I am just a common old working Lad

Tolerance Centers

2010-08-22T14:58:00.000-04:00

“Anything that helps people get over their ignorance about other people's cultures and religions is a good thing. If Islamic Centers of tolerance even in New York with its many cultures and religions will create more understanding which will help keep the peace, but other Islamic centers of tolerance are need throughout our nation maybe that would prevent another 9/11 and get us out of these wars on Islam (if our war machine will let that happen)”
The fact that Americans need more tolerance and understanding does not mean others do not need it as well. The seeds of 9/11 go back to the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I when the British and Americans split up the Middle East into countries they can control. (They thought so anyway). It may not seem like it but the human race has improved over time and will continue to do so. There are around 600,000 Muslims in the New York area with one of their leaders or Imam is Abdul Rauf who according the a New York Times article in the Sunday August 22nd 2010 paper has been trying his whole life to make a peaceful bridge between Americans and Islam. Abdul has been speaking around the Middle east to Muslims on how they should responded to American and European attacks on Islam like the Swiss ban on minarets saying “Why not have a mosque that looks Swiss?” Islam in America must take into account American values, but so must American take into account Islamic Values. True Islamic law or Sharing Law is not unlike Christian or Jewish Law all of which have been radicalized its fundamentalist groups like the Taliban, right wing Christian or Jewish Groups. Maybe it is wishful thinking that Tolerance Centers will make people take another look at the teachings of their own faith.

Tea party thinking Obama is a Marxist

2010-08-14T14:14:00.001-04:00

No Barack Obama is not a Marxist in fact Marx himself said that he was no Marxist and did not believe in revolutionary change, but that someday Capitalism will give way to Socialism. Capitalism failed in 1873, 1929, 1987, 2008 and will fail again it is not the government that failed, but the business community. The Chinese workers started way behind the American workers, but are catching up. Presidents or governments don’t matter as much as Tea Partiers think it is which people are interested to investing in the future.
What do the more serious Tea partiers (actually Fiscal Conservatives) never mind the racists and anti-government kool aid drinkers, lower Taxes and cut spending, Ok sounds good, but what spending do we cut your Police, Fireman, Hospitals, they would say Hell NO! How about cutting food stamps programs for the poor then it would be OK. The fact is everyone like socialist programs that benefit them or their families, but not someone else.
Fiscal Conservatives do have a point that we must live within a budget and all programs have to be within that budget. Just like your household budget nations must set priorities with necessaries coming first like health, Education, infrastructure (electrical Grid, high speed railroads, roadways and bridges) and if the is any money left the War Department. The American Taxpayer can no longer afford to police the world a international force paid for by the taxpayers of all nations is what is needed.

Military-adventurism

2010-07-15T16:25:00.000-04:00

Military-adventurism just leads to more Military-adventurism, besides if they cut all the waste out of the Military they could cut the Military budget in half without touching it’s effectiveness. If you look at Governments that who thought Military-adventurism would make them safer from Alexander the great on have failed to make them safe and lead to more Wars. The United States more any nation have fought War after War to solve problems that could have been solved and should have been solved peaceably for example in 1775 the biggest debate was that freedom for all also meant the slaves. If they had ended slavery there and then there would not have had to fight a bloody Civil War ninety years later. We can’t change the past, we can only change the future, and we can only hope we get wise enough to solve problems peaceably.

Why Legalize Pot?

2010-07-03T13:01:00.002-04:00

WWhen something doesn’t work, why continue to waste time and Taxpayer dollars on the “War on Drugs”. If you legalize marijuana you will at least cut into the profits of the Drug Lords which will bring down the border fighting along the US and Mexican border. If you legalize marijuana you will empty the prisons of the pot heads making more room for real criminals. If you legalize Marijuana you can tax it there by saving taxpayers money both on law enforcement end and the if you use it you pay for it end. We can fight Marijuana use the same way that we fight cigarette smoking and alcohol use both of which are more successfully than the “War on Drugs”

Conservatives Apology to BP

2010-06-19T16:02:00.001-04:00

Conservatives want the American Taxpayers to apologize to BP and big oil in General for making them pay at least some of the money needed to fix their mess in the Gulf.

The American over dependence on oil started about a hundred years ago when the oil barons like John D Rockefeller decided for us that we go with the internal combustion engine instead of the developing the electric engine and destroying one of the best Mass transit systems in the world. So they could see better profits and it worked for them. The American people were kept happy with artificial low Gas prices After World War one and the Collapse of the Ottoman empire when the British and American installed puppet dictators in the oil rich middle east.

Well we are now paying the price in more ways than one.

These are the best of times, not the worst of times

2010-05-12T14:44:00.001-04:00

While doing Genealogy I have come to realize that my generation must be the luckiest ever born for my family suffered on the low end of Society for at least the last three hundred years. There were many branches of the Family Tree that go back to Ireland were they were probably Tenant Farmers living at the whim of their lord. Some moved on to Scotland to work in the factories and mills. There is plenty of evidence that until the latter part of the ninth century many of them couldn’t read or write signing their marriage certificates with an X. at least on my father’s side I think my grandparents were the first one to go to school for it wasn’t considered necessary for poor laborers to be educated until factory owners need them to be more skilled. Even after they were sent to school most only went to school until they were fourteen reporting the next day to the factories, mills or mines. My Mother told me that she left school at nine years old first working in the fields picking strawberries then in the wool mills of Alva Scotland. When she was about twenty years old her mother arranged for her and two of her cousins go to New York. The year was 1929 so they left one depression for another. They worked as Maids in Brooklyn, her two cousins getting home sick went back to Scotland. My mother stayed only because she met my father who had just arrived in New York himself. My Dad left Scotland because he was an Irish Catholic in a country that hated both and let my father know it. My brother, sister and me have had it easy compared to the generations just before us and I am sure the whole family hopes for a even better future.
I think most work class people have similar stories one generation trying to improve the lot of the next and our generation. Certainly we lived through best economic times due to the “cold war” and the industrial complex built up since just before World War Two. Now since the beginning of our nation the wealthier class has tried to keep the lower classes in check feeding them just enough to keep them quiet. We have been feed well enough in my life time to make a lot of people think they are middle class, but that was by exploiting working class people in other nations. The improvement in commutations first with Radio, then with Television and now with the Internet it is getting hard for the upper classes to control the information flow between the working people of the world. It is always hard to forecast the future, but if history teaches us anything it is that the lot of common people is very slowly getting better. It may not seem like at any one moment in time, but the working people of the world are more aware today than they ever were, they only have to listen to all points

Futile Gestures

2010-02-20T14:52:00.000-05:00

A Texas man flies his plane into a Office building where the US Government’s IRS has offices, Senator bails out because the US Senate is a “Dysfunctional System”, Obama talking to Republicans all these have one thing in common they are all Futile Gestures and I know something about Futile Gestures I like hundreds of millions of people around the world in 2002-2003 protested going to war and killing even more people, you can see where that got us. It is hard to feel sorry for a Texas man with Tax troubles the fact he own a plane means he was better off than most people in this world. Lucky he did kill anybody except himself, as for the IRS he might have made the one office’s work a little harder and he got his 15 minutes of fame too bad he can’t enjoy it. Then there was Evan Bayh Quit the senate instead of staying to try to make it work better, from what I read he seems not to have a very good record in the Senate anyway, not everyone is cut out to be a Legislator so Evan don’t let the door hit you on your way out. It hasn’t matter how much Obama gives in to the Republicans they will stonewall him every time. We need to change our system of government from a Republic to the parliamentary System it is not perfect, but it might work better than what we got.
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Rambling on about Religion and Politics and so on

2010-01-31T15:32:00.000-05:00

The views expressed in this blog are mine, which are contently under review, subject to change if some buddy has a better idea I listen. When you read the Bible did you ever wonder why Jesus didn’t write a Gospel? We have to read Mark, Matthew, Luke and John all written with a little different version of the same story about his message. Maybe Jesus wanted us to search out and learn how God created the world rather than telling him. If we read the Bible horizontally rather than vertically we see the differences and must use our own reasoning to understand Jesus’ message. Jesus’ message is or should the heart of the Christian religion. (not the Old Testament or Saint Paul) Jesus’ message to me is that we should all work to make sure that everyone in our society is provided with their basic needs, that everyone in society is equal. Just saying his name no matter how many times is not enough, reading his words, but not thinking about what they mean is not enough. I hope when people say they are living with Jesus that is what they mean. When the communist took over Russia I wonder why they turned against religion Carl Marx’s message is very much in sync with the message of Jesus, but a guess it was more about power and who has the ears of the Russian people mattered more. What I hear and read about Carl Marx is that he wanted to build on capitalism not replace it and some countries have done that successfully. It shouldn’t take a tragedy Like New Orleans or Haiti for us to realize the need of others, but we can’t change the past and we can only hope for a better tomorrow, but we can change the present which is not always easy. If we do away with sweatshops we will have to pay more at Wal-Mart. Now are we willing to do that and lower a own standard of living to raise another person’s standard so can feed and educate their children. I heard a story of a woman in Bangladesh that formed a union to raise the workers pay at the Shirt factory (Sweatshop) where she worked from a penny a shirt to two pennies a shirt so that they could give their children meat with their rice, but Wal-Mart who was the one buying the shirts said no and in fact would cut their pay to penny for two shirts or they would find another country willing to make the shirts for less. The people at Wal-Mart are not bad people to them it is just business “the bottom Line” they are doing what their customers want. So praying, going to church every Sunday is the easy part, living as a Christian is the hard part. Politicians don’t make that easy either they tell the people what they want to hear which is changed by the Media just to make it even more confusing.
I know some people will get offended by this blog so I am not going to put it on Facebook , just on my blog page and ancestry.com for in doing Genealogy I came to realize that I don’t know how these people thought and maybe if anyone in the future wondered that about me well here it is.

