The Limits of War -- Food for Thought: I am reading "Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War" by Andrew Bachevich who according to Wiki is a professor of international relations at Boston University and a retired career officer in the United States Army. He is a former director of Boston University's Center for International Relations (from 1998 to 2005), and author of several books, including American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of US Diplomacy (2002), The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War (2005) and The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (2008). He has been "a persistent, vocal critic of the US occupation of Iraq, calling the conflict a catastrophic failure." In March 2007, he described George W. Bush's endorsement of such "preventive wars" as "immoral, illicit, and imprudent." His son, also an Army officer, died fighting in the Iraq War in May 2007. In summer, 2010, he accused President Barack Obama of "want[ing] us to forget about the lessons of Iraq.":

I thought the following quotes from a blog on a Glen Greenwald article "The Great Generational Threat http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/07/09/terrorism/index.html were food for thought:

"James Forrestal, the first person to serve as secretary of defense, coined a term to describe this permanent crisis. He called it semiwar. Conceived by Forrestal at the beginning of the Cold War, and reflecting his own anticommunist obsessions, semiwar defines a condition in which great dangers always threaten the United States and will continue doing so into the indefinite future. When not actively engaged in hostilities, the nation faces the prospect of hostilities beginning at any moment, with little or no warning. In the setting of national priorities, readiness to act becomes a supreme value.

Semiwarriors created the Washington Rules. Semiwarriors uphold them. Semiwarriors benefit from their persistence.

The scathing complaint of foreign policy critic Roger Morris, registered some thirty years ago, remains apt today. Average Americans, he wrote then, their attention absorbed by the problems of daily life at home, 'give the rest of planet only a distracted, fleeting glance.' Easily persuaded that the United States is called upon to lead, they leave it to others to work out the details. As a result, ordinary citizens remain 'heedless of the people and closed politics,' cloaked in secrecy, that formulate policies advertised as essential to the nation's safety and well-being. From time to time, 'dour, mostly anonymous men' emerge from behind closed doors to 'announce discreetly some fresh disaster.' Although inquiries and investigations inevitably ensue, the net effect is not to fix responsibility but to disperse it. Then the game continues, the terms of reference all but unaffected, the cast of characters largely unchanged, with Republican and Democratic insiders simply exchanging portfolios at periodic intervals."

-Andrew J. Bacevich, Washington Rules

Professorial Prescience: These are two short lectures I found on UTUBE which was given by my new-found guru, Dr. Simon Schama. I always have to find one as for me Howard Zinn's loss needs repair. I heard Professor Schama discuss the US Constitutional construct. It was riveting. Professor Simon Schama is a Professor of history and art history at Columbia University. His resume is longer than this page so I place the link below to a few words he gave about Barack Obama. This was delivered in 2009 at the Carnegie Council. It is called "Obama's Realism." We now have a bit of hindsight with which to judge his words. I think his words were as on target then as they are now.

Underneath that on Utube you will see another one of Dr. Schama's lectures given in 2009 entitled: "Us in Afghanistan and Iraq." The latter was particularly interesting I thought as he gave his rationales for why the Afghanistan war in his view is justified as opposed to the War in Iraq. I find him presciently correct.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSj-MOissYc&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LdFsylArk&feature=relmfu

No News of the World: Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch and his evil media tabloid style empire have tasted the fruits of their own Machiavellian machinations. Murdoch's closing of News of the World because of its wholesale phone hacking of innocents is I suspect but a ripple in an ocean of deceit, lies and immoral behavior in the world of scandal tabloid news. It seems to me someone famous who some think divine said "What profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his soul?" What more precise question to address to Mr. Murdoch, et al.

I suspect News of the World is only the tip of the iceberg of this scandal driven, gluttonous, money making swill, written on the backs often of the innocent and gleaned because of the thirst for uncontroll­ed capitaliza­tion of human suffering. I can say, Mr. Murdoch, this is small justice but justice nonetheles­s to one of the most megalomaniacal , avaricious­, power hungry excuses for humanity ever to grace this planet.

I suspect this is merely a scab on a festering infected sore of sensationalist tabloid anything-goes media gone WILD! May those who pumped life into this scandal NEVER rest in peace!”

