stay off it to see if it would get better. Period. Well, it didn't and it got progressively worse. If proper procedures had been followed there would have been a record of my pain, what made it worse, what made it better. But none of those questions were asked of me. Six months after the accident the foot was authorized for surgery and Dr. N and I discussed that wearing the walking boot while healing from the foot surgery would aggravate my knee but it had to be done. From that point on, the knee became worse and nothing was done until the following May, nine months later. When I asked for physical therapy to help rebuild the calf muscle after being in a cast for several months, Dr. J wasn't that helpful, didn't think I needed it even though the right calf was just a stick and the left calf was muscular. I finally got physical therapy which consisted of telling me to ride a bike, spread my toes and lift my heel off the floor ten times a day. Whoop de doo.

I finally saved up enough money to buy a bike and rode it faithfully because Dr. P said it would help build up my quads and that would take pressure off my knee. The knee felt pretty good (I was up to almost 20 miles a day), but I started to develop problems with the foot. I told Dr. P in August that I was having trouble and he told me to continue riding and to come back in a month. By the end of September the toe was constantly swollen. The beginning of October he expressed surprise that I had a fusion and told me to quit riding the bike because how one puts pressure on the pedal was exactly where the fusion was and that I should take up the elliptical machine instead. I joined the YMCA at the cost of $52 per month, had a personal trainer work out a program to strengthen my legs as Dr. P suggested and I still have pain. But now I can no longer afford to attend the gym and buying a home system is completely out of the question.

I quit riding the bike but the toe was still swollen and numb. On October 10, 2007 my foot slipped off the brake and back onto the accelerator while I was parking and the police determined the swelling in my right foot to be the cause of the car accident. This accident totaled my car and caused me to jump through several hoops for the Department of Motor Vehicles in order to get my license back. It took almost three weeks to get an appointment with my work comp doctor and by then I had been taking aspirin four times a day and icing the foot to get the swelling down. It looked pretty normal by then, but the damage to my life and my car was done. Now instead of driving the just paid off car that got 35mpg, I drive an eight year older car that gets 18 mpg and my car insurance has doubled.

I used to make several thousand dollars a month, now I make less than one. Instead of giving me a lump sum, you want to stretch it out so that it is basically useless to me, other than to keep my head barely above water, until I have used up the $3K that you think destroying my life was worth. Then I am on my own, for the rest of my life. In pain and with difficulty walking. Problems I did not have before the accident. I can't go back to being a massage therapist because I can't push off with my right foot, it's painful and then my knee buckles. I can't go back to practicing acupuncture because I don't have the money for the license fees (now that acupuncture is accepted by work comp again) or the continuing education credits that are required.

This small, part-time job and the ensuing accident have had seriously negative consequences for my life. Everything that I have been trained to do ($100K for the AP degree), my hobby of cooking that I was turning into a profession and now the ability to find a job that will allow me to survive in today's economy, are further out of reach than they were when I was twelve. I'd like to say thank you, but I usually require a kiss when I'm being... shafted.

Oh, and by the way, Dr. B spent 19 minutes with me as actual face time, not the hour that he says. It took me longer to get back and forth to the X-Ray place than he spent talking, or more importantly, listening to me. If I could afford a lawyer, they would be the one writing this letter and handling this case from this point on.

Debsweb and Big Brass Blog

The Election Is Window Dressing

Nope, it's not an abyss, it's a canyon. An abyss implies that you can't see the bottom and with a canyon you can. An abyss is dark, whereas with a canyon you can see the details. And the details of the Iraq war, from the flawed and untruthful beginning to the no way out for the innocent and not so pretty end, have been revealed in frightening clarity for Americans to see. The rest of the world saw the current situation for what it really was. A McGuffin, designed to mislead the public until irrevocable damage had been done.

While the citizens of this country were distracted by the rah rah antics of the crew without a clue (or a conscience); their civil rights have been terminated; they were beguiled into spending money on homes they couldn't afford with the promises that the sun would always be shining and the value wold always go up; they were encouraged to buy goods to support the economy, unfortunately it just didn't happen to be ours; the education system was reduced to a shambles and most of their jobs were shipped to another country so that the corporations could continue to make obscene profits for those who already had more than they need.

