The Mystery of the Jews -- Part II a better narration

Thanks to my cousin who is a gifted academic of history I was presented with a much more rational analysis for the success of the Jewish people from the Babylonian exile to the Herculean obstacles of exile and near extermination. I thought what he said was an infinitely better analysis than the Youtube presented because he concentrated not on Biblical stories, myths and a few quotes from the famous but the actual history of both the ancient and modern world. I thought it interesting.

I paraphrase him: As with so many ancient histories embellishment too often rules. The most glaring error in the narrative presented in the Youtube was the Jewish population, pegging it at 10 million in 500 BCE (before the common era.) This was just a few decades after the Jewish exile to Babylonia when many perished in their futile attempt to defend their homeland. Then, just thirty years previous to this count, Persia invaded Babylon and the Jews were decimated since many males had been drafted, Jewish women were often raped and many subsequently were killed. I believe that population original figure to be more than quadruple what many scholars would perhaps agree upon.

If one strips away many Biblical myths and other embellishments, Jewish accomplishments were surprisingly predictable.

During the Roman experience Jews were segregated both by their own choice and that of the Romans. Most importantly and perhaps the pivotal rationale for Jewish academic accomplish was that the rabbis of Babylon demanded Jews become literate. They were the only group that a) could read and b) had scrolls that documented, in part, Jewish history. No other group had this advantage, and that, I believe is the root of Jewish academic and other success.

When Christianity arrived in the 4th century, the great majority of Europeans were illiterate, and the Church later decided to enshrine their ignorance into law. In both Matthew and Mark, the verse about being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle that for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven the church made sure that their alliance with the aristocracy would serve both parties at the expense of the unwashed and ignorant masses.

In the seventh century, with the rise of Islam, the Jews of Arabia and North Africa fared exceptionally well, earning the title of "The People of the Book." This singular skill fostered an immutable spirit of inquiry which, in turn, made the Jewish people the only group of certifiable intellectuals in the otherwise barren landscape of ignorance. Is it any wonder that Jews were sought after by the nobility, beseeching them to become their engineers, architects, tax collectors, accountants, scribes, historians, etc?

The only learning available to the Christian minority was through the clergy, otherwise one was doomed to serfdom (unless of course one had the good fortune to be a noble.)

However, Jewish success helped spread antisemitism, and, within three centuries, European monarchs eyed Jewish wealth with jealous eyes and began their expulsions and confiscations of property owned by Jews. It became easy for the church to mark the Jew as 'the other', making Jews fair game to be maimed, killed and, most importantly, dispossessed.

Europe was hell but North Africa and Spain (the Caliphate) were a Jewish gilded home. While Europe languished in endless wars and so many popes had decimated the population by sending them on six different crusades, the plague and institutional quagmire, Jews flourished, attending the only real universities worthy of the name.

Genghis Khan brought his hordes into Europe and the papacy decided they could no longer afford to pursue crushing the infidels in the Holy Land.

The history of the Renaissance will bring the Jewish people through to modernity and the near annihilation of a people now numbering around 14 million or 0.2% of the world's population. Anti-Semitism will continue into our present time. Part III will be the Jew of the Renaissance to the modern world.

The Mystery of the Jews

I send this not to everyone on my list but to those who know me to be as egalitarian as it is possible for me to be. Those who know me know I do not select myself or my people, the Jews, for chosenness because it leaves out too many others who have been productive contributors to the humanitarian advancement of man despite great odds.

I would be lying, though, if I said there is not a secrete place in my heart for my people, the Jewish people, who remain remarkable for one important thing: survival and defiance of the odds against it for over 3000 years despite so many attempts at brutal eradication and extinction all over the globe.

