There are many who still argue that torture is worth it all for the results it gets. These must be some of the people who believe there was not a Holocaust and that it was the US Government that planned 9/11. Some people are programmed not to believe what they don't want to see.
Using the pseudonym Matthew Alexander, a former special intelligence operations officer, who led an interrogations team in Iraq two years ago, has written a stunning op-ed in the Washington Post called "I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq." In it, he details his direct experience with torture practices put into effect in Iraq in 2006. He conducted more than 300 interrogations and supervised more than a thousand and was awarded a Bronze Star for his achievements in Iraq. This article can be read in full.
Regardless of how much research has been done, the bullies still think they can win with torture. They really don't want to hear anything else or admit that they are sadists.
LAUGH OF THE DAY: BBC quotes G W Bush as saying about himself, "I hope they feel that this is a guy that came, didn't sell his soul for politics, had to make some tough decisions, and did so in a principled way," in a wide-ranging interview with ABC News on Monday.
If the man can truly convince himself that he acted in a 'principled' way, I hope he will then share whose principles he was following, because they certainly were not those shared by most citizens who accept the Constitution of the United States as the major principle setter. Currently, Bush-bashing holds no joy, it only serves as a reminder of what he did to ruin our country though the people who were really behind many of the poor decisions will escape and let him take the blame. I believe he was a puppet whose strings were being pulled and manipulation by his willingness to play the role of the puppet though he deluded himself into thinking he was a 'decider'.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
THE WORLD IS CHANGING
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and the world is already changing from the bleak one we faced the last eight years. Today on BBC, the news included Odd Box...the week's weirdest videos. It has been a long time since I have seen such silliness on the front page of the BBC News.
AOL even had offered weird news.
The first story is about a man who
attacked a Christmas Tree.
One of the pictures shows men volunteers
making kimchi for disaster victims.
Maybe some of the world is trying,unable to change.
Lastly, Bush, perhaps for fear he will be forgotten as our worst President, is making sure he will be remembered by this last environmental, midnight, stamp on Appalachia. "The Washington Post confirmed today that a ruling was approved to make it easier for coal companies to dump the rock and dirt waste that is blown off the tops of mountains in "mountaintop removal" (or MTR) coal mining into streams and valleys:
The rule is one of the most contentious of all the regulations emerging from the White House in President Bush's last weeks in office ...
A coalition of environmental groups said the rule would accelerate "the destruction of mountains, forests and streams throughout Appalachia."
Edward C. Hopkins, a policy analyst at the Sierra Club, said: "The E.P.A.'s own scientists have concluded that dumping mining waste into streams devastates downstream water quality. By signing off on this rule, the agency has abdicated its responsibility." "
Clearly, there are good and bad changes happening. The majority of the country who voted Obama in are hoping for the pendulum to swing to most of the changes being good ones and sliding us further away from the slope of the same simple-minded behavior the Taliban showed when it blasted the irreplaceable Buddha statues in Afghanistan to bits. Bush will soon be replaced, but the lives he has cost and the environmental chaos he has allowed, cannot. How sad that so many people see green only in currency rather than appreciating what Nature has for us to survive on. Without it, we will all die, wealthy or poor. Bush's legacy will be the toxicity he has fostered in relationship to the rest of the world, divisiveness within our own country, a two class system, destruction to so many of our resources, and many more insults to the world he was given when he took office.
AOL even had offered weird news.
The first story is about a man who
attacked a Christmas Tree. One of the pictures shows men volunteers
making kimchi for disaster victims.
Maybe some of the world is trying,unable to change.
Lastly, Bush, perhaps for fear he will be forgotten as our worst President, is making sure he will be remembered by this last environmental, midnight, stamp on Appalachia. "The Washington Post confirmed today that a ruling was approved to make it easier for coal companies to dump the rock and dirt waste that is blown off the tops of mountains in "mountaintop removal" (or MTR) coal mining into streams and valleys:The rule is one of the most contentious of all the regulations emerging from the White House in President Bush's last weeks in office ...
A coalition of environmental groups said the rule would accelerate "the destruction of mountains, forests and streams throughout Appalachia."
