Did you know that the day upon which Jesus Christ supposedly rose from the dead wasn't established until three-hundred and twenty-five years after the supposed event? Indeed, "The Council of Nice decreed in 325 A.D. that 'Easter was to fall upon the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the Vernal Equinox.'"
Rabbits? Eggs? "The ancient goddess, Eostre, a Saxon deity who marked not only the passage of time but also symbolized new life and fertility, was the key symbol of this celebration which was also known as Ostara. Legend has it that the goddess was saved by a bird whose wings had become frozen by the cold of winter.
"This process turned the bird into a hare. Yet this was no ordinary cottontail; this long-eared rabbit could also lay eggs!
"The main symbols for Easter are the egg, for new life or beginnings, and the rabbit/hare, for fertility."
Yes, Pagan rituals and beliefs form the basis for Christian beliefs, practices related to Easter.
"As Christianity spread across Europe and Britain, these older symbols became incorporated into the new faith's holiday of Easter; even the name seems to have been a variant of the Goddess whose festival was originally celebrated with the arrival of spring. The old rites honoring the planting of new seeds, the fertility of the land and its people, and the hope of the new life arising in the world were replaced by solemn displays commemorating Christ and Christian beliefs."
You might want to take a look at Equinox and Solstice.Com.
It was 17 degrees this morning at 6:30 when I took Melissa for her first of three daily walkies. But, we're expecting 60+ degrees here in Denver this weekend. But, just wait until April. Vernal Equinox or not, I betcha we get a doozy of a storm in April.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Monday, March 20, 2006
Sweet Melissa
Patiently awaiting the arrival of the Vernal Equinox (while basking in 3" of snow today).
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Three Years in Hell - Dubya's Nasty Little War
Repeating an earlier post is, for me, the most eloquent way to honor the American dead and reflect on this, the third anniversary of Dubya's nasty little war.
Additionally, CNN provides pictures, biographies and causes of death for the 2,519 coalition forces who have died as a result of the duplicity of the Bush administration in continuing this war based on lies and deceipt. Take a look at the faces of these young people. Just take a look.
Additionally, CNN provides pictures, biographies and causes of death for the 2,519 coalition forces who have died as a result of the duplicity of the Bush administration in continuing this war based on lies and deceipt. Take a look at the faces of these young people. Just take a look.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
The Dude Rules!
From ifilm, the Lebowski fest. ("The Big Lebowski," is one of the best movies ever made. Just take my word for it!)
Friday, March 17, 2006
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
A Libeskind Abortion Redux?
What you see here (to your left) is the newest addition to Denver's Museum of Art. The architect was Daniel Libeskind, the world-famous (Gawd! He is so friggin' world-famous!) Polish immigrant who was chosen to provide the re-design of the World Trade Center site in NY.
Forgive me all ya'll artsy types, but this building is an obtuse abortion (a scary, extraterrestrial decidely dead fetus) that, for me, harkens back to some "art for art's sake" notion of what art is or should be.
From Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe:
" As the 19th century progressed, the exercise of artistic freedom became fundamental to progressive modernism. Artists began to seek freedom not just from the rules of academic art, but from the demands of the public. Soon it was claimed that art should be produced not for the public's sake, but for art's sake.
"Art for Art's Sake is basically a call for release from the tyranny of meaning and purpose. From a progressive modernist's point of view, it was a further exercise of freedom. It was also a ploy, another deliberate affront to bourgeois sensibility which demanded art with meaning or that had some purpose such as to instruct, or delight, or to moralize, and generally to reflect in some way their own purposeful and purpose-filled world. A progressive modernist painter like James Abbott McNeill Whistler, for example, blithely stated that his art satisfied none of those things. "
Okay. I'm bourgeois. Can't brush that off my shoulders like dandruff. I wreak of it.
Thing is, though, that some "elite" types who make-up what is called the, "Civic Center Conservancy," paid Mister Libeskind $75,000 to provide a plan for the redo of one of Denver's most coveted historically significant spaces, Civic Center Park, part of which is provided in the picture above on the right.
Civic Center Park was built during the "City Beautiful" movement that occurred during the infancy of the twentieth century. Public/private partnerships became the moving force behind the beautification of cities throughout America with parks and fountains and esplanades and pavilions and flowers and grass and, well, you get the point. Fat cats contributed enormous amounts of money in an effort to make American cities beautiful.
Well, Denver's Civic Center Park--like most other parks in the city, not to mention the entirety of the city of Denver's infrastructure--is deteriorating due to neglect in maintenance which, of course, is due to a lack of money to provide that maintenance which, of course, is due to our current Mayor, John Hickenlooper's (and prior mayors) grand schemes for "more important" general obligation bond projects like, for example, a new jail, rather than an aggressive plan to combat the deteriorization of the city's infrastructure, including its precious parks.
Okay. That said, let me tell you that the $75,000 paid to Libeskind produced what has become a "secret" conceptual "vision" for Civic Center Park. This vision includes what the Rocky Mountain News tells us is:
"There amid the park's classic, century-old City Beautiful design, Libeskind envisioned a spreading, shallow pond that would eliminate the great lawn. It would be drained for special events and possibly become an ice skating rink in the winter.
"A 330-foot tower would spiral from the center of the park, with an elevator that would whisk visitors to an Eiffel Tower-style observation platform.
"A new cafe kiosk with a shiplike prow would jut 30 feet over Broadway, with a twin kiosk protruding over 14th Avenue.
"A metal 'lightning bolt' bridge would be built over West Colfax Avenue, a pedestrian link to the 16th Street Mall area."
Um, nope. Libeskind's vision and the "Civic Center Conservancy," (which, incidentally is the epitome of a euphamistic moniker) can take a flying leap.
Helen Kuykendall, a senior city parks planner who serves on the Civic Center Conservancy, said in a Rocky Mountain News article that, "We want to take the City Beautiful principles and reinterpret them for the 21st century. That's why it is valid to be open to the ideas of an architect with Libeskind's stature."
Nope. Ain't buyin' it Helen. Civic Center Park represents much, much more than a playground for the likes of Daniel Libeskind to flaunt his "genius." Civic Center Park requires the gentle, loving, seriously motivated care of those who understand history, who understand the preservation of history, who understand the necessity to maintain history.
Civic Center Park does not need the plopping of another Libeskind (bloody awful) abortion into it's pristine midst.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Just a Dog
(That's Sweet Melissa on the left and Calvin above on the right.) My niece, Mimi, sent the below to me.
Just a dog Musings by Richard Biby, Contributing Editor Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
From time to time, people tell me, "lighten up, it's "just a dog", or, that's a lot of money for just a dog. They don't understand the distance traveled, the time spent, or the costs involved for "just a dog". Some of my proudest moments have come about with "just a dog". Many hours have passed and my only company was "just a dog", but I did not once feel slighted. Some of my saddest moments have been brought about by "just a dog", and in those days of darkness, the gentle touch of "just a dog" gave me comfort and reason to overcome the day. If you, too, think it's just a dog", then you will probably understand phases like "just a friend", "just a sunrise", or "just a promise". "Just a dog" brings into my life the very essence of friendship, trust, and pure unbridled joy. "Just a dog" brings out the compassion and patience that make me a better person. Because of "just a dog" I will rise early, take long walks and look longingly to the future. So for me and folks like me, it's not "just a dog" but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future, the fond memories of the past, and the pure joy of the moment. "Just a dog" brings out whats good in me and diverts my thoughts away from myself and the worries of the day. I hope that someday they can understand that it's not "just a dog" but the thing that gives me humanity and keeps me from being "just a man." So the next time you hear the phrase "just a dog" just smile, because they "just don't understand" Roca (C) 2006
Monday, March 13, 2006
So Sick of Politics
Bill Frist, Republican from Tennessee and the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate who, you may recall, said upon the Senator floor that, Terri Schiavo was"...not somebody in persistent vegetative state..." and later recanted those words by telling folks (via the media) that he agreed with the autopsy conclusion that the Florida woman had suffered severe, irreversible brain damage and that he would, "... never, never, on the floor of the Senate, [make] a diagnosis, nor would I ever do that." However, Frist's remarks on the Senate floor with regard to the Schiavo case were made with the caveat that he, Frist was commenting on Schiavo's highly publicized case "more as a physician than as a United States senator." You may recall that Frist went on to say in that speech that, he had reviewed videotapes of Schiavo and noted that her brother "said that she responds to her parents and to him. That is not somebody in persistent vegetative state. . . . There just seems to be insufficient information to conclude that Terri Schiavo is [in a] persistent vegetative state."
Suffice it to say, Frist was playing to his constituency and pressing one of the neocon, fundamentalistic Christian hot buttons most often shouted from the steeple as: Pro Life.
Are the rest of us Anti Life?
I guess it's important to note that Frist also advocates the teaching of Intelligent Design in the nation's public schools.
Now, of course (why we couldn't expect less of the gentleman from Tennessee, now could we!) Frist will reintroduce the Defense of Marriage Act before the United State Senate some time in June of this year. Hot buttons. Hot buttons. Hot buttons. That's the key; that's the secret; that's the great trump card the right latched onto through their lean years: press those hot buttons and your constituency will respond...in droves.
What have the Democrats learned during their lean times? Nada. Nothing. Reactive impotence, maybe. I don't know.
Now, the recently concluded Republican Leadership Conference in, where else, Tennessee gave Frist the number one slot in their straw pole for the Republican nominee for President in '08. Mitt Romney, Governor of Massachusetts got the second place nod.
Now, let me just expose my bias, my prejudice here. Both these guys, Frist and Romney turn my stomach. They are, in my opinion, condescending, effete, privileged consummate politicians whose only passion is the fulfillment of their own egoism.
Okay, that said, a little something about Romney.
Romney, in this story from 365gay.com, (and I quote in full):
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has announced plans to file a bill exempting religious organizations from the state's nondiscrimination law in the wake of Friday's decision by the Catholic church to get out of the adoption business.
Catholic Charities said it would stop placing children for adoption rather than adhere to state law that bars discrimination on the basis of sexuality. (story)
Romney said his bill would include institutions run by all religious denominations and said it was a matter of 'religious freedom".