Money Talks, People Work

2010-01-22T12:25:00.001-05:00

The latest ruling by the Supreme Court 5 to 4, that Corporations have the right to overshadow middle/working class Americans access to their government. This is misusing the First Amendment as they have even before the ink was dry on the First Amendment to the Constitution. The Framers our Government were all rich land owners who wanted to make sure that they always held the power over the working class Americans. They even kept the vote to themselves for to vote you had to be a Rich, White, a man and a land owner. Over the last 234 years the class warfare between middle/working class activist and Rich land owners/corporations, the activist have little by little gained the rights for different groups among the American people. The battles are between the weak and the powerful so the progress is slow taking generations and sometimes it may seem hopeless like after the big losses we just took, but if you look at history you see that we are gaining ground. We can gain more ground if we don’t stop for Tea Parties.

2009 a year that started with hope that wasn’t realized.

2009-12-31T13:15:00.000-05:00

This year 2009 started out with a lot of hope with the election of our first African-American President, of who I have to say that I had my doubts I supported Hillary Clinton thinking she as well as John Edwards were more for Universal Health Care than Obama. Obama even then seem to be for too much compromise, I think the Obama took the saying “Politics is the art of compromise” too much to heart. The first issue that came up was what was called “Tarp” a 700 billion dollar bail out of the economy. So right from the start the bill had 40% Tax Cuts because the Republicans want only more tax cuts for the rich who they say will invest it in creating American Jobs, even though they same rich people spent the last decade investing the money in Chinese jobs. A lot of the rest went to Bailing out Wall Street with very little going to rebuilding the Electric grid, Transportation system, and renewable emerge which would put American to work doing jobs that needs to be done.
Then there was the Health Care Bill, Now do you think they started with Universal Health Care with a single payer system which would not only cover all Americans, but relieve businesses of having to providing health benefits to their employees there by again providing American jobs. I don’t think that Obama was ever really for Universal Health care so he and the Democrats start with a Compromised Health Care bill with a watered down “Public Option” instead. The only reason they even had that into in the bill was to play the Progressives along, they always intended to pull it out at the last moment.
The Stock Market recovered from 2008 somewhat, but had it’s up and down ending up around 10,000. What with Wall Market investors reacting to every rumor proving once again that Wall Street investors don’t know any more than anyone else. When Tiger Wood got into trouble the investors started to sell all the stocks of Companies he endorsed as if the only reason people buy their products is because Tiger Woods endorsed them.
America got more deeply drawn into Afghanistan while still occupying Iraq and eyeing Yemen and Iran there by keeping Military Complex going.
One good thing that happened in 2009 is that Yankees won the World Series

Government of the People

2009-12-25T13:25:00.000-05:00

Whenever I comment on some issues with my mostly progressive opinions someone with a more Conservative view would give a list of “Government” failures like Social Security, Medicare, Postal Service and the latest one the Railroads usually stating that they don’t make money or are even losing money. I could and usually do answer how each is actually a success or more a corporate failure (which is the case with the Railroads). It came to me that people think of Government as some big corporate entity trying to run their lives, but just like buildings don’t make a church the People do, so it is the same with a Government, if we create a national community working together then our Government will be a success. Now of course government services needs to be within a budget that taxpayers can afford, but priorities have to be set to what serves the America people best. We should vote for Politicians who wants to serve the people and not a party or ideology, you can’t tell me that all Republicans think alike and just Democrats differ it is hard to believe there are so many narrow minded persons in Congress what are we thinking when we elect them I don’t know.
One thing I like about the history of working people is you can see how we improved generation by generation; a lot of this has to do with how we communicate with one another with the internet common people around the world can talk unfiltered. I believe we will grow into one global community with more understanding between people with different beliefs we will be more tolerant with no need for weapons.

We the Human Family

2009-12-13T14:53:00.001-05:00

I posted a comment on the Huffington Post on Obama's speech in Oslo someone else posted a reply

Barack Obama's Oslo Speech: A Caption-Summary With Excerpts

Commented Dec 12, 2009 at 16:02:11 in World

"The Nazi's, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban were and are not from a Galaxy far, far away they are from this planet. We created them through our feeling that we are better than other people therefore justified to murder them (make a "Just war" against them) Obama made nothing, but excuses for war when there is none."

PodiumPerfected replied on Dec 12, 2009 at 17:10:55

"Who's this "we" you speak of?"

Who's this "We" may seem like a little question, "We" the Human Family have been working on the answer for thousands of years ever since we were a small group out of Africa over 40,000 years ago and have since filled Libraries trying to answer that basic question "who are we?" Now I have the idea that PodiumPerfected knows already who this we is that I am speaking about and maybe only joking, but I will try in my very small way to try and answer it. I am pretty sure that when our family was a small group fighting to stay alive there was probably some that wanted to take more risks than others, but also realized that as individuals they would perish that they need each other to survive. Since then our dysfunctional family has struggled to understand our world and our place in it. Over time our family grew very large spreading around our planet spiting into groups with different ideas.

The Nazi's never had an original thought they used the ideas that were already there using the churches for their own purposes The Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are both using ideas grown out of Islam which grew out of Judaism and Christianity.

When the only communication was through word of mouth the people that lived in the same area had similar ideas, but didn't get along with people in other areas. Then as communication improved so did peoples understanding of one another, writing, Telephone, Television and now the Internet. The pace maybe slow, but we will get there if our time doesn't run out first (Global warming) there will come a time when there is no longer a need for War.

Thankful for the good Time in which to live

2009-11-23T13:36:00.001-05:00

I have to be thankful for the time period in which I spent my life, born in 1941 the Generation before me (like my parents) had to live through Great Depressions, two World Wars and the Flu academic of 1918-1920. My generation and the ones just after it lived their lives during the Golden age in west especially the United States thanks in large part to the cold war which gave birth to the Industrial Complex and Bank credit that gave birth to credit cards. Our Generations had a good time taken advantage buying big fast gas burning cars, building large tracks of suburban single home developments and eating fast foods. We certainly had a good time while we were the Global Market, but as companies themselves became Global sending jobs from the United States to slave labor nations there by lowering their cost, so unfortunately we spent for the now instead of building a nation that can compete in future generations. China is now investing in technologies for the 21^st century our congress debates about issues we should have solved 60 years ago.

The War to End All Wars

2009-11-11T15:08:00.002-05:00

World War one ended ninety-one years ago today which as most war was completely unnecessary war between cousins, but cost the lives of millions of common working people. Generals in that war use the wrong tactics which against new technologies like the machine gun cost them so many men they had to send back first to London then later to Washington for more troops. If this sounds familiar it is for today's Generals are still asking for more troops which shows that in the view of Generals the Value of the common Soldier has not gone up in 91 years.

The Islamic Mind set

2009-11-11T08:49:00.001-05:00

There has been a lot of talk lately about how the Muslims view those of other religions, who they seem to think it alright or even God's will for them to kill. They view the wars in the Middle East has wars between Christians/Jews and Muslims and not has most Westerners see it in non-religionist terms. The only way peace can come to the Middle East is for this mind set to change, but you can't change anybody's mind with bombs or occupying their lands. Now I am no expert on the Middle East, but it seems to me that there are more reasonable people of the Islamic faith that can live in harmony with the rest of the world community. If we help these more reasonable people have better live for themselves and their families the likes of the Taliban or Al Qaeda would fade away. It might seem a lot slower way to go than just bombing them, but it is the only way that might work while being safer for all.

Western Europeans' went through a similar phase from about the 1500's to today where a lot of people died for or because of the faith, we are now slowly evolving out of that mind set as the growing Anti-War Movement attest to throughout the Western World. The only thing we can do is to help this same respect for human life that is just now taken hold in our community will grow faster in the Islamic community.

Misconceptions

2009-10-20T12:44:00.001-04:00

While I was reading today's installment of David Rohde's experiences of being Held by the Taliban he talked about his guards misconceptions of the West. David chalked their conceptions up to being uneducated that got me thinking that he was agreeing with their conceptions that coincided with his own conceptions, but disagreeing with those that don't agree with his conception. One of the misconceptions he says they have is that the Taliban guards think that all Americans are Rich. Now maybe from where they stand most Americans they see or hear about it is true. The Uneducated he is talking about have a High School or Junior High education and are not well traveled, well most Americans fit that description. What is meant by an educated conception is learning other people's conceptions and making them your own. We all have misconceptions, things we think are absolutely true that are not true. The only thing we can do is to challenge all our conceptions by hearing out other people, looking at the issue from where they stand using reason to decide between them.

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-09T18:45:00.001-04:00

My first reaction is that it is a little early there is still two major wars going on and a couple of hot trouble spots. He did make a grand speech in Cairo Egypt for international understanding. I wonder if this is more about influencing the future than about what happened in the past. What will they do if he in fact does bring peace to the Middle East give him another Nobel Peace Prize? I think they should have waited for him to bring troops home instead of sending more to war.

Medical Care for illegal-immigrants

2009-09-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

The President was right the Health Care bill states in plain English that even Joe Wilson should be able to understand that it does NOT cover illegal-immigrants, but Hospitals can't refuse to give medical care to someone who needs it now and the taxpayer already picks up the tab, which probably won't change.
American seem willing to take illegal-immigrants labor, but unwilling to pay them a living wage or even give them medical care. If the American people didn't exploit them to get something cheap they wouldn't be here in the first place.

Health Care Choices

2009-08-19T07:49:00.000-04:00

Many of those who complain that a Public option takes away their choices don't really have any choices now, most Health Insurance companies are in the States with the largest population density such as Florida, New York and California, many other states have just one insurer now, so a Public Option would improve their choices and their Health care.
It seems that the people that would benefit the most from Universal Health Care are the one that are against it. The Public Option as it is called does not go far enough, but it is a start in the right direction. I personally might be more hurt since I had my Health Insurance paid by Verizon until I went on Medicare and now they pick up to secondary insurer, but I am think of my children and their children, the high cost of our present health care system as and drive companies out of the USA for it is the cost of Health care not wages that cost American jobs. What we need is a Single Payer Universal Health Care System.

Paying for Social Security and Medicare

2009-08-14T21:46:00.003-04:00

The problem with SS and Medicare is the good times our parents had in the 1940’s and 50’s making us baby boomers and we didn’t return the favor, so now there are less workers than retired baby boomers. If you raise or eliminate the cap on Social Security and Medicare Contributions until we all die off the problem should either go away if you have a lot of kids or be someone else’s problem.

