Another Otherworldy Tale -- A response to Rabbi Gellman: I just simply do not buy hocus pocus and what we WISH could be the state of man as what truly is. We WISH life to be a fairy tale where justice, truth, freedom and purpose prevail but is not. The hope that it WILL be I imagine is eternal but realistically that hope is usually dashed. It is dashed because we live in a real world where the attainment of power and wealth are at its core. This has been so nearly eternally since man, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, has been around. These wishful stories that fascism, war, totalitarianism and other injustices will die are only that ... wishes and nothing else.

The men of peace whom you talk about such as Martin Luther King and Ghandi were assassinated. RFK was assassinated. Rabin and Sadat were assassinated. Hitler was replaced by Stalin. Stalin was replaced ultimately with religious fanaticism. Who does the US choose as a leader in these critical times? George W. Bush, intellectually limited wager-of-war-based-on-lies, religious fundamentalist denier of the truth of science and abridger of human rights supreme interested more in his oil buddies, corporate money and revenge than he is in the survival of the human race and life on this planet.

The world today is a MUCH worse and more threatening place then ever in the history of our species. Powers (plural) have the ability to destroy all life on earth forever. More and more nations will probably achieve that dubious nuclear capability distinction. My guess is they are simply, if you will pardon the pun, dying to use it. The US for all its talk of freedom, democracy and justice has been involved in a plethora of wars all over the globe since its history and many, with the exception of WWII, were unnecessary. We have killed hundreds of thousands sometimes necessarily so but sometimes not. War now prevails over peace and religious fundamentalism prevails over rational thought. Lies prevail over truth. Man is a violent, power loving, and corrupt creature whose world is blowing up or drowning and whose fate seems dismal at best. There is no one, absolutely no one, to stop this descent.

I suppose we can look at a half full glass but I do not see it as such. I see life as Hobbs saw it for what I think it is: nasty, brutish and short. There are no saviors, there are no protectors there is only a continual line of men of folly globally who know exactly how to wage war but little of how to sagaciously wage peace. Worse, they couch their reason for violence in irrational religious insanity. If you want a fairy tale protector or ending read a book because that is the only place I think you will get one.

Beautiful Barbaro: That beautiful Kentucky Derby horse winner Barbaro was euthanized today ultimately due to his original leg fracture when he tried to run the Preakness last year. It is a sad ending to a magnificent animal.

I have long thought horse and dog racing are cruel and inhumane “sports.” Humans are simply using those beautiful animals for their own pleasure and, of course, big money while stressing the animal's body to Olympian heights. Barbaro’s legs just could not stand the stress of it. It makes me sad. People say why do you care it's just an animal but I truly do believe animals have an intrinsic value and just as much right to a life on this planet as humans do without interrupting their natural life cycle. In a way, I see no difference between humans and animals. We are all animals but endowed with different traits. Yes, our brain makes us cleverer but does that mean we have more worth, for example, than a horse which can certainly run faster or a dog which can hunt better or a bird which can fly? Humans can certainly build better mouse traps but I do not think that entitles us to use and abuse other species and I especially loath animals used by humans for immense profit.

I believe we are all meant to be on this earth and to use whatever our capacities are to survive. I do believe in ultimately letting the earth and nature dictate all of our fates without humans imposing their will and being the determining factor of everything. Barbaro and each human too are beautiful and unique in and of themselves. I believe, their natural life cycle should not be negatively dominated by anyone else. Yes, I agree Barbaro needed to be euthanized because his quality of life was reduced so significantly that leading a life free of pain was simply not an option for him. I do to an extent agree with that for humans as well. I believe endless pain and suffering is not what life is meant to be and humans surely should not contribute to that for any specie. Human sport killed Barbaro. At least I agree with one thing, Barbaro is not suffering anymore.

Little Miss Darkness err Sunshine: Perhaps I am unique. I simply do not for the life of me understand what people think is so wonderful about this film or why it is up for any Academy Award. I simply hated it. It was preposterous, ridiculous, inane, certainly profane and obnoxious. Okay, perhaps it said one should be who one is and persevere despite life's setbacks and with a loving family it will be much easier to get through the rough spots. I'll give it that. I suppose it had a message. Still, the way TO the message was insane.