Although he was not specific on details of the legislation he indicated it also would extend to church run hospitals, agencies that help the needy and other faith based groups tied to churches, and not just to adoption agencies.
The proposal was dismissed by Democrats who control the State House but was immediately hailed by Republicans eying a future after George W. Bush.
Romney, like most other GOP presidential hopefuls, is attending the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis, Tenn.
His tough stance for an amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution to ban same-sex marriage and his faith based human rights exemption plan for churches catapulted him to the number two spot in a weekend straw poll of potential candidates.
The number one spot went to Tennessee Senator Bill Frist, a sponsor of the proposed federal amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Frist, as a southerner and a Tennessean had the "home team advantage" since the Conference is meeting in his home state.
Romney's bill is not likely to get far at home however.
A spokesperson for Senate President Robert E. Travaglini (D) said the bill had little chance of passing.
''Given the antidiscrimination laws and the history of gay adoption, there's been nothing to suggest that there's been a problem with these adoptions," Ann Dufresne told the Boston Globe.
House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi (D) said there is little support.
In a statement DiMasi said that the state must ''ensure that discrimination is not tolerated in this vital publicly-supported function."
As he presses forward with plans to seek the GOP presidential nomination Romney is not seeking re-election as governor.
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who is seeking the Republican nomination to succeed Romney last week, saying sheÂ’s opposed to exempting the church from the anti-discrimination laws.
Other Massachusetts Republicans also distanced themselves from Romney's plan.
Okay, so Romney wants to create a "special class" of people, institutions who can legally discriminate against gay folk. You conservatives out there should evaluate this in light of your oft-voiced objections, on the basis of "special class" creation, to gay marriage and/or domestic partner rights legislation.
Anyway, I'm really getting sick of politics in this country. Maybe it's that I'm really getting sick of the two-party system.
Maybe it's just that I'm of that generation whose minds, souls were captured by the promise of Camelot, by a New Frontier that, sadly, died in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Couple Things - Another Novel; And, Well, Um, Maybe Ethanol Ain't So Bad
I finished writing my second novel last week. When I retired, I pledged to myself to write a novel a year until either my mind goes south (some think it already has) or some other eventuality occurs. This novel is 120,489 words from my seriously brilliant :-] fantastically skewed brain, where, among other things, two elderly lesbians who are camped on the western shore of Grand Lake (the deepest natural lake in Colorado) find a baby floating on the water, encased in a life jacket, with a bottle of apple juice in its mouth. The more athletic of the two, shucks her clothes and swims out to the baby. Suffice it to say, they don't give the baby up. As a matter of fact... No, I can't give that away. I've named the novel, "Finding Deaglan." Yes, the child is decidedly Irish. And, legend has it, there is no bottom to Grand Lake! There are wolves and wealth; a bevy of gay and lesbian folk whose friendships span thirty years and there are Indians and the old medicine passed down from the progenitors of those Indians and an old haunted house on, what else, Gaylord Street and, well, lots of other--as I said--fantastical things going on in the little tome.
In his March 4 column, Kevin Hassett states "Exxon Mobil Corp. had $36 billion in net income last year. If an alternative fuel source could be developed that would compete for that business, the rewards would be enormous. There would be a race to get there first."
Well, the race is on. At today's gasoline prices, ethanol can be produced for less than gasoline, and the rush to build new ethanol plants is on. There are 41 ethanol projects under way with a combined capacity of 2 billion gallons per year.
Does Hassett know how much domestically produced fuel that is? How about the equivalent of the largest oil refinery in California? Just two years ago, new ethanol projects numbered about a dozen per year. Now, ethanol plants are being built at an unprecedented rate, just as Hassett suggested would happen. Only he hasn't seemed to notice. The equivalent of a large refinery is being built about every two years by the U.S. ethanol industry. The fuel from these refineries is grown and produced right in the U.S.
Every study regarding the energy efficiency of ethanol has found that ethanol production is energy-efficient except the one cited by Hassett. Most recently, the distinguished chair of energy at UC-Berkeley, Dr. Dan Kammen, stated "It is better to use various inputs to grow corn and make ethanol and use that in your cars than it is to use the gasoline and fossil fuels directly."
Let's summarize the situation this way. Corn is the largest crop in the US. The majority of that corn is used for animal feed in the U.S. and abroad. Corn contains about 70 percent starch. The world is starch-rich and protein-poor (think rice in Asia). Ethanol production removes the starch from corn and concentrates the protein threefold. The protein and other nutrients in the corn are still available to feed animals in the U.S. and abroad.
Why should we import gasoline and export starch when we can cost-effectively convert the starch into fuel and still export protein to a protein-starved world? Do you think U.S. gasoline refiners want to see that last 10 percent of imported gasoline replaced with ethanol and with it more than $5 billion in profits? With this level of money involved, the disinformation will continue.
Mark Yancey, vice president BBI Ethanol Consulting Denver
The "A-maize-ing" opinion piece that ran last Saturday was permeated with misinformation. Apparently, the Rocky Mountain News has adopted the role of propagandist mouthpiece for extreme right-wing think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute.
The "recent study" that was cited in this article has been debunked by half a dozen other sources. Although Hassett would like to have you believe that the only reason a federal initiative exists to promote ethanol is because of large soft money donations to political parties from agricultural companies, the fact is that ethanol has shown promise in solving our country's energy dependence problem.
It is hard to believe that any rationally thinking person could believe the statement that "cars emit more pollution when running on gasoline/ethanol blends than when running on gasoline alone." Why has our air quality improved since the mandate to use 10 percent ethanol during the winter months was enacted? Ethanol is renewable; when burned it generates zero greenhouse gas; it can utilize the existing fuel distribution infrastructure and can be used in 5 million autos that are currently on the road.
Brian P. Boyarko Littleton
In response to the editorial by Kevin Hassett in the March 4 business section of the Saturday Rocky Mountain News titled "A-maize-ing: Bush has fallen for the costly ethanol scam," I was appalled by the claims made for the continuing use of petroleum-based fuels. An example that contradicts his claims is a study reported by the EPA, www.epa. gov/otaq/consumer/06?clean.pdf, proving that it makes more sense to continue the development of alternative fuels and press for the distribution of these products.
The only item that is factual about Hassett's editorial is that petroleum products are cheaper to distill and distribute. From an economic standpoint this makes sense for the petroleum companies since the EPA regulates the pollutants that they produce. Alcohol distillation is a new industry and must be monitored in the same way that any other industry is monitored. I believe Mr. Hassett is a fine economist, but his facts are clearly wrong based on misinformation.
Matthew Spiegel Denver
**
It appears the source on my recent post dealing with Ethanol may have been debunked. (Suz, you can start-up those Sunday morning corn-worship meditative dance ceremonies again.) I'm not totally convinced (neither is Jack, one of the commenters on that post), but this morning's Rocky Mountain News provided several editorials with regard to my source. In the interest of "fair and balanced," here's what the green folks had to say:
Ethanol race has begun
In his March 4 column, Kevin Hassett states "Exxon Mobil Corp. had $36 billion in net income last year. If an alternative fuel source could be developed that would compete for that business, the rewards would be enormous. There would be a race to get there first."
Well, the race is on. At today's gasoline prices, ethanol can be produced for less than gasoline, and the rush to build new ethanol plants is on. There are 41 ethanol projects under way with a combined capacity of 2 billion gallons per year.
Does Hassett know how much domestically produced fuel that is? How about the equivalent of the largest oil refinery in California? Just two years ago, new ethanol projects numbered about a dozen per year. Now, ethanol plants are being built at an unprecedented rate, just as Hassett suggested would happen. Only he hasn't seemed to notice. The equivalent of a large refinery is being built about every two years by the U.S. ethanol industry. The fuel from these refineries is grown and produced right in the U.S.
Every study regarding the energy efficiency of ethanol has found that ethanol production is energy-efficient except the one cited by Hassett. Most recently, the distinguished chair of energy at UC-Berkeley, Dr. Dan Kammen, stated "It is better to use various inputs to grow corn and make ethanol and use that in your cars than it is to use the gasoline and fossil fuels directly."
Let's summarize the situation this way. Corn is the largest crop in the US. The majority of that corn is used for animal feed in the U.S. and abroad. Corn contains about 70 percent starch. The world is starch-rich and protein-poor (think rice in Asia). Ethanol production removes the starch from corn and concentrates the protein threefold. The protein and other nutrients in the corn are still available to feed animals in the U.S. and abroad.
Why should we import gasoline and export starch when we can cost-effectively convert the starch into fuel and still export protein to a protein-starved world? Do you think U.S. gasoline refiners want to see that last 10 percent of imported gasoline replaced with ethanol and with it more than $5 billion in profits? With this level of money involved, the disinformation will continue.
Mark Yancey, vice president BBI Ethanol Consulting Denver
Ethanol shows promise
The "A-maize-ing" opinion piece that ran last Saturday was permeated with misinformation. Apparently, the Rocky Mountain News has adopted the role of propagandist mouthpiece for extreme right-wing think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute.
The "recent study" that was cited in this article has been debunked by half a dozen other sources. Although Hassett would like to have you believe that the only reason a federal initiative exists to promote ethanol is because of large soft money donations to political parties from agricultural companies, the fact is that ethanol has shown promise in solving our country's energy dependence problem.
It is hard to believe that any rationally thinking person could believe the statement that "cars emit more pollution when running on gasoline/ethanol blends than when running on gasoline alone." Why has our air quality improved since the mandate to use 10 percent ethanol during the winter months was enacted? Ethanol is renewable; when burned it generates zero greenhouse gas; it can utilize the existing fuel distribution infrastructure and can be used in 5 million autos that are currently on the road.
Brian P. Boyarko Littleton
Fuel claims appalling
In response to the editorial by Kevin Hassett in the March 4 business section of the Saturday Rocky Mountain News titled "A-maize-ing: Bush has fallen for the costly ethanol scam," I was appalled by the claims made for the continuing use of petroleum-based fuels. An example that contradicts his claims is a study reported by the EPA, www.epa. gov/otaq/consumer/06?clean.pdf, proving that it makes more sense to continue the development of alternative fuels and press for the distribution of these products.