The so-called ownership society isn't about you owning your own home, it's about you having to bear all responsibility for every action and reaction around the globe while your ability to do so is reduced incrementally. One paycheck at a time. Until you don't have one.

Health care is overly costly and preventative care is virtually nonexistent and they still want you to pay for insurance that looks for ways to deny you coverage when you need it because it is a corporation in the business of making money and not actually providing the health care that they supposedly sell.

Foreclosures are increasing and that was before the latest round of job layoffs. In another six months they will reach levels never seen, mainly due to the increase in population but nevertheless it will be damaging. Many more people will be hurt by the rise in gas prices and when you're unemployed, paying your Cobra premium out of your rapidly dwindling and poor interest paying savings or putting food on the table while you still have a roof over your head, becomes less important with every nickel rise in gas. So, you wait until medical problems become emergency room visits, which is what the President recommends.

As acres of McMansions become empty and food becomes scarce, due to either a rise in prices or the inability of truck drivers to drive to outlying areas, some hard choices will have to be made. As a nation. And the election isn't going to solve, or even mitigate, the ruinous path we have trod. None of their plans or rhetoric actually deal with, or will have any positive impact on, the majority of Americans.

Those people who have already been forced out of the system already know this. The decreasing graduation rate from high school and the increasing rate of incarceration are not good trends and have quite a bit to do with each other. Meanwhile outside of the US, the world is becoming more technical but we won't be graduating students capable of competing on the world stage. And we will have to compete on the world stage because almost everything we need, we have to get from somewhere else. Because we shipped the jobs there.

Is it any wonder that our troops don't have the equipment they need to do their jobs and be properly protected? We don't manufacture anything so after five years of steady confrontation, we still can't make appropriate body armor for our soldiers. And then when they get hurt and become damaged beyond usefulness, some people expect them to take care of themselves. How nice.

The candidates all talk a good game but each of them have drawbacks, all of which will prevent them from making the changes that are needed and wanted by the American people. Another round of tax cuts won't solve the problem and neither will mandating that people pay for something they can't afford. Our infrastructure is falling apart and taxes need to be directed toward the public good, not the corporate trough. Our roads, bridges, dams, hospitals and schools need the help first, not some shareholder who's gambling with his money and your kid's future.

BBB and Debsweb.

What If The Earth Is Just One Big Science Experiment?

Biblically correct, now that's a mouthful. A book written by many men (Ruth and Esther were tokens used to prove a point but Mary, the mother of Jesus and a major part of a world religion, gets scant mention much less her own book, why is that?) to reflect their point of view and the parts that didn't fit in, were discarded. Now some of the "believers" are conducting museum tours and explaining to the young and impressionable that thousands of years of history never happened. Oh sweet Jeebus, how much dumber is our population going to get? Tyrannosaurus Rex was a vegetarian because Adam and Eve hadn't sinned yet, so there was no death? What planet do these people come from? They most certainly didn't evolve from intelligent humans. That Bible belt is cinched a little too tight and preventing oxygen from circulating through their very little brains. No wonder there are very few "American" doctors in practice, you have to have a science education in order to understand how the body works. Praying doesn't help cure disease.

This will really throw a spanner into the works. Not only is the moon not made of cheese, but it isn't even made of the same materials as the Earth and Mars is made of something completely different than the other two. Maybe since we are supposed to be made in God's image, he's just trying to find out whether intelligence waxes or wanes with each succeeding generation. I think we are in the wane phase.

Funny how when I was growing up on an Air Force Base, science was accepted as tradition and you were expected to do well in it. I got kicked out of Sunday School (Southern Baptist) for asking impertinent questions like "if you lived on an island and had never seen a white man, does this mean you go to hell because you never heard of the Bible or Jesus Christ?" When I was told yes, I answered "I don't think God does that, he wouldn't punish innocent people for an eternity just because they had never heard of him." And out the door I was pushed and told never to return. Forgiveness seems to be a sin, unless you're a Republican who has committed a sexual indiscretion.

