NB: My post from yesterday "Silent No More" about objectionable comments made by a Bishop in the Vatican was itself commented on by a historian, Gabriel Wilensky. His comment is excellent as he does so from a historian's viewpoint. Scroll down and click on the comments section of that blog if you are interested.

He has also written a book entitled "Six Million Crucifixions: How Christian Teachings about Jews Paved the Way to the Holocaust" His web site is: http://www.sixmillioncrucifixions.com/Home.html

Silent No More -- My Letter to the Vatican:

Bishop Emeritus Babini, was quoted as saying: "They [the Jews] do not want the church, they are its natural enemies." He goes on to say "Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers." The writer in the British newspaper The Guardian quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism [of church pedophilia], considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is."

This is UNACCEPTABLE from anyone let alone a higher-up of the Church itself even IF he is a retired one. He denies that he made the statement OF COURSE, but Babini as stated in The Guardian, "has previously been quoted on the Pontifex website accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, as well as criticizing homosexuality." This statement DEMANDS an apology from the Pope, himself, anything less is inadequate and will be received with insult and anger by the Jewish people and many others in the world who value intellect and reason as man's greatest tool against stupidity and its bestial cousin cruelty.

This is yet another delightful peek into the joys of two thousand years of anti-semitism still safely tucked away in the Vatican residing with this Pope Benedict aka German Cardinal Ratizinger and his merry man Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto. Not only does the good Bishop blame church pedophilia scandal on the Jews but he blames homosexuality for church pedophilia as well. Yes, moronic insanity is alive and well everywhere ESPECIALLY in the Vatican.

There is NOTHING I repeat NOTHING that enrages me like the age old canard of deicide i.e. the Christian accusation of the alleged killing of the Christian God i.e. Jesus by Jews. I, as a Jew, am ALWAYS vigilant because this moronic TRIPE is STILL with us and comes out of the mouth of a Bishop. I thought the Pope and the Vatican are fully aware and can control the most dastardly millennial infused lie many in its ranks still perpetrate on the Jewish people. The Vatican still, despite Vatican II, plagues the Jew and the words uttered by this Bishop are the example of its cancer on humanity. It is why we as Jews and ALL men of conscience WILL NEVER forget and WILL NEVER surrender, to that toxic brew. This indelible stain on the Church is still there and, if we allow, it will fester and grow as it did for two thousand years culminating in the wholesale murder of the six million. I submit some in the Vatican Church and perhaps even the Pope himself with his Hitler Youth past ingrained within him will not rest until every Jewish belief is nullified. This truth is why the Jew CANNOT and WILL NOT let it go and is silent no more. I expect a complete apology from the Pope for his wayward Bishop anything else is simply NOT enough!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews

Lest I Not Be Clear: When I wrote my last small post late last evening, I was tired, and my body is invaded by a relentless rhino virus. Lest I not be clear, if you do click on the link below you will see the direct quote that began the spark that drew the my volcanic eruption. Bishop Emeritus Babini, was quoted as saying: "They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers." The writer in the Guardian (a British newspaper) quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism [of church pedophilia], considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is."

This is UNACCEPTABLE from anyone let alone a higher-up of the Vatican even IF he is retired. He denies that he made the statement OF COURSE, but Babini as stated in The Guardian, "has previously been quoted on the Pontifex website accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, as well as criticizing homosexuality." I rest my case for now but I will have a more cogent response I hope later! This statement DEMANDS an apology from the Pope, himself, anything less is inadequate and will be received with insult and anger of the Jewish people and many others in the world who value intellect and reason as man's greatest tool against stupidity.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews

Prelude to a blog: Well, it's too late now to write on the link below. Just cut and paste into your browser for yet another delightful peek into the joys of two thousand years of anti-semitism still safely tucked away in the Vatican residing with this pope Benedict aka German Cardinal Ratizinger and his merry man Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto. Not only does the good Bishop blame church pedophilia on the Jews but he blames homosexuality for church pedophilia. Yep, moronic insanity is alive and well everywhere ESPECIALLY in the Vatican.

