Archive for January, 2008

Should a blogger do so every day?  If I can’t manage to  get some passion up for the topic…any topic, should I put something here just to fill space and a date on the calendar?

I have a cold and some kind of intestinal crud just now and I just can’t seem to get a lot of enthusiasm for anything going.  The news is not sparking intelligent or even semi-amusing thoughts; just a lot of inarticulate howling with intermittent cursing thrown into the pot.

The SOTU address made me wonder why anyone moved, clapped, stood up….and the guy sleeping through it was the only honest one there.  So…blah, blah, dark night of the soul with kleenex box, Vicks vaporub and German philosophy at my side.  The only useful thing I did today was go to the Honey House to make some skin balm for some friends in Afghanistan—they say the water is chewing them up!

So far as everything else goes?  Humbug!  Nap time!

An odd thing came to me last night as I talked to a despairing veteran of the first Gulf War. We two are at political odds, I am one of those ‘damned liberals’ and she is conservative. She is hurt by my rants here and at the forum because she says it means I am against HER…as a veteran, as someone that was in a war in the Mideast.

So, here (as elsewhere) let me clarify. I AM a veteran and my eldest son is a veteran of the same Gulf War period she is, as well as having served during this war. I am NOT against the veterans who fought either war; THEY are the reason I am so adamantly opposed to this war. I feel their blood and lives are being drained away for lies and oil. I get pissed at many GOP politicians because they foist this false dichotomy thinking on vets who are too busy living (and sometimes dying) to muddle through political sensibilities. They make statements that liberals like me are anti-war and therefore anti-vet. It simply isn’t true.

Between my family and my husband’s family, we have had someone in uniform in every American war since before the Revolution. How could I possibly be anti-vet? It is pro-military to insist their lives not be wasted on the wrong wars for the wrong reasons. I do not hold the vets responsible for things that have gone so wrong in the war, for the most part, their orders and what they can and cannot do is guided from above, particularly in this war.

The government has lowered American standards in ways that American troops will pay for at war for generations to come. It makes me want to pound my head on a wall when I think of how it will be for American prisoners because of actions insisted upon by our government in this war. And I cry for the soldiers who may have left the military, and in some cases, left life because they could not bear that change in American behavior. I want to ask those forked-tongue politicians since when is it unpatriotic to indulge in dissent. Government of, by, and for the people, remember? All the people, not just the ones who agree with whichever party has control of Congress at a given juncture in time, that is how it is supposed to work. But at the end of our discussion, when I validated both my fury and despair at the Washington D.C. decision makers AND my worry over and affection for her, the snow tumbled out of the sky and winter closed in for the night.

January usually brings at least one snow, so just getting it in under the line, this morning was the sound-dampened white-flocked morning we had been waiting for all month. The photo is the central stone, with its 4900 beads numbering the U.S. and Coalition troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. I keep the beads up to the nearest full ‘century’ of men and women.

Yes, the count of women service members killed stands at 100. It got me thinking as I looked thru a portrait gallery of their faces. I read the listed reasons of death. More than 15% were listed as the result of “non-hostile incidents”…which means the enemy didn’t kill them. Nor did illness or vehicular accidents; those are listed differently. Three were described as “weapons discharge” and some of those had the additional notation “suicide.”

Those should have made more noise, don’t you think? One, a talented young woman skilled at languages, an Arabic linguist, with a psychology degree and trained at Ft. Huachuca to be an interrogator. They must have neglected the newer “enhanced” techniques. Less than a week on the job she objected to the techniques used, and soon after that left a note and shot herself to death.
Well, is it horrible or sadly inspiring to think that at least one young American couldn’t stand seeing her country stoop to such methods? Rest in peace, Alyssa Peterson.
(http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1102-05.htm)

Melissa Valles, from a tiny border town in Texas, was the second female fatality in Iraq. She was one of the “non-hostile weapons discharge” listings. She died of a gunshot wound to the stomach.
I was in the Army. I used an M-16. If that was the weapon that killed her, I cannot imagine how it happened. Neither can her mother, and the Army sends updates and says it is investigating; but it has been years now. Where is the answer to how a young woman “accidentally” shot herself in the stomach? (http://www.militarycity.com/valor/256785.html) Rest in peace, Melissa; those who survive you have no peace, wondering how you died so young and far from home.