Then I got involved with the Pentecostals. Now that was an adventure. Reality went on a long hike because only a chosen few will be saved. Once again I was shown the door. This time because I thought it didn't make sense that a person who had committed murder, rape, robbery and other trespasses of the Ten Commandments could repent on his deathbed at 75 and he would go to heaven, but a person who had followed the Commandments to the letter would go to hell because he hadn't accepted Jesus Christ as his savior. An exemplary life doesn't count but crying and begging for forgiveness of heinous crimes does. Didn't sound logical then and it doesn't sound logical now. Jehovah's Witnesses are sure I'm not going to heave either. That's okay, it doesn't sound like a very happy place.

Almost 7 billion people on the planet but just 144,000 are going to qualify to go to heaven. One would have to ask what kind God would do something like that. Maybe a scientist who was looking for deviant bacteria and a way to inoculate the space population from contamination would be my guess.

BBB and Debsweb

Monday Movie Review: The Namesake

The Namesake (2006) 6/10
Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan Khan), a Bengali professor living in New York, marries Ashima (Tabu) and brings her to the United States in 1974. Their American-born son Gogol (Kal Penn) struggles between his family's traditionalism and his desire to assimilate. Directed by Mira Nair.


The Namesake is a movie struggling to find itself. Although I haven't read the novel, and so have no idea how close it is to its source, it feels like a movie trying to slavishly follow a novel's plot and pacing. It has a novels way of rising and falling around events, without a clear flow of character or narrative arc. I wanted to take it apart, shake off the loose pieces, and put it back together with a more sound structure. Almost everything about the movie is appealing except its inability to tell a story.

This is the sort of movie I see all the time and don't bother to write a full review of. (After all, most weeks I see two or three movies and only review one here.) But it has some very good qualities that are worth discussing. First, of course, is the modern immigrant experience; arriving not on Ellis Island but at JFK International Airport, treated symbolically (if clumsily) in the movie as a sort of waystation; each time the Ganguli family passes through JFK they pass between worlds; between states of being. Ashoke and Ashima are always aliens in their adopted country, their traditions don't fit in. And looking at it, you can certainly see how most of our traditions didn't fit in at one point, and how the first generation born here struggled with a foot in each world.

There's a fascinating anti-feminist feminist component about The Namesake. I realize that sounds contradictory, so hang in there.

In the course of the movie, there are two women in Gogol's life. They are incredibly poorly-written characters, stereotypes of Evil Feminists or Evil Modernism or something else Evil and Female. Their evils are variously independence, informality, premarital sex, wearing short skirts, and disrespecting tradition. The feeling at the end of the movie, when the family comes to a particular sort of resolution but the Evil Women are cast aside, is of misogyny.

Rethinking my position involves spoilers about the end. Continue at your own risk.

Upon some consideration, I began to see that I was viewing The Namesake entirely from my American point of view. I started to think about the mother. Ashima was in training as a singer at the beginning of the movie. At the end, having fulfilled her duties as a wife and mother—her children married or engaged, her husband's ashes given to the Ganges—she prepares to return to India and her guru to pick up her training where she left off.

Here's what's interesting: In Hinduism, there is the concept of the dharma of the householder. A man is expected to fulfil his dharma; the social obligations that are also his spiritual duties, and these include marrying, having children; being a husband, father, wage-earner, and householder. Once his dharma is fulfilled, in old age he can enter into another phase of life, renouncing his household and seeking after spiritual matters. Although there is self-denial in this next phase (celibacy, fasting, etc.), it is a kind of selfishness; after you've finished looking after your family you can look after yourself (spiritually). But this retirement phase of life belongs exclusively to men. Women continue to maintain the house while the men become wandering ascetics. From the pont of view of traditional Hinduism, Ashima's decision to leave the country where her children reside and return to her own life path is a feminist one; she is seeking the self-fulfillment normally accorded exclusively to men.

Gogol's younger sister Sonia is a minor character, given very little real flesh in the movie. But significantly to my point, at the end of the film, she is engaged to a non-Indian, and her mother approves. What seems to be happening is a kind of weighing of different forms of modernity. Sonia can marry outside of Hinduism, and that's okay, but she must fulfill the householder portion of her dharma, because not to do so is not okay. Each character seems to be a kind of lens through which to view assimilation. The movie is, in fact, willing to be feminist to the same degree that it's willing to let its male characters move past traditional roles—only somewhat. Still, despite having a male star, it seems in some ways more concerned with women's roles and the problems Hindu women face, as embodied by Ashima.