Moreover, something else bothered me. The role of the grandfather made me squirm. The fact that he was disgustingly profane and obnoxiously revolting was compounded by what he said in the company of his granddaughter. There was some kind of, I thought, weird incestuous suggestiveness that I was not at all comfortable with. Would anyone be comfortable with a grandfather who got kicked out of his condo, sniffed cocaine and advised his grandson to bed every woman he can, staying in a hotel room with their female child? The kiddy beauty pageant at the end put the child pornographic icing on the cake for me and it did so by trying to be hilarious about it. There is NOTHING funny about a child being placed in a Jean Benet Ramseyish adult sexual role. NOTHING. This film said and did some uncomfortable things and more than once I was tempted to walk out. I didn't but I wish I had. This film disgusted me.

A post by Maureen Dowd:

This should be sent to every member of Congress and that den of stupidity the White House. Maureen Dowd is a one-of-a-kind magnificently brilliant editorialist. Her editorial is below.

Daffy Does Doom

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: January 27, 2007
WASHINGTON

Dick Durbin went to the floor of the Senate on Thursday night to denounce the vice president as “delusional.”

It was shocking, and Senator Durbin should be ashamed of himself.

Delusional is far too mild a word to describe Dick Cheney. Delusional doesn’t begin to capture the profound, transcendental one-flew-over daftness of the man.

Has anyone in the history of the United States ever been so singularly wrong and misguided about such phenomenally important events and continued to insist he’s right in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary?

It requires an exquisite kind of lunacy to spend hundreds of billions destroying America’s reputation in the world, exhausting the U.S. military, failing to catch Osama, enhancing Iran’s power in the Middle East and sending American kids to train and arm Iraqi forces so they can work against American interests.

Only someone with an inspired alienation from reality could, under the guise of exorcising the trauma of Vietnam, replicate the trauma of Vietnam.

You must have a real talent for derangement to stay wrong every step of the way, to remain in complete denial about Iraq’s civil war, to have a total misunderstanding of Arab culture, to be completely oblivious to the American mood and to be absolutely blind to how democracy works.

In a democracy, when you run a campaign that panders to homophobia by attacking gay marriage and then your lesbian daughter writes a book about politics and decides to have a baby with her partner, you cannot tell Wolf Blitzer he’s “out of line” when he gingerly raises the hypocrisy of your position.

Mr. Cheney acts more like a member of the James gang than the Jefferson gang. Asked by Wolf what would happen if the Senate passed a resolution critical of The Surge, Scary Cheney rumbled, “It won’t stop us.”

Such an exercise in democracy, he noted, would be “detrimental from the standpoint of the troops.”

Americans learned an important lesson from Vietnam about supporting the troops even when they did not support the war. From media organizations to Hollywood celebrities and lawmakers on both sides, everyone backs our troops.

It is W. and Vice who learned no lessons from Vietnam, probably because they worked so hard to avoid going. They rush into a war halfway around the world for no reason and with no foresight about the culture or the inevitable insurgency, and then assert that any criticism of their fumbling management of Iraq and Afghanistan is tantamount to criticizing the troops. Quel demagoguery.

“Bottom line,” Vice told Wolf, “is that we’ve had enormous successes, and we will continue to have enormous successes.” The biggest threat, he said, is that Americans may not “have the stomach for the fight.”

He should stop casting aspersions on the American stomach. We’ve had the stomach for more than 3,000 American deaths in a war sold as a cakewalk.

If W. were not so obsessed with being seen as tough, Mr. Cheney could not influence him with such tripe.

They are perpetually guided by the wrong part of the body. They are consumed by the fear of looking as if they don’t have guts, when they should be compelled by the desire to look as if they have brains.

After offering Congress an olive branch in the State of the Union, the president resumed mindless swaggering. Asked yesterday why he was ratcheting up despite the resolutions, W. replied, “In that I’m the decision maker, I had to come up with a way forward that precluded disaster.” (Or preordained it.)

The reality of Iraq, as The Times’s brilliant John Burns described it to Charlie Rose this week, is that a messy endgame could be far worse than Vietnam, leading to “a civil war on a scale with bloodshed that will absolutely dwarf what we’re seeing now,” and a “wider conflagration, with all kinds of implications for the world’s flow of oil, for the state of Israel. What happens to King Abdullah in Jordan if there’s complete chaos in the region?”

Mr. Cheney has turned his perversity into foreign policy.

He assumes that the more people think he’s crazy, the saner he must be. In Dr. No’s nutty world-view, anti-Americanism is a compliment. The proof that America is right is that everyone thinks it isn’t.

He sees himself as a prophet in the wilderness because he thinks anyone in the wilderness must be a prophet.

To borrow one of his many dismissive words, it’s hogwash.