And the British Army lost a female soldier, Denise Rose, to suicide as well. Her family simply asked to be left to grieve in peace. She was a member of the Royal Military Police in the Special Investigation Branch. One wonders what investigation pushed her past the point of wanting to survive to go home. Rest in peace, Denise Rose. You are missed, more than words can tell, I am sure. (http://www.operations.mod.uk/telic/rose.htm)

One of the worst cases was young Lavena Johnson, nearly at the end of her tour at war and making plans with her family for her homecoming. She died of a ‘non-hostile weapons discharge’ which the Army labeled suicide. So, how, pray tell me, did a right handed young woman shoot herself in the left side of her head with an M-16 rifle and without leaving gunshot residue upon her hands? And how did she beat the hell out of herself FIRST? Did she also try to set her body afire to cover up her own “suicide”….this one is infamous, folks. It deserves the truth; that she was likely assaulted and killed to silence her. Rest in peace, Lavena. And may your killer(s) and those who covered their tracks get what they deserve. Death is tragic, glossed over murder labeled suicide….well, tragic doesn’t begin to describe it. (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/pfc_lavena_johnson/ )

Debra Banaszak’s mother doesn’t understand why her daughter would kill herself when she had a teenaged son to return home to and was happy serving her country. She concludes that if what the Army tells her is true, it was something in the war that caused it. She is without her child, her grandson is without his mother. And the answers are too few. Rest in peace, Debra; I am sorry you could not see your son graduate college, and begin manhood before your eyes.

Tina Priest was born prematurely and weighed barely a pound, but she beat the odds and survived to thrive. Well, until after the Army discounted and botched investigating her claim of having been raped in Iraq, that is. The Army said there was “insufficient evidence” to continue the investigation. Gee, sounds like Army code for “Boys will be boys, honey…and you know the WACS were called the “Whore Corps” …what else are you here for?” The Army said she was “romanticaly involved” with the man she accused of rape. Did she commit the ultimate female sin and say “No.” when he wanted to hear yes? She is said to have shot herself in the chest. Charges against her accused rapist were dropped a few days later. Her parents gave the Army a patriotic young woman and a casket is what they got back. Rest in peace, Tina. I hope the man who raped you dies a horrid and lonely death—as you did. (http://www.ssristories.com/show.php?item=1563)

Amy Duerksen was the beautiful 19 year old daughter of an Army chaplain. She died in Iraq of a gunshot wound to the chest, a non-hostile gunshot. I found no explanation and her parents did not press the Army for answers. Perhaps that would have hurt more than losing Amy? How does that happen, how does a lovely, vibrant young 19 year old girl get shot in the chest? Is the Army hiding “friendly fire” deaths under the title ‘accident’? Rest in peace, Amy. I’m sorry the idiots of the Westboro Baptist Church marred your funeral, and I am grateful that the Patriot Guard Motorcycle riders were there for you.

And Hannah Gunterman, of California, but serving with a unit from my neighboring Ft. Lewis, Wa. died of a non-hostile cause. An un-named cause that is “under investigation.” Not a vehicular accident, not an illness—no those are listed eagerly enough. Why did you die, Hannah? Does Governor Swartzenegger’s statement about your gallant service to you country comfort those doing without you now? Rest in peace, Hannah. I hope you enjoyed Washington State and its beauties before you went off to the desert to die.

