TO ATTACK A CHILD

 

"TSA Defends Pat-Down Of Crying 4-Year-Old Girl At Kansas Airport"

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/25/tsa-defends-pat-down-of-c_n_1454410.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D155375

I pity those Americans who feel so insecure that they cannot see the utter stupidity of the reaction of TSA in the case as it is reported. I am angered by those Americans who do not see the loss of freedom to all of us associated with an unreasonable, intrusive search of a four year old child. I am sickened by Americans who would stand by in silent approval of such an attack (It was an attack.) on a four year old child. I am disgusted with elected government officials who, politically and personally weak, cower to protect an image of "wartime" security. I am tormented that America has so readily succumbed to a terrorist threat that we are no longer America. I am approaching 70 years of age and I am glad that I knew an America of character, courage and pride in our personal freedoms. I deeply regret that this four year old and other children will never know that pride. And, tragically, the broad and continuing surrender of our freedoms is unnecessary in balance to any threat.

The Secret Service in Columbia

Having worked for years closely with Special Agents of the U.S. Secret Service, I am shocked at recent reported events. Each of the many Special Agents with whom I worked was a dedicated law enforcement officer of the highest level of trust and integrity. When assigned to either extended or temporary details protecting the president they were unwaveringly dedicated to the task and righteously proud of the responsibility they held in trust.

Agents of the U.S. Secret Service are now alleged to have participated in outrageous conduct while on assignment to protect President Obama. The accomplishment of any task is affected by the conscious and unconscious attitude of the actor toward the objective of the task. Could it be that the incessant, vitriolic, disdainful rhetoric directed personally at this president creating, as it has, its own sub-culture has infected, consciously or unconsciously, even sworn agents within the Secret Service? I sincerely hope that we have men and women of stronger character now assuming the responsibilities of the Secret Service.

Ryan v. Dempsey

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/paul-ryan-says-he-misspoke-on-military-budget/2012/04/01/gIQAlwi2oS_blog.html?hpid=z4

The Republicans may have learned a lesson from the circumstances of General Shinseki's testimony and backed off very quickly. This factor and General Dempsey's almost immediate, strong response to Rep. Ryan pushed Ryan to withdraw from the type of slashing rhetoric endemic on the Right. Though this situation is more subtle than what General Shinseki encountered, Ryan may have intended to pander to or stimulate a political coup from within the Pentagon, present and past. I believe it was in 2007 when general officers began to speak out against the Iraq war and President Bush's handling of it. Ryan may have been soliciting a similar reaction in support of the Right from a broader group of military elite.

Justice for All

Justice is never served by inflamed rhetoric or mob mentality. A young man is dead. An investigation is being conducted. The national outcry is no longer merely about Justice for the dead young man and for the man who shot him. Some of the leaders of this outcry rouse not for Justice but for their own issues and agendas. To say, as cited in this article, that this incident "echoes" the death of Emmett Till in 1954 is ridiculous. Said by a Black preacher, who should no better than to interpose the horrible context of the Till murder, gives the assertion no greater credulity at this time. I point this out because it is included in one of the articles which presents a picture of the young man. I follow this with an article, one of comparatively few, about the man who shot and killed him. What parts were played by each person, their movements, their intent, the hoodie, the object in the young man's hand, etc. and what can be determined from taped and other contemporaneous conversations and other relevant evidence is for the investigation. What I see is a field of well and other meaning people tearing at the jail door to get at a man they have judged guilty of racial murder. Whether Black or White at that door - it is wrong.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/23/slain-teens-friends-say-h_n_1376135.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl5|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D146273
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/who-is-george-zimmerman/2012/03/22/gIQAkXdbUS_story.html?hpid=z2

A September Lyric

I am reminded of the lyrics put together by one of the Triple Deuce Lt.s just before we boarded the boat to Viet Nam. I may have already posted this but since only a handful read this blog they have probably forgotten that I did so. It was to the tune of "See You in September."*

I'll be alone each and every night
While I'm away don't forget to write

Bye, bye, so long, farewell

See you in September
See you when the war is through
There we were saying goodbye at the station
LBJ's nation has taken me away

Bye baby, goodbye [thrown in at various times as I recall]

While we're alone each and every night,
Counting the days and the hours too,

Have a good time
But remember
There is danger when the darkness falls
Will I see you in September
Or will the VC have me by the balls.

* "See You in September" is a song written by Sid Wayne and Sherman Edwards.