There is NOTHING I repeat NOTHING that gets my ire like the age old canard of deicide i.e. the Christian accusation of the alleged killing of god i.e. Jesus by Jews. Sure, that's old hat. Went out with the ovens of Auschwitz. MY posterior it did. This is EXACTLY what I mean when I say as a Jew I am ALWAYS vigilant because this moronic TRIPE is STILL with us, it still plagues the Jew and it is a cancer on humanity. It is why we must NEVER forget, we must NEVER surrender, we must ALWAYS know that it is there and if we allow it to it will fester and grow as it did for two thousand years culminating in the wholesale murder and slaughter of the six million. I urge you to either click onto this link or paste it into your browser as testament to this truth as to why the Jew canNOT and WILL not let it go and be silent! Silent no more. Good title for my next blog.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews

Statistical Folly--A Fair Deal in the Balance Jeff Jacoby's statistical reductionism in his Sunday, April 10, 2010 Boston Globe article "Support for Israel runs on party lines" which states, simplistically, Republicans/Israel YES, Democrats/Israel YES but less so is absolutely INANE. What do these statistics mean? In reality nothing. I submit President Obama may be perceived as somewhat less hostile to Arab/Palestinian interests and slightly more equitable. How can this perception hurt when the perception of unequivocal Israeli support no matter the behavior nurtured by team Bush brought constant discord?

Our president FINALLY is smart and is TRYING to present a more equitable stance which not only serves Arab/Palestinian interests, but, in my opinion, serves the Interests of the Jewish state as well. There can be no peace, it seems to me, if the peace broker is seen by the Arab and Palestinian side as solidly in the Israeli camp. What fairness is there in that? The constructing of the settlements during Vice President Biden's visit to Israel was, in my view, insulting to Vice President Biden and the Obama administration which wanted a temporary halt to settlement construction while in the middle of delicate peace negotiations because the construction of settlements is contentious. Settlement construction done with a wink and a nod by Prime Minister Netanyahu threatened the peace process itself but, obviously, he did not care or it would not have commenced.

Either one wants peace or one doesn't. The road to peace MUST be paved by at least the PERCEPTION of an equitable mediator. If one were to litigate a mediation in our courts and the mediator said okay I'll mediate but you must know I have unwavering support for party A but I'll try to be fair to party B, that would be ridiculous.

The President has stated unequivocally his support for the Jewish state many times. I, as a Jew, believe he meant it. We who love Israel and want peace have waited for it for over sixty years. Peace, in my opinion, can happen ONLY when both sides think the mediator will be fair so a fair deal can be honed. I believe our president is trying his best to craft a perception that says just that!

A Letter to Virginia Governor McDonnell:

Governor McDonnell: Your elevation of the confederacy to remembrance status by proclamation is DISGUSTING. It would be like an elected official in Germany remembering Nazi dead. Yes, I think that is an APT simile because the southern states wanted to allow the perpetuation of a heinous racist system, and it was a revolt to do just that under the guise of a so called states rights philosophy. Let's call it by its REAL name. It REALLY WAS a treasonous attempt to wage war against the union which WAS the United States of America. I do not care how you dress this proclamation up. Yes, the so called confederacy was a radical attempt at OVERTHROW of the United States of America and the attempt was instituted through rebellion and war. That most of the southern traitors were not thrown into jail is a testament to the BRILLIANCE of Abraham Lincoln. He really DID want to unite the nation unlike you who want to divide it yet again. As Barack Obama said, paraphrasing, we are ONE nation not a nation of red states and blue states, not black and not white … . We are ONE America the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Moreover, that you did not mention slavery as the premier cause of the Civil War was NOT an omission it was purposeful. You KNEW once you did this accursed thing there would be voices angrily opposing it BUT that is just what you wanted. You KNEW some in your state and others in the nation would cheer yet again over two hundred years later a damnable thing which, with great regret, occurred in our country.

Damn you and those like you who want a remembrance of the confederacy to help destroy or split this nation yet again. You are still, two hundred years later, fighting the Civil War. Yes, the war was about many things but SLAVERY and its extension into the western states and territories was the largest issue. Slavery was a mean, cruel, nasty SHAME and slaughter of men perpetrated on a nation whose early revolutionary documents set aside tyranny and proposed freedom. The fact that slavery existed then is our albatross and hypocrisy which malfeasance has taken hundreds of years to undo. This patriot does not see the confederacy as a "cause." This patriot sees the confederacy for what it was – a treasonous war waged to undo by force the United States of America and in doing so perpetuate a horrific institution which caused black human beings to be treated and owned as property. It was this nation's most contentious issue and it has caused much pain and much death.

