Trump reaction

Note: this section will not be G-Rated … Not even PG … it will be at least R …

WARNING: There will be obscenities and profane language past this point. I have been politic; you have been warned!

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON! America (especially in its national media) is going fucking bonkers because one of its political leadership candidates talks of bawdy things (in a younger iteration) and shows that he is a God-damn, arrogant, loud-mouthed, profane, self-centered, self-absorbed, ruthless, son-of-a-bitch … so what else is new. Get the fuck over it. It ain’t the first time it has happened.

People are going ape-shit crazy calling him to withdraw his candidacy because he told some broadcast flunky off mic that he likes to fondle pretty women … what a bunch of fucking hypocrites. Damn, if there is a male in the room over, let’s say, 45 who hasn’t engaged in bowdlerized, locker-room talk about women and braggadocio about what they would like to do … excepting possibly those men who are gayer that the three-dollar bill … I probably would call them a liar and be right. I can’t say much about people younger than that because I haven’t sat in on many of their conversations, but what I have heard makes me think they aren’t much different.

Folks, take a fucking chill pill. The God-damned politically correct shit has to stop.

The problem with Trump is that he actually talks like he is one of the plebeians … you know, us common folks who actually worked for a God-damn living and not made a living getting paid by the government/state for a career.

I find all this faux-horror at Trump’s tax returns, his sexually explicit talks with people (especially those with recording devices, which is stupid, but then, what the hell, we live in a gotcha by the balls society these days), so freakingly fucking hypocritical that it sort of makes me want to stage a French Revolution here in the US? Trot out the guillotine for the “aristocracy”!!!!

Where is the Red Queen when we need her? Off with their fucking heads! 

I guess I have fallen a long way from my perch among the elites of the world as a college graduate who was the editor of one of the 1600 daily newspapers (at the time) in the USofA, assistant editor at another, editor at a three-times a week paper, and editor of four different weekly newspapers, not including a weekly and an every-other-day newspaper I produced in a war zone.

I no longer have much patience with progressives and those who education or position places them above the fucking masses. I am reminded to tell them, despite your fucking smarts, or God-damn worthless pieces of paper, social, economic or political positions, you stupid over-educated dumbshit assholes, you still put your panties on one leg at a time just like the rest of us idiots.

You know the people you find deplorable may be crude and rude, but they are people. They might not have high-fluting degrees or education, or even money or wealth, but they still are functioning human beings, who can – when called upon – actually have a thought or two in their head … and those thoughts just might be worth listening to. A lot may be stupid or silly thoughts, but given the facts, their common sense will usually win out.

So, Trump is a ruthless, fucking billionaire (or just a multi-millionaire, what does it matter) corporate slob of a businessman, that has never stopped such people from running and serving in public office before. Cue the damn Virginia planter class or the fucking Ivy League country club shit heads

The question you really should be asking yourself, you fucking dumbbells, is has he broken the law? How did he make those billions? By himself or surrounding himself and delegating to a vast corps of really competent deplorables?   I really don’t think he did it selling favors, like a former Senator from New York and Secretary of State, along with her sexually obsessed husband who is an ex-president now, who actually did “it” with a God-damn intern in the Oval Office … or was it her oval orifice … shit, I don’t even know any more ... much less really give a shit.

How many laws, lies, and other shit does Trump’s leading opponent have to break, say and do before you get the message that she really is a bunch of crappola. Do you really want that crappola? Do you really want the fucking status quo candidate to keep things running down the same God-damn track we have been going for the last 10 or so years … so be it … vote for the piece of shit.

Another question: Why is the “establishment” fucking going freaking ape-shit over the possibility of Trump being president? What is it they really are so fucking scared-shitless about? Do they know something about the checks and balances built into our system of governance that we don’t know that makes them think we can’t survive a loose-cannon? What is it that we have had for the last 25 fucking years? Cannons lashed down so tight their pussies squeak? I think they are just afraid he will upset the status quo and maybe, just maybe, fucking change the way things have been run in our fucking capital for that last shitting century or so. Maybe that is the change we need, fucking stupid America.

Now I am not saying anybody should vote for the jerk Trump, or anyone else, but I am saying look at what they say they want to do … ask yourself if those things are what you really want done or if they really are sustainable or just pipe dreams … or just products of your own envy of those who have shit you don’t. … then reach down and vote for the candidate who can win AND do the least amount damage to what freedoms you, as an individual, still have in this country.

One last point, a historical one: The last time the elite was in this much of an uproar, I think, was 1828. You know when that rude, crude and obscene Tennessean Andrew Jackson was elected and the Virginia planter class and the New England lawyers had a hissy fit over this frontier braggart capturing the White House. He was a populist too, if I remember my history correctly and really changed the course of politics and the shape of the American democratic republic. Is that what they are so afraid of?

Anyway, I apologize for my fucking profanity, but I am becoming more and more like the old fucking grunt soldier I was part time, rather than the urbane, cosmopolitan, liberal arts college-educated elite journalist I once was.

Still, I raise my rye on the rocks to all of you who are a) Americans and b) deign to read this rant. (tonight is was Canadian rye, tomorrow night it will be my Gordon’s vodka … I alternate nights on which poison I drink on the rocks).

May you all find your path blessed by the Divine, and you have the strength and courage to endure whatever travails may lie ahead of you personally and (if it so applies) as an American.

 

Footnote: This is a succinct summation why I don't give a fucking rat's ass about Trump's "hot-mic moment". OK, I am done

Autumn of life

First, I want to apologize to anyone who has followed this blog in the past: I have been woefully bad about updating, having somewhat abandoned you all to make links on my Facebook page. Richard Browne on Facebook

It has been easier to post links with brief commentary there, but I have decided to take the time at this point to more fully develop my headline thesis and Facebook is inadequate vehicle for that.

Secondly, I want to apologize for the lack of links that will be in this post, but a) I am lazy and b) I am going to credit you, the reader, as one who follows the news in the United States and therefore already will be able to understand the context in which my views are made.

Now, what do I mean by “Autumn of Life”? Am I referring to my own or do I have some larger portrait to paint? The answer to both is “yes”.

I recently reached the ripe old age of 66 and with my health being as it is, I am – I must realize and acknowledge – in the “autumn” of my existence. It doesn’t mean I plan to die tomorrow or sometime soon, but it is a possibility that will come to pass. Being an old codger with a few miles under my treads does tend to give me a perspective that I once would have applied only to my digressions into my studies of history – of American, of the World, of Western and other civilizations.

So as I read today’s headlines on the internet and read through the lead stories of the day, on one hand I have been struck by an increasing sense of doom and gloom, while occasionally I see flashes that there may yet be hope.

The problem in the U.S., to me at least, is that we have become too complacent, maybe even too apathetic, about who we are as Americans and what is expected of us as Americans. Understand, that for most Americans we take for granted a lifestyle that literally few, except maybe the very wealthy, around the world really can hope to achieve. But we assume that lifestyle as a right, and don’t realize it is a privilege that has been built on the hard work and discipline of our parents, their parents, etc.

