HOW IS 'CLOSURE' DEFINED AND EXPERIENCED?

Mark Mardell of BBC asks whether the death of Osama bin Laden will allow the US to find closure about 9/11.  There can be closure on only one thing, that being Osama bin Laden's death.  Google defines closure as: 

• closing: approaching a particular destination; a coming closer; a narrowing of a gap; "the ship's rapid rate of closing gave them little time to avoid a collision"
• a rule for limiting or ending debate in a deliberative body
• a Gestalt principle of organization holding that there is an innate tendency to perceive incomplete objects as complete and to close or fill gaps and to perceive asymmetric stimuli as symmetric
• settlement: something settled or resolved; the outcome of decision making; "they finally reached a settlement with the union"; "they never did achieve a final resolution of their differences"; "he needed to grieve before he could achieve a sense of closure"
• blockage: an obstruction in a pipe or tube; "we had to call a plumber to clear out the blockage in the drainpipe"
• blockage: the act of blocking
• terminate debate by calling for a vote; "debate was closured"; "cloture the discussion"
• termination of operations; "they regretted the closure of the day care center"

Once again, my pet peeve with media strikes, is with this attempt to do another 'one-size-fits-all'.  First, the question will the US find closure.  The US is made up of government and now hundreds of millions of citizens with varying value systems and priorities..  Would it not seem logical that closure will depend on the individual experience each person has of the event?

Finding evidence that Osama was planning another attack in the US; hearing that while the head of the snake was amputated, the body lives on; it doesn't seem particularly likely that 'closure' would be felt similarly by all.  The only shared feeling by the majority seems to feel that some sort of justice was served with this death.  That is NOT closure other than the very. narrow act of death to bin Laden.  We are not talking about the kind of forgiveness Pope John gave to his attempted murderer.  We are talking about the continuing pain from never knowing a parent, living for years with a grieving parent, mourning one's spouse or child, as compared to the people who lost a business and had to start their lives from scratch but now might have gained success and new financial security.  If you let your head play for a bit with the possibilities you can see that the word closure is meaningless. For most, 9/11 will never be forgotten nor 'resolved'.

Furthermore, killing bin Laden does not put an end to terrorism or Al-Qaeda.  There might never be closure to the fear that somewhere, sometime, terror will strike again.

WHY DO THE REPUBLICANS THINK BUSH DESERVES CREDIT FOR THE CAPTURE OF BIN LADEN?

Last night Ed Schultz (MSNBC) showed video tape of the relevant phases of Bush 43's role regarding war with Iraq and Afghanistan as well as his attempts (or lack of them) to capture or deal directly with Osama bin Laden.  For the over 31,000 wounded and 4600 killed service men and women, I could find nothing to reward him for action towards the eventual capture of bin Laden.  While Republicans are claiming that the illegal torture at Guantanamo gained information that helped capture him so many years later, this has been denied by those who ultimately succeeded in killing bin Laden.  It boggles my mind that people think that the American deaths (to say nothing of the thousands of Iraqi deaths and those fewer from the coalition) happening while Bush was letting bin Laden escape Tora Bora was effort well spent.  Bush succeeded in hanging Hussein who had nothing to do with bin Laden's attack on the World Towers, nor at that time was Al-Qaeda entrenched in Iraq.

Lawrence O'Donnell (also MSNBC) interviewed Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of State during the Bush administration.  Her inability to take responsibility for herself or the Bush administration regarding the actions taken on false information and, seeming never to have questioned intelligence reports when there was conflicting evidence, was unacceptable for a person in the position she held.  It was shocking to hear the rigidity with which  she defended all their choices even when asked if, given the truthful information, would they have made the same decisions.  While some might view her allegiance to Bush as admirable, it defies the description of her role as Secretary of State...that of the need to think for herself.  It gave me chills as I heard her try to take total control of the interview  by becoming a brick wall, figuratively, and stonewalling every attempt he made to get her to answer a question..

NO RELEASE BY WHITE HOUSE OF OSAMA PHOTOS IN DEATH

Yesterday I wrote this blog with the recommendation that the photos not be released and gave a few of my reasons.  It was with satisfaction that I heard today that Obama had similar thoughts.  In fact, the White House added even more reasons in a similar vein.

Even Dr. Phil agreed as did many who really know the modern world of doctoring photos.  Those who disagreed should be relegated to a category of people living in the past, who really think a photo is worth doing because the damage will be outdone by the 'good' it will do for our country.   They are as naive as Pastor Jones in Florida who burned the Quran,

Rumsfeld is taking credit due waterboarding and says, "People are equating waterboarding with torture."  He must be living in an alternate world.   He, Cheney and Bush cannot go to Switzerland because they will be brought to court for torturing prisoners.  The Geneva Convention considers waterboarding as torture.  There were the three who were 'leading' our country for so long and brought us to our current mess.  Waterboarding is an ancient form of torture,  It is well documented.

If one wants to see just how ridiculous our media has become, turn on the news or go on the internet and read newspapers, blogs, and whatever you wish.  Each source will have a different story.  While I haven't had much faith in what the government said during the last administration, I have much more faith in the current one.  I do believe that Osama bin Laden is dead and that the Navy Seals killed him.  It is  pity that we still have American politicians asking for proof.

