I just finished mourning the senseless loss of life and property seven years ago. I'm not a finger-pointer by nature but I'll be damned if someone wasn't asleep at the wheel.
I get so pissed that it's hard to express it. We go on rewarding people who distract us so that they can rob us blind. We promote folks who put the greater good in the trash and feather their nests. We open our hearts and our wallets......to crooks. In the name of peace and security, we war because war will bring peace and security. We permit injustice because, we're told, this will insure both freedom and justice.
And the question is: Are we really any safer than we were seven years ago? Are we any closer to capturing the master-minds of the events seven years ago? After all the lives that have been lost, the wounds that will never heal, the billions that have been spent, the harm that has been done.....are we any better off than we were seven years ago?
Or are the same drivers still asleep at the wheel?
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
PBS Cuba special
I was fascinated last evening by a program on PBS about Cuba. I couldn't help but think how f*#$ed our foreign policy is. Follow this logic:
We don"t have diplomatic relations with "communist" countries. Cuba is a "communist" country.
China is a "communist" country,too. Nonetheless, every Regional Distribution Center in the United States of America is bulging at the seams with manufactured goods from China......but not Cuba.
Go figure.
A clue may be in the reality that our government is for sale, the finest government money can buy. No cost/benefit analysis is required. No sane person needs a light to see through this for it's all about the money.
We don"t have diplomatic relations with "communist" countries. Cuba is a "communist" country.
China is a "communist" country,too. Nonetheless, every Regional Distribution Center in the United States of America is bulging at the seams with manufactured goods from China......but not Cuba.
Go figure.
A clue may be in the reality that our government is for sale, the finest government money can buy. No cost/benefit analysis is required. No sane person needs a light to see through this for it's all about the money.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Please pardon me if I sound........pissed.
I've just returned from my brother John's funeral. He passed on Wednesday, 19March2008 at the VA Hospital in Newark(?), NJ. He was 67 years old and a life-long smoker, Winston, I believe.
John died of lung cancer which was in the advanced stages. He suffered but as suffering goes it wasn't long or protracted. He died as he had lived, with a certain amount of class. I'll miss him.
John died, as our mother had, and as many of our uncles and aunts had, of an uncontrolled addiction to cigarettes. They were all from "Tobbaco Country" having been born and raised in North Carolina. There, Tobbaco was the undisputed "King" of all cash crops. I've seen children as young as eight, nine, ten years old "chewing, dipping or smoking" tobbaco. I could understand it. When the Tobbaco season was in full stride, when it had been "primed", "roped or strung", hung high in the Tobbaco barns to be "cured", and literally roasted to perfection, why the aroma is akin to that of a bakery making fresh bread in the still of the night. Most everyone was, in one way or another, hooked.
But oh the harm it does! And this thought occurred to me looking at John in his casket: If a foreign enemy inflicted the death and illness on the American people that tobbaco does, would we look the other way ? Would we reward it ? Encourage it ? Consider the enormous cost to the whole society of heart and lung disorders directly attributable to tobbaco misuse. Shall we look the other way ?
As aggregious as the attack on the WTC and the Pentagon was, compared to the death and destruction caused by tobbaco, there's no comparison. Ah, but consider the response ! To the one: war and over 4,000 deaths and counting. To the other: we look the other way. To the one: untold trillions of dollars spent and spending. To the other: something tantamount to theater where the actors are great pretenders, making believe a change has been made when, in fact, it's business as usual.
On balance I can only be so pissed. After all, all of my loved ones chose to use tobbaco. Many, like my wife, knew all the risks. Some of us, however, are no match for Phillip Morris, who knows that this addiction.........is perfectly legal because it's taxed. No smoker is any match to the folks who benefit most from this carnage. Often what we think is a choice is .................no choice at all.
Often free, is very, very expensive.
John died of lung cancer which was in the advanced stages. He suffered but as suffering goes it wasn't long or protracted. He died as he had lived, with a certain amount of class. I'll miss him.
John died, as our mother had, and as many of our uncles and aunts had, of an uncontrolled addiction to cigarettes. They were all from "Tobbaco Country" having been born and raised in North Carolina. There, Tobbaco was the undisputed "King" of all cash crops. I've seen children as young as eight, nine, ten years old "chewing, dipping or smoking" tobbaco. I could understand it. When the Tobbaco season was in full stride, when it had been "primed", "roped or strung", hung high in the Tobbaco barns to be "cured", and literally roasted to perfection, why the aroma is akin to that of a bakery making fresh bread in the still of the night. Most everyone was, in one way or another, hooked.