The only item that is factual about Hassett's editorial is that petroleum products are cheaper to distill and distribute. From an economic standpoint this makes sense for the petroleum companies since the EPA regulates the pollutants that they produce. Alcohol distillation is a new industry and must be monitored in the same way that any other industry is monitored. I believe Mr. Hassett is a fine economist, but his facts are clearly wrong based on misinformation.
Matthew Spiegel Denver
Friday, March 10, 2006
Bennett, Colorado - Putting the Devil in His (Her?) Place
The Rocky Mountain News reports this morning that when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built a meeting house in the town of Strasburg, which is just about a hop, skip and a jump from the town of Bennett, the good folks of Bennett had some very intense conversations about whether or not Mormons were Christians.
Ah, Bennett. To recap the essential nature of Bennett, Colorado and what this little slip of a town has to do with anything, some details are necessary.
Now, hoping you've read the background, the News reports this morning that, "Several parents complained that the video (a thirty-year-old video tape that was an introduction to opera for school children that featured Joan Sutherland and excerpts from the opera, "Faust"), which Tresa Waggoner got from the school library and showed some twenty minutes of which to her class, contained references to abortion and Satan worship.
"During the February 16th (school) board meeting more than 53 people appeared to support her (Waggoner's) returning to the classroom and six opposed it, Waggoner said.
"'Dr. Sauter (school superintendent in Adam's County where Bennett beams signals back and forth to Fred Phelps in Topeka, Kansas) told me it would be too disruptive to let me teach again," she said.
Suffice it to say, the offending music teacher, Tresa Waggoner, has chosen to seek employment elsewhere. Indeed, the Mayor of Bennett, Karen Grossiant "...resigned in February and said Waggoner's removal was the 'last straw.'
"Tresa Waggoner was the last in a very long line of very peculiar situations,' said Grossiant, an administrator at Regis University [in Denver].
"'Bennett has a mean-spirited undertone. I'd had enough,' she said."
I guess, under the circumstances, it's just plain silly to mention that the offending teacher has cut two Christian based CDs and sees herself as pursuing a position as a church music director.
Ah, what the hell... The culture war persists.
What, I wonder, would the good folks of Bennett do if they found themselves dealing with what Willie Nelson tells us: "Small towns don't like it when somebody falls between sexes. And a small town don't like it when a cowboy has feelin's for men."
Yup, forget Faust. Danger looms in more substantive, temporal forms.
ColoradoPols - Alas, A Paucity of Civility
One of my links, ColoradoPols, purports to provide the inside track on the behind-the-scenes machinations of Colorado politics and politicians which, I do believe, it successfully accomplishes to one extent or another. The site endeavors to provide the latest Colorado political news, gossip and, sometimes outright baloney that seems to erupt daily from our beautiful state's politicians and wingnuts--left and right. Suffice it to say, the site provides a forum for the supposedly "inside track" political hacks, office holders, bureaucrats, petty functionaries, wannabe big shots, journalists, to post on any given "political" topic that is highlighted or raised in conversation by those posting. It is important to note that probably 99% of those who post on the site, do so anonymously.
I am one of the few posters on the site who has never posted anonymously. I have no reason to post anonymously. Admittedly, some posters on the site need to protect their identity. Or, do they? Why? If they have the courage of their convictions, why post anonymously. But, then, that's another discussion for another time.
All you rightwing, corncob-up-the-ass conservative (probably evangelical) wingnuts may put your hands over your ears for a moment.
Richard Dreyfuss (I know: Lefty, Commie, Pinko-fairy, Hollywood harpie), who addressed the Washington Press Corps recently, said something that caught my attention and got me to thinking about a couple of things, notably ColoradoPols. I'm paraphrasing here, but Dreyfuss said something to the effect that civility is the oxygen of democracy. If we have no civility in our discourse, then there is no democracy; there is no opportunity for the other side to be heard or for their notions, their polemic to be considered.
Okay, rightwing, come on back.
I used to post often on ColoradoPols. At the point where I actually contributed a post in which I called some ignoble son-of-a-bitch a "dick," was almost precisely the same moment I happened to turn the mute button off and caught the CSPAN broadcast of Dreyfuss's speech in which he spoke about civility, among other things, including (close your ears again, righties!), the necessity to impeach George W. Bush.
Fate!
Usually the post strings on ColoradoPols will begin civilly enough but, let me damn sure guarantee you, that the posts generally degenerate into what, I do believe, anonymity encourages on sites like this: the mad-doggedness aggressiveness of intemperate, crude, bullying, rude put-downs and castigations, threats and epithets, recriminations and rebukes.
Um, now that I think about it, what I've shared in the above paragraph sounds a little like the state of American politics these days. The national polemic--the culture war, the polarization extant in this country today-- is as sickenly palpable as a neglected goiter on the neck of a seriously engaged sufferer of thyroid dysfunction. Those are nasty lookin' growths, ya'll.
Curiously, something else always seems to surface on the post strings on ColoradoPols. Pretty much, no matter what happens to be the subject of the post, the most prolific participants (posters) on the site feel the need, the urge, perhaps the responsibility to suggest that if you ain't served your country under combat sit'ations, ya'll, then your thoughts, your reasoning, your argument ain't worth the shit it was delivered on. (I'm thinking now about something Willie Nelson said in his little ditty, "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (fond of each other") but I won't bring that up here. )
Well, anyway, I've stayed away from posting on ColoradoPols for a while. I guess I was shocked to have actually published a post that called some anonymous presence, a "dick."
I still enjoy reading the posts on the site and I do, occasionally offer my thoughts. (Archbishop Chaput and the Hick are two hot buttons that I can't seem to avoid commenting on.)
But, what about civility? Would the site be less, oh, popular if those who posted were civil to one another? I doubt it. I guess part of the allure of the site is the reflection of the fucking mess this country is in -- Thanks, Dubya! -- which is reflected each and every day, on each and every string that appears on the site.
"Civility is the oxygen of democracy." Hmmm.... I still think those are good words.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Bright Eyes, "At the Bottom of Everything"
We must
"...set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell,
and in the ear of every anarchist,
that sleeps but doesn't dream,
we must sing, we must sing, we must sing."
"...set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell,
and in the ear of every anarchist,
that sleeps but doesn't dream,
we must sing, we must sing, we must sing."
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
The More Things Change... Yeah, It's Colorado Again! Bennish v. Media Hype
Back in the late '60s, the Black Panther Party in Denver provided breakfast to black children who, presumably, would not otherwise have received a good breakfast prior to their arduous trek to the white man's school. Or, so the Panther's claimed. Along with the breakfast, though, the Panthers also provided the children with coloring books and crayons. The coloring books portrayed police officers as pigs being killed, maimed by proud black folk hoisting automatic weapons, pistols, ball bats, etc.
Burn Baby Burn!
In the late '60s, I sat, twice a week, in a Sociology 101 class at the University of Colorado, Denver Center, presided over by none other than the Director of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Jim Reynolds. There were probably more than a hundred of us in the class. Only guessing here, mind you, but there may have been one other student in the class who took more than a little umbrage with Mister Reynolds' oft-voiced admiration, adulation of the Black Panther Party.
"But, Mister Reynolds," I said, "the Panthers advocate the murder of cops; they advocate the burning of American cities."
"The Panthers feed hungry children," was, consistently, the response from Mister Reynolds.
The more things change...
Burn Baby Burn!
In the late '60s, I sat, twice a week, in a Sociology 101 class at the University of Colorado, Denver Center, presided over by none other than the Director of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Jim Reynolds. There were probably more than a hundred of us in the class. Only guessing here, mind you, but there may have been one other student in the class who took more than a little umbrage with Mister Reynolds' oft-voiced admiration, adulation of the Black Panther Party.
"But, Mister Reynolds," I said, "the Panthers advocate the murder of cops; they advocate the burning of American cities."
"The Panthers feed hungry children," was, consistently, the response from Mister Reynolds.
The more things change...
I suspect most of you have heard about Jay Bennish, a geography teacher from a Denver suburb, whose fiery lecture--he compared George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler, for heaven's sake!--was taped (MP3'd) by one of his tenth grade students, a precocious, slightly pudgy youngster with a staunchly Republican father, a supposedly Democratic mother and surely a yen for stardom...bypassing American Idol all together.
Seems the youngster and his daddy, Sean Allen and Jeff Allen respectively, were so terribly outraged by the Bennish classroom rant, that they contacted a compadre of Rush Limbaugh, Walter E. Williams of Virginia's George Mason University who, outraged as well, wrote a column that was posted on the internet. Not satisfied with the reaction thereto, the Allen boys contacted a local, very, very, very conservative radio commentator, Mike Rosen, who carried the ball from there. (It, of course, should be noted that Limbaugh characterized the likes of the teacher, Jay Bennish, as "...maggot-infested...".)
Suffice it to say, the media went apeshit with this story and, even today, the story abounds on the airwaves, through the satellite dishes and remains splattered in black on more than a few newspapers.
Two points: One -Radio talk show hosts are the most prolific whores on the face of the earth who, through time and practice, have affirmed their savage tendency to hump (to oblivion) any bullshit issue that latches on to the hairs in their nostrils, like beer farts from the dumb shit sitting on the stool next to them.
Two-Public education in this country is, has been and, most likely--with the exception of those holy roller enclaves of intelligent design--will forever be the marketplace of ideas where liberalism soars and where youthful minds need beware to think for themselves.
THINK FOR YOURSELVES, YOUNG'UNS! READ! Surely, without the media frenzy and sans a sure place in the fifteen-minutes-of-fame spotlight, the integrity, the substance of your beliefs can withstand the whining, dramatic, classroom rants of a twenty-eight year old blond Rastapharian, who--forty years ago--would probably also have voiced the unarguable sentiment: "They feed hungry children."
Saturday, March 04, 2006
The Last Straw - The Absurdity of Ethanol
Kevin Hassert writes in this morning's, Rocky Mountain News, that, "In a capital city that is full of shameless political scams, ethanol is perhaps the most egregious. There has probably never been a specific topic around which so much disinformation is spread. Ethanol lowers our reliance on fossil fuels! Ethanol helps clean the environment! Ethanol will save the family farm! Such sound bites work wonders when it comes to raising money. And the amount involved is mind-boggling. The federal government subsidizes ethanol producers with a tax credit of 51 cents per gallon of fuel ethanol; those subsidies will total about $1.4 billion this year."