Denise Lannaman died in Kuwait, where her mission was supporting the war in Iraq. And Jane Lanham died in Bahrain, likewise supporting the war. Lannaman’s death is (as are so many) “under investigation”, while Lanham’s has been called “natural causes.” But unlike other natural causes that are named: heart attack, cancer, blood vessel clogs, aneurysm—I find no named cause.
Yes, I am paranoid. I want to know what took these skilled women out of life, out of action, out of the story of this war. Rest in peace, Denise and Jane; I never met you and I miss you anyway. I hope it all was something “natural” and not the opposite. The stories of women in this war make me nervous and untrusting.

Major Gloria Davis was a career Army officer with 18 years in service. She was a mother and grandmother who died of a non-hostile gunshot wound. Some sources list it as being decided as suicide. This after she recorded herself reading Sesame Street for her grandchild? She was no youngster shocked at being far from home, she was a professional and gave no signs of distress.
Yes, yes, the Army is “investigating.” But you see, they say she shot herself after being caught taking bribes on her job as a contracting officer in Kuwait. The Army worked to freeze her assets. Gee, they should be so quick to nail Blackwater. Rest in peace, Gloria—since you aren’t here to defend yourself, I guess nobody else can. (http://blueherald.com/2007/08/remember-gloria-davis/ )

Jennifer Valdivia, another death from non-hostile causes, was listed in the Bahrain newspapers as a suicide. But her death is under investigation and one wonders….will these investigations ever answer all the questions? Rest in peace, Jennifer. Your shipmates must be grieving.

Kamisha Block is another “non-hostile” death that the Army is “investigating.” Is that a new word for stalling, obscuring, or obfuscating? Her parents say it was friendly fire that killed their pretty daughter and they just “want to know the truth about it.” Rest in peace, Kamisha, the MPs surely miss your steady presence.
(http://www.militarycity.com/valor/2984017.html)

Roselle Hoffmaster was a doctor, likewise killed in a non-hostile incident. I know she will be direly missed. Like Jeannett Dunn , Jennifer Valdivia, and Christine Ndururi —another victim of a death at hands not Iraqi. But that doesn’t mean those deaths were non-violent, or innocent, or accidental. About 20% of all fatalities are from what is termed non-hostile causes. Some of those are illness and vehicle related deaths, of course. But with the women, entirely to many were in suspicious circumstances with little in the way of answers. Christine Ndururi’s mother spoke to her the day before her death, said she was fine and not sick—but the military says she died of “illness.”

Some were more than suspicious: Genesia Gresham and her friend Anamarie Sannicolas Camacho were shot to death by a fellow servicemember at their naval base in Bahrain. He shot himself as well, but he did not die. And one of the officers of the base thinks the best solution is for the fellow sailors of the dead women to “get over their anger”?? Gee, I never had the privilege of meeting the victims, or their grieving families, and I have a burning desire to punch some officer who thinks ‘getting over the anger’ is the cure. Vice Admiral Cosgriff? You need to get over your stupidity. Rest in peace, Anamarie and Genesia; at least your families can’t be told it was an accident.

Knowing the worst is perhaps an odd kind of solace, but questions other families can’t get answered must tear at hearts and minds for a long time. I know, if I looked, I’d find even more among the men—deaths that make you shake your head in frustration. There are many more men who have died. Not every family has the luck of the Tillman family in forcing the military to confess the truth. So, I stick to the women, and wonder ever more about stories of rape and harassment; about women afraid to go to the latrines at night. Every feminine name I write, that has “non-hostile incident ” for the cause of death makes me reflect upon those stories. I try not to be the fire-breathing and utterly intemperate feminist I was in my own Army days; I try to look at both men and women as members of the same species: human. But sometimes, like tonight, it seems women face some extra risks at war. And not from the expected enemy. It is insult to fatal injury that the military seems to hide the sad truth and not root out the causes.

So, the latest rumble on the American economy is that Bush wants “every American who gets a paycheck” to get about $300.  Wooooohooo, hold me back!