Social Insecurity: he summer 2010 when the town meetings because of health care got ugly. People yelling don't take my health care away -- they meant Medicare the president did not step up to the plate and tell them the realities of the health care he was pushing. He did not push back forcefully against the Tea baggies who were fuming from the bailout. The tea baggies are SO dumb many did not realize why bailouts were necessary. He needed to scream why bailouts were necessary if they were not bailed out the big corps would fall like dominoes!!

Nov. 2012 -- he is handed a "shellacki­ng" over bailouts and perceived spending on health care. it is what the Republican­s who lost so much power in 2008 were salivating over. Now they had furious groups against bailouts and ready to hook on to no taxes. sounds good but no new spending no new jobs. By the time the Republican­s had taken over the House it was too late. Now the president must work with the hand he was dealt. If he stands and fights he will be defeated by a solidity Republican House.The time that he needed to fight was the summer of 2012. The economic catastroph­e was NOT the fault of him nor really of many Dems it was 30 years of a deregulate­d Wall Street gone mad with greed. It was his fault in the summer of 2010 but it is not his fault now.”

Why support Israel: Joyce Kaufman is a talk show host and is on Utube. I agree with her generally about Israel EXCEPT for her final reason about god. Everyone thinks god is on their side and I would not base my support of Israel on a document written 5000 ago by men. The rest of her diatribe has substantive worth.

As I investigate more because I knew not much about her she appears to be a right wing nationalist ideologue much like Palin. I am not sure about that but it may be so. I do not know why I cannot voice my general support and love for Israel while not going for the rest of her anti-immigrant rants. I think I can and do.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmV1ffKP0ms&feature=share

I would like to write a book: "How to Feel Happiness in an Out of Control World": Feel free to take that title and write that book because I have NO idea what to put in it!

PLEASE READ and THINK: I cannot believe I am sending a link below to a Fox News story but if they have posted it you can imagine the threat. I am NOT surprised I have said this from
Day 1 of the Fukishima explosion and tsunami. Nuclear power is UNSAFE at any speed. It is subject to the whims of nature and the gross mistakes of man.

Global climate change is a FACT, it is occurring because of man and is a FACT, catastrophic weather events we have been seeing both in winter
AND summer related to fossil fuels ruining the climate is a FACT and nuclear power is NOT the answer. Rational thought rules. THINK and do not rely on
fairy stories and religious irrational myths that will DOOM all of us. Science tells us what we need to know and FACTS cannot be disputed.

For your Fourth of July reading which I hope prods you to THINK well what our Founders gave us and how toxic religion mixed with government policy is. Ultimately, it will kill us all.

Christ was right when he is alleged to have said: "Render to Cesar what is Cesar's and to God what is God's." THINK ON THAT and
do not give up man's gift -- the ability to rationally THINK!

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/06/29/radiation-in-our-food/

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NUCLEAR MADNESS AND OTHER THINGS: This blog is off the top of my head. There is no time to waste writing a pristine constructed opinion so I am writing what I thought as I awoke and read the news. Two stories at first light -- the Minnesota government shut down AND Los Alamos.

There is so much sickening news I don't know where to begin. This country is waging SIX yes, count them SIX wars -- Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya under the direction of a Nobel Peace laureate!! All I have to do is get up and check the news in the a.m. and I begin to shake. Huffington Post has a huge headline -- "Minnesota shut down." I'm not a naive person but I saw that headline after just waking up and even though I have woken up to worse headlines certainly but with EVERYTHING else I am not kidding I am sitting here shaking.

It's not just Minnesota its the whole country and even the world -- Greece comes to mind. Their people riot but their legislators do not care. They cut their jobs anyway. This has all been perpetrated by bankster Wall Street greed that's where the thread to all this horrible news began. Do you think Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and his cronies are worried about losing their HOMES (plural)? HELL NO but little teachers in 50 states are shaking in their boots. People with no homes, no jobs, no food, living in cars, shelters or motels is no longer the exception. George Carlin had it so right it is amazing. The oligarchy is coming for all you have because they do NOT care about you.