Anyway, this isn't much of a movie review. I didn't like the movie, which is a shame, because it had some strong ideas and performances. But it was fascinating, to me, to unpack its apparent sexism and see it through a different cultural lens.

(It is my dharma to cross-post.)

What is The Reason For The Season?

My childhood memories of Christmas are much different than the holiday that is celebrated now. It was about getting together and sharing. I remember carolers coming around and everyone standing in their doorway to listen to them. People baked cookies, gave them hot drinks and waited for an encore. I always wanted to do that but it had already started to fall out of fashion by the time I was eleven. We still caroled, but we were carted around on the back of a flatbed truck that was covered with hay. Nobody worried about insurance issues and nobody fell off the truck.

Nowadays I can't remember all the words, they've just become jingles that you hear in the background of tv shows and movies, nobody sings the whole song anymore. Rudolph is all right, but Hark the Herald Angels Sing could really rock if you had enough people and somehow We Three Kings of Orient Are became We Four Beatles From Liverpool Are. We were so innocent back then.

I miss the cookies and the warmth. I miss hanging out with people who were excited and happy about the holidays, where you went to people's homes and enjoyed their hospitality and learned about their traditions and they came to your house. The world actually felt more peaceful for a few weeks. It was awesome.

Now, it's nonstop commercialism. It starts slowly at first, just a few decorations start to appear, a few holiday looking serving dishes show up in the store and then by Halloween, bam! full steam ahead. Anything that can be sold has a commercial, there is no other explanation for the chia pet and its many incarnations.

Advertisers resort to subtle and not so subtle exhortations to buy something for everybody you know or have some type of contact with so you won't feel guilty for forgetting someone who might buy you a gift. By the time they get around to advertising diamonds during sports events, it's become a nonstop lollapalooza, a frenetic shopping extravaganza. And there are still the buy a car and put a ribbon around it so they know you love them commercials to suffer through. Like the people who can afford to buy a Jaguar are watching television.

Once Christmas became the season that retailers made their profit for the year, that was when it became the war on Christmas. The battle shouldn't be about whether one should say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays (both are appropriate), it should be about what happened to the sentiment that used to accompany it. Goodwill toward man and all that. A time to celebrate with family, friends and great food, to create memories filled with smiles, laughter and warm moments.

Not fighting for parking spaces or the last "got to have" item on the shelf. And it certainly isn't about how much money you spent.

Debsweb.

Blast From The Past

In honor of IIRTZ's blogiversary, which was yesterday, this is part of a post I wrote when I still had a sense of humor and was slightly creative. Before everything worked out the way I was afraid it was going to.

Besides database manipulation there is also the Rollerball method to control the public. Distract and entertain the masses. Keep them from thinking about what is going on in the world. Don't show real news. Flash! Pop! Damsel in Distress! There is nothing to see here. Move along. Don't look behind the curtain. Follow the yellow brick road. A typical watercooler conversation might sound something like this to those people who don't watch television on a regular basis.

During the Amazing Race for Law and Order, the Desperate Housewives realized after Crossing Jordan that Smallville's weapons of mass destruction had once again disappeared Without A Trace. Meanwhile Joey vacations on his ranch fantasizing that by wearing everyday Scrubs his Friends will come back to Primetime and he will be King of the Hill on That 70's show, Once Again. Las Vegas has reduced that Fear Factor to Medium, since according to Hardball it is a Cold Case that Larry King and Inside Editon won't touch .

A Crime Scene Investigation of Grey's Anatomy ensued after a Dragnet revealed Criminal Intent when Meet The Press entered The West Wing and found a Dead Zone. Where's Gannon when you need him. It used to be Joe but I think it's Jeff now. Meanwhile Two and a Half Men want to be a Rock Star and the two Gilmore Girls are playing House as if nothing is wrong. The Average Joes are striking back at the Special Victims Unit and I Want to Be a Hilton, not really. The Bold and The Beautiful teamed with The Young and The Restless for 60 Minutes on the WWF before they went to General Hospital for treatment. Big Brother is just starting to realize that the Empire is in serious need of the ER, while According to Jim, the King of Queens and My Wife and Kids are off Trading Spouses with George Lopez.