Healthcare should be paid for through single payer and benefits adjusted to those funds that would take the pressure off small businesses to hire more people at good wages, so there won’t be 40 million uninsured

Malpractice insurance is killing medical costs so must be reformed to be fair to both Doctors and patients

Sonia Sotomayor

2009-05-30T07:33:00.001-04:00

One of the criticisms thrown at Judge Sonia Sotomayor is that she feels what effect laws have on people and not just deciding cases strictly by the law. What they really mean is a Conservative view of the law. How can any person decide a case without thinking the effects of that decision unless they are robots and who wants a robot as their Judge? When Sonia was a young lawyer said that as a Puerto Rican woman she has more qualified to be a Judge than many white men and many conservatives have jumped on this to call her racist. When you first look at this statement it looks like a racist statement, but when you put it in context, I think and hope she meant that being raised poor in the Bronx, losing her Father when she was only nine, that her life experiences mean she can Identify with more people than a White men from a rich family that had everything handed to them. Everyone views what they see by their past experiences no matter how little or how much education they may have. It can only be hoped that Sonia Sotomayor has the experience to be able to put herself in another persons shoes.

Tax and Spend

2009-05-26T08:55:00.001-04:00

Paul Krugman column in the NY Times on Monday May 25, 2009, The State of Paralysis in California saying that the problem with the California budget dates back about 30 years when the Voters of California Passed Proposition 13 a ballot measure that placed cap on property taxes. This leaves the California budget to depend on income taxes for most of its money and in a recession that money dries up leaving California in a big hole. Paul Krugman seem to say that putting a cap on property taxes is a bad idea because seniors are paying less taxes on their homes than younger home owners. Why can't the spending part of the budget be cut as much as I hate to agree with conservatives the income tax is the fairest of all taxes because people only pay what they can afford and doesn't throw them out of their homes. State budgets are by their nature harder to cut because they have more meat and less fat, the federal budget on the other hand has a lot of fat called the military budget. The Bush administration spent most of the budget on the military and building Iraq and cut the domestic budget to the bone. Now the Obama administration is spending on the domestic budget, but is still spending almost the same amount on the military budget so the balance between money coming in and the money going out is out of balance giving us a big deficit. If we as a country finally come to realize that we cannot afford an empire and close most if not all of our bases overseas, cut military budget in half (it is now 57% of the federal budget). We must move from a war time economy to a peace time economy then we will enough money for both federal and state spending.

Star Trek

2009-05-25T18:58:00.001-04:00

Here we go again, the same old crew, but new actors the new Star Trek Movie is very good. My Wife, Son and I went to see it on Monday (5/11/09) and enjoy it. The actors seem to be picked to look like the original actors of TV Series. You would think it would be a poor copy of the original, but they did a good job and the movie would be enjoyable to even those not interested in science fiction.

Pelosi vs. the CIA

2009-05-25T18:48:00.001-04:00

Nancy Pelosi who has been speaking out against torture was attacked by Republicans who said she was briefed by the CIA in 2003 about their plans to torture detainees. Nancy says that the CIA never said they were going to actually going to do it, just that it was one of the things they were thinking about doing. The CIA said that the record of the meeting says they did tell her they plan to torture at the briefing. Nancy then said that the CIA was lying whereupon the Republicans attacked her again saying that the CIA never lies. Now it must be remembered that Nancy Pelosi was in the briefing by herself, not being allowed any of her aids to company her. She not allowed to make a record of the briefing or to ask any questions, the only record was made by the CIA. One CIA agent whom the CIA record said was at the meeting later admitted that he was not at the meeting which of course backs up Nancy Pelosi that the CIA lied.

Now I may only be a common old working lad, but even I know that the CIA is in the business of lying and rarely tells the truth only what they want you to know. The CIA is worst than useless it is dangerous, their lies lead us into the Iraq War and has killed 3,000 civilians on 9/11 and almost 5,000 in the US Military. One way I would cut the budget is to do away with the CIA and sale the Headquarters at Langley to the highest bidder.

Catholic Church Abuse in Ireland

2009-05-22T18:42:00.001-04:00

There was an article in the New York Time on May 21, 2009 about a 2600 page report on the Catholic Church's abuse in residential schools. Tens of thousands of children (mostly orphans) were Sexually, Physically and emotionally were abused by nuns, priests and other Catholic personal. The article and one letter from the Catholic league try to minimize the blame of the church. The report is only the latest documents of abuse by the church which only covered a little over 60 years because they only interviewed people that were still alive. The abuse of the Irish people by the Catholic Church actually started in the 15^th century after the Catholic king James was defeated by the Protestants and the Catholic Church was Anglicized and told the Irish it was a sin to learn to read and they suffering made them better Christians. All the books I have read, most always has at least one incident of abuse by priest, nun or teacher, it is all through Irish History and might be coming to an end only now that the church is losing its power over the Irish people.

If Ireland can move to be a more secular then battle between Catholics and Protestants will be over with it the abuse of the Irish people by both religions. So hopefully the future will be brighter for the Irish.

American Morality a one way street

2009-05-17T16:55:00.001-04:00

After World War Two the United States along with others made the German people go though Nazis Death Camps so they would see the horrors their government did in their name. Then at Nuremburg the American government brought to Justice all the German officials holding them responsible for their Criminal acts they could find. Yet the American were blocked from seeing the worst pictures of American massacre of Vietnamese villages during the Vietnam War and now President Obama is blocking them again from seeing the criminal acts of their government. If we thought it would help the German people to see the concentration camps, then why not the American people. Some say it will hurt the American Forces now invading Iraq and Afghanistan, well for one thing they should be there in the first place, second it is not as thro our enemies need pictures to confirm what they already know and third if you can't do the time, then don't do the crime. These pictures are just another instance of American one way morality.

Another instance is Military Tribunals that President Obama was against, but once again changed his mind and now he is for them saying because America has a long history of using Military Tribunals, but America has a long history of doing a lot of things wrong. You are suppose to learn from history by correcting what you got wrong the first time and doing the right thing. The worst type of court is a Military court which 99% of the time already have their minds made up after all it is their enemy that is on trial.

This yet another example of why we need an international court with the power to hold existing governments responsible for their actions and not having to wait for them to fall.

Politicians working for themselves or for their constituency

2009-05-08T13:24:00.001-04:00

When Vice-president Joe Biden was a candidate he said that "as a Roman Catholic he was against abortion, but most of his constituencies in Delaware were Pro-choice. So as their senator he supported and voted for Pro-choice legislation" which is the way I think it should be. The right wingers use to make a big deal out of the fact the Bush didn't listen to polls and they say that President Clinton did listen to the polls. Our Government is a representative Democracy Politician are elected to represent their Constituents not themselves. We saw with President Bush not listening lead to one disaster after another not that the people are always right, but as the public becomes more educated and it is up to each person to be as knowledgeable as they can be so they are informed voters. Now the other side of that is should you vote for politicians that changes their positions of issues to please their constituents. I guess it comes down to what their voting record is in congress if you agree with the legislation that they support you vote for them, but you have to understand the issues and now they effect you.

US Stress Test for Banks

2009-05-08T10:27:00.000-04:00

The Test results which is more of a report on the finances' of the biggest banks to see if they can stand an even worst down turn of the nation's economy and to the surprise of no one some need more money. The report says they are strong, but need about $75 Billion more dollars of taxpayers' money (most to Bank of America 34.9 Billion). Some investors say the report was too easy and some say it is too hard on the banks and just showed what the inspectors wanted to see, but I think that is true of most if not all business and government reports tend to show what we want them to show. The real question is whether the businesses such as Banks or Auto Companies should be bailed out by taxpayers or allowed to fail or nationalized. Those are the options now bailing them out maybe only a temporary solution and add to the national debt. Allowing business to fail or what is called "Free" market would result in only one company surviving in any one industry and having no comparison. Nationalization which most Americans have a fear of because they are contently being told the government would mean a big bureaucracy which is true in any case of course, but they fail to tell you that your choice is between government bureaucracy and private business bureaucracy. One working for the people and the other for profit (the bottom line) which one do you think has your best interest in mind? If we are going to put our money into banks we might as well run them and keep the credit flowing to our country's business that create jobs here.

Who is panicking the public?

2009-05-02T20:34:00.001-04:00

The talking heads on the TV News were all over Vice-President Biden this week for his comment about Swine Flu the on the Today Show When he said "I wouldn't go on the Subway or on an airplane" . The talking heads who are were talking on and on about how bad the Swine flu is for about week already making it out to be worst than it is as they always do were all over Joe Biden says that he is telling people to stay off Mass transit, but that is not what he said he only said that he wouldn't if he were sick. Joe Biden is the one that took the Trains to and from Delaware – Washington DC for the 30 plus years he was in Congress. I guess they have to have someone to pick on now that Bush is gone and Joe Biden has been elected.

Obama covers up Bush’s Crimes

2009-05-02T20:03:00.001-04:00

Barrack Obama says if crimes happen in the pass we should forgive them and move on which proves what I have been saying all along that only a international court can investigate and punish any government leaders for crimes against humanity. The only time the upper class is punished for their crimes is when they lose their power. The cover up of Bush's crimes is nothing new they didn't punish Nixon for his crimes or Johnson for his crimes or for that matter any of the forty-four Presidents. This country talks big about freedom and democracy, but when it comes down to it they are all to willing to give up their freedom for a little safety or to go against all their principles for their 30 pieces of gold. The real question is will Society ever change and I think little by little it is and the mass commutations like the internet hopefully means the world can someday change for the better.

Sacrificing for Democracy

2009-04-09T16:17:00.001-04:00

We are always unfortunately hearing about soldiers sacrificing their lives for Democracy and most people are proud of their sacrifice. Yet when it comes time for them to just change (Not Sacrifice) their lives they don't want to and even fight the change. Secretary of Defense Gates in his new budget wants to cut weapon systems designed to fight enemies that no longer exist and change to weapons for today's enemies. Now I think they should make even deeper cuts, but there are whose that want for us to continue to waste money on useless weapons because their state makes a lot of money off them which is what Eisenhower warned us about. Now they could try to change over to what they call now a Green industry, but they are against change even if it would help them and their nation. Where is their sacrifice for Democracy?