My Big Bang Theory

Our society thrives on an acquisitiveness for multimedia-enabled smartphones and pads. The now "normal" use of these devices so isolates a person as to create a disinclination to leave that isolation to directly interplay within the immediate human reality. Try to find eye contact with another person as you walk across a college campus. There is generally an indifference to seek out entertainment other than "app" choices that "take you anywhere to do anything." Even at, for example, a sport's event a substantial number of people will be engaged more with the glowing object in their hand than all around them. This self-imposed isolation also creates a laziness to the expression of human emotional response outside the Wi Fi capability. The movement of a finger to express LOL, 182, OMG, AML, ILU, BWL, and, of course, ROTFLMAO is now sufficient effort at emotion.

I write this now with a single complaint in mind. "The Big Bang Theory," a well written, very funny television sit-com is debased and ruined by a ridiculous and unnecessary laugh track undoubtedly targeted toward an audience too lazy to laugh on its own. LLTA .

West Point Prayer Breakfast & Lt. Gen. Boykin

"Army officer who sparked controversy with remarks on Islam pulls out of West Point address"*

As a renowned institution of higher learning West Point should encourage and facilitate a broad range of perspectives presented to the student cadets. West Point, in its mission of preparing young women and men to be officers in the US Army, should provide education regarding radical views they may encounter in the service. The education should be structured and balanced within course and program context. There are, I expect, ample courses during which Lt. Gen. Boykin could present his defense of his ill-informed, insulting prejudices. The annual, ecumenical prayer breakfast at the Military Academy is not the circumstance for his presence, much less his being honored as a featured speaker. The Academy's administration failed to recognize the hypocrisy, if not the stupidity, of the situation. Three stars on a shoulder is not a blanket free pass.

*http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/army-officer-who-sparked-controversy-with-remarks-on-islam-pulls-out-of-west-point-address/2012/01/31/gIQAMrDyeQ_blog.html

West Point Honor Code II

In 1976, the Corps of Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy faced the consequences of a cheating scandal. The junior class had been given take-home assignments in an electrical engineering course. After investigation, some 150 cadets of the class of 1977 were dismissed or had resigned for cheating. Allegations at the time were that possibly half the class had violated the Code. After intense political pressure, the Academy reinstated some 98 of the dismissed cadets. Having taken the relatively identical electrical engineering course (called "Juice") about ten years earlier, I can attest not only to the difficulty of the course but the extreme anxiety cadets felt about the exam.

During my four years the West Point Honor Code stated simply "A Cadet will not lie, cheat or steal." As presented to me as a Plebe: "The Cadet Honor Code requires complete integrity in both word and deed of all members of the Corps of cadets and permits no deviation from those standards....These exacting standards are complied with to the letter, and if any cadet violates them he is immediately discharged from the Corps of Cadets." I was aware during my cadet days of a few outstanding young men who reported their own violations and resigned out of respect for the Corps and and Code. In 1951 some 90 cadets, 37 of whom were football players under Coach Earl Blaik, were dismissed from the Academy. The only change to the Code by 1976 had been the addition of "or tolerate those who do," a corollary that was fully accepted, though unstated, as part of the Code during my time.

The Honor System, suspect and challenged also in 1976, applied the Code within the Corps and has radically changed since those times but the Honor Code remains the standard to be achieved and carried into a career in the U.S. Army and throughout life. It was within the context of my cadet experience and that of an Army officer that I wrote a letter to the editor of the Washington Post when the story of the cadet reinstatement was announced. Politics seemed to have accomplished in 1976 what even the revered Earl Blaik could not in 1951. My letter was published alongside of a letter from a member of the Class of 1942 that expressed the same sentiment and opinion. I have not changed my mind.

There has been no other stimulus to my adding this to my blog other than finding a copy of the letter among some old files.

"Secretary of the Army Martin Hoffman and West Point Superintendent Lt. General Berry, by their lowering of the penalty traditionally and justifiably associated with cheating at the military academy, have seriously undercut the very foundation of the honor code. They have shown that integrity and honesty should be judged not as ideal virtues to be fostered and sought but rather as variables rising only to the level of the average acceptable behavior. That responsibility to a fellowship consisting of not merely a junior class but of those thousands of graduates and former cadets who through mutual agreement, mutual ambition and mutual respect set and maintained personally difficult high standards of integrity, means less than the attainment of selfish personal objectives.

"The harshest indictment should not be now directed at the suspended cadets for I am confident that the majority of them will, in the end, be their own most exacting critic. I suggest that the real evil is not in a system that attempts to uphold the highest standards embodied in the code, nor in those who have transgressed the code, but in the hypocrisy and lack of moral strength evidenced in the governmental officials. The government that decries the lack of personal integrity shown by the Watergate actors, that condemns the practice of bribery by persons in our nation's most successful corporations, and that criminally prosecutes the very consequences of low standards of integrity and honesty - more specifically, the white collar crimes, announces, not a reaffirmation of its demand for the highest personal standards embodied in a code of honor, but rather a politically expedient capitulation."