Really, that is the saving grace?  The “Hail Mary” of American economic life is $300?  Not to be dismissive, ’cause, my goodness, that once filled the cupboards here with a month’s groceries.  Not now, tho’ we have fewer mouths; cause prices are UP, UP, UP.  But still, that is the best they can imagine?  Give everyone a handful of $20 bills and hope they go shopping?  Hmm…and then put more money BACK into the hands of the corporate rogues that George has Sunday tea with?  The corporate guys who have trashed the economy by exporting jobs to make more money for themselves?  The corporate weenies who have crushed unions, and answer to stockholders instead of seeing that their employees have good jobs or health care?  Those guys?  That is where we are supposed to see that measly three hundred bucks go?

I’ve got a lot of nothing for that.  They don’t want you to save it, or pay a bill, ladies and gents.  They want you to go SHOPPING.  Because their little “we fucked you all over so much that we don’t have any fresh ‘fuckees’ left” world is trembling.

Not doing it.  I have plenty of bills to pay, but here are some other ideas that entered my mind as I tossed and turned last night.

How ’bout some real economic stimuli—like giving the money to the Presidential candidate of your non-GOP choice?  Could you imagine the shit storm if even 30% of Americans gave the money to Edwards or Clinton?  A thing of beauty to contemplate—the horror of it on Bush and his buddies; like a bad dream at mid-day.

Or we could try mending lives broken on the wheel of American life.  What about charity?  Like Habitat for Humanity or Fisher House.  Everyone knows the first builds houses in America and elsewhere  for those folks the government cares less about.  And Fisher House spends 97 cents of every dollar helping vets of the war and their families through the trauma and difficulty of long hospitalizations, and they have scholarships for the children, too.

Or, since America is becoming so hated abroad, perhaps that $300 could buy back a bit of love?  There is the Fistula Foundation that pays for life-changing surgery for African women suffering the result of sexual trauma or too many births and the resultant damage.  These women are abandoned by husbands, and barely leave their homes because of shame, pain, and fear.  Or you could almost buy a water buffalo through Heifer International and give an entire village the power to plow, irrigate, and take charge of THEIR economic lives.   Doctors Without Borders could do a lot of things with a mere $300, too.

So, yes, if the cupboard is bare when the check gets there, fill it.  But please, please, please?   Don’t go buy yourself a toy while Rome burns, ok?  Don’t be the frivolous ‘bought off with shopping circus’ plebeians your  “masters” in Washington D. C. think you are, alright?  Save the money or spend it in a way that betters yourself AND your world.  If it sends a message back to the asshats in D.C. about what you think of their management technique, so much the better.

It is a pretty common, if rather unfunny, joke that while serving in the military, one gives up many of the very freedoms one has sworn to protect for others.  And even bitchy old broads like me can see the point of some of it; sure you may disagree with what your commander has in orders, but hey, dude…it IS your job.  And not campaigning for your favorite politician while IN uniform, well, yeah—cause that reeks of demagoguery of a sort, doesn’t it?  (Never mind a couple generals have done this…and in a church??)

But to be told how to worship?  What, you can only be a Christian and preferably of the Evangelical sort at that?   I really don’t see how that spreads freedom and democracy of any sort that deserves the name, do you?  I guess significant pressure is brought to bear on military members who are NOT outwardly Christian.  Complaints are being gathered, the the one doing the gathering gets death-threats including sentences like “Those Jews who died in the Holocaust are burning in hell now….and so should you.”

Wow.  This isn’t my daddy’s military anymore.  It isn’t even MY military any more.  So, the men and women whose names I keep, for whom I walk the Labyrinth to honor, are not free to openly be anything except Christian crusaders?

There will be a new graphic soon, folks,  so you can support the Military Religious Freedom foundation, whose founder, Michael Weinstein, receives death threats from these so-called “Christians”.  For shame, to so use Christ’s name and yet call most Muslims names like “jihadists” in the same breath.