Now this isn't everyone's idea of 7th Heaven, but we can't all be a Monk and live like a lowly Apprentice. The Daily Show might recommend an Extreme Makeover of the upcoming E-Ring, not a Nip/Tuck, but this is a Less Than Perfect solution when what Amurica really wants is The Shield to Rescue Me from Over There in 24 so we can return to Everwood to pass the Days of Our Lives with All My Children.

Behind the O.C all is not yet Lost! The polling Numb3rs reveal that with Hope and Faith the Arrested Development of Veronica Mars can be fixed with 8 Simple Rules to ensure that there will be at least one Survivor among the 4400 who will be able to say that What I Like About You is the Stargate you built so I can join Battlestar Galactica and battle enemies that don't believe in the one true god. Revelations.

Wow, some of the show are still on. Mostly the bad ones.

Man Up, Grow A Pair And Stop Sniveling

The first two articles on this morning's reading list reinforced just how little of the American spirit is left in its citizens. From the war that must not be mentioned, to trying to justify basing a world view based on fear, is to continue down a well trodden path. One that the world has traveled before but the lessons have been forgotten.

The WaPo has an article about the conservative Democrat, Dan Boren (D-OK) and the patriotic silence that his district suffers from. Even though fifteen of his constituents lives have been lost in the debacle that is Iraq, nobody wants to speak out because they don't want to be unpatriotic. The Republicans noise machine certainly did its job well. When people who have suffered the most, understand the least and are willing to continue suffering emotionally and spiritually, that isn't patriotism. It's brainwashing. While a person doesn't have the right to yell fire in a crowded theater, one does have the right to point out that the nation has lost its way, the compass is broken, the flashlight's batteries are dying and the guide has other goals besides the survival of the troops.

Then from the Guardian comes a story where the author (Andrew Anthony) offers up the specious assumption that many on the liberal left side of the political equation, got to be that way because we felt that America was always the culprit on the world stage. Excuse me? I'm a liberal because I care about people, not things and I certainly don't wallow in angst and self-pity trying to reassess my perspective because I'm scared. Which is what he is doing. One moment in time, albeit the most tragic and revenge inducing, should not be responsible for turning a grown man into a whiny, hormonal (he uses mid-life crisis as an excuse), defensive, mewling ball of quivering baby bleats.

He assumes quite a bit in his hit piece, not the least of which is how fast someone can put together a reasoned argument under pressure. He must have spent a long time on this article because he uses lots of big words to make his arguments sound logical but all they do is reveal a man who waited until his forties to see the world as it really is, not just as a foil for him to have a good time. Once he saw that reality includes the terror that millions have lived with on a daily basis, he wants us to believe that he has grown up and that the other side has the right view and that everything he believed before that point was wrong and we should listen to him because now he has wisdom on his side. What a crock.

In Chinese medicine terms he lost a lot of Kidney qi due to fear on September 11 and no longer has enough water to rise up and cool the Heart which can lead to cloudy or irrational thinking. In regards to Hugo, OK, the grief (Lung) has smothered their voice, leaving them unable to speak up and fearful of authority. If we had had a different leader on 9/11, one who was capable of seeing the larger picture, this country could have continued forward into the future instead of retreating into the darkness of the past.

Terror is the world's problem, not just white people being killed by brown skinned people. Germany had the Baader-Meinhof, the US had Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph, Japan had the Aum Shinrikyo and now we all have a problem. One that needs to be addressed on an individual and global scale. Why can't governments all over the world coordinate their efforts and decide on a moment in time and use that moment to arrest suspected terrorists all over the world? Let the court system sort it out instead and at the very least the terrorist networks will have been disrupted and it might be possible for the Bauers, Bonds, Bournes and Plames of this world to infiltrate suspected groups. Law abiding citizens rights are being eliminated in a futile attempt to control terrorism, so it would have to a one-time only deal, leaders shouldn't have that much power on a daily basis, that leads to the bad examples (Stalin, Hitler, Pinochet) we've seen previously.