Governor McDonnell, SHAME on you! Your nostalgia for some romantic notion and remembrance of the confederacy brings SHAME yet again on this nation. The south LOST the war. Get used to it! The confederacy is NOTHING to cheer about or want to remember and if you were born black you would surely know that!

Tree of Blood: One of the front pages on Huffington Post was about the rebellion and possibly toppling of the government in Kyrgyzstan. It is an ugly bloody picture but it is what toppling a government looks like. Just in case any right wingnuts or ANY wingnuts think it is so romantic to overthrow a government it emphatically is NOT. Invariably a government it replaces is WORSE than the one toppled. It is NEVER clean and simple. It is brutal and harsh. Our country is a country of 300 MILLION. It is amazing that it runs as well as it does despite the nasty epithets thrown by the right AND the left against many people who possess power.

Much as there are those in our country who say otherwise, our government really DOES have an avenue to change and it has many times for over three centuries. Our Civil War cost us over 600,000 lives. That is A LOT of lives for the US population then with the crude armaments it possessed in comparison to what we now have. Rebellion is NOT pretty and it is NOT romantic. Rebellion hurts and kills only to find the government it replaces is just the same or worse as the one before. Witness the falling of the Vietnam Diem regime which was replaced by Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Cao Ky who were despots. When they were overthrown upon US exit from Vietnam they were replaced by Communist Ho Chi Min and his Viet Cong. If one wants to see REAL tyranny look to that or to the Cambodian Pol Pot who rivaled some of the worst despots who ever lived. There are, of course, many other examples.

Our government is not perfect but we have one where, at the very least, our grievances can be addressed. It was not easy to get here and we have changed for the good at times despite or maybe because of the diversity of our numbers. Think about it when you think that picking up a gun and using it to maim or kill your fellow American whether on the political left or the right is a dandy thing to do. Making the policy of a government which would control a country of over 300 million people is hard to do. Policy is made through the torturous art of compromise which does not make for viewable media highlights.

When we do not like the policy we should CHANGE it, peacefully, through the avenues we already possess. We should not threaten to pick up a gun to water the so called “tree of liberty” since the water that tree is asking for is our fellow citizens’ blood and, ultimately, will not give us liberty but WILL surely give us death.

The Collective Millions: My anger at the Church goes far beyond the sex scandal although that is the mirror image reflection of Vatican corruption throughout the years. What, of course, makes my blood boil is the fact that at this time of year, ESPECIALLY, the Jews of the Diaspora particularly in Eastern Europe had to hang their heads low HOPING that they would not be the target of the Christian populous' venom. Many Jews were harassed, assaulted and killed during Easter for none other than the trumped up centuries old alleged crime of deicide. It is this that stands alone which planted the toxic seeds of anti-Semitism with its roots in New Testament theology and to this day is an issue as Benedict returns to the Latin mass a prayer hoping for the conversion of the Jew. I ask in what fantasy does this pope with his Nazi Hitler Youth past live?

I discussed this issue and this Pope Benedict with someone of intellect. She, I thought, made an astute observation. She said he smiles BUT there is no smile in his eyes. She thought they remained steely cold and I agree. There is that steeliness in him that I believe harbors the worst anti-Semitism with its etiology in his youth. It is because of this that he returned after many years the Latin prayer asking for the conversion of Jews, it is because of this coldness that he wanted to reinstate Bishop Williamson and others in the ultra-conservative Society of St Pius X even though Williamson is a Holocaust denier, it is because of this that this pope wanted to make a saint of Pius XII who did LITTLE and could have done much from the pulpit when so many Jews faced the horrors of their final hours. Pius XII was a right wing anti-Communist who liked the Nazis more than he liked the Communists and whom Benedict thinks is deserving of, what, a promotion?

In MY world many popes, the Catholic Church and Christianity in general have MUCH for which to answer. This Jew lets NO ONE get away with anything anti-Semitic anymore. We and those who understand the Jewish plight must scream NO from OUR pulpits as we have paid TOO high a price for silence. Six million dead is TOO much to forgive anyone of anything lest we ever forget the collective millions of Auschwitz.