If I were to suggest that I already knew what Hassert reported to be true, that I was not fooled by the hoopla over Ethanol (have you seen the tv commercials where youngsters stand in cornfields and imagine a better world? not to mention Dubya's touting of Ethanol in his SOTU), I would be lying. That hook, line and sinker was beginning to be deeply and securely embedded in my intellectual gut, in spite of my admittedly increasingly sardonic view of the world. We can't even believe in corn. Cynicism abounds.
But, for God's sake, I was not ready for Hassert's revelations that, by the way--if I had given any thought to it at all--are self-evident.
Consider: "If you look at the facts," Hassert continued, "the spending makes no sense whatsoever. Consider how ethanol is produced. Corn is grown, harvested, then delivered to an ethanol plant. There the corn is ground and mixed with water. After fermentation, a mixture that is about 8 percent ethanol must be repeatedly distilled until it is 99.5 percent pure ethanol. Growing and harvesting the corn, and heating and reheating the fermented corn to produce ethanol of a high enough quality to replace some of the gasoline in your car requires an enormous amount of energy.
"How much? A recent study by Cornell University's David Pimentel and the University of California at Berkeley's Tad Patzek added up all the energy consumption that goes into ethanol production. They took account of the energy it takes to build and run tractors. They added in the energy embodied in the other inputs and irrigation. They parsed out how much is used at the ethanol plant. Putting it all together, they found that it takes 29 percent more energy to make ethanol from corn than is contained in the ethanol itself."
"... no matter how expensive fossil fuels become, ethanol will never be economical because it takes so much fossil fuel to produce. It might be possible that someday technological processes will emerge that make production of ethanol less reliant on fossil fuels, but the billions in subsidies to this point have left us with a process that is still a disgrace and an absurd waste of energy and taxpayers' money.
"At least ethanol reduces pollution, right? Maybe the subsidies are worthwhile because they will buy us a cleaner environment. Guess again. First, corn production, according to Pimentel and Patzek, "uses more herbicides and insecticides than any other crop produced in the U.S."
And the Environmental Protection Agency has cited ethanol plants for air pollution. In a letter to the industry's trade group, the EPA noted that pollution was a problem in "most, if not all, ethanol facilities.
"These plants produce large quantities of waste water as well.
"Ethanol contributes to air pollution. Cars emit more air pollution when they run on gasoline containing ethanol than they do when running on gasoline alone. Our environment would be greener if we stopped relying on ethanol."
Hassert goes on to report that the ethanol scam is quite popular with politicians because, well, the corn and ethanol lobbyists are shellin' out the big bucks and, of course, every state in the union that grows substantial quantities of corn sees those generous government subsidies as essential to their well-being in spite of the absurdity of it all.
You know, in spite of everything, in spite of the lies, duplicity, treachery, unabashed ignoramousnous (is that a word?) espoused by this American President which has led this nation to shoulder the greatest deficit in it's history, has sent young, beautiful boys and girls to fight a war that cannot be won where democracy will forever play second fiddle to the calling of Allah; yes, in spite of all of this and many more disgustingly depressing matters which I've really grown weary of posting about, I thought there was at least one pure, God-sent truth out there that I could believe in, support, espouse the benefits of: Corn.
Ain't so, bucko. (Merriam-Webster: Bucko: a person who is domineering and bullying. A SWAGGERER!)
If I were to suggest that I already knew what Hassert reported to be true, that I was not fooled by the hoopla over Ethanol (have you seen the tv commercials where youngsters stand in cornfields and imagine a better world? not to mention Dubya's touting of Ethanol in his SOTU), I would be lying. That hook, line and sinker was beginning to be deeply and securely embedded in my intellectual gut, in spite of my admittedly increasingly sardonic view of the world. We can't even believe in corn. Cynicism abounds.
But, for God's sake, I was not ready for Hassert's revelations that, by the way--if I had given any thought to it at all--are self-evident.
Consider: "If you look at the facts," Hassert continued, "the spending makes no sense whatsoever. Consider how ethanol is produced. Corn is grown, harvested, then delivered to an ethanol plant. There the corn is ground and mixed with water. After fermentation, a mixture that is about 8 percent ethanol must be repeatedly distilled until it is 99.5 percent pure ethanol. Growing and harvesting the corn, and heating and reheating the fermented corn to produce ethanol of a high enough quality to replace some of the gasoline in your car requires an enormous amount of energy.
"How much? A recent study by Cornell University's David Pimentel and the University of California at Berkeley's Tad Patzek added up all the energy consumption that goes into ethanol production. They took account of the energy it takes to build and run tractors. They added in the energy embodied in the other inputs and irrigation. They parsed out how much is used at the ethanol plant. Putting it all together, they found that it takes 29 percent more energy to make ethanol from corn than is contained in the ethanol itself."
"... no matter how expensive fossil fuels become, ethanol will never be economical because it takes so much fossil fuel to produce. It might be possible that someday technological processes will emerge that make production of ethanol less reliant on fossil fuels, but the billions in subsidies to this point have left us with a process that is still a disgrace and an absurd waste of energy and taxpayers' money.
"At least ethanol reduces pollution, right? Maybe the subsidies are worthwhile because they will buy us a cleaner environment. Guess again. First, corn production, according to Pimentel and Patzek, "uses more herbicides and insecticides than any other crop produced in the U.S."
And the Environmental Protection Agency has cited ethanol plants for air pollution. In a letter to the industry's trade group, the EPA noted that pollution was a problem in "most, if not all, ethanol facilities.
"These plants produce large quantities of waste water as well.
"Ethanol contributes to air pollution. Cars emit more air pollution when they run on gasoline containing ethanol than they do when running on gasoline alone. Our environment would be greener if we stopped relying on ethanol."
Hassert goes on to report that the ethanol scam is quite popular with politicians because, well, the corn and ethanol lobbyists are shellin' out the big bucks and, of course, every state in the union that grows substantial quantities of corn sees those generous government subsidies as essential to their well-being in spite of the absurdity of it all.
You know, in spite of everything, in spite of the lies, duplicity, treachery, unabashed ignoramousnous (is that a word?) espoused by this American President which has led this nation to shoulder the greatest deficit in it's history, has sent young, beautiful boys and girls to fight a war that cannot be won where democracy will forever play second fiddle to the calling of Allah; yes, in spite of all of this and many more disgustingly depressing matters which I've really grown weary of posting about, I thought there was at least one pure, God-sent truth out there that I could believe in, support, espouse the benefits of: Corn.
Ain't so, bucko. (Merriam-Webster: Bucko: a person who is domineering and bullying. A SWAGGERER!)
Monday, February 27, 2006
EMERGENCY!
I really don't want to become too obsessive about this asthma thing, but there are probably enough of us out there who are experiencing the late-in-life onset of this disease, nuisance, pain-in-the-ass, that maybe a continued discussion might be helpful.
I woke up several times Saturday morning wheezing like a geezer with emphysema and took several hits of Albuterol so I could get a little sleep. Well, the wheezing continued after I finally got up and, about noon, I thought I'd try to catch up on some lost sleep and take a nap.
The nap didn't work. The wheezing just got worse. And, the tightness in my chest and throat was not assuaged at all by continued hits of Albuterol. (Can you overdose on that stuff?)
I got out of bed at about 2:30 P.M., shaved and took a shower because I anticipated what my fate was going to be in the next hour or two. I called Kaiser, told them I was having severe breathing problems and they advised me to head for the emergency room.
David drove me to St. Joe's where, indeed, the doc and the nurse confirmed my lungs sounded "terrible" and the normal protocol (I guess) for this kind of thing was commenced:
1) Two Albuterol sulfate nebulizer cocktails;
2) Three tabs of Prednisone;
3) A script for Zithromax (sinusitis);
4) A script for another round of Prednisone (starting with 6 tabs once, and working down to 5, 4, 3,2, 1 tab(s) a day.
So, I didn't run Saturday. I used the treadmill Sunday (uphill for a mile and a half, while using the isometric pull/push bars) with little exacerbation of breathing difficulties. And, today, I had to wait until about noon before the wheezing got to a point where I could run my 2.25 miles. Wheezing a little right now, but nothing serious.
So, that's my EMERGENCY tale. I really, really want to get this stuff under control. So, any suggestions or, indeed, discussion might help. The Drunken Lagomorph (see my links) who is in the medical field has very kindly offered some input, which I appreciate.
I woke up several times Saturday morning wheezing like a geezer with emphysema and took several hits of Albuterol so I could get a little sleep. Well, the wheezing continued after I finally got up and, about noon, I thought I'd try to catch up on some lost sleep and take a nap.
The nap didn't work. The wheezing just got worse. And, the tightness in my chest and throat was not assuaged at all by continued hits of Albuterol. (Can you overdose on that stuff?)
I got out of bed at about 2:30 P.M., shaved and took a shower because I anticipated what my fate was going to be in the next hour or two. I called Kaiser, told them I was having severe breathing problems and they advised me to head for the emergency room.
David drove me to St. Joe's where, indeed, the doc and the nurse confirmed my lungs sounded "terrible" and the normal protocol (I guess) for this kind of thing was commenced:
1) Two Albuterol sulfate nebulizer cocktails;
2) Three tabs of Prednisone;
3) A script for Zithromax (sinusitis);
4) A script for another round of Prednisone (starting with 6 tabs once, and working down to 5, 4, 3,2, 1 tab(s) a day.
So, I didn't run Saturday. I used the treadmill Sunday (uphill for a mile and a half, while using the isometric pull/push bars) with little exacerbation of breathing difficulties. And, today, I had to wait until about noon before the wheezing got to a point where I could run my 2.25 miles. Wheezing a little right now, but nothing serious.
So, that's my EMERGENCY tale. I really, really want to get this stuff under control. So, any suggestions or, indeed, discussion might help. The Drunken Lagomorph (see my links) who is in the medical field has very kindly offered some input, which I appreciate.
William F. Buckley Jr. - "...the American objective in Iraq has failed."