Tragedy at Lincon/Sudbury Regional High: The violence and death of a student in the safety of his school would have been unthinkable in other eras. The most contraband which I brought to school was gum; the most dangerous weapon a pencil. Profanity and violence directed toward a student or teacher was not even a thought. Something has gone terribly wrong. Hoping to free ourselves from some of the ridiculous societal shackles of the 50's we, I think, reaped what we did not want exactly to sew.

I believe there is a general crudity which exists in this country, illustrated in our culture by the language used, the lack of civility in discourse and, worst of all, in the exhibition of violence without care or concern for the feelings of another. We are exposed to it every day, when we turn on television, watch the evening news, go to the movies, turn on the computer or simply walk into a mall. There is a cacophony of voices screaming at and not listening to each other. Until adults, liberal and conservative alike, learn to treat each other respectfully and to impose upon themselves self censorship, vulgarity and violence will be a way of life so that what happened in Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School will become not the exception but the rule.

Notes on a Scandal -- notable: This was a superb and wonderfully acted film. The entire cast including, of course, Judi Dench (Barbara) and Kate Blanchett (Sheba) gave sterling performances. The film has much to say and there is much to think about. I thought the movie was about loyalty, altruism, friendship, sadness, emptiness and purpose in life. It was about the unexpected and unanticipated outcomes of life. It was about morality and it was about loneliness.

Barbara is an aging, single and devastatingly lonely history teacher who develops an emotional and even sexual attachment to the comparatively youngish, very pretty, newly hired, insecure art teacher, Sheba. Sheba's problematic family life adds to her loneliness. She is married to an older man and has two children who present her with hard-to-manage unanticipated consequential situations. One of her children is a seemingly rather difficult teenage girl and the other is a son with Downs Syndrome.

Wading through her loneliness and difficulties, Sheba commits an immoral act which Barbara inadvertently observes; the stage is set for unforeseen consequences. There is too much in this movie to relate the ensuing events nor would I want to be a spoiler. There are pertinent questions, though, I think a viewer of the movie could keep in mind.

Why do people do what they do? When must we say no to one's impulses? Where is the line we and society draw and is it ever understandable when we cross that line? What is the nature of friendship? Ayn Randian questions always plague me. Are people really altruistic or do we do things because, in the end, we alone need to do them? Does self-interest always prevail and does it doom us? Barbara befriends Sheba and Sheba develops a great misplaced trust. Because of that events unfold and Sheba's world is upended. Barbara, I think, really cares about no one except herself and yet I built up an intense empathy for Barbara whose loneliness literally drips from every pore of her being. Is she evil? Is she completely pathologic as she flits from one receptive flower to the next? Is Barbara's reaction to life understandable? Does Sheba reap what she alone has sewn through her immoral act? Who is the more immoral of the two? What is betrayal and is it ever right? Barbara after all, I think, really does not betray because of a sense of right but because of a jealous sense of wrong that she feels was committed against her.

Personally, although some kinds of altruism, I think, exist, I do believe most people do what it is in their own self interest to do. Barbara did not offer to help Sheba through her difficulties out of an altruistic friendship she offered to help Sheba because she needed and wanted to possess her. Sheba committed an immoral act without thought of consequences to anyone including her family because she, too, needed to do so. The two protagonists were using people to satisfy their own urges and remedy their own disappointments in life.

I do believe we as a society need to create morality and set certain albeit arbitrary standards because, in the end, humans are still primitive beings. Left to our own devices we would do anything we want and a kind of social anarchy would and does often prevail. This film was riveting. I highly recommend it.

I loath the George W. Bush presidency: The damage he has done is staggering. He and his entire administration are like flypaper. We simply cannot rid ourselves of his ineptitude. I loath him because of his cerebral failure. His policies are a reflection of his lack of intellect. I cannot believe we have a president who is so limited and our government is so powerless, even with a Democratic majority, to rid us of this scourge.

This psychologically and intellectually impaired president will simply veto everything the Democrats pass and Democrats won't have the cajones to override immoral vetoes. Whether it's ethics reform, stem cell research or the Iraq debacle he will veto all of Congress's attempt to rectify the horror he has wrought. He is a disgrace. I believe our people got what they wanted especially those so called conservatives of the mid-West and south. Many of them have paid the ultimate price with either their own life or that of their child and other loved ones. Bush is the gift that keeps on giving...and giving and giving and giving.

Because of 9/11 I supported the Iraq war initially because I emphatically thought Iraq possessed WMD's. I thought our government absolutely knew things we did not and would never take us to a huge war based on lies this time. I thought this time our government would make sure to follow military advice.