Accusations against Benedict like Anti-Semitism -- REALLY? What a pile of utter manure for Benedict's personal preacher to equate the criticism of Benedict in the sex abuse scandal to the "collective violence" suffered by the Jews. Yet again this Vatican never ceases to use an opportunity to enrage the Jewish people. That statement is repugnant and an INSULT to Jews in all centuries who had to REALLY suffer the onslaughts of anti-Semitism for ALL the untruths against Jews that Christianity both Catholic and NON Catholic had to offer. Ultimately it became a necessary precondition for the slaughter of Jews under fascism.

THIS pope, like some others, blindly looked the other way to protect NOT their flock's children who were molested by some priests but to protect the Church itself. Oh yes, just like antiSemitism MY posterior. In HIS case the slings and arrows hurled at him are TRUE. He owes yet ANOTHER apology to Jews everywhere. Wonder if we will get it. Don't hold your breath!

The Church turns a deaf ear: The New Your Times article on the Wisconsin deaf children abuse case is beyond belief. If you haven't already read it do so at the link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36063186/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times/. It will curl your hair. Not only did the abused 200 boys -- maybe more -- and parents of them report it they reported it to MANY of the church hierarchy who did NOTHING but cover it up including the Pope. It reinforces my previous blog entitled The Abomination -- The Pope in the Cross-hairs. I include THAT link below

You may ask why do I care. It is the hypocrisy I care about coming from an institution that is supposed to be about anything but. Moreover, the sins of this institution against my people, the Jewish people, are, over a period of two thousand years more often than not despicable. Worse they lead ultimately to the Holocaust. The Holocaust could not have existed without Christian anti-Semitism and Pope Pius XII did little from the pulpit to stop it although Benedict wants to make him now a saint.

Beyond that a church and a Pope so utterly in the midst of horrific pedophilia has the gall and the nerve to be responsible in part for California Proposition 8 which denied ADULT homosexuals who merely loved each other and many of whom were NOT Catholic the right to be like everyone else and marry. That my blood boils is an understatement and I believe it is my responsibility as a human being to speak vociferously about this brutal case of hypocrisy. I could not live with myself if I did not.

http://natalierosen.blogspot.com/2010/03/abomination-pope-in-crosshairs-writer.html

Frum the Right: I am sure most of you have heard about the firing of David Frum from the American Enterprise Institute a formerly respectful conservative think tank and an intellectual arm of the Republican Party. What happened to Frum is nothing less than chilling and it shows, I submit, WHY it is so important NOT to lose sight of the November elections to make sure the Democratic Party, the party of diversity of thought and free speech, prevails in Congress.

I am a life-long Democrat BUT I know a respectable conservative voice when I hear it and David Frum is such. I certainly I do not agree with many if not most of David Frum's ideas BUT he is bright and he is a good man. The tea baggers, I believe, in the form of Limbaugh-like clones cut off his legs by having AEI fire him directly after he articulated the error of Sen. Jim DeMint's Waterloo comment against the President. Of course, they trumped up other falsehoods and rationales to offer reasons why they did fire him and If you are interested in what happened to David Frum I offer his own explanation at: http://www.frumforum.com/so-what-happened#comments.

I do not think I am saying this frivolously: the tea bag movement and its usurpation of power within the Republican Party resembles the beginning of a fascist-like right wing nationalist movement. It is mind numbing and violent. It seems clear that ONE disagreement, one march to a different drummer in that lock step and you are OUT. Limbaugh and those like him have more clout than an individual like David Frum who is smart and has contributed much over years to AEI and its cause. The powers that be in the tea bag movement will ask -- NO they will DEMAND -- one utters nothing which questions their ideology. One cannot tell them things they do not want to know or hear but things that may be, nevertheless, true.

The Democratic Party relishes diversity and its accompanying ideas. The Democratic party does not stifle speech and DEMAND one take only one position. As much as I am opposed to the anti-choice position of Representative Bart Stupak I am GLAD in other ways he can still remain a Democrat and welcome him. He brings with him more members devoted to other tenets the Democratic Party holds dear.

