Archive for November, 2008

That time again.  When I walked the Labyrinth yesterday, with the three most current names, I violated my rule against tears as I poured the libation on the central stone.   Thinking of those families on the holiday that connotes “family” to so many Americans…..with a significant member gone forever, well, yes it broke my hard old heathen heart.

Gunnery Sgt. Marcelo R. Velasco, 40, of Miami, (FL?) -  Marine – Iraq -non-hostile incident

Pvt. Charles Yi Barnett, 19, of Bel Air, Maryland,  Army – Iraq – non-combat incident

Sgt 1st Class Miguel A. Wilson, 36, of Bonham, Texas – Army – Iraq – died while trying to rescue a brother-soldier

1st Lt. William K. Jernigan, 35, of Doraville, Ga. -Army – Iraq – non-combat incident

Capt. Warren A. Frank, 26, of Cincinnati, Ohio, -Marine – Iraq -combat ops

Master Sgt. Anthony Davis, 43, of Deerfield, Fla., died Nov. 24 in Baaj, Iraq, after being shot by an Iraqi Security Force soldier while he was conducting a dismounted humanitarian food drop.

Coalition Dead…all died in Afghanistan:

Lt. Michael Fussel, 25 from Australia

Adjuntant Nicholas Rey, 32, from France

Marine Alexander Lucas, 24, from the United Kingdom

Raise a cup to the fallen, drink deeply for the heroic dead….and think a comfort for the ones left behind in mourning.

Maybe you should read this after five, so you can do so with something alcoholic in your hand?  Just scanning headlines and reading some of the best blogs out there gives me fodder for using the “f” word more than once per sentence.  Is profanity the last option of the inarticulate?  No fucking idea…but it beats the hell out of grinding more enamel off my teeth!

!!! “Print and broadcast media are reporting that Defense Secretary Bob Gates will continue on in the Obama Administration for at least one year.”

Really, Barry?  I think that may be carrying this “let’s all get along” a bit far.  Get rid of the bastards that have been fucking the country for eight years and move ON.  And don’t even get me started on what I think of your forgiving attitude towards Joe Lieberman.  Don’t make me tell you “I told you so!” later when you realize why the first three letters of his name spell “lie”!

 !!! ” Federal authorities are warning law enforcement personnel of a possible terror plot against the New York City subway system during the holiday season.  An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a “plausible but unsubstantiated” report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system.”

 Well, no shit, Sherlock, of COURSE they do always warn us on the basis of an unsubstantiated report.  They’ve done that every time Bush had poll numbers in the shitcan.  Frankly, I’d like to see them look into more domestic threats.  Of course, a terrorist attack is ALWAYS possible, but for goodness sake, could we stop trying to sell the Fear Swill that the Al Qaida boogyman is the only baddie under America’s bed?

!!!”Somali gunmen have kidnapped two western journalists in the northern province of Puntland, local sources have claimed.  The journalists, one or both of whom are believed to be British, were captured on Wednesday in the semi-autonomous region that is used as a base for pirate gangs.”

I’m feeling really bitchy today.  The country of Somalia is only that in name, it is actually run by a bunch of blood-thirsty greedy bastards who could give a shit less about people who have to live there.  And the people themselves?  Well, they happily play in with all kinds of nasty religious sectarianism; it really is not a nice place.  We tried, before, to bring a bit of aid and sanity to that dump and the movie “Black Hawk Down” was considerably more pretty and optimistic than the actual event.  Shoot the freaking pirate ships up with enough holes to sink them.  Don’t spend money or lives for a country that doesn’t give a shit about saving itself!  Media outlets?  Stop sending your folks to hellholes like this…..half the time you don’t print the real story anyhow, so your folks are dying for nothing.

!!!  Best/worst for last.  “In a little-noticed regulation change, the Pentagon’s definition of combat-related disabilities is narrowed, costing some wounded veterans thousands of dollars in lost benefits.”

That sounds so innocuous, does it not?   Go read it all: http://tinyurl.com/5nygc2  It is not innocuous; it is insidious, invidious , imbecilic, inimical, inhumane, and possible inguinal—since it certainly is a kick in the balls to every military member putting it all on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Now, that I have proved I do know more words to apply to this abortion of justice and violation of all the “support the troops” rhetoric we have been choking on for years now, I will go back to my more succinct mantra of screaming “fuck” loud enough to startle the pets.

My thanks to Earthbound Misfit and other fine bloggers who mentioned this.   The Pentagon sells out the troops again.  Gee, good thing those officers are not near any possibility of fragging, isn’t it?  Cause by damn….whatever sorry excuse for a human being brought this brainchild to life sure as hell deserves it.

And uncaring whether I am forgiven, to be honest. And being honest IS what I do here.  Thanksgiving is around the corner as I am notified from every quarter of American existence.

I do not “do” Thanksgiving.  If I had a job, I’d happily work that day.  Does this mean I am not thankful for various things?

No.  It means I won’t celebrate my thankfulness with a bout of gluttony followed by a day of screaming consumerism.  Also, to me, Thanksgiving is always given a very Christian gloss—so hey, fine, everyone is entitled to their holidays.