CADET PRAYER

O God, our Father, Thou Searcher of human hearts, help us to draw near to Thee in sincerity and truth. May our religion be filled with gladness and may our worship of Thee be natural.
Strengthen and increase our admiration for honest dealing and clean thinking, and suffer not our hatred of hypocrisy and pretence ever to diminish. Encourage us in our endeavor to live above the common level of life. Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won. Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy. Guard us against flippancy and irreverence in the sacred things of life. Grant us new ties of friendship and new opportunities of service. Kindle our hearts in fellowship with those of a cheerful countenance, and soften our hearts with sympathy for those who sorrow and suffer. Help us to maintain the honor of the Corps untarnished and unsullied and to show forth in our lives the ideals of West Point in doing our duty to Thee and to our Country. All of which we ask in the name of the Great Friend and Master of all. - Amen

Amen.

So, what did you expect?

I have written in this forum about the content and level of rhetoric against President Obama presented and tolerated by the Right. The affects of that continue to reverberate less on the surface yet in a societal subconscious that has cured and hardened over time. The editor of an Atlanta weekly, "Atlanta Jewish Times," proposed a scenario suggesting Israel kill the President. http://www.military.com/news/article/editor-killing-obama-an-option-for-israel.html?ESRC=eb.nl ; I wonder how many Americans may read of this and accept the premise as rational without distinguishing the fundamental evil in it because of their own predisposition against a non-citizen, Muslim, "colored," socialist, "pathetic" person in the office who wants to abandon Israel and destroy America.

An Israeli correspondent is quoted at the end of the article: "I know, and most of you know, that [the editor's] crazy and criminal suggestions are not the ranting of some loony-tune individual and were not taken out of thin air -- but are the inevitable result of the inordinate volume of repugnant venom that some of Obama's political rivals, Jews and non-Jews included, have been spewing for the last three years," I couldn't have said it any better. To be sure, the comments of this editor in Atlanta have been publicly condemned and he has resigned but, we may ask ourselves what the reaction would have been had comparable comments been written and published by the "Atlanta Muslim Times."

As before, I am not speaking of politics, political parties or issues but of the degradation of our culture. There are hundreds of emails floating within the internet that decry the loss of respect of citizen to flag, child to adult, son to father, youth to ambition, etc. within our culture. A good number of those who forward these emails to me, however, follow them with monkey images, "birther" fabrications, and baseless fear-mongering about the man and not his politics. Heck, even "spell-check," while recognizing Reagan, Roosevelt, Clinton, and Bush does not acknowledge "Obama." (No, this is humor and not conspiracy.)

"How do atheists find meaning in life?"

Interesting article by Ms Paula Kirby in the "On Faith" section of the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/how-do-atheist-find-meaning-in-life/2012/01/18/gIQAbiFP8P_blog.html?hpid=z11

When describing the "value" of life from her view as an atheist, Ms Kirby appears to focus only on a standard for the life of a single person. Of course, the individual life is worth living well for its own sake and for the benefit of existing beings with or without a divine plan. However, is there no inherent value in humanity as a whole? Is there no responsibility of the individual to the formulation and strengthening of non-divine morality, justice and the betterment of all in the progress of the human race? I believe that the answer is twice, yes, and what a magnificent meaning for the individual life. Even a God should expect no less of a single human or of humanity.

Not at West Point

The headline: "DoD: Reported Sexual Assaults Up at Service Academies" http://www.military.com/news/article/dod-reported-sexual-assaults-up-at-service-academies.html?ESRC=eb.nl

The article begins: "The number of reported sexual assaults at the nation's three major military academies rose overall in the latest academic year from one year earlier,..."

The article concludes: "West Point reported the same number in both years,..."

The headlining and editing of this article and similar articles at CNN and other news outlets are misleading as they fail to distinguish among the academies by making it clear that the number of reports did NOT rise at West Point which had the lowest number of reports each of the two years. The articles are a wrongful affront to the cadets at West Point and the efforts at this academy to preclude such criminal conduct and foster appropriate relations.

