Five Words for Drill Baby Drill Gulf Coast Oil Spill
MONUMENTAL DISASTER OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS!
Give to the animal clean up rescue as well as human business devastation any way you can. Just be careful if you choose to give whatever you give to is absolutely legitimate.
Two I would check out are The Sierra Club and Greenpeace. I am sure the major news networks will have a list of what you can do or where you can give IF it is as bad as so many think it will be.
I am hoping against hope that the winds will die down and that some brilliant minds somewhere will figure out a way to cap these leaks. One wonders why this was not thought about in the first place.
Time will tell who is responsible for this nightmare and like the Wall Street gluttons they will reap what they have sown!
Friday, April 30, 2010
The Arizona Colossus of Madness: The Arizona law is the closest I have ever known in this country of a fascistically tyrannical state and a national mindset in blind rebuke of the civil libertarian Bill of precious Rights our Founders so presciently bestowed upon us. Our Founders three centuries ago KNEW the threat behind the power of the state. This law reflects the mean, rancid, nasty, cruel, inhumane, disgusting, nature of a particular segment of the American psyche. We should be hiding in shame because, we know what fascism REALLY is and we have OUR dead in their graves in France on the shores of Normandy to prove it. What did we fight for? The US stopped the cancer of Nazism death in its tracks in Europe only to see our own country fall short of its own free thinking promise.
Arizonans have BETRAYED the very nature of HOPE that is the essence of this country's DNA -- the possibility of a better life for everyone no matter who wants it and wants to work for it ..... WHAT HAVE WE BECOME? Like the Dorian Gray picture, PART of us has morphed into an UGLY, SICK, corrupted face. I do not recognize the nation I knew. In five thousand years THIS was the ONLY place a Jew could feel safe and now MILLIONS of decent, hard working Hispanics will go back to the poverty from whence they came reminiscent of the 1939 ship the St. Louis portrayed in the film "The Damned" when its cargo, a boat load of Jews, was rejected from American shores only to return to the ovens of Auschwitz. So many Hispanics, struggling people wanting only work will return to the heat of the desert to the poverty they knew and the possible early death that may await. So many are good people, hard working people, loving people, some even married to US citizens but leaving them nonetheless because that rancid bill does NOT discriminate -- it attacks ALL of them if they happen to be brown. This is tragic!
I shake my head in disbelief from the anti-human Arizona law, to the bloaviating imbeciles carrying pictures of a half African American president pictured as a Hitler. How stupid, how illogical, how insane and how insulting they are. What has happened to my country, indeed? This is a sad time, and more sad times lie ahead as an immigration law of ONE STATE may spread like a virus to another tying this nation's hands and fitting our heads with the tyranny of a crown of thorns.
I remind you of the poet Emma Lazarus who wrote in 1883 her famous poem about Lady Liberty and our land engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside our Statue of Liberty:
"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
""Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!"" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
YES, I want my country back, THAT country, the country of promise, the country of humane thought that for a time lit the world.
Arizonans have BETRAYED the very nature of HOPE that is the essence of this country's DNA -- the possibility of a better life for everyone no matter who wants it and wants to work for it ..... WHAT HAVE WE BECOME? Like the Dorian Gray picture, PART of us has morphed into an UGLY, SICK, corrupted face. I do not recognize the nation I knew. In five thousand years THIS was the ONLY place a Jew could feel safe and now MILLIONS of decent, hard working Hispanics will go back to the poverty from whence they came reminiscent of the 1939 ship the St. Louis portrayed in the film "The Damned" when its cargo, a boat load of Jews, was rejected from American shores only to return to the ovens of Auschwitz. So many Hispanics, struggling people wanting only work will return to the heat of the desert to the poverty they knew and the possible early death that may await. So many are good people, hard working people, loving people, some even married to US citizens but leaving them nonetheless because that rancid bill does NOT discriminate -- it attacks ALL of them if they happen to be brown. This is tragic!
I shake my head in disbelief from the anti-human Arizona law, to the bloaviating imbeciles carrying pictures of a half African American president pictured as a Hitler. How stupid, how illogical, how insane and how insulting they are. What has happened to my country, indeed? This is a sad time, and more sad times lie ahead as an immigration law of ONE STATE may spread like a virus to another tying this nation's hands and fitting our heads with the tyranny of a crown of thorns.
I remind you of the poet Emma Lazarus who wrote in 1883 her famous poem about Lady Liberty and our land engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside our Statue of Liberty:
"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
""Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!"" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
YES, I want my country back, THAT country, the country of promise, the country of humane thought that for a time lit the world.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate THAT is the Question: PBS’s Frontline showed a segment on childhood vaccinations. As many know whether to vaccinate a child for the various so called childhood diseases is a controversial subject today. One woman interviewed in the Frontline documentary said that we had not had a case of wild polio in this country for decades and that wild polio is all but eliminated from the planet so she saw no need to vaccinate for that here. I differ with her STRONGLY. Polio is NOT eliminated from the planet. She is making, in my opinion, a HUGE error because we are a globalized society. There IS wild polio still remaining in some third world countries. In addition, there are global areas which are at war, areas of turmoil and areas which present different religious obstacles preventing (hard to believe as it may be), immunizations. All it takes is one unvaccinated person entering this country harboring the virus and settling in an area where there are numbers of children and even adults who are not vaccinated against this dreaded disease for that child to create an epidemic which will spread to the unvaccinated. This is unacceptable, it is immoral and, in my opinion, it is wrong.
I speak unfortunately not as a scientist or physician but from personal experience. I contracted polio in 1954 at five years old, six months before a vaccine was available. If the vaccination had been available then and I had not been vaccinated, I would have later thought it criminal not to have been vaccinated against it.
There are, of course, other aspects of this complex problem. Perhaps SOME of the diseases within vaccinations could be eliminated or injections spread out more evenly or the other substances within the vaccine itself could be examined BUT, in my opinion, it is UNCONSCIONABLE with respect to polio in particular for anyone to say that because wild polio has not been seen in this country that this disease is eradicated. Polio is NEVER ERADICATED UNLESS children are immunized with the polio vaccines to prevent it. It CAN return at any time and WILL if children are not immunized against it.
I can testify to the fact that polio is a life long horrendous, deformative and expensive disease. I was considered "lucky" at that time as it completely paralyzed only my right leg. My left leg was functional but is still somewhat compromised. Polio for me meant constant hospital returns, three painful surgeries to ameliorate its after effects and it meant paying for expensive equipment to this day.
After mid life when bones become weaker it meant THREE successive FEMUR fractures of my polio leg. That leg is extraordinarily fragile. It has meant additional hospitalizations as an adult taking one year per each fracture to heal because that leg does not heal quickly. The risk to that bone is significant as now, falling is a regular occurrence. Aging makes life even more difficult for a post polio survivor. Fracturing that bone a fourth time could be life altering or even life threatening!
Polio is a life long, utterly deforming, and an EXPENSIVE disease. It has caused UNTOLD hardship, psychological damage and as an adult it has cost me my stamina that others of my age still possess. Polio has had HUGE complications in my life and it is, in my opinion, UNFORGIVABLE for a child not to be immunized, at the very least, for that. Life is a risk. The risk of acquiring polio is much too great and the benefits of vaccination to prevent polio are much too good, not to vaccinate. To vaccinate or not to vaccinate that is the question. The answer for me is abundantly clear. For THAT disease, it is an absolute and unequivocal YES!
I speak unfortunately not as a scientist or physician but from personal experience. I contracted polio in 1954 at five years old, six months before a vaccine was available. If the vaccination had been available then and I had not been vaccinated, I would have later thought it criminal not to have been vaccinated against it.
There are, of course, other aspects of this complex problem. Perhaps SOME of the diseases within vaccinations could be eliminated or injections spread out more evenly or the other substances within the vaccine itself could be examined BUT, in my opinion, it is UNCONSCIONABLE with respect to polio in particular for anyone to say that because wild polio has not been seen in this country that this disease is eradicated. Polio is NEVER ERADICATED UNLESS children are immunized with the polio vaccines to prevent it. It CAN return at any time and WILL if children are not immunized against it.