(Well, except my likewise pagan son, who lost his job for taking one such holiday, and now has been denied unemployment even though he was fired, because “a prudent person would not have taken that day for religious purposes.” Is there a lawyer somewhere out there who would like to kick some ass in Washington State?  Please??)

So, yes, if you are Christian and think that decorating your house with mythically happy Pilgrim figures and multicolored paper turkeys who are delighted to be roasted, go for it.  As for me and mine, we skip this ritual of gluttony, family-bound traffic and kick-off-consumerism-season.  Yes, I know the holiday is more than that for many people and I genuinely applaud their joy in it.  Nor do I snap at sales clerks wishing me Happy Thanksgiving (or Merry Christmas for that matter), I accept it gracefully in the spirit it is offered.

I have my own pagan festivals of official harvest-home and thanksgiving.  I don’t need this one.  If they cancel CSI Vegas for some sort of tripe presented as a ‘holiday special’ my grouchiness will be complete.  Humbug….and any three “Spirits of Thanksgiving past, present and future who intend to show up tomorrow night to teach me a lesson?  Be prepared to have your turkey-feathered asses kicked.

Really, trying to back on track.  Not there yet, but moving closer.

This is Logan the X-Woozle, named in honor of fellow mustelid “Wolverine” of the X-Men.   Logan was brought home, a soft kit with white fur and a black tip to his tail, with dark eyes and the genetic flaw of deafness that goes with that color combination.  He was lonesome and cried in his solitary cage, so everyone in the house took him out and carried him about to hush him.  As a result, he is one of the sweetest ferrets ever, never nips or plays too rough with people.  He is pretty much an old man now, being over six years old.  He comes up after his breakfast of extra fat and protein food every morning because he wants to be picked up and cuddled.  He is very soft and warm….and soon ready to go about his way exploring the house for overnight changes.  In winter, Logan turns even more snowy white; in summer he gets  more gray in color.  He is still the sweetest tempered ferret ever.

Yes, yes, I confess…I do like the Barbara Streisand song about “misty watercolor memories” even if it means my brain has rusted in the fog of time.  But that is not the kind of memory this post is about, no, not today.  There will be lots of posts today about Nov. 22, 1963 and it will likely bore to death anyone born after that date.  Deal with it, you whippersnappers!  If my generation must forever hear our elders speaking of Dec 7, 1942…or even Nov 11, 1918, YOU have to deal with our seared in sessions with history.

So, yes, the day John Kennedy died in Dallas was impressed without any softening layers of mist.  But it isn’t the only one, only the first significant one.  But before that day, a continent away, in Germany, I had at an even younger age, sat on a dark school stairwell while alarms trilled for something worse than a fire drill.  Bomb drill.  Our teacher at the head of the stairs, half in the light, had tears running down her face.  That was the one link to my experience in a Texas school two years later; my teacher cried then, too.  The same President who confronted the Cuban missile crisis was dead.

There would be other moments scorched into my brain cells.  Things that made me want to turn my head and retch.  The photo of helicopters lifting off the Embassy roof in Vietnam, for instance.  Watching a space shuttle explode into bits like a bizarre firework display.  And yes, of course, many images from September 11th, 2001.  I admit, those are still so fresh that parts of my mind still says it is a really horrible movie and that I can get up and walk out of the theater any time.  But, of course, that is not the case and the film is FAR from over.

The point of memories like this is not just an excuse to hit happy hour at your favorite watering hole.  The point is to look at what your response was…and whether it was effective.  Did it answer the problem that roiled your soul and stomach or was it a mistake?   Are there things unaddressed still?  Are you staying conscious in that horrible mind-bending moment or running to hide and escape?  And yes, how very ’60s of me to ask, but are you part of the solution or part of the problem?

Auld lang syne  isn’t just for midnight on December 31st.  It is every day for some one, some where.  We are often content to wear our hearts on our sleeves….but it is the memory burned upon our brain that should often be guiding our hearts.  Memories we sweep clean of obscuring mist and polish with pain and honesty.

And for more and better on this topic, I urge you most heartily to follow this link and read:

http://distributorcapny.blogspot.com/2008/11/cracks-in-time.html

Thanks to Mustang Bobby over at Bark Bark, Woof Woof…..who has always had this quote on his sidebar.  I just felt the need to agree with it more obviously!

John Kennedy said it, and all the right wing slander since has not changed the way I felt about it:

“What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label “Liberal?” If by “Liberal” they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer’s dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of “Liberal.” But if by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”  

That time again, the names released in the last week or so:

Spc. Armando A. De La Paz, 21, of Riverside, Calif. – Army – Iraq – vehicular rollover

Spc. James M. Clay, 25, of Mountain Home, Ark. – Army – Iraq – vehicular accident

Sgt. Jose Regalado, 23, of Los Angeles , Ca – Army – Iraq – shot by man in Iraqi Army uniform

Spc. Corey M. Shea, 21, of Mansfield, Mass. – Army – Iraq – shot by man in Iraqi Army uniform

Spc. Jonnie L. Stiles, 38, of Highlands Ranch, Colo. Army – Afghanistan – IED

Cpl. Aaron M. Allen, 24, of Buellton, Calif. – Marine – Iraq – combat ops

CWO Christian P. Humphreys, 28 …………….Army – helicopter crash – in Iraq

CWO Donald V. Clark, 37…………………………Army – helicopter crash – in Iraq

In Afghanistan – coalition troops killed:

Robert J. McKibben of the UK died in an IED attack

Neil D. Dunstan of the UK died in an IED attack

Krishnabahaduh Dura of the UK died in an IED attack

If you look over the various widgets adorning this blog, you will see one that changes….displaying various symbols of many faiths.  It is there to be a beacon reminder that religious freedom should mean ANY religion, not just whatever is being shoved down throats in Colorado this week.