As I pursued my B.A. at the University of Colorado during the late sixties and early seventies, I remain unashamed that I was a sincere, dedicated, outspoken Conservative. I read Bill Buckley's National Review religiously. I was, in a word, an oddity in what Buckley once called "...the student world of unreason."
After receiving my B.A., I volunteered with the United State Army, my first stop being Fort Polk, Louisiana. (Remember the great scene in the movie, Patton, where he's standing on a stage in full uniform before an enormous American flag and is addressing the troops who are preparing to head overseas to fight the Nazis? The speech to the troops is often referred to as the "...shovelin' shit in Louisiana..." speech. That's the Louisiana where I found myself in 1972.)
Gradually, during the immense self-revelations that came from what I would later refer to in a short story as the loss of innocence store (the Army), I moved slowly, surely to the left and, in the process, put Bill Buckley aside.
Now, I find myself fiercely independent of any label. Not a Democrat. Not a Republican. Not a Conservative. Not a Liberal. (Although most of my posts tend to lean left.)
The point of all this is that William F. Buckley, Jr. has concluded in the National Review that, "One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed." Wow!
Buckley writes, "The Iraqis we hear about are first indignant, and then infuriated, that Americans aren't on the scene to protect them and to punish the aggressors. And so they join the clothing merchant who says that everything is the fault of the Americans.
"The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elucidates on the complaint against Americans. It is not only that the invaders are American, it is that they are 'Zionists.' It would not be surprising to learn from an anonymously cited American soldier that he can understand why Saddam Hussein was needed to keep the Sunnis and the Shiites from each others' throats."
Allow me to provide the entire Buckley piece.
February 24, 2006, 2:51 p.m.
It Didn't Work
"I can tell you the main reason behind all our woes--it is America." The New York Times reporter is quoting the complaint of a clothing merchant in a Sunni stronghold in Iraq. "Everything that is going on between Sunni and Shiites, the troublemaker in the middle is America."
"One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed. The same edition of the paper quotes a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Reuel Marc Gerecht backed the American intervention. He now speaks of the bombing of the especially sacred Shiite mosque in Samara and what that has precipitated in the way of revenge. He concludes that 'The bombing has completely demolished "what was being attempted -- to bring Sunnis into the defense and interior ministries.
"Our mission has failed because Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 Americans. The great human reserves that call for civil life haven't proved strong enough. No doubt they are latently there, but they have not been able to contend against the ice men who move about in the shadows with bombs and grenades and pistols.
"The Iraqis we hear about are first indignant, and then infuriated, that Americans aren't on the scene to protect them and to punish the aggressors. And so they join the clothing merchant who says that everything is the fault of the Americans.
"The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elucidates on the complaint against Americans. It is not only that the invaders are American, it is that they are 'Zionists.' It would not be surprising to learn from an anonymously cited American soldier that he can understand why Saddam Hussein was needed to keep the Sunnis and the Shiites from each others' throats.
"A problem for American policymakers -- for President Bush, ultimately -- is to cope with the postulates and decide how to proceed.
"One of these postulates, from the beginning, was that the Iraqi people, whatever their tribal differences, would suspend internal divisions in order to get on with life in a political structure that guaranteed them religious freedom.
"The accompanying postulate was that the invading American army would succeed in training Iraqi soldiepolicymakerscymkers to cope with insurgents bent on violence.
"This last did not happen. And the administration has, now, to cope with failure. It can defend itself historically, standing by the inherent reasonableness of the postulates. After all, they govern our policies in Latin America, in Africa, and in much of Asia. The failure in Iraq does not force us to generalize that violence and antidemocratic movements always prevail. It does call on us to adjust to the question, What do we do when we see that the postulates do not prevail -- in the absence of interventionist measures (we used these against Hirohito and Hitler) which we simply are not prepared to take? It is healthier for the disillusioned American to concede that in one theater in the Mideast, the postulates didn't work. The alternative would be to abandon the postulates. To do that would be to register a kind of philosophical despair. The killer insurgents are not entitled to blow up the shrine of American idealism.
"Mr. Bush has a very difficult internal problem here because to make the kind of concession that is strategically appropriate requires a mitigation of policies he has several times affirmed in high-flown pronouncements. His challenge is to persuade himself that he can submit to a historical reality without forswearing basic commitments in foreign policy.
"He will certainly face the current development as military leaders are expected to do: They are called upon to acknowledge a tactical setback, but to insist on the survival of strategic policies.
"Yes, but within their own counsels, different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat."
(c) 2006 Universal Press Syndicate
After receiving my B.A., I volunteered with the United State Army, my first stop being Fort Polk, Louisiana. (Remember the great scene in the movie, Patton, where he's standing on a stage in full uniform before an enormous American flag and is addressing the troops who are preparing to head overseas to fight the Nazis? The speech to the troops is often referred to as the "...shovelin' shit in Louisiana..." speech. That's the Louisiana where I found myself in 1972.)
Gradually, during the immense self-revelations that came from what I would later refer to in a short story as the loss of innocence store (the Army), I moved slowly, surely to the left and, in the process, put Bill Buckley aside.
Now, I find myself fiercely independent of any label. Not a Democrat. Not a Republican. Not a Conservative. Not a Liberal. (Although most of my posts tend to lean left.)
The point of all this is that William F. Buckley, Jr. has concluded in the National Review that, "One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed." Wow!
Buckley writes, "The Iraqis we hear about are first indignant, and then infuriated, that Americans aren't on the scene to protect them and to punish the aggressors. And so they join the clothing merchant who says that everything is the fault of the Americans.
"The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elucidates on the complaint against Americans. It is not only that the invaders are American, it is that they are 'Zionists.' It would not be surprising to learn from an anonymously cited American soldier that he can understand why Saddam Hussein was needed to keep the Sunnis and the Shiites from each others' throats."
Allow me to provide the entire Buckley piece.
February 24, 2006, 2:51 p.m.
It Didn't Work
"I can tell you the main reason behind all our woes--it is America." The New York Times reporter is quoting the complaint of a clothing merchant in a Sunni stronghold in Iraq. "Everything that is going on between Sunni and Shiites, the troublemaker in the middle is America."
"One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed. The same edition of the paper quotes a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Reuel Marc Gerecht backed the American intervention. He now speaks of the bombing of the especially sacred Shiite mosque in Samara and what that has precipitated in the way of revenge. He concludes that 'The bombing has completely demolished "what was being attempted -- to bring Sunnis into the defense and interior ministries.
"Our mission has failed because Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 Americans. The great human reserves that call for civil life haven't proved strong enough. No doubt they are latently there, but they have not been able to contend against the ice men who move about in the shadows with bombs and grenades and pistols.
"The Iraqis we hear about are first indignant, and then infuriated, that Americans aren't on the scene to protect them and to punish the aggressors. And so they join the clothing merchant who says that everything is the fault of the Americans.
"The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elucidates on the complaint against Americans. It is not only that the invaders are American, it is that they are 'Zionists.' It would not be surprising to learn from an anonymously cited American soldier that he can understand why Saddam Hussein was needed to keep the Sunnis and the Shiites from each others' throats.
"A problem for American policymakers -- for President Bush, ultimately -- is to cope with the postulates and decide how to proceed.
"One of these postulates, from the beginning, was that the Iraqi people, whatever their tribal differences, would suspend internal divisions in order to get on with life in a political structure that guaranteed them religious freedom.
"The accompanying postulate was that the invading American army would succeed in training Iraqi soldiepolicymakerscymkers to cope with insurgents bent on violence.
"This last did not happen. And the administration has, now, to cope with failure. It can defend itself historically, standing by the inherent reasonableness of the postulates. After all, they govern our policies in Latin America, in Africa, and in much of Asia. The failure in Iraq does not force us to generalize that violence and antidemocratic movements always prevail. It does call on us to adjust to the question, What do we do when we see that the postulates do not prevail -- in the absence of interventionist measures (we used these against Hirohito and Hitler) which we simply are not prepared to take? It is healthier for the disillusioned American to concede that in one theater in the Mideast, the postulates didn't work. The alternative would be to abandon the postulates. To do that would be to register a kind of philosophical despair. The killer insurgents are not entitled to blow up the shrine of American idealism.
"Mr. Bush has a very difficult internal problem here because to make the kind of concession that is strategically appropriate requires a mitigation of policies he has several times affirmed in high-flown pronouncements. His challenge is to persuade himself that he can submit to a historical reality without forswearing basic commitments in foreign policy.
"He will certainly face the current development as military leaders are expected to do: They are called upon to acknowledge a tactical setback, but to insist on the survival of strategic policies.
"Yes, but within their own counsels, different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat."
(c) 2006 Universal Press Syndicate
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Monday, February 13, 2006
"Democracies Are Peaceful Countries"
A Dubya rap...
Curiously, this link doesn't seem to work anymore and it appears that it has disappeared from the ifilm library. Hmmmmm....
Curiously, this link doesn't seem to work anymore and it appears that it has disappeared from the ifilm library. Hmmmmm....
War Poetry
War poetry, from soldiers who have seen the face of war up close and personal has always captured my interest, my imagination; it is the poetry of absolute reality, perhaps more real than most of us want to even think about. War poetry tends to capture the moment, without metaphor or the flowers of the language. It is real. It is graphic. It should be instructive.
First from Michael Casey, a Yale Younger Poet of 1972, who published a little, precious book of war poetry entitled, "Obscenities," upon his return from Viet Nam. One of my favorites is:
A Bummer
We were going single file
Through his rice paddies
And the farmer
Started hitting the lead track
With a rake
He wouldn't stop
The TC went to talk to him
And the farmer
Tried to hit him too
So the tracks went sideways
Side by side
Through the guy's fields
Instead of single file
Hard On, Proud Mary
Bummer, Wallace, Rosemary's Baby
The Rutgers Road Runner
And
Go Get Em--Done Got Em
Went side by side
Through the fields
If you have a farm in Vietnam
And a house in hell
Sell the farm
And go home
From Brian Turner, who was an infantry team leader in Iraq, comes this poem from his book of war poems, "Here, Bullet:"
"Eulogy" from "Here, Bullet."
It happens on a Monday, at 11:20 A.M.,
as tower guards eat sandwiches
and seagulls drift by on the Tigris River.