I can testify to the fact that polio is a life long horrendous, deformative and expensive disease. I was considered "lucky" at that time as it completely paralyzed only my right leg. My left leg was functional but is still somewhat compromised. Polio for me meant constant hospital returns, three painful surgeries to ameliorate its after effects and it meant paying for expensive equipment to this day.
After mid life when bones become weaker it meant THREE successive FEMUR fractures of my polio leg. That leg is extraordinarily fragile. It has meant additional hospitalizations as an adult taking one year per each fracture to heal because that leg does not heal quickly. The risk to that bone is significant as now, falling is a regular occurrence. Aging makes life even more difficult for a post polio survivor. Fracturing that bone a fourth time could be life altering or even life threatening!
Polio is a life long, utterly deforming, and an EXPENSIVE disease. It has caused UNTOLD hardship, psychological damage and as an adult it has cost me my stamina that others of my age still possess. Polio has had HUGE complications in my life and it is, in my opinion, UNFORGIVABLE for a child not to be immunized, at the very least, for that. Life is a risk. The risk of acquiring polio is much too great and the benefits of vaccination to prevent polio are much too good, not to vaccinate. To vaccinate or not to vaccinate that is the question. The answer for me is abundantly clear. For THAT disease, it is an absolute and unequivocal YES!
The Sickest Slick: I am in another hurry this a.m. so this is off the top of my just awakened brain. I am SICK SICK at heart about the drilling oil spill off our coast as I have iterated before. I feel like I want to cry. If I were a believing person with SO much disaster I have never seen SO much disaster in the world from economic to climate, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, climate change, tsunami's, mine disasters and so much more I can't keep track of all of it and now THIS disaster I might think Revelation is at hand. Don't worry I'm not a believing person in THAT anyway but it is HORRIFIC. I just KNOW they won't contain this spill for weeks if not months and I just know it is oozing more probably much more as the Coast Guard says today AND worse they have to burn it sending HUGE toxic plumes of ugly disgusting poisonous smoke into our air. A reporter said the wonderful smell of salt water is obliterated there and replaced by the cancerous smell of oil. I won't even mention the eleven humans dead and many injured from this rig explosion.
Do I want to say Palin with her drill baby drill is the idiot of idiots? YES but why why does this brilliant president in whom I had SO much faith WHY would he EVER on planet earth EVER decide to lift the coastal drilling ban when EVERY good mind who KNOWS about drilling oil knows it's risky, dangerous and whatever we get WON'T be enough. It just delays what we REALLY need to concentrate on and that is clean energy. WHY DID HE DO THIS? I simply do NOT get him. I love him but he is still the enigma to me he was when he began his run. Something is undecipherable about this president and I just don't know what it is. BUT who would care about that if his policy decisions were what I thought in the beginning they would be and if they did not impact us so hugely! This oil spill I will say it again is just an AWFUL AWFUL thing. Drill baby drill around our coast should be HALTED IMMEDIATELY and Sarah Palin should put a sock in her moronic mouth!
Barack Obama WHAT are you doing, who are you? Where is the progressive senator I knew and loved? I'm am sick at heart, saddened and disappointed beyond belief. Our beautiful coast and all the animals, birds etc. are at grave risk. The poor innocent beautiful things. Please anyone out there if you are working on this and can save those gorgeous animals do and save us while you are at it. IF this slick hits the shores of LA, FLA, and Mississippi or WORSE they won't know what hit them and neither will we!
Do I want to say Palin with her drill baby drill is the idiot of idiots? YES but why why does this brilliant president in whom I had SO much faith WHY would he EVER on planet earth EVER decide to lift the coastal drilling ban when EVERY good mind who KNOWS about drilling oil knows it's risky, dangerous and whatever we get WON'T be enough. It just delays what we REALLY need to concentrate on and that is clean energy. WHY DID HE DO THIS? I simply do NOT get him. I love him but he is still the enigma to me he was when he began his run. Something is undecipherable about this president and I just don't know what it is. BUT who would care about that if his policy decisions were what I thought in the beginning they would be and if they did not impact us so hugely! This oil spill I will say it again is just an AWFUL AWFUL thing. Drill baby drill around our coast should be HALTED IMMEDIATELY and Sarah Palin should put a sock in her moronic mouth!
Barack Obama WHAT are you doing, who are you? Where is the progressive senator I knew and loved? I'm am sick at heart, saddened and disappointed beyond belief. Our beautiful coast and all the animals, birds etc. are at grave risk. The poor innocent beautiful things. Please anyone out there if you are working on this and can save those gorgeous animals do and save us while you are at it. IF this slick hits the shores of LA, FLA, and Mississippi or WORSE they won't know what hit them and neither will we!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Goldman's Gold: I see the Goldman Sachs' actions as both a CRIMINAL matter AND a civil matter. The SEC, of course, filed only a civil complaint so far. In a civil case we are simply talking about monitory remuneration. A criminal case is really a much more serious matter requiring a proof from the state of, in this case, the breaking of federal laws against most especially fraud by the defendants. I believe what has been perpetrated upon an unsuspecting and largely innocent public is SO serious that not only should Goldman pay monitory damages to their clients commensurate with the perpetration of this fraud but I also believe a criminal case should be brought as well. Goldman’s actions were so heinous and seemingly so illegal that the “I know it when I see it” Supreme Court measure for pornography SHOULD apply to this as well. Someone(s) should pay for these malevolent and destructive acts not only in money but in jail time as well.
We are, I think, talking about billions of investments, securities, derivatives and other very complex investment instruments which were packaged, cut up into pieces unknown to mortgage holders as well as securities purchasers alike and sold by Goldman and others as sterling products. Customers were in essence duped into thinking this investment was a good thing to purchase when, in fact, these securities were toxic garbage and, I believe, Goldman itself KNEW they were garbage and sold them to their unsuspecting clients. Compensation for those fraudulent investments is more than warranted due to the massive quantity sold and the dire effect it had on the country and, indeed, the world.
If Goldman’s acts are not criminal then I do not know what criminal is. In the instant matter a crime of HUMONGOUS proportions was committed against innocent people who lost their hard earned 401Ks, pension funds and other heretofore thought stable investments. I dare say lives were lost often by suicide as jobs and even health insurance were causalities of Wall Street hubris.
I watched four hours of the Goldman Sachs Senate hearing. Goldman testifiers looked SO bad yesterday bobbing and weaving as if they were children being asked if lying about a school yard prank was the wrong thing to do but not really figuring out how to make sure their answer was the right one so they would not be punished. Instead they were asked the serious seemingly simple question should the customer have faith in the investing institution or any institution to which the customer gives its money. Is it a bad thing if an investment firm represents one thing to its customers but in reality knows what they are selling is junk but sell it as if it were gold? Moreover, the firm KNOWING it was selling junk and that the instrument would fail bet against its own sale by taking out insurance (credit default swaps) on those very instruments. The house would win even if they lost. Those sanctimonious immoral jerks before the Senate could NOT give a decisive answer to those simple childlike questions. Goldman was not MERELY a "principle" just acting as a conduit for savvy investors. Goldman sold these junk securities to anyone whether they were savvy or not. That is NOT the point. Goldman’s conduct was shameful, it was immoral and, I believe, it was illegal.
Compounding the matter was the rating companies like Standard & Poors which were hired by the investment firm itself to rate the securities and were paid by the very firm that was selling the securities. That would be as if I hired an evaluator of my home and gave them instructions to rate it high and sold it off to a buyer who took their word for it. Do I see a conflict of interest here? Emphatically, YES!
Goldman actions are an abridgment in tort law and it should be one in criminal law too. It is my opinion that the customer of an investment firm relies on that firm in good faith for advice because one often does not have the expertise to do so oneself. If one buys a product one should have the reasonable certainty and expectation that the product is what the seller SAYS it is. In this case Triple A rated investments which were in reality junk. That is basic in tort law. Goldman did not sell the security thinking it was a good product. They sold it thinking it was a terrible product and in fact a “sh*&^%” product (as a Goldman employee said in his email) and shorted it i.e. bet against it unknown to the ones to whom they sold the rotten product in the first place.