Sometimes I wonder, what if the US did not act in Iraq and left Hussein and his sons alone? Would he/they then have been in competition with Iran to build a nuclear bomb? That question can never be answered. What we do know now is that the terrorists in the form of Al Quaeda who attacked us on 9/11 and other terrorists from all over the region are certainly in Iraq now. They were not in Iraq under Hussein. Hussein suffered no tyrants except the tyranny of his own regime. It is possible that that regime if left in place would have ensured a terrorist free zone. We will never know.

Further, I also wonder if the Iraq War was not a pretext to ultimately bomb Iran's nuclear capabilities. If so it seems this could not have gone worse. Perhaps Bush didn't care how it went IF he could position our troops in Iraq to provide support for an ultimate air and sea attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

There has been so much death and destruction on all fronts for seemingly absolutely nothing. Certainly Islamic fanatics will not be getting 72 virgins in heaven. What total insanity their cause is. On the other Christian hand certainly, too, Revelations is a story book joke as well. If, however, Bush believes in it then I do not know who is crazier Bush or the Islamic fundamentalists. Maybe it's a tie but the joke certainly is on us.

The Good Shepard -- the etiology of the CIA: I think I enjoyed this film more than most. Perhaps I enjoyed it because I am a very political person and think so often about national and international issues. I am constantly trying to figure out which side is really right. It seems each decade I change my mind. Perhaps it is because history and its analyses change from era to era. With the exception of the moral superiority of WWII, US policy becomes, I think, questionable, throughout the cold war era and beyond. Perhaps no one is all right and no one is all wrong. This country has done some nasty things BUT so has every other country. International politics is not soft and cuddly and if one needs a teddy bear I suggest the CIA, FBI, etc. is not for you. This film, I agree, seems not to take a firm stand although it surely does give one pause as to US interrogation techniques. I think one can relate much to contemporary events and arguments against (and for) torture.

The definite flaw, in my opinion, is the aging process of the actors. Angelina Jolie remains twenty something from decade to decade as does Matt Damon as does Tammy Blanchard and others. It was hard to tell the difference between the ages of Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie's and their son. That made it hard to follow and believe.

I did love the performances though and I loved the subject matter despite the film's lack of statement. Perhaps every film does not have to hit one over the head (so to speak) telling us its definitive point of view but rather should spark discussion of, in this case, power politics and its necessary bedfellow -- immorality. How far would one go to protect oneself, one's family or one's country even if it meant that you had to commit an immoral act to do it? That is a good question and I cannot think of a better time in history to ask it. A warning: It is a long film but I did not look at my watch once!

The Killing of Innocents: The Iraq war is simply abysmal. The brutality is horrific. I do not blame the Marines for the wanton slaying of innocents. War kills innocents. That is the nature of war. When the Allies bombed Dresden we didn't think oh the poor Germans. We thought this is what has to be done to win a must-win war. When Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground it took the lives of innocents. It won the Civil War for the north.

Still, where Iraq is concerned there is surely blame to be ascribed and it lies, in my opinion, at the feet of our incompetent absolutely devastating Executive branch with Legislative complicity and all those who allowed a nincompoop to achieve the most important office in the country if not the world. The blame is on him and the blame is on our American public. Even if the elections were stolen, the fact that they were close allowed this debacle to happen. I think the American public asked for it and they got what they asked for. Now we are nearly one half trillion bucks in debt, lives squandered and the saga of the surge will go on. We have allowed this tyranny to proceed because we have been so shortsighted, so incompetent in our scrutiny of our political leaders and so uncaring because, mostly, it did not affect us. Now that we face losing not only the war but our economic well being and our prestige around the world or worse maybe we will realize a leader who takes this country to war must be held to the highest standard of scrutiny no matter which party holds office and a Declaration of War must be obtained as specified in our Constitution. Bombs and bullets do not work anymore. For a change maybe we should try a little geopolitical diplomacy. It would save us a heck of a lot of lives and a fortune in treasure!

Sadness and Sadam: I hated the hanging of Hussein. Of course like everyone else I berated myself for feeling a note of uneasiness as they slipped the knot around his neck. I suppose I am uneasy about capital punishment. I personally could not slip the knot, inject the needle, drop the cyanide or do anything else whereby I could perform an execution. I leave that neatly to others. More than even the capital punishment question, though, is to me the more disturbing fact of the numerous overt acts of jubilation upon Hussein's death.