Of course there is always the nuclear madness of Los Alamos, Fukishima, and two nuclear powered big time floods in Nebraska. Our nation is sinking fast I do believe that and I lay it at Wall Street's feet and a government whose people were railroaded by them because our oligarchic government whores and its corporatist johns are in bed with each other.(pardon the rough expression.)

I feel so powerless because the people of this nation are SO unintelligent if they can elect Republicans and some Dems too who put us into this mess. I do believe that for the most part Dems would NOT slash the little guys' jobs or humanitarian programs that feed the poor but go after the millionaires and billionaires who SHOULD contribute more to our nation's fiscal sanity. They would also have started to deal with climate change ridding ourselves of the corporate albatross -- OIL and infusing our economy with new clean energy life. This is a startling time. It is the worst I have ever known. But Americans will do what Americans always do care about comparatively waste-of-time stories about Whitey Bulger, Strauss-Kahn, Casey Anthony's trial for murder and Nancy Grace's histrionics when the nation of 350,000, 000 and the world of six billion people are drowning. It's all about priorities and our nation, for the most part, simply does not get it.

I enclose my relative's blog about our nuclear madness. In addition, I link Huffington's blog about Minnesota for your reading pleasure.

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/07/lies-damn-lies-and-safe-nuclear-power.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

The Case for Northern Secession: I just read a headline on MSNBC which said: “With a price tag of at least $1.5 billion, the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is 2.5 miles longer than Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.” The article is about a huge bridge China recently constructed and made my cerebral wheels turn. My sin is envy. Some say China will be on the downturn. Well, I do not see that yet. I see wherever I go, whatever I buy a made in China tag. Few things are made in America now.

Can I get citizenship in rising China or maybe a China that already HAS already risen? I jest, of course, but I pause for thought. That industrious and population gargantuan country is where the US used to be at the turn of the 20th century through 2000 when the activist SCOTUS installed George W. Incompetent Bush in a stolen presidency. The US used to be the one unveiling progress and creating immense hope. I vaguely remember they used to call it the “American Dream.” Those days are gone as EVERYTHING is made somewhere else BUT in America. Nothing is left of the promise. 50% of America duped wants to vote for Republicans whose 1% mega rich supporters will take it all and leave most of us with really, well, nothing – no jobs, no homes, no money, no Social Security, no Medicare – nothing, zip, nada.

I wonder if there will be a mass exodus some day out of this country. If one rides down a major road in my town it is dotted with “Going Out of Business” and foreclosure signs on homes. Much business is gone EVEN movie theaters do not get the attention they once did. With the exception of car and body smashing stupidity films there is often nothing in the movies to see anyway and who needs a rotten box of butter drenched artery clogging popcorn for ten bucks. This is what sells in America – stupidity. What is good here any more?

We are a completely divided nation as we were in 1860, the age of Lincoln. In fact, this era reminds me of that time. Sometimes I really do wish they had allowed the red southern states to secede. Think of all the lives NOT waging the Civil War would have saved: 620,000! Maybe the Lincoln election was our biggest mistake because it forced states with an entirely regressive and reactionary philosophy to stay in a nation that was about creating its egalitarian promise and progressive change. Lincoln the last great hope for Reconstruction was, of course, assassinated by the southern “Cause” zealot John Wikes Booth.

In truth, though, in the election of 1860 Lincoln did not win by much as the election was split and the south ran the Democrat Breckenridge. Look him up he was why the Democratic Party in the 1860 election could not win. Not only did he believe in slavery, he believed in the expansion of it into the then western territories. Every candidate in that election INCLUDING Lincoln did not think the black man their equal. The difference was that Lincoln disliked slavery, did not want it to spread westward and thought a man should get paid for the labor he performed.

If it were not for most especially the southern red states our President Obama could get anything his philosophy would dictate passed. Why can he not? -- Because racism is still the cancer that rules, invades and is killing the body. That racist thought and the desire to Christianize this country tying church to state is now the underpinning of the Republican Party.

The Republican Party, some say, is the party of Lincoln? I say not any more! The Republican Party today morphed into the party of Breckenridge then. Lincoln took only 43% of the popular vote because the country was so split. We are STILL split except the parties have reversed roles. The Democratic Party became the party of FDR and systemic institutional change. The Republican Party stood for the Hoovarian status quo. In the election of 1968 the morphing of parties took shape and the so called “moral majority” – the party of endemic racism, opposition to FDR’s New Deal and LBJ's Civil Rights Act of 1965 – was born. It is now the reason the Congress can get nothing done.