It is our expectations that are at fault now and how we fail to acknowledge the basis for the life that those expectations are built upon. Over the course of my life, I have witnessed how the elevation of our expectations in outcome were not keeping pace with the expectations of what input it would take to achieve them.

It is, of course, de rigor now to teach every child that they can achieve anything they want to and that everyone can be a success. That concept is why we now downplay competition and celebrate mere participation. We do this to promote self-esteem in our young and a belief in their abilities … even if their abilities are not up to achieving their expectations. I remember the first year I played organized baseball, I had these visions of me driving the ball up the hill above our diamond and into the parking lot. I walked 13 times (I was a little kid and had a small strike zone) and I struck out 13 times. We forgot somewhere along the line that we also have to teach our progeny that what we want often is not what we get.

I remember a saying from my youth: Aim for the stars, but be willing to accept the moon, or even low-earth orbit, if that is what your abilities will carry you to.

It is called dealing with disappointment and dealing with the reality that sometimes what you want and what you can achieve are entirely different things.

For example, when I was a young man I would have given my eyeteeth to become a line officer in the US Navy or the US Coast Guard. It didn’t happen, but not for lack of trying. Events both in and out of my control augured against me and I was disappointed in nine different attempts. What that taught me, with each of the failures I had a long the way, was to fall back, regroup, and strike out again with a new objective in mind.

Over my life, I have had some successes and, if I am honest, many failures. It was the challenge of trying to pick up the pieces after each of the failures – an some probably should be legend – and go on. It is hard. It is not easy. However, I thank my parents for for somehow endowing me with the perseverance to keep going.

The problem I see with a large part of my nation these days is that we have lost the consensus of what it means to be an American … and even if to be called an American is a worthy thing. If you read much of the politically correct debate, you begin to wonder if being an American really is worth all we go through … especially if we who believe in the old American ideal were such evil and bad people.

We have lost the consensus of what is expected of the individual adult, or the role of faith is to play in our collective lives, or what role civil and community organizations are to play in our American civilization, or what the individual roles of city, county, state and federal governments are.

The role of the individual, as perceived by those rather smart white men who wrote the constitution that underlies our current republic, was guardian of his (sorry, certain groups were excluded, although that has been for the most part correct as a matter of law) own sustenance and future. It was not the government’s role (especially not the federal or state) to make sure the individual had a roof over his head or food on the table. The role of the individual, however, was to contribute to the success of his community and to stand in its defense … and in a larger sense, to his city, county, state and nation, as part of his obligation to it. It was the individual’s obligation to uphold the law through his own actions, rather than an expectation that the government, at what ever level, to enforce the law. All were to be treated equally by that law and it applied to everyone.

That perception, unfortunately, no longer applies. If it feels good and you can get away with it, it seems that today no one has an obligation to obey or uphold the law. In addition, that extends to those whose job it is to enforce the law. If, for whatever reason, it becomes expedient not to enforce the law, or to enforce it selectively, or in some cases rewrite the law by executive fiat, those who are charged with its uniform enforcement decline to do so.

In order to satisfy the political beliefs for some, rather than take the language at its face value, it is twisted and turned into something Orwellian to behold. George Orwell’s “NewSpeak” is alive and thriving in 21st Century America.

On one hand, there are those who believe – not as American tradition holds – that in the 21st Century the rights and beliefs of the individual no longer matter but the rights of the community and democracy trump the individual with the “government” as the arbiter. We see political candidates to date making it clear that it is their position in no uncertain terms.

For example, take firearms. Well, you have the right not to own one, but does that make it right to deny someone who wants to own one to be able to do so. Just because you are scared of guns does not necessarily correlate to a need to ban guns.

The Second Amendment makes it an inalienable right of the individual to keep and bear arms, as so many of the people who debated its adoption pointed out. And it was not just for hunting, but it was survival … survival against enemies of the Republic from both within and without. The government is not giving us this right as a privilege and it doesn’t have the privilege to take it away from American individuals without showing good and just cause. It is not up to the individual to prove that he or she worthy of the right; it is up to the government to prove that he or she is unworthy of the right.

Now, I know that is not a popular position with some of our elites, particularly among our media gatekeepers and pundits and others who consider themselves to be progressive. To them, we have “evolved” past the need for individuals to be willing to step and defend not only themselves but their communities “from all enemies foreign or domestic.” (I know that oath because I have taken it many times) To them, that is what we hire police and the military for, but I would disagree with them.

In our hubris, we are letting our expectations and wants get ahead of our abilities and capabilities. In our hubris, I would posit that my country has reached the autumn of its life. Those who are familiar with the Cycle of Democracy will understand what I am saying … if you are unfamiliar with it, then I beg forgiveness and ask you to research it.

For many decades now we have let those who want desperately for everyone to succeed and raise everyone to the the same level as everyone else raise expectations without pointing out that there is no free lunch. Everything comes with a price and what you want sometimes is beyond the reach of what you can afford. That this is true does not necessarily mean that you are failure – I can attest to that, for I don’t consider myself a failure … I may not have been perfect or roaring success who achieved all his goals without effort, but that doesn’t make me a failure.

Unfortunately, we have raised at least two, if not three and possibly going on four, generations who were not taught that while all things are possible, not all things are probable. That as individuals we have to be prepared for disappointments and that we will take losses, probably in greater proportions than our gains.

I once gave a poem to my step-son and commended it to his reading. I told him to listen, hear and attend to its words, for they are good rules to live your life by. I hope it has helped him … and I would recommend everyone, especially every adolescent and young adult to read it and pay heed. It is the poem “If” by the British author and poet Rudyard Kipling. I know there are those who will immediately dismiss it, given Kipling’s provenance, but they would be wrong. It truly is an eternal lesson that knows no race, religion, creed or era.

When I look at events of recent days, I am struck by the fact that evil does walk among us … and, yes, there are evil people out there. They feed upon the envy, resentment and hate that is being fanned every day by people on the internet, in the media, and in our political leadership. We cannot escape that truth. All we can do is prepare ourselves to cope with.

How do we do that? There are a number of things we can do, but it falls to individuals and not to “society” or “government”.

First, we can endeavor to live our own lives by the only one true and universal rule of life: Treat others as we would have them treat ourselves.

Easy to say, but difficult to do. We wish we were ruled by our reason, but the truth is we are move often ruled by our emotions and our passions. Still, we must learn that it truly is better to forgive rather than to let our anger and hate eat away at us and turn us into beasts we do not recognize.

The second thing may seem at odds with the first, but it is just as true: If we want peace, then we must be prepared for war.

Whether it is war at the individual level, the community level or the national level, we must be prepared to step forward and take whatever measures we can to combat evil when it comes … and it will come. This is not something we can farm out to mercenaries in the form of police or the military. This is something each of us must take on as our personal obligation, not just to ourselves, but also to our communities, our cities, our counties, our states, territories, commonwealths and districts, our nation … and probably, by extension, to our planet.

