R Blog

You Go Girl

I’ve always been a Liza Minnelli fan. I listen to her Carnegie Hall album a couple times a year. Recent news has only increased my esteem. First, her cretinous ex-husband David Guest accused her of beating him up. Stone Phillips actually put Mr. Guest on “20/20” for an entire hour to let him rant and display his ugly little body—a victim of abuse at the nearly lethal hands of our Liza. If she did hit him, he had it coming for that grotesque kiss he planted on her at their fabled wedding. She hurt him so badly, he claimed, that he requires regular botox injections. That’s what he said. Botox boy is suing her for $10,000,000.

Today’s news headlines a story that Liza’s former bodyguard and driver, a Mr. M'hammed Soumayah is also suing Liza alleging she forced him to have sex with her without his consent. In addition, he charges that she beat him and raged at him. He’s suing her for $100,000,000. Read the complaint. 

This little gal is one tough customer. She makes big boys cry. Makes them have sex with her. Boo hoo.

Is Liza a former Navy Seal or something? I checked her bio. Couldn’t find anything about hand-to-hand combat in her resume. But the court documents indicate that this five foot tall dynamo is kicking ass in Manhattan. She’s a regular Charles Bronson.

On the Live at Carnegie Hall Album Liza sings “You Gotta Ring That Bell.”
She rang David’s and M’hammed’s. Watch out for little Liza.

Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

Who says politics is about uniting? An excellent case can be made that it’s about dividing. Divisiveness. Separating. Splitting the sheets. Back in 2001 Mark Strauss, a senior editor for Foreign Affairs Magazine wrote in Slate suggesting that splitting off the old Confederate States wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Let's Ditch Dixie  His argument is that North and South can no longer claim to be one nation. Strauss suggests we just shake hands and go our separate ways. His reason: the North increasingly finds itself under the dominion of the Old Dominion.

He goes on in this vein: “The South is a gangrenous limb that should have been lopped off decades ago. More people live below the poverty line in the old Confederacy than in the Northeast and Midwest combined. You are three times more likely to be murdered in parts of Dixie than anywhere in New England, despite a feverish devotion to "law-and-order" that has made eight Southern states home to 90 percent of all recent U.S. executions. The South has the highest infant-mortality rate and the highest incidences of sexually transmitted diseases, while it lags behind the rest of the country in terms of test scores and opportunities for women. The Confederate states rail against the tyranny of big government, yet they are the largest recipients of federal tax dollars. They steal business away from the North the same way that developing countries worldwide have always attracted foreign direct investment: through low wages and antiunion laws. The flow of guns into America's Northern cities stems largely from Southern states. The tobacco grown by ol' Dixie kills nearly a half-million Americans each year.”

After the South is gone (and the North somehow gets the South to return the 3000+ nuclear weapons located there) the North could treat the South like  any other impoverished nation, sending Peace Corps volunteers, and agricultural aid workers to teach tobacco farmers how to raise new crops, etc.

Mike Thompson, writing in the conservative magazine Human Events has a similar idea but with a different spin. Declaration of Expulsion

Mr. Thompson wants to kick twelve states out of the United States. He names California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, and Delaware. (For some reason Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania are exempted).

The Thompson plan would create Bush USA which he describes as follows:
“BUSH USA is predominantly white; devoutly Christian (mostly Protestant); openly, vigorously heterosexual; an open land of single-family homes and ranches; economically sound (except for a few farms), but not drunk with cyberworld business development, and mainly English-speaking, with a predilection for respectfully uttering "yes, ma'am" and "yes, sir."

The Dirty Dozen he cuts loose are characterized thusly: “GORE/KERRY USA is ethnically diverse; multi-religious, irreligious or nastily anti religious; more sexually liberated (if not in actual practice, certainly in attitude); awash with condo canyons and other high-end real estate bordered by sprawling, squalid public housing or neglected private homes, decidedly short of middle-class neighborhoods; both high tech and oddly primitive in its commerce; very artsy, and Babelesque, with abnormally loud speakers.”

So, when both the liberals and the conservatives are thinking about the same thing, perhaps there’s a chance the idea will have legs. First, though, we’ll have to agree on who gets Oregon, Washington, and Pennsylvania.

Bookends

Who has time to read? Well, I do. In retirement, I make time to read  50-60 books a year of various types and description. Most often they are older books and they are usually from the library as I have no place left to store additional volumes. From time to time I intend to review a book and will keep those reviews stored on another blog called "Bookends." Today, Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Click here.

Swift Boat Veterans Win Election

The conventional wisdom (CW) is saying that Mr. Bush won the election on values. The data seems to show that no greater percentage voted for Bush on the value issues than in 2000. Terrorism, it seems, was the real issue. Nationally, 49% saw the President as better able to deal with terrorism than Senator Kerry (31%). http://www.slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2109275&

Senator Kerry was not able to convince enough of the electorate that he would be a capable Commander-in-Chief.