It is NOT the bet here that is the issue. Everyone knows that if you go to a horse track and you bet you COULD lose but not everyone knows IF a horse is lame or doped. If one knew that one would clearly not bet on that horse and, in fact, doping is illegal and if the track bet AGAINST a doped horse well need I say what would happen if found out? If that doesn't move you maybe the Black Sox scandal rings a bell? Betting is bad enough but when you bet against your own team failing when you KNOW they are going to throw a game? Need I say more?
Credit default swaps or insurance taken out on bad securities sold to customers by Goldman as good securities should be both civilly negligent and criminally prosecutable. Their actions and actions by many others caused innocent people HUGE harm, probably forever, and still is affecting the country and even the world adversely.
ALL of those who knew about these fraudulent monstrosities should be indicted, tried, convicted, fined in civil law and tried criminally as well. If there is not good case law AGAINST what these unconscionable excuses for human beings have done then there ought to be BUT I suspect there is. I am hoping the best legal minds that the government can employ FIND it and find it FAST as CLEARLY Goldman’s product was NOT as good as gold!
We are, I think, talking about billions of investments, securities, derivatives and other very complex investment instruments which were packaged, cut up into pieces unknown to mortgage holders as well as securities purchasers alike and sold by Goldman and others as sterling products. Customers were in essence duped into thinking this investment was a good thing to purchase when, in fact, these securities were toxic garbage and, I believe, Goldman itself KNEW they were garbage and sold them to their unsuspecting clients. Compensation for those fraudulent investments is more than warranted due to the massive quantity sold and the dire effect it had on the country and, indeed, the world.
If Goldman’s acts are not criminal then I do not know what criminal is. In the instant matter a crime of HUMONGOUS proportions was committed against innocent people who lost their hard earned 401Ks, pension funds and other heretofore thought stable investments. I dare say lives were lost often by suicide as jobs and even health insurance were causalities of Wall Street hubris.
I watched four hours of the Goldman Sachs Senate hearing. Goldman testifiers looked SO bad yesterday bobbing and weaving as if they were children being asked if lying about a school yard prank was the wrong thing to do but not really figuring out how to make sure their answer was the right one so they would not be punished. Instead they were asked the serious seemingly simple question should the customer have faith in the investing institution or any institution to which the customer gives its money. Is it a bad thing if an investment firm represents one thing to its customers but in reality knows what they are selling is junk but sell it as if it were gold? Moreover, the firm KNOWING it was selling junk and that the instrument would fail bet against its own sale by taking out insurance (credit default swaps) on those very instruments. The house would win even if they lost. Those sanctimonious immoral jerks before the Senate could NOT give a decisive answer to those simple childlike questions. Goldman was not MERELY a "principle" just acting as a conduit for savvy investors. Goldman sold these junk securities to anyone whether they were savvy or not. That is NOT the point. Goldman’s conduct was shameful, it was immoral and, I believe, it was illegal.
Compounding the matter was the rating companies like Standard & Poors which were hired by the investment firm itself to rate the securities and were paid by the very firm that was selling the securities. That would be as if I hired an evaluator of my home and gave them instructions to rate it high and sold it off to a buyer who took their word for it. Do I see a conflict of interest here? Emphatically, YES!
Goldman actions are an abridgment in tort law and it should be one in criminal law too. It is my opinion that the customer of an investment firm relies on that firm in good faith for advice because one often does not have the expertise to do so oneself. If one buys a product one should have the reasonable certainty and expectation that the product is what the seller SAYS it is. In this case Triple A rated investments which were in reality junk. That is basic in tort law. Goldman did not sell the security thinking it was a good product. They sold it thinking it was a terrible product and in fact a “sh*&^%” product (as a Goldman employee said in his email) and shorted it i.e. bet against it unknown to the ones to whom they sold the rotten product in the first place.
It is NOT the bet here that is the issue. Everyone knows that if you go to a horse track and you bet you COULD lose but not everyone knows IF a horse is lame or doped. If one knew that one would clearly not bet on that horse and, in fact, doping is illegal and if the track bet AGAINST a doped horse well need I say what would happen if found out? If that doesn't move you maybe the Black Sox scandal rings a bell? Betting is bad enough but when you bet against your own team failing when you KNOW they are going to throw a game? Need I say more?
Credit default swaps or insurance taken out on bad securities sold to customers by Goldman as good securities should be both civilly negligent and criminally prosecutable. Their actions and actions by many others caused innocent people HUGE harm, probably forever, and still is affecting the country and even the world adversely.
ALL of those who knew about these fraudulent monstrosities should be indicted, tried, convicted, fined in civil law and tried criminally as well. If there is not good case law AGAINST what these unconscionable excuses for human beings have done then there ought to be BUT I suspect there is. I am hoping the best legal minds that the government can employ FIND it and find it FAST as CLEARLY Goldman’s product was NOT as good as gold!
Monday, April 26, 2010
CAN I JUST SCREAM? CAN I JUST SCREAM AS I SEE EXACTLY WHAT I KNEW WOULD HAPPEN WHEN THE PRESIDENT OPENED UP OUR COASTS TO DRILL BABY DRILL FOR OIL? I'd like to hear Sarah the Idiot Palin scream that now. Proof positive as the wet lands of Louisiana, Mississippi and even Florida are, as I write this, at risk as if they were not already by slimy, putrid, rancid oil. This is the cradle of a civilized environment which will take generations to revitalize IF ever as oil will most likely hit the shore at 42,000 gallons of the crud a DAY!
Honest to God if I believed in a God I surely would not blame Him for spewing out revenge for some of our country's (and other's) most disgusting policies which hurt humanity and are perpetrated over and over and over again here and around the world. Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again thinking you will get different results. You won't. What will it take? What? Does anyone care about our gorgeous UNIQUE planet? Does anyone care about their children? Does anyone care about their grandchildren and if you don't have any of those as I do not just care about the sweet animals that are at risk including the perpetrator of the madness -- us.
I am sickened by the oil spill but the trees, flowers and birds of that beautiful wilderness will be sickened much more than even I or you could imagine.
Honest to God if I believed in a God I surely would not blame Him for spewing out revenge for some of our country's (and other's) most disgusting policies which hurt humanity and are perpetrated over and over and over again here and around the world. Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again thinking you will get different results. You won't. What will it take? What? Does anyone care about our gorgeous UNIQUE planet? Does anyone care about their children? Does anyone care about their grandchildren and if you don't have any of those as I do not just care about the sweet animals that are at risk including the perpetrator of the madness -- us.
I am sickened by the oil spill but the trees, flowers and birds of that beautiful wilderness will be sickened much more than even I or you could imagine.
I STILL Don't Know Jack: UNBELIEVABLE performances by Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon, Brenda Vacarro, and John Goodman in "You Don't Know Jack" an HBO film about Dr. Death i.e. Jack Kavorkian and the incendiary issue of human euthanasia. They all were simply fabulous in their respective roles.
Pacino, though, takes the proverbial cake. This has Golden Globe written all over it and he should get an Academy Award for best actor too. I have never seen Pacino in a better role to the point where I stopped thinking it was Pacino and began to think of him as the actual Dr. Jack Kevorkian. He was BRILLIANT!!
This film was absolutely riveting. I am still left, however, with the feeling that I do NOT know Jack Kavorkian not really. I am suspect OFTEN of seemingly altruistic human behavior. I love it but at the same time I know people do things often for their own reasons. So be it. Could I do what Kavorkian did? Not on your life pardon the pun. Do I think in some instances euthanasia is absolutely in order YES I EMPHATICALLY DO! I believe it is the person's right to extricate him or herself out of suffering and misery any way he/she can. It's up to, in my opinion, the individual and if he wants to be Kavorkianed I understand. I am NO fan of pain and suffering either.
Still, if I had the proper doctor credentials I could NEVER do that to anyone. I can't even court the prospect we may have to euthanize our 19 year old cat. It makes me cringe, cry and want to walk away. Despite the seeming humanity of it I STILL could not do it. The question is WHY Dr. Kavorkian can and did. Damned if I know. The film, while great, left, for me, that question unresolved. If you are interested in viewing it see HBO for details.