Talking about green industry there are people in the Coal and Oil industries that are trying to stop our democracy from moving on to Green energy like wind, solar and hydroelectric because their state (like West Virginia) main industry is mining and they are afraid to change over the wind farms with a little retraining they can make more money in a cleaner and safer industry, but they would have to change. Where is their sacrifice for Democracy?

The same people that want a larger than needed military budget are the same one that don't want to pay for it or even the medical care for the wounded soldiers coming home from the their war. A lot of people who complain about taxes complain most about the income tax, yet the income tax is the fairest of all the taxes people pay because it is based on your ability to pay. Yes! The rich and powerful get away with paying little or nothing at all, but that is because they write the laws and get away with paying little or nothing of any of the taxes. Where is their Sacrifice?

Brown Fat is it the Holy Grail?

2009-04-09T08:46:00.001-04:00

We are always looking for a way to eat as much as we want and still have a healthy body. Well sciences may have found that we had it all along in our bodies in what they call Brown fat that burns calories instead of storing them. Scientists say Brown Fat is activated by cold rooms or by injecting epinephrine or adrenaline and ephedra an herbal supplement containing epinephrine can stimulate brown fat said Dr. Rubdolph Leibel, co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center. But as Dr Leibel says "It fits the fantasy – I eat what I want and burn it off however that fantasy is still far off". Just our luck born too early yet again.

Zero Tolerance makes Zero sense.

2009-03-24T13:24:00.001-04:00

Ben Franklin once said "whose that gives up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither". Well in a case that has reached the Supreme Court a school in Safford Ariz. Savana Redding then only 13 years old was Strip Searched by two female school employees because she was suspected of having ibuprofen on her. This would be against the School's anti-drug policies. She didn't have any on her and her mother was furious so she got a lawyer and took the school to court.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco ruled the school officials had violated the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches. Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw said "It does not require a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13 year old child is an invasion of constitutional rights". The argument for the school was that they had the good intensions of the health and safety of their students. They would not only not make their students safe from drugs, but they would put them in danger of authority figures going overboard..

Who Can you Trust?

2009-03-19T15:11:00.001-04:00

Right now everyone is angry over the bonuses given out by AIG to their top Executives. AIG CEO Liddy says the bonuses were given under contacts that cannot be broken, but when it comes to contacts with workers well it is alright to brake them. They can try to save the big three auto makers by breaking the Auto Union Contact and cut the Auto workers pay to one third on what is was. Now there are people that want to break the teacher's contacts on how they get paid and fired. Merit pay may sound like the right way to go, but that would mean that teachers would have to teach only what their local school board (who are nothing, but Politicos) no mare science that goes against the bible with this country already so far behind in science merit pay for teachers will insure us falling even farther behind.

These AIG executives are getting their bonuses for selling insurance contacts that their company had no money to back up in other words they were already taken money under false pretenses. Now I know they sole their money legally, but there should be a law against to protect the consumer. It come down to the old saying that if you have a lot of money already you can steal a lot more and if you are poor can't even keep the money you earn honestly.

Throwing money at financial institutions

2009-03-16T11:25:00.000-04:00

The taxpayers of the United States are up in arms about the government giving their money to financial institutions like the Big Banks and investment firms on “Wall Street”. These institutions seem to the operating like the Mafia only less honest about the way they handle our money. The government tries to handle the Mafia by making them obey the rule of law, while setting up rules for financial institutions is considered to be Socialism (Which of course is one of America’s fear words).
What previous administrations went wrong with the “Free Market” is they made it too free everyone has to have rules to live by and all our freedoms are measured. We are all free to drive a car, but we also must obey to rules of the road. Socialism to me just means that Institutions that affects everyone in Society should be managed by that society for the benefit of the whole nation.
What the Obama did wrong was not to have set up rules before throwing money. Maybe they are trying to the thing too fast, but if he get half of what he is trying to do we will be a better society.

Obama weighing his options

2009-03-13T09:12:00.002-04:00

Obama seems to be the most thinking president we have ever had, listening to both sides of an issue, and then weighting them to see what the right way to go. He tries to go with facts over Ideology, but need the votes of Congressman and Senators that do give in the Ideology, The issue of hiring and firing Teachers on the bases of merit sounds like the right thing to do and it may even work in some areas, but not in others. If you leave it up to the local School Boards then the Teacher's job becomes a political job and you will have fights over religion and Science, Obama maybe doing the best thing by trying to do everything at once for his time is limited and as we have seen in the past Presidents when we get new president it may be back to nothing getting done. I don't know how he can deal with all he has on his desk and still think things through,but he is our best chance to improve things for all the people of this world.

The International Court of Justice

2009-02-03T10:58:00.001-05:00

The Obama administration is afraid to bring Bush and his cronies to Justice because he needs the Republican support for his programs, so we will probably get neither. The international court of Justice is the only place where both sides can be heard and judged correctly. That is the reason America will not recognize an international court too many of our actions would be judged Criminal

Meet the Press 2-1-2009

2009-02-01T14:29:00.000-05:00

Meet the press had a round table discussion with all pro-Banking people; there was Steve Forbes, Mark Zandi, and Erin Burnett. No one representing the middle class working person or even small businesses which are generally called “Main Street”, YES Erin there is a Main Street the world does not begin and end with Wall Street. Workers are asked to cut their pay to a quarter of what it once was, but Bankers can get a hundred Million dollars for making the bank one million or in a lot of cases losing the bank money. If the workers have to cut their standard of living so should the bankers. Building low income housing for people with bad mortgages would be a good start. If the Tax payer is going the pay for the loans anyway why do we need a middle man if the Government loans the money to small businesses they will start hiring again and we can get started rebuilding America all of it not just Wall Street

Obama's Stimulus Plan

2009-01-31T13:07:00.002-05:00

Obama wanted to be Bipartisan so he watered down his Stimulus Plan with Republican so called “Tax Cuts” that at one time had limited success, but now that we have a Global economy Corporate cut tax cuts would go to China and India or in their pockets as Bonuses. The Republicans are just interested in getting a campaign issue on the Democrats, by making sure the Stimulus Plan does not work. So why don’t the Democrats fix the Stimulus Plan by putting things in that will put people back to work and have the added bonuses of fixing things like the electrical network, roads, bridges, Mass transit and Health care with some tax breaks for small businesses that will spend the money here in the USA

Sen Gillibrand

2009-01-25T09:54:00.000-05:00

Sen. Chuck Schurmer says that Gillibrand’s views will change as she gets out into the real world just as his did, but the fact that she thinks Gun-control has something to do with hunting means she is starting a lot further back than he was when he started.

Caroline Kennedy wanted to go into the senate because someone has to pick up the Healthcare torch from her Uncle Ted and she didn’t see anyone else really into it as her uncle is, but she is more like her mother than her father, Jackie was a good person, but not a public one.

The Labor Agenda

2009-01-03T07:24:00.000-05:00

The Labor Agenda
Published: December 28, 2008
There is no doubt that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a labor secretary who could be a transformative force in a long-neglected arena. The question is whether he will let her.Hilda Solis, a United States representative from Southern California, is the daughter of immigrant parents with union jobs. She has been an unfailing advocate of workers’ rights during eight years in Congress and before that, in California politics.
Ms. Solis has been a leader on traditional workplace issues, like a higher minimum wage and an enhanced right to form unions. She also has helped to expand the labor agenda by sponsoring legislation to create jobs in green technology, and in her support for community health workers and immigration reform.
Her record in Congress dovetails with the mission of the Labor Department, to protect and further the rights and opportunities of working people. It also dovetails with many of the promises Mr. Obama made during the campaign, both in its specifics and in its focus on the needs of America’s working families.
The main issue is whether the Obama administration will assert a forceful labor agenda in the face of certain protests from business that now — during a recession — is not the time to move forward.
The first and biggest test of Mr. Obama’s commitment to labor, and to Ms. Solis, will be his decision on whether or not to push the Employee Free Choice Act in 2009. Corporate America is determined to derail the bill, which would make it easier than it has been for workers to form unions by requiring that employers recognize a union if a majority of employees at a workplace sign cards indicating they wish to organize.
Ms. Solis voted for the bill when it passed the House in 2007. Senate Republicans prevented the bill from coming to a vote that same year. Mr. Obama voted in favor of bringing the bill to the Senate floor and supported it during the campaign.
The measure is vital legislation and should not be postponed. Even modest increases in the share of the unionized labor force push wages upward, because nonunion workplaces must keep up with unionized ones that collectively bargain for increases. By giving employees a bigger say in compensation issues, unions also help to establish corporate norms, the absence of which has contributed to unjustifiable disparities between executive pay and rank-and-file pay.
The argument against unions — that they unduly burden employers with unreasonable demands — is one that corporate America makes in good times and bad, so the recession by itself is not an excuse to avoid pushing the bill next year. The real issue is whether enhanced unionizing would worsen the recession, and there is no evidence that it would.
There is a strong argument that the slack labor market of a recession actually makes unions all the more important. Without a united front, workers will have even less bargaining power in the recession than they had during the growth years of this decade, when they largely failed to get raises even as productivity and profits soared. If pay continues to lag, it will only prolong the downturn by inhibiting spending.
Another question clouding the labor agenda is whether Mr. Obama will give equal weight to worker concerns — from reforming health care to raising the minimum wage — while the financial crisis is still playing out. Most members of his economic team are veterans of the Clinton administration who tilt toward Wall Street. In the Clinton era, financial issues routinely trumped labor concerns. If Mr. Obama’s campaign promises are to be kept, that mindset cannot prevail again. Mr. Obama’s creation of a task force on middle-class issues, to be led by Vice President-elect Joseph Biden and including Ms. Solis and other high-ranking officials, is an encouraging sign that labor issues will not be given short shrift.
There are many nonlegislative issues on the agenda for Ms. Solis. Safety standards must be updated: in the last eight years, the Labor Department has issued only one new safety rule of its own accord; it issued a few others only after being compelled by Congress or the courts. Overtime rules that were weakened in 2004 need to be restored. To enforce labor standards, the Labor Department will need more staff and more money, both of which have been cut deeply by President Bush.
Only the president can give the new labor secretary the clout she will need to do well at a job that has been done so badly for so long, at such great cost to the quality of