To Those of a Faith II

A friend has asked for a clarification to my last comment ("To Those of a Faith"). On Christmas eve I took a young family member to a church service we had attended annually for the last three years. The Christian service in a group, self-described as a "non-denominational multi-ethnic church, drawn from 20 nationalities," included hymns and Christmas messages familiar to this old Catholic. Without bogging down in detail, suffice to say that I no longer share a belief in fundamental doctrines of Christianity, whether in Catholic or other variations. Nor do I share all the tenets of other major religions. I never challenge the faith held by anyone else. I do believe, however, that the truly fundamental teachings of all major religions are love and compassion for others. Religions seem to set aside or ignore doctrinal differences during periods of "high" Holy days, such as at Christmas for Christians, and return to those fundamentals.

Joining in the singing at the service, however, I wondered whether I was being hypocritical or professing, to my young companion at least, a false piety. After some reflection during the Bible readings, I concluded as I discussed with her following the service and then published here. Where any group meets to declare or solidify an honest message of unselfish love and compassion, whether in a religious or other context, I feel no hypocrisy in joining with them. Christmas eve is, for that reason, my one annual direct involvement with Christianity. My lack of foundation in the specific rituals of other religions precludes my recognition of similar opportunities.

To Those of a Faith

Holding the same doctrines sacred is irrelevant when encouraging and joining with believers who promote unselfish love and compassion. And if many chose only to foster those feelings one day or seven or thirty of the year it is, yet again, a beginning.

Payroll tax extension: Cynicism or Conspiracy

The "Ol' Payroll Tax extension" argument has a sinister feel to it. Now, I have never been a "conspiracy" theorist. Highly cynical, yes. But, does anyone else see the possibility of a Republican conspiracy between their own Senate and House leadership? A brief recap: The President asks for a one year extension of the relief and Republicans recoil in horror. The matter, as required by no less than the Constitution, is handed to Congress and the Republican controlled House passes its own version with reasonable and unreasonable add-ons. A significant number of Republicans go on the record as opposed to the tax relief - go figure on that one. The Senate in a burst of unexpected cooperation by Republicans and after some quiet debate passes its own version with the inclusion of a Republican victory on a pipe-line issue. So, the President gives in on the pipeline and only gets two of the twelve months he asked for earlier. House Speaker Boehner, who we were told had consulted and nodded agreement with the Senate version, then demurs saying that only the twelve month extension would be reasonable and acceptable. The House demands, as might otherwise be normal, a joint committee to resolve the different versions in the remaining 11 days. House Republicans "pack" the committee with seven members, five of whom are on record as opposed to the tax relief extension.

This seems to me to be the situation in a nutshell at the moment. Other twists and turns, of which there are many, are generally irrelevant to my question. The maneuvering of the Republican leadership has placed their Party as the Party fighting for the twelve month extension. Ignoring, as the general population is want to do, their predicate conduct, Republicans may now argue that they are the defenders of the middle class. Please understand that I credit very few Republicans (I speak of a potential Republican conspiracy) in Congress with ability to successfully act clandestinely. I credit more in Congress with the Machiavellian determination and lack of integrity to attempt such a slight of hand.

Isn't it possible that the Senate Republican leadership intended to limit the extension in their negotiations to a two month period and thereby position the issue for the House Republican leadership to take the "higher ground" demanding the President's original twelve month extension? The value to the Republicans is in the rhetoric and not in the substance. The value to the American people is irrelevant.

A Brief Hope Shattered

Leaving the drugstore this morning I glanced at the newsstand and seeing the Washington Post on display I stopped. My eyes fixed on the heavy black print on the left of the front page. I began to smile, do a fist pumping and exclaim loudly "Yes! There can be justice!" Regrettably, the moment passed when I realized that the headline did NOT refer to the Supreme Court Justice.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/todays_paper?dt=2011-12-03&bk=A&pg=1

UwillNotESCapeOccupation

As baseless excuses go for similar past expansive actions this one seems consistent. So Israel does the following after Palestine is recognized and accepted into UNESCO. I'll leave it to some of you to look up the evil objectives of UNESCO, balance the relative values, compare relative physical strengths and weight cultural fear against a cultural vacuum while I leave to others to fire from behind a Maginot Line. There is only an indefensible Zionist expansion wrapped loosely in legitimate security concerns and manifest against an occupied people. Starving a society because of a political affront is pathetic and Israel, of all nations, should be ashamed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15548585

The Charge of the Right Brigade

From Wikipedia: "Saint Crispin's Day falls on 25 October and is the feast day of the Christian saints Crispin and Crispinian) ... , twins who were martyred c. 286. It is a day most famous for the battles that occurred on it: the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the Battle of Balakava (Charge of the Light Brigade) during theCrimean War in 1854 and the Battle of Leyte Gulf ... in 1944." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Crispin%27s_Day

Shakespeare's "Agincourt" has been appropriately mentioned in this forum in the past but the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava strikes me at the moment. A charge toward the wrong objectives, with brash indifference to individual lives, driven by unchained ego and blind nobility, their leaders sent those who were "not to make reply" and "not to reason why" to destruction. Sitting now, tequila in hand, I see the same in the "Charge of the Right Brigade." Whether the destruction may be limited to their Party or extend to the country will have to be seen.. And it is said that the debacle was followed by champagne dinner for the leaders on a waiting yacht. Picture today's gathering at a private club.