Pacino, though, takes the proverbial cake. This has Golden Globe written all over it and he should get an Academy Award for best actor too. I have never seen Pacino in a better role to the point where I stopped thinking it was Pacino and began to think of him as the actual Dr. Jack Kevorkian. He was BRILLIANT!!
This film was absolutely riveting. I am still left, however, with the feeling that I do NOT know Jack Kavorkian not really. I am suspect OFTEN of seemingly altruistic human behavior. I love it but at the same time I know people do things often for their own reasons. So be it. Could I do what Kavorkian did? Not on your life pardon the pun. Do I think in some instances euthanasia is absolutely in order YES I EMPHATICALLY DO! I believe it is the person's right to extricate him or herself out of suffering and misery any way he/she can. It's up to, in my opinion, the individual and if he wants to be Kavorkianed I understand. I am NO fan of pain and suffering either.
Still, if I had the proper doctor credentials I could NEVER do that to anyone. I can't even court the prospect we may have to euthanize our 19 year old cat. It makes me cringe, cry and want to walk away. Despite the seeming humanity of it I STILL could not do it. The question is WHY Dr. Kavorkian can and did. Damned if I know. The film, while great, left, for me, that question unresolved. If you are interested in viewing it see HBO for details.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Toxic Shock -- Moving Towards Solutions: Today, the news from Louisiana is that the drilling for oil explosion idiocy has turned toxic. Hopeful, with the Obama victory in 2008, my hope has turned to disappointment, despair and sadness as the policies he touted in his campaign become weakened almost beyond recognition. My one time hope, Barack Obama and a total Democratic control of Congress, turned his one time opposition to drill baby drill into now near Sarah Palin policy. I am sickened. I predicted the leaks would happen when he lifted the drilling coastal ban. I knew it ultimately would be leaking into the ocean which it now is doing. Soon we will see gorgeous seagulls and all they represent covered in oil muck and sludge struggling to survive but dying a sad death along with the ecological system they represent unless humans can save them first. Our beautiful earth is being squandered for political expediency, money and power.
I just began viewing the tape of the "Garbage Warrior" on the Sundance Channel. See the link for it below. I urge you to see it. What a marvel it is. I was always supportive of most of the environmental movement's goals beginning in the late sixties but must admit, ashamedly, that the environmental movement did not catch fire in my psyche until the realities of global warming, which most quality environmentalists have been predicting for decades, are quickly taking place. I did not listen much three decades ago but I am SURELY listening now.
Michael Reynolds's architectural commitment to our beautiful earth shows it CAN be done if the right people do it. I thank him for his efforts and hope he makes a HUGE impact on environmental movement policy. Instead of seeing this film on Sundance I wish it were shown on the major networks for EVERYONE who does not have the luxury of cable to view. What he has done NEEDS to be seen.
It is a wonderful film. Maybe even our president will view it!
http://www.garbagewarrior.com/index.php
I just began viewing the tape of the "Garbage Warrior" on the Sundance Channel. See the link for it below. I urge you to see it. What a marvel it is. I was always supportive of most of the environmental movement's goals beginning in the late sixties but must admit, ashamedly, that the environmental movement did not catch fire in my psyche until the realities of global warming, which most quality environmentalists have been predicting for decades, are quickly taking place. I did not listen much three decades ago but I am SURELY listening now.
Michael Reynolds's architectural commitment to our beautiful earth shows it CAN be done if the right people do it. I thank him for his efforts and hope he makes a HUGE impact on environmental movement policy. Instead of seeing this film on Sundance I wish it were shown on the major networks for EVERYONE who does not have the luxury of cable to view. What he has done NEEDS to be seen.
It is a wonderful film. Maybe even our president will view it!
http://www.garbagewarrior.com/index.php
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Collective Madness: A few thoughts in the a.m. to be refined later due to time constraints. I have to get my basic thoughts out because of the deep horror of what transpired in Arizona by an Arizona legislature enacting and a moronic governor signing a putrid, inhumane, anti-immigrant law. What a ROTTEN UNCONSTITUTIONAL, anti-democratic, anti-due process, racist anti-immigrant law it is. Police now can pull you over even if you LOOK like an illegal immigrant --usually Hispanic-- brilliantly determined by the "right" kind of hair, dress, or shoes and ask you for your papers! What papers? Your birth certificate or the paper you wrote in 5th grade? This will cost the state of Arizona big time money (I FERVENTLY hope) by those boycotting the state (please do if you are thinking of going -- DON'T and urge others not to as well). Not only that it will cost the police in BIG TIME lawsuits. Even most of them hate this law.
I am going to write something and incorporate a world (including nature) gone wild, no parameters, no boundaries whether it's sex, language vulgarity, political extremism, tell all movie stars, anti immigrant fever, pedophilia, religious fanaticism, global warming caused by man or Wall Street. It's all similar. There are FEW restraints on human behavior. It is cerebral, physical and even natural anarchy brought on by man's greed, gluttonous and pathologically uncontrolled behavior. This is humanity run amok. We have, as a species gone, I believe, collectively MAD and deserve, in my opinion, whatever nature dishes out. More to follow when I have time. I'm sure you can hardly wait.
I am going to write something and incorporate a world (including nature) gone wild, no parameters, no boundaries whether it's sex, language vulgarity, political extremism, tell all movie stars, anti immigrant fever, pedophilia, religious fanaticism, global warming caused by man or Wall Street. It's all similar. There are FEW restraints on human behavior. It is cerebral, physical and even natural anarchy brought on by man's greed, gluttonous and pathologically uncontrolled behavior. This is humanity run amok. We have, as a species gone, I believe, collectively MAD and deserve, in my opinion, whatever nature dishes out. More to follow when I have time. I'm sure you can hardly wait.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Murderous McVeigh: Rachel Maddow began last evening a series about the home grown right wing terrorist Timothy McVeigh, the murderer of 168 people in the Oklahoma City Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, as a remembrance of the 15 year anniversary of the sad occurrence. I paste its link below. If you have time, it is, I believe quite interesting but more than that I believe it is imperative, especially in our time, to understand as best one can, what jet propels a sociopath into action. It is important because we MUST know -- left and right alike -- that our words matter and that the advocacy of violence to achieve ends has no romance behind it. Violent acts whether perpetrated by the government or individuals in opposition TO government have ugly consequences for REAL human beings. The price is paid in the blood of innocents who cruelly have their childhood and their lives stolen from them by one hideous act. Lives are lost and bodies twisted forever which go unseen on national news or forgotten the next week, the next month, the next year, the next decade unto eternity. I offer, too, yet again another piece I wrote on April 7 entitled "Tree of Blood." which deals with the subject of the nature of the violent overthrow of government.
http://natalierosen.blogspot.com/2010/04/tree-of-blood-one-of-front-pages-on.html
I believe MSNBC's reenactment of the Timothy McVeigh's homegrown terrorist crime complete with hours of authentic audio tapes made by McVeigh himself answers directly to an often dormant seed within the American psyche in which violent people use to their advantage some seemingly lofty other goal as an excuse to do that which they enjoy doing and that is killing. Why they do this is the eternal question. If you are interested the interviewer of McVeigh, Lou Michael, has written a book entitled "American Terrorist." The link for the interview, crime reenactment and the audio tapes is:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#36650511
http://natalierosen.blogspot.com/2010/04/tree-of-blood-one-of-front-pages-on.html
I believe MSNBC's reenactment of the Timothy McVeigh's homegrown terrorist crime complete with hours of authentic audio tapes made by McVeigh himself answers directly to an often dormant seed within the American psyche in which violent people use to their advantage some seemingly lofty other goal as an excuse to do that which they enjoy doing and that is killing. Why they do this is the eternal question. If you are interested the interviewer of McVeigh, Lou Michael, has written a book entitled "American Terrorist." The link for the interview, crime reenactment and the audio tapes is:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#36650511
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Quotable quotes: I was researching some quotes I love. Unfortunately, I know them when I hear them but to bring them up to memory sometimes is difficult. Still I thought I would place some I do remember on my blog simply because I love them.