Edward C. Hopkins, a policy analyst at the Sierra Club, said: "The E.P.A.'s own scientists have concluded that dumping mining waste into streams devastates downstream water quality. By signing off on this rule, the agency has abdicated its responsibility." "
Clearly, there are good and bad changes happening. The majority of the country who voted Obama in are hoping for the pendulum to swing to most of the changes being good ones and sliding us further away from the slope of the same simple-minded behavior the Taliban showed when it blasted the irreplaceable Buddha statues in Afghanistan to bits. Bush will soon be replaced, but the lives he has cost and the environmental chaos he has allowed, cannot. How sad that so many people see green only in currency rather than appreciating what Nature has for us to survive on. Without it, we will all die, wealthy or poor. Bush's legacy will be the toxicity he has fostered in relationship to the rest of the world, divisiveness within our own country, a two class system, destruction to so many of our resources, and many more insults to the world he was given when he took office.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
OLD NEED NOT BE UNHAPPY
For years I have been piling up reasons that are good about being old. A recent one added is that old people have a far greater store of happy memories to call on than do younger ones. When you are young, there have to be wonderful days of praise, achievement, accolades, raises, etc. When you are old, every day above ground is a good day.
I've written before on annoyances in later life (see this blog: http://ewelts.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html February 10
Graceful Aging, on 6-23-08: http://ewelts.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
I have heard it said that people mellow with age. I never understood that statement until recently. As you age, the earliest childhood inputs become as clear as though events just happened. We are more mellow, closer to our parents than we have been for many years. During those years of growing up, we had introjected the parents so that they are now a part of us. Remembering their comfort, support and decision making, we remember the safety and peace they provided for us as children. They live in our heads. We feel calmer and more mellow, or we go into complete separation and denial of the new generation (our grandchildren) and its parents (our adult children).
As with all things, there may be alternative reasons, such as, some people are just too tired to make waves any longer. They look quite calm much of the time. Maybe, though it is rarely admitted by parents, they just don't give a damn! Having spent so many years raising their own difficult, acting out and time-consuming children it gives the older family members joy to see their children finally understanding what their parents went through as they agonizingly wade through the same exhausting process with their own children. Usually that is when they finally come to truly appreciate their parents. Since their own children take the usual 2 or 3 decades to grow up and leave, the pleasure the old folks receive matches the years of servitude to the 'kids'.
What to a younger person may represent being alone and lonely, to the senior it represents a time of peaceful space inside and outside one's head to enjoy Nature, life in general, people, or whatever else we old folk like to take in as our due and our own.
We feel we earned the right to make our own choices, live our lives with abandonment of many of the earlier responsibilities, deadlines, and selflessness that precedes the 'Golden Years'. While the value of Gold as a metal has gone up exponentially, the value of the Golden Years as quickly dipped as far as the current Stock Market. Since we have Google to keep us informed, those younger no longer have to ask old people for advice or opinions. They have little understanding that the old people enjoy watching the young ones make all the same mistakes because they are too steeped in their own importance to ask someone who knows. One of these days I will find the three pages that I have noted and learned about, the good things about being old that I have not written here now. Youth just seems to last three or four times longer, accounting for how tired we all get when old!
I've written before on annoyances in later life (see this blog: http://ewelts.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html February 10
Graceful Aging, on 6-23-08: http://ewelts.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
I have heard it said that people mellow with age. I never understood that statement until recently. As you age, the earliest childhood inputs become as clear as though events just happened. We are more mellow, closer to our parents than we have been for many years. During those years of growing up, we had introjected the parents so that they are now a part of us. Remembering their comfort, support and decision making, we remember the safety and peace they provided for us as children. They live in our heads. We feel calmer and more mellow, or we go into complete separation and denial of the new generation (our grandchildren) and its parents (our adult children).
As with all things, there may be alternative reasons, such as, some people are just too tired to make waves any longer. They look quite calm much of the time. Maybe, though it is rarely admitted by parents, they just don't give a damn! Having spent so many years raising their own difficult, acting out and time-consuming children it gives the older family members joy to see their children finally understanding what their parents went through as they agonizingly wade through the same exhausting process with their own children. Usually that is when they finally come to truly appreciate their parents. Since their own children take the usual 2 or 3 decades to grow up and leave, the pleasure the old folks receive matches the years of servitude to the 'kids'.
