A Letter to Bob Herbert: Bob Herbert's editorial in the New York Times today entitled "When Democracy Weakens" (link below) was particularly meaningful to me because it included a quote from the Boston University professor and activist Howard Zinn. I knew Bob Herbert quoted Prof. Zinn correctly because Prof. Zinn said the same thing to me as well. I wrote the following:

Dear Mr. Herbert. I was so happy when you mentioned that lunch you had with Howard Zinn. Prof. Zinn was my mentor at BU during the turbulent 60's. He was instrumental in forming the perimeters of my political belief. When I became disabled five years ago because of post polio issues he and I corresponded via email many times. I began to write opinions on my blog and in letters columns as well. The questions I have on things political are endless and I barraged them endlessly to him.

I also saw Howard Zinn in a restaurant in Newton, MA and we chatted a bit. He told me that he had had lunch with you and considered you to be one of the finest journalists he knew. I concurred with him on that point. When I became saddened or depressed over the political right wing trajectory of our nation he infused me with hope by saying the very same thing about which you wrote and that is that change, when it comes, will do so NOT from the top down but from the bottom up. He also said to me it was more important who was in front of the White House than who was in it.

I wonder now what he would have thought of Egypt. I am sure he would have loved it. But more importantly for this country, whose braggadocio is endless, what would he have thought of the "bottom up" Tea Partiers, Republican takeover and Democratic bloodbath in the House and all that you iterated in your opinion. I think the Tea Partiers were NOT the type of grass roots change he had in mind.

These people do not see how the corporatocracy has co-opted their American Dream. The blind war-like patriotism and racism, too, are the corporatist weaponry of choice which appeals to the mostly white, red state and older part of a fragmented nation . I fear it is working and that group has no idea what the oligarchy has in store for them. Quoting in pertinent part, George Carlin who said "Don't expect anything. The game is rigged. ... It's a club ... and you ain't in it!"

My politics has wax and waned over the years but I TRY to remember the prescient advice Prof. Zinn bestowed upon me although sometimes it is difficult to believe what he maintained and helped orchestrate all of his life. His death was a personal intellectual tragedy for me. Some people cannot be replaced and he, to me, surely is one!

: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/opinion/12herbert.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB)

"Why you will always exist": People who know me are aware (probably ad nauseam) of my perennial big question dilemmas whether political, personal, religious or existential. I have always been intrigued by the larger questions of life, its meaning, where we fit in the spectrum of things and, most importantly of all, why. What happens after death and what IS the purpose of it all? I came across an article on Huffington Post which I link below.

It really does not answer the why of things as, I believe, nothing really can unless, of course, one has faith which remains in short supply in my own universe. I am, however, open minded and always thinking, searching and reading works of scientists and others that try to explain what is seemingly unfathomable, infinite and, for now and maybe forever, inexplicable.

Dr. Lana's article (link below) "Why You Will Always Exist: Time Is 'On Demand' " caught my eye. I am not sure I understand it all and walk away from it feeling still quizzical. It is an interesting article, though, and gives one pause for thought. If any of you read this and have thoughts on it I, of course, welcome them.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-lanza/biocentrism-why-you-will-always-exist_b_820183.html

WOW...I have a lump in my throat with a tear streaming down my cheek as the Egyptian people prove that change can come from the bottom up. I HOPE that this effort at democracy continues to be a wonderful moment not only for Egypt but for the world.

This Jewish person wants more than anything in life for there to be peace, mutual understanding and cultural exchange between our people. I wish them well. As our own Ben Franklin said: "You have a republic IF you can keep it."

Keep it Egypt, sustain our hope!

No Room in the Inn: Jeff Jacoby's editorial in The Globe yesterday "No room at the table for the Muslim brotherhood" was excellently written and spot on correct. My alarm bells are on hair trigger alert when the smell of an organized religious usurpation of government power is in the air. I could not agree with Supreme Court Justice Jackson's prescient words more. "The Bill of Rights is NOT a suicide pact."

Those that gain power as adherents to dogmatic religious institutions talk a fair democratic sweet game before they assume power and quite another authoritarian one when they actually take the throne. The US and Israel are quite correct to worry. It is exactly as Jeff Jacoby said. When Islamic fundamentalism, its call to
jihad and imposition of Sharia law take hold it does not take long before all other opposition is silenced if not obliterated.

I would, however, expand his ideological point of view. My flashing red lights go into a frenzy when our own nation's religious interference in the rules of the state, through the vehicle of the Republican party, become stuck to the mechanics of government. Islamic fundamentalism is frightening when it assumes the power of the state BUT it is no less frightening when Christian (or even Jewish) fundamentalists want to crush opposition to the constitutionally mandated church state separation in our own country. Our nation seems often to be going Middle Ages backward as adherence to fundamentalist Christianity has now become the litmus test for entrance into a Republican political party and its ultimate quest for power.