The link to read one story about this, and to hold you till the graphic is up:  http://wildhunt.org/blog.html (the title about “Christian Military..” is the one you want.

Gee, where shall one move to?  Maybe I should do an “Around the country by taser cases” series.  Not really about the war, of course, but I just can’t stop myself.  A “veteran officer” in Tucson, Arizona tasered a runaway nine year old who was already in handcuffs at the time.

Not distressing enough?  I am told by someone on a message board that it is being investigated to see if it was “justified” cause if not, it is a crime; therefore because it is being investigated, it means all is well.  Not.

First of all, she is handcuffed. So even if, as I suspect, she is screaming and fighting, possibly thrashing on the ground about being returned to the state home she ran from, how in hell is a taser the correct answer to an obviously hysterical MINOR, a CHILD??

Second, it bothers me more than words (even my entire stock of dirty ones) can express that what I seem to be hearing in regards to the ever increasingly bizarre taser usages is statements defending the cops.  Because, you know, if it really IS as bad as I think it is, that is SCARY AS ALL HELL AND GODZILLA WOULD BE BETTER!  Yes, there it is, Americans need to be in denial and find ludicrous excuses for why cops should taser children, men already immobile and on their hands and knees, women in shopping malls, folks who don’t sign tickets, etc.

Cause, oh my….if I am right about the cops turning into scared little men who have to taser little girls and old ladies, (1) WHO  is left to protect YOU from real bad guys, and (2) how do you know YOU are safe from the taser-gods?

And people still ask how the Jews ended up in the ovens of Germany, how could they be so compliant, how could they not see the zit of violence and genocide about to pop?  THIS is how, folks.  It begins with fear loosening your grip on civil rights and fair play, with your mind losing the need to QUESTION AUTHORITY.

Gonna be a hell of a ride, get ready.  I plan to live a hop, skip, and short jump from a border….

Recently, on the forum, the topic has come up of investigations to determine whether three recent casualties died as a result of enemy action or friendly fire. In my experience, people who have never served in the military at all are of the opinion that friendly fire is the rare mistake, a tragedy of uncommon occurrence. Military veterans, on the contrary, think it happens entirely too often and are not surprised to hear about it. Noise, smoke, confusion, fear, masses of people (sometimes similarly uniformed even) milling about, running, shooting, throwing exploding stuff…how could it NOT happen?

So, then the question is, does the military always really investigate every death and report accurately. Everyone has heard the Pat Tillman story, and all the accusations of deception and cover-up. Is every cover-up actually meant that way? Is it wrong if a parent is told their son or daughter died in a firefight, and little more? Is it worse to believe the enemy killed your child, or to think they died at the hands of their own side? The Tillmans obviously thought it worse to be lied to and were angry that incompetent behavior led to their son’s death.

I would rather think my son died in action because an enemy bullet found him, than to think a screw up in American military procedure took him down. But I do not want to be lied to, either. I’d like to think if I lost my son to friendly fire, the appropriate asses would be appropriately chewed and some changes made. I’d prefer to think of an enemy being the killer, because I don’t want the mental image of a young American sitting up nights dealing with guilt over killing a brother soldier by mistake.

The sad truth is, training and good communications can lessen the chance of death at the hands of your comrades in arms, but not eliminate it. The sad truth is, war is NOT a surgical strike like CNN and other news agencies like to paint it—not on our side OR theirs. The sad truth is at war accidents of ALL kinds are more likely; people are tired, stressed and in various not-quite normal emotional states, these make accidents more likely. A lot of the deaths of this war have been not gunshot, bomb (IED, etc) or munition related but auto accidents, falls, drownings, even illness. Anyone with an interest in the history of war knows that ancient armies lost more casualties to disease than to battle. Starvation even dogged armies of old, this is why war was once a seasonal blood-sport; you had to have food and it wasn’t THERE certain times of the year.