I cannot think of one human being that was more deserving of execution than Adolph Eichmann. However, when it was done I do not recall crowds in the street jumping up and down for joy at even his execution. To me it is because the whole endeavor, the whole rationale behind his execution was so sad and so horrific to the civilized mind that killing him did not produce joy. It produced sadness.

I felt similarly about Hussein. He perhaps was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands if not a million people and not just the few thousand he was charged with crimes against humanity about. His crimes against humanity were much larger. The whole episode from Hussein's crimes, to his invasions, to his war with Iran, to the two US responses have been hugely gruesome to many many innocents. So it is not joy that I feel at his execution but sadness that our human species is still after millions of years of evolution capable of this kind of brutality. One more man, Hussein, himself was yet another victim in the saga of slaughter. To me there should be no joy in Mudville but a profound and utter sadness that there still exists today men who act as beasts.

Funereal Futility: Those presidential funerals are interminable. They are too long. Dead bodies being shuttled from sea to shining sea over days is too much for me. It is a wonder their wives – not exactly agile – can take the hoopla. One elderly man at Ford’s Capitol vigil actually fainted. I can understand why. It is amazing the likes of Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Kissinger and other elder remnants of the Ford years remained standing. I had a graveside service for both my parents. My rationale was why prolong the agony. Okay, so my parents were not presidents of the United States. I simply hope the remaining living former US presidents remain healthy. Between the funerals of Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and yes James Brown (even though he was just a singer,) I cannot go through another funereal marathon.

A Ford and not a Lincoln: I have a different opinion of former President Gerald R. Ford now than I did before he died. The plethora of eulogies and kind remembrances metamorphosed my opinion. Before his death I thought his pardon of Richard Nixon was wrong, biased and ill conceived. I even thought, perhaps, he and Nixon had a gentleman’s agreement that Ford would assume the presidency and in return not hold Nixon accountable for the dismantling of our democratic process.

Then Ford died. Perhaps my former belief was in error. So many journalists and historians believe that Ford was the right man at the right time. Many believe his pardon spared a Watergate-weary nation from indicting a President for the high crimes he avoided through his resignation. Perhaps this was so. It seems now to me that Ford spared the nation a lot. Most importantly though, too, I liked Ford’s thoughts on feminism, abortion, a woman’s right to choose, and his thoughts today about homosexuality and gay marriage. I liked Betty Ford’s openness. I liked the fact that people seemed to think Ford was an honest man. He really was reminiscent of that old time Republican politics whereby an innate suspicion of government's involvement in the economic and personal lives of the population prevailed. Ford’s funeral was a return for a moment to that old time Republican political religion. Oh, yes, by the way, I also liked that Ford left a few choice uncomplimentary words for George W. Bush's Iraq debacle. Ah, for the good old days when honesty was indeed the best policy.

Two Climates of Fear: In Jeff Jacoby's 12/24 editorial in the Boston Globe entitled "Climate of Fear" he berates the scientists for creating a "climate of fear." He says "there is always a market for apocalyptic foreboding." I think he is right if it's not one fear it's another. Both George W. Bush and he are so fond of telling us whom and what to fear as well. The only thing the Republican party wants to promote to maintain their power is fear.

The remedy for the global warming fear and the terrorism fear is ending mankind's dependence on oil. Getting us off oil and developing other fuels such as corn, sugar, wind, solar and the like would serve to extricate us from the quicksand of Middle East oil. Let's finally do something about a fear he and the Bush minions hype so often. Let's get rid of our dependence on oil. It just may cure global warming which I think exists and at the same time it just may erase our dependence on the Middle East thereby reducing that other fear ... terrorism. In that way we could cure two fears with one stone and save lives at the same time.

Response to Jeff Jacoby's Globe Editorial 12/20/06
Iran's promise

Jeff, on Iran and Israel we completely agree. This issue is where I part with the academic left and agree with you. If Iran and others say it will completely obliterate the Jewish state by nuclear weapons if necessary, the Jewish people have had too much experience with genocidal anti-Semitism not to take all of them at their word. There is no question about it you are completely correct.

However, where I think I part with you, is that I think American foreign policy since WWII has been nothing short of abysmal. The greatest victory in WWII was that it unequivocally showed US strength. Now since even Korea, certainly Vietnam and the worst debacle of all Iraq II because of its humongous regional consequences, the US has showed what the Middle East bloodhounds sniff and that is weakness. We are perceived as a weak country with the most moronic leadership by even our allies. That is, I believe, our nation's greatest threat and the greatest threat indeed to western civilization itself. No one ever gained anything through weakness. Nations gain prestige through strength.