I am an equal opportunity employer. Religion intertwined with the state is a recipe for disaster. I am no less frightened of in our own nation than I am in Egypt. Religion tied to the state is an anathema to democratic politics everywhere. I see Mr. Jacoby glaringly omitted that fact!

A Wonderful Book: I read "The Invisible Wall" written at age 96 by Harry Bernstein (he is now 100 years old!) It is a beautiful, intriguing and an emotionally poignant work. My copy is tear-stained in more than one place as I related to many segments about Mr. Bernstein's childhood and his life's journey. It takes place at turn-of-the-20th-century England in a mixed blue collar neighborhood which saw Jews living on one side of the street and Christians on the other. It encompasses the Jewish experience of Anti-Semitism in the WWI era, both groups' grudging acceptance of each other and travels his own personal journey with its twists, turns and heartache as he climbed with courage and innocence the Mt. Everest of a difficult life.

It reminded me a little bit of Thorton Wilder's "Our Town" but from a Jewish perspective. There are too many chapters for which I could wax ebullient. In short, I thought it was a wonderful book and very well worth reading. He gives inspiration to those of us whose experience did not turn out quite as we expected it would. He breathes hope into a tired spirit many times slowed by life's vicissitudes.

Mr. Bernstein, gives me inspiration. His book conveys that it is never too late to pick up the remaining pieces and begin anew.

I am profoundly touched by this work!

Current Keith: For all you who love Keith Olbermann politically as I do or even if you are not thrilled with him he will be joining "Current TV." If you have FIOS as I do he will be on Channel 192. If you have Comcast he is on that but I do not know the channel number, likewise for Direct TV. RCN I am not sure but I think he will be on RCN.

I believe he has not started yet as his contract with MSNBC must run out. It looks now like Current at least tonight does not have much I would be interested in. Other days I am not sure. You can look it up if you Google Current TV.

I for one am THRILLED that FIOS has it as I am absolutely smitten with Keith Olbermann. I just love him and think he is brilliant. I am glad he is on my side of the political fence and I hope he is utterly successful in his new venture! If I were younger -- MUCH younger I would apply for a job at Current TV, wherever the hell it is!;-)

Did I ever tell you I loath winter. I cannot wait for spring!

A Liberal's Lament: This morning I read the story in the NYT of the AOL buy-out of and merger with Huffington Post, one of the most predominant liberal news sources and blogs in the country. (See link below for the story.) I believe the conservative giants are eating the progressive media for lunch and therefore the public is getting a toxic diet of news that not only represents right wing opinion but dramatically and often lies to convey it. I wrote to the NYT’s blog (with a few changes made) where it possibly will be posted. I said:

When I first read the headline of the AOL buyout of Huffinton Post, my heart sank. It says AOL is apolitical but I am not so sure I see AOL as that. Maybe it is simply my own progressive perception but I did not view AOL, with their “Today on AOL” subliminally skewed news headlines, as an entity that evoked the liberalism Arianna Huffington Huffington’s Post did. Again, I thought the right wing media is trying to gobble up the news market and neutralize what small amount of progressive opinion there is. First MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann appears to have vaporized after the Comcast buyout of GE and now Huffington Post is merging with AOL. Huffington Post and MSNBC are two of my moral compasses which seem to be disappearing before my eyes. If, as the article says, Arianna Huffington keeps control of Huffington Post’s editorial content then maybe my heart can stop skipping beats. We shall see.

I, of course, rabidly detest Fox No News News and the 95% control of the radio market by dozens of other right wing extremist media gargantuans. They make it impossible for intellectually cogent viewpoints on the left to be heard by an American public who has a paucity of well-informed historical knowledge and poorly formed political opinion based often on gross distortions if not boldfaced lies of Fox News and those like it.

I am still in mourning over Keith Olbermann. He was so much a part of my life. Both Huffington and Keith delivered a mighty wallop to the impact of so called "conservative news." We, as progressive consumers of news, need solid news reporting. Please, Ms. Huffington, secure this new venture's place so it never slides over to the right wing side of the aisle. And, by the way, if you see Keith Olbermann please tell him his voice is missed. Every night at 8:00 p.m. something important is missing from my life. It is this liberal’s lament.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/business/media/07aol.html

Facist Fruits: James Carroll yet again has written an exquisite article entitled "Tullia Zevi's 'fruitful dialogue'" in the Op Ed of the January 31, 2011 The Boston Globe. I urge you to read it if you have not already done so. I attach it below. When it comes to the Jewish people and our sad tortured history this one time prospective Catholic priest turned author, teacher and lecturer gets this history of his Church and the Jewish people absolutely correct. Tullia Zevi and I have something in common. We both selected our political stance based on the reality of the worst right wing extremist nightmare ever perpetrated in the history of man.