I say these things without consideration of color, or race, or ethnicity, or economic, or social status. It doesn’t matter to me. Unfortunately, for far too many Americans, it does matter these days. No longer is it important what the law says, or what people’s actions are in accordance with those laws, it only matters what someone’s perceive gender is, or sexual orientation, or color of their skin, or whether they are rich or poor or somewhere in between. This is wrong and is part of the evil that has brought autumn to our Republic.

If you have bore with me throughout this lengthy essay, I commend you. If you agree with it, I hope it inspires you; just as I hope it it inspires you to respond with a comment if you don’t agree with me.

 

Media Rant time

I really wish I wasn’t a journalist sometimes, because what I am seeing for passing for news reporting these just about makes me want to puke.

The blame game in this coverage is bovine scatology of the first order.

Now, understand folks, I spent about 30 years working in the news rooms of newspapers. Some of it I was reporting, some of it I was editing … but I will say this: the crap, and that is being generous, that was put up by CNN about the storm in the South was about the poorest example I have seen coming out of that once respected cable news outlet.

First of all, I lived in the Atlanta area for six years, and in the South generally for the better part of 25 years, and so I am quite familiar with what is paralyzing the region … as the saying goes, been there, done that … got the T-shirt, and lost it – a number of times. I doubt, honestly, that any folks up in Yankeedom (that is anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line or the Ohio River) probably would have done much better on the first big blizzard of the year, but then they do get a lot more practice.

I can tell you that on a good day that the traffic jams in Atlanta are epic, and the drivers worse (I had a Jaguar coupe try to swap paint with my old Ford pickup truck at 75 mph on an Atlanta freeway one day – and only because I grew up driving the Southern California freeways, we didn’t).

No, Southerners do not know how to drive on snow and ice, and for most years they don’t have to. On those few occasions that it happens, well, you are seeing the results.

For that reason, which my Canadian wife got real hoots out of, at the first snowflake, towns, schools and just about everything else closes up shop – and people all run to the grocery store to stock up on milk and bread. Don’t ask me why, but it is a Southern thing.

I have no doubt that the state, counties, cities and towns affected by this storm had emergency plans in place to deal with it … but when the rubber hits the road, the plans go in the bit buck about as fast as you can say snow flake or especially ice crystal.

Add to that the track record for meteorologists is nothing to write home about. For example, I now reside on the coast of Maine and the weather forecast has called for snow or some other type of frozen precipitation for just about every other day for the past week and I ain’t seen nary a flake yet … oh, there were a few drops of mist on the windshield when I went to the doctor’s on Monday, but not enough even to make the pavement damp.

So, between weather forecasters who can’t get their act together and a storm that comes along maybe once a decade – if not once a generation – and you expect things to go normally?

Now, if  you are journalist, you report what is happening, and you don’t go pillorying every government official you can put your microphone and camera in front of for failing to get everybody home.

Reminds me  of Hurricane Floyd in 1999. (Background on Floyd) As Floyd skirted up the East Coast, the governor of South Carolina, as a precaution, ordered all the people in the counties east of I-95 to evacuate. It turned into a royal mess with it taking people 10-12 hours to cover normally is a 90 minute to two hour drive.

And then … Floyd didn’t even come ashore in South Carolina and just brushed the North Carolina Cape Hatteras area before finally slamming in the Virginia and Maryland.

Now, what do you think people thought of evacuations then?

So, all you people who are pointing fingers at the folks down South: Bless your pea-picking little hearts, but you weren’t there and I have heard from folks from up North of the Border who were there and were saying that they doubted it would have been handled any better.

Actually, rather than try to blame somebody, CNN could have been going out and reporting actually what was happening, which probably was some really great human interest stories about people pitching in and helping one another when the going was tough and at its worst.

Like the teachers and school administrators who made the brave choice to hunker down in their schools with their students and do their best to make them feel safe and comfortable.

Or those police officers and firefighters going out and doing their jobs, despite the conditions. And yes, even those much maligned state and county road crews who had to put that strange and little used equipment to use out there on highways not even a snowshoe hare would dare to travel.

I have lived through a slew of those ice storms, and believe me, I will take the 30 inch snowfall we had here in Maine over them anytime.

Anyway, suffice it to say, I think CNN’s coverage sucked the big green weenie and what little respect I had for the institution slipped even further into the john.

Imperialist America

Military assets deploy to help the Philippines

I would really like people to take a long hard look at the list compiled in the above link.

For Americans, it is a lesson of what those tax dollars go for.

For non-Americans, it is a lesson of how the Americans lead from the front.

I know there are those who will piss and moan about American taxpayer money being diverted from needs at home, but what they don’t realize is that this effort is a better demonstration of what the US is about than anything else I can think of.

Note that those resources, designed for war, also can be used to fight the ravages of nature.

Those resources, designed for war, are an instrument to bring supplies to where they are needed because that is a task that is vital to succeeding in conflict.

Understand people that the ships on that list represent a significant proportion of the Pacific Fleet which is spread from the India Ocean to Antarctica to the Panama Canal to San Diego to Japan and Korea.

Journalist were asking: Where is the help for all those people stricken by the devastation of the typhoon?

Well, look no further. And you have to remember, those people helped by those Americans will remember. This is what power is all about.

There is hard power … and that is the ability to fight … and there is soft power … and that is the ability to bring help where it is needed.

For all those who complain about America’s role in the world, there are people in the Philippines (and other places around the world) who will be eternally grateful for the Americans’ presence.

I have seen this first hand. It is one of the reasons that I have been so proud of the men and women who wear the uniforms of the American military. It is part of the reason I was proud to share that honor with them. These people are really a beacon of hope for so many around the world.

Lastly: Yes, this is done in the interest of America. It is to advance the interests of the United States. If that makes the US imperialists, then I am proud that we are.  We may be different from the imperialists who have gone before, for we really are far less ruthless and we really do ask for far less they our predecessors.

Another knee-jerk response to a tragedy

Once again, a much damaged person has perpetrated a tragedy.

I don’t know what caused a disturbed young man to dress up like a would-be warrior wannabe, take weapons from his divorced mother’s home, shoot her and then go to a school and slaughter more than 25 other people, most of them small children.

I don’t have that answer and I don’t claim to have the answer. Having said that, however, I am once again dismayed by the near-Pavlovian conditioned-response to this tragedy. (For those who are unfamiliar with the concept Pavlovian response, it refers to a Russian psychologist who trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell)

Liberals and progressives in the United States hear about such a tragedy and immediately the call goes up for the federal government to institute some new form of gun control (preferably, I think, banning all firearms) in almost a knee-jerk response to the incident.

I guess you could try to ban all firearms in the United States, but it wouldn’t work and probably would ignite a real civil war. First of all, there are far too many in circulation to be able to confiscate them all. Second, there are legitimate uses for civilians to have firearms (despite what city-folk may think). Third, firearms are far too simple to make to really effectively ban them.

So, as a practical matter, banning them is impossible.

Registering them, as our neighbor Canada has learned recently, basically becomes a rather expensive bureaucratic boondoggle and is easily evaded, if not ignored.

I guess you could try banning the sale of ammunition, but that too would easily be evaded and a black market created that would rival the illicit drug market. Gunpowder is relatively easy to mix up and the world is full of arms manufacturers willing to sell bullets to anybody.

The problem with gun control, in my humble opinion, is that it comes at the problem from the wrong angle.

It would seem obviously that the problem with guns is keeping them out of the hands of people who would use them for purposes that are not socially acceptable. How do you keep anything out of the hands of anybody who might use the thing for purposes other than socially acceptable?

Of course, to liberals and progressives, there are no socially acceptable uses for firearms, which is why they want to ban them. Unfortunately, as pointed out, that really is not an option and so to propose it merely obscures what can be done.

Now, first of all guns are inherently dangerous, but then so are cars, knives, saws, axes and just about anything else that can kill or injure human beings as well as other living creatures.

Second, guns usually are scary. They make loud noises that tend to startle and scare people, especially when you are not expecting to hear such a noise.

So, the problem is: How do you keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them? I guess the same way you keep knives out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them or axes or even cars. What, you say, but that is impossible. Yes, it is and we shouldn’t delude ourselves that it is.

What should be done then? To be honest, I don’t have a politically correct answer for that. There is a totally politically incorrect organization in Nevada that is offering to train three adults at every school in the nation in the safe handling of firearms for defensive purposes. Not that that would ever happen, but it does offer an alternative solution that probably would be much more effective than trying to ban all firearms.

Unfortunately, there really is no way to stop people from doing this or any other terrorist-type act, especially if they intend to die in the end. You can drive yourself crazy trying to understand such people or why they choose to do what they do, but you will never understand.

Note that in China, there have been at least a half-dozen similar mass attacks on schools in the last two years.

Isn’t that what jail is?

PFC Manning says he was held in a cage
It seems that the accused leaker of classified documents to Wikileaks, Army PFC Bradley Manning, was upset he was held in cells after being arrested for violating his oath as well as host of other Army regulations.
WHAT THE YOU KNOW WHAT?
Hello, since when was a jail cell anything but a cage?
Is this guy for real, or is he living in some nether world? I am sorry, but you get yourself arrested – inside the military or out – you are not going to some swank four-star hotel. Nope, you are going to be cooped up in rather uncomfortable surroundings, usually not much worse than the accommodations for the poor line-doggies who are serving out on the front lines.
I am sorry, but his case has dragged on long enough – courtesy of himself and his defense lawyers – and it about time the court martial begins.
If the defense team tries to justify his alleged conduct, then as far as I am concerned the kid should get a swift ticket to the Big House at Fort Leavenworth where he can rot for all I care. If the Army can’t prove that he was the source of the material that Wikileaks put on line, then he can walk … but if the military can prove that he was the source, then the young man can just hang, literally and figuratively.
Unfortunately, this baby-faced baboon is trying to get people’s sympathy in a world where sympathy often gets people killed. It seems to be forgotten that this soldier VOLUNTEERED for his job. He voluntarily agreed and swore oaths that he would protect the information he was privy to from unauthorized release to unauthorized persons. If he has no more integrity than to honor his voluntary obligations, then such a charlatan deserves whatever punishment the service deems fit for the crime.
Please, however, save me from the “but he only was doing what he thought was right” argument. If he was being compelled to serve, I can buy it, but he volunteered.

Batten down the hatches

Hurricane Sandy

Halloween Frankenstorm

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecaster Jim Cisco, who coined the nickname Frankenstorm, said: "We don't have many modern precedents for what the models are suggesting."

Ok, not to belittle the weather event forming up in the Atlantic, along with the cold front that sweeping through the Midwest, but … so what? We are going to have a bad storm.

Alright, my point is exactly what NOAA forcecaster Jim Cisco said: We mere 21^st century humans don’t have all that many precedents upon which to base our forecasts. Like that is a no-brainer.

Hello, we peoples down here on this little planet have been keeping fairly accurate records for maybe 100 years, and have actual satellite data (which is a step up from ground records) for maybe 30 years … on a planet that is 4 billion years old. That is not a wealth of data to choose from when you look at it.

We can infer a lot from what we can get from ice core samples from glaciers and the Polar Regions. We can estimate a lot from analyzing geological samples from years past, but real actual hard data to plug into our relatively recent inventions called digital computers is pretty doggone hard to come by.

So, before you go jumping off any cliffs because we are going to get a bad storm, don’t. The weather guys and other folks mean well, but they really are talking just possibilities and probabilities. What they want you to do is to use your common sense and take sensible precautions. In other words, don’t do something stupid and be prepared for changing circumstances.

Now is not the time to run around like a chicken with your head cut off and expecting the end of the world to happen. It ain’t … at least until Dec. 21, when we have it on good authority that all sorts of cultural catastrophes are going to happen … or then again maybe not.

The reality of the situation is that if we get a bad storm, it will be a bad storm. Lots of people will be without power and generally very inconvenienced. How we all react to that will be of more importance than what the weather does or does not do.

In most cases, unless you do something stupid or silly, you will survive and will have yet another tale to tell somebody who wasn’t there.

Libertarian view

Libertarian candidate proposes withdrawal from the Middle East
John Stossel likes Libertarian candidate
Neal Boortz likes Johnson but is going to vote for Romney
Ok, surprise, surprise, my admittedly progressive friend out west likes the Libertarian Party candidate, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. Hey, I guess, what’s not to like? … He is a libertarian.
All right, I admittedly call myself a libertarian at times, but that is because I really can’t categorize myself as much else. The thing I do like about Libertarians is the philosophy that the government should, basically, just butt out of people’s lives and let them get on by themselves. Unfortunately, that sounds awfully hard-hearted to the progressives and what used to be known as liberals, but what the heck? What do I care? I’ve run my race, did my bit for God, King (or is that “President”) and Country, paid into the system like a good troll and whatever. Unfortunately, I do care.
However, I part company with the Libertarians when they start spouting what, for the lack of a better term, is isolationism. Sorry, guys, but that ain’t gonna work, no matter how we try. We tried that back in the 1930s and we got burned big time.
Now, I am not a big fan of the current binges toward nation building either. Americans, ala the Ugly American book from the 1950s, have a long track record of mucking that up. Nor am I big on intervening in every little conflict that comes along … at least not with American troops. I guess we could pay some mercenaries, but the progressives would have a hissy fit on that (I just finished a sci-fi book on just such a concept, well sort of … it was nakedly based on the past 10 years, but transferred to another world for literary license … it was not kind to liberals and progressives … and definitely not Islamic jihadists).
Still, one does have to face reality and that reality is that the U.S., regardless of whether you like it or not, has the most capable military in the world as well as the military that is most capable of functioning efficiently forward deployed. While that is great, in one sense, it also has a downside and that downside is that other nations look to all that power and ask, nay beg, for help with the pirates, bandits, thieves and other assorted tyrants and bad guys out there.
Unfortunately, something that Mr. Johnson and other Libertarians rarely recognize is that in our interdependent global marketplace, it is in our own enlightened self-interest to quell certain disturbances and restrain some parties from acting on their darker designs. In other words, the U.S. is repeatedly called upon and needs to use its strength to act as global constable and fire brigade.
Not that we asked for the job, per se, but unless we want to hand the world over to those who want to have total chaos so they can prey on others, or turn the reins over to Chinese, who at the moment seem to be waiting in the wings – although they have a way to go on their capabilities of projecting power, given another 10 or 15 years, they probably will get there, then the “we are going to pull out of everywhere and tend to our own knitting here in North America” attitude really isn’t going to work.
I suppose that it could work, for a little while, assuming that we could find the resources we need inside our borders (like that is going to happen) and borrow enough money to reestablish the industrial base that would keep our military at the pinnacle of today’s war-fighting food chain. However, I doubt that either of those conditions could ever be met. AND our standard of living would take a major hit without imports.
However, it is a very seductive fantasy, but – I hate to even draw this parallel – but the world economy is a bit like a row of dominoes. Knock one or two over and you get a cascade effect. You don’t think so? Then you need to really take a much better look at the events of the past four or five years.
The question, of course, is how you keep those dominoes from falling? Unfortunately, withdrawing back into your castle is not the answer nor is trying to please everybody and yayhoo in the neighborhood. Maybe someday, the world will be like that, but I doubt even my grandchildren will see a world like that.
Which brings me back to my usual solution: We have to find ways to convince very self-centered, greedy and power-hungry individuals and nations how it is in their own enlightened self-interest to act like civilized people, rather than raving maniacs.
Anybody got any good ideas? Nobody seems to like mine.
Oh, and my current view on the current presidential race: Definitely undecided.
Obama is a walking disaster in so many ways.
Romney can’t seem to get his act together, so he is not much better.
Johnson, ain’t no way on God’s green earth that he will win … whether you like him or love him … and a vote for him probably will help get the disaster re-elected.

Domestic terror v. Islamic: Moral Equivalence

US “terrorist” incidents

Islamic “terrorist” incidents

Domestic “terrorism” in the U.S.

It seems interesting to me that some people try to draw a moral equivalence between the actions of Islamic terrorist and U.S. “terrorists”; to draw a similarity between U.S. religious fundamentalists/evangelicals and Islamic fundamentalists/evangelists/jihadiis.

One of my daughters is one; my progressive friend out west is another. To me, there seems to be at least an order of magnitude, if not two, three or four or more, between the two.

Take the “domestic” terrorist incidents that actually caused casualties in the United States. You can add it in the incident at the Colorado movie theater, the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin and the Virginia Tech campus shooting spree. What the heck we will also add in the DC sniper attacks from a few years back. I, for one, say: Let’s add in the Occupy protests of the last year.

Compare that to the casualties caused by Islamic terrorists and Islamic violence related to demonstrations. Please, start counting the casualties. Count the number of incidents.

Please, tell me where the moral equivalence is there now. There isn’t. There can’t be, unless you say causing hundreds, if not thousands of deaths, is equal to the number of deaths caused by the Unibomber, or the guy who bombed Centennial Park in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics, or even Timothy McVeigh and his sidekick Terry Nichols who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City.

Ok, the “experts” will tell you that terrorism on the “right” is as big a threat or more to the US than those from Islamic fundamentalists and Jihadists.

CNN story on domestic terrorism threat from back in July 2012

After watching the events of the past week, I am not so sure. Sure, we have our share of idiots in the U.S., left and right, who are crackpot enough to kill people, damage or destroy property or just cause chaos because they can. But, my point is, that those efforts pale in comparison to the violence and chaos we see and read about coming out of countries where Islamic – you can’t deny these people are not Muslims, but with 1.6 billion Muslims, they obviously are not in the majority (I think) – mobs, terrorists, etc. have resulted in the deaths of tens of people, so far, hundreds more injured and an untold amount of property damaged or destroyed. And to what end?

Note, that the violence against a stupid YouTube video has spread halfway around the world, with accompanying bloodied heads and burning and smashed vehicles.

Give me a break. There is no moral equivalence here. It is not even close.

In addition, we have leaders of countries and religious groups blaming not the mobs for their excesses, or the terrorists for their attacks, but the victims for not punishing someone whose speech happens to be protected by law.

Again, we might not like this film … heck, like a lot of people, I don’t like very many films – big budget or low budget – these days … but like those big budget movie makers and those makers of the porn movies – soft core and otherwise, they have a right to do that in the United States. Sorry, you don’t like that, then get over it. Don’t look at the crap, or at least don’t buy it or rent it from a video store.

It really amazes me sometimes that there are those in the U.S. that go into hyperdrive over our lunatic fringe. I may be blind, and probably am, but I am sorry, but I don’t see them as much as a threat as people who have sworn their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to crush the United States. I believe them. I wonder about those who don’t believe that among 1.6 billion people, that a substantial minority (far larger than any of the fringe groups in the U.S.) don’t pose a clear and present danger to the people of the United States.

Not until I see the leading ayatollahs, and the leaders of Islamic countries, using their bully pulpits to denounce the violence and chaos – ala the Pope currently in Lebanon – and calling on their followers to reject it, to contest it, to resist it, will I believe that the Islamic faith has turned a corner and is willing to coexist with people who don’t agree with them.

Pistol (actually all firearms) safety and idiots

Ex-West Pointer shoots self in head

It seems a former West Point cadet was showing off a pistol he had and accidently blew his brains out.

I can’t tell you how tragic that is, especially because as a former cadet at the U.S. Military Academy I would have thought that his firearms instructors would have taught him the first rule of firearms:

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS ASSUME IT IS LOADED!!!!!

Yes. If it is a magazine-fed weapon, like automatic pistols like my good old favorite the M-1911, you don’t assume that just because the magazine is out that there is no bullet in the chamber. WRONG ANSWER!

Look, I spent years around military pistols, primarily the M-1911A1 .45 caliber Army Colt Pistol. I have spent lord knows how many hours trying to teach people the safe handling of said weapons. One of the first things I always taught was to ensure when you picked up the weapon that not only was the magazine out but that the firing chamber was empty.

I used to say, “That is why God gave you a little finger, so you can it stick up through the ejection port into the breech to make sure there isn’t a cartridge hiding back up in there.”

I can still almost recite the standard lecture I would give each person.

“You pick up the M-1911 with your left hand (assuming you are right handed), keeping your fingers outside the trigger guard, and you drop the magazine by pushing this button with your finger and catch it in your right hand. Place the magazine down. Then with your right hand you pull the slide back until it locks. Then put your pinkie in the chamber – just to make sure there is not bullet hiding there. Now, the weapon is safe to handle.”

Next, I would explain that the .45 automatic had three safeties and a safety feature that they should be aware of.

First, it has the thumb safety that physically keeps the hammer from falling when it is in place.

Second, it has a grip safety that must be depressed by the web between your thumb and your fingers when you grip the handle. Don’t grip it tightly, then you won’t depress the safety.

Third, the .45 has a safety known as half-cock, which theoretically keeps the hammer from falling and if it does, it doesn’t hit the firing pin with enough force to hit the primer on the back of the cartridge. This is a throw-back to the old horse cavalry days when a trooper needed one hand on the reins and had to shoot his pistol with the other. This way he could have a charged round in the chamber (so he didn’t have to pull the slide back, which is a two-handed operation) and just had to cock the hammer and start firing. This is great if you are a cavalry trooper on a horse, but you aren’t, so don’t trust it.

Fourth, there is a safety feature on the .45 that supposedly will keep it from firing if the slide and the barrel are not fully forward. If they are not, then an “interlock” is supposed to keep the hammer from falling. This is why you never jam the barrel into somebody and expect to be able to pull the trigger. The force against the body shoves the barrel and slide back enough to engage the interlock.

At this point I usually would demonstrate using my hand. I would press the pistol against my palm, hard enough to shift the barrel back, and try to pull the trigger. Now, 99 percent of the time, the hammer wouldn’t fall.

Sometimes it would.

In that case I would thank myself for making sure the pistol was empty and explain why I said this feature was not a “safety” but a “safety feature” because it didn’t always work.

Unfortunately, I now know of several cases that individuals handling a pistol like the M-1911 either forgot or disregarded those instructions. Interestingly, it usually happens to officers (there must be a link there somewhere) in my experience. They are the ones who put the pistol to their temple and say “Watch, it won’t fall,” and then proceed to blow part of their skull and a good part of their brains all over the side of the nearest wall.

The reason I use my palm? Because my brain ain't there. If I blow a hole in my palm, I will survive. It may hurt like hell, but it won’t kill me.

People who put firearms to their heads should expect bad things to happen and my opinion of them is that they are idiots. They also are the subject of subsequent firearms safety classes as illustrations of what NOT to do.

I am sad the young man is dead. It truly is tragic. However, it has given me another teaching moment as I call them, and an opportunity to explain to anyone that reads my rambling random thoughts my main thought about firearms.

ALWAYS ASSUME THE DAMN THING IS LOADED and then make personally sure that it isn’t. Don’t accept someone else’s word. Check it yourself. Your damn life may depend on it.

Again, someone much more articulate than I

This article I am linking to expresses so well the point I have been trying to make.
Arab Spring nations don’t yet grasp freedom of dissent
If there is going to be a clash of cultures, then this will be at its root. Where there is no freedom of dissent; then there is no freedom. Either you are willing to accept and tolerate others who disagree with you or there inevitably will be conflict.
It doesn’t matter where you live, or what culture you live in, or society or anything. At the bottom of it all is that if you are unwilling to accept that other individuals are different than you are and are going to be, no matter what you think, then there will be no freedom, no liberty for anyone. Someone will always be trying to impose the tyranny of conformity on you and everyone else.
This, more than anything else, is what we should take away as a lesson from the riots, carnage and chaos we are seeing igniting around the world by Muslim extremists. Muslim, as well as members of all faiths, should reject the message being sent by these demonstrations in no uncertain terms.

Something wrong here

Egyptians storm US Embassy compound in Cairo
Protesters scale wall of US Embassy in Egypt
Libyan protesters burn American consulate
Libyan protesters kill US Consular employee
US Embassy statement on events
OK, folks, something is seriously wrong with this picture and it ain’t the U.S.’s fault.
Sorry but Muslims are going to have to get a tougher skin and stop acting like idiots because it reflects badly on them and their religion. Tuesday, 9/11/12, Muslim protesters in Egypt and Libya attacked U.S. diplomatic offices, killing one person, wounding a second and tearing down the U.S. flag while painting graffiti on the walls of the U.S. Embassy compound in Cairo, Egypt.
Their reason: Because America allowed some unknown filmmaker in California to produce a movie that depicts the prophet Mohammed in a bad light … actually; it apparently depicts him as a sex-crazed murdering maniac.
This of course is insulting to any true-blue Islamicist and merits at least a riot or two, burning buildings and flags and possibly killing some people. What a bunch of bovine scatology or maybe I should say porcine scatology or porcine fecal material!
I am sorry Egyptians; I am sorry Libyans; but in this country you are allowed to insult religions, people, government institutions, businesses, hospitals, your neighbors, etc. and if you don’t like it, then you take them to court. You do not shoot people; you do not storm their property; and you do not destroy or deface their property. No, you don’t do those things because you respect the rights of others to be idiots.
And especially you don’t go blaming the government or some government agency of a nation that isn’t even yours for letting their citizens act like idiots. Obvious, the Americans are much more enlightened than you are, or at least more tolerant than you are, because we just nod our heads and say, “They are at it again” and go on about our lives.
We don’t storm the local mosque, or the Egyptian Embassy or whatever goes for the Libyan Embassy, every time a mob kills a bunch of tourists or Christians or whatever minority group is in disfavor in the Middle East. No, Americans look at the person who is insulting and say, “What an idiot” and let him go on being an idiot.
You see, we Americans are governed by the rule of law. Apparently that concept is alien where you live. You really ought to try it sometime. It lets all sorts of people with differing views and opinions coexist peacefully without destroying people or lives. I am beginning to understand that in Egypt and in Libya your people apparently don’t like the idea that an individual can be allowed the freedom to think for themselves. Apparently, if these latest actions are any indication, you think that everyone has to believe just as you do, or they should die or something worse.
And despite the rhetoric being spouted by our government and its leadership, we are starting to get just a tad bit exasperated with the screaming intolerance being exhibited by your so-called demonstrators.
We put up with you burning our flag, burning and destroying religious texts that we hold sacred, because a) you are not Americans and we don’t expect you to understand the concept of the law and tolerance and b) because you are not here. Otherwise we probably would be suing your pants off, in court where the law is the master and not your emotions because you were insulted.
I think I can speak for a lot of Americans. You all in the Middle East, and much of Muslim world, need to grow up real fast and understand that you can’t just throw temper tantrums when somebody offends you. You consider the source, call them ignorant if you want, and then move on.
But going down and defacing their property, shooting people, and basically showing your derrieres is so beneath what you could be as a person. It definitely shows a enormous lack of dignity and self-respect on your part.
One of these days, those with patience, well, you will see their patience tested, if not run out and though might does not make right … might does wield a pretty big hammer and you don’t want to be where it falls.

Thank God for religious freedom

Pakistan grants bail to girl accused of blasphemy
Iran releases Christian pastor
The Mutawah
There is one thing that most Americans have a great difficulty in understanding and that is living under theocratic rules.
Of course, to your run-of-the-mill progressive, American Christian fundamentalists fit the description, but believe me, they don’t even come close. Fundamentalists in the U.S. of any stripe don’t hold a candle to the real thing that you find in Muslim countries functioning under the auspices of Sharia laws.
For example, the young Christian girl in Pakistan who was charged with blasphemy for supposedly burning a page from the Quran (the Islamic faith’s version of the Christian Bible or the Jewish Torah, the holy book). Apparently, it seems, that the equivalent of a priest or rabbi or pastor fibbed and that was what got the child arrested. Due to international pressure, at least the girl was released on bail. That doesn’t mean that the charges can’t go ahead, but it does mean that she gets out of jail to be with her family, hiding somewhere in Pakistan from those Muslim fundamentalists who would like to see her drawn and quartered. And you think American Christian fundamentalists are intolerant.
In the second case, an Iranian who was fulfilling the role of a Christian church minister apparently is not going to be put to death for apostasy by the Iranian regime. It seems that the international attention won another victory and he got off on appeal, which reduced his charges to a lesser crime and he was released in lieu of time served, which was three years in the pokey.
You see, things like that don’t happen in the United States and won’t as long as the law is respected by those who believe and those who don’t believe. It wasn’t always that way, but it is the way it is today and has been for a good long time now … well at least for about a century or so. Yes, we do tend to tolerate differing religious views in the U.S., even though those not currently popular often have a relatively rough time of it. Unfortunately, intolerance also is one of those faults/sins that we will never get rid of … but, more than other places, at least we have a bridle on it.
What we don’t have are mutaween … or as I call them the mutawah. In Saudi Arabia, the mutaween are the enforcers of customs and mores, like what you wear, are you observing prayer time, is your shop not selling unapproved goods like CDs, DVDs and alcoholic beverages. I know my progressive friend out west sees an American version of these religious policemen in everything the religious right/conservatives seem to do, but really, our religious right has nothing on the mutawah. And such enforcers here definitely don’t have the sanction of the government, and despite his fears, I don’t think our government will give such enforcers sanction.
When I was stationed in Saudi Arabia, I had a number of encounters with the mutawah. Most were amicable – they didn’t speak much English and my Arabic was limited to about three or four phrases. There was one incident when the business I was visiting suddenly shut all the shutters on the windows to the street and as it continued on with business, the owner explained to me that it was prayer time and rather than shut down the press run he was doing for me, he just closed the shutters so the mutaween wouldn’t see what was going on. I guess my time was worth more than the pressmen’s prayers or the fine he would have faced had he been caught (which he said he was occasionally – he did this often and not just for the infidel American Army NCO who was there – and was ready to pony up the fine).
There was one encounter, which fortunately I missed, where another NCO, who was a friend of mine, literally had to drag a female soldier out of a shopping mall before she got arrested. They were both in civilian clothes and she was wearing the obligatory floor length skirt, but her shirt sleeves only came down to her elbows and she wasn’t wearing something covering her hair. A couple of mutaween decided that she wasn’t observing the local dress code and decided to hassle her about it. Being a proper American who seems to think that the U.S. Constitution applies anywhere in the world, she proceeded to try to make a federal case out of it. Bad idea, young lady. Well, the NCO rode to her rescue, literally dragging her by her arm out of the shopping mall as she was practically screaming about her rights and away from the two officers.
When they got back to the hotel where we were billeted, I got the story and we two NCOs tried our best a) to calm her down and b) explain to her the facts of life that what goes in the US does not always go over in other countries and we have to respect that. We may not agree with it, and definitely don’t have to like it, but we do have to – as we usually put it – SADO. (SADO stands for Salute And Drive On and is what you do when you have to do something someone in authority tells you to do that you disagree with or think is wrong)
When I look around and see a Mormon and a Protestant, backed by two Catholics, running to lead the United States I am amazed (Well, not really, because I am an American who believes in the tolerance of America). It is not something that you will see in very many countries around the world. Well, even in the US, the fact that these candidates even profess their religious preferences raises eyebrows in some progressive quarters that would rather see secular humanists in the job. They have no room for those who see some value in religious faith or the belief in some deity that you can’t see or prove the existence of. To them it, it all opiates for the masses and a bunch of hokum.
Of course, we may come to the obverse of a theocracy, and that is almost as scary as the thought of living in a theocracy.

Random Thoughts for a busy news day

Today has so many things going on, and I have little time to research them all. So, I am going to comment briefly on a bunch of issues that I most likely will come back to.

Jobs report

The monthly jobs report is out and the numbers are dismal. The question I have is that if the unemployment is at 16 percent for young adults then what are all these young people doing? How are they surviving? Otherwise, why are they not rioting because they are starving? I am not talking about the Occupy folks. They are a bunch of overeducated romantics looking back for a Summer of Love. I am talking about the others. What are they doing? Revolutions start with less.

Venezuela seizes American ship captain

What are Hugo Chavez’s minions thinking? They are upset that their port authorities found three “assault” rifles in the locker for the ship’s anti-piracy squad … weapons that allegedly were declared when the ship arrived in Maracaibo. Now, they apparently arrested the captain on weapons smuggling charges and seem to be holding the crew. This is not only silly but it verges on being ridiculous the more that comes out.

Haqqani network squeaks

The Haggani network in Afghanistan and Pakistan says things will go badly for the American hostage they are holding if the U.S. government lists them as a terrorist group. Sounds like the shoe fits. Unfortunately for the American, he is about to become a casualty in the Global War on Terrorists.

Obit for the Arab Spring

It seems that analysts are saying that the great hopes for freedom, liberty and democracy in the Arab world are dying. Ah, were you surprised? You shouldn’t have been. It would have been nice, but the Arab countries are reverting to their traditional tribal styles. That will have to change before the other things happen.

So much for thoughts now. Thunder outside. Need to take precautions.