How we arrive at a position of strength is the golden key. I believe we do not, as things exist today, arrive at strength through bombs. It is a new kind of world. A new policy for a new world order needs to be hewed. This requires the utmost brilliance and in depth understanding of international diplomacy and leadership. It is so very clear we do not have that in Washington today. I don't care if it is Republican or Democrat or the Martian party in power I am salivating for intellectual excellence especially in our executive branch. So far it is not to be found and our nation and world are at risk.

Exception to American Exceptionalism--A response to Howard Zinn:

Dear Prof. Zinn: I read your article “American Exceptionalism” you emailed to me. I do not dispute one fact in that. Of course you are right there have been centuries of brutal behavior by the American government as well as by the western Europeans.

I think what galls you, and me too, as I began to question US Foreign policy, is as you say "The idea that America is different because its military actions are for the benefit of others." It is the fact that we are given American history pablum almost since birth which is supposed to pass off as ultimate truth and upon which our policy both national and international is hewed. It has been responsible over centuries for the death of thousands. There is no question of that.

The problem is I do not possess the reality of what things would have been like IF US foreign policy had been different OR not at all that is even if the west had not colonized the Americas. What would it have been like if people simply left other people alone? What if the western European settlers came peaceably to trade or to live without denying those rights including the right to life to those who were here first? What would have happened if no slave ships arrived?

I think THAT is the apex of the continuing dilemma and conundrum I have had throughout the years. What would it have been like if things historical that were so were not? Would the Indians have lived peaceably, never attacking other tribes or maybe have advanced their culture so that the creature comforts we enjoy now they would have enjoyed as well? Would blacks have remained solely in Africa? How would things have been different?

This sounds perhaps ridiculous because we obviously can never know but I wonder often what things would have been like had the west not imprinted its culture on all those “innocent masses.” Would they have remained innocent? Would they have been benign? Would the world have looked all together different from what it does today if the US and the European west had not placed its hegemonic and cultural stamp on nations? Would Islam have reared its fundamentalist head? Would it have been so bestially violent? Of course, a subject near and dear to my heart: What would have happened to the Jews?

I think those questions are far from being ridiculous. That is why I cannot make a final judgment or assessment of US policy. I do not know what would have happened had the US not happened or if things had been different.

I have suspicions, of course, as I think I have stated in other emails. I believe in the dinosaurs. Watching the Science Channel devoted to the Jurassic and Triassic period looking at what dinosaurs were like gives me a fundamental truth. My partner sums it up by saying: “The dinosaurs stink.” I think that is true they did stink. They were eating and killing machines. I believe, though, they were more than that. I believe they show us a window into the human condition. I think our species is not all that far removed. Salt and pepper in a few million years of evolutionary development so that humans emerge and develop some ethical systems but, generally speaking, I think we still possess a reptilian core.

The program Sleeper Cell on Cable Showtime is riveting. It is about, as you may know, a terrorist cell within the US and the FBI’s never-ending attempt to foil its plots. It is violent indeed but it shows exactly what both sides Islamic and western alike are capable of doing. The brutality of both sides is horrendous. Both sides are two dinosaurs fighting in the same way for the same thing couched in lofty cerebral rationales. They fight brutally, maim, torture and kill each other for the shear acquisition and maintenance of dominance and power. I cannot see much difference between the brutality of yesteryear and the brutality today. The players are different but the reality of what we are in our core is the same.

Even IF all Americans saw the brutality of what our foreign policy has been would they want it to be different? I suspect not. Everyone wants to be on top and everyone is afraid to die. We simply want the other guy to die first. It is truly a tough world indeed. However, when I sleep at night the last thing I think about is I, a Jew, still feel fortunate that blind luck has determined that I live here and not in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, the Sudan, North Korea or Cuba. At least so far I have won the right to life lottery and have the ability to write my thoughts down in this format without fear of a knock at the door. I’ll put my money still on the US with all its faults and hope that the Age of US cultural hegemony will not go the way of the dinosaur but that Darwinian survival prevails.

My Ire Against Iran: Yesterday, the major news networks carried the story of Iran hosting a conference to determine the veracity of the Holocaust. I tried to keep my blood pressure down so I would not have a stroke. This story infuriated me beyond any verbal description. Iran's Ahmadinejad is holding that so-called conference, of course, because he wants to eliminate any rationale for the creation the Jewish State of Israel after the devastation of the Holocaust by validating his denial of it. Invited to this "illustrious" event in Iran was David Duke former KKK member and extreme right wing politico as were several ultra orthodox Jewish rabbis. Ahmadinejad probably let the rabbis attend because he wanted the news media to see how "fair" and balanced he is. Why the Hassidic rabbis chose to attend is beyond the outer limits of my imagination.