Prisoners tilt their heads to the west
though burlap sacks and duct tape blind them.
The sound reverberates down concertina coils
the way piano wire thrums when given slack.
And it happens like this, on a blue day of sun,
when Private Miller pulls the trigger
to take brass and fire into his mouth:
the sound lifts the birds up off the water,
a mongoose pauses under the orange trees,
and nothing can stop it now, no matter what
blur of motion surrounds him, no matter what voices
crackle over the radio in static confusion,
because if only for this moment the earth is stilled,
and Private Miller has found what low hush there is
down in the eucalyptus shade, there by the river.
PFC B. MILLER
(1980 - March 22, 2003)
Ain't war wonderful!
First from Michael Casey, a Yale Younger Poet of 1972, who published a little, precious book of war poetry entitled, "Obscenities," upon his return from Viet Nam. One of my favorites is:
A Bummer
We were going single file
Through his rice paddies
And the farmer
Started hitting the lead track
With a rake
He wouldn't stop
The TC went to talk to him
And the farmer
Tried to hit him too
So the tracks went sideways
Side by side
Through the guy's fields
Instead of single file
Hard On, Proud Mary
Bummer, Wallace, Rosemary's Baby
The Rutgers Road Runner
And
Go Get Em--Done Got Em
Went side by side
Through the fields
If you have a farm in Vietnam
And a house in hell
Sell the farm
And go home
From Brian Turner, who was an infantry team leader in Iraq, comes this poem from his book of war poems, "Here, Bullet:"
"Eulogy" from "Here, Bullet."
It happens on a Monday, at 11:20 A.M.,
as tower guards eat sandwiches
and seagulls drift by on the Tigris River.
Prisoners tilt their heads to the west
though burlap sacks and duct tape blind them.
The sound reverberates down concertina coils
the way piano wire thrums when given slack.
And it happens like this, on a blue day of sun,
when Private Miller pulls the trigger
to take brass and fire into his mouth:
the sound lifts the birds up off the water,
a mongoose pauses under the orange trees,
and nothing can stop it now, no matter what
blur of motion surrounds him, no matter what voices
crackle over the radio in static confusion,
because if only for this moment the earth is stilled,
and Private Miller has found what low hush there is
down in the eucalyptus shade, there by the river.
PFC B. MILLER
(1980 - March 22, 2003)
Ain't war wonderful!
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Asthma! Ugh!
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
1) QVar inhalant, an anti-inflammatory.
2) Serevent Diskus inhalation powder, a bronchospasm inhibitor.
3) Albuterol inhalant, a bronchial anti-spasmodic.
4) AeroChamber, a device that is purported to increase the actual intake of inhalants by, I believe, 30%.
5) Prednisone. A steroid drug for the tough times.
Okay, there's the list of meds I'm currently dealing with to control the asthma. Asthma came late in my life, even though I've had moderate to severe allergies forever. Asthma's a bitch.
I've given-up my daily run only once in the past two weeks due to an increased shitload of asthma symptoms, primarily centered on an marked increase in the wonderful wheeze the disease provides every time you take a breath. My most interestingly "musical" wheezes seem to come when I exhale. And, the severity of my wheezing--this includes difficulty breathing, a kind of tightening around those tubes that take and expel air into and from the lungs--occurs most often after I've gone to bed and continues until about 8 or 9 in the morning.
Anyway, within the last two weeks this lovely disease has, for some reason (probably because I live a mile high and we've had one kinda/sorta snow storm out here on the high plains, thus contributing to very, very low humidity) become so exacerbated that I finally broke down and called the doc. Nice guy.
So, now I'm on Prednisone for about a week. Prednisone is probably the most commonly used steroid drug utilized for everything from, yes, asthma to Lupus to probably another ten-thousand maladies I'm not aware of. It's a wonder drug. It's a dangerous drug, if taken for prolonged periods.
When our baby boy, Calvin (150 pound Malamute), came down with lymphoma two years ago, Prednisone was prescribed simply to make him feel somewhat better and to abate the hemorrhages in his eyes caused by that insidious cancer. We lost him anyway. (God bless you, buddy.)
Well, didn't mean to bore you. But, if you've got asthma, I'm sure you can relate. If you don't have asthma, count your blessings.
"How do I love thee?"
I've got a few crosses to bear and asthma is one of them. But, I'm thinkin' if you love your crosses enough, if you smother them with your care and attention and mothering and fathering and obbsessiveness, they might just take a hike. Or, maybe just ignore it.
I can hope, anyway.
1) QVar inhalant, an anti-inflammatory.
2) Serevent Diskus inhalation powder, a bronchospasm inhibitor.
3) Albuterol inhalant, a bronchial anti-spasmodic.
4) AeroChamber, a device that is purported to increase the actual intake of inhalants by, I believe, 30%.
5) Prednisone. A steroid drug for the tough times.
Okay, there's the list of meds I'm currently dealing with to control the asthma. Asthma came late in my life, even though I've had moderate to severe allergies forever. Asthma's a bitch.
I've given-up my daily run only once in the past two weeks due to an increased shitload of asthma symptoms, primarily centered on an marked increase in the wonderful wheeze the disease provides every time you take a breath. My most interestingly "musical" wheezes seem to come when I exhale. And, the severity of my wheezing--this includes difficulty breathing, a kind of tightening around those tubes that take and expel air into and from the lungs--occurs most often after I've gone to bed and continues until about 8 or 9 in the morning.
Anyway, within the last two weeks this lovely disease has, for some reason (probably because I live a mile high and we've had one kinda/sorta snow storm out here on the high plains, thus contributing to very, very low humidity) become so exacerbated that I finally broke down and called the doc. Nice guy.
So, now I'm on Prednisone for about a week. Prednisone is probably the most commonly used steroid drug utilized for everything from, yes, asthma to Lupus to probably another ten-thousand maladies I'm not aware of. It's a wonder drug. It's a dangerous drug, if taken for prolonged periods.
When our baby boy, Calvin (150 pound Malamute), came down with lymphoma two years ago, Prednisone was prescribed simply to make him feel somewhat better and to abate the hemorrhages in his eyes caused by that insidious cancer. We lost him anyway. (God bless you, buddy.)
Well, didn't mean to bore you. But, if you've got asthma, I'm sure you can relate. If you don't have asthma, count your blessings.
"How do I love thee?"
I've got a few crosses to bear and asthma is one of them. But, I'm thinkin' if you love your crosses enough, if you smother them with your care and attention and mothering and fathering and obbsessiveness, they might just take a hike. Or, maybe just ignore it.
I can hope, anyway.
Monday, February 06, 2006
The Super Commercials
Super Bowl commercials. My favorite is the Bud Clydsdale, Bud Superfan Cowboy is a close second. One of the Go Daddy (or whatever it is, T&A stuff!) commercials doesn't seem to link, so just skip it and click on the next one after it.
Commercials.
Commercials.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
That Damned Devil Is At It Again
Bennett, Colorado is about thirty miles east of Denver. It boasts a population of almost 2500, ninety-three percent of which are anglo, with a median household income of $47,000. Bennett sits off to the north of I70, so, if you're not really looking for it, you might miss it if you're traveling either way on the interstate. You get a sense of the great little flatlander town of Bennett from the atypical water tower and, oh, that building is the Optimists Club hangout.
Thing about Bennett though is a little story that appeared in the Sunday Denver Post with regard to an elementary school music teacher who dusted off a thirty-three year old vcr tape she found in the school's music room entitled, "Who's Afraid of Opera." The tape features puppets as narrators and the wonderful presence of soprano Joan Sutherland. The tape is, the Post reported, part of series meant to introduce school children to opera.
Problem is, though, the tape provides scenes from Charles Gounod's "Faust," which--yup, you guessed it--has set off a firestorm of culture war sentiment (ignorance) in the wee, little town of Bennett, Colorado. See, one of the central characters in the opera is Mephistopheles, the devil.
One mother of a nine-year old in Bennett called the video "satanic." Another good mommy suggested the video was even inappropriate for high school students. Many of Bennett's enlightened community want the teacher who showed portions of the video to her students to be fired.
The school's district superintendent made it clear that Bennett certainly isn't anti-art. He added that, "We want to expose kids to things, to help them see there is another world beside Bennett out there. But, we have to understand who we are serving."
Hmmm...
Opera. Dramatic representations of the fantastic ability of the human brain to imagine, to create to serve up to humanity a decidedly civilizing phenomenon that is sorely needed in this stark raving mad world we seem to find ourselves living in these days.
Opera, even Faust, isn't satanic. War, fundamentalistic religious bigotry that harbors an intensity of hatred that sanctions the killing and maiming of one's neighbors is satanic.
But, then, ol' Bennett is just a wee bit closer to Kansas than Denver and, well, when the wind blows from the east, I guess the good people of Bennett get an occasional whiff of intelligent design from Topeka which certainly can't help but infuse the little slip of a town with a modicum of fear; a real hittin' home kind of dread of what the human mind can accomplish once it's let loose from the devilishly backward focus of that Good Old Time Religion.
But, maybe there's hope for Bennett. They do have an Optimists Club.
Friday, January 27, 2006
This Morning's Run
It usually takes about seven minutes into my run before my body and mind separate, before I experience what some have called the runner's high. Indeed, Sarah Willet writes in the highlighted link that:
What Yiannis Kouros says, is that when he is running for a long enough time his body and mind separate. Other runners have experienced this same type of thing. One English teacher stated that during the last one and a half miles of the Ice Age Trail run in 1994 he ,"found myself running far faster than I had all day; I wasn't even conscious of my feet touching the ground as I crested the knoll ahead of the finish line. I wasn't running; it was as if something much larger than I was running me." Generally, most people claim that a runner's high is when the mind takes over the body and the unconscious leads the mind. Yet, there are many more aspects that people attribute to runner's high.
Yes, with my IPod earplugs secured and my shuffle cranked, I ran 2.5 miles this morning. Not far. But, far enough for me. And, as I ran, not only did I get lost (as I do during each morning run) in the music, in the words of the music, but also in the flashes of thoughts about life, the world, love, death, the past, the future.
Less than a quarter mile.
Dubya's democracies: Iraq and Palestine. The Koran. A constitution based upon the precepts of the Koran. Hamas "democratically" takes Palestine.