It is in the spirit of that fact that I send a Youtube that was sent to me entitled "The Mystery of the Jews." Do I think there was divine intervention for the survival of the Jewish people and our so called chosenness by a God whom I do not know even exists? To that I say as Tevya in "Fiddler on the Roof" said: "Dear God why can't you choose someone else for a change?!" I post this video here or below which I will admit, though questioning and doubting much of the religiosity in it, still grabbed at my heart.

http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/the-most-fascinating-video-ever-made-about-the-jewish-people/

A Letter to a Friend

Hi Kayhed. I loved the sentiments in your letter "There should not be a place for hate" published in the "Framingham Patch" cited here or below T'were your thoughts heeded by all a more perfect world would result.

What you say I have adopted as my own set of principles. No matter what the threat, and admittedly there are many, I do not waiver from a humanitarian impulse. I must for what reputation does a human being leave if they are not for love, kindness, generosity and peace. All the major forces like Mohamed -- peace be on him, Jesus, and the Hebrew Bible contain many verses of peace. One must just look for them. The Hebrew Bible states "Be kind to the stranger because you were once strangers in a strange land." Biblical texts contain violence, too, if one seeks it out but there is kindness, goodness and love if one chooses those above hate, violence and chaos.

"The Talmud recounts that a Gentile once approached Hillel with the request that Hillel convert him to Judaism. This Gentile did not want to go through a lengthy regimen of learning, so he told Hillel; “I want you to teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot.” Hillel’s response endures as a lesson for the generations." Hillel taught “Do not do unto others that which you hate done unto yourself – that is the entire Torah. The rest is commentary, go and study it.” Cited here: https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/do-not-do-unto-others/

All religious texts contain elements of violence but it is up to others in each tradition to teach the opposite which can be found in those texts as well. I repeat, one must just look for them.

I do know that man does better when he/she learns to work with others. Violence and war beget more violence and more war so that culture never advances, indeed, never can advance.

I have dedicated my life in retirement to writing for humanitarian causes as I want that legacy even if it appears in only one small corner of the universe to stand for who I am and to help those I could.

We must press on no matter the set backs, no matter the difficulty and no matter the hate directed against us. Martin Luther King taught: “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”

I am with you!

Best,
Natalie
http://patch.com/massachusetts/framingham/letter-there-should-not-be-place-hate-usa-0

Republican debate sum up in one word and one paragraph

One word summary of the Republicon so called "debate": Bellicose. Okay four words -- mean, cruel and unconstitutional.

Most of the so called Republican "candidates" for the presidency want to protect the nation through bellicose lies, eternal force costing thousands more lives, millions more in cash and would keep this nation fighting that war, essentially, forever. "Enduring war depletes the fiscal reserves of a nation," the smartest analysis one  blogger wrote. Carpet bombing a nation into submission making the sand glow in the desert while killing thousands of innocents is a war crime and does nothing to win hearts and minds of those a nation bombs. To the contrary it creates more enemies who desire to inflict more harm on this nation. That said the military must appear strong, capable, modern and repaired but that does not mean eternal war. Eternal war decays a fighting force. Yes, we live in a dangerous world BUT our perpetual war actions making great wealth for the war industry and the candidates for the presidency it supports make an even more dangerous world! Why Trump has the support he does I will never understand. He could not answer a question about particular policy and spouts the same sound bite blubber as he did when he first announced his candidacy. Carson who knows nothing either except perhaps brain surgery did not know what he was talking about comparing taking a tumor out of a child's brain to an army killing innocents. Both do not want it done, he thinks, but are glad in the end that it was. Perhaps the relatives of the innocent dead of those bombed into submission would say otherwise. Maybe Carson's brain needs a little help.

DEMOCRATS ANYONE?  GET OUT THE VOTE FOR THEM AND SAVE LIVES MAYBE EVEN YOUR OWN!

5th Republican Debate -- a Portrait of Hate

Tonight's 5th Republican "Debate" will be the worst assembly of political Cretans vying for the highest office in the land in the nation's history and in our history there have been some doozies. It makes chills of horror run through one's spine to think any of them could step 2 feet near the Oval Office.