I cannot think of one -- not one -- event in human history that was as singularly catastrophic to the Jewish people and to the world as the Holocaust. The evidence for it is more than overwhelming. It has shaped every fiber of my being, every political view I hold and all that I am. I never go a day without thinking of it. There is no single event, in my opinion, which compares to it and the survival of the Jewish people despite it is, as far as I am concerned, the holiest of events. For anyone to desecrate it is more infuriating to me than I have words to describe. I am sure Ahmadinejad would love to hear that I am so angry thus I am trying to quiet my fury so as not to give him that satisfaction. I take a deep breath and know that one cannot deny truth when it is written in black and white for the entire world to see. If some do deny it, however, I am hoping that rational thought will prevail and few will believe what Ahmadinejad has to say about it and everyone will understand him to be crackpot he really is.

ISG: Truth Between the Lines: Iraq is lost. If George Bush does not follow the ISG points which were excellently conceived and more than fair, he and his minions who lied about FACT in order to invade a country who did not invade us, should be impeached, convicted and tried for treason. If he does not change his "stay the course" insanity, Congress needs to cut off funds, gather our troops and workers as safely as possible, declare victory and leave. The presidency of George Bush is a disgrace, Iraq is insolvable and the best I hope for is that regional Middle East violence in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt or God forbid Saudi Arabia does not break out because our weakness is obvious. It is unimaginable that Vietnam could be repeated another time. OUR FORGEIN POLICY AFTER WWII NEEDS TO BE REASSESSED. The US has gone to war constantly, consistently over decades. There is NO truth that we want to make the world safe for democracy. Rubbish. We do things for our perceived national interest power, money and influence. That is what all states do. We dupe our electorate by telling them OUR wars are good wars. War is NEVER good but it is, admittedly, sometimes necessary. Because war is so brutal as well as phenomenally expensive, presidents of this country should NEVER be able to take this nation to war without declaring it as the Constitution requires and ALL of Congress BEFORE war is declared should legally have access to every single document available that offers proof that war is necessary. This is a tragic time for our country. I only hope it is not a fatal time for us all.

A Gate to Paradise? Why is any nomination George Bush offers up is suspect by me? Why was I not fawning over Robert Gates for Secretary of Defense? Anyone, as Maureen Dowd, says including an axe murderer, would have looked good next to incompetent Rumsfeld. Still, I am not at first THAT impressed. I think his nomination like the Iraq Study Group is smoke and mirrors to make "W" LOOK as if he is doing something but in reality he will not. What about Iran Contra? No one asked Gates about that illegality he was a part of? What's so great about him that the Dems fawned and fell over backward for him? He is white bread vanilla ... just the type the Bush crowed salivates over and tries to protect their fortune with. It's back to 1950's future. Maybe the guy is smart and maybe he does have a resume -- well a Republican one. He's from Texas A&M? Doesn't that school have something to do with agriculture? Are they known for their foreign policy expertise? Why not pick someone with experience from Harvard, Yale or Princeton ... or BU? You know Yale, our cerebrally challenged president's alma mater. I'll bet that fact inflates Yale's admission applications. I digress. This is a cynical entry. I can't help it. The decision to invade Iraq was so utterly lied about and so wrong and so stupid and SO lost now I do not see how even God himself could extricate that mad crowd in Iraq which we put there. Malaki I believe will fall. Then what? TOTAL and I mean TOTAL civil war will ensue. Why prolong this misery? Declare victory and leave. Can't we say instead of creating democracy that we just wanted to topple Saddam? Well, we did that, so let's leave before 3,000 more troops have to pay with their lives. I can take defeat. I have many times. Like Bush's father, I am not afraid to cry especially if the rationale for crying would save lives.

Political Processes and Impeachment

I signed a petition to return to paper ballots which will ensure, I think, a fairer election and reduce the possibility of computer fraud. I will attach below a link to the site if you are interested. In my opinion, we need to prevent the Republican and other cheats from stealing elections again. Paper ballots would be one way to ensure they do not steal another as they did in 2000, 2004 and even some in 2006!