Dubya's dictionary: democracy=theocracy. That's okay with Dubya, by golly, by gee. "Bring 'em on," the little guy said, as he strutted and stuttered and buttered the toast of his "base," which he characterized as the "...have mores." Not the "haves" but the "have mores." Tee Hee.
More than two-thousand American men and women returned from Iraq in boxes. How many Iraqis dead or maimed: 30,000? 100,000?
Day after day another Momma's crying
She's lost her precious child
To a war that has no end
John Fogerty, "Deja Vu (All Over Again)"
Slightly more than a half-mile.
Why are you scared to dream of god
When it's salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
But the idea just lives on
In our wheels that roll around
As we move over the ground
And all day it seems we've been in between the past and future town
We are nowhere, and it's now
We are nowhere, and it's now
What Yiannis Kouros says, is that when he is running for a long enough time his body and mind separate. Other runners have experienced this same type of thing. One English teacher stated that during the last one and a half miles of the Ice Age Trail run in 1994 he ,"found myself running far faster than I had all day; I wasn't even conscious of my feet touching the ground as I crested the knoll ahead of the finish line. I wasn't running; it was as if something much larger than I was running me." Generally, most people claim that a runner's high is when the mind takes over the body and the unconscious leads the mind. Yet, there are many more aspects that people attribute to runner's high.
Yes, with my IPod earplugs secured and my shuffle cranked, I ran 2.5 miles this morning. Not far. But, far enough for me. And, as I ran, not only did I get lost (as I do during each morning run) in the music, in the words of the music, but also in the flashes of thoughts about life, the world, love, death, the past, the future.
Less than a quarter mile.
Dubya's democracies: Iraq and Palestine. The Koran. A constitution based upon the precepts of the Koran. Hamas "democratically" takes Palestine.
Dubya's dictionary: democracy=theocracy. That's okay with Dubya, by golly, by gee. "Bring 'em on," the little guy said, as he strutted and stuttered and buttered the toast of his "base," which he characterized as the "...have mores." Not the "haves" but the "have mores." Tee Hee.
More than two-thousand American men and women returned from Iraq in boxes. How many Iraqis dead or maimed: 30,000? 100,000?
Day after day another Momma's crying
She's lost her precious child
To a war that has no end
John Fogerty, "Deja Vu (All Over Again)"
Slightly more than a half-mile.
I attended my 91 year old Uncle's funeral in Oklahoma City on Monday of this week. I can tell you that I was pleasantly surprised to see that my father's side of the family--the aunts and uncles and cousins--actually appeared to be absolutely committed to the good will and well-being of their extended family. Now, I've got to tell yout that most of my immediate family is dysfunctional or, at least, our familial relationship is dysfunctional...mostly. So, the few days in Oklahoma with family who really cared about one another was refreshing. (Oklahoma City itself is still the absolute pits.)
My Uncle Murlan rejected the stringent requirements of my grandfather's Church of God in Christ participation and rebelled at an early age against what, I'm sure he believed, was not the intent of Jesus. I believe he later accepted the Baptist's interpretation of things "holy" instead.
Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singing
Multitudes are marching to the big kettledrum
Johnny Cash, "The Man Comes Around"
At a mile.
Life really has a way of just moving along, with or without you. I guess that period during which I worked on my degree and then headed for the Army, married and divorced, managed public swimming pools in Denver and then, finally, moved west, young man to California... I guess that period in my life was one of discovery, of just simply figuring out who it was I was. And, I do regret that summer when my sister said, "Come on down," to Lamar and work on (her husband's) cattle ranch. I should've been a cowboy.
I should've been a Cowboy
I should've learned to rope and ride
Wearing my six-shooter riding my pony on a cattle drive
Stealing the young girl's hearts
Just like Gene and Roy
Singing those campfire songs
I should've been a cowboy
Toby Keith, "Should've Been a Cowboy"
A mile and a half.
This queer issue. This marriage issue. This "hot button" issue that James Dobson of Focus on the Family and all the rest of the fundamentalistic Christian wingnuts have jumped on like a dog on a bone, is something that, I believe, will be viewed by generations to come as something as absurdly irrelevant to the human condition as trying to figure out how many angels are able to reside on the head of a pin.
Why are you scared to dream of god
When it's salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
But the idea just lives on
In our wheels that roll around
As we move over the ground
And all day it seems we've been in between the past and future town
We are nowhere, and it's now
We are nowhere, and it's now
Bright Eyes, "We Are Nowhere, And It's Now"
2.35 Miles
David. We will have twenty-four years to celebrate this November. He was twenty-two when I "...grappled him to my soul..." in a smokey, loud, leather/levi bar in downtown Denver. Love? Yeah, it was love. Still is. Definition of love? Hell if I know.
You're beautiful.
You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.
James Blunt, "You're Beautiful"
2.5 Miles.
The truth was the angel's.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Glenn Beck - Worst Person in the World!
MediaMatters provides Keith Olberman's "worst person" piece on Glenn Beck, radio talk show host, who was just hired by CNN. Take a look at the video.
Inerestingly, KHOW in Denver, a Clear Channel station, recently dropped Bill O'Reilly's show and replaced it with who I thought would be a reasonable commentator, Glenn Beck. But, alas, not so.
Damn!
Inerestingly, KHOW in Denver, a Clear Channel station, recently dropped Bill O'Reilly's show and replaced it with who I thought would be a reasonable commentator, Glenn Beck. But, alas, not so.
Damn!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Finally! Snow in Denver
While the hills in Colorado have received sixteen, twenty or more feet of snow so far this winter, Denver has had wind, lots of dry wind. Finally, today, we may get up to 3" of sublime white. YAY!
The Party of Lincoln! Yeah, Right!
This from PhoenixRising posting on ColoradoPols (see sidebar links):
Corruption the direct way: Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) will be on C-SPAN in the morning with details on a new unfolding scandal in the House and Senate Majority Leader's offices (that would be the already-embattled Tom DeLay and Bill Frist). According to early information, both Frist and DeLay's offices were also the homes of daytraders, and said daytraders were using insider information on pending legislation in their trades.
This starts at misuse of federal property and could wind its way all the way through bribery or undue influence charges. It's brutal, direct corruption at a time when the GOP least needed it, and if true, it may be the straw that breaks the camel's back come November 7th.
Corruption the direct way: Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) will be on C-SPAN in the morning with details on a new unfolding scandal in the House and Senate Majority Leader's offices (that would be the already-embattled Tom DeLay and Bill Frist). According to early information, both Frist and DeLay's offices were also the homes of daytraders, and said daytraders were using insider information on pending legislation in their trades.
This starts at misuse of federal property and could wind its way all the way through bribery or undue influence charges. It's brutal, direct corruption at a time when the GOP least needed it, and if true, it may be the straw that breaks the camel's back come November 7th.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Uncle Murlan
I've got to repeat this picture of Uncle Murlan (91 years old) and my nineteen-month-old niece, Kate, because it speaks so eloquently to what I believe about life, death, the hope for the future.
Uncle Murlan passed last night at 10:41 p.m. in Oklahoma City. He was 91.
My grandfather used to tell the story about how he and his family traveled by covered wagon from Gorman, Texas (where my father was born) to Oklahoma City ( 1910-11).
They--my grandfather and his wife--had spent some time in Arkansas and Texas and, finally, Oklahoma where they raised four children, two boys and two girls.
Suffice it to say, my Uncle Murlan was a George W. Bush advocate and admirer, even to the extent that he framed the White House Christmas card that was, of course, sent to most or all monetary contributors to Dubya's campaigns. My uncle Murlan was proud of his devotion to the Republican party and, specifically, to Dubya himself.
I suppose I need to tell you that my uncle was not a great admirer of Martin Luther King Jr. I don't need to delve any deeper into my uncle's psyche about race and equality and the promise of America. But, what I can say, is that his son, Bobby--a good heart, a dear soul--whispered into my uncle Murlan's ear Monday that, "Daddy, this is not a good day to die. This is Martin Luther King's day. You need to wait a while before you head for heaven."
I, my eighty-eight year old aunt Blanche, my sister, Michelle, and her two precious babies, Jack and Kate, visited Murlan this past November and (I think we all understood) said good-bye for the last time to this unique character and steadfast southerner. Thank God we did.
I'm not so sure that the good lord rejects the old southern rednecks from His realm. He may put them on kitchen duty for a while, but, eventually, what was in their hearts for all mankind probably surfaces and, I suspect, uncle Murlan is probably shaking Martin's (MLK's) hand as I write this missive.
Godspeed, Uncle Murlan.
Monday, January 16, 2006
I have a dream!
Martin Luther King Jr. before the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.
(If the above doesn't work, try this link t0 IFilm.)
(If the above doesn't work, try this link t0 IFilm.)
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Sweet Melissa
Please think good thoughts about Sweet Melissa who will, tomorrow, Monday, undergo surgery on her eyelid where she has a nasty growth.
Thanks.
Bush: Violence is price of new Iraq
President Bush speaks Tuesday at a Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting in Washington. He said that rather than be alarmed by the continuing violence and political turmoil in Iraq, we should welcome this for what it is: freedom in action. It was the latest in a series of speeches Bush has made since December outlining more specifics for the administration s strategy in Iraq. (AP / Ron Edmonds)
O Lord our God,
help us
to tear their soldiers
to bloody shreds
with our shells;
help us
to cover their smiling fields
with the pale forms
of their patriot dead;
help us
to drown the thunder
of the guns
with the shrieks
of their wounded,
writhing in pain;
help us
to lay waste
their humble homes
with a hurricane of fire;
help us
to wring the hearts
of their unoffending widows
with unavailing grief;
help us
to turn them out roofless
with their little children
to wander unfriended
the wastes
of their desolated land;
in rags and hunger
and thirst,
sports of the sun flames
of summer
and the icy winds
of winter,
broken in spirit,
worn with travail,
imploring Thee
for the refuge of the grave
and denied it--
for our sakes
who adore Thee, Lord,
blast their hopes,
blight their lives,
protract their bitter pilgrimage,
Make heavy their steps,
water their way with their tears,
stain the white snow
with the blood
of their wounded feet!