The Republican Party has become SO mean spirited, SO pathological in its behavior and speech and SO unwilling to court a chorus of voices who can actually get elected. I submit RACE is a HUGE factor in the vitriol as well as our economic hard times which force that racism, always subliminally there, to the surface. It has happened before in other frightening historical eras in other countries. The Republican Party I hope is sealing its own fate by becoming a party of utter extremists who will not tolerate ANY other views but the extremist ones of the tea bag party movement. The American people are NOT extremists and I hope the this movement will lead the major force of the Republican Party to its doom.

Therefore, if we take seriously free speech we MUST keep Congress in Democratic hands next November and work hard for it to do so all around the country. I plan on supporting Democrats in other states in hope that we can ensure Democratic victories in November. I ask you do that as well.

Violence on the Right: The article by Paul Krugman today in the NYT is EXCELLENT (link below). No, we do not have rationality of thought ruling most especially the airwaves and the computer media. The appearance of anonymity allows in some cases the speaker and writer to think he/she can say almost anything and get away with it. I continue to wonder if it has always been this way and if American politics was infused from the beginning with a kind of lawless OK Corral, Wyatt Earp, Old West mentality. I think that is the case, at least, in part. OK Corral and Wyatt Earp, though, stayed part of historical lore. No one REALLY knows, to this day, the truth behind it and certainly the whole nation at that time did not know instantly about it. Our age gives instant verifiable vulgarity which EVERYONE can read, see and hear from Kansas to Pakistan in a nanosecond. There is a big difference between an age in which communication was primitive to the sophisticated media of visual experience and sound today. The kind of lethal weaponry we posses in this era, too, was not seen even in the Old West.

In my opinion, the most vituperative epithets are being hurled by the right wing against the party in power occupied at the helm by a black man. I do not remember the left wing, supremely critical of George Bush, resorting to the threat of secession and revolution despite George Bush leading a nation into a war based on lies with the attendant killing of over 4000 of its finest youth and the decimating a foreign nation for nothing.

In my opinion, there is a basic humanity within American leftist thought in which the violent ends justifies the means philosophy is iterated by only a very few. The right has as its essence an anger and mean-spirited violence which does NOT have a basic humanitarian ideology at its core. The only message from the right, to me, is hate MOST especially if the opposition is composed of many who are not white.

The extremist right wing is the most dangerous of political movements I have seen in my lifetime. It spawned the Oklahoma bombing, NUMEROUS so called lone wolf killings and anti-government actions stretching over decades. With guns as its love and its militias as its force, I believe, we have reason to fear many on the right including their institutional leaders who cheer them on.

However, I believe the right should be careful. They should not think their opposition will be nonreactive if assaulted most ESPECIALLY if, God forbid, anything were to happen to its leadership. As Japan said about America in 1941, America it is a sleeping giant. For now the giant on the left sleeps but it can be awoken at a moment's notice. The incendiary rhetoric and violence of both political wings should STOP and stop now before that giant awakens and the ramifications of that become much more serious for our nation and everyone who lives in it!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/opinion/26krugman.html

A Letter of Thanks and the Passover Principle: A GOOD day has come. Passover, a holiday celebrating the joys of freedom, will soon be upon those who are Jewish and celebrate it. Even if one is secular, like I am, one can still appreciate its significance and be thankful for the momentous accident of birth to have been born free and thankful to have lived through such incredible historical and social change.

I thank our President for his sterling efforts in securing this momentous health care win. It was not all we wanted but it is a HUGE start. I think he with the other Democratic greats of the Congress will be responsible for the saving of many lives. A mere thank you is not good enough.

We need to now know and the Brown election teaches we can NEVER take our power for granted. We must always be vigilant. I am hoping that the sages of entertainment news predicting a Republican win in Congress in November are monumentally wrong. I think they may be overstating with their right wing vituperative malevolence their coming successes as the Democrats now have the opportunity to concentrate on banking regulation and most importantly on creating more jobs to take the economy out of the ditch into which the Republicans drove us!

I thank the President, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reed for their wonderful efforts, hard work and brilliant leadership. I have hope again. We must go forward. YES WE DID, YES WE CAN, AND YES WE WILL AGAIN!!

God bless you all and God bless our country which allows us all to breathe free!!