Instead what we have is the death and destruction of our military, forced to keep fighting the wrong target and ensuring that there will be an endless supply of people willing to die for what they believe in. And take others with them. At this point there are very few innocents left, because our silence has allowed the atrocities to continue.

Crossposted at Big Brass Blog and Debsweb.

Questions And More Questions

Jose Padilla. Good grief, where in America can you find twelve people dumber than Bush, with the memory of Gonzales and the soul of Cheney? Miami, as in Florida. Well that answers that question.

Can printing more money be far behind? It didn't take long for elation turned to panic, did it?

Why is everybody so surprised that Robert Mueller kept accurate notes? Every medical professional (even me) in the country knew that Ashcroft was definitely not "lucid". This story is old news and even worse, it's about a subject that most Americans like to ignore. Until it happens to them, by which time it is way too late.

From my place.

Sunday Science And Fiction

Roswell, the story that never dies. Well, somebody who was actually working at Roswell died last year and his sworn affidavit has been released to the public. If even half of it is true, I have one question. Why haven't the aliens ever come back? Didn't they like us? Did they think we were a waste of time and valuable resources? Well, that was more than one question and here is another. Why would the Air Force have crash test dummies in weather balloons that were supposed to be looking for evidence of Russian nuclear tests ...in New Mexico?

Has Google gone too far? According to Duncan at TechCrunch they have, or at least one of their advertising team has. While I may use Google almost exclusively for searches and iGoogle and the Reader for my news and other interests, I will drop them in a heartbeat if they start to obviously take sides with obviously corrupt big business. There are enough alternatives out there for everything that they provide, including the Blogger platform. I'm always willing to learn something new.

Anybody with any sense would have known that if there was a fly in the iPhone ointment, it would be AT&T's fault, not Apple's. I wonder how long it will be before that deal isn't exclusive?

Robert A. Heinlein would have been 100 on July 7th, but he was no George Burns. Heinlein was my favorite author growing up, mainly because he was prolific and some of his books had female leads. As a kid I never wondered about the symbolism behind the stories, I just read them and was transported to different worlds besides the one I was stuck on. I'm sorry to hear that he was such a conservative, but then people do like to read more into fiction books than the author actually meant. I notice he didn't bring up Job: A Comedy of Justice.

Keeping it light for the folks at IIRTZ, crossposted at Debsweb.

Aisle Or Window, Chicken Or Pasta?

Thank you, but I would rather have numerous convoy transports and MREs would be considered acceptable dining if the end reward was to bring the troops and the hidden military home from Iraq. For many years camp followers were just that. Followers. Now they are active participants in the debacle that we call Operation Enduring Freedom. Enduring being the operative word because freedom obviously has nothing to do with it.

Nearly 300 companies from the United States and around the world supply workers who are a shadow force in Iraq almost as large as the uniformed military. About 126,000 men and women working for contractors serve alongside about 150,000 American troops, the Pentagon has reported. Never before has the United States gone to war with so many civilians on the battlefield doing jobs — armed guards, military trainers, translators, interrogators, cooks and maintenance workers — once done only by those in uniform.

For a slightly different perspective on the outsourcing, quite a few of those jobs used to be handled by troops of color because they gave you a good chance at having a job that would pay your bills when you got out. Now they are held by civilian contractors who make quite a bit more money doing the same job and don't have to attend formation in the morning. Unfortunately for the contractors, once they are dead or injured, the very government that they were supporting treats them even worse than it treats the troops.

Many contractors in the battle zone say they lack the basic security measures afforded uniformed troops and receive benefits that not only differ from those provided to troops, but also vary by employer. Weekly pay ranges from $60 for Iraqi translators and laborers to $1,800 for truck drivers to as much as $6,000 for private security guards employed by companies like Blackwater. Medical and insurance benefits also vary widely, from excellent to minimal.

Conditions in Iraq are harsh, and many civilians who arrive there, drawn by patriotism, a sense of adventure or the lure of money, are overwhelmed by the environment. If they raise questions about the 12-hour workdays, the lack of armor plating on trucks or the periodic shelling of bases, supervisors often tell them to pack up and go home.