When George W. Bush looks good to you you know there is something amiss. The Party of Lincoln bears not an iota of similarity to those who will be the stage-standers at tonight's 5th Republican "debate." As a matter of fact Lincoln would today be a Democrat. The Party of Everett Dirckson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower is no more. Now the Republican Party is made up of Joe McCarthys, KKK members, American Nazis--Stormfront subscribers and the likes of a Steve Scalise Republican Majority Whip who spoke in front of a white supremacist gathering.

The Republican Party is a portrait of hate, exclusion, and unexceptional know nothings who would not have a humane thought in their body politic if you hit them over the head with it!

"Naked Among Wolves"--a Film Review

I have seen many films about the Holocaust since the first documentary newsreel I viewed in a local movie theater at age 10. It showed Auschwitz and other concentration camps liberated by the Allies at the end of WWII.  I could not, then, understand the political history of what I saw but I certainly understood the piles and piles of dead bodies who would not experience another sunset, the piles of shoes which would not walk another step, the piles of spectacles the eyes behind which would not see another blue sky, or a loved one, or a mother, a father, a husband, a wife or even see their own children.  The children were prepped by the Nazis for slaughter above all others because those Jewish children after all would grow up to be adults whom they reasoned – Germans were so good at reason — would continue to infect all of Europe.  I knew enough to know that beast of human history dedicated to exterminating the entire Jewish population of Europe could have exterminated my family if my grandparents did not have the foresight to leave their dastardly Russian pogrom-overrun home 1/2 century before. 

What I did not see then in newsreels was what it was like, what it actually was like, to experience a slaughter so barbaric, so cruel and so sickening perpetrated by so called civilized human beings on an unfathomable number of 6 – 10 million innocents reflected in the piles of bodies I did actually see in newsreels which made this 10 year old child sick.

“Naked Among Wolves” was one of the most authentic docudramas of that accursed time I have seen.  It was about life in the men’s cell block at Buchenwald.  It was about men worked to death, tortured for the slightest perceived indiscretion, shot simply waiting to die in the filth of their excrement or hoping to live as Allied liberation drew near.  They come upon a 4 year old Jewish boy hidden in a suitcase by his father brought into their midst to save under the gravest most life-threatening conditions.  They try to save him.  You must watch the film to see if they did.

I am of the opinion that one should not shield oneself from this and that one must remember history if history is to have any meaning for us at all. 

When I was a young activist against war I used to say the Holocaust had a purpose, that it was for something higher and that this was perpetrated on so many for a lofty reason.  As I aged and  my political thought took shape I asked where was God that so many innocent human beings were made to suffer for years in dumb anguish.  Now I say god was nowhere as 6-10 million Jews seemingly died for nothing, that the Holocaust had no meaning and no purpose.  It was about hatred of "the other."  “Naked Among Wolves" is a film I believe ALL should, especially in our time, see but suspect few will.  I cry useless tears hoping against hope that human beings will change and that one group will not wipe out “the other” so that, in time, we will not all perish from the earth.

Something funny for a change!

Something absolutely funny hysterical for a change: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/will-ferrell-reprises-george-w-bush-role-saturday-night-live-n479211

Scroll down.

Will Ferrell Reprises George W. Bush Role on 'Saturday Night Live' to Mock GOP Field www.nbcnews.com "I've made a big decision. I'm entering the race for president of the United States of America," said Ferrell's Bush said in the show's cold open.

The "Problem" -- CNN Tapper's Interview with Trump

Again and again the media does NOT follow up with the correct questions to Donald Trump's outrageous policy statements. He is always talking about the "problem."

How about asking if Muslims in this country and outside of this country would rail against his policies?  Would those policies provoke violence and not stop it? I suggest his policies will get people killed and it will NOT have the effect of stopping the "problem" but will enhance it.

Trump wants to get at the "problem" and find out what is causing the "problem." Why did not Tapper introduce the issue of American foreign policy over decades causing the "problem." Radicalized Muslims hate American boots on their soil. The US has had thousands of boots on their soil and built hundreds of bases which create the appearance of permanent occupation all over the Middle East. Worse, and I aver the etiology of the "problem" began with a Bush war based on lies against a sovereign nation that did nothing to us and still worse exploded the Middle East into sectarian war complete with the entrance of Al Qaeda and ISIS which were never before there.