What to a younger person may represent being alone and lonely, to the senior it represents a time of peaceful space inside and outside one's head to enjoy Nature, life in general, people, or whatever else we old folk like to take in as our due and our own.
We feel we earned the right to make our own choices, live our lives with abandonment of many of the earlier responsibilities, deadlines, and selflessness that precedes the 'Golden Years'. While the value of Gold as a metal has gone up exponentially, the value of the Golden Years as quickly dipped as far as the current Stock Market. Since we have Google to keep us informed, those younger no longer have to ask old people for advice or opinions. They have little understanding that the old people enjoy watching the young ones make all the same mistakes because they are too steeped in their own importance to ask someone who knows. One of these days I will find the three pages that I have noted and learned about, the good things about being old that I have not written here now. Youth just seems to last three or four times longer, accounting for how tired we all get when old!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Two Good Laughs
Today, Sarah Palin was campaigning for Chambliss in the South. As the ice in her veins was thawing out, her brain must also have begun to get a little mushy as she was heard to say something about the country being deeply in debt and going into more debt wasn't going to be a solution. I bow to her precise understanding of economics and that she is not currently in personal debt. Judging how she made out in the campaign on clothes, I have no doubt she manages well in her personal economics. While I missed the opportunity to get a direct quote, the meaning is still there. With profound thoughts like that, all I could do was thank the God I don't believe in just in case there is really one there, that she didn't get elected to anything outside Alaska where, it seems, she can't do too much damage to the lower 48.
On the Daily Show, someone was quoted as saying that the most valuable thing The US exports is their values. Jon Stewart's snappy reply was, "No wonder we're in a recession!" As i have noted before, more profound observstions come from the comics that the ridiculous news media, much of the time.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
DECEPTIVE OR MISNAMED?
While roaming around the dictionary as I do sometimes, I looked up Mission. Merriam Webster describes it as: Pronunciation: \ˈmi-shən\ Function: noun Etymology: New Latin, Medieval Latin, & Latin; New Latin mission-, missio religious mission, from Medieval Latin, task assigned, from Latin, act of sending, from mittere to send
Date: 1530
1 obsolete : the act or an instance of sending
2 a: a ministry commissioned by a religious organization to propagate its faith or carry on humanitarian work (b: assignment to or work in a field of missionary enterprise c (1): a mission establishment (2): a local church or parish dependent on a larger religious organization for direction or financial support d plural : organized missionary work Yiayia's note: Since we started a deadly war, these definitions seem unfitting. e: a course of sermons and services given to convert the unchurched or quicken Christian faith. Americans were never told we went to convert Iraqis to Christianity...though we were told we would be bringing a country-gift, like a house-gift, of Democracy...without contemplating whether it would be welcome.
3: a body of persons sent to perform a service or carry on an activity: as a: a group sent to a foreign country to conduct diplomatic or political negotiations b: a permanent embassy or legation c: a team of specialists or cultural leaders sent to a foreign country
4 a: a specific task with which a person or a group is charged b (1): a definite military, naval, or aerospace task (a bombing mission) Yiayia's note: This sounds a bit like an oxymoron, from the definitions above, but.... (a space mission) (2): a flight operation of an aircraft or spacecraft in the performance of a mission (a mission to Mars) c: a preestablished and often self-imposed objective or purpose Yiayia's note: Now it seems the definition is beginning to
fit! (statement of the company's mission)
5: calling , vocation
Another puzzler is Guantanamo
which is called Camp Justice.
Since the courts are still
trying to decide if,
in fact, justice is what is
being served, triggered by the
image of the statue of Justice
with her scales off balance from
her vomiting into them, or was
that pigeon poop?
Fox News: Fair and Balanced is another that fits in the category of 'deceptive or misnamed'. If Coombs is there attempt to make it so, they have failed miserably. Actually, they failed miserably, even if he isn't their token liberal.