Why have we outsourced jobs to a private security firm for $6000 a week per person (with benefits!), when we supposedly have the best military in the world?

“By keeping the knowledge of this force hidden, it changes one’s perception and one’s evaluation of the war,” Ms. Schakowsky said. “There are almost a thousand dead and a large number of injuries. I think it masks the fact that we are privatizing the military in this country.”

If our troops don't have adequate armor or protection from IEDs or snipers, why the heck is a civilian contractor with even less protection traveling through a war zone on a daily basis to deliver ammunition? And then when they are killed or injured, we can't disavow all knowledge fast enough.

Army Lt. Col. Joseph M. Yoswa, a spokesman for the military in Iraq, said in an e-mail statement, “the responsibilities for tracking deaths, injuries, locations and any other essential requirements lie with the contractor. Unless there is something specifically stated in the contract about accounting for personnel, there is no requirement for the U.S. government to track these numbers.”

How can anyone not be surprised by this? For the last six years it has been someone else's responsibility for absolutely anything that goes wrong so why should this situation be any different?

American military casualties in Iraq have mounted to almost 3,400 dead. The new contractor statistics suggest that for every four American soldiers or marines who die in Iraq, a contractor is killed.

Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who pushed for the buildup of military forces in Iraq, said the contractor casualties were a symptom of a larger failure to send enough troops earlier to provide security throughout Iraq.

“We’re now putting these people in danger that I never thought they’d be under because we cannot secure the country,” he said.

Of course you didn't think. Nobody did. Therein lies the problem. Instead of thinking, everyone experienced a kneejerk emotional reaction and continue to be trapped in a loop of fear six years later. Meanwhile, the rest of the world shakes its collective head at our ongoing stupidity because it is pretty obvious that we need a national anger management class. We continue to make the same mistakes over and over again, might makes right is our battle cry and boy do we love to battle. As long as it's far away and doesn't affect our standard of living or anybody we know.

Ron Paul was right when he talked about blowback but the American people, aided by an ineffectual Fourth Estate that is easily distracted by the latest floozy escapade, prefer to play the part of the injured party, never caring how many others they injure in the process because they are so sure that they are right and that everyone else is wrong.

As Americans, we believe in forgiving and forgetting, and are terrible at understanding how history affects us today. We are arrogant in not recognizing that when we benefit, someone else may suffer. That will lead to resentment and anger, and if suppressed, will boil over one day.

Before we invaded Iraq I had this patient (royalty) from Saudi Arabia who was explaining why he thought the invasion would not work and he was tossing around words like Wahhabi, Sunni, Shia and Baathists. I remember thinking, what the heck is he talking about? But then why should I be surprised since our schoolkids can't even get a passing score on our own history and we all know that nothing else has ever happened in the world except as it pertains to us. History does repeat itself, sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's not.

Okay now that I've vented my spleen, let me get back to the birthday already in progress.

Crossposted at Debsweb

The Moral Of The Story

Moral waivers or is that morality wavering? Either way, we no longer have the moral high ground, as if we ever did, and the body count of innocents (military and civilians) continues to increase. And no, I don't think this was the reason they hid this report. They didn't want the public to have the information, it might have made the election results worse than they already were for the warmongers.

Though Bargewell completed his secret report in June 2006, it has not been publicly released because of ongoing criminal investigations of three Marines on murder allegations and four Marine officers who allegedly failed to look into the case. Bargewell's report, now unclassified, focuses on the reporting of the incident and the training and command climate within the Marine Corps leadership; it does not address the actual incident in detail.

The officer in charge, Lt. Kallop is getting immunity to testify against his troops. Exactly when are the so-called superiors going to take responsibility for any of the tragedies in this debacle? From Abu Ghraib to Pat Tillman to Abeer Hamza to Haditha, the only ones who pay are the troops and the civilians. What's up with that?