My personal feeling is that now, having triumphed in large part over the kinds of disease that once laid armies out flat, and having all kinds of supply options and much better communications than pennons in the wind and bugle calls, we do see more deaths that fit the mental-movie-American vision of what a war death looks like. But here is the thing, war is also much more financially costly now. It is rapidly becoming apparent to anyone that looks closely that NOBODY can really afford war.

Reagan didn’t beat the Reds into whatever-in-progress system of government they are exploring now, military spending did. Our economy is not being crushed by the fall in the housing market, but by the fact that the government is squandering the state treasury on a war it has no winning strategy for–and worse, one that isn’t going to provide “plunder” to pay for itself.

And when you look at it from that perspective, it pretty much ALL becomes a stupid haze of war. I don’t want to sacrifice my son to that at all. Not in a war that has jack to do with the much vaunted American freedoms, and more to do with who controls and profits from natural resources. Because, since the war can’t pay for the very costly development of those resources for American oil companies and their subsidiaries, guess who will be paying the piper? In blood AND money.

And edited to add a musical lyric memory that seems applicable….since I am indulging in nostalgia and melancholia today:

One Tin Soldier

Listen children to a story
That was written long ago
‘Bout a kingdom, on a mountain
And the valley folk below
On the mountain was a treasure
Buried deep beneath a stone
And the valley people swore
They’d have it for their very own

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There wont be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after …
One tin soldier rides away

So the people of the valley
Sent a message up the hill
Asking for the buried treasure
Tons of gold* for which they’d kill (*barrels of oil?)
Came an answer from the kingdom
With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain
And all the riches buried there

Now the valley cried in anger
Mount your horses
Draw your swords
And they killed the mountain people
So they won their just reward
Now they stood beside the treasure
On the mountain dark and red
Turn the stone and which beneath it
“Peace on Earth”
Was all it said

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There wont be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after …
One tin soldier rides away

….like the bit the horse gets to run away with, yes, the film link in the post prior to this one just won’t be let go. The responses I got to the topic (not here, oddly) made me even more incredulous. Some of the ‘justifications’ of the tasering:

(1)Well, he shouldn’t have run.

(2)He didn’t obey the cop’s command to LIE down (hands and knees, gasping for breath was insufficient, I guess)

(3)He could have still fired a gun from that position.

Now, I really do sort of get choked; I couldn’t respond at once to those comments/excuses because I had the tearing need to throw said people to the ground, slap a cop hat on my head and be abusive just as an object lesson. I know that is irrational and even feel friendship for some of those folks and would never allow myself such abusive liberties. Obviously, the Seattle Police have no such compunction.

So, first, the short answer to the above comments, in turn.

(1) Not to be racist, but the guy was black and had apparently ‘had words’ with the police, and while I didn’t know that having words with a cop was a crime, that was sufficient cause for a half dozen or more to run him down. I’d have run, too, to be honest—six or more pissed off cops chasing me on New Year’s Eve? Hell yes….so, not an excuse. Had he actually committed a CRIME? To date, none has been mentioned. Was he a THREAT to anyone except a cop’s ego? No clue.

(2) So, a taser is NOT a non-lethal response tool to be used in case of imminent threat (like by a crazy man wielding a knife or bat?), but is actually meant to be used to insure immediate obedience to any policeman’s “command” to a citizen? You know, that is the scariest thing I have ever heard.

(3) What gun? About six cops had just had their hands ALL over the guy while wrestling him to the ground, if he had a weapon either (a) he would have attempted its use or (b) it would have been noticed and taken. So I just have to call bullshit on that logic.