How about asking Trump if his inane and impossible-to-implement solutions would make the "problem" worse!?

Would American boots on the ground for oil increase the "problem" and would this nation asking what religion someone is before entering the country increase that "problem" about which Trump is inordinately concerned?

The mainstream media FAILS to ask appropriate questions as if this nation is so innocent of fault for its present day circumstance. Ask Trump how US foreign policy in the Middle East has created the "problem." The media avoiding that question is the true political correctness over which boundaries it refuses to step.

Free Stop Bigotry Sticker

Get your FREE "Stop Bigotry" sticker today!  http://action.dccc.org/free/free-stop-bigotry-sticker?source=em-share_free-stop-bigotry-sticker

Arab Israeli Leader: 'We Are Living Proof That Arabs And Jews Can Refuse To Be Enemies'

By Charlotte Alfred of Huffington

here or http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ayman-odeh-joint-list_5668898de4b0f290e521ac36

My cousin Jon :)

You ain't seen nothin yet

After the terrorist attack in Paris the true specter of fascism is alive and well in France, a country which heretofore knew of it and sent many to their deaths because of it.  Memory is directed to the 1940's French Vichy Regime sympathetic to Hitler and the Nazis.  The emergence in these times of terror and fear is the appeal of extremist right wing nationalism as represented in France by the National Front Party of Marine Le Pen, usually on the right wing fringe, but now winning some regional elections with its anti-immigrant message.  (See link here and below.)

In the US the complexion of many ultra conservative right wing red Republicans in local, state and federal legislatures is seen.  Moreover and, in my opinion, worse is the odious specter of the anti-immigrant nationalist Trump capturing at least the Republican presidential nomination if not winning the presidency itself.  The Republican wing in our nation knows little moderation now.

When hard violent times erupt one can always count on homo sapiens man to do the worst of all possible things and allow the mean, cruel, mendacious anti-immigrant extreme nationalists to gain power and create more violence.  The authoritarian personality emerges.  Republican John Dean of Watergate fame said: "True conservatism is cautious and prudent. Authoritarianism is rash and radical. American democracy has benefited from true conservatism, but authoritarianism offers potentially serious trouble for any democracy.”

Go ahead, elect the extreme Republican right.  I can assure you as bad as the violence is now nationally and internationally if the anti-democratic extremist right gains immense power in western civilization as Al Joson would say "You ain't seen nothin yet!"

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/paris-terror-attacks/frances-far-right-national-front-makes-breakthrough-after-attacks-n475286

IT WILL BE UP TO ALL OF US TO ENSURE THIS NOT HAPPEN.  THE PERCENTAGES OF THE REPUBLICAN EXTREME MAY SEEM GREAT BUT, IN TRUTH, IT IS NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LARGER MUCH LARGER NATION ITSELF.  WE ARE THE MAJORITY BUT WHOSE VOTE HAS BEEN CO-OPTED BY GERRYMANDERED DISTRICTS DRAWN BY REPUBLICANS. IF THE VOTE WERE FAIR DEMOCRATS WOULD HOLD THE LEGISLATURES EN MASSE. THE ONLY WAY THESE REPUBLICAN MALEVOLENTS WIN IS FOR DEMOCRATS TO STAY HOME.  DON'T!  GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE AND GET TO THE POLLS BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY! AND OH YES, WATCH OUT FOR THE FRAUDULENT REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED VOTING MACHINES THEY WILL STEAL YOUR VOTE IF THEY GET THE CHANCE.

A Pic to Ponder

Send that around the web!

Snopes says the picture is untrue.  I do not know if Snopes is correct.  If it is I apologize which is MUCH more than Trump would do about any of his plethora of lies.