He is spot on when he talks about the history of the Catholic Church he still loves and its connection to the Nazi period and the Holocaust. Mr. Carroll pulls no punches. He indicts his beloved Church through its own edicts and/or sins of omission by various priests and popes, for their complicity in the Shoah. Many, including this Pope, Benedict the XVI, will offer tepid acknowledgment of the Church's collective guilt for the world's longest hatred and its role in the greatest genocide of the 20th century. The Church, though, even today welcomes with open arms those reactionary clearly anti-Semitic forces within it which spew the same noxious fumes which have been so well documented over the centuries.

When I read Mr. Carroll's editorials I can only marvel at their accuracy and swoon over his perfect prose. At the same time as a Jew I am in perpetual mourning for my people who must continuously suffer these slings and arrows that sting no less than they did decades, centuries and even millennia ago. The Arab world at this moment may be set to unleash its fury against the Jewish state if not today then next week, if not next week then next year, if not then than at some other hour yet unknown. As I write this the die is being cast. The Jewish people, yet again, face millions who would love nothing more than to see them gone from Israel, gone from the Middle East, and, indeed, many who want to see us gone from planet earth.

I am both happy and eternally sad when I read Mr. Carroll's articles because he gets the Jewish historical experience exactly correct and indicts the players of power no matter where they lie. Then I ask: Who reads Mr. Carroll's excellent works? Certainly few today who are poised to turn the Arab world on its head. When I see a protest poster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak with a star of David on his head I remain, as a Jew, perpetually in mourning for my people and always vigilant!

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/01/31/tullia_zevis_fruitful_dialogue/

Revolution, Evolution, Equilibrium and Egypt: The destruction of Egyptian equilibrium and the distinct potential for the evolution of revolutionary change in the cerebral synapses and heartbeat of the Middle East mandates careful thought. This could be a phenomenon of gargantuan import the development of which will have an effect on possibly the entire planet. What is at stake? 20% of oil flows through the Suez Canal. Oil is, we know, unfortunately too well, the lifeblood of the planet. What is made without oil? Answer: NOTHING. From the food we eat to the fuel our cars guzzle, and to the tires that trucks which transport that food -- ALL of it -- come from oil. Even plastic comes from oil. Civilized life as we know it cannot survive without oil.

The domino effect seems to be taking place in the Middle East as one after another regime falls. That tortured part of the world has experienced in recent history so many social tsunamis it is difficult to count them. From the CIA induced overthrow of Mosaddegh in Iran in 1952 and the installation of the US approved tyrant Shah to the overthrow of the Shah by Islamic radicals in 1972 setting up an Islamic Iranian near-nuclear state, the decade long Iraq/Iran War, the American induced expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait in Iraq War I, the fiasco and continual war of George Bush’s choosing Iraq II, the overthrow of Musharif in Pakistan and the assassination of his probable successor Benezar Buhto, the present president of a nuclear Pakistan her husband Asif Ali Zardari, the continuous fighting in Afghanistan and the propping up of the US sanctioned but uber corrupt Karzhai government, the continual wars of numerous entities and Israel, the overthrow of the government of Tunisia, the unrest in Yemen and now, the biggest enchilada of all, Egypt’s 30 year strong arm but more secular and western friendly leader Mubarak may be going down. If one includes terrorism on other states around the globe turmoil coming from that neck of the woods is endless.

Round and round she goes, where she stops nobody knows and THAT is the problem now about Egypt. Will the tyrant but more secular Mubarak stay in his very religious country, will a successor chosen by him be installed, will democracy rule or will the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic fundamentalist group, supersede everyone else? It is a complex hot cauldron. Pick your poison.

As Shakespeare’s Macbeth’s witches said “double, double toil and trouble caldron burn and fire bubble.” Someone on a blog asked: What is worse for the west and for Israel than another Iranian style Islamic revolution in Egypt? Answer: NOTHING. Islamic fundamentalists will make quick enemies of the once friends of Mubarak and they will have leverage – the spigots of blood life oil in that strategic part of the world. Since the question of Palestine has not been successfully determined at all it still is the spark that could ignite the powder keg in this worldly cauldron of double trouble.

States that select religious fundamentalism as their master will trade one tyranny for another as religion – ALL fundamentalist religion – will keep people subjugated, keep women without power and relegate all belief’s questioners to the jails if not worse. Unquestioning religion in the extreme is a retardant on culture, science, knowledge and growth. Evolution is a scientific mandate but cultural evolution is at the whim of man. It can advance or not. It can go forward or reactionarily backward but it will not stand still.

Bulletin: There is NO perfect world. There is no utopia. One must work despite man's frailties but within man’s strength for reason to prevail. I have little love for Islamic revolutions because they perpetrate, as all fundamentalist faiths ultimately do, mayhem on innocents. Religious fundamentalism of any stripe be it Christian, Muslim or Jewish is intransigent in its thinking and, often, at least subliminally, violent in its behavior. Mixing religion with politics is a toxic brew in a cauldron of trouble.