The Abomination -- The Pope in the Crosshairs: A March 25, New York Times editorial says, among other things indicting the Catholic Church for the most recent European pedophile monstrosity, that "The Pope’s expression of “shame and remorse” for the Irish scandal is not to be doubted." Really? Well, I do doubt it. Are you kidding me? The Pope WEAKLY criticizes the legion of sex abuse in Ireland but says nothing about the horrific abuse actions in his own country, Germany, not to mention pedophile sex actions perpetrated on 200 DEAF young boys in Wisconsin and pedophile actions committed by priests around the entire continent of Europe! This is unconscionable and if the Pope were a regular citizen of any country he may face arrest and jail for aiding and abetting a KNOWN pedophile, transferring him to other parishes where even the psychiatrist who treated him said he would be dangerous to place among children and could commit these heinous acts again and did!

The hypocrisy of this Pope and the Church in general is mind numbingly staggering. Sure, voice at the pulpit against gay marriage between two adults who love each other but PROTECT your Catholic children against predatory priests NOT SO MUCH even when it is among the Vienna Boys Choir! This Pope Benedict is up to his eyeballs in trouble within his own Church. The buck stopped with him as an Arch Bishop in Germany, Cardinal Ratinzger head under John Paul II of the so called Doctrine of Faith (you know the entity that formerly brought us The Inquisition) and now as Pope, he passed it failing to punish the priests involved. Where have we heard this story before?

Institutions are about power and money and they are about protecting it at all costs even when that cost means that young boys will have to suffer torments that will affect them disastrously for the rest of their lives at the hands of priests they trusted and the abominable illegalities those priests perpetrated upon them. SHAMEFUL is too weak a word for what this pope and the entire church itself is guilty.

That this hypocrisy of shouting the sin of homosexuality from every pulpit and then committing the most egregiously illegal sexual sins against mostly male CHILDREN by priests without a hint of conscience is an abomination that cannot be doubted. The pedophilia in the Catholic Church is NAUSEATING and systemic. The cover up by its officials of it and the back turning of some of its laity is UNFORGIVABLE. If there is a God I only HOPE He cannot forgive it either!

Faded Brown: Well, I can see my small shred of initial hope in Senator Brown despite his Republican association was short lived as he tries to set up his reelection by saying Rachel Maddow, the progressive host of the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC will be his opposition in the 2012 senatorial election. Rachel Maddow revealed the total untruth of that. One wonders, though, why the good senator picked her as the threat supreme. In truth she is BRILLIANT. Few can hold a candle to her intellect and that includes most definitely Senator Brown. Thankfully, she is not running. We need her on the airwaves to expose the Republican Party's infinite capacity for telling downright lies to put their toxic agenda across -- an agenda which nearly bankrupted our country because of greed gone wild, banks unregulated and killed its youth in wars based on unequivocal lies.

As I have said at least a million times: America, the Republican party is NOT I repeat NOT about most of you. It is about the top 2% wealthiest of this nation. The fact that they should share a small amount more of health care is nothing but infinitely fair. Mr. Brown to say you are a man of the people, while you say you will vote against reconciliation which gives people hope, is a lie. So far you are everything I thought you would be feeding the American people the big Republican lie that you are about them. You are what I initially thought -- a BIG mistake and that the people of Massachusetts were duped into thinking YOU would do anything for them.

David Brooks in the March 23, 2010 "New York Times" tries to explain why he became alienated from the Democratic Party. He says "The essence of America is energy — the vibrancy of the market, the mobility of the people and the disruptive creativity of the entrepreneurs ..."

I say the David Brooks of the world do not see the reality when it hits them in the face and forget almost instantly when those entrepreneurial forces with their Ayn Randian laissez faire economic essence are almost singularly responsible many times over for the death of a nation and its people. These grand entrepreneurs, the Gatsbys of our culture, run with the train of greed until the train goes off the tracks and they are left emotionally, monetarily and spiritually bankrupt. They leave those around them in utter devastation and chaos but call upon the people they nearly destroy to clean up the mess.

The average Joe's of this country, the ones who make it mechanically work, are catapulted into the abyss by the rancid actions of the unregulated marketplace and in times past there was no safety net to catch them. Many died. FDR changed that, thank God, and since then there is a semblance of economic life preservers instituted by Democrats which stop an economy and most of its people from entering the dust bin of history.