The Christian Right will no doubt support the CW and demand their handsome reward. But the fellows Mr. Bush owes his reelection to are the Swift Boat Vets who were able to smear the reputation of someone who actually served in Viet Nam and who won medals for heroism. They were able to diminish Kerry’s rather outstanding credentials as a military man and war hero.

As a veteran of Viet Nam, I have long been appalled by self-proclaimed veterans. Professional veterans. Guys whose self-image is wrapped and warped by their nostalgia for Nam (either their heroic contribution or their victimization). I was disturbed that Kerry made such a big thing of his service. It was a mistake and set him up for the inevitable vicious attack. It was a bigger mistake not to fight back immediately and remorselessly.

I actually thought Kerry’s activities after the war were more heroic than his river adventures (though everyone who knows anything about the Viet Nam war knows that just being on a Swift Boat was hot work). Several Viet Nam veterans were colleagues at my first job after getting out of the service. One had been the intelligence officer at Mi Lai. Another, a Marine Platoon Leader. A third, an army platoon leader. All had seen more action than I. We worked in Seattle’s University district and were in the middle of almost daily antiwar activities. We would stand at the window at lunch time and watch antiwar parades. We were not offended. Why? Because, by that time, we knew the war was a horrible joke. A killing field littered with  dead friends and other innocents.

I’m no longer in contact with any of these guys. Perhaps in their pre-elderly years they sit around recalling their days in Southeast Asia. Maybe they’ve taken to wearing little VFW hats. I doubt it. They were all too smart. I could be wrong. For, as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth proved, there is no Band of Brothers. There are bands of brothers who will do what it takes to promote their point of view.

Kerry didn’t fight back hard enough and fast enough against the attack of John O’Neal and his cohorts. Somehow the misrepresentations of Unfit for Command trumped the testimony of Kerry’s own crew, the guys who were actually on his boat, and the repeated testimony of the fellow Kerry pulled out of the river.

Ralph Reed, Revs. Falwell and Robertson may wish to claim their reward but my guess in that Karl Rove will make them get in line behind the those cagey old, toothless, truth less Swift Boat Vets who sit in their Barcaloungers, rubbing their expanding tummies, stroking their growing noses, looking through their scrapbooks, making reservations for their next old boy reunion, where they will belly up to the bar and gleefully recall what a lubber John Kerry was.

Linda and the Electrical College

Today my squirrel died. I know it was my squirrel cause there's only one that comes into our yard. Everyday, swinging through the trees, dancing on the roof top, chattering at me from the tallest branches, scooting down the plum tree, placing his little front feet on the birdbath and drinking water. Noisy. My squirrel was noisy. I'd click my cheeks and he would stop and stare and chatter back. He had a definite route. Off and on all day he would cross the street rooftop to rooftop from one backyard to another by swinging on branches and high flying wires. For years he did this unharmed. Until today. I was at my computer. The power went off with a pop outside and then silence all through the house. I went outside and looked around. Randy walked up the street to see if other people had electricity. Our neighbor across the street was leaving. She said her power was off too. We called the city. They said they'd be here soon. Then a knock at the door. Our neighbor was standing on our porch holding a plastic bag. She said she'd found a squirrel in the street by the utility pole and it was still warm. It must have landed on a wire and I said, Oh no, it's my squirrel. It's so sad. She asked if I wanted it and  I said no, I can't. Could she bury it and she said well, I'm late, I really have to get to work, it's still warm and I said, okay I'll do it, just leave it on the porch and went to get my shoes and jacket.
I picked up the bag and placed my hand on the bottom. I could feel it's warm body so soft and willed myself to take one last look at it's little body. His tiny arms were crossed tight across his chest like he was hugging himself or praying. My beautiful little squirrel.
Randy can you help me please, I need help. I can't do this alone.  We buried him in the back with Sam and Kitty and I cried and I cried and I couldn't stop. Randy said, this is more than just the squirrel isn't it. He called it my JFK squirrel.

Red and Blue States

Here's a 2004 voting map which demonstrates that our country is not divided Red vs Blue, but urban vs rural. Download elect_results_uscounty.pdf

To the Woodshed

Lew Rockwell, the Libertarian, takes both parties to the woodshed.
Lew thinks Democrats and Republicans suck

On Our Way to a One Party System

Ralph Nader steamrolled his third party competition dominating the contest between United States minority parties. Nader with 391,330 votes won handily over Michael Badnarik the Libertarian who garnered 376,347 votes, the Constitution Party's Michael Peroutka, with 129,530 votes and David Cobb, the personable leader of the Greens, who was a distant fourth with 104,087 votes. While the Nader juggernaut was too much for his third party competitors, John Kerry was too much for Nader.