They met in Brooklyn

2008-12-31T06:39:00.001-05:00

They met in Brooklyn

In 1929 Jeanette Wilkes Greenwood came to New York from her native Scotland at the time she was just 20 years of age. She came with her two cousins Isabella Nolan who was 18 years of age nicknamed Isa and Margaret Nolan who was 21 years of age nicknamed Maggie. They were sponsored by their Aunt Elizabeth Wilkes (Richards) who they called Aunt Lizzie. She gave them each fifty dollars so they didn’t have to go though Elis Island. They all got jobs as Maids living with rich families in Brooklyn. Jeanette’s friend Betty who also just came from Scotland herself arranged a blind date for Jeanette at Brooklyn’s Coney Island. Jeanette brought herself a new dress with the first wages she earned in America. Once she met this guy who’s name was Hugh Wallace Boyle (he called himself Wallace Boyle) She fell in love a first or maybe second site with the guy. So when her cousin got home sick and went back to Scotland, Jeanette stayed and after dating just a short while marred Wallace in June of 1931. They went on to have three children Wallace Jr, Jeanette Wilkes and finally me, Richard. My mother said if she hadn’t met my father she would have gone back to Scotland with her cousins. So if it wasn’t for that date I would have been born in Scotland and had a very different life.

If Jesus was Just a Man

2008-12-25T18:45:00.001-05:00

The message that Jesus and others tried to get across is the same even if he was a man and not a god or a son of god. The existences of god can not the proven or disproved that is up to each person to decide for themselves. Jesus did more than be born then died his message is in what he said in between. The Bible is full of errors both accidental and on purpose, the Bible as we know it comes the 15th century with the coming of the printing press. You can read about this subject in the many books by authors a lot more learned than myself. The thing is what would you change about yourself if there was no God and Jesus was just a very good man. What I hear from a lot of so called Christians is “Jesus is the way to Salvation” which Jesus (if he is a god) would hear as “Me, Me, and Me” The central Message sent down from Generations that came before us is to look after each other no matter how poor or rich or what race or ethic group they may come from. (Do on the others as you would like them to do on to you)

Ancient Mythic Origins of the Christmas Story

2008-12-25T13:17:00.001-05:00

Ancient Mythic Origins of the Christmas Story

Valerie Tarico interviews Dr. Tony Nugent, scholar of world religions. Dr. Nugent is a symbologist, an expert in ancient symbols. He taught at Seattle University for fifteen years in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and is an ordained Presbyterian minister.

Most Americans know how Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25: The Emperor Constantine chose the date because it was winter solstice in the Julian Calendar, the birthday of dying and rising gods like Mithra and Sol. Some people also know that our delightful mélange of Christmas festivities originated in ancient Norse, Sumerian, Roman and Druid traditions - or, in the case of Rudolph, on Madison Avenue.

But where does the Christmas story itself come from: Jesus in the manger, the angels and wise men?

The familiar Christmas story, including the virgin conception and birth of Jesus, is found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Scholars have pointed out that these stories are somewhat disconnected from other parts of these Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. In fact, by the time he is a young boy in the temple, Jesus's parents seem to have forgotten the virgin birth. They act surprised by his odd behavior. There is never any other mention in the New Testament of these incredible events! These stories seem to be an afterthought, written later than the rest of the gospels that contain them.

To make matters more interesting, the stories themselves have inconsistencies and ambiguities - contradictory genealogies, for example. Our Christmas story (singular) is actually a composite.

Or consider the idea that Mary is a virgin. The Greek writer of Matthew quotes Isaiah as saying: "a parthenos shall conceive and bear a child." The Hebrew word in Isaiah is "almah," which means simply "young woman." But the Greek word parthenos can mean either a virgin or a young woman, and it got translated as "virgin." Modern Bible translations have corrected this, but it is a central part of the Christmas story.

That's a lot of added complications. If the rest of the New Testament doesn't refer to these stories or need them, then how did we end up with them? Where do they come from?

One part of the answer comes from Hellenistic culture. (It is no accident all New Testament books written in Greek.) In this tradition, when a man did something extraordinary there was the assumption that he did this because he was different, either divine or semi-divine. They would make up a story about how he came to be divine. Almost all Greek heroes were said to be born of a human woman and a god--even Alexander the Great, Augustus and Pythagoras.
The father typically was Zeus or Apollo. The god would come and sleep with the woman, pretending to be the husband or as a bolt of lightning, or some such. Greek mythology also shows up in the book of Genesis: the gods lusting after the women and coming down and mating with them.

Why were they added to the Christian story?

Jewish Christians - the first Christians didn't believe in the virgin birth. They believed that Joseph was the biological father of Jesus. Part of their Christology was "adoptionism"--they thought Jesus was adopted as the unique son of God at some time later in life. There were disagreements about when - Mark suggests the baptism, Paul suggests the resurrection.

Over time, gentile Christianity replaced Jewish Christianity. There were Jewish-Roman Wars. The Jewish Christians were marginalized and oppressed. The Gentile branch became dominant. Eventually we get the gospel of John which pushes the sonship of Jesus back to the beginning of time. This writer is at the other end of the spectrum from the Jewish Christians.
But Matthew and Luke think that the Sonship of Jesus began at birth. And they want to tell a story that reinforces this point. Matthew and Luke are the source of the Christmas story as most of us learned it.

Why didn't the writers do a better job of cleaning the contradictions? They did, some. This is called the "orthodox corruption of scripture." (Bart Ehrman article , book) . But it appears that these birth stories were added toward the end, so scripture got frozen before they could get integrated.

I was raised that the bible was the literally perfect, "inerrant" word of God, essentially dictated by God to the writers. What you are saying about the Christmas story sure calls into question this point of view.

Which Bible?! There are thousands of manuscript variations.
Most biblical stories are probably fiction, not non-fiction. They are mythology in the deepest sense of the word. But we need to get beyond issue of whether biblical reports happened in the historical, physical sense to understand what they mean spiritually and mythically.

Ok. Back to Christmas. Of all the images from the Christmas story, the one that people fall in love with most is angels. The Christmas story is full of angels, beings of light. Is this because of the solstice tradition?

Actually it comes from the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish scriptures that were eventually adopted into the Christian Bible as the Old Testament. It also comes from the Jewish literature written between the Old and New Testaments that didn't get into the biblical canon. Some of these are even quoted in the New Testament, for example Enoch, from the 2nd Century BC. It's all about angels.

What are angels in these stories? Who are they?

The Bible calls them the sons of God, the Divine Council. The word used for God in parts of the Hebrew Bible, Elohim, is plural implying a family of deities. Angels are the lesser gods of the deposed pantheon of ancient Israel. They are under the rulership of Yahweh. Together with Yahweh they are part of Elohim, a plural word that we translate "God" in the book of Genesis. Elohim/God says "Let us make humans in our image." Christians understand this to refer to the trinity, but that is a later interpretation. These angels came from the ancient pantheons of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Many of these gods come from stars. There is a strong astral dimension. "Heavenly Hosts" are stars.

The Luke story focuses on one angel specifically: Gabriel. Is he the archangel?
Gabriel is the Angel of the Lord. He is one of two angels who are named in the Jewish canon and the Christian canon outside of the apocrypha: Gabriel and Michael. They are the angels of mercy and judgment. Gabriel means "Strong One of El." He is first named in Daniel.

If you go into an Eastern Orthodox church you have two icons on the north and south. Michael is on the North to fight with Satan who lives there. Gabriel is on the south. He is more like what the angels originally were, which is messengers of the gods. That is what angel means. The idea that God has a special messenger is exactly what we read about in the Middle Eastern mythologies. Each of the earlier gods has his own special messenger. Enki, who becomes Yaweh, has Isimud. The goddess Inana has Ninshubur. Each high god will have an envoy or assistant, who is a lesser god. The angel of the lord is the same thing. The distinction between angels and gods came later.

Is he a star person? Or one of those semi-divine descendents of gods and women?

He is one of the gods who would come down to earth.

Why do you say that?

The offspring of the gods mating with women are called Gaborim--from the same root as Gabriel. In the second century, Gabriel appears in the Epistula Apostolorum. It talks about Jesus and these secret teachings that he gave to his apostles after the resurrection. One of the secrets is that he is actually Gabriel. After Gabriel took on flesh and united with Mary, then he becomes Jesus. The idea that Christ was an angel was extremely popular in the early church. Later we find this really strict separation between humans and angels; between gods and angels. (more)

We have time for just one more favorite Christmas story: The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi.

The Magi are astrologers. They are Zoroastrian priests. Just to the east of the Roman Empire was the Persian Empire, which was Zoroastrian. They see this star at its rising (the better translations don't say in the East). The astrologers paid a lot of attention to this. It is likely that what this refers to was a heliacal rising, which is the first time that a star appears over the horizon during the course of a year. They thought this was a sign of the Jewish messiah. Scholars speculate that they would have been living in Babylon, where there were lots of Jewish merchants. The Jews had been there from the time of the Jewish exile from Babylonia. We have cuneiform records from them.

Are you assuming that this story is historical?

Think of it as a frog and pond. The pond is real, the frog is not. They are fictional stories in a real setting. They don't always get the details of the setting right, but they are fictional characters in real places. The Magi follow their star from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The author has in mind a real star that would be in front of you in this situation. It would have to be a star in the far southern sky. Remember what I said about the Heavenly Host being stars? The star in Matthew and the angel in Luke are two variants of the same mythology.

My former fundamentalist head is spinning. Is there anything else you'd like to say in closing?

We need to be able to appreciate these stories as myths, rather than literal histories. When you understand where they come from, then you can understand their spiritual significance for the writers and for us.

John McCain a Hero?