Still, these adventure capitalists persist duping the American public into thinking they are for them and America, some of it, continues to buy their snake oil. I have said many times the Republican Party, the party of sink or swim policy, is NOT about us. They are for their individualist Gordon Geckko greedy selves. No matter how rich they get it is never enough and they will do ANYTHING an economic anarchy allows them to do no matter how many they crush. In 2008, without ALL the help from government and all the FDIC security, its too big to fail CEO’s STILL nearly drove the world into an economic Armageddon because those regulations were disastrously loosened by men of greed only to offer near repeat of the 1929 collapse.

Now we have health care so that not just the Donald Trumps or the Bill Gates of the world can certainly get the best of the best health care to ensure THEIR lives go on with no fear that illness will bankrupt them but also us, the little guy, on whose backs they depend for their economic security, to live.

Thank God for the Democratic Party, David, they have saved our posteriors AND YOURS!!

I condensed my previous blog and added some thoughts into one I sent to the Metro West News:

The Cancer Curse: Why some of us have the ability to empathize with the poor, the sick, and with those who have had to endure such virulent racism from some of our body politic and others cannot I do not know. Why are we so different politically from each other?

I am ardently for the passing of this historic health care legislation and surprisingly if it takes a strong anti-abortion part of the bill to pass I am for that too despite the fact I am, of course, pro-choice. This bill is too important. It is not perfect but it hopefully will improve over time IF it passes. The insurance companies with their tyrannical for profit hold on whether we live or die cannot be allowed to continue with business as usual. They must be held accountable. They have done this to themselves by their policies which hung an albatross of contemptible actions and death around our necks.

Why can some of us empathize with those who need care and others can do nothing but hurl unconscionable racist epithets catapulting this nation back into another century in which we fought a bloody war to create a more just nation. Why, too, is health care linked to this despicable racist spewing against a gentlemen supreme like Representative James Clyburn and Representative John Lewis? It was sickening to watch. It makes me wonder what really is the etiology of our profound political differences. Is it cultural or is it systemically in one's DNA?

The racial epithets the health care protesters sling show them to be exactly what most are: racist bullies who if they had their way would take us back to the 1850's except then they would be calling for secession. They are the embodiment of the grave sin of a nation. Those who would utter such things are sick, perverted and disgusting know nothings. They prove it time and again. Spitting on a man like Representative Clyburn is unconscionable. They could not shine this dignified man's shoes. They are NOT protesting health care but are using it as an excuse to protest a black man who is president. These people who express such racial hatred are the curse of our nation. Their views are a sickness within our body politic and a systemic cancer we need cut out before it kills us and fast!

A Curious Curiosity -- WBZ, a local television network, asked viewers to write what they are curious about. I wrote the following:

I am curious as to why some of us have the ability to empathize with the poor, the sick, and with those who have had to endure such virulent racism from some of our body politic. Why are we so different politically from each other?

I am ardently for the passing of this historic health care legislation. It is not perfect but it hopefully will improve over time. The insurance companies with their tyrannical for profit hold on whether we live or die cannot be allowed to continue with business as usual. They must be held accountable. They have done this to themselves by their policies which hung an albatross of despicable actions around our necks.

Why can some of us empathize with those who need care and others can do nothing but hurl unconscionable racist epithets catapulting this nation back into another century in which we fought a bloody war to create a more just nation. Why, too, is health care linked to this despicable racist spewing?

It makes me wonder what really is the etiology of our profound political differences? Is it cultural or is it systemically in our DNA?

BINGO: CBO: This health care bill will cut the deficit by $1.2 TRILLION over the next ten years. BINGO.... It's a WINNER and so is Obama!!! He is a WINNER today. Yes I was critical BUT my goodness one whole year listening to such obnoxious opposition and Scott Brown in Teddy's seat to boot. How much can one little progressive take? Hard DIFFICULT work, determination, COURAGE, amazing, kudos when they are due and they are due NOW!!!!! I didn't believe it because I did not want to be disappointed yet again!!! I am ON BOARD!! Our McDonald's country wants everything yesterday. I am included. We MUST learn big things take time!! Of course it's not passed yet so when he signs it maybe on Sunday I will celebrate. I'm almost there. This is a good day for our country ... so far!