I do NOT support the US meddling in Middle East regimes changing them like someone changes underwear. In the long run it hurts us because things there are not predictable even by the savviest "expert" intellect. They get it wrong. Just look at Iraq.

The people must decide on their own who is to govern them. Before, though, centuries of culture and decades of power which kept a culture together even with a precarious glue are torn down one should think long and hard before that social upheaval takes place.

We live in a different world in no ordinary time. The Internet and other technological connections make the world a very small place. We are able to have a revolution by a few clicks of a mouse. Revolution, evolution and then equilibrium could be a formula for growth. Think well, though, if you think what you replace will be better than what you already have! Ask many Iranians who want democracy how they love the mullahs in the Islamic Republic of Iran. They just might say not very much, not very much at all!

Abortion in the Extreme: I post below the link of Jeff Jacoby's latest Boston Globe op ed piece "Abortion's dangerous euphemisms" and sent him my objections to it.

Jeff, I loath yet another of your columns so much that even though I am tortured by a rhino virus, I cannot let this one go. Your Op Ed "Abortion's dangerous euphemisms" is yet an additional hypocrisy. The column is another attempt to deny the choice a woman should have when determining what she does with her own body and this choice should include whether she brings her own pregnancy to term. Your article does what so many right wing ANYTHING-BUT-HUMANE radical extremists do especially concerning the choice debate and that is use an utterly horrific atrocity allegedly committed by Dr. Kermit Gosnell to encompass the state of all planned parenting and abortion providers today.

Gosnell and his loathsome actions did a similar thing that a few climate scientists did when they lied about global warming data. They ruined it for the majority of scientists whose work is impeccable and prove global warming beyond a shadow of a doubt. These two perversions of science are morally reprehensible but that does not obviate the TRUTH of the science of global warming nor do the disgusting actions of Dr. Gosnell (if true) preclude that most, if not nearly all, abortion providers do so in a HUMANE, medically professional and pristine manner saving MILLIONS of women from the botched illegal abortions of yesteryear. Moreover, they risk their own lives to do it. You cannot, or rather should not, indict entire necessary-to-the-woman's-health procedures by the horrendous actions of one psychopathic alleged doctor.

War is the taking of FULL TERM human life but I do not see you writing columns about reducing the size and scope of our military which often is engaged in the killing and mutilating of the life of already born children and adults. No, your criticism is left for the termination of FETUSES by the women who bear them. Yes, they are FETUSES. They may be unborn but it is contestable even among some Jewish orthodoxy and others as to when life REALLY is endowed with a sense of person hood. Endowing a fetus with the same rights of a full term person, except by the uber hypocrites of the Catholic Church, fundamentalist Christianity and now most of the radical Republicans, is the ridiculous voice of American unreason in the extreme.

If you care, REALLY care about human life you would be for single payer health care, the immediate reversal of illegal and immoral war killing thousands of innocents and you would be for a paring back of a military industrial complex run amok. But you don't. You on the right wing radical extreme ONLY care about life when it is the life of a fetus and when you can control the sexual behavior of women but not when it is full term human life that is in the crosshairs.

I ask you how much to YOU remember in utero? I remember NOTHING at that time. As a matter of fact my first memory of self awareness is THREE years old. How many three year olds have been slaughtered and dismembered by this country's horrible, unnecessary, and government approved wars while we sip our Starbucks coffee and worry about who will win the next American Idol -- too many to count. You want to talk about life? Let's talk about life. The lives of infants to the infirm elderly in Iraq and elsewhere were squandered by a giant US military killing machine gone haywire.

Watch Frontline's "The Wounded Platoon: Third Platoon, Charlie Company. What happened to them in Iraq, and what happened when they came home."

Let’s talk about true life butchered by a policy that not only takes human life but dismembers a Middle East fomenting discord and death even in countries we need to perfect an Israeli/Palestinian peace. And to make matters worse it bankrupts our nation which could provide necessary services to the maintenance of FULL TERM human life but which nation's blood money has run out. I guess though for you and the rightwing extreme machine only fetuses count!

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/01/26/abortions_dangerous_euphemisms/

A Letter to the Supreme Court: Dear Justices: I turned on to my online news link and a story is posted whose title is "Judge throws out ban on online ammo sales." (Link below)

A CA judge gave thumbs up to online selling of ammo. The country is slowly going insane.

This is such a terrible decision in the wake of the Tucson shooting. We are an unhinged utterly divided nation, violently sickening and unrecognizable from anything I ever remember this country being (I am 62 years old.) This is a horrible utterly horrible decision. Felons can now buy ammunition online in California. It opens the door for any state to do the same thing as the NRA and gun organizations selectively choose where the suit is brought making sure it is before a George W. Bush or other radical justice pick.