Monday, December 1, 2008
THE RELATIVE WEIGHT OF THINGS
How many times have you heard things like, "The air is heavy"; "My mood is heavy"; "That's heavy, man". In fact, Merriam-Webster gives the longest list of definitions than most words I have seen:
1 a: having great weight; also: characterized by mass or weight (how heavy is it?) b: having a high specific gravity: having great weight in proportion to bulk c: (1)of an isotope: having or being atoms of greater than normal mass for that element (2)of a compound: containing heavy isotopes
2: hard to bear; specifically : grievous, afflictive (a heavy sorrow)
3: of weighty import : serious (heavy consequences)
4: deep, profound (a heavy silence)
5 a: borne down by something oppressive: burdened b: pregnant; especially: approaching parturition
6 a: slow or dull from loss of vitality or resiliency: sluggish (a tired heavy step) b: lacking sparkle or vivacity : drab c: lacking mirth or gaiety : doleful d: characterized by declining prices
7: dulled with weariness : drowsy
8: greater in quantity or quality than the average of its kind or class: as a: of unusually large size or amount (a heavy turnout), (heavy traffic) b: of great force (heavy seas) c: threatening to rain or snow, d(1): impeding motion (2): full of clay and inclined to hold water e: coming as if from a depth : loud (heavy breathing) f: thick, coarse (heavy syrup) g: oppressive (a heavy odor), (heavy weather), (rule with a heavy hand) h: steep, acute i: laborious, difficult (heavy going) j: immoderate (a heavy smoker) k: more powerful than usual for its kind (a heavy cavalry), (a heavy cruiser) l: of large capacity or output
9 a: very rich and hard to digest (heavy desserts), b: not properly raised or leavened, (heavy bread)
10: producing goods (as coal, steel, or chemicals) used in the production of other goods (heavy industry)
11 a: having stress, (a heavy rhythm) —used especially of syllables in accentual verse b: being the strongest degree of stress in speech
12: relating to theatrical parts of a grave or somber nature
13: long (heavy on ideas)
14: important, prominent
These are, indeed. weighty times. The world is in trouble with global warming,terrorists, and wars; people are weighted down by the holiday season with its heavy demands of all that must be done and, many hearts will be heavy when it is over. We will then be starting a new year. Obama as President has lifted our hopefulness for America's future which makes most of us feel lighter. For the first time in eight years, the empty glass is beginning to look as though it might soon be half full...though it may be only hope (which has no weight), not money enough to make the world a better place in a hurry.
You may choose to be hopeful and feel light; or you may choose to worry about things beyond your control and get bogged down with weighty hopelessness. I choose to look to the future with faith that there is enough good in the world to go beyond the evil that has been destroying the world for the past eight years. The law of averages will balance the world once again! It is time for the balance to shift.
1 a: having great weight; also: characterized by mass or weight (how heavy is it?) b: having a high specific gravity: having great weight in proportion to bulk c: (1)of an isotope: having or being atoms of greater than normal mass for that element (2)of a compound: containing heavy isotopes
2: hard to bear; specifically : grievous, afflictive (a heavy sorrow)
3: of weighty import : serious (heavy consequences)
4: deep, profound (a heavy silence)
5 a: borne down by something oppressive: burdened b: pregnant; especially: approaching parturition
6 a: slow or dull from loss of vitality or resiliency: sluggish (a tired heavy step) b: lacking sparkle or vivacity : drab c: lacking mirth or gaiety : doleful d: characterized by declining prices
7: dulled with weariness : drowsy
8: greater in quantity or quality than the average of its kind or class: as a: of unusually large size or amount (a heavy turnout), (heavy traffic) b: of great force (heavy seas) c: threatening to rain or snow, d(1): impeding motion (2): full of clay and inclined to hold water e: coming as if from a depth : loud (heavy breathing) f: thick, coarse (heavy syrup) g: oppressive (a heavy odor), (heavy weather), (rule with a heavy hand) h: steep, acute i: laborious, difficult (heavy going) j: immoderate (a heavy smoker) k: more powerful than usual for its kind (a heavy cavalry), (a heavy cruiser) l: of large capacity or output
9 a: very rich and hard to digest (heavy desserts), b: not properly raised or leavened, (heavy bread)
10: producing goods (as coal, steel, or chemicals) used in the production of other goods (heavy industry)
11 a: having stress, (a heavy rhythm) —used especially of syllables in accentual verse b: being the strongest degree of stress in speech
12: relating to theatrical parts of a grave or somber nature
13: long (heavy on ideas)
14: important, prominent
These are, indeed. weighty times. The world is in trouble with global warming,terrorists, and wars; people are weighted down by the holiday season with its heavy demands of all that must be done and, many hearts will be heavy when it is over. We will then be starting a new year. Obama as President has lifted our hopefulness for America's future which makes most of us feel lighter. For the first time in eight years, the empty glass is beginning to look as though it might soon be half full...though it may be only hope (which has no weight), not money enough to make the world a better place in a hurry.