I believe, racism, the cancer within that body never dies. It is the fuel that fires Republicans now and why they are so rabid to defeat Obama. One simply need look at the complexion of that party in events of its candidates. It is nearly all white. Its platform is the mixing of religion and state as well as the dismantling of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Except for some technological advancement between 1860 and 2011 the psychological essence flowing through the veins of this country is now, as I see it, eerily the same!

Bachmann the beautiful? -- A reading recommendation: A relative told me about Matt Taibbi's article appearing in Rolling Stone entitled: "Michele Bachmann's Holy War: The Tea Party contender may seem like a goofball, but be warned: Her presidential campaign is no laughing matter." I paste the link below. Olbermann had him on his show talking about Bachmann. Warning the article could make you laugh until your stomach hurts OR in the alternative when it hurts you may want to throw up at the prospect of this absolutely nutty wingnut getting within an inch of the oval office.

As I said to my cousin: If she is elected then I will leave the country forthwith and go to Iceland. But you say Iceland is broke. That may be so but at least their population is not 1/2 batsh*% crazy! Bring tissues. When you stop laughing after you read the article you may want to cry. Enjoy!

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/michele-bachmanns-holy-war-20110622?link=mostpopular2&page=1

Another recommendation: "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free" by Charles P. Pierce

The Book of Love -- the NY gay marriage vote: On Yom Kippur -- the Jewish day of Atonement and the holiest day of the year -- we ask God to forgive our sins, wipe our slate clean, begin anew so that we may be inscribed in the Book of Life. I do not do organized religion any more but on that day inscribed in my DNA I take a moment to reflect on who I am, what I need to improve upon, who I want to be and hope that some higher power somewhere recognizes my yearning to be a better person the next year than I may have been the year before.

Keith Olbermann, my political guru, gave a special comment on the successful NY gay marriage vote and talked about the "Book of Love." I know now what I will concentrate and reflect upon this coming Yom Kippur. I will ask to be inscribed in the Book of Love. This liberal commentator formerly on MSNBC but now on the new cable Current TV -- FIOS Channel 192, says eloquently all that needs to be said about this fundamental right -- the right to love. It is the essence of our humanity.

I link it below if you want to hear his beautiful words and ending poem. I believe it is well worth listening. You can find it, too, on Huffington Post. He says it better than I ever could and I thank him for his wise commentary. If you have FIOS cable, Comcast or Dish TV you can find the Current TV station number he is on every night at 8:00 p.m. by simply Googling "Current TV." He is, I believe, a national treasure and urge you to support this new program on Current by listening to or taping it!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/24/keith-olbermanns-gay-marr_n_883796.html

A Constitutional Mandate -- A Declaration of War: It is UTTERLY preposterous that the last war to be constitutionally declared was World War II. Are you kidding me? How many wars since then has the United States been involved? Answer: PLENTY. Saying the NATO bombing of Libya led by the United States is not war is like saying hamburger is not chopped sirloin. I beg to differ. It is!

I have one more reason other than it is explicitly stated within the Constitution that the president MUST ask the Congress and ONLY the Congress to wage war. Our Founders, I believe, put this requirement in for a reason. How many kings took their subjects to war on a whim, killed thousands and spent the public treasury to do so. Answer: MANY. It is the height of injustice to those who risk death fighting their country’s wars to so easily send them into the battle even if the battle is in the air.

To ask a person to actually give his only life up for a cause cannot and SHOULD not be done on the whim of one man. Those who are asked to fight it, through their representatives, should be the ones to decide their ultimate sacrifice.

How many of those excursions like Grenada (remember that one) during Reagan to the most egregious usurpation of power Vietnam and Iraq would have been fought IF a president when he dropped a bomb which kills human beings, asked the Congress for permission to do so through a declaration of war? I submit far fewer than we have entered since WWII.

Dropping bombs EVEN ONE BOMB means the taking of life and OFTEN innocent life in the form of so called collateral damage. Would YOU want your husband, your wife, your children who do not know foreign policy from a daisy be the ones to die for reasons they do not understand?