Respectfully, the US Supreme Court has become a political arm which makes it as corrupt and unrecognizable as our entire country reflects. Judges speaking at political even extremist organizations and in secret I do not think would sit well with our Founders. Justice Thomas, Alito, Scalia, and Roberts most specifically, I believe, have lost their moral scruples and compasses. Justice Thomas, Scalia, and Justice Alito have, in my opinion, taken this court to a new low by cavorting with clearly political bodies, who may in fact have business before the court and one Justice most disrespectfully mouthed opposition to the president at last year's State of the Union speech. It simply contributes to the noxious milieu in which we live.

Justice Scalia brazenly socialized with Mr. Cheney a person who had SIGNIFICANT business before the court. These conflicts of interest including Justice Thomas's wife not reporting to the IRS the name of the political company for which she worked is scurrilous. If we cannot expect the highest officers of the law in the land to obey the law than who can we expect to do it? Being above the law should be abhorrent to those who are officers of the court.

This Court may give thumbs up to unfettered online purchase of guns, ammunition, assault rifles and who knows maybe soon rocket grenade launchers. This would be unconscionable.

Perhaps I am stretching the importance of this decision but the direction of this violent nation is clear. The carnage of the Congress on the Corner tragedy and the shameful murders of police officers all over the land who give up their life to defend us from psychopaths political and non-political alike, is right before our eyes constantly. Every day in this nation there is some horrific shooting attributable to gun violence somewhere. What has happened to this country? Is this what our Founders thought the Second Amendment was for? Could they ever have foreseen a nation of 310 million strong having the ability to act like it is the lawless Wild West?

I am not a conspiratorial doomsday subscriber but I can surely see why those people think the way they do. The signs are ominous indeed and we must pay attention. It is to our peril if we do not. I urge you on this specific issue to consider carefully your decisions. We are all at risk and we all -- at least those of us who consider ourselves sane -- want this nation to thrive. More and more guns in the possession of more and more people who should not have access to them and made simpler is a clear and present danger to the republic that should trump any interpretation or affinity one may have for the Second Amendment.

Your politics, too, should rise above fray and beyond the president who brought you to the dance. You should do what is necessary to maintain the safety and security of all of this endangered nation and you should most obviously refrain from secret, clandestine and obviously political meetings which reveal easily how you will decide. It is wrong, it is unethical and in some cases it is even illegal. That behavior surely would not be tolerated if a liberal justice were to do that. You should be held to the same standard as everyone else and recuse yourself from hearing pertinent decisions where you have had contact even political contact with parties to an action.

Think well upon what you decide and think how many people it will help or hurt when you render your important precedents.

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2011/01/online-ammunition-sales-to-continue-for-now.html

Gunning for US: Do you believe this story on MSNBC?: "Judge throws out ban on online ammo sales." (Link below)

A CA judge gave a thumbs up to online selling of ammo. The country is slowly going insane.

This is such an IDIOTIC decision in the wake of the Tuscon shooting. We are an unhinged nation, violently sickening and unrecognizable from anything I ever remember this country being. This is a horrible utterly horrible decision. FELONS can now buy ammunition online in California. It opens the door for any state to do the same thing as the NRA and gun sicko organizations selectively choose where the suit is brought making sure it is a George W. Bush judge pick. The US Supreme Court politically corrupt and unrecognizable as well ESPECIALLY the less than fabulous four Thomas, Alito, Scalia, Roberts and sometimes five IF Kennedy, who has some moral scruples, may give thumbs up to unfettered online purchase of guns, ammunition, assault rifles and who knows maybe soon rocket grenade launchers.

Maybe I'm stretching the importance of this decision but the direction of this violent nation is clear. The carnage, including the SHAMEFUL murders of police officers who give up their life to defend us from psychopaths political and non-political alike, is right before our eyes constantly. Every day in this nation there is some horrific shooting attributable to gun violence somewhere. What has happened to this country? Is this what our Founders thought the Second Amendment was for? Could they ever have foreseen a nation of 310 million strong having the ability to act like it is the lawless wild west?

I am not a conspiratorial doomsday subscriber but I can surely see why those people think the way they do. The signs are ominous indeed and we must pay attention. It is to our peril if we do not!

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2011/01/online-ammunition-sales-to-continue-for-now.html

Who We Are--A Culture of Cruelty: I urge you if you read nothing else to read this article (link below) entitled

"America's Culture of Cruelty"

Monday 24 January 2011

by: Henry A. Giroux, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed



This is one of the best, most insightful articles about the current sad state of American culture, discourse, and incivility. It is, indeed, profound journalism and, in my opinion, eminently worthwhile and, ultimately, to my chagrin and what should be the chagrin of all of us, represents the declining loftiness of American life.

I had viewed last week a CNBC documentary on the pornography industry in America. I thought that it represented an anything goes philosophy which has gone unchecked in our culture and I tried, rather unsuccessfully at least to my standards, to link it and the anarchistic violence which never ceases but ceases to amaze many of us who see it constantly on their local or national news broadcasts where even our police who try to keep us safe are not safe themselves.