Strange Bedfellows

The fact that this nation invaded Iraq a country that did nothing to us and the fact that we have been involved in the heart of the fragmented Middle East with its sectarian warfare for 14 years because of it, refugees from those wars will seek asylum. The wars in which this nation involves itself produce refugees who seek safety from constant mayhem and death. The more this nation is involved in and making policy for foreign lands risking the fragmentation, dismemberment of populations and the constant war it engenders the more there will be refugees whom we have the moral obligation to help. There are and will be many Middle Eastern refugees because we are in that part of the globe involved in its eternal civil wars often the result of US foreign policy gigantic error.

Now we must worry about strict immigration policies for those refugees from those areas and worry about visas which provide free access to this country by those who were born here and the wives/husbands picked up along the way who obtain automatic citizenship through those marriages.

The fault dear Brutus said many times is not in the stars but in ourselves for our crushing Middle East policy over what else? -- OIL, money and the power it brings not to mention the evil side effects of climate change oil helps create. It is sickening.

I am NOT a Trump supporter but he is quite right when he says we are a nation that has been controlled by stupid people who cannot think more than 10 minutes ahead as to what the ramifications of its violent Middle East policy for a “new American century” will be.

My mother used to say “whichever way you make your bed that is how you will lie in it.” This nation’s policy makers made the bed and must lie in it. The problem is all of us must lie in the bed with them!

IF YOU THINK THE STATE OF THE WORLD IS BAD NOW JUST WAIT UNTIL A BULLY AND WARLIKE REPUBLICAN IS ELECTED PRESIDENT. AS AL JOLSON USED TO SAY: "YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN YET!" ELECT DEMOCRATS TO ALL POSITION OF POWER OR RISK THE END OF OUR NATION AS WE KNOW IT AND THE END OF THE PLANET ON WHICH WE ALL RESIDE. WE ARE, AS THE GREAT HELEN CALDICOTT, SAID ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT!

A Republic IF you can keep it

The Republican Party and its political shill the corporate media especially Fox Faux News FAIL to give the American public the rest of the story. There are many sides to our current political morass and some of it, perhaps much of it, is in reaction to toxic American foreign policy over decades perhaps centuries. I am convinced of it.

What you do not know about what your government is doing in your name particularly in the Middle East, particularly for oil and the power it brings may in fact dramatically hurt you, the nation and the world. In pertinent part it may get us all killed.

You must not be ignorant of facts, you must maintain your humanity and our majority must elect a government that promotes these ideals and NOT succumb to extreme fascist-like demagoguery of the extremist Republican Party in our midst. The politics of a Donald Trump and his supporters are a cancer flowing through the national veins. It must be electorally exorcised and separated from the body politic or we will succumb to its metastasis.

As Dr. Benjamin Franklin said in response to a question when he was asked during the creation of our Constitution: "Well, Doctor, what have we got a Republic or a Monarchy?" He answered "A Republic IF you can keep it!"

IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER THAT YOU KEEP THE PRESIDENCY IN DEMOCRATIC HANDS, TAKE BACK THE SENATE AND ERODE REPUBLICAN TOXIC INFLUENCE IN THE HOUSE. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS NOT ABOUT YOU! GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE

MADNESS: 14 Dead at Social Service Center in San Bernadino

My worst fear that the attack would be terrorism by an indigenous Middle Eastern person(s), born here basically undetectable. It is my worst fear because I worry for those of Middle Eastern extraction who will be swept up with one brush of hostility, accusation, and discrimination of innocents especially by those on the right wing extremist part of our political spectrum which in our time is increasingly the majority of the Republican Party.

We still do not know if the shooter who was employed by the Social Service Center had a workplace grievance. For some it will not matter as the name will confirm all their prejudgements and hate. We of good will must be slow to judgment and all must learn somehow in some way to live together.

As JFK said in his commencement speech at American University, June 10, 1963:

"... So, let us not be blind to our differences — but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”

To that I say Amen!

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET OUT THE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS?  VERY.