A declaration of war should be mandated and the War Powers Act should be amended to state that. It should ALWAYS be necessary and the consequence of abridgment should be severe!

Missed Targets: Some of Jeff Jacoby’s views profoundly missed his own targets in his June 17, 2011 opinion "Outrage that misses the target." (Link below) He addresses three issues.

In the case of Delta charging soldiers for extra baggage upon returning from the outposts of the wars in the Middle East: I agree as he says soldiers are often reimbursed for travel expenses but would they be in this case? Who knows? The rules of the marketplace, however, which Jeff Jacoby loves to laud, prevailed. Delta reversed its policy. Kudos to Delta for overturning this PR faux pas.

Mr. Jacoby is quite right, too, there is a profound difference between how returning soldiers from the Vietnam War were treated compared to those who return today from the Middle East. Returning vets from Vietnam were often treated less than celebratory. Those returning from America’s contemporary wars in the Middle East sit stratospherically high on the shoulders of the American public. I believe there are reasons why there is a difference in public sentiment between the two theaters of war.

During the Vietnam War men were drafted -- often protected only if they were college deferred, homosexual or medically unable. Men had to serve if they were drafted unless of course like Dick Cheney they could simply avoid the draft by being a perpetual student. That means there were those who, after intellectually understanding the Vietnam War, opposed it but if drafted had to serve, face arrest or conscience-driven exile to Canada. The colleges and universities erupted because there were men there who, once graduated, faced the odious possibility of dying in a war they loathed, in a cause they did not accept, and in a war they felt was unjust.

The soldiers of our contemporary Middle East conflicts choose to be there. It is voluntary. In addition, this nation was directly attacked on 9/11. It matters that 3000 lives were lost on that fateful day and three huge major edifices defining this country were reduced to rubble. It was a direct and undeniable attack on this country the enormity of which sometimes even seems to eclipse Pearl Harbor in historical magnitude. Vietnam had neither of those components. It was a war, the conscription in which, many reviled and those who were not endemically fighters feared. Indeed, Vietnam never attacked us. It was seen by many as an unnecessary enterprise between global power brokers jockeying for supremacy. Most of the soldiers returning from the Iraq War or the war in Afghanistan wanted to be there, knew what that would entail and believe in their mission.

The next issue of Jacoby’s target misplacement (although he certainly understands the positive sentiment of Rev. Unni) is committed by those who rail against church policy of rejection of gay Catholics' prayer with Rev. Unni of St. Cecilia’s Church in the Back Bay because of church catechism i.e. its doctrine. This is laughable if it were not so sad. I am told Jesus was about inclusion and not exclusion. If that were not reason enough to accept these good gay Catholics in prayer then perhaps the fact that the Catholic Church is most definitely NOT the inerrant institution it claims it is. If one only could, in reality, raise Galileo from the dead to find out how utterly wrong the Catholic Church has been in its doctrinal history and how preposterously slow it is to rectify those wrongs. Not only has Church doctrine been ignorantly wrong it has, I aver, been responsible for the death of many as it denies science, the truth of biology and the laws of physics because those things inconveniently do not conform to Catholic doctrinal tenets and myth.

Moreover, for the Church to deny those who want to have a connection to Christ the ability to do so because of their sexual preference would be laughable still if not for the obvious Church hypocrisy in doing so. This sanctimonious allegedly moral institution turned its eyes to GROSS pedophilia of its priests because it wanted to salvage the entrails of itself. This strains the boundaries of credulity and rationality. It is fine for the institution to look the other way and allow its priests to illegally molest its young BUT those who happen to be good homosexual Catholics cannot pray in its church. If that is not the definition of hypocrisy then hypocrisy has no definition. Perhaps, the Church should target its own flawed doctrine and leave all gay Catholics, who want to pray to their God, alone!

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/06/17/outrage_that_misses_the_target/

I was HIGHLIGHTED i.e. singled out on the New York Times blog as an especially thoughtful post on the Weiner story. I said:

I supported his staying until recently. More and more lewd adolescent-like photos kept issues from taking front and center in importance.