I was going to try to do a better job linking these two issues that I think are related but at least for now, this article expresses my feelings on the vulgarization, crudity, violence and mayhem that goes unchecked in nearly every institutional forum from the Congress, to the unrestrained nod the Supreme Court gave to big money in Citizens United, to our unbridled economic views to movies and their previews of coming attractions, to music and to the polluted airways of violent television and even to our ever increasing violent empire building foreign policy which has killed and subjugated hundreds of thousands relegating the powerless, unseen by us, to an abject life of totalitarian violence, misery and death.

This article says it better than I ever could. Perhaps in the days ahead I will get together my thoughts and add an anarchistic disgusting anything goes sexual behavior which hiding behind First Amendment cover abuses women and even children bringing in deadly consequences while 8 year olds are subjected at the dinner hour to ads for male impotence. No wonder we are a haywire people. Boundaries in every forum have ceased to exist.

For now, though, this article is a MUST read. In part it gives insight into who we sadly have become in America today!


http://www.truth-out.org/henry-a-giroux-americas-culture-cruelty67049

Seeing Red not Green: Joan Vennochi wrote a great article in the Boston Sunday Globe entitled "Evergreen's declawed clawback" (link below) which talked about a governor that lied about how much an energy saving company Evergreen was given in loans by the state and how much it paid back. Then to make me see red it shipped (with our taxpayer dollars) their entire business to guess where? China, of course! I wrote an opinion to the Globe and Joan Vennochi:

Ms. Vennochi I am an ardent Democrat but your Boston Sunday Globe January 23, 2011 op ed "Evergreen's declawed clawback" shows to me over and over again how even a Democrat running on a platform for honest change can be anything but honest. These unconscionable immoral porcine feeding at the taxpayer trough are SO in bed with business that even elected officials who purportedly are part of the humanitarian change for which we on the left are yearning are swept into the vortex of pay to play politics. Moving from corrupt, dirty, depleted oil to environmentally safe fuels is what we want but we want that because it will bring jobs and business back to this country NOT take it out. What happens? We the taxpayer of Massachusetts give this unethical company 60 million and not only does a Democratic governor who ran as a left of center candidate, lie about the amount the company was given and owes, that vile company ships the WHOLE enchilada to China a country which has us over the barrel (so to speak) like a mafia loan shark would hold a borrower over the barrel of a gun. The guilt then is at not only the state level but the federal level too by its lack of significant change in tariff and trade policy.

It is, yet again, the middle class taxpayer who is deep sixed. This is UNCONSCIONABLE "Evergreen" should have been forced to sign a contract that said if they move ANYTHING abroad without paying the money back to the state they will be forced to pay fines in triplicate and maybe even suffer criminal prosecution of its CEO's as well who continually thumb their noses at those who loaned them big money. This should include the ability of the state legally to go after these corporate thieves abroad. If they do not sign an agreement to pay the loan back and keep jobs in this country than the loan should never be made. They have a STRONG ETHICAL duty to this since the state and the country give them their opportunity for great wealth. It is MY money and it is YOUR money. It's every citizen's money but we reap little. We, the middle class, are the ones who can least afford it and are held economically hostage to inherently corrupt people and policy.

Republicans are guilty of this ten fold but Democrats are as well and what you wrote surely shows that. This is why the Tea Party formed BUT they are misguided. If they think the unbridled free market is about them they are sorely mistaken. Greed knows NO morality and when government, the people's ONLY recourse, knows no morality and is in bed with business then I do not know what what the answer is. Yes, strict oversight, perhaps, BUT they cannot put the same foxes in charge of the chickens the foxes are killing and further our elected officials who do not meet their ethical responsibility should face censure as well.

The real answer is a Nader-like grass roots movement that brings honesty, transparency and ethics to those we put in positions of great power.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/01/23/evergreens_declawed_clawback/

Finally Joe is saying so: Joe Lieberman is leaving the Senate (see a NYT link below which a relative sent to me.) Say it is so, Joe! Joe Lieberman, as far as I am concerned, has no legacy. He is a traitor to his party and even, I believe, to the nation he claims to love. Lieberman committed his pecuniary power to perpetuating policies and a McCain presidency which would have done nothing but put intellectual lightweights instead of intellectual heft into the White House. Mr. Lieberman, you picked the wrong side, thank God.

He was the Democratic, let me say that again, the DEMOCRATIC nominee for VP in 2000. It sure is a long way from Tipperary. He threw his allegiance in 2008 to Republican John McCain, an old man with medical maladies including cancer and risked the possibility, if McCain could not govern, of having know-nothing Palin as a president plunging this country into a Medieval darkness worse than the eight years of the George W. Bush presidency if that is possible.