But oh the harm it does! And this thought occurred to me looking at John in his casket: If a foreign enemy inflicted the death and illness on the American people that tobbaco does, would we look the other way ? Would we reward it ? Encourage it ? Consider the enormous cost to the whole society of heart and lung disorders directly attributable to tobbaco misuse. Shall we look the other way ?
As aggregious as the attack on the WTC and the Pentagon was, compared to the death and destruction caused by tobbaco, there's no comparison. Ah, but consider the response ! To the one: war and over 4,000 deaths and counting. To the other: we look the other way. To the one: untold trillions of dollars spent and spending. To the other: something tantamount to theater where the actors are great pretenders, making believe a change has been made when, in fact, it's business as usual.
On balance I can only be so pissed. After all, all of my loved ones chose to use tobbaco. Many, like my wife, knew all the risks. Some of us, however, are no match for Phillip Morris, who knows that this addiction.........is perfectly legal because it's taxed. No smoker is any match to the folks who benefit most from this carnage. Often what we think is a choice is .................no choice at all.
Often free, is very, very expensive.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Cun-Nun-Drum
Damned if you do ! Damned if you don't ! Some situations are win-win, some are NO-win. It's intentional and by design.
Two friends at the Senior Center, met at Monday night Bingo, had a whirl-wind romance and , being so in love, wanted to get married.
Everyone was so happy for them but cautioned them not to tie the knot. Why?, they asked.
Because one of you will lose their Social Security benefits, that's why. No way, they thought.
So they tied the knot and were all set to live very happily ever after. When they notified the local Social Security office, they were congratulated and made indigent simultaneously. Neither had enough for their prescriptions, food, rent or doctor's bills. Confused and not knowing what to do, they told their friends of their plight. We told you so, they all said.
But we just wanted to do the right thing, replied the newly weds. Yes, we know, came the compassionate reply. But it's not a perfect world and the system's broken. You need to file for seperation and let them know it didn't work out. You can then live happily ever after with the blessings of a broken system. They did.............and they did.
Moral: If it's broken, don't fix it. It may be that way by act of congress.
Two friends at the Senior Center, met at Monday night Bingo, had a whirl-wind romance and , being so in love, wanted to get married.
Everyone was so happy for them but cautioned them not to tie the knot. Why?, they asked.
Because one of you will lose their Social Security benefits, that's why. No way, they thought.
So they tied the knot and were all set to live very happily ever after. When they notified the local Social Security office, they were congratulated and made indigent simultaneously. Neither had enough for their prescriptions, food, rent or doctor's bills. Confused and not knowing what to do, they told their friends of their plight. We told you so, they all said.
But we just wanted to do the right thing, replied the newly weds. Yes, we know, came the compassionate reply. But it's not a perfect world and the system's broken. You need to file for seperation and let them know it didn't work out. You can then live happily ever after with the blessings of a broken system. They did.............and they did.
Moral: If it's broken, don't fix it. It may be that way by act of congress.
Monday, February 11, 2008
My Honey-Lamb is in ICU with"breathing tubes" coming out of her mouth thanks to Basic Ultra Light 100's. And while the cigarette companies never forced anyone to smoke, IMHO they as guilty of murder as if they did. First degree, with malice and fore-thought. It sucks that it's all perfectly legal. I swear we've got the finest government that money can buy.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Elections
Maybe we ought to have others monitor our elections, they could learn a lot about how to steal votes from the professionals. I can see all the third-world observers. Surely they'd be impressed. Who cares if the founding fathers are rolling over in their graves. We could show them how it should be done.
Yup, our crooks are the finest money can buy;bought and paid for they are. They know what's best for us. Right!
Yup, our crooks are the finest money can buy;bought and paid for they are. They know what's best for us. Right!
Our morons at the helm.
Well, it has finally happened. They're using the R word. Recession ! This administration has ruined the nation. If it's about the economy, Stupid, then we're in deep do-do thanks to the likes of the one per cent who know what's best for the ninty nine. Afraid we're looking at a global cloapse. Shades of Herbert Hoover!
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