An Allergic Reaction to Thought: This week as stated on the Journal web page, Bill Moyers talked with John Sexton, President of NYU, for a wide-ranging conversation about religion, the role of higher education in a globalizing world, and the troubling disintegration of civil discourse in today's society. Sexton suggested that America increasingly exhibits what he calls an "allergy to thought" and that universities are the key to restoring nuance to public discourse" I responded to it on the site. See link below:

It is a tragedy in our culture today that the complexity of life is reduced to 10 second sound bites. It is as if our McDonald’s dietary habits reflect the fast food mentality of our intellectual life. Much contributes to this and a discussion, which I am sure Dr. Sexton would agree, must include great complexity. There is not time to do that here. I can say, though, that Dr. Sexton’s thoughts were fascinating. I could have listened to him for hours and would have loved the opportunity to ask him my own, hopefully, thoughtful questions as well.

I keep trying to think if I allow for complexity of thought and an exchange of ideas even when those ideas are diametrically opposed to my own. I think I have tried. I have also fallen short. I in essence, at 61 years old, have given up. I am a progressive Democrat who lived through the late 1960’s. I formulated my basic philosophy at that time and although I wavered throughout the years, I have basically remained left of center. I believe, my position and other progressive attitudes on the issues of the day are SO important and so unequivocally correct that I cannot often even listen to the opposition. Worse, I consider them my enemy. How can I be a progressive, thoughtful person and consider right wing Republicans actually an enemy? I am sickened by this. I am, without a doubt, sure they think of me as their enemy too. It is sad.

I think it terrible that I have gone from a person more than willing to debate to a person of cemented positions and often a cemented heart. Why? Why can I not be like Dr. Sexton? The issues of our day are so personal and so threatening to me that I simply cannot compromise them. I do not know if it is the election of Barack Obama, a gifted man of thought and compromise, which was the reason for my solidification of thought because of the utter disgusting racist spewing so constantly thrown from the other side at a man of good will. How can I compromise with this utter idiocy? Both sides are hardened and the reflection of what we see is a Congress immovable in thought and unwilling more often than not to compromise either. If the right is so unequivocally mean, hateful and violent why should I give their points of view credence? Why should I not defend MYSELF against what I perceive is their insanity and threat to me?

My enemy believes NOT in science but in myth. It believes there should be a mixing of church with state, does not allow for choice with respect to abortion, and would love to discriminate against homosexuals whom they believe have chosen who they are and therefore are not worthy of equality. It believes, too, in war, even peremptory war, forgets the civil libertarian Bill of Rights from which this country was honed and it loves its guns. They love taking this country to wars of revenge even when based on lies and even when based upon nothing, do not care about wars which our country has waged AFTER World War II which have killed thousands, displaced millions and destabilized the political climate of worst parts of planet earth. Moreover, they think global warming is a hoax and probably will even when New York City is under water. Their views are hardened in the irrationalities of religious superstition, uncompromising and extreme supernatural beliefs and a desire to impose those beliefs upon everyone else. They most certainly do not believe in government protecting human health. As I see it they are a threat to life on this planet. Their beliefs are so utterly repulsive to me that I cannot even listen nor stand to debate the non debatable. Evolution is fact, global warming is fact, religion upon which they want to base national policy is more myth than fact and goes against the most sacred of our Constitutional creeds, the separation clause. How can I compromise with that which is uncompromisable? (Yes, I crafted a new word.)

Dr. Sexton’s lofty thoughts in the classroom make for sweet talk and make him, indeed, a likable man. I am sure he had to be such to arrive at the position he attained. In the final analysis, though, I think that decisions must be made, choices must be arrived at and the prolonging of debate of certain issues causes the destruction of human life and, indeed, compromises ALL life on planet earth.


I am not happy with who I have become but I refuse to compromise with those who eschew most lofty intellectual thought, think reason is not for them, calls the left effete intellectual snobs and causes Susan Jacoby – a one-time interviewee of Bill Moyers – to write a book entitled “The Age of American Unreason.” I cannot entertain the thoughts of those who carry grotesque, insulting, racist pictures of our president as both Hitler and Stalin as if one person could be both polar opposites. I cannot compromise with those who occupy the extreme right wing of the political spectrum in which there is a litmus test now for membership in the Republican Party. Perhaps if it returned to the party of Rockefeller or Ford I could.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2010/03/do_americans_suffer_from_an_al.html: