27 June 2013

Very Important Information

This is the most important post to this blog ever.
Please follow the link below and either watch the podcast or read the transcript of the podcast.
This concerns the radiation that is STILL leaking from the damaged nuclear reactors that were damaged during the earthquake and tsunami back in March 2011.
YES, the four (4) nuclear power plants are still leaking huge amounts of radioactive materials into the environment. The US WILL be and has already been effected. Your health and the health of your children and the future generations WILL suffer due to this ongoing disaster.
 Please do follow this link, it is very, very important to all.


http://fairewinds.org/podcast/fighting-a-dragon-i-cannot-see

Thank you for your time. Again, this IS very, very important.
semper fi

21 February 2013

One cannot make this stuff up

Greetings good people.
Yes, another rant from the old guy (me). I'll try and not go on so long as I recently did. I admit the post of 15 February 2013 WAS probably over long. Well, I felt some things needed to be said and did not intend to go so long, but, well, I do that at times.
This actually came as real news to me, you see I do not watch Faux Noise, MSNBC, or even CNN at home. Once in a great while we may put CNN or its companion, "Headline News" on the tube to check some email/web article that is "breaking". More often, it will be the Weather channel as our weather in central Louisiana is very "changeable"; if you don't like our weather, just wait a few minutes, is a very common phrase around here.
Well, back to the "news to me". It comes via Glenn Greenwald now at the Guardian in the UK. He lets us who do NOT watch MSNBC know that old Rev. Al Sharpton had a "spirited debate" (Mr. Greenwalds' comment, not mine) about "dear leader", Gobomber (drone "king"?) and maybe Gobomber ought to have his place on Mount Rushmore or maybe "deserves" his very own special monument. No kidding. Mr. Greenwald provides links to this news item. Here is the link to his story on this;MSNBC
OK, now, ask yourself a question. Could you make this stuff up and have anybody think it was true? Would you? If so, why? Just for Lolz? OK, I'll but that, maybe. And yet, some wonder why so many refuse to even tune to any TV "news" station in the US of A. LOLMAO! There is NO news on the TV in old America. No, what 'Merikkka does get is "news". Oh sure, whenever there is some mass shooting of some school/shopping mall/work place in the US of A, there is coverage, but NOT when it comes to what the people really need to know. How about the truth about the housing market in America? ROFL! Just ask Mike Whitney how many "news" outlets are phoning him for his views on that one. Hey Mike, how many calls waiting do you get every hour? Yeah, I thought so.
My point there is that he should have some "real" news outlet, as in TV/radio station and/or newspaper asking him to at least re post what he does get posted to oh, Counterpunch or any web site that still posts his articles. I don't single Mike out just because we have had rather pleasant email exchanges going back years, but because I think he needs to be exposed to a wider audience. The SAME goes for John Francis Lee and his excellent web site robinlea. And yes, I do have links to those wen sites on the main page of my "redesigned" blog. I hope this design makes for easier reading for all.

I may as well keep with my "apple polishing" and again tell you that for some excellent fiction as well as good commentary, check out Bill the Butcher. Again, links are on the right side of this page. The links I give here are those I read daily and trust, mostly. I do not agree with all that I read on theses sites, but I do find them to be mostly honest and I think I need to read opinion(s) that I do not always agree with. Man, if all I did was go to sites/read authors that I agree with, I'd be bored to death long before lunch time.

The other story, or non-story if you will (business as usual?) was about Nancy Pelosi says it is A-OK by her if our drone "king" ever decides to drone a US citizen on American soil AND if the drone king "decides" he must keep it all secret, well, she is 100% "on board" with that as well. No kidding folks.
Well, my attempt to link failed. At the Antiwar web site (link at right), the entry is dated 19 Feb 2013 by John Glaser, title; Nancy Pelosi:Obama Can Execute Americans In Secret. And here we are, still thinking that the members of both houses of congress(yes, still in lower case) work for the people. Well, they Do, just the people they do work for have more money/wealth than most of us, yes dear reader, you and me, can even dream of. In short, madam Pelosi (with deep apologies to any "real" madams out there) work for the very rich and to hell with us common/working class and poor people. We can be droned any time, anywhere, no matter, no "judicial review" needed. Oh, and no warning that you may or may not be on some "kill list" either, hey, the drone king needs to keep that stuff top secret. National security ya know. You betcha'. Ain't old 'Merikkka just a grand place? Oh, hell yeah!

Well, that will end this rant. I did say I'd try not to go on and on, so. Stay safe people. Thank you for your time. Until the next rant, be nice to each other.
semper fi

16 February 2013

Well.............it HAD to happen..........

Greetings to all,
Well, the wonder "brains" who occupy the five sided puzzle palace, that refers to the Pentagon for any who are new to this old corner, have finally gone and done it. Way back, like during the time when W. Shrub occupied the White House, some Air Farce general (and it IS farce, not force) was all upset and had complained that his beloved drone "piolts" (they are really operators/gamers) were NOT being recognized with ribbons, badges, and/or medals for their "bravery" (any who have been here recently know that I consider remote control killing {yes this means death by drone} to be absolutley cowardice) and he felt his "pilots" should get some sort of medal. Well, they will get one now. Yes, dearly almost departed SecDef (secretary of defense{actually secretary of war}) a certain Mr. Leon Panetta, has decided that now, these drone jockies will be able to be awarded the newest US military medal. No joke people, even the Stars and Stripes newspaper/web site which was in my Marine days "the" military paper carried the news. Yes, now the drone jockies can be awarded the Distinguished Warfare Medal.

No, this is NOT a joke. As if this alone was not enough, the new medal will rank just above(!!!) the Bronze Star. Yes, apparently the days of bravery under hostile fire is now, what shalle we say, quaint? Or maybe just "old fashioned"? Any way one slices this, it does cheapen the old Bronze Star which used to be awarded for bravery under hostile fire. As in your (the person who is awarded the medal) actually being in grave, mortal danger of being actually, as in for real, killed. Even currently serving US military troops who see some merit in giving medals to the drone jocks, fail to understand why this new medal is ranked above the old one which was only given to those who faced, in person, real possible life ending activity.

OK, I maybe could see the gamers, um, I mean (do I?) the drone "pilots" being given some sort of medal. Yeah, sure, I mean this IS the US of A where "every kid is a winner" so why not let these people have a medal or three? The thing is, how in holy hell can they be given any sort of commendation for "bravery"?? Anybody got an answer for that one? Seriously, does anybody have even a damn clue as to how "piloting" a remote control aircraft from an air conditioned office in some secure base in, oh say, Nevada any way an act of bravery? If anybody has even the most remote idea, let me in on it. I honestly do not have even the smallest clue to this idiocy.

I suppose as the use of drones has cheapened human life even beyond what modern war has already done rates an award that cheapens real bravey. Hell, that may be the real reason for ranking this new medal to the status it seems to have. If the lives of all who are in the war zone are cheap, then the awards for killing them may as well be equally cheap, or maybe even cheaper yet.
On a slightly different note, same topic. Some had said the new medal might have the form of a gold plated X-box control pad.

Hey, maybe when old Ratzi stops being pope on the 28th of this month, he can become a drone "pilot" and even get his own medal for his "bravery".
Yes, I am "picking" on him and his RCC again. Why? Well, because I read one site that mentioned there are some 1.3 Billion members of that gang. That makes the pope a rather powerful person doesn't it? The leader of 1.3 Billion. Wow, that is like the top guy in China, the mainland, not Tiawan. It is like being THE top guy for Islam, which also has something over 1 Billion followers/members, however the Muslims are NOT totally united. Yes, they have two main sects or groups, Sunni and Shia. I don't think the RCC is in any way divided, at least not the way the Muslims are. Being the leader of such a large gang, I hold that the pope should be held to the highest of human standards. His non response to the child abuse by priests of his gang is criminal in my opinion. He ran the office of the vatican that used to run the Inquisition, yeah, very powerful job he had before becoming pope. That means he had to have known a great deal about the abuse scandal(s). Toss in the RCC run laundries in Ireland that abused the poor women who toiled in them and, well, you can see where this is going.
Any who, that is why I am "dumping" on poor old pope Bennie. In my opinion, he EARNED it all and more. And for the record, I quit going to any church back when I was in 7th grade due to my askling the "wrong sort" of questions. Dad knew if I was excommunicated, I would wear that as a badge of honor, so he told me I no longer needed to go to church. And, it was a protestant church. I was never a member in any way, of the RCC, nor would I ever become one ever. Of course I have no intent of ever joining any religion so that is basically a mute point anyway. I will no doubt, keep ragging on old Ratzi in the future, just maybe not too often, depending on how his retirement goes. Speculation on one web site I read every day is that he either 1) read the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, or 2) finally finished reading the bible cover to cover and asked himself just what the hell? My bet is on number 2 for now as I always had thought that Revalations was a very bad acid trip.
OK, I have upset more than enough apple carts for today.
Thank you all for your time.
semper fi

15 February 2013

What future?

Greetings to all.
Well, it just keeps on going and going, doesn't it? Yes, I mean the near dead US of A of course. Why do I say it is near dead? Just read on dear reader, read on and I'll explain as best I can.

We start with the "grilling" (cough, cough, um, er, uh, yeah, 'grilling', sure thing) OK, OFF.
Even before the hearings regards a certain Mr. Brennan to head up the CIA, the chairperson (is it OK {politically correct that is} to say chairwoman?) US Senator Ms. Feinstein told the media, as in "on the record", that she would NOT allow any person to make negative comments/statements against Mr. Brennan. Now, remember dear reader, that some years ago, this very SAME Mr. Brennan was disqualified for the same CIA top job. Yes, but of course, that was then and this is now. You really have to watch the D.C. follies, even if you do not do so very closely. Any way, she totally disallowed, before anything even started that might be negative. One report I did read said of this "grilling" that it; "proceedings resembled a well fed cat being questioned by a panel of skittish mice". That is a direct quote from a person, sorry I forget what site this was on originally, who watches the D.C. follies much closer than I do. My view, those mice were VERY timid indeed. Why, they were down right fearful in their collective "respect" for the man.
OK, OK, now maybe he does rate a certain amount of respect. Hell, I don't know him so who can say for sure? If we do grant him a bit of respect just for oh, say having lived to whatever age he has attained, OK. However, that only gets him so far, like, entry into the hearing room. It does NOT grant him any sort of immunity from being asked some serious questions. What sort of questions? Well, how about just what sort of legal opinion does grant our Piece Prizident the "authority" to kill anybody, at any time, and any where in the world? How are such extra-judicial killings in any way, shape, or form legal or, better yet, Constitutional? Or, does he think that our use of these drones to carry out these extra-judicial killings make more enemies than we kill? Or, even more of a "soft ball" type; does he think that "maybe" our use of the drones MAY make more enemies for the old US of A than we actually kill?
Oh, but you see, madam Feinstein has disallowed any and all such "negative" questions. No, you see such a "negative" thing would ONLY occur to oh, no doubt to a subversive sort of person. Yes, more of the undesirable sort like, oh, I don't know, some older sort who maybe is ex-military and oh, maybe even has actually BEEN in a real shooting war in the past. You know, the sort who, due to having actual real service in the military and in a hot war zone finds that he/she is very anti-war now days. Yeah, you know that "sort", um, you DO know at least OF that sort, and I can prove it. You, if you are still reading this, KNOW of that sort as one of "them" is the person who is writing this very blog. In fact, he is the ONLY person who has ever posted to this blog as he actually owns (OK, it is free, but it is still mine, so, ownership.......LOL) the blog. Yes, I keep it going at the "convenience" (or so it seems) of the "true" owner; Google. Any who, I am the sort who would have liked to have had the opportunity to ask or have asked by another, more well known person questions of that sort. If that makes me a subversive, well so be it and I will wear that label with pride, YES, the same or even more so, pride that I once had for having been a US Marine. And, truth be known, I was proud to have been a Marine. I will never deny that either, even though maybe I should have made other choices. Hey, I "could" have tried to do as old "dead eye" Dick Cheney did, he got 5 (yes FIVE) deferments as he "had other priorities" back when I enlisted. No, working class kids had no need to even think to apply for such. Oh well. Also, all that I have done has made me who I am today and while I am sure that given what I know today, I may (heavy emphasis on may) have made other choices. Still, had I made other choices, I would not be who/what I am now. The whole basis of this tangential line is just to let all know why I cannot say I am ashamed of my military service. I did what I did and live with the consequences of my choices and actions. I have made mistakes and as best as I recall, I have owned up to them. I wonder how many of the "skittish mice" can honestly say the same. I would never presume to ask Mr. Brennan if he can honestly say that, as that would no doubt, be perceived by Ms. Feinstein for sure, as very negative. So, I give Mr. Brennan a "pass", after all, if a US Senator can, I suppose I best also.
Hell NO! Damn and blast, as the Brits may have said. NO! Nobody who is looking to have the job of the guy in charge of the CIA should ever get a pass on anything. He should be held to a much higher standard than a teenager applying for a job at some burger joint. Or is THAT being subversive again? IF it is, then the US of A is totally, and I mean totally screwed, blued, and tattooed. Turn off the lights folks. Close the doors and walk away, the grand "experiment" that once held such promise, the US of A, is DONE. Finished, dead and we need to bury it, NOW, before it starts to stink up the whole place.
I really wonder some times, if anybody who has never been in the military, and even more, those who have been in a war, can understand just  how seriously difficult it is to say what I just did and not immediately check him/her self into the nearest mental institute. One does not become a Marine or be a member of ANY military in any country without having some feeling of real loyalty to that country. OK, those who are forced into a military, through the draft (USA) or otherwise conscripted are exempt, but anybody who ever enlisted HAD to have some positive feelings for that country. I sure as hell did. I still love America, the land, the country (geographic) and even most of the people. It is what passes for "our" leaders and government that give me serious doubts and make my life such a total joke. What loyalty can one maintain for what for all intents and purposes is now looking more and more each day like a criminal enterprise? What loyalty can I keep for politicians who seem to have zero (in some cases absolute ZERO) respect for the Constitution and in particular, the Bill of Rights? How can a person who has documented honorable service to the country still respect a president who now claims to have the authority (??) to kill anybody, any time, anywhere? Just WHERE the bloody goddamn hell is THAT in any part of the Constitution? I have a copy right here on my desk as I type away at this blog of mine. I have other copies in at least two larger books in case I misplace this small one that contains the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. It is a nice small, pocket size and I recommend to all citizens of the US of A that they get one or more for personal use. Oh, and when you get one, or any other copy of said Constitution, READ IT! And, after you have read it, read it again, just in case you missed something. Those are the main founding documents of OUR country and I really DO think it is our duty as citizens to read them at least once, once a month as needed, and NOT just once in a life time.
OK, there is your assignment, read the Constitution and if you want extra credit, the Declaration of Independence. No, I won't be giving a test, but our "leaders" sure as hell seem to be testing both of those documents every time, or damn near every time, they open their mouths to a microphone/TV camera. If we do not know what our own founding documents say to us, how can we even start to question our supposed leaders? Bets that if YOU asked them a question about what they are doing or saying they want to do, they will refer to the Constitution. So, you see why WE need to know what it says? So they cannot keep bullshitting us is why. We need to stop letting them give a throw away reply to our questions and we need to ask follow up questions or even to repeat our question when they do not answer us. So many, nearly every single one, of the "political reporters" (really just note takers, recorder operators) allow them to toss out some garbage reply to a question and move on, no follow up, no insisting on a REAL answer. This was not always so. Think back or read history, we used to have news reporters who actually demanded a real answer to the questions they asked. Not today, they treat politicians as if they were some sort of celebrity or "above" the rest of us. Hell, they treat them like the Pope.

Ah, yes, when was I going to get to that story? Well, now it seems. Yes, the Pope has said he will stop being the Pope on the 28th of this month. Why? Well, that is a question that will never get a truthful reply. Why do I say that? Because the Roman Catholic Church (hereafter referred to as the RCC) is a closed system. In short, the Pope answers to nobody. Well, OK, as I am not now, nor ever was a member of that church, he MAY answer to the College of Cardinals, but I cannot be certain of that. Once elected, yes the pope is elected by those same Cardinals, he is said to be infallible. Now, here it gets kind of "interesting" for the RCC. You see, it is something like 600 (yes six hundred!!) years since they had a pope quit. A question, on March 1, 2013, the day AFTER the current pope is no longer pope, is he STILL infallible? If so, how? If not, why not? Is infallibility only "temporary: at in effect ONLY while one IS pope? Does this mean that the last pope (yes JP2) was infallible even though in his last few years he was clearly unhealthy and I bet unfit? Curious minds (and those who are heathen/pagan {yes ME}) would like to know.
Seriously, just AS a curiosity, I would like to know if the current pope will still be infallible after he is no longer the pope. If he is determined by those who do or at least should know, to be so, that could lead to some serious stuff if he and the new pope disagree on some matter.
While for me personally, it matters not who the new pope is, it sure would be very nice if the next one would finally come to serious terms with the child abuse scandal that has dogged the RCC for so long. Of course that isn't going to happen, not in my life time. On a slightly different note, the next pope may be the last pope ever. According to one book, the prophecy of Saint Malachy, the next pope will be the last one. Of course the rest of us will have to endure the "true" so they say "end times".
OK, I admit, yes, I have been sarcastic about this subject. I do not belong to nor follow any religion at all. I do not believe in any god or gods either. If my unbelief has upset anybody, well, sorry, it was not my intent. I did not set out to offend, but, this blog has always been an outlet for me to voice my opinions. I do not say that what I post here is "the" truth, it IS my opinion and perhaps some bits of truth. I do try and provide links or sources to some things that I post here, but that is not a given for all time. Again, sorry, but I do not remember where I read everything I read nor do I always write down every comment or source for said comment. That is something that I may need to try and correct, but make no promises. I DO promise to continue to post my opinions and views on matters that concern me and that I think should be of concern to others, at least to those who care about this world and humanity and all life, as there is much, much more to this planet than humanity. In fact, I see creation or whatever one wishes to call such in the plants, flowers, and all the animals around me. IF I were to have a god, it would be cats. You may prefer dogs or some other animal/being, but for me, cats are the smartest, wisest, all knowing. The old Egyptians worshiped cats even. Of course some have said they raised cats just to kill and then make mummies of them. Not sure how accurate that is, but they did have a cat god/goddess.
OK, back off the tangent and onto the RCC again. That organization, it is such or so they try to be, seriously does need to actually DO some very deep soul searching about the abuse of children by some of their priests. Also, the current pope has much to answer for in this matter. It is claimed, with some accuracy, that he knew a great deal about this and has known so for years, decades even. What did he do about it? Well, the record shows he did next to nothing. In fact, he seems to have aided in covering it all up, glossing it over as it were. The RCC has allowed such pedophile clergy to be moved to a different parish and the new parish was NOT told of any accusations of abuse by the "new" priest. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. They (the RCC) have also moved higher ranking members, such as the cardinal from Boston (I think it was Boston) to a post at the Vatican. This is a man who either had direct knowledge of child abuse by members of his diocese or he may have been guilty of the abuse himself. Either way, he was given a post at the Vatican as a "reward" for his service. Can you say cover up?  I think so.
This very same RCC has come out against use of condoms in Africa where AIDS is near epidemic condition if not worse by now. This organization is against ALL forms of birth control and abortion for ANY reason, to the point of a woman who died recently in Ireland because her pregnancy was going very wrong and she was NOT allowed an abortion to save her life. This make no sense to me, but as I said, I am just an old heathen/pagan so I do not count for much in this matter. That may be so, but I still have an opinion. I do think abortion should be, in fact must be, a legal option for all women. I do not think it should ever be used as a form of birth control, but that is just my personal view. I do not think any man has a right, in any sense of the term, to say yea or nay to the choice a woman makes as to abortion. IF he IS the father of said unborn, then he maybe should be consulted/told of her choice, particularly if they are married at the time, just because he then has a right to know what she plans and why. If the health of the woman is a risk, then no woman should ever be denied the procedure. Again, my own opinion.
Another matter the RCC, and most EVERY other religion MUST come to terms with is homosexuality. The outright discrimination and abuse heaped onto them by every major religion must STOP. Not tomorrow, not next week, but NOW. Immediately. ALL human beings have the absolute right to live their lives. Whatever consenting adults do with/to each other in the privacy of their own living place is of NO matter to any religion or other "club", "organization", etc. Period, end of discussion. Oh, and one more note on this, people do NOT up and "decide" one day, on a whim as it were, to become homosexual. That is how they were born, get used to that as fact, not opinion. To date, all real research into homosexuality has shown that it is NOT a "life style 'choice'". It is how a person is born, that is to say, their genetic makeup is why they are homo or hetero sexual. So, if some fool religion wants to place "blame", go after the parents. And, if they persist with the god will punish the "gays", tell said  religion that that god supposedly made us in his/her/its image, right? Well, then said god made "gays" as said god would not make "junk", or would he/she/it make "junk" after all? In other words, take the abuse and toss it right back at the abusers. As the old saying goes, what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander, or something close to that.
All this leads to the following truth, or truth as I see things. Every religion, and most certainly ALL of the "big three" (those that trace{?} back to old Abe [Abraham]) need to get up to speed. We are now well into the 21st century. We can no longer be allowed nor allow myths of late iron age goat herders to influence our daily lives. We certainly must not allow such ancient myths to rule our nations and our relations between nations and peoples. If any "believers" in some god or other cannot/ will not see the god in every other human being that they "think" is in them, they are NOT fit for human company and need to be interred in a monastery or some hermitage until they are able to see that this god, if he/she/it exists, is in ALL life on this planet. YES, that includes, but is NOT limited to the animal kingdom and does include plants and ALL life on planet Earth. As Carl Sagan said, we are ALL star stuff. That alone, apart from being the truth, is an utterly amazing fact. It should, by itself, put in each any every one of us human beings to be so amazed by the fact that we are part of this wondrous, frightful, amazing, immense beyond belief universe, that we should never have cause for any child abuse, abuse of "the gays" or any other "minority", no more animal abuse, and certainly, never, ever, ever again, any excuse for another goddamn fucking war.
The late (why do we refer to the dead as "late", and how in hell can the dead ever be unlate, as in on time?) philosopher Alan Watts said in one of his books, no I do not remember which of his books, that we do things backwards. We should be able to say fuck without it being a "swear" word and war SHOULD be a "verboten" sort of word. Oh, but we are proud of our wars and ashamed that we actually do fuck. Fools! We should be very ashamed of our goddamn wars. Nobody "wins" any damn war, ever. Oh yes, one side quits/surrenders/whatever. Still, nobody really wins, except for those who reap obscene profits from the wars. NOW, now do you finally start to see why we all, we working class and poor folks in particular, must be ashamed of ALL the damn fool wars? Most particular, every goddamn fool war of choice, as has been the case for the US of A since 1945, and one CAN say that in 1860 and most assuredly in 1917 were BOTH wars of choice. Old (not so) "honest Abe" did NOT believe that the "Negro" and the "white race" could ever live together in the same country as equals, hell, he would have been more than happy for ALL black people to get sent back to Africa. He also had NO authority under the Constitution to have that war of his choice in 1860-65. At the time, a state was not bound forever to the union once it joined. Well, we can argue that until the end of time, but I still think, now days, that war did not need to be fought. I am 100% certain that had the US of A stayed OUT of WW1, there may not have been a WW2, as both sides were getting close to calling it a draw before "saint" Woodrow (he was re-elected on the slogan "He kept us OUT of war"!! honest, look it up) got us into that slaughterhouse of mass murder. The last surviving member of the British Army from WW1 died not so long ago. He had been a life long anti-war person since his time in the trenches of France/the Western Front. War IS mass murder. While Vietnam may not have been the absolute mass slaughter that WW1 had been, it WAS bloody and nasty enough on its own. The US military/CIA dropped as many, if not more(!!) bombs on Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos than they dropped on Japan and Germany during WW2. Now that is an amazing fact. And, guess what? In the end, the US still pulled OUT with the "last chopper" taking off from the roof of the embassy in Saigon/HoChiMihn City. Yeah, so what did the US of A "win" in that damn fool war of choice? Well, we got a "wall" with over 58,000 names of the US dead, that we know of! Wow, big damn deal. Holy shit folks, I mean, who cares? Who actually gives a flying shit? Or even a non-flying shit? A few of us old vets who were there and maybe our kids? So what?   How in hell was it "worth" it, as Ms. Madass Al(not so)bright has said about the vile sanctions against Iraq in the 1990's?  Can anybody tell me how all the dead were "worth it"? Can you? Really? Goddamn! I want to know. No shit! I want, hell no, I demand an answer. I was there, 1970-71 and I still do not know how it was worth the loss, the cost, which we have never even started to repay. As a song by Steppenwolf goes, ............"Now we are fighting a war over there, no matter who wins, you know we can't pay the cost............" That may not be 100% word-for-word, but you get the idea. How do we pay the costs of any war? Can we ever even try to start to? How do we explain to those who went to war, let alone those we invade and kill/maim/destroy mentally, emotionally, physically just WHY the war even happened?
So, I ask any of you, please, just WHY did we fight Vietnam? Korea? Any of the poor nations in Central America, South America, the African nations we have done "covert" wars in since at least the time we (by way of CIA/CIA paid assassins) killed a certain Mr. Lumumba(spelling)? Any of the three Southeast Asian nations, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos that we utterly bomber into nearly the real stone age? How about Indonesia? Or any of the other nations pre-Iraq/Afghanistan that we bomber/invaded/warred against? Remember Billy Bob Bubba Contesting and Ms. Al(not so)bright and the former (since it no longer exists)Yugoslavia? Yes, the Bosnia mess was part of Bubbas' as well, If so, WHY? Goddamn bloody fucking hell, WHY?? Can anybody tell me? If so, will you? Warning, do NOT give me the crap about how Iran must never be allowed to have nuclear bombs. Hell the zionist entity has somewhere around 300-400 of the damn things, so Iran having a few would still not balance them out, but it might make them stop and think before starting a war with an Iran that had a nuke or three. Hey, it supposedly kept the US of A and the old (as in former since it no longer exists) Soviet Union from nuking each other. Though old "Mr. 5 deferments" Cheney was working on some method to nuke Russia and/or China and not having them nuke us back. Fools! If nobody ever wins "regular" war, how in fucking goddamn holy (or un-holy if you prefer) hell can any jackass ever even fantasize about "winning" a nuclear war?  Nucking futs! That is what that is.............
So, yes, I am quite angry of late. One could actually even say that I am highly pissed off. Well, true, but I remember an old saying from my Marine days; better to be pissed off than to be pissed on. Yeah, like the latest "state of the union" address. (I did not use caps on purpose) There was "dear leader" our very own Pice Prizident, pissing on our feet and telling us right to our faces that it was raining. Well, unlike many of the supposed "leftists" or the "progressives", I refuse to buy his absolute bullshit. I refuse to see death by drone and call it "constitutional", I refuse to see war and call it peace. I refuse to see our country deep into a bad recession (if not an all out depression) and say that the unemployment numbers "look good". I refuse to see the "too big to jail" banksters still getting obscene bonuses and call it good for the economy. I refuse to see whole neighborhoods of unsold, unoccupied houses and say the market is solid/good. I refuse to see a US Senator who is about to chair a group to question a person for the job of CIA director but refuses, before the hearing even starts, to allow any negative questions/comments and call that good for democracy and the country. I refuse to see our military use remote control killing and tell me how very "brave" the "pilots" of drone aircraft are. I call that cowardice. Feel free to disagree, but you will never make me see that as any sort of bravery, ever.
If all the above makes me a subversive, then I will wear that label as a badge of the highest honor. If it makes me un-American, well, that is your opinion and you are entitled to it. I do not ask any to follow me. I am not a leader and never wanted to be one. A real leader takes responsibility for those who follow and I have enough trouble keeping myself responsible for what I do. If you do follow, you do so 100% at your own risk. You do not have to believe anything I say, ever. As stated above, everything I post here is my opinion. Yes, at times I provide a link or a title of a movie, book, or article, sometimes a record/cd even, a song title (those I remember). This blog is and has been my opinion. Things I like, though more often than not, things I dislike, intensly at times, as this post shows, very intensly.
It is not my intent to have you believe what I post, if you do, you may wish to have your own sanity checked as a precaution, you know, just inb case..........OK, that was sort of but also, maybe a kind warning/word to the wise? Your choice. That IS what matters most.........YOUR choice. You decide what to accept, what to believe. I give MY own opinion, what I think, what decisions I have made or may make, intend to make. You have to make your own. I present mine and give my opinion, maybe it will help your choice, maybe not. I cannot ever know. I do not intend to harm any of you who give your time to read my posts. Why would I wish to harm you? I have never met any of you in person. I know some of you through our comments here at the old corner or maybe through private emails. Also, if I harm any of you, you would no doubt never stop by here again, and why would I run any of you off? Now if you go out of your way to offend me, well, we'd have to see then. Of course, it does take quite a good bit of work to offend me. Remember, I enlisted in the Marines in April of 1968, how damn stupid could I have been? Huh? OK? OK.

For some reason, I do not have children. That is a some what longish story and highly personal. My second wife and I did have a daughter but she was premature and only lived six weeks. My wife died 16 years later from brain cancer. That is about all of that I ever intend to share on the corner, period. This blog is not about me, it is my views and opinions. The above, or a great deal of it in this post is personal back ground that may help to explain, maybe maybe not, why/how I hold some of the views/opinions that I express here. I think I have laid out, in some detail (all the detail most ever get on how "my" war went 70-710) why I am anti-war.
The mention of no children is for this.............I care, very, very much about the little ones who were born into this mess of a world since you started reading this extra length ramble. Why do I care? I have no kids, therefore no grandkids who will have to try and sort out the shit we are leaving them. I care deeply because my Dad and my grandparents (all four of them) taught me to care about others. I care because I have seen what happens to the little ones when nobody does care about them. I care about all life on this planet at least. Other planets, where no doubt there IS life, well, they may have another old charlie who cares about them, I have this planet to care about. I care because it is the human thing to do and requires NO religion at all. The "do unto others" is way older than either of the "big three" mid-East desert religions. In fact, just about everything in their religions was taken from much older stories/cultures. Much of all of their "sacred" texts were written long after the events described in them. My opinion;Revelations is  a very bad acid trip.
My wife (yes number three) has two beautiful great-grand daughters. The oldest recently had her third birthday. I do not call them beautiful just because they are Anns' blood family members, ALL the young children on this planet are very beautiful and every single one of  them deserves to be allowed to live their own lives on their  terms, as long as they do no harm to others. They should get the best education possible. They should never have to go to bed hungry, they should never be made homeless. They should be allowed to live a peaceful life and if they wish, get married and raise a family, their choice. They should be able to obtain employment that pays a decent wage not making weapons. They should not have to live in fear (most of which has been manufactured by people who have too much power) for their lives and the lives of their families. They should have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. IF they wish to have geneticly modofied foods, that food should be labeled as such. Unlike how things are in the US of A today, they should be allowed to make an informed choice about GMO foods. The medicines they may need should be free of contamination and other harmful chemicals. (One can not watch TV in the US of A formore than 15 minutes without a commercial by some law firm with a class action type suit against some medicine or medical device) Women should be able to get safe, legal abortion when needed and not endure threats from those who claim to "know better what god wants" or possible physical violence. Those who were born since you started to read this long winded rant, if they are homosexual, should be allowed to live their lives to the fullest, as long as they harm nobody. They should never be threatened nor made to feel less than human  just because they are not attracted to the opposite sex.
Do I want them to live in some unobtainable uotopia?  No, I don't think that is what I ask/hope for these newest of our fellow human beings. I just want them to live in a world that is kind, just, safe, and not so war like/war loving (US of A I am pointing at you). I honestly DO think that what I ask/hope for them IS doable. It could happen, but only IF (a very, very huge if I know) we, we who are living now, start to try to make it that way. Just imagine, as John Lennon asked us to,imagine IF we all, all of us who really do care about the newest human beings who have been born since you started to read this screed,imagine if we ALL shouted to the world ENOUGH!!!!!!!! Enough of the damn fool wars. Enough of the drones, enough of the killing, enough of the depravity, enough of the unequality, enough of the goddamn hate, enough of the hate mongers and war mongers.We could actually start to  remake this old world. Oh it will not be easy, we will every one of us get damn tired and want to give up long before any real changes are even talked about seriously, but hang on a second, IF we all who care, really care, stood up and said enough, why there is NO limit to what would be possible. WE have the numbers. Seriously, there are MORE, many many more of us who are working class and poor than there are rich. Hell, they count on us being the vast majority. Hey, if all were rich, there'd be no poor, so who would do the work? And don't tell me robots...........LOL.The rich must be a minority, why else be rich? What did you say? If all were rich, the poor would rule? Don't be absurd, never happen.
The thing I ask, just think for a while, not now, you can do it any time, later on is OK, but not too late, if you put it off too long, it will be of no use. Yes, it can be too late. OK, just, when you have a spare moment, just imagine what it could be like if all of us who really care about this place were to stand and say ENOUGH. And then imagine if after that, we all of us started to remake this old world into what I asked/hope for above for the newest little ones who have only had mere minutes in this world. Just imagine, if you can, for a few seconds. Can you? Will you? Not for me, no, not even for yourself, though it is A-OK if you do, but for those who just came into this life of we all share. Imagine, unless we do, we're just stuck with what we have.
semper fi