Thankfully, Democrats prevailed this time but we can NEVER give up, and must always be vigilant because these Republicans generally do not care about morality (except in our bedrooms) and will do ANYTHING to win. 2008 is a critical election yet again especially if a Bush clone such as Romney, God forbid Jeb Bush or anyone else tied to the coattails of the religious right, runs in some capacity. Even a vice-presidency made up of candidates such as they who will renew the Evangelical religious threat, its reemergence and assumption of power ensuring decades more of religious rule. The influence of this hostile takeover and threat to our fundamental structure in the separation clause of our Constitution must not be allowed to happen again. It has had disastrous consequences from Iraq and US foreign policy to global warming, privacy rights, a belief in science not superstition, stem cell research and many other things crucial to the survival of humanity.

I believe, too, in intense subpoenaed-under-oath-hearings in January, 2007 as to why Bush took us to war. Bush and his corrupt minions need to be held accountable for their murderous policies and above all lies. He should, in my opinion, if these investigations show (which I believe they will) he lied us into war, be impeached. In my opinion, too, he and his cohorts should be convicted, removed from office and prosecuted for manslaughter and crimes against humanity.

He has, I believe, been responsible for the murder of 3000 of our soldiers and the horrific life-long wounding of others because of his lies. He is responsible for COUNTLESS other deaths and injuries as well. He cannot talk about murders in Iraq when he lied his way into a war and committed his own murders which actually PUT more terrorists in Iraq who were not there before the invasion. He shattered a country and all the king's horses had no plan to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Al Quaeda is now in Iraq because HE put them there.

He is a liar, he is cruel, he is a coward who evaded the draft and he is a moron. He is an embarrassment to this nation for the world's eyes to see and he, above anyone else, should be held accountable under the Articles of Impeachment of the US Constitution. Clinton was impeached for so much less. SURELY Bush should be as well because his lawlessness has been so much more egregious, devastating to our way of life and much more unconstitutional. He has committed acts worse than anything committed by any other president (including Andrew Johnson who was the only other president in US history to face impeachment besides Clinton.) None has ever been convicted but I think Bush, et al should be.

George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney, through their administration's policies have breached US Constitutional Amendment I, Amendment IV, Amendment V, Amendment VI, Amendment VII, and Amendment VIII. What is worse then bringing a country to war under false pretenses, lying to Congress, torturing, unlawfully imprisoning and wiretapping our citizenry? These policies have cost unnecessary death, loss of physical capacities, expenditure of huge sums of monies, and the ruination of a sovereign nation state which had not attacked us and had no weapons of mass destruction. He created Middle East regional discord under false pretenses. The list goes on seemingly without end. He has threatened our way of life because he has opened up a hornets' nest of angry people in a part of the world that is one of the most violent areas on earth.

Send email, letters, faxes to prevail upon your elected representatives that you want national leaders to be held accountable for their policies and misdeeds. Send them so our leaders know they can never again take us to war lightly, preemptively without strong evidence and without a Declaration of War as stipulated in our Constitution. Our Founders gave us the tools. As Ben Franklin said when he was asked what kind of government our Founders gave the world he said: "a republic if you can keep it." I believe he would say the very same thing today.

PAPER BALLOT PETITION

http://us.f314.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=2097_5704849_10143_2419_3464_0_8448_9107_2071519180&Idx=1&YY=15750&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b&box=Inbox

A political rant: Forgive the rather lose phrasiology but this is a rant. A friend of mine sent me a petition to have paper ballots. I signed the petition! We need to crush those Republican cheats and paper ballots would be one way to ensure they don't steal everything like they did in 2000, 2004 and even some in 2006! Thankfully, we prevailed but we can NEVER give up, always be vigilant bec. they have no morality and will do ANYTHING to win. While I'm revved up, I believe in intense subpoenaed under oath hearings come January. Bush and his corrupt minions need to be held accountable for his murderous policies. He should, absolutely without question be impeached and in my opinion he should be convicted, removed from office and prosecuted for manslaughter. He has been responsible for the murder of 3000 of our soldiers through his lies and murders of COUNTLESS others. He cannot talk about murders in Iraq when he lied his way into a war and committed his own murders and actually PUT more of the murders in Iraq to begin with. If Al Quaeda is there HE put them there. He is a liar, a coward and a moron and he above anyone else should be held accountable under the articles of impeachment of the US Constitution. If they did it to Clinton they SURELY should do it to Bush who has committed the most EGREGIOUS acts much worse than anything any other president (including Andrew Johnson who was the only other one to face impeachment besides Clinton) None has ever been convicted but I think Bush should be. He deserves it. What is worse then brining a country to war under false pretenses?