Now, just because I have got this bit between my teeth, let me make a bit of an analogy. I own a dog….can’t live with it in the house since allergy issues are profound enough to put me in respiratory distress, but I walk him daily. He equals me in weight and has strength, youth, and power ALL over me. I might possibly equal him in aggression and that is my only saving goddamned grace, let me tell you. He wants to fight every dog he sees, eat every jogger and bicyclist. I am all that stands between them and imminent destruction. Fifteen months of positive training, “Dog Whisperer” bullshit, and everything else have not altered Jayne’s perception that he is right and I am wrong. So, when faced with the choice of letting him eat a jogger or not, I wrap his leash round my waist to become a human anchor and tell him “No” in my most no nonsense tone. Much like the Seattle guy, he does not usually obey this and stop doing his very convincing hairy white toothy monster imitation. Unlike the Seattle guy, he is a real danger to whatever poor individual Jayne is focused upon. So I usually have to do the dog version of a taser…I grip one of his ears firmly (not trying to tear it from his head, but securely) and do not let go, only Jayne’s own impetus forward causes him pain and stops his attack mode.

Now, multiple people have criticized my approach to dog control. How cruel, it is only his nature making him act like that, after all. Right. Well, it was only the drunken party-dude’s drunken nature that likely made him mouth off to, and run from that Seattle cop. And unlike Jayne the Great pain in the ass Pyr, he was not threatening anyone but was in full flight. I don’t grab my dog’s ear cause he disobeys my “stand the fuck down” command; I grab it so he doesn’t take a cyclist off his bike or grab a jogger by the ass.

Yet MY action is deemed cruel and wrong, but the action of tasering a man for ‘disobedience’ is deemed ok? The only difference I can really see that is REAL is that the taser wielder had on a uniform.

THAT is why this is stuck in my teeth—if America excuses thuggish behavior so long as it is committed only by uniformed personnel, say hello to the Brownshirts, folks. If one must (1)never talk back and (2) instantly obey ANY command from a policeman regardless of circumstances and reasoning, the police state is already here. I have seen video of cops tasering a man for refusing to sign a traffic citation—and in front of his screaming, terrified pregnant wife, and a cop tasering a shopper for arguing over whether the credit card she used was stolen. The taser is NOT meant to be used as an interrogation tool (on the store floor) in the second instance, nor to force compliance in signing tickets. If Americans are signing off on these sorts of interactions with the very people who are supposed to protect us…oh we are well and truly screwed. It will become like some schools, you see, where security guards harass good students who get a bit rowdy and ignore dangerous ones who sell drugs in the john. It is easier to taser drunks, shoppers, and Joe-family man than to hunt drug dealers, meth-heads and mobsters.

I hope, should I ever be tasered for non-compliance of stupid assed commands, that it kills me. It is a good chance, my healthy unclogged heart has a fair share of silly electrical issues and that shock might be enough to stop it cold. When it does, I hope my family makes a humongous stink and sues the crap out of whatever cop shop is responsible.

Apparently, I am not alone in my disgust at the western media with its Disneyesque view of the world events.  Someone else has been thoughtfully pursuing the causes of this phenomenon.

I recall when news reporting really WAS more objective and showed more sides. It has been loosing that characteristic for a good while now…it has been leaching away particularly fast since the “fall” of the Communist “Bear”….as these lectures say, because we NEEDED to be wildly enthusiastically “free press” in reaction to the unilateral sort of coverage of the Warsaw Pact nations.

This and other very good stuff from a series of lectures. They don’t seem to be numbered, but you can tell the order because of the number of views…the oldest, starting bit has the most views, and so forth.

I really recommend this, folks. If American Apathy to self-informing about the world and our place and behavior in it is the Original Sin of our Democracy, here is your chance to fight the good fight! Don’t let me….don’t let America and her Founding Fathers Down.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=mediamcgill&p=r

Back from the three day drive to Mexico, four days IN Mexico, and three day drive home including the “riding the storm out” bit of coming thru the recent snow/deluge hitting the West Coast. The slide show gets bits of it all, from the snows in Oregon as we left, to the beauties of Monterey and Big Sur, to the Sea of Cortez, the New Year’s party, the desert coming home, the Grand Canyon stop-off, and back to the snows, rain-swollen rivers, and winds of the storms pushing us up the coast road. We would do it all again….