01 February 2013

Drones and torture...........again and again and.........

Greetings to all.
Yes another day, another rant.
No doubt all have heard of if not actually seen the movie "Zero dark thirty".  According to the reviews I have read, this movie apparently glorifies torture. No kidding, a Hollywood production that seems to be made for the likes of "Darth" Cheney. Yes, no doubt "dead eye" Dick may actually enjoy a movie where torture "does" help catch and kill the "bad guy".
Well, for my part, I have no intention of ever watching such a piece of garbage. Torture IS illegal in every civilized country. It has been seen as a crime for centuries. When US Army troops gave the "water cure" to captured Filipino civilians/insurgents in the last year(s) of the 1800's and early year(s) of the 1900's, it WAS seen as a crime. Torture seems to have never been of any real use in getting to any truth, ever. Torture only "works" in Hollywood movies or TV shows, the program "24" comes to mind here. Again, a TV program I never saw and have no desire to ever see.
Why my resolve to never watch these shows among others? Because I have seen war up close and all too personal. I do NOT approve of torture in any case. I think torture in all its forms is a crime and should be punished. Yes, those who do the torture must be held to account for their actions. They have committed a crime or crimes and need to be made to suffer the consequences of their actions.And, NO, they cannot, in fact MUST not be allowed to use the "Ollie North" escape plan. Remember back in the days when "Iran-Contra" hearings were on the TV, old Ollie tried to escape punishment (he resigned his commission is all he "suffered") he told the Congressional hearings that he was just "following orders". Well, that should have been disallowed as the victors of WW2 declared such an excuse invalid during the Nuremberg tribunals. IF, and I admit it is a HUGE if, these people who are and have done torture are ever brought to trial, they must NOT be allowed this excuse, for any. IF the US of A has any claim to being even remotely civilized, we cannot allow the "following orders" excuse, ever.

On a related subject, drones have made a come-back news wise of late. Probably due to Gobomber naming a certain Mr. Brennan as his choice as the CIA head honcho. Ah yes, the man who has aided Gobomber with the infamous "kill list". Well, no doubt Mr. Brennan has never met a drone strike he did not approve of. My guess is this may be so only because he has never been the target of such an attack.
Even more of a controversy comes with what are being called a "double tap" drone strikes. This is when after the initial drone strike, the drone or perhaps another drone waits for the rescuers come to find the dead and wounded and launch another missile hit. This is another illegal/unlawful act. International law and even the Laws of armed conflict state that such an attack IS unlawful.
I will again state that I am 100% certain that killing by drone is an act of cowardice in the extreme. The lingering around until other people come to rescue the wounded and retrieve the dead is doubly such a cowardly act.
The US of A has done such things and continues to do them. Now, does anybody who still has any small portion of humanity still wonder why so many people around the world despise if not hate the US of A? Imagine, for a moment, that your family home was hit by a drone strike. Now imagine how you and your neighbors rush to the remains of said house to see if any of your family are still alive and to retrieve the bodies of the dead, only to be hit by a "double tap" hit. IF you survive somehow, or this happened to a relative of yours, how "nice and warm" would your feelings be to the country that did such a thing? I'll bet the farm that you would NOT have any "warm fuzzy" feelings for that country at all, ever.
As I have said here before, in the middle East and countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan (just to name two) have very close family ties.  In some cultures, such as the two mentioned above, kill my second cousin, twice removed and now I am your enemy. Yes, wars are very nasty, brutish things, as I said many times, war is the most pornographic thing we humans have ever invented. The use of remote controlled killing is even worse and in my opinion, very cowardly. There is NO glory in war, but the combatants can be honorable, remote killing is NOT.
In my opinion, remote killing shows no respect for the person(s) targeted. even in war, one does begin to respect the enemy, even while he/she may be viewed as less than human, as the Japanese were portrayed as during WW2. On a personal note, I soon learned to respect the VC while I was in Vietnam. Yes, they were the "enemy" and we did not have many kind words for them, but many of us  DID respect them. There is no respect (in my view there ca be NO) for those we kill by remote control.
Even the despised Robert McNamara eventually admitted that had the US off A lost the war, our leaders could have been tried for war crimes. I wonder if any of the remote control killers ever have any thoughts about this. Or, do they see themselves as somehow heroic?
semper fi

23 January 2013

Greetings good people.
Yes, I am back, well sort of, almost. I still have not been able to get my old computer repaired, and am still using a borrowed lap top. Fortunately, we acquired another computer since mine went down and I have full access to this computer, so, time for another rant.