2008-12-06T10:33:00.001-05:00

In contrast to Ayers, whose acts were at worst tactically misguided, John McCain did engage in terrorist acts, war crimes that in all likelihood killed hundreds if not thousands of poor people in Vietnam. He committed these atrocities in the most cowardly fashion, dropping bombs from a plane thousands of feet above the ground, using the most advanced military technology to slaughter people in an impoverished peasant country. To those who would offer some banality about McCain just being a soldier or serving his country, such defenses are neither true nor legally relevant. McCain volunteered enthusiastically to commit these atrocities, and even if he hadn't the Nuremberg principles had decades before put to rest the excuse that one was just following orders. Indeed, as Robert Richter has reported, General Telford Taylor, American prosecutor at Nuremberg, even offered to help prosecute McCain and other captured pilots for war crimes.

Mr. Ayers would be quite justified in being disappointed with Barack Obama for his cowardice in this whole affair. In keeping with his characteristic unprincipled opportunism, Obama repeatedly called a friend who had helped him in the past "despicable" while characterizing McCain as a "hero" for the infinitely more monstrous crimes he committed. If his old friend, or just acquaintance if that's what he really is, had any sense of decency, Ayers would not be in this position of having to defend himself now.

It's also hard not to see a connection between all of this and the Iraq War. The media and McCain campaign attack Ayers and hold up McCain as a hero in order to further try to rehabilitate the Vietnam War and the American government's murder of several million people in Southeast Asia while also discrediting and ridiculing anti-war opposition. It is greatly to his credit that Ayers defends the anti-war movement in such strong terms in this piece. That Obama went along with trashing Ayers and glorifying McCain is a dark sign about his real position on the Iraq War, a subject on which he has already flip-flopped and proven totally insincere and uncommitted to the anti-war position that won him such enthusiasm among millions of American young people.

There was an unrepentant terrorist in this presidential campaign. Indeed, one who has built an entire career, and a lucrative one at that, solely on the basis of boasting about his terrorist acts. His name is John McCain, and it is time the media stopped treating him as a hero.

— DA, Cambridge, MA

The Real Bill Ayers

2008-12-06T08:46:00.000-05:00

The Real Bill Ayers
IN the recently concluded presidential race, I was unwillingly thrust upon the stage and asked to play a role in a profoundly dishonest drama. I refused, and here’s why.
Unable to challenge the content of Barack Obama’s campaign, his opponents invented a narrative about a young politician who emerged from nowhere, a man of charm, intelligence and skill, but with an exotic background and a strange name. The refrain was a question: “What do we really know about this man?”
Secondary characters in the narrative included an African-American preacher with a fiery style, a Palestinian scholar and an “unrepentant domestic terrorist.” Linking the candidate with these supposedly shadowy characters, and ferreting out every imagined secret tie and dark affiliation, became big news.
I was cast in the “unrepentant terrorist” role; I felt at times like the enemy projected onto a large screen in the “Two Minutes Hate” scene from George Orwell’s “1984,” when the faithful gathered in a frenzy of fear and loathing.
With the mainstream news media and the blogosphere caught in the pre-election excitement, I saw no viable path to a rational discussion. Rather than step clumsily into the sound-bite culture, I turned away whenever the microphones were thrust into my face. I sat it out.
Now that the election is over, I want to say as plainly as I can that the character invented to serve this drama wasn’t me, not even close. Here are the facts:
I never killed or injured anyone. I did join the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s, and later resisted the draft and was arrested in nonviolent demonstrations. I became a full-time antiwar organizer for Students for a Democratic Society. In 1970, I co-founded the Weather Underground, an organization that was created after an accidental explosion that claimed the lives of three of our comrades in Greenwich Village. The Weather Underground went on to take responsibility for placing several small bombs in empty offices — the ones at the Pentagon and the United States Capitol were the most notorious — as an illegal and unpopular war consumed the nation.
The Weather Underground crossed lines of legality, of propriety and perhaps even of common sense. Our effectiveness can be — and still is being — debated. We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war.
Peaceful protests had failed to stop the war. So we issued a screaming response. But it was not terrorism; we were not engaged in a campaign to kill and injure people indiscriminately, spreading fear and suffering for political ends.
I cannot imagine engaging in actions of that kind today. And for the past 40 years, I’ve been teaching and writing about the unique value and potential of every human life, and the need to realize that potential through education.
I have regrets, of course — including mistakes of excess and failures of imagination, posturing and posing, inflated and heated rhetoric, blind sectarianism and a lot else. No one can reach my age with their eyes even partly open and not have hundreds of regrets. The responsibility for the risks we posed to others in some of our most extreme actions in those underground years never leaves my thoughts for long.
The antiwar movement in all its commitment, all its sacrifice and determination, could not stop the violence unleashed against Vietnam. And therein lies cause for real regret.
We — the broad “we” — wrote letters, marched, talked to young men at induction centers, surrounded the Pentagon and lay down in front of troop trains. Yet we were inadequate to end the killing of three million Vietnamese and almost 60,000 Americans during a 10-year war.
The dishonesty of the narrative about Mr. Obama during the campaign went a step further with its assumption that if you can place two people in the same room at the same time, or if you can show that they held a conversation, shared a cup of coffee, took the bus downtown together or had any of a thousand other associations, then you have demonstrated that they share ideas, policies, outlook, influences and, especially, responsibility for each other’s behavior. There is a long and sad history of guilt by association in our political culture, and at crucial times we’ve been unable to rise above it.
President-elect Obama and I sat on a board together; we lived in the same diverse and yet close-knit community; we sometimes passed in the bookstore. We didn’t pal around, and I had nothing to do with his positions. I knew him as well as thousands of others did, and like millions of others, I wish I knew him better.
Demonization, guilt by association, and the politics of fear did not triumph, not this time. Let’s hope they never will again. And let’s hope we might now assert that in our wildly diverse society, talking and listening to the widest range of people is not a sin, but a virtue.
William Ayers, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is the author of “Fugitive Days” and a co-author of the forthcoming “Race Course.”

Capitalism and Communism failed what next?

2008-11-24T21:11:00.000-05:00

Capitalism and Communism failed what next?

Barack Obama right now as of this writing is trying to save capitalism from itself even before he has the power to do so. The only way he can do it is to add Socialist programs into the mix which is blasphemy to those who hold the “Free Market” as a religion the same as those in China who held Communism as a religion hold Capitalist programs as blasphemy. The only hope for both America and China has is that he finds the right mix and can get it through the hard heads who don’t like “Change”. Barack Obama is perhaps the Smartest President ever elected, but he must change minds set in stone a very hard task that even God is still trying to do.

President Elect Barack H Obama After the Election

2008-11-07T10:01:00.000-05:00

Barack Obama or cool hand Barack as someone called him for he always kept his temper when all through the campaign his opponents throw everything they could find at him he rarely turned fire instead he just kept on explaining what he would do if they elected him President of the United States of America. He showed great decision making by first selected a great Campaign staff then Joe Biden for his running mate. He doesn’t seem to me to be progressive enough, but hopefully those in Congress that are can push through some more progressive programs in Health Care and Education. Barack Obama is a strong signal as to how far we have come and he again hopefully take us another step forward, but there will be still a long road ahead for future generations to travel.

Vice-President elect Joseph Biden After the Election

2008-11-06T15:19:00.000-05:00

Joe’s weakness is that his mouth works at a faster speed than his mind. He often says the wrong name like Obama when he means McCain, but I can related to that I often call my own kids by the wrong name and Joe once said Television instead of Radio when talking about FDR’s fire side chats. The media ignored Joe during the campaign except when the other side took issue with something he said which only came as Election Day drew near and they were looking for anything to save themselves. They did use his voice in an Ad when he said the new President would be tested within the first six months. They used it as if he meant only Obama, but he meant any new President as the history of former Presidents would confirm. Joe Biden was a very good choice for Vice-President for he been in Washington for 35 years and knows how to get Obama’s programs through Congress

Governor Sarah Palin After the Election

2008-11-06T13:19:00.000-05:00

Governor Sarah Palin After the Election

I was astonished when John McCain picked an unknown Governor of Alaska to be his running mate for Vice-President. After hearing her speak at the Republican Convention I thought what the hell is McCain thinking, she has got to be the worst choice in US History. She did appeal to the Republican Right wing base which he had anyway, to some women at first, but the more even they heard her the more she turned them off. Sarah Palin’s lack of knowledge especially for a Governor of a State is astonishing. Sarah’s Father was a Science Teacher, but neither his wife or his daughter believe in Science maybe she say more about the state of our country that someone like can be elected Governor much less Vice-President.

Sen. John McCain After the Election

2008-11-06T12:53:00.001-05:00

I Think John was a fine Senator before he got the desire to run for President then he lost his way. John is a Republican, but he did have some good ideas as Senator and was not always on the “Right Side” of an issue, he was for Campaign financing, against the war in Iraq, against torture and in short was a Social Progressive while being a Fiscal Conservative. Once John decided to run for President he was all for the war and wanted nothing less than victory and he had no other ideas and he started talking about his POW story over and over again or just trying to run down his opponent. Just the want of power changed him for the worst so maybe loosing this election might have been the best thing for him. Maybe the old John McCain will come back to Washington.

Regulate the Airlines and on line ticket Services.

2008-11-03T09:45:00.001-05:00

Regulate the Airlines and on line ticket Services.

In the year 2007 we booked a trip to Portugal from Cheap Tickets.com on Delta Airlines for September of 2008 unfortunately I became sick just before the trip and had to cancel the trip. In early August of 2008 we called Cheap Tickets to Cancel and they said that they could only give us credit which we had to use on the same Airline by December 31, 2008. We called a second time because we didn’t think that was right and they told us that they could not cancel the tickets that we had to call Delta Airlines. So we called Delta Airlines and they said that we had to bring a Doctor’s note to a Delta Ticket office they said the nearest one to us was at Islip Airport. So in September we got in our car and drove to Islip Airport where we were told that Delta Airlines is no longer there and we had to go to JFK Airport. We then took the LIRR from Patchogue to the Airtrain to the Delta terminal at JFK. Where after standing on a long line an Delta Agent told us that they would give us a full refund, but that Delta Airlines is only in control of the Tickets ten days before the flight and that Cheap Tickets could have and should have done it before the ten days. He said the on line ticket services are always dumping it on the Airlines by telling their customers to call the Airlines for refunds when they should do it. It seems to me that there is a need for Government regulation of both the Airlines and the On Line Ticket Services because they can not do it themselves.
Adele and Richard Boyle Medford LI NY

Invest in America.