Threats and threatening situations

Occupy Threats
Definition of assault / Another definition of assault
Tea Party threats 1 / Tea Party Threats 2 / Tea Party threats 3
Census data 1 – Oregon / Census data 2 – California
Census data 1a – Ohio / Census data 2a – Georgia / Census data 3a - South Carolina / Census data 4a - North Carolina / Census data 5a – Texas /Census data 5b – Texas
I apologize for all the links above, but this posting took more than a little research and consideration.
First, my progressive friend out in Oregon, seems to be a bit agitated about the polarization and potential for racial violence in the United States. I am less so.
Granted, the potential is there and if you just go by the comments you read on the internet, then – I suppose – there would be some cause for concern. However, I take most of the comments on blogs and stories on the internet with a whole bunch of salt. I do this mainly because it is easy in the relative anonymity of the internet chat rooms and threads to say a lot of things that really are never going to come to pass. Sorry, while there are threats that you should take seriously, usually those on the internet are the least of your worries.
Now, the first link above, a video of a group of Occupy RNC protesters in Tampa heckling Republicans leaving their national convention shows a rather obnoxious man, among others, being as offensive as possible. Now, he comes dangerously close to breaching the line when it comes to assault (which is why he does the hand in the camera lens bit when he realizes what he said. Hand in the camera lens, I learned as a public affairs officer for the military is a really bad move. It makes you look guilty of something that you are trying to cover-up). See the definitions of assault, and you can make the call.
Note that he is African-American, although others in his group are Euro-Americans, which lends a bit to the racial aspect of his threats. Also note that many in this group are either covering their faces or at least their heads. This could lead to a feeling of unease that would indicate that a minority person is threatening open warfare against the predominately white or Euro-American people who are passing in front of him.
Personally, I take it as rhetoric and bluster because the guy is trying to get attention and trying to get a reaction (hopefully violent against him) that he can use to make his case. Sorry, it didn’t happen. Good try though.
Then, I posted three links to various and sundry alleged threats from people in the Tea Party (which progressives seem to love to hate). Again, most of the alleged threats are not really documented with video, etc., but can also be balanced by similar threats that have been made to Republican lawmakers in the same time frame. The same can be said about the alleged violent incidents.
The most “damning” threat is the sign threatening “gun violence.” That I would contend is far less than the vocal threat from RNC demonstrator. That sign is pure rhetoric. In addition, note that none of the “protesters” in that photograph are making any effort to hide their identity. I mean if you are going to start threatening violence at people, you would think you would have the sense to at least make it somewhat difficult for the authorities to figure out who you are (as was the case in Tampa).
Ok, so we are having rhetorical violence on both sides of the political spectrum. I think that is a pretty accurate statement.
Now, as for his concern about racial violence breaking out: I guess I look at it from a different perspective. You see, I have lived a long time among significant populations of minorities, particularly African-Americans and I think that gives me a little better perspective than someone who hasn’t. I list the census data for the two areas that I know he has lived in (as well as six places I have lived in for comparison) and the thing that leapt out at me was the lack of African-Americans living in those areas.
Now, I have to say, that both he and I were really good friends in high school with one of the few African-Americans at our school (who actually got himself elected president of the Student Body Association – this being in the mid-1960s), so I am not accusing him of having any racial prejudices.
Still, having lived in integrated and not so integrated communities, having covered the news in those communities for a very long time, I think I have a somewhat more accurate perception what the average person in those communities thinks and feels.
I can tell you, when they are not watching the nightly news, they are very stable, sane, honest, hardworking people who just want to live their lives and pursue their dreams. There really isn’t more than a whit of difference between most people, regardless of their ethnic background.
The sad thing is that is not the story that you get from watching the national news outlets. In my little corner of the world, which includes (basically) eight town homes, we have one Hispanic family, three African-American households and four Euro-American households. If any of us are planning to man the barricades, it has eluded me and since I am basically homebound most of the time, I spend a lot of time looking out the window and (when it is not too hot) sitting on the patio interacting with my neighbors. All of them are pretty much working stiffs working regular day jobs and trying to stay afloat in a really tough economy. One of my former neighbors was a small business owner who took it on the chin, although he had a good idea and excellent merchandise. It was just the wrong time for him and his wife to try to launch it.
I guess my point is that despite what you see and hear, the U.S. is not about to collapse into civil war (in my humble opinion). Yes, there are a lot of angry people out there, but that is nothing new. It has been that way for a long time, it seems to me.
I think even though we are “polarized”, if this election goes smoothly (and no one tries to get hinky by trying to overturn the ballot box results in the courthouse), most Americans will accept the results (whoever wins) and the country will go on.
Those who throw temper tantrums will be the one to lose and, in a sense, they will only have themselves to blame.
Granted, I would like to see the country go in one direction and I suspect my progressive friend would like to see it go in another, but that doesn’t mean I plan on taking up arms against him if it doesn’t go my way. I hope he feels the same.
That is the essence of living in a democracy. You tolerate those you disagree with and try to convince enough in your community that your vision is better than theirs.
Anyway, just some more fodder for the brain.

What reality?

Report of conflict in Syria
I watched the above news report by an Independent Television News reporter that was aired on NBC in the US with incredulity.
I was not shocked by the bombing. I was not shocked by the artillery shells going off. I was not shocked by the flames in the buildings. I was not shocked by the riflemen and grenadiers firing their weapons. I was not shocked by a six-year-old boy lying wounded in a hospital. None of that was any surprise to me. You know why? Because that is what war is all about.
It seems that Amnesty International didn’t get the meme from the International Committee of the Red Cross: What is going on in Syria is a war, a civil (well a very uncivil really) war.
The Amnesty complains that the bombs and artillery are “battlefield” weapons, as if the “battlefield” was some sort of prizefighting ring or jousting field for medieval knights. What alternate reality are these people living in? War is not a prizefight or a joust.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like seeing non-combatants get caught in middle of a battle, but that is going to happen, especially when the combatants decide to duke it out in cities.
War is not a place where you send in unarmed observers to keep a running tally on who does what to whom. That is a recipe for getting the observers killed. It amazes me how much the news gatherers of today seem to treat war as some kind of video game. Believe me, it isn’t and it never was. Still, we see these reports decrying the fact that the battles have any impact on “innocent” civilians.
Well, as we have seen around the world, unless you are under about the age of five, there are no “innocents” per se in a combat zone. You usually are for one side or the other. You just try to stay neutral in a combat zone and I will make a wager that neither side will trust or respect you. Both will think you are working for the other side, unless you are working for them.
Still, we have people in this world who put on the blinders and think that war is anything but the cruel, ugly, deadly, terrible thing that it is.
I am sorry people but war kills people, indiscriminately. It destroys things, indiscriminately. It maims things, indiscriminately. That is what bombs, and rockets, and artillery and mortar shells, and grenades, and mines, and bullets do. They are not discriminate. They don’t just hit the bad guys, or the bad places. Just ask the nine people wounded in New York City Aug. 24, 2012. The police did not intend for their bullets or the shrapnel from their ricochets to hit anybody but the killer that they were trying to put down.
I will pretty much guarantee that the pilots of the planes in that video or the gunners on the artillery or mortars that landed in the video or the guns being fired by the people in the video were not deliberately being aimed at non-combatants. Not on your life. Those gunners, bombers and shooters where just hoping that the rounds that they were sending down range were going to hit “the bad guys” and, you have to remember in war, the bad guys includes those who support and back the fighters.
Now, I suppose, in some alternate universe, the prizefight paradigm or the joust model exists and the spectators can line up in the stands and watch the battle without expecting any harm to come their way. However, that is not how it is in the real world; and in Syria, as well as many other places around the globe, we are living in a real world.
Whether it is diplomatic personnel in Mexico (even if it was two US Marines assigned to the embassy) or a bunch of people meeting with a terrorist leader in Pakistan, or a clash between tribal forces in Africa, that is the real world. Bullets fly, bombs drop and people are wounded or die. That is the reality of war.
It helps to remember that war is not glorious. War is not gallant flags waving.
War sometimes is necessary, unfortunately, and the only thing to do in a war is to apply enough force quickly and efficiently enough to get one side or the other to quit fighting because it is no longer cost effective, whether in human lives or wealth expended. To do anything else is, indeed, a war crime.
The human tragedy is that we cannot agree on what is good or bad, or who should be in power or who should not. All too often, because we are basically sore losers or the winners are not magnanimous, we end up with people taking up arms to make their cases. That really is all that wars are, political and economic discussions extended to a different sphere that uses violence, death and destruction to resolve the differences.
There apparently is no antiseptic alternative to war, unfortunately, although democratic societies where the people agree to compromise and abide by the majority rule, if it respects minority rights, come closest to it.
Regrettably, it seems that that willingness to compromise and share, to be magnanimous, is a quality that is sorely lacking in the modern world, despite what the people at Amnesty International and other people and organizations of like mindset want to believe.