Conceding his defeat at a rally in Washington D. C. Mr. Nader lashed out at the “liberal intelligentsia” saying, “"The liberals who staff and fund so many of those good groups that, years ago, made demands on politicians, they don't make demands on the Democratic Party anymore."
"The contempt that the Democratic Party has for groups that support them, when these groups do not make any demand on them, they are making the Democratic Party seem more like the Republican Party," Nader said.

Usually, Mr. Nader makes more sense than this but his raspy voice leant credence to the visible evidence that he was worn down from a difficult and long campaign.

Like Mr. Nader, the Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik opposed the Iraq War and the Patriot Act. Opposing Iraq and the Patriot Act turned out to be issues for losers.

Badnarik, a fifty year old computer programmer from Texas claimed the third party victory on the technicality that Ralph Nader “isn’t a party.” (In fact, it can be argued that Ralph Nader isn’t even any fun). Joseph Seehusen, the Libertarian Party’s Executive Director spun the results as follows:"By getting on more ballots and earning more votes than our third party competition, we've proved once again that we're America's real third party." And, we know how important that is.

"Apparently many fiscal conservatives decided to stick with Bush instead of sending him a message," Seehusen griped to the reporter at his press conference. "Unfortunately the country will pay a price for that, because government will continue to expand relentlessly under Republican rule."
Some people say that Americans are willing to pay any price in return for a strong leader; a man of his convictions.

Michael Peroutka, the Constitution Party candidate did not return phone calls. Given the Constitution Party’s platform "the only party which is completely pro-life, anti-homosexual rights, pro-American sovereignty, anti-globalist, anti-deindustrialization, anti- unchecked immigration, pro-second amendment, and against the constantly increasing expansion of unlawful police laws, in favor of a strong national defense and opposed to unconstitutional interventionism" one would presume that he is sort of okay with the Republican party which has most of the Constitution Party’s Platform covered.

The Green Party, apparently anticipating an early bedtime, put out their press release before the polls closed: “This campaign has always been about building and growing the Green Party and that’s just what we’ve succeeded in doing. We’ve registered more Green voters, we’ve boosted local campaigns, we’ve garnered fantastic media coverage and we’ve put Instant Runoff Voting in the forefront as a solution for the ‘spoiler’ voting dynamic. When our local candidates win election in record numbers today, that will be the icing on the cake,” said Green Party Media Director Blair Bobier. Because, a journey starts with a single step (or something like that).

The Prohibition Party, Personal Choice Party, Socialist Party, Worker’s World Party and Democratic Party also did poorly with the voters.

Election Quiz

Here's something to do while you're waiting for the results of the election. It's a quiz put out by the British newspaper, The Guardian.

I am horrified to report that I got 36 out of 40 correct. This means I am spending way too much time following the news.

Take the Election Quiz

Preventing S.A.D.

A crisp, clear day in Ashland. No snow on the mountains across the valley yet today but, still, I can feel winter coming and I don’t like it one bit.

I think it’s just winter in Ashland that gets me down. I don't mind it other places. The reason is the setting for our house. We are terraced into a steep hillside and about the time daylight savings leaves, so does the sun. The arc of its daily travel keeps us in the shade. It might be ten or fifteen degrees warmer up the hill or down. But here, in the shade, it’s S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder) time. However, I have a solution. I just called the travel agent downtown and booked two tickets to Hawaii for the darkest time (Jan-Feb).

We’ll go see brother Bart. Won’t even take much. We each have a bin of clothes at his place plus snorkel and flippers. We have a crummy little car there, too. It will be winter on the North Shore of Oahu and the waves will make it unsafe to swim but we can go up the road to Turtle Bay and find a protected cove or two. Mostly what we’ll do is walk the beach searching for puka shells once or twice a day, hang out in the 80 degree weather, pull some weeds, rake some leaves, pick a few avocados off the tree, buy some papaya at the farmer’s market, read some books, take some hikes, go to Honolulu, see some shows, visit with friends. In short, live in Hawaii for a month.

It doesn’t even bother me that the Manoa Valley, just above Honolulu, had ten inches of rain in twenty-four hours yesterday. Heavy rains, winter storms—that’s part of the deal. I’m not there to get a tan. I’m there to get warm. Besides, the North Shore is the dryer side of Oahu.

I’ve never had a sick day in Hawaii. Not that folks don’t get sick there. I’m sure they do. But the air is so fresh with the trades blowing and the salt water so therapeutic that’s it’s hard to feel unwell. You don’t want to. I once arrived with walking pneumonia and it was gone in days. Our family went another time with Noble in a wheel chair following appendix surgery and at the Honolulu Airport he said he no longer needed the assistance.

Hawaii. Don’t get me started. If you’re not going I’m feeling S.A.D. for you.