When we were stationed in Germany, we lived on the economy (off base) and most of the troops referred to the German citizens as Herbies (after the original Love Bug, not the Lindsey Lohan remake!). It wasn't nice, it wasn't polite, but we were generally respectful of the people and obeyed their laws and customs, of which the beer drinking was very popular for some reason and speeding along the autobahn just rocked, usually when a BMW or Mercedes blew past my Gremlin.

Things are different now, we treat the Iraqis like they are interlopers in their own country. We force them to identify themselves, to stop their cars on a dime or be shot, we burst into their homes unannounced, shoot first and ask questions later. Maybe. Meanwhile, back here in the States, we have no empathy for those who are injured or killed. As people rush to help the Virgina Tech survivors, we act like this is the biggest tragedy in the world. A tragedy that is suffered daily by the Iraqi and Afghanis (remember them?) and we expect them to pick up their lives and go on as if nothing has happened. Until the next time, which can be in just a few minutes, hours or days.

There is a whole generation of children who are growing up knowing nothing but war and suicide bombers, not unlike the Palestinians and the Lebanese, except that we are the perpetrators of the Iraq war. We started it and we are incapable of finishing it. We are responsible for every innocent man, woman and child who have been, and will continue to be, maimed and killed by our actions. And our inactions.

It is no longer possible to convince the world that we are right, because we aren't. We can drop all the Number Twos we want, the smell of this debacle will never improve. Nobody believes us anymore, we don't even believe our own government and we certainly don't believe their reports.

The only moral to this story seems to be to do unto others what you think they are going to do to you, but do it first and leave no survivors. And people are wondering why our kids feel so disenfranchised and react with violence.

Crossposted at Debsweb.

Flaming Mad

What a flying crock of doodoo this article about women in combat is. That it was written by a woman is even more shameful. It starts out innocently enough and poses a good question. Why do we send the mothers of toddlers off to war? Why do we send their dads, who will be missed just as much, no matter what she thinks? I guess she wasn't daddy's little girl so she doesn't think he's all that important to a child's life.

Then she flits over into bashing women in the military, where they are fighting and dying while performing their duties. Just. Like. The. Men.

Women may be able to push buttons as well as men can, but the door-to-door combat in Fallujah proved the irrelevance of that argument. Meanwhile, no one can look at photos of the 15 British marines and sailors and argue convincingly that the British navy is stronger for the presence of Acting Leading Seaman Faye Turney -- no matter how lovely and brave she may be.

But let's assume for the sake of argument that women, despite all evidence to the contrary, are as capable as men in any battle. If our goal is to prevail, shouldn't we also consider other ramifications of putting women in combat and other positions of risk?

What evidence? She doesn't provide any data, just an opinion. And a stupid one at that. But then it gets worse.

Rape, though not a likely risk in this case, is a consistent argument against putting women in or near combat. While advocates for women in combat argue that men are also raped, there is an important difference. Women are raped by men, which, given the inherent power differential between the sexes, raises women's rape to another level of terror.

What kind of man, one shudders to wonder, is willing to allow his country's women to be raped and tortured by men of enemy nations? None that I know, but our military is gradually weaning men of their intuitive inclination to protect women -- which, by extrapolation, means ignoring the screams of women being assaulted.

And the horse you rode in on. I so want to cuss here. What an insult to the men who serve. What a slap in the face to even infer that they would stand by as a woman is being raped, Abeer Hamza notwithstanding. It makes me want to send her one of those nasty emails some of the women bloggers have been receiving.

This is a not so subtle attack on women in the military, for our own good. War is hell. Period. We shouldn't send anyone into harms way unless there is a darn good reason. So far, none has been provided for this little venture, therefore nobody needs to be in Iraq. As a veteran, I am so offended by the tone of this article, as if women are fragile, delicate little flowers that need to be protected, not do the protecting. Why not go all the way and say that women shouldn't be allowed to serve as police or fire officers?

This is a war like no other in a myriad of ways and should not be used as an excuse to roll back the achievements of many fine women. Maybe the callousness of some members of the military can be traced to a lack of respect, that comes from the top down instead of the dehumanization of women in the military. If torture is condoned and encouraged, how long can the perpetrators keep their humanity?

Ms. Parker, please crawl back into your Stepford world and leave the doing to the big girls. And the thinking.

Crossposted at Debsweb.