I am VERY sad. There are so few out there who advocate for the middle class and the little guy, so few whose humanitarian philosophical and political outlook helps rather than hurts as those do in the Republican party whose only job is to keep the rich gulping taxpayer dollars, keep the war machine going and keep Wall Street from paying a steep steep price for all the malevolence, sadness and yes even death they have perpetrated as people lose their jobs, their health insurance, their health, their homes and are even prone to suicide.

Anthony Weiner's exit is just another nail in the people's coffin as those on the other side DUPE so many into thinking they are about them. It is a SAD day, a VERY SAD day for me!

I leave with two sentences more: I am not a Christian but I love much of what Christianity says as it is in its essence, I believe, kind: It says he who has not sinned cast the first stone and it says he who smites you on one cheek give to him the other also.

I HOPE Rep. Weiner knows there are MANY who would stand with him through this unsavory matter no matter what because he stood with all of us when it counted and tried to save lives! You have one friend, Anthony Weiner, in ME!

KUDOS to the BOSTON BRUINS!! They rioted in Vancouver. Boston it was celebratory but calm.

The rioting is disturbing as it is in Greece and if they do not extend the debt ceiling rioting catches on as things will be SO bad so the economists are saying the collapse of the US and world economies is possible. The anger is absorbed when people have no jobs. I think part of that anger in Vancouver is about bad times in general except their unemployment rate is only 7.8. Our worst states economy is chilling. Success for the president a year from Nov. means JOBS and nothing else!

ALABAMA 9.3
35 ARIZONA 9.3
35 NEW JERSEY 9.3
38 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 9.6
38 IDAHO 9.6
38 OREGON 9.6
38 TENNESSEE 9.6
42 NORTH CAROLINA 9.7
43 SOUTH CAROLINA 9.8
44 GEORGIA 9.9
45 KENTUCKY 10.0
46 MICHIGAN 10.2
47 MISSISSIPPI 10.4
48 FLORIDA 10.8
49 RHODE ISLAND 10.9
50 CALIFORNIA 11.9
51 NEVADA 12.5

One for us -- the Return of Keith Olbermann: Keith cannot come back FAST enough for me. He has been absent at the time we need him the most. I HOPE Current TV will catch on and FAST. I know some who do not have the station. Thankfully, I do. Lives depended on progressives like he. I cannot think of a worse time for him to have left MSNBC but so be it. We must play the ball where it lies. Look at what the uber wealthy have done to this nation. We, the middle and the working class are in DEEP trouble as they take JUST AS GEORGE CARLIN SAID THEY WOULD, it all -- everything. They are in a club he said and we are not in it. He was prophetic. This country is failing, the pulse is slowing and death for those who are not rich is staring us in the face.

Where will the elderly, the sick, the disabled go who depend on humane programs like Medicaid and Medicare for their lives? Step up to the plate Keith, do not disappoint us and hit a home run NOT for the gipper but FOR us!

Pakistan’s Perfidy: Did you catch the latest news flash? Pakistan arrested five Pakistanis who helped the CIA in the location, apprehension and killing of bin Laden, the civilized world’s most wanted religious fanatical murderer. So much for our "ally," Pakistan, in the fight against Al Qaeda! Think of the BILLIONS upon BILLIONS we have given Pakistan in this so called war on Al Qaeda that could have been better spent educating our poorly educated populous and repairing our dilapidated infrastructure. The TRILLIONS spent in never-ending, money sucking, embarrassing, life-ending wars could have been spent at home and kept us the envy of the world instead of the diplomatic and foreign policy joke so many think we are. Where would our deficit be if the US after WWII decided to weave prudent diplomatic and strategic power not with war but with words?

Our recent foreign policy escapades have been a colossal waste of blood and money filling the coffers of death attempting to build civilized democratic societies out of countries which do not want our brand of civilization; countries who thrive on unyielding, unbending and extreme religious fanaticism and want to remain in a medieval cesspool where a few have wealth and the masses barely have water; where one’s cow is treated better than one’s wife. Our misguided leaders thought we hubristically could change an entire region to fit our brand of life which, of course, we can measure by our unemployment figures, works so well. The Middle East is a DESTABILIZED MESS and we helped bring this dance card of death to them sharing in its fruits of destruction.