Refugee response or lack of it

Although I loathe the author of the post, Douglas Feith, and all the other neocons who besides the incompetent George W. Bush and his administration, are responsible for the utter explosive chaos throughout the Middle East and its blow back on the west that is ENORMOUS, the Wall Street Journal (admittedly a paper I do not usually read) oped makes some points as to the Gulf oil sheikdoms response or lack of it to the Syrian refugee crisis.

We have been in bed with pythons that I hope will not ultimately devour us because of what else the filthy planet polluting oil. Climate change and oil are the AK47's pointed at our heads! The Middle East mayhem, climate change and oil are intricately intertwined and IF we keep electing science denying idiots to positions of power then we deserve the utter destruction we WILL ultimately get. Science always has the last say and does not care about religious nonsense, mythological irrationality or money making gluttony!


HOW MANY REASONS DO WE NEED TO KNOW THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF LIES IS THE POISON IN OUR MIDST?  GET OUT THE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS IN FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL ELECTIONS.  AS I HAVE SAID SO MANY TIMES I AM DEMOCRAT BLUE IN THE FACE.  NOTHING LESS THAN OUR LIVES AND THE LIFE OF THE PLANET IS AT STAKE!

here or http://www.wsj.com/article_email/an-obvious-unused-home-for-refugees-1448928225-lMyQjAxMTE1MjAzMTkwODEyWj

Donald Trump's Good Fortune

In the psychologically profound film “Ordinary People” about a family coping with the death of their oldest son there is a confrontation on a golf course between the Beth, mother of the dead son and her brother, Ward, seemingly untouched by family tragedy.  It is the following:

Ward: Beth, we just want you to be happy.

Beth Jarrett: Happy! Ward, you tell me the meaning of happy.  But first you better make sure your kids are good and safe, that they haven't fallen off a horse, been hit by a car, or drown in that swimming pool you're so proud of!

Audrey (Ward’s wife): Oh Beth!

Beth Jarrett: Then, you come and tell me how to be happy!"

I loved that film because it spoke to me.  I know both what the loss of a child can do to a family and I know disability from my own personal experience.  My mother knew both as well since she lost that child two weeks after giving birth to it.  She knew sadness again when her only surviving child suffered paralysis from polio.  She said to me that she was not so fearful for my childhood, although children can be cruel, but she worried about my young adult years when the goal is a body beautiful to snag a mate. 

In reality my childhood did not endure taunts by friends but my experiences as an adult were more problematic.  One “friend” compared me to a pigeon who had lost its foot saying “Oh look that pigeon looks like you!”  A boy with whom I was supposed to blind date walked away from me as soon as he saw me walk.  There were, of course, more uncomfortable experiences that are both unnecessary for me to relate and difficult about which to write.

I relate these personal experiences in response to the clear mocking by Donald Trump of the joint disease disabled reporter he claims he did not know but whose lies about those claims are exposed by those who know the truth and say so for all the world to hear.  Clearly, Trump knew him and clearly Trump was mocking him because the writer caught him in yet another lie one of so many he tells.

No one who has not experienced it can truly understand what it means to be physically different.  No one who has not experienced it can truly understand what it means to walk out of the door with a disability which not only makes it harder to navigate but harder to endure the insensitivities of others who seemingly win life’s lottery.

It is hard to know what to say to this Cretan Trump man with no heart.  If we become intoxicated with his insensitive evil then WE become truly evil ourselves.  I suspect and I surely hope in the end he will fail and that he will do so in no small part because of his wretched mocking of a disabled man!  Extrapolating Beth of “Ordinary People” fame: Lucky are you, Donald Trump, that you have had good fortune that your kids are good and safe, that they haven't fallen off a horse, been hit by a car, or drown despite the riches of which you are so proud.  Quoting another from the Bible Trump says he loves so much but I suspect he has not read:  “What profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his soul?”  What profit a man, Donald Trump, what profit him indeed?!