2008-11-01T20:10:00.001-04:00

Invest in America.

Where should the hard earn tax money of the Working Class (or if you prefer Middle Class)? Some say just give it back to the tax payer as a Stimulus package, which did not work back in May, so even if we do like getting money in the mail it is a bad idea. Some say to use it to buy more war machinery to kill people that don’t think or look like us, another bad idea. A better idea is to invest it in rebuilding the Electrical Grid of our nation then we can have Mass transit running on electric power, Training people on how to install solar panels with people getting tax breaks for installing them like Germany has been doing for years. Installing more windmills and hydroelectric power all bring high paying jobs that can’t be shipped overseas. Building Electric cars that will replace Gas driven car completely. Improve our education system by studying what makes other countries education systems better than ours for our children are our future we should give them a New Deal.

The Second Presidential Debate

2008-10-11T12:17:00.000-04:00

McCain says Obama has never done anything, but everything that is wrong with America is his fault. McCain didn’t bring up Bill Ayers because he knew Obama would be ready for him for a so called war hero he is a real coward. McCain’s answer to the economic upheaval was to claim a mortgage plan that was already in the 700 Dollar Bail out plan and Obama talked about two weeks ago. McCain’s Health care plan is just to give each Taxpayer a 5000 dollar Tax break which would pay for about two months of health care coverage and pay for it by taxing any health care coverage you get from your employer. McCain wants to fight on to “Victory” in Iraq and Afghanistan no matter how long that takes. He also wants to take on Iran as if the American people didn’t have enough of War. McCain’s only mention of education was to say that Obama spent too much on an education bill. McCain agrees with Obama on energy both would spend more on solar, wind, hydroelectric, clean coal, and drill baby drill, but McCain is for giving more to big oil companies while Obama would get America off of oil hopefully in ten years. Obama gets more into detail on what he would do after the bail out in both policing Wall Street and insuring Main Street. Obama’s Health Care Plan is to insure all children and give small business up to 50,000 dollars to pay for health insurance there by helping both employee and employer. Obama’s health care is still not enough, but better than McCain’s no plan. Obama plan for Iraq was said to be surrender not Victory, but is now accepted by both the Bush and Iraqi Governments once again Obama realizes that results not empty words is what is needed. I think Obama won the first two debates and should be elected our next President.

Question; What is free about the Free Market?

2008-10-06T09:37:00.002-04:00

A Question to all you well educated people out there especially in the Free Market. What is free about the Free Market? Manufactures and Farmers limit production to drive up prices, fix prices to maximize profits and keeping any one company from becoming a Monopoly there by bring down the government Sherman Antitrust Act on them. Plus the many rules put on both Banks and the Stock Market to keep people from losing too much of their money there by damaging the economy. So with all this in mind should the government have more control over the Financial Systems to protect the working and middle classes?

Looking forward without looking backwards?

2008-10-03T12:54:00.001-04:00

In the Vice-President debate Gov. Palin said “we that the McCain-Palin Administration would look forward to the future and not backwards to the past”. Now how can you going forward without knowing where you came from when you go to the food store it is because you know it had good food in the past, but you are buying for the future. When you are hiring someone you want to hire you look into their past to know how they will perform in the future.

Obama vs. McCain first Debate

2008-09-29T10:05:00.001-04:00

The talking heads Seem to think has long has McCain keeps talking without Pausing that is all he had to do to win the debate. One of the main things that came across to me was that McCain is more pro war than Obama, McCain seems hell bent on going to war with Iran. You would think a man who suffered as a POW after getting himself shot down over North Vietnam would not want others to suffer the same way, but he comes from a military family and that is where his mind set is with the military. Obama seems to give in to the Military complex to much too, but says he is willing to talk to nations like Iran that have a different way of looking at the world than us. Obama’s family history is different than McCain’s so may give him a better view of the customs of the people in different parts of the world and an appreciation of those differences.
McCain also seem more pro business at the expense of the middle and working classes. It was Obama that talked about cutting taxes, relief for people about to lose their homes, and creating jobs here in America instead of shipping jobs overseas. McCain is for the trickle down theory only the money is trickling on China and India with very little on the American workers.
Looking at the decisions that both candidates have made so far McCain picked Sarah Palin to help him push his programs through Congress and Obama picked Joe Biden to help him push his programs. J.F.K picked L.B.J who put the 1964 civil rights laws and the 1965 voting rights laws through Congress so picking the right Vice President is more important than people seem to think.

Taxpayers getting their Moneys worth

2008-09-25T14:25:00.000-04:00

I heard President Clinton on the Daily Show (Wednesday 9/24/2008) talking about the 700 billon dollar “bailout” and what he said made sense, that in exchange for buying a company’s bad mortgage debts the Government should either charge interest on the money loaned to the company or get part of the profits of the company with the money going to pay for Health care for all Americans, Education, rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure plus tax brakes. It seems to me this might be a win/win system. The companies hid themselves of their bad debts and the Taxpayer’s get something back on the money for once. A system can be set up to help people having trouble paying the mortgage and might lose their homes. If our representatives don’t get bogged down with fear words we might come out of this better than we went in.

Paulson Plan

2008-09-20T14:45:00.001-04:00

I don't think I understand this plan at all, I think the Government meaning the American Taxpayer will buy all the debt from large Corporations that no one else would even touch there by freeing up money to ship more jobs out of the country, but has it been decided that the plan will pay .40 on the dollar or will they pay the whole dollar and the taxpayer will be the big loser? Another question is how are we going the pay for all the bail outs plus the war debt. America has better start cutting the fat military budget and let some companies fail. We can not avoid all the pain and save the patient.

Globalize Labor

2008-09-17T21:09:00.001-04:00

Corporations have become globalized so they can play one group of workers against another. They would threaten countries if they don’t lower their safety standards and the workers lowered their wages or they will go to another country that will. I heard one story where a woman in Bangladesh formed a union of her colleagues to get one penny more per shirt that she made in a sweat shop so that she could give her children meat with their rice, it shouldn’t have made the shirts more than a penny more, but Wal-Mart told them that they would pay 2 cents less per shirt or Wal-Mart would take their business to another country. This is the kind of distortion they play on the workers of the world.
It is time for the workers of the world to Globalize and strike for safely Standards and living wages. First workers must be able to commutate, to this end laptops should be giving to poor workers with training on how to use them. If workers can commutate they will learn that they have some of the same goals, and then they can take action to obtain them. It will take time, but it will be worth it.

Socialism and Democracy

2008-09-14T22:50:00.000-04:00

Socialism and Democracy

Any time a Politician or anyone else talks about being fairer to the Middle, Working or poor Classes in the United States of America they are called Socialist. Any program that helps the lower classes is shot down just by calling is a Socialist idea. This is just another way that the Global Corporations Control the people working for cheap wages there by adding to their wealth. It is an old story to be sure they know that with fear and Propaganda they can control the people. Socialism, Labor Unions, Free Public Schools, Social Security, Medicare and Universal Health care are all bad and must be feared. They use the Christian Religion to promote the totalitarian programs that control the people, but keep them free to do what they want. The ideas that Jesus teaches us are Socialist principles that is why the “Christian Right” fights for the Old Testament and not the New Testament. The Corporations use Religion, race, ethic background and Political parties to divide the people into little groups that will not be a threat to them. I also have a fear that it is only when it is too late that the people will unite against their suppressers.
When I was in Italy one of my fellow tourist said that “the Italians will never have a stable Government because too many different factions trying to have their say” I told him that is what they call democracy. He is use to the phony democracy we have in the United States. Where we have “Two Parties” that have similar views both the right of center having destroyed any affective Left wing parties in the 1950’s when they call anyone with what they thought were left leaning ideas a Communist and jailed or black listed them. There is no such thing a liberal that was a word dreamed up by Social Conservatives to call something they don’t like. Progressives who are in the Center are the only ones that keep this Country going toward the right track.

Who should Vote?

2008-09-05T12:29:00.000-04:00

When the American forefather’s were debating not only what type of Government they wanted, but who in the future should decide who their representatives in government should be. Now in their time the late 18th early 19th centuries only the Upper and Middle Class were educated. (Not to be confused with what is considered Middle class today, then it meant someone who owned Property or ran their own business, if you worked for someone else you were Working Class) there was no need to educate working class until the industrialization of the 19th Century caused the need for educated workers. The American forefather’s want only informed voters and feared that uneducated voters would be too easily influenced by others to vote against their interest. Those fears may have been well founded up to now, but with the advent of the internet where anyone can go up on a candidate’s Web site and find out where he or she stands on the issues there is now no good reason to vote for a person because of what they are, but what they stand for. So don’t vote for Obama because he is black or Biden because he is the smartest and most qualified, McCain because he was a POW or Palin because she is a woman.