After 9/11 the ignorant Bush should have directed our FULL force to getting bin Laden, wiping out Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and ended it there. Our enemies would know if they strike us we WILL retaliate and NOT trump up phony wars that put BILLIONS into the pockets of the crony corporations of war which do war well but do nothing else. Innocent lives are at stake – both ours and theirs.

We have had sickening, ineffective, and bad -- VERY bad -- leadership who do not know their posterior from their elbow. World War II is OVER. It is a different world and we CANNOT save it. We can maybe ONLY save ourselves. Good luck even doing that. We, the middle class, are in financial HELL while our military dances around the earth spending TRILLIONS in taxpayer money trying to save everyone else. How about saving us for a change?

One wonders what our diplomatic geniuses will do to try to save these informants from Pakistani perdition. Why did we not protect those who delivered to us the Holy Grail? Is it any wonder that few trust this country not to abandon those who help us leaving them to twist in the breeze if they are caught, captured or worse?
An ultimatum needs to be given to our “friends” the Pakistanis. Either they release those who helped us kill a vicious murderer or NO MORE MONEY!! Let’s turn our attention to a better MUCH better friend, India. Pakistan plays both ends and in the middle. This is UNACCEPTABLE! We cannot put BILLIONS in the hands of countries who turn around and use those billions against us.

My mother used to say whichever way you make your bed that is how you will lie in it. Good advice. The Defense Department, State Department and the Commander-in-Chief should take it!

Tony Terrific: If one watched the Tony's, the Broaway equivalent of the Oscars, I think you would agree the Tony's were FANTASTIC. Neal Patrick Harris the host, is genius. I often loathe awards shows but this was different. It was much less pretentious and much more artistically creative. I loved every second of it and taped it to watch a second and maybe a third time. It did more to advance the case for theater than any other format as it was so well done indeed! Congrats to ALL who won and ALL who didn't. These are special talented people and all are national treasures!

For years I have been advocating to bring theater to the masses as it is often so cost and access prohibitive to many. I want Broadway to come to HBO and HDTV where one could see these fabulous plays and pay maybe 25 bucks on your cable bill instead of 200 bucks to see a show and one could see it in the comfort of the living room. It helps the elderly, the disabled, and the poor to whom theater is often out of reach.

We saw something similar for opera. We went to a movie theater and saw a production of Verdi's Il Travatore. It was wonderful. We felt as if we were there in the actual theater audience at the Met in NYC. They even filmed back stage during intermission, interviewed the stars and gave one an insight into the architectural mechanics of a performance. It was excellent. That's what I want for theater.

HBO could negotiate with Broadway or with the various plays for the theater rights to show it. I know Broadway theater companies might be afraid it would cut into their business but I think big money could be made and still attract those who are in the NYC area or live in states near NY where people have easier access to the theater itself and love the experience of being there.

Perhaps the revenue plays collect from HBO would allow them to reduce the price of an in theater NYC ticket and attract even more to the actual performances. It simply is prohibitive for those who cannot either afford theater tickets, do not want to pay a stratospheric price or who cannot ambulate to get to there.

A Clarification of the Two State Solution: It is no mystery to those who know me that I support a two-state solution to the Palestinian/Israeli situation. This is not I must emphasize a reversal of my support for the Jewish people and the Jewish state. When I witnessed Arabs running up the hillside of the Golan and Israeli soldiers shooting them (they have a right to protect the security of the state) it made me reactive and nervous. I began to think we need to do something quickly or they will be climbing in hordes from every side right into the Israeli state since they dwarf Jews numerically. I feared the IDF would not be able to stop thousands of Arabs and Palestinians possibly without guns doing something for the cameras by, perhaps, using passive non-violent Gandhiesque resistance. It would not sit well in American or European living rooms to watch on TV the IDF gun down unarmed people even though Israelis have a right to defend the Jewish state. I am, I think, quite rationally concerned.