ARE TRUMP AND THE OTHER REPUBLICANS JUST LIKE HIM THE AMERICA YOU WANT?  I SUSPECT THEY ARE NOT.  GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE FOR SOMEONE WHO CAN WIN AND THEN IF IT HAPPENS WE DEFEAT THE REPUBLICAN MENACE, BREATHE A SIGH OF RELIEF FOR YOU WILL HAVE SAVED THIS NATION FROM ITSELF!

Lloyd Kaye: “Metro West News, November 29, 2015 Lives lost to 'knee-jerk militarism” -- My Response

Lloyd Kaye--Lives lost to knee-jerk militarism:  There are still some people unwilling to walk down the path of militarism. I am one of them.

Vietnam was insane. Iraq was a crime. And what we have done and doing to the Middle East and its people is simple indiscriminate bombing of huge populations of civilians. There is no justification, only families left lifeless in their own homes as a result of 500 pound bombs from U.S. aircraft or drones. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Syria. Justifying this policy of militarism has never been and will never be acceptable.

The result of such large-scale bombing has already left millions of refugees all over the borders of Jordan and other nations unable to provide the services needed for so many. The unwillingness of the West to reform the Picot-Sykes borders or to stop supporting dictatorships for decades at a time has resulted in a societal destabilization of the Middle East and is now spreading to Europe and Asia. One of the problems related to all this is the unwillingness of the West to admit publicly what they have done in the Middle East the past 40 years.

Sadly, I am hoping mature diplomatic negotiations and agreements will take place and prevail. However, the knee-jerk reaction of militarism has again taken the West down a path of wasted time and resources and lives.

My Response:

Lloyd, another wonderfully written opinion by you and one to which I agree most profoundly. Nations it seems rarely admit fault or guilt for the heinous actions of violence they employ in war unless they are roundly defeated. With the exception of Nazi Germany I am having a hard time coming up with ones who admit guilt.

Every war you site in which the US has engaged in merciless tactical killing of innocents I believe is correct. At least the obliteration of the hospital of Doctors Without Borders engendered an apology and an admitted mistake by US military brass but that is rare. Not only does the US not apologize for is gruesome mistakes of waging futile wars it does not usually even admit the mistakes exist.

The Middle East mess is courtesy of a George Bush administration -- a man who did not have the cerebral capability needed for a president of the most powerful nation on earth. It was chilling that man who did not even get the popular vote was elected by a politicized Supreme Court. Now we pay the price when we elect clearly unqualified leaders.

The chickens are coming home to roost even to our allies because this nation post WWII is addicted to war that makes millions of bucks for our Washington entrenched military industrial complex. The first rule of an alcoholic addiction problem is to admit one has one. Now we suffer not only in trillions of bucks wasted but so many lives lost and other lives by the tens of thousands perhaps if one counts those who are on the receiving end of the bunker busting bombs millions ruined. It is a tragedy, an American tragedy, of Shakespearean proportions which still has no end in sight.

A Thanksgiving response to a friend

The sentiments that you said in your email made me cry out of thankfulness. You are MY template for all that is good in us. I am more than thankful for you, I am blessed because of you!

I just had time to read the attachment you sent. There is nothing to oppose. The Indians like so many "others" got their posterior handed to them by Anglo Europeans. Learning these things does not surprise me nor does learning about Indian history before the Anglos had the inclination to overtake the land surprise me either.

What it does is emphasize man's proclivity to view every "other" with suspicion and worthy of ultimately eradication. That never left us as we so often today see war a constant method of ameliorating the bad as we define it. Will it ever be different?
I say the Serenity Prayer: "God grant me the wisdom to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."

Our nation's Thanksgiving myth will probably never be eradicated and in truth maybe it shouldn't be. It emphasizes befriending the "other," sharing a meal with him and accepting each other for who they are. Okay, so it's a myth but the sentiments are good and let's face it the Anglo European culture (though thoroughly mixed) is not going anywhere any time soon. I say, know the truth but remember the good parts of myth as it is better than always thinking that the Anglos brought disease to a people who were later trampled to death, nearly eradicated through the wars that were waged a upon them and the agreements Anglos made with them broken.