You may choose to be hopeful and feel light; or you may choose to worry about things beyond your control and get bogged down with weighty hopelessness. I choose to look to the future with faith that there is enough good in the world to go beyond the evil that has been destroying the world for the past eight years. The law of averages will balance the world once again! It is time for the balance to shift.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
WHAT'S WITH PEOPLE AND BLACK FRIDAY?
Unbelievably, once again a crowd tramples a guy under a door to death! There is nothing but my own survival that would ever force me into a crowd like that. If people are really looking to save a dollar or two, why don't they just cut it somewhere else. I was unaware that there is a new toy that will be hard to get until after Christmas when it will clog up the shelves and be half the price. Why do people brainwash their kids into thinking there is something special about getting it on Christmas Day....or is it that the marketers have sold the kids who then blackmail the parents into believing it?
The Gift of the Magi was a different world. It seems that few can wait that long or give that much to anyone today. Love is defined differently than it used to be when there was a commitment to relationship founded on love. I'm not sure that was the best thing because a lot of people were miserable all their lives fulfilling that commitment but life was shorter then....that must have made it better for them, anyway.
Every commercial site seems to have a list of the best gifts for 2008.
A share of stock in a frame. Scratch tickets would be just as useful and the odds would probably be similar!
A second gift is not bad for people who love to fill their walls with themselves. It is a caricature of a couple in the first year of marriage. Later than that they will not need a caricature drawn, they will have become the caricature itself!
From Things Remembered in our great time of economic depression we can spend another $20 or more for a Christmas wish ornament.
Christmas Spirit became harder to hold onto when members of my family reached the point when they already had everything they wanted or could buy it, for the most part. The second reason is that, while it is easier to please small children, it is much harder when your entire gift list is for adults, much of it which must be boxed and mailed to people you haven't seen in a year and haven't any idea what they need or want. That takes the joy out of Christmas for me. I like to decorate the house, sing carols, and be with people I love, eat a great meal, and try to find some 'surprises'...things that people might enjoy but wouldn't have found for themselves. Get away from me Scrooge!!! No "bah humbugs" out of you this year!
The Gift of the Magi was a different world. It seems that few can wait that long or give that much to anyone today. Love is defined differently than it used to be when there was a commitment to relationship founded on love. I'm not sure that was the best thing because a lot of people were miserable all their lives fulfilling that commitment but life was shorter then....that must have made it better for them, anyway.
Every commercial site seems to have a list of the best gifts for 2008.
A share of stock in a frame. Scratch tickets would be just as useful and the odds would probably be similar!A second gift is not bad for people who love to fill their walls with themselves. It is a caricature of a couple in the first year of marriage. Later than that they will not need a caricature drawn, they will have become the caricature itself!
From Things Remembered in our great time of economic depression we can spend another $20 or more for a Christmas wish ornament.
Christmas Spirit became harder to hold onto when members of my family reached the point when they already had everything they wanted or could buy it, for the most part. The second reason is that, while it is easier to please small children, it is much harder when your entire gift list is for adults, much of it which must be boxed and mailed to people you haven't seen in a year and haven't any idea what they need or want. That takes the joy out of Christmas for me. I like to decorate the house, sing carols, and be with people I love, eat a great meal, and try to find some 'surprises'...things that people might enjoy but wouldn't have found for themselves. Get away from me Scrooge!!! No "bah humbugs" out of you this year!
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