We ask it,
in the spirit of love,
of Him Who is the Source of Love,
And Who is the ever-faithful
refuge and friend
of all that are sore beset
and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts.
Amen.
Mark Twain, "The War Prayer"
Friday, January 13, 2006
Friday, January 06, 2006
Have You No Shame, Dubya!
From the Washington Post
A Life, Wasted
Let's Stop This War Before More Heroes Are Killed
By Paul E. SchroederTuesday, January 3, 2006
Early on Aug. 3, 2005, we heard that 14 Marines had been killed in Haditha, Iraq. Our son, Lance Cpl. Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, was stationed there. At 10:45 a.m. two Marines showed up at our door. After collecting himself for what was clearly painful duty, the lieutenant colonel said, "Your son is a true American hero."
Since then, two reactions to Augie's death have compounded the sadness.
Early on Aug. 3, 2005, we heard that 14 Marines had been killed in Haditha, Iraq. Our son, Lance Cpl. Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, was among them.At times like this, people say, "He died a hero." I know this is meant with great sincerity. We appreciate the many condolences we have received and how helpful they have been. But when heard repeatedly, the phrases "he died a hero" or "he died a patriot" or "he died for his country" rub raw.
"People think that if they say that, somehow it makes it okay that he died," our daughter, Amanda, has said. "He was a hero before he died, not just because he went to Iraq. I was proud of him before, and being a patriot doesn't make his death okay. I'm glad he got so much respect at his funeral, but that didn't make it okay either."
The words "hero" and "patriot" focus on the death, not the life. They are a flag-draped mask covering the truth that few want to acknowledge openly: Death in battle is tragic no matter what the reasons for the war. The tragedy is the life that was lost, not the manner of death. Families of dead soldiers on both sides of the battle line know this. Those without family in the war don't appreciate the difference.
This leads to the second reaction. Since August we have witnessed growing opposition to the Iraq war, but it is often whispered, hands covering mouths, as if it is dangerous to speak too loudly. Others discuss the never-ending cycle of death in places such as Haditha in academic and sometimes clinical fashion, as in "the increasing lethality of improvised explosive devices."
Listen to the kinds of things that most Americans don't have to experience: The day Augie's unit returned from Iraq to Camp Lejeune, we received a box with his notebooks, DVDs and clothes from his locker in Iraq. The day his unit returned home to waiting families, we received the second urn of ashes. This lad of promise, of easy charm and readiness to help, whose highest high was saving someone using CPR as a first aid squad volunteer, came home in one coffin and two urns. We buried him in three places that he loved, a fitting irony, I suppose, but just as rough each time.
I am outraged at what I see as the cause of his death. For nearly three years, the Bush administration has pursued a policy that makes our troops sitting ducks. While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that our policy is to "clear, hold and build" Iraqi towns, there aren't enough troops to do that.
In our last conversation, Augie complained that the cost in lives to clear insurgents was "less and less worth it," because Marines have to keep coming back to clear the same places. Marine commanders in the field say the same thing. Without sufficient troops, they can't hold the towns. Augie was killed on his fifth mission to clear Haditha.
At Augie's grave, the lieutenant colonel knelt in front of my wife and, with tears in his eyes, handed her the folded flag. He said the only thing he could say openly: "Your son was a true American hero." Perhaps. But I felt no glory, no honor. Doing your duty when you don't know whether you will see the end of the day is certainly heroic. But even more, being a hero comes from respecting your parents and all others, from helping your neighbors and strangers, from loving your spouse, your children, your neighbors and your enemies, from honesty and integrity, from knowing when to fight and when to walk away, and from understanding and respecting the differences among the people of the world.
Two painful questions remain for all of us. Are the lives of Americans being killed in Iraq wasted? Are they dying in vain? President Bush says those who criticize staying the course are not honoring the dead. That is twisted logic: honor the fallen by killing another 2,000 troops in a broken policy?
I choose to honor our fallen hero by remembering who he was in life, not how he died. A picture of a smiling Augie in Iraq, sunglasses turned upside down, shows his essence -- a joyous kid who could use any prop to make others feel the same way.
Though it hurts, I believe that his death -- and that of the other Americans who have died in Iraq -- was a waste. They were wasted in a belief that democracy would grow simply by removing a dictator -- a careless misunderstanding of what democracy requires. They were wasted by not sending enough troops to do the job needed in the resulting occupation -- a careless disregard for professional military counsel.
But their deaths will not be in vain if Americans stop hiding behind flag-draped hero masks and stop whispering their opposition to this war. Until then, the lives of other sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers may be wasted as well.
This is very painful to acknowledge, and I have to live with it. So does President Bush.
The writer is managing director of a trade development firm in Cleveland.
A Life, Wasted
Let's Stop This War Before More Heroes Are Killed
By Paul E. SchroederTuesday, January 3, 2006
Early on Aug. 3, 2005, we heard that 14 Marines had been killed in Haditha, Iraq. Our son, Lance Cpl. Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, was stationed there. At 10:45 a.m. two Marines showed up at our door. After collecting himself for what was clearly painful duty, the lieutenant colonel said, "Your son is a true American hero."
Since then, two reactions to Augie's death have compounded the sadness.
Early on Aug. 3, 2005, we heard that 14 Marines had been killed in Haditha, Iraq. Our son, Lance Cpl. Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, was among them.At times like this, people say, "He died a hero." I know this is meant with great sincerity. We appreciate the many condolences we have received and how helpful they have been. But when heard repeatedly, the phrases "he died a hero" or "he died a patriot" or "he died for his country" rub raw.
"People think that if they say that, somehow it makes it okay that he died," our daughter, Amanda, has said. "He was a hero before he died, not just because he went to Iraq. I was proud of him before, and being a patriot doesn't make his death okay. I'm glad he got so much respect at his funeral, but that didn't make it okay either."
The words "hero" and "patriot" focus on the death, not the life. They are a flag-draped mask covering the truth that few want to acknowledge openly: Death in battle is tragic no matter what the reasons for the war. The tragedy is the life that was lost, not the manner of death. Families of dead soldiers on both sides of the battle line know this. Those without family in the war don't appreciate the difference.
This leads to the second reaction. Since August we have witnessed growing opposition to the Iraq war, but it is often whispered, hands covering mouths, as if it is dangerous to speak too loudly. Others discuss the never-ending cycle of death in places such as Haditha in academic and sometimes clinical fashion, as in "the increasing lethality of improvised explosive devices."
Listen to the kinds of things that most Americans don't have to experience: The day Augie's unit returned from Iraq to Camp Lejeune, we received a box with his notebooks, DVDs and clothes from his locker in Iraq. The day his unit returned home to waiting families, we received the second urn of ashes. This lad of promise, of easy charm and readiness to help, whose highest high was saving someone using CPR as a first aid squad volunteer, came home in one coffin and two urns. We buried him in three places that he loved, a fitting irony, I suppose, but just as rough each time.
I am outraged at what I see as the cause of his death. For nearly three years, the Bush administration has pursued a policy that makes our troops sitting ducks. While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that our policy is to "clear, hold and build" Iraqi towns, there aren't enough troops to do that.
In our last conversation, Augie complained that the cost in lives to clear insurgents was "less and less worth it," because Marines have to keep coming back to clear the same places. Marine commanders in the field say the same thing. Without sufficient troops, they can't hold the towns. Augie was killed on his fifth mission to clear Haditha.
At Augie's grave, the lieutenant colonel knelt in front of my wife and, with tears in his eyes, handed her the folded flag. He said the only thing he could say openly: "Your son was a true American hero." Perhaps. But I felt no glory, no honor. Doing your duty when you don't know whether you will see the end of the day is certainly heroic. But even more, being a hero comes from respecting your parents and all others, from helping your neighbors and strangers, from loving your spouse, your children, your neighbors and your enemies, from honesty and integrity, from knowing when to fight and when to walk away, and from understanding and respecting the differences among the people of the world.
Two painful questions remain for all of us. Are the lives of Americans being killed in Iraq wasted? Are they dying in vain? President Bush says those who criticize staying the course are not honoring the dead. That is twisted logic: honor the fallen by killing another 2,000 troops in a broken policy?
I choose to honor our fallen hero by remembering who he was in life, not how he died. A picture of a smiling Augie in Iraq, sunglasses turned upside down, shows his essence -- a joyous kid who could use any prop to make others feel the same way.
Though it hurts, I believe that his death -- and that of the other Americans who have died in Iraq -- was a waste. They were wasted in a belief that democracy would grow simply by removing a dictator -- a careless misunderstanding of what democracy requires. They were wasted by not sending enough troops to do the job needed in the resulting occupation -- a careless disregard for professional military counsel.
But their deaths will not be in vain if Americans stop hiding behind flag-draped hero masks and stop whispering their opposition to this war. Until then, the lives of other sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers may be wasted as well.
This is very painful to acknowledge, and I have to live with it. So does President Bush.
The writer is managing director of a trade development firm in Cleveland.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Westboro Baptist Church
Every once in a while, I check the Westboro Baptist Church site to see what absurdity they're pushing. 'Course, they believe as they believe. And, of course, I believe what I believe. And, subsequently, I hope--if you choose to take a look at this video--that you might, just might begin to understand that the polemic with regard to what has been called the "culture war" is dangerous and disgusting and potentially lethal. Anyway, here's what ol' reverend fred phelps is pushing this month.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Let the Polemic Begin Again (New Year - Same Old BS)
We're told that Dubya is already back from Crawford and diggin' in to his brilliant agenda and tellin' us all we're winnin' the war and the economy is just dandy and all that other BS we've come to so love about this guy.
But, wait... How's he gonna find the toilet or his crayons without Karl?
And, don't tell anybody, but there's a rumor Georgie is drinking again. Take a look at this. Oh, my, oh my, oh my.
Note: If the above link doesn't work try this one and press the Watch button. You'll probably get a commercial first.
(Picture from About.com and the video is from IFILM.)
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Happy New Year!
This photo of my niece, Kate (19 months), and her Great Uncle Murlan (90 years old) symbolizes--at least for me--the essential hope for the new year; that the passage of time and life, from one generation to the next, will eventually assure peace on earth, good will toward men.
Yeah, I know. It hasn't happened yet. But, we can still hope.
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