What would our nation be like had the Europeans never set foot on this soil? I suspect whatever it would have been it would not be so great. This Mecca of amalgamation that is America may, as Lincoln said, not perish from the earth.

Love always to all those you love in your life

"Spotlight": Why a free press matters

I saw the film "Spotlight" which is, as most likely know, a film about the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team’s exposé of systemic pedophile sexual abuse of children by priests in the Catholic Church in Boston and the Church’s cover-up complicity of it.  Viewing it took courage as, quite frankly, some things despite the worldly horrors we are privy to each day, are so noxious, hypocritical and sickening that it takes fortitude to view the stories about it in detail.

 

The film itself starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams was expertly crafted and the acting was without flaw.  Happily, it did not reenact the many sickening crimes.  Through a few adults re-telling their horrific experiences one could, I thought, cope with the retelling of their trauma.  It was a seamless and truth-telling reenactment of the "Spotlight" team's investigation of the Catholic Church's most impactful and nearly self-immolative destruction not only in Boston but ultimately all over the nation and even the world.  The Globe's exposé was an earthquake indictment of an institution many thought sat next to God himself.

 

Sadly, most institutions whether the Church or money-driven power-crazed government will sell their soul for a price and the Church paid a heavy price for doing just that transferring pedophile priests from parish to parish and "treatment" centers to "treatment" centers without a whisper to the authorities of the priestly crime of sexual abuse of minors lest it cast aspersions on a sacrosanct institution.  The church remained in silent cover-up of itself despite its rape of so many young souls.

 

I viewed it because I thought it important to do so much as I think it important to view the history of the Holocaust though it is difficult to do. We view these things so that light can be shown on silent darkness and so others may never know such crushing experiences again. "Spotlight" is spotless in its focus and makes crystal clear why a free press matters. Without the exposure of these indelible crimes by the press they might never have seen the light of truthful day and nothing would ever change from one generation to the next.

 

Framing this utterly funny pic Norman Rockwell would love!

Eating Trump would make me sick!

here or

https://www.facebook.com/PeeFartyHatriots/photos/a.146479628702533.28614.146475095369653/1226505297366622/?type=3

MORE TO THANKSGIVNG HISTORY THAN PILGRIMS

I thought this blogger's post below was worthy of note.  It is in response to those who do not celebrate Thanksgiving or do so as a holiday of mourning--the Indians.  There is another story someone posted that remembers history which does not begin in 1620.  I paste it indented and in italics and my response is below it.

There is more to the history of Thanksgiving than the Pilgrims.  He states:

The Mashpee Wampanoag were (literally) decimated before the Pilgrims arrived; first by war with another Indian tribe (the Tarrantine War 1607-15) then by an epidemic (1616-19), leaving only about 10% of the 1600 population to greet the Plymouth landing in 1620.

The then-leader of the Mashpee Wampanoag ( Massasoit) allied with the Pilgrims for protection against the Narraganset, which proved provident when the Narraganset attacked the Wampanoag in 1632 and the Pilgrims came to their aid.

It was not until the next generation that the settlers and the Wampanoag fell out, resulting in the1675/76 King Phillips War (King Phillip was Massasoits's son.)

Few Americans know our own history let alone history before the Pilgrims arrived.  That is the problem. Our history by many is divided into the white hats (the good guys) and the black hats (the bad guys.) If it were examined one would see the hats are a variety of shades of grey.

I for one am thankful my grandparents had the foresight at the beginning of the 20th century to have immigrated here. If they had not either the Russian pogroms or ultimately the Holocaust would have killed them. I celebrate Thanksgiving as my favorite of all American holidays with the knowledge that there is always more to the story.
Every time I take a shower and clean water comes out I sing "God Bless America!" So many in this sad world of ours look forward to a life of famine, disease and/or war. We must help humanity improve living conditions which in the end is the real key to ending conflict and send war to the ash bin of history!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!