Just in case you think I exaggerate and make too much of the pressures to orthodoxy in faith for military members, I have decided to share with you some bits from the newsletter I get from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

For instance, remember how you have read about military members getting in trouble for appearing at political or religious events in uniform—since that makes a statement the Pentagon might need to disavow?  Well, it is usually lower ranking types who get busted chops, and if you are an officer and a right wing religious type, it is just “ok”? Case in point: +++Earlier this year, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org, discovered that a Navy chaplain, LCDR Brian K. Waite, has, for several years, been publicly endorsing a religious organization called Revival Fires Ministries. A photo of LCDR Waite in uniform, along with his letter of endorsement, appear on the websites of both Revival Fires Ministries+++

Wow, and this is a guy who is supposed to be able to serve the spiritual needs of any service members faith?  Sure…..

And anti-Semitism couldn’t be rearing its ugly head in America, right?  Wrong:

“The parents of a Fort Benning Army soldier who was brutally beaten by other soldiers two months ago in what appeared to be a case of anti-Semitism are upset that criminal charges were not leveled against the individuals responsible for the attack.

Moreover, Randi and Jonathan Handman criticized the director of the southeast chapter of the Anti-Defamation League for entering into secret discussions with Fort Benning officials earlier this month to apparently negotiate closure of the matter without including them…”   http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/press-releases/tpr_adl.html

Religion needs to stop being an issue.  Don’t put your head in the sand of “Oh, it’s all alright….that stuff is no issue in America.”  Click on that link and keep yourself up to date on what it really is like if you are a non-Christian in America’s military.  Better yet, click and throw them a few bucks to keep religion truly free.

….why do you ask?  Yes, trying to save snark for Sundays, pets for Saturdays, and do book reviews on Fridays has fallen by the wayside.  Looking back, I have to say the whole election season unwired me.  A lingering and recurrent summer cold added to the personal disarray.

But MY season, winter, is on the way now!  Things shall improve. But since I am in disarray?  You get serious  no “worldly matters” post today, just a pet picture.  This is one of my beloved pet ferrets, the tiny Woozle Ivy.

Ivy was not one of the rescues, she was bought to be company for one of those….a still tinier ferret girl named “Tink” who was stricken with malnutrition from adrenal-cancer induced anorexia when she came to us.  Tink would get so cold, and yet would insist on sleeping in a t-shirt lined cast iron Dutch oven on a kitchen shelf.  None of the grown ferrets would stay with her, even her cagemate Belle liked to run about terrorizing the males of the then 13 strong horde.

So, we brought home little Ivy, who would happily cuddle with Tink to escape being made into a ferret-kit tug-a-war toy.  Poor Tink died about six months later.  And how time has flown since then; Ivy is now eight years old, very aged for a woozle.  She is on her last legs, now struggling with adrenal cancer and too frail to be a surgical candidate.  She has been blind for about two years now, and it is getting difficult to get her to eat.  I may soon have to say my last good-byes to this indomitable little spirit.  I will miss her, and will have nobody to wash my ears!

…..of the “reality based” blog community.  I see a lot of comments, a lot of little graphics like “God doesn’t kill people, people with Gods kill people.”

Ha ha ha.  Yes, amusing, is it not?  I mean, yes, I GET it.  All the wars with religious dissention as a side dish.  Islam needing to blow up people who are Jewish or Christian.  Jews in Israel burning to burn Iran. Christians in America screaming that Iraq and Saudi Arabia should be nuclear glass parking lots.  I get it.

Just let me point out one small detail, ok?  Since I understand none of those blogs would ever consider little pagan, polytheistic me part of their “reality base.”  Those religions that you rightly condemn for being so blood-thirsty?  They are MONOTHEISTIC. People with A God kill people.  Singular on the “god” bit, thank you.

Back in the good old history books before even your great -great grand-dad’s time, when the world was polytheistic for the most part, they didn’t have religion-based wars.  Your side had your godS and their side had theirs….no argument over THAT.  Then the wars were about territory, or riches, or better pastures for stock, or about stealing wives; any freaking number of causes but not religion.

I am just in a wee bit of a huff that because I have a religion, I might be grouped into the wingnut monotheist camp.  I am so very not “that”, thank you Joseph Campbell.  MY reality base says to me that if you don’t get nit-pickingly accurate about just what religions believe in killing people over religion, you might just alienate a lot of folks who do NOT believe in killing over religion.  Don’t group me, ever, with the religious whack-jobs who think they need to kill for “God.”