The Success in Libya

I find it interesting that as President Obama today announced the killing of Gaddafi the President said that it was accomplished "without putting U. S. service members on the ground...." As I suggested some time ago, it seems to me that the statement does not preclude the probability that the CIA's "silent boots" had been a part of the successful effort. Well done.

By the way, I think it is disgraceful the way elected Republican leaders still denigrate the President for his strategic handling of what is a successful revolution in Libya. The President either did too little or too much, acted too late or acted too indirectly or too directly. In the midst of his criticism of the President and while emphatically congratulating England and France, Senator McCain emphasized in an afterthought how "grateful Libyans are" now toward the United States and how we should leverage that fact. Now, just why would they be so grateful to the U.S. if the strategy was wrong.

I suggest to the Republicans that, putting political posturing aside, and standing openly with the President to accept the Libyan appreciation jointly with NATO would be a bold statement to the world and would kick start the leveraging in Libya and greater Africa. After all, it was Congressional funding and Presidential direction that brought this about.

Foreign affairs are not going to be a major aspect of the 2012 election. It will of course be the economy. Accordingly, the denigration of the President now is only harmful to the future prospects of our country overseas and baseless in the internal political struggle. Putting Party loyalty and objectives aside and standing as Americans is probably too much to ask of those within the conservative juggernaut.

Limbaugh's Reality and the Lord's Resistance

A friend suggests that Mr. Limbaugh's defense of the Lord's Resistance Army, a group responsible for horrific atrocities, is proof of Limbaugh's insanity. I disagree

Isn't a definition of insanity the repeating of the same conduct while expecting different results? Limbaugh knows and acts repeatedly in the belief that when he makes an idiotic, false or twisted statement it will be picked up by his loyal and obedient actual-nutcases and take on a life of its own - a depraved but continuing existence. See, for example, http://mediamatters.org/mobile/blog/201110170022 Limbaugh has yet to accurately describe to his audience the L.R.A. or to accept personal responsibility thereby holding a semblance of credibility for his fools. And let's not forget another false assertion made during his broadcast that "Obama has sent troops to another war" intent on support of Muslim factions in Sudan. We have not seen the last of this either.

Even after he was advised on the air of the depravities committed by the LRA he blew on the coals saying: "But nevertheless we got a hundred troops being sent over there to fight these guys -- and they claim to be Christians."

And listen to the end of this brief portion of Limbaugh follow-up http://mediamalpractice.com/mmtv/201110180013 it's all one big laugh -- got that loyal, obedient, actual-nutcases it's just a joke and don't we pass on a good joke. No, my friend, he is not insane.Post Options

What Powers Your Pickup Truck?

A friend forwarded an interesting news article about the development of anger-powered automobiles. http://origin.theonion.com/audio/new-angerpowered-cars-may-revolutionize-the-way-we,26244/

Since anger-powered vehicles would be useless for the far left, kumbaya singing crowd, development of engines powered by compassion, love and hugs would be necessary as well. Of course, one can imagine how the vehicles made for the far right wingers would be powered:

1. momentum: enormous size of competitive models compensating for personal performance inadequacies.
2. spin: auto batteries charged by connecting to plugs within "spin rooms" occupied by "spin doctors" spinning ... post-Republican debates excellent power storage potential.
3. confabulation cylinders: unconscious filling in of gaps in the memory of voters by telling imaginary "facts" with easy recharge hookup to Fox HD.
4. ideology: actually a power source for both right and left wing vehicles ... ironically, the more concrete the ideology the more fluid the ride.
5. greed: awesome acceleration with no brakes ... however, good for the environment, economy, churches, hookers, illness, golf game, etc. and all future generation models.

6. selfishness: compact vehicle model for those not yet ready for greed driven vehicles.
7. hummer models: powered by "hum"= human "m"= migration "e"= emigrant "r"= refugees preferably illegals more inclined to run quietly ... power train easily transferable for garden work and house chores. Some interior variations to accommodate interns available.