WHY OBAMA SHOULD NOT TRY TO CATER TO CONSPIRACY THEORISTS

We have already seen that proof and logic does not quell conspiracy theorists.  To show gruesome and graphic pictures to prove that bin Laden is dead is nonsense.  It will be said that they were 'photochopped'.  The DNA results will have no real meaning to most people.  Perhaps it is time that Obama, the House, and the Senate agree to state that they are fully convinced that it was OPbama that was killed and not try to prove too much.

It is far more of concern to me that the anonymity and safety of our Navy Seals is protected.  The populace does not all come from 'show-me, I'm from Missouri'. When conspiracy theorists cannot offer logic as to why someone would concoct such a scheme or in what way they would be benefited, it is time to stop tryi8ng to convince them.  It is a rule of psychotherapy that you do not try to make a depressed person happy.  If they are clinically depressed, talk therapy just will not achieve happiness.  I believe the theorists are very much like paranoid patients with whom I have worked.

A classic anecdote by a psychiatrist friend of mine went as follows.  As a resident, he had a female patient who insisted that a radio had been implante3d in her head and she could not shut it off.  Thinking to prove her wrong, he blushed as he wrote an order for radiology  of her head to determine whether there was a radio in there.  He showed her the results and said, "See, there is no radio in there."  She responded, "Of course not,  the doctors removed it before the x-ray and put it back in there after the picture was taken."  That, friends, is why some things can never be explained away to people who don't really want any truth but there own fantasy.

DID WE GET OUR 18 BILLION DOLLARS WORTH FROM PAKISTAN?

When our US dollar gets converted to rupees, it is worth far more than the amount given would have been to us.  The Currency Converter said:  "The United States Dollar is the currency in American Samoa (AS, ASM), British Virgin Islands (VG, VGB, BVI), El Salvador (SV, SLV), Guam (GU, GUM), Marshall Islands (MH, MHL), Micronesia (Federated States of Micronesia, FM, FSM), Northern Mariana Islands (MP, MNP), Palau (PW, PLW), Puerto Rico (PR, PRI), United States (United States of America, US, USA), Turks and Caicos Islands (TC, TCA), Virgin Islands (VI, VIR), Timor-Leste, Ecuador (EC, ECU), Johnston Island, Midway Islands, and Wake Island. The United States Dollar is also known as the American Dollar, and the US Dollar. The symbol for USD can be written $. The United States Dollar is divided into 100 cents. The exchange rate for the United States Dollar was last updated on May 2, 2011 from The International Monetary Fund. The USD conversion factor has 6 significant digits.

According to the converter, our 18 billion converts to $21,263,563,5.26    It would seem to me that there is a lot of indication that Pakistan has been lying to us.  While the Paul Ryans of our world are trying to take everything away from the poor of our country, why are they not looking at some of the vast amounts like that which is given to Pakistan.

I'd like to find an answer to this question but I guess I will just to have to wait.  We the people are not privy to (and shouldn't be) to all the decisions being made for people we have voted into office.    We certainly didn't get it when Bush is in office even when there were things we should have been told.  I really understand why we cannot know what is being planned in secrecy, as the mission to kill bin Laden.  I understand that just as I somehow knew that what my parents did in their bedroom was something I didn't need to know about, either.  Since I like to let the pros do their job without my interference, I'm happy to live in an age where we can all speak our minds and expect that some of our ideas, if they are really useful, might get heard and acted on.

BIN LADEN KILLED

What more can be said?  The US is reported to have his body in custody.  Al Qaeda will grow a new head, but like in Harry Potter, 'he who cannot be mentioned' chose an evil way of life, taking many innocent in his anger against  America.

While TeaPartiers were fighting about nonsense issues like funding Planned Parenthood, allowing Pro-Choice and the right for women to control their own bodies, as well as useless issues like the birther movement, Barack Obama was doing his job as President of the United States.

The news will be full of details so I will only write that while he was not ALL of the evil of the world, it
will make many people feel that the world is a slightly better place.  There are those who will fantasy that terrorism will slow down or stop.  It till not be likely to do that.  Revenge is a basic part of mid-Eastern culture. We have seen great evidence of that.   We can expect retaliation from the thousands of followers all over the world.

Not much is over, but a lot is just beginning.  Let us hope it will be positive for the good of the world.

FOR THE MOMENT, STEM CELL RESEARCH IS GIVEN ANOTHER REPRIEVE

An appeals court has overturned an earlier order suspending government funding of stem cell research.  That is wonderful news but comes several years too late to get back the researchers who left the country to go to countries who welcomed these scientists.  It is difficult to believe that this country is so quickly controlled by those who view life as beginning with a fertilized ovum.  If their religion included all live, what do they think when they eat an egg containing a fertilization?

Under 'better late than never' we note that   "The ruling marks a significant victory for US President Barack Obama, correspondents say.  President Obama lifted a ban on funding for stem cell research in March 2009. It has taken two years to get a favorable court ruling which allows research to resume.  Few people seem to realize that you can't just start a research.  First a protocol must be written, reviewed by institutional research boards, funding obtained, and staff hired to do the job.  I have seen this process take over a year to be completed, at times.

Just how much religion has infiltrated politics is just beginning to show up clearly.  The TeaParty represents much of this violation of the Constitution currently.

You can read the entire article by going clicking here.

This was another scientific setback, courtesy of a President who early on after his election, stripped the country of creative scientists and by not allowing foreign countries that got American aid to get family planning, killed literally thousands of babies. However, neither he nor his backers realize that we are not living in the age of early Christ, but in the 21st C.  The Constitution demands separation of church and state.  When is that going to happen?