One was given by Robert Kennedy told to a group of African Americans he met on his campaign trail for president in 1968 several months before his own death. He had just found out about the assassination of Martin Luther King and did not know how to break the horrific news to them. He tried to calm the crowd by trying to relay that he knew how they felt since he had a brother who was killed too. He knew that kind of grief. He quoted from one of the many classics he had read trying to understand his brother's death. He quoted from Aeschylus's play Agamemnon and said:
"In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
The other I love was his quoting from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Democratic National Convention, August 27, 1964 in remembering his brother Jack. He said:
"Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun."
I believe those quotes are simply gorgeous. Shakespeare, especially, one can say certainly had a way with words. Ah to be young again when memorizing things comes much more easily. So now I still try but my goodness there is just too much to know and not enough time in which to know it which is why I love Robert Frost's quote from the last stanza of his poem Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening:
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
One was given by Robert Kennedy told to a group of African Americans he met on his campaign trail for president in 1968 several months before his own death. He had just found out about the assassination of Martin Luther King and did not know how to break the horrific news to them. He tried to calm the crowd by trying to relay that he knew how they felt since he had a brother who was killed too. He knew that kind of grief. He quoted from one of the many classics he had read trying to understand his brother's death. He quoted from Aeschylus's play Agamemnon and said:
"In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
The other I love was his quoting from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Democratic National Convention, August 27, 1964 in remembering his brother Jack. He said:
"Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun."
I believe those quotes are simply gorgeous. Shakespeare, especially, one can say certainly had a way with words. Ah to be young again when memorizing things comes much more easily. So now I still try but my goodness there is just too much to know and not enough time in which to know it which is why I love Robert Frost's quote from the last stanza of his poem Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening:
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Frontline: Behind the Lines of the Taliban -- The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan: Despite the seemingly disgusting nature of this particular Frontline I think it captures just what we are dealing with in Afghanistan and god knows how many other places on earth as the utlra religious yet again show us the HEIGHTS and DEPTHS their behavior can reach AND sink.
No one BUT NO ONE can crow about their own religion or culture being immune as we see so evident in so many religious orthodoxies in our midst. We need only pay witness to Pope Benedict's utterly pathetic and anemic effort to deal with the MOST egregious behavioral sex abuse, usually of young boys, in the Church. We see it too in orthodoxies OF ALL SORTS including, I am disgusted and ashamed to say, a few I have only read about in the New York Times concerning the ultra orthodox Jewish sects in New York where again sex abuse often of young boys goes UNREPORTED only to be "dealt with" in secret by ONLY men, of course, from the particular sect involved. The foxes indeed guard the coop. It's NOT the children the religious elders care about. It is the shame heaped upon the institution itself which is their main concern. They do not realize that when these acts finally see light, as they now often do, the religious institution itself is the entity that is besmirched the most by its Herculean efforts to hide the abominable behavior.
Exposure of these INEXCUSABLE acts on ALL fronts is the ONLY thing that turns night into day as it sheds light on the crimes as the only disinfectant for their viral contaminant. When you ask for whom the bell tolls it most certainly tolls for ALL of us as when one becomes a victim, I believe, we all do. I suggest you either watch or tape Frontline as it has been taking us "Behind the Lines of the Taliban." Scroll down to see the link and previews of its content.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/?utm_campaign=Various&utm_medium=Bulletin&utm_source=Main
No one BUT NO ONE can crow about their own religion or culture being immune as we see so evident in so many religious orthodoxies in our midst. We need only pay witness to Pope Benedict's utterly pathetic and anemic effort to deal with the MOST egregious behavioral sex abuse, usually of young boys, in the Church. We see it too in orthodoxies OF ALL SORTS including, I am disgusted and ashamed to say, a few I have only read about in the New York Times concerning the ultra orthodox Jewish sects in New York where again sex abuse often of young boys goes UNREPORTED only to be "dealt with" in secret by ONLY men, of course, from the particular sect involved. The foxes indeed guard the coop. It's NOT the children the religious elders care about. It is the shame heaped upon the institution itself which is their main concern. They do not realize that when these acts finally see light, as they now often do, the religious institution itself is the entity that is besmirched the most by its Herculean efforts to hide the abominable behavior.
Exposure of these INEXCUSABLE acts on ALL fronts is the ONLY thing that turns night into day as it sheds light on the crimes as the only disinfectant for their viral contaminant. When you ask for whom the bell tolls it most certainly tolls for ALL of us as when one becomes a victim, I believe, we all do. I suggest you either watch or tape Frontline as it has been taking us "Behind the Lines of the Taliban." Scroll down to see the link and previews of its content.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/?utm_campaign=Various&utm_medium=Bulletin&utm_source=Main
Friday, April 16, 2010
Before I post below I want to add that I LOVE Rachel Maddow. I think she is the next Edward R. Murrow but even MORE brilliant. She is a scholar and it shows. Having said that for the first time I took issue with one small particular segment at the end which she sometimes does. It does not have the gravity of nuclear war but still I decided to write her the following:
Cocktail Anyone? There probably is NO ONE in television cable or otherwise who could make mixing a drink an interesting story. Rachel did. I am about as interested in drinking as I am in someone washing port-o-potties but at the end of the interview watching the two young woman from the Angostura Bitters Co. explain the alarming shortage of bottles making Angostura bitters impossible to get I thought why am I interested in this story? Who cares? It really shows the saturated-with-talent of Rachel Maddow who could make an utterly irrelevant story interesting.
Still, my first criticism of her: I am not wild about the real cocktail moments i.e. the ones that concentrate on REALLY mixing a drink. Why make drinking seem so, well, sheik and fun. It would almost be like your having someone on roll a very expensive tobacco or cigar from Cuba and making it look just dandy. Sure, most people (I think but what do I know about the subject) drink prudently but drinking really is responsible for a LOT of ruined lives not to mention death on the highways. Why give it a forum which makes it look oh so inviting? I admit, if the liquor industry depended on me for their profits they would go bankrupt. I really think though, Rachel, you can do without that particular segment.
How about doing or repeating a "Cocktail Moment" segment with a really comedic segment by someone like the one John Stewart did of a complete satire on Glen Beck. It was the greatest comedy segment I have ever seen since the 1950's. It stands with the greats like Sid Caesar's "This is Your Life Uncle Guppe," or Carol Burnett's Gone with the Wind parody her plantation staircase descent dressed in a curtain which was HILARIOUS!
Something, anything would be, in my opinion, better than mixing a drink on TV where millions could be at that moment convinced drinking is oh so kool, go out and buy the ingredients, get drunk, get behind a wheel and kill themselves or somebody else. Whiskey or tobacco is not advertised on TV for a reason.
Just my opinion but we STILL will ALWAYS watch and love Rachel although if Angostura Bitters went out of business tomorrow it would be a who cares moment for me!!!
Cocktail Anyone? There probably is NO ONE in television cable or otherwise who could make mixing a drink an interesting story. Rachel did. I am about as interested in drinking as I am in someone washing port-o-potties but at the end of the interview watching the two young woman from the Angostura Bitters Co. explain the alarming shortage of bottles making Angostura bitters impossible to get I thought why am I interested in this story? Who cares? It really shows the saturated-with-talent of Rachel Maddow who could make an utterly irrelevant story interesting.
Still, my first criticism of her: I am not wild about the real cocktail moments i.e. the ones that concentrate on REALLY mixing a drink. Why make drinking seem so, well, sheik and fun. It would almost be like your having someone on roll a very expensive tobacco or cigar from Cuba and making it look just dandy. Sure, most people (I think but what do I know about the subject) drink prudently but drinking really is responsible for a LOT of ruined lives not to mention death on the highways. Why give it a forum which makes it look oh so inviting? I admit, if the liquor industry depended on me for their profits they would go bankrupt. I really think though, Rachel, you can do without that particular segment.