Some of this will be going over old news. The most recent mass killing in the USA tops this post.
YES, the killings of those innocent children and the adults at the school in Connecticut was tragic. It is very shameful and should not have happened and we all would like that nothing like it ever again happens here in the USA.
At the same time, one has to stop and ask a serious question. What about all the innocent children who are killed on a daily basis due to the "war OF terror" being run by the White House, the five-sided-puzzle-palace, and the CIA? As an excellent article posted to the Counterpunch web site asked in its title;Do the Arabs cry for their children also? Of course they DO. They are human beings and to all of us humans, except the small percentage who have serious mental/emotional problems, all children are very precious. Any sane, rational human being with even the smallest amount of compassion for his/her fellow humans is saddened by the death of any child. However, according to the USA mass media (aka MSM), apparently it is only the children here in the USA who actually count as news worthy when they are killed by some crazed gunman. Can you say hypocrisy? YES, we can!
Enough! Enough of the USA as "holier than thou". That is old garbage and is totally bullshit. We, as a nation are not in any way any "better" than any other nation. We have our good points and bad points. We have good citizens and bad ones. No nation has a "lock" on human feelings of any sort. It is way past time for those of us who live in the USA to get over this total BS of American "exceptionalism". The USA is NOT the "indispensable" nation, no way, no how.
Of course if one subscribes to the same tired old garbage that was spewed by a former US Secretary of State; one Ms. Albright, one may "think"(??) that the deaths of innocent children in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Mali, etc are worth it. If so, please deposit your resignation from the human race at the door as you exit.
This brings me to the newest/latest country to get introduced to the war OF terror; Mali. Of course when mentioning Mali, one seems to need to include Algeria as the newest NATO/Africom war includes Algeria along with Mali as recent events have shown.
And here the world thought that France had given up on the "Napolean complex" of the departed Sarko. Well, Mr. Hollande has shown us all that he also knows how to "get things done" militarily at least. Poor Mali, and also, poor Algeria. Mali as the "center" of this newest imperial war site. Algeria, for having given permission to French aircraft to overfly Algerian air space to bomb "rebel" targets in Mali.
Of course the Anglo-French-American war is now focused on Mali because of the natural resources in that nation. Hey, China was looking to make a deal there no doubt. China is or has been, making many deals throughout the African continent. I believe the term used for such is "soft power". Financial deals ARE much softer than military ones, true enough. Of course the US/NATO/EU "must" stop China at all cost. After all, how else are "we" to even try to stay even with China and its economy? And don't forget that the USA is quite beholden to China whcih owns a substantial amount of US Treasury notes. I believe it is something on the order of one Trillion dollars worth. If that is an incorrect figure, let me know.
See, if "we" can get to the resources of Arfica before China does, why "we" might be in charge and could even call the tune as to the price for said resources. See how this all plays out, or so they hope, for the "too big to jail" banksters? Yep, never count Wall Street out of potential porfits. No sir, by the gods, they will fight tooth and claw for the merest scraps of obscene profits to the very last drop of our blood. What? Did you think they might fight their own battles? LOL, now, if you did, you need education, FAST. And in a hurry. No my friends, the banksters NEVER do the actual fighting, that is why they have us working class and poor folks around. Geez, ain't we so very "fortunate"? Yeah, sure we are.
In my opinion, it seems that the US of A cannot make enough enemies fast enough. Just look at the countries where we have been quite "successful" at making ever more new enemies; Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Libya, Palestine (long term),Iran(ongoing since 1979), and now Mali, and most likely Algeria. The list keeps getting longer by the day it seems. And yet, "we" claim to be a "peace loving" nation. Why, we even claim that the US of A is a nation of laws and that we have "justice for all".  You know, if this wasn't so damn laughably sad, it might almost be funny in an ironic sort of way.
In my humble opinion, this is what we get when we go into countries where we do NOT have the faintest beginning of an understanding of the culture. My wifes' family is a very close one, they really do care about each other even to the level of cousins and children of cousins. No big deal one might say, most every family was like that at some time and many still are, the rub is; in places like Afghanistan, her family could be seen as less than normal. In some cultures, such as Afghanistan seems to be, they carry familia ties even further "down the line" as it were. Kill my third cousin, twice removed, and I, as an Afghan, may decide that you are now MY enemy on a very personal level. Yeah, one could say that they take family very seriously in other cultures. "We" get in big time trouble by going to such countries and NOT having any sort of understanding of their culture. Hey, most Americans may not get terribly upset if a third cousin, twice removed dies, hell, we may never have known that person. Not so in some cultures, even if they were not very close, they are blood kin and that is all that matters to them.  I am NOT saying or trying to imply that such a culture is any "better" than the culture of America, just that we need to have some idea of the culture of the country where we try to impose our vaklues. Our values may be totally at odds with their culture. How many of us who are not Muslims would like to have Sharia law imposed on us by foreign troops? I'd venture to say, none of us would like that one damn bit, and rightly so. Why then, do "we" expect the Afghans to "eat up" and love our values? This is a very complicated deal and I cannot do even the most minimal justice to it no matter how long I rant about it. All I can do is to state the most obvious, that "we" as a nation, as a people, do NOT have much of an understanding of the cultures of foreign countries. We all should at least be minimally interested in them I think. Certainly our troops who are sent to such places ought to have at least a crash course in the proper etiquette/ethics of said nation before they depart for same. Or, am I the one who is totally out of line here? Quite possibly I AM off base with my suggestion, I don't know, but I DO think some basic understanding of the culture of the country the troops are sent to should be a given. Or, maybe "we" do not seriously want to win the "hearts and minds" in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, etc. After all, if "we" keep creating more and more enemies, then this war OF terror can just keep on going and going, and going, and going...........just like the "Energizer Bunny"(TM). Yeah, maybe that explains it. Just my guess. Any thoughts?
semper fi