Country first? No, I don't think so. Mr. Lieberman supported the Iraq carnage, supported invading and perpetuating the invasion of a country that did NOTHING to us. He helped this country waste billions of taxpayer dollars and most importantly committed himself to a policy of never-ending death for our troops as well as contributing to the hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in Iraq. He, by his support of Bush war policies, contributed to the destruction of a country which caused a million refugees to flee from certain death and destruction by staying in that country.

Joe Lieberman was a morally bankrupt politician who cared more about the health insurance industry campaign contributions and his wife's conflict-of-interest job in the insurance industry than he cared about sound public option health care which could have saved millions and could have put the nail in the coffin of an industry which deserved it. It could have gotten employers out of the health care business a place where most loath being. But Joe wanted to be the center of attention with all of the nation’s eyes on him. He wanted everyone to lick his boots and beg him for support. Ah, the power he must have felt! He is a hypocrite of the worst order and he will, hopefully, have no power soon. Well I can hope can't I?

He overruled the dictates of an election by aborting his Democratic Party allegiance and slithered in as an Independent because he could NOT and did not win in the primary as a Democrat. Lamont SHOULD have been the senator from Connecticut. One hopes that the people of the good state of Connecticut, a state which I love, will return to its moral senses and vote Democratic in 2012. God knows we need them to do that as the American people in the mid section of this country and elsewhere tend to like to step on their own toes and vote for a Republican party which is NOT about their own economic interests.

Yes, I thank Mr. Lieberman for his help in the DADT repeal. After all, it was the least he could have done! Goodbye, Mr. Lieberman, I for one will not miss you!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/opinion

Palin Imperfect a Response on the NYT comment section to "Exceptionalism, Faith and Freedom: Palin’s America -- a review by NYT Stanley Fish of Palin's “America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag” in relation to the concept of American exceptionalism (Link Below)

I will NEVER read anything Sarah Palin writes. First because she disgusts me and second because I do not want to contribute one penny to her millions she lassoed out of America's pocket because she was a pretty face running for VP on McCain's ticket. I am hard pressed to believe that the authors she quotes are really ones about whom she has read or even thought about their ideas for one nanosecond. The list of quotations is impressive coming from a woman who could not answer the revealing Couric question what magazines or newspapers have you read or another Gibson question about Bush's preemptive war. Wow two short years have passed and Ms. Palin surly has developed such in depth analysis and insight behind the minds of our Founders.

I dare one media such as MSNBC's Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann to have at her. Let's test her mettle in THAT arena. She never would consent. Why? Because her books are ghost written for her I suspect. There is no way on earth a woman who could contrive the cross-hairs for Democrats or even the use of the inflammatory \"blood libel\" reference would have the substance, insight and critical analysis it takes to talk or even present evidence as to American exceptionalism. It will be a cold day in Hades before she gives me enough reason to even care one iota what she believes.

McCain's choice of her for VP one heartbeat away from a rather sickly older man potential president showed that he put anything BUT his country first. She and all she stands for are a cancer on the American body politic. May she fade from the spotlight but I suspect, to my chagrin, she will be with us as long as the superficiality of her biological attractiveness holds out.

I ask her the questions how exceptional was America to the native American, how exceptional was America to the slave, how exceptional was America to those in bread lines of the Great Depression and how exceptional is America to an Iraqi family who was bombed to oblivion out of their home after having done nothing to this exceptional nation?

America has done great things to be sure and I love it despite its inequities. Before the bumbling cerebral lightweight Palin talks about American exceptionalism, however, she should consider reasons why it is a nation state which protects its own interests first even if those interests are taken from those who cannot resist its power!

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/exceptionalism-faith-and-freedom-palins-america/?hp#preview

Black is black: Yesterday I saw the film “Black Swan.” I wrote a review which appears in IMDb. “Black Swan” presents, I think, a modern more updated definition of film noir (black or dark film) that existed in the 1940’s and 50’s. It is, indeed, a psychologically dark film as it attempts to recreate the ballet Swan Lake using Natalie Portman as the film’s Swan queen. Blood, psychological torment, human cruelty and sexual perversion are its emphasis. If that makes you doubtful you want to see the film I do not blame you. I wondered why I made the effort.

I do not mind if I have to go to some lengths to sift through a film and analyze its nuances but this one was too much for my psyche to absorb. When I read theater of the absurd authors such as Pirandello “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” or see a film based on the Edward Albee book "Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolf" I can appreciate its absurdity, its torturous message of life’s difficulty and even the extreme pathology of relationships at its core but at some point if the content gives me nothing else but a headache, I stop and ask why did I inflict this upon myself. Alright already I get the point!

I do not like to be forced to analyze a film to death so that every word and every scene needs interpretation. In this film I kept asking what is reality, what is fantasy and what is simply a psychotic break. Is the woman insane, is the world around her insane or both? There were too many unknowns. I needed a film analyzer to sit next to me to explain the action and/or the symbolism of each scene.