How about doing or repeating a "Cocktail Moment" segment with a really comedic segment by someone like the one John Stewart did of a complete satire on Glen Beck. It was the greatest comedy segment I have ever seen since the 1950's. It stands with the greats like Sid Caesar's "This is Your Life Uncle Guppe," or Carol Burnett's Gone with the Wind parody her plantation staircase descent dressed in a curtain which was HILARIOUS!
Something, anything would be, in my opinion, better than mixing a drink on TV where millions could be at that moment convinced drinking is oh so kool, go out and buy the ingredients, get drunk, get behind a wheel and kill themselves or somebody else. Whiskey or tobacco is not advertised on TV for a reason.
Just my opinion but we STILL will ALWAYS watch and love Rachel although if Angostura Bitters went out of business tomorrow it would be a who cares moment for me!!!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
NB: My post from yesterday "Silent No More" about objectionable comments made by a Bishop in the Vatican was itself commented on by a historian, Gabriel Wilensky. His comment is excellent as he does so from a historian's viewpoint. Scroll down and click on the comments section of that blog if you are interested.
He has also written a book entitled "Six Million Crucifixions: How Christian Teachings about Jews Paved the Way to the Holocaust" His web site is: http://www.sixmillioncrucifixions.com/Home.html
He has also written a book entitled "Six Million Crucifixions: How Christian Teachings about Jews Paved the Way to the Holocaust" His web site is: http://www.sixmillioncrucifixions.com/Home.html
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Silent No More -- My Letter to the Vatican:
Bishop Emeritus Babini, was quoted as saying: "They [the Jews] do not want the church, they are its natural enemies." He goes on to say "Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers." The writer in the British newspaper The Guardian quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism [of church pedophilia], considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is."
This is UNACCEPTABLE from anyone let alone a higher-up of the Church itself even IF he is a retired one. He denies that he made the statement OF COURSE, but Babini as stated in The Guardian, "has previously been quoted on the Pontifex website accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, as well as criticizing homosexuality." This statement DEMANDS an apology from the Pope, himself, anything less is inadequate and will be received with insult and anger by the Jewish people and many others in the world who value intellect and reason as man's greatest tool against stupidity and its bestial cousin cruelty.
This is yet another delightful peek into the joys of two thousand years of anti-semitism still safely tucked away in the Vatican residing with this Pope Benedict aka German Cardinal Ratizinger and his merry man Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto. Not only does the good Bishop blame church pedophilia scandal on the Jews but he blames homosexuality for church pedophilia as well. Yes, moronic insanity is alive and well everywhere ESPECIALLY in the Vatican.
There is NOTHING I repeat NOTHING that enrages me like the age old canard of deicide i.e. the Christian accusation of the alleged killing of the Christian God i.e. Jesus by Jews. I, as a Jew, am ALWAYS vigilant because this moronic TRIPE is STILL with us and comes out of the mouth of a Bishop. I thought the Pope and the Vatican are fully aware and can control the most dastardly millennial infused lie many in its ranks still perpetrate on the Jewish people. The Vatican still, despite Vatican II, plagues the Jew and the words uttered by this Bishop are the example of its cancer on humanity. It is why we as Jews and ALL men of conscience WILL NEVER forget and WILL NEVER surrender, to that toxic brew. This indelible stain on the Church is still there and, if we allow, it will fester and grow as it did for two thousand years culminating in the wholesale murder of the six million. I submit some in the Vatican Church and perhaps even the Pope himself with his Hitler Youth past ingrained within him will not rest until every Jewish belief is nullified. This truth is why the Jew CANNOT and WILL NOT let it go and is silent no more. I expect a complete apology from the Pope for his wayward Bishop anything else is simply NOT enough!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews
Bishop Emeritus Babini, was quoted as saying: "They [the Jews] do not want the church, they are its natural enemies." He goes on to say "Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers." The writer in the British newspaper The Guardian quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism [of church pedophilia], considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is."
This is UNACCEPTABLE from anyone let alone a higher-up of the Church itself even IF he is a retired one. He denies that he made the statement OF COURSE, but Babini as stated in The Guardian, "has previously been quoted on the Pontifex website accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, as well as criticizing homosexuality." This statement DEMANDS an apology from the Pope, himself, anything less is inadequate and will be received with insult and anger by the Jewish people and many others in the world who value intellect and reason as man's greatest tool against stupidity and its bestial cousin cruelty.
This is yet another delightful peek into the joys of two thousand years of anti-semitism still safely tucked away in the Vatican residing with this Pope Benedict aka German Cardinal Ratizinger and his merry man Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto. Not only does the good Bishop blame church pedophilia scandal on the Jews but he blames homosexuality for church pedophilia as well. Yes, moronic insanity is alive and well everywhere ESPECIALLY in the Vatican.
There is NOTHING I repeat NOTHING that enrages me like the age old canard of deicide i.e. the Christian accusation of the alleged killing of the Christian God i.e. Jesus by Jews. I, as a Jew, am ALWAYS vigilant because this moronic TRIPE is STILL with us and comes out of the mouth of a Bishop. I thought the Pope and the Vatican are fully aware and can control the most dastardly millennial infused lie many in its ranks still perpetrate on the Jewish people. The Vatican still, despite Vatican II, plagues the Jew and the words uttered by this Bishop are the example of its cancer on humanity. It is why we as Jews and ALL men of conscience WILL NEVER forget and WILL NEVER surrender, to that toxic brew. This indelible stain on the Church is still there and, if we allow, it will fester and grow as it did for two thousand years culminating in the wholesale murder of the six million. I submit some in the Vatican Church and perhaps even the Pope himself with his Hitler Youth past ingrained within him will not rest until every Jewish belief is nullified. This truth is why the Jew CANNOT and WILL NOT let it go and is silent no more. I expect a complete apology from the Pope for his wayward Bishop anything else is simply NOT enough!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews
Lest I Not Be Clear: When I wrote my last small post late last evening, I was tired, and my body is invaded by a relentless rhino virus. Lest I not be clear, if you do click on the link below you will see the direct quote that began the spark that drew the my volcanic eruption. Bishop Emeritus Babini, was quoted as saying: "They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers." The writer in the Guardian (a British newspaper) quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism [of church pedophilia], considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is."
This is UNACCEPTABLE from anyone let alone a higher-up of the Vatican even IF he is retired. He denies that he made the statement OF COURSE, but Babini as stated in The Guardian, "has previously been quoted on the Pontifex website accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, as well as criticizing homosexuality." I rest my case for now but I will have a more cogent response I hope later! This statement DEMANDS an apology from the Pope, himself, anything less is inadequate and will be received with insult and anger of the Jewish people and many others in the world who value intellect and reason as man's greatest tool against stupidity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews
This is UNACCEPTABLE from anyone let alone a higher-up of the Vatican even IF he is retired. He denies that he made the statement OF COURSE, but Babini as stated in The Guardian, "has previously been quoted on the Pontifex website accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, as well as criticizing homosexuality." I rest my case for now but I will have a more cogent response I hope later! This statement DEMANDS an apology from the Pope, himself, anything less is inadequate and will be received with insult and anger of the Jewish people and many others in the world who value intellect and reason as man's greatest tool against stupidity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews
Monday, April 12, 2010
Prelude to a blog: Well, it's too late now to write on the link below. Just cut and paste into your browser for yet another delightful peek into the joys of two thousand years of anti-semitism still safely tucked away in the Vatican residing with this pope Benedict aka German Cardinal Ratizinger and his merry man Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto. Not only does the good Bishop blame church pedophilia on the Jews but he blames homosexuality for church pedophilia. Yep, moronic insanity is alive and well everywhere ESPECIALLY in the Vatican.