Moreover, I recently heard that some, perhaps even many, Jews inside of Israel are seeking citizenship from other nations such as Austria or the US because they fear the impending elimination of the Israeli state and the predictable violence that would ensue. I was emotionally driven by this prospect to research that assertion from whom I consider reliable sources. My sources said that was absolute propaganda and while a few might do that it is microscopic in relation to those Jews who are citizens of Israel and would never leave. The man suggesting this alleged fact, Franklin Lamb, is a strong supporter of Hezbollah in Lebanon who is committed to the annihilation of the Jewish state. I am going to glean additional responses to his assertion to verify its veracity. Researching it, however, brought one truth to light and that is the ancient anti-Semitism we thought was at an end because of the Holocaust is, indeed, alive and well especially during economic downturns. The vitriolic hatred of the Jew is mind numbing. If you do not believe me, then Google it.

I am frightened by both what happened to the Jewish people in 1930's Europe and I am desperately afraid of it ever happening again. Up until now there was little reason to fear it but we remained, of course, always vigilant. There is little doubt in my mind that it is not possible that the majority of Jewish citizens of Israel would abandon the Jewish state without taking down the entire region with them. If Jews have learned nothing else from our history we have learned that it is not possible to negotiate from a position of weakness. Israel is, we all know, armed to the teeth and before the Jewish people could not have that state they would make damn well sure no one else would have it either.

There is no question in my mind, too, that Israel is the freest of all states in the Middle East. The Jewish people are smart and know that the State of Israel must possess overwhelming military strength and, in fact, not hesitate to use it IF the Jewish state faces an existential threat. It is unacceptable to the Jewish people for anyone to overthrow it.

Having said that I want a two state solution and believe it must be carved out quickly. We must though stand strong, we must stand united and we must question why our fellow Jews at times betray their own people given the Jewish history they know. I often use the metaphor of homosexuals because I believe the humanity of a nation state toward them says something about the nature and essence of a culture. There is nowhere in the Middle East and all of Islam where one, if he or she is homosexual, could live openly except in Israel. That is telling as is the abduction of the gay woman in Iran. If she is alive it will be miraculous but Ahmadinejad says there are, of course, NO homosexuals in Iran. Believe that and he'll tell you another such as the Holocaust never happened.

The state of Israel must be recognized, it must be secure and it must be unharmed if there can ever be the possibility of a two state solution. It is a two state solution I want as President Obama enunciated at AIPAC. It MUST be done, I believe now, with all deliberate speed while never sacrificing the security of the Jewish state. I will NEVER abandon my people or the Jewish state and although I am too young to remember the events of our ugliest Shoah period in Nazi occupied Europe, I think about the six million living in Europe’s death camps when the weather is blistering hot, when the weather is freezing cold, and every rain-soaked and clear day in between. I think about them every day of my life. I never forget them and I always remember -- Never Again!

Sex in the City: I do not care what Anthony Weiner did. I admit it. I am a died in the wool Democrat and admittedly have different standards for them because their principles in general, though sometimes not so far different from Republicans, ARE really phenomenally different in many other ways. The diversity of the Democratic Party unlike the Republican Party cannot be denied. Yes, I want Democrats to win and because Democrats do not use moral nauseating self righteous blather as part of their platform the hypocrite standards ARE different.

I think Senator Ensign of Nevada and Senator Vitter of Louisiana's indiscretions were FAR worse and even possibly illegal. Yet Republican Eric Cantor did NOT ask THEM to resign and the voters did not care that David Vitter probably frequented a known high class prostitute since his name was on her list. I wonder why Cantor did not care about them. Things ARE political.

Who cares about the words Weiner wrote -- NOT I. BUT I DO care about foreign policy, I loved bin Laden killed, I do care about KEEPING Medicare/Social Security, and I DO care about Republicans who have NOTHING to offer on economic policy except more of the corporate oligarchical same and WORSE want ultimately an eradication of entitlements. Republicans got us into the mess in the first place. When in office Republicans sink the ship.

Our ship IS sinking from their policies and FASTER than the president can wield his own power because of Republican obstructionism so you will have to excuse me if the exchanges between Weiner and his online lovelies matter NOT to me. Let his wife care about that and let Weiner do what he does SO well and that is advocate and vote for the middle class and the little guy whom Republican policy and the holier than thou crowd does not know exist.

He who has not sinned cast the first one. I say learn a lesson, Rep. Weiner, go and sin no more but keep advocating for us!