Some loved this movie and see brilliance in it. That may be so but it was much too enigmatic for me to waste my energy attempting to decipher it. Moreover, the rather graphic sex, utterly ugly bloody hard-to-fathom violence, allusions to maternal lesbian incest and other perversions including drug use made me uncomfortable. Watching the minutiae of it was, I thought, unnecessary and disconcerting. There were enough squirmy moments to make me turn my head and look away and ask why a film maker has to show such graphic sexual detail and unhinged violence. I believe there are boundaries one should not cross. I do not want to see some things in living color because, in my opinion, it contributes to the crudity of our culture. I think the illusion of a sexual encounter is often times more erotic than its body machinations which leave nothing to the imagination.

Having said all of that the film does show the complexity of ballet and its all encompassing art form to which some devote their entire life. If Natalie Portman did the dancing herself she is, indeed, a very good dancer. She is also an excellent actress. The part itself demanded hefty talent and she showed she had that and more. The performance often was riveting but the disgusting violent nature of the script, its graphic sexuality and twisted psychological content makes me give it a thumbs down. I loath fluff films too BUT I do not want utterly psycho-pathological, difficult-to-analyze and bloody ones either. I rather watch the swan boats on Boston Common in the spring instead!

Well wishes: Since I had not sent to Congresswoman Giffords my wishes for her recovery, I composed an email tonight and sent it on. Yes, I know I am not the strongest believer but sometimes it simply feels good to offer something, greater than oneself no matter what one calls it in hopes that it helps. I called upon my own Jewish tradition as Congresswoman Giffords is, in fact, Jewish. I hope it made her as it made me feel just a bit better!

Dear Congresswoman Giffords, the entire nation bends its head in prayer for your journey back to good health. The human body is an amazing construct and heals itself even at times when we think it impossible. You are showing the nation that it is possible to heal even from the most difficult injury. Perhaps, your ordeal is a metaphor for this nation which often is so divided that if the basic structure is sound it is invincible even to the most profound assault.

I hope that through you and through all those who suffered with you this nation can take away from it a teachable moment so that people who speak so cavalierly about the use of violence will see that violence, revolutionary talk and guns used to implement one's singular perception of the world can bring such devastating and unnecessary suffering to so many.

I am a polio survivor and have seen what an assault by an outside force on one's body can do. It is amazing, though, the many victims of that disease I have seen who did not capitulate to it but to the contrary, strove even more strongly to take back the life that was theirs. I think you and others who survived this dastardly attack will do the same.

I wish for you to continue to amaze our nation and that the healing that comes to you will come to our nation as well.

There are so many people who do not even know you but now have come to love you as if we were residents of your district. It shows that we are ALL united Democrat and Republican alike in the love of this nation. We all, I know, yearn for your complete recovery.

Since you are Jewish and so am I, I say the watchwords of our faith for you: Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad -- "Hear oh Israel the Lord our God the Lord is One"

May the Lord bless you, and keep you;
May the Lord make His countenance shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
May the Lord turn His countenance to you and grant you peace.

Gorgeous article by David Brooks "Tree of Failure" a relative sent to me.

It should be committed to memory by those of us whose opinions are strong and who get discouraged because it seems our voice is too weak and our opponents too powerful. An article like this should give one pause for hope!


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/opinion/14brooks.html?emc=eta1

Gunning for guns -- A response to the NYT story "A Clamor for Gun Limits, but Few Expect Real Changes"(written by me near midnight quickly, with no edits and accepted for the NYT online): No of course there won't be any changes. Why should so called "conservatives" want to prohibit anyone from overthrowing the government? As long as they replace it with an extremist fascist type one of course. We know that is the REAL purpose of their love affair with the glorious Second Amendment. I LOVE our Founding Fathers but boy if they could have seen the country that the US turned into 300,000,00 strong what are the odds that they would have included the fabulous (I JEST) 2nd Amendment with no restrictions so any sicko like Mr. Laughner the alleged Tuscon killer could do a repeat performance? Zero to none.

Just think about what Gettysburg would have looked like IF they all had AK47's and megga magazine clips and Glocks...so maybe the nation could have had a million dead in our bloody Civil War. No one but no one envisioned a nation with 300 million people and no one would have given the go ahead to have a revolution every 20 years.

Guess, what you gun huggers? GUNS KILL and those states that have the fewest gun owners like in the northeast have the fewest gun deaths. Funny thing about that. Statistics don't lie AND the man who went running in with his gun in Tuscon ready to take down the gunman BY HIS OWN ADMISSION would have taken down an innocent man who was trying to get the gun away from the bad guy. In the heat (pardon the pun) of the moment people shoot without knowing who the heck they are shooting at.

But no, people don't want statistics, they do not want reason. They just want their Glock to keep them warm at night. Well, the Glock will change one's temperature alright from 98.6 to room temperature COLD!!