There is NOTHING I repeat NOTHING that gets my ire like the age old canard of deicide i.e. the Christian accusation of the alleged killing of god i.e. Jesus by Jews. Sure, that's old hat. Went out with the ovens of Auschwitz. MY posterior it did. This is EXACTLY what I mean when I say as a Jew I am ALWAYS vigilant because this moronic TRIPE is STILL with us, it still plagues the Jew and it is a cancer on humanity. It is why we must NEVER forget, we must NEVER surrender, we must ALWAYS know that it is there and if we allow it to it will fester and grow as it did for two thousand years culminating in the wholesale murder and slaughter of the six million. I urge you to either click onto this link or paste it into your browser as testament to this truth as to why the Jew canNOT and WILL not let it go and be silent! Silent no more. Good title for my next blog.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews
There is NOTHING I repeat NOTHING that gets my ire like the age old canard of deicide i.e. the Christian accusation of the alleged killing of god i.e. Jesus by Jews. Sure, that's old hat. Went out with the ovens of Auschwitz. MY posterior it did. This is EXACTLY what I mean when I say as a Jew I am ALWAYS vigilant because this moronic TRIPE is STILL with us, it still plagues the Jew and it is a cancer on humanity. It is why we must NEVER forget, we must NEVER surrender, we must ALWAYS know that it is there and if we allow it to it will fester and grow as it did for two thousand years culminating in the wholesale murder and slaughter of the six million. I urge you to either click onto this link or paste it into your browser as testament to this truth as to why the Jew canNOT and WILL not let it go and be silent! Silent no more. Good title for my next blog.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews
Statistical Folly--A Fair Deal in the Balance Jeff Jacoby's statistical reductionism in his Sunday, April 10, 2010 Boston Globe article "Support for Israel runs on party lines" which states, simplistically, Republicans/Israel YES, Democrats/Israel YES but less so is absolutely INANE. What do these statistics mean? In reality nothing. I submit President Obama may be perceived as somewhat less hostile to Arab/Palestinian interests and slightly more equitable. How can this perception hurt when the perception of unequivocal Israeli support no matter the behavior nurtured by team Bush brought constant discord?
Our president FINALLY is smart and is TRYING to present a more equitable stance which not only serves Arab/Palestinian interests, but, in my opinion, serves the Interests of the Jewish state as well. There can be no peace, it seems to me, if the peace broker is seen by the Arab and Palestinian side as solidly in the Israeli camp. What fairness is there in that? The constructing of the settlements during Vice President Biden's visit to Israel was, in my view, insulting to Vice President Biden and the Obama administration which wanted a temporary halt to settlement construction while in the middle of delicate peace negotiations because the construction of settlements is contentious. Settlement construction done with a wink and a nod by Prime Minister Netanyahu threatened the peace process itself but, obviously, he did not care or it would not have commenced.
Either one wants peace or one doesn't. The road to peace MUST be paved by at least the PERCEPTION of an equitable mediator. If one were to litigate a mediation in our courts and the mediator said okay I'll mediate but you must know I have unwavering support for party A but I'll try to be fair to party B, that would be ridiculous.
The President has stated unequivocally his support for the Jewish state many times. I, as a Jew, believe he meant it. We who love Israel and want peace have waited for it for over sixty years. Peace, in my opinion, can happen ONLY when both sides think the mediator will be fair so a fair deal can be honed. I believe our president is trying his best to craft a perception that says just that!
Our president FINALLY is smart and is TRYING to present a more equitable stance which not only serves Arab/Palestinian interests, but, in my opinion, serves the Interests of the Jewish state as well. There can be no peace, it seems to me, if the peace broker is seen by the Arab and Palestinian side as solidly in the Israeli camp. What fairness is there in that? The constructing of the settlements during Vice President Biden's visit to Israel was, in my view, insulting to Vice President Biden and the Obama administration which wanted a temporary halt to settlement construction while in the middle of delicate peace negotiations because the construction of settlements is contentious. Settlement construction done with a wink and a nod by Prime Minister Netanyahu threatened the peace process itself but, obviously, he did not care or it would not have commenced.
Either one wants peace or one doesn't. The road to peace MUST be paved by at least the PERCEPTION of an equitable mediator. If one were to litigate a mediation in our courts and the mediator said okay I'll mediate but you must know I have unwavering support for party A but I'll try to be fair to party B, that would be ridiculous.
The President has stated unequivocally his support for the Jewish state many times. I, as a Jew, believe he meant it. We who love Israel and want peace have waited for it for over sixty years. Peace, in my opinion, can happen ONLY when both sides think the mediator will be fair so a fair deal can be honed. I believe our president is trying his best to craft a perception that says just that!
Thursday, April 08, 2010
A Letter to Virginia Governor McDonnell:
Governor McDonnell: Your elevation of the confederacy to remembrance status by proclamation is DISGUSTING. It would be like an elected official in Germany remembering Nazi dead. Yes, I think that is an APT simile because the southern states wanted to allow the perpetuation of a heinous racist system, and it was a revolt to do just that under the guise of a so called states rights philosophy. Let's call it by its REAL name. It REALLY WAS a treasonous attempt to wage war against the union which WAS the United States of America. I do not care how you dress this proclamation up. Yes, the so called confederacy was a radical attempt at OVERTHROW of the United States of America and the attempt was instituted through rebellion and war. That most of the southern traitors were not thrown into jail is a testament to the BRILLIANCE of Abraham Lincoln. He really DID want to unite the nation unlike you who want to divide it yet again. As Barack Obama said, paraphrasing, we are ONE nation not a nation of red states and blue states, not black and not white … . We are ONE America the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Moreover, that you did not mention slavery as the premier cause of the Civil War was NOT an omission it was purposeful. You KNEW once you did this accursed thing there would be voices angrily opposing it BUT that is just what you wanted. You KNEW some in your state and others in the nation would cheer yet again over two hundred years later a damnable thing which, with great regret, occurred in our country.
Damn you and those like you who want a remembrance of the confederacy to help destroy or split this nation yet again. You are still, two hundred years later, fighting the Civil War. Yes, the war was about many things but SLAVERY and its extension into the western states and territories was the largest issue. Slavery was a mean, cruel, nasty SHAME and slaughter of men perpetrated on a nation whose early revolutionary documents set aside tyranny and proposed freedom. The fact that slavery existed then is our albatross and hypocrisy which malfeasance has taken hundreds of years to undo. This patriot does not see the confederacy as a "cause." This patriot sees the confederacy for what it was – a treasonous war waged to undo by force the United States of America and in doing so perpetuate a horrific institution which caused black human beings to be treated and owned as property. It was this nation's most contentious issue and it has caused much pain and much death.
Governor McDonnell, SHAME on you! Your nostalgia for some romantic notion and remembrance of the confederacy brings SHAME yet again on this nation. The south LOST the war. Get used to it! The confederacy is NOTHING to cheer about or want to remember and if you were born black you would surely know that!
Governor McDonnell: Your elevation of the confederacy to remembrance status by proclamation is DISGUSTING. It would be like an elected official in Germany remembering Nazi dead. Yes, I think that is an APT simile because the southern states wanted to allow the perpetuation of a heinous racist system, and it was a revolt to do just that under the guise of a so called states rights philosophy. Let's call it by its REAL name. It REALLY WAS a treasonous attempt to wage war against the union which WAS the United States of America. I do not care how you dress this proclamation up. Yes, the so called confederacy was a radical attempt at OVERTHROW of the United States of America and the attempt was instituted through rebellion and war. That most of the southern traitors were not thrown into jail is a testament to the BRILLIANCE of Abraham Lincoln. He really DID want to unite the nation unlike you who want to divide it yet again. As Barack Obama said, paraphrasing, we are ONE nation not a nation of red states and blue states, not black and not white … . We are ONE America the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Moreover, that you did not mention slavery as the premier cause of the Civil War was NOT an omission it was purposeful. You KNEW once you did this accursed thing there would be voices angrily opposing it BUT that is just what you wanted. You KNEW some in your state and others in the nation would cheer yet again over two hundred years later a damnable thing which, with great regret, occurred in our country.
Damn you and those like you who want a remembrance of the confederacy to help destroy or split this nation yet again. You are still, two hundred years later, fighting the Civil War. Yes, the war was about many things but SLAVERY and its extension into the western states and territories was the largest issue. Slavery was a mean, cruel, nasty SHAME and slaughter of men perpetrated on a nation whose early revolutionary documents set aside tyranny and proposed freedom. The fact that slavery existed then is our albatross and hypocrisy which malfeasance has taken hundreds of years to undo. This patriot does not see the confederacy as a "cause." This patriot sees the confederacy for what it was – a treasonous war waged to undo by force the United States of America and in doing so perpetuate a horrific institution which caused black human beings to be treated and owned as property. It was this nation's most contentious issue and it has caused much pain and much death.
Governor McDonnell, SHAME on you! Your nostalgia for some romantic notion and remembrance of the confederacy brings SHAME yet again on this nation. The south LOST the war. Get used to it! The confederacy is NOTHING to cheer about or want to remember and if you were born black you would surely know that!
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Tree of Blood: One of the front pages on Huffington Post was about the rebellion and possibly toppling of the government in Kyrgyzstan. It is an ugly bloody picture but it is what toppling a government looks like. Just in case any right wingnuts or ANY wingnuts think it is so romantic to overthrow a government it emphatically is NOT. Invariably a government it replaces is WORSE than the one toppled. It is NEVER clean and simple. It is brutal and harsh. Our country is a country of 300 MILLION. It is amazing that it runs as well as it does despite the nasty epithets thrown by the right AND the left against many people who possess power.
Much as there are those in our country who say otherwise, our government really DOES have an avenue to change and it has many times for over three centuries. Our Civil War cost us over 600,000 lives. That is A LOT of lives for the US population then with the crude armaments it possessed in comparison to what we now have. Rebellion is NOT pretty and it is NOT romantic. Rebellion hurts and kills only to find the government it replaces is just the same or worse as the one before. Witness the falling of the Vietnam Diem regime which was replaced by Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Cao Ky who were despots. When they were overthrown upon US exit from Vietnam they were replaced by Communist Ho Chi Min and his Viet Cong. If one wants to see REAL tyranny look to that or to the Cambodian Pol Pot who rivaled some of the worst despots who ever lived. There are, of course, many other examples.
Our government is not perfect but we have one where, at the very least, our grievances can be addressed. It was not easy to get here and we have changed for the good at times despite or maybe because of the diversity of our numbers. Think about it when you think that picking up a gun and using it to maim or kill your fellow American whether on the political left or the right is a dandy thing to do. Making the policy of a government which would control a country of over 300 million people is hard to do. Policy is made through the torturous art of compromise which does not make for viewable media highlights.
When we do not like the policy we should CHANGE it, peacefully, through the avenues we already possess. We should not threaten to pick up a gun to water the so called “tree of liberty” since the water that tree is asking for is our fellow citizens’ blood and, ultimately, will not give us liberty but WILL surely give us death.
Much as there are those in our country who say otherwise, our government really DOES have an avenue to change and it has many times for over three centuries. Our Civil War cost us over 600,000 lives. That is A LOT of lives for the US population then with the crude armaments it possessed in comparison to what we now have. Rebellion is NOT pretty and it is NOT romantic. Rebellion hurts and kills only to find the government it replaces is just the same or worse as the one before. Witness the falling of the Vietnam Diem regime which was replaced by Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Cao Ky who were despots. When they were overthrown upon US exit from Vietnam they were replaced by Communist Ho Chi Min and his Viet Cong. If one wants to see REAL tyranny look to that or to the Cambodian Pol Pot who rivaled some of the worst despots who ever lived. There are, of course, many other examples.
Our government is not perfect but we have one where, at the very least, our grievances can be addressed. It was not easy to get here and we have changed for the good at times despite or maybe because of the diversity of our numbers. Think about it when you think that picking up a gun and using it to maim or kill your fellow American whether on the political left or the right is a dandy thing to do. Making the policy of a government which would control a country of over 300 million people is hard to do. Policy is made through the torturous art of compromise which does not make for viewable media highlights.
When we do not like the policy we should CHANGE it, peacefully, through the avenues we already possess. We should not threaten to pick up a gun to water the so called “tree of liberty” since the water that tree is asking for is our fellow citizens’ blood and, ultimately, will not give us liberty but WILL surely give us death.
Saturday, April 03, 2010
The Collective Millions: My anger at the Church goes far beyond the sex scandal although that is the mirror image reflection of Vatican corruption throughout the years. What, of course, makes my blood boil is the fact that at this time of year, ESPECIALLY, the Jews of the Diaspora particularly in Eastern Europe had to hang their heads low HOPING that they would not be the target of the Christian populous' venom. Many Jews were harassed, assaulted and killed during Easter for none other than the trumped up centuries old alleged crime of deicide. It is this that stands alone which planted the toxic seeds of anti-Semitism with its roots in New Testament theology and to this day is an issue as Benedict returns to the Latin mass a prayer hoping for the conversion of the Jew. I ask in what fantasy does this pope with his Nazi Hitler Youth past live?
I discussed this issue and this Pope Benedict with someone of intellect. She, I thought, made an astute observation. She said he smiles BUT there is no smile in his eyes. She thought they remained steely cold and I agree. There is that steeliness in him that I believe harbors the worst anti-Semitism with its etiology in his youth. It is because of this that he returned after many years the Latin prayer asking for the conversion of Jews, it is because of this coldness that he wanted to reinstate Bishop Williamson and others in the ultra-conservative Society of St Pius X even though Williamson is a Holocaust denier, it is because of this that this pope wanted to make a saint of Pius XII who did LITTLE and could have done much from the pulpit when so many Jews faced the horrors of their final hours. Pius XII was a right wing anti-Communist who liked the Nazis more than he liked the Communists and whom Benedict thinks is deserving of, what, a promotion?
In MY world many popes, the Catholic Church and Christianity in general have MUCH for which to answer. This Jew lets NO ONE get away with anything anti-Semitic anymore. We and those who understand the Jewish plight must scream NO from OUR pulpits as we have paid TOO high a price for silence. Six million dead is TOO much to forgive anyone of anything lest we ever forget the collective millions of Auschwitz.
I discussed this issue and this Pope Benedict with someone of intellect. She, I thought, made an astute observation. She said he smiles BUT there is no smile in his eyes. She thought they remained steely cold and I agree. There is that steeliness in him that I believe harbors the worst anti-Semitism with its etiology in his youth. It is because of this that he returned after many years the Latin prayer asking for the conversion of Jews, it is because of this coldness that he wanted to reinstate Bishop Williamson and others in the ultra-conservative Society of St Pius X even though Williamson is a Holocaust denier, it is because of this that this pope wanted to make a saint of Pius XII who did LITTLE and could have done much from the pulpit when so many Jews faced the horrors of their final hours. Pius XII was a right wing anti-Communist who liked the Nazis more than he liked the Communists and whom Benedict thinks is deserving of, what, a promotion?
In MY world many popes, the Catholic Church and Christianity in general have MUCH for which to answer. This Jew lets NO ONE get away with anything anti-Semitic anymore. We and those who understand the Jewish plight must scream NO from OUR pulpits as we have paid TOO high a price for silence. Six million dead is TOO much to forgive anyone of anything lest we ever forget the collective millions of Auschwitz.
Friday, April 02, 2010
Accusations against Benedict like Anti-Semitism -- REALLY? What a pile of utter manure for Benedict's personal preacher to equate the criticism of Benedict in the sex abuse scandal to the "collective violence" suffered by the Jews. Yet again this Vatican never ceases to use an opportunity to enrage the Jewish people. That statement is repugnant and an INSULT to Jews in all centuries who had to REALLY suffer the onslaughts of anti-Semitism for ALL the untruths against Jews that Christianity both Catholic and NON Catholic had to offer. Ultimately it became a necessary precondition for the slaughter of Jews under fascism.
THIS pope, like some others, blindly looked the other way to protect NOT their flock's children who were molested by some priests but to protect the Church itself. Oh yes, just like antiSemitism MY posterior. In HIS case the slings and arrows hurled at him are TRUE. He owes yet ANOTHER apology to Jews everywhere. Wonder if we will get it. Don't hold your breath!
THIS pope, like some others, blindly looked the other way to protect NOT their flock's children who were molested by some priests but to protect the Church itself. Oh yes, just like antiSemitism MY posterior. In HIS case the slings and arrows hurled at him are TRUE. He owes yet ANOTHER apology to Jews everywhere. Wonder if we will get it. Don't hold your breath!
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