For more information on the issues see Obama’s web site http://www.barackobama.com and McCain web site http://www.johnmccain.com

Vote for the Issues

2008-09-04T12:56:00.000-04:00

Vote for Issues not celebrities

Sarah Palin’s speech to the Republican Convention was filled with slogans and ambiguities meant to inspire McCain’s Conservative base. Palin says McCain wants Victory in Iraq and Obama never says the word when talking about Iraq. Funny thing is that is one of the things I like about Obama he knows that “War” is not a Hockey game. There are no winners just Losers, one side loses less than the other, but they are both losers. She says she saved the people of Alaska a half a billon dollars in programs, but never says what programs she cut and what the cut cost the people of Alaska in Health Care or Education were they good or bad cuts we don’t know and she is not saying.
McCain picked Palin to get the Conservative and Women’s vote and that she might do for the Conservative only want to the same old tired slogans like the Democrats will raise your taxes, Lose the war game in Iraq, we will drill because the “Liberals” don’t like that. It is funny that Palin and her husband want to drill since they have worked in the oil companies in Alaska. Women who vote for McCain/Palin just because Palin is a Woman are insulting their sex.
Taxes; Obama says he wants to Cut taxes for the Working class people and drop the Bush Cut for the top one percent, Seniors will “Not” pay income tax for incomes under $50,000.00 If he cut back on Money give-aways to Iraq and Georgia that we can not afford. McCain want to cut the taxes of the Corporate and Oil Companies putting the taxes weight on the Middle and Working Classes.
Health Care; Obama will bring us closer to the rest of the world by Health care affordable to all. McCain has no real Health Care program.
Education; Obama want to make a college education available and affordable to all. McCain of giving out money according to Income for private schools meaning that the rich get a best education as happens now, the Middle Class get a education not as good as the rich, but better than the Working Class, the working Class get a education not as good as the Middle Class, but better than the Poor Class.
For more information on the issues see Obama’s web site http://www.barackobama.com and McCain web site http://www.johnmccain.com

Sarah Palin

2008-08-29T15:18:00.000-04:00

Sarah Palin

John McCain just Selected Sarah Palin to be his Vice President who was just elected Governor of Alaska, she was a soccer Mom and Beauty Queen before becoming Governor. We don’t know much about Sarah except that she seems to be Pro-Gun, Pro-War, Anti-Choice, Anti-environment, We don’t know about her stand on Health Care or Education, but we can make a good estimate. If McCain is elected we hope he sees his 80th birthday. I think she is a insult to women, McCain is saying that women will vote only on the base of Sex and not on the issues that matter to them.

Change or Fear you decide

2008-08-03T21:57:00.001-04:00

Obama vs McCain
Aug 4, 2008

It is Change against Fear in this election so far as McCain has launched some fear Ads that say that Obama look different than you, has a funny name, we might not “Win” in Iraq, He will raise your taxes etc. All out of the Republican play book of former elections. McCain says all we have to do to lower Gas price is to throw more money at the Big Oil Companies and let them drill off our shores, even if they only drill on 10% of the territory they can drill in now. If they are allowed to drill anywhere they want it would be 10 years before they could get any oil then they would sell it on the open market to China. Obama say he would allow it if the Republican would put some money into new types of Energy Sources, but he should be able to do that anyway without damaging our fishing industry and seashores. They still both want a larger Military which the taxpayer can not afford. What we real need is a better way to elect our Government leaders or a real democracy where we have candidates with reasonable ideas.

Crossing the Great South Bay in 1957

2008-08-03T20:37:00.001-04:00

Adventures at Sea
One Saturday in the winter of 1957 some friends and myself were going to go to the Movies, but had a little time to kill and the Great South Bay was frozen over so we decided to walk across the ice and see how far we could get. We of course didn't realize then how dangerous it was, but we did get to the island just across the state channel from Gilgo Beach where we saw an hunter's cabin after looking at it we decided we better get back we were late for the movies. While we were returning across the ice an airplane buzzed us then we saw red light flashing from the shorelines in seems that someone saw us crossing the ice and called the police. We were almost to the shore when one of the older brothers of one of my friends came out to meet us and told Kathy where to walk. She fell though the ice, but got herself out with her legs now wet. I think we would have made it all the way without incident if it wasn't for our "rescuer". But we did get home safely even if we did miss the movie. All the local and City Newspapers Newsday, Long Island Press, Daily Mirror, Daily News, The New York Herald Tribune came to take pictures and do stories on us. It was my luck that summer when I was talking to a couple of friends Botzy and Woody who also lived near us. I told them about the hunter's cabin and they decided that they wanted to see it. So we took a row boat out to the first island and walked across a sallow between the islands finally getting to the hunter's cabin after looking around we returned to the boat only to find that someone had taken our oars and anchor it was getting late so we went back to the cabin. We started a fire in the potbelly stove found some canned soup and went to bed in the cabin's bunk beds. Our families of course became alarmed, it seems that Woody's Father took his cabin courser out to look for us and came up to the cabin, but we were all asleep. So not hearing anything he left. The next morning we decided to walk back to the boat when a Coast Guard boat picked us up. We almost got a helicopter ride but it couldn't land a helicopter ride would have made it almost worth it. My father said he wasn't worried because he could see our row boat and he figured that we were on the island. All the Newspapers came for more pictures and stories. The Herald Tribune also did a human interest story with pictures of kids jumping off the docks. Now of course I and probably my friends where ever they are realize now dangerous going out on the water winter or summer can be. When I was Graduating from Amityville High School class of 1961 the three top students Own K. Bradford, Gary P McColgan and Steven M. Stein all died in a boating accident not far from where we had spent a couple of nights. They stayed with their boat as experts say you should do and in most situations it is the right thing to do, but tragically this time it wasn’t.

America must adjust to the times

2008-07-19T11:52:00.003-04:00

I always thought that I lived in American’s Golden Age for my parents had such hard lives. They lived through the great depression (or the great recession as the Walker-Bush Family called it). They both came to America for a better life for their children and my brother, sister and I had much better lives, but so far out of seven of their grandchildren only one is doing better than their parents. My hope is that our country will finally come to grips with the worlds changing dynamics and the lives of their Great-grandchildren will be better than their parents. The American people can no longer afford to police the world it cost too much in both blood and money, it must be shared through the strengthen UN. I would like to know how the candidates are going to fund their domestic programs when they both have said that they want a larger military. America must listen to Al Gore if he has a plan to get us off oil in ten years, life will get better for all the people in this world. The age of super powers maybe over, but that doesn’t mean things will get worst instead of better as more job in energy using solar, wind, and the tides as well as other source if their problems can be solved.

The Vatican Business of Religion

2008-06-30T18:22:00.001-04:00

The Vatican Business or Religion

Vatican Orders Records Withheld from Mormons
The Catholic News Service has published an article about new Vatican orders to not cooperate with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the microfilming of records. The Vatican wishes to block posthumous rebaptisms by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a practice that Catholics, Jews, and some others find objectionable.
Catholic dioceses throughout the world have been directed by the Vatican not to give information in parish registers to the Mormons' Genealogical Society of Utah.
An April 5 letter from the Vatican Congregation for Clergy, obtained by Catholic News Service in late April, asks Episcopal conferences to direct all bishops to keep the Latter-day Saints from microfilming and digitizing information contained in those registers.
The order came in light of "grave reservations" expressed in a January 29 letter from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the clergy congregation's letter said.

When did religion become like private businessman’s clubs, it seems to me that religions are public in the United States that is one of the reasons the don’t pay taxes. So it should be up to the local governments who can access their records.

The Vatican though the years has trouble with their faith, first with the pre-Christians, then the non-Christian in Spain (Muslims and Jews) and now with the Mormons. They obviously they do not believe in Jesus Christ and his wisdoms

Anti-Vatican is not anti-Catholic the local church do a lot of good work and maybe not even listen to this ban at all. It is the Vatican that keeps supporting every dictator that comes along so they can still operate within the country.

The Supreme Court decisions

2008-06-26T14:58:00.000-04:00

Supreme Court decisions

The Supreme Court handed down three landmark decisions lately

The Supreme Court recently decided that non-American citizens have the same rights to defend themselves in a court of law as do American citizens by a 5 to 4 vote
The Supreme Court recently decided that the Death Penalty is cruel and Unusual Punishment for People found Guilty of the rape of a child therefore is Unconstitutional by a 5 to 4 vote.
The Supreme Court recently decided that an individual has the right to own guns under the second amendment of the US Constitution by a 5 to 4 vote.

I agree with the first two, first I don’t think you can say some people have rights and others don’t. Everyone in the world should have the same rights as anyone else maybe there should be a World Constitution that guarantees that everyone no matter what your local government says has rights agreed to by a world vote. Second the Death Penalty is barbaric no matter what the crime. Only six states had the death penalty for child rape (the death penalty for adult rape was already declared unconstitutional) and most of them never used it. This decision is a step in the right direction.
The third decision was on the second amendment which reads; A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed. I think the Supreme Court decision that this some how give individual the right to a hand gun is be on me. When it say Militia and people means Local governments not individuals and they must be “well regulated” admittedly this has to be the worst written of the amendments. This decision was purely political and will cost lives. The US Constitution should updated to make it a lot clear or even better a World Constitution with a World Police force that all countries contribute both people and money not just one country.

Obama vs McCain on recent Supreme Court decision

2008-06-16T23:28:00.003-04:00

Obama vs McCain

The Supreme Court recently decided that non-American citizens have the same rights to defend themselves in a court of law as do American citizens. Obama rightly says that this is the right decision and that it helps bring back up the reputation of the United States of America. McCain says that it is the wrong decision that only Americans or people that agree with the American Government should have those rights. He says they may hurt Americans if they are let free and they may or may not, but that has nothing to do with the fact that they are human. You either believe in freedom for all or you really don’t believe in it at all. American will be safer if we help protect the rights of all the people of this world and not make American citizens some how better than anyone else. Obama is right on this issue.

The McCain Ad

2008-06-06T20:48:00.005-04:00

McCain Ad

A new McCain ad that says we should be sorry for him because he was a prisoner of War in Vietnam so we should elect him our president. He says he hates war and loves peace that is why he wants to keep the Iraq oil war going for another hundred years. We are suppose to believe that we are now “winning” as if war was like a sporting event where one side wins and the other loses, but in actually reality both sides always loses in both lives and money. We can not afford to be the world’s policeman any longer. We have lost too many poor young people who have sir come to false patriotism or the College trap only to die a “hero”. Now McCain went off to war in ‘Vietnam for the same reasons only he thought that joining the Air force was a safer way than to crawling through the jungle with the workingman’s sons, but he got himself shot down and then captured by people that only wanted to be free of foreigners like him.

Little Kenny's first train ride

2008-05-26T15:04:00.001-04:00

Kenny Boyle Jr.’s first train ride

My oldest son Michael John Boyle came up with the idea first to take his nephew Kenneth John Boyle Jr who was the son of my youngest son Kenneth John Boyle Sr. to the “City” (meaning Manhattan of course) for Fleet week. I first thought it would be too crowded, but after Mike got Kenny Sr. to go I decided that I wanted to see my Grandson’s first train ride so I told Mike that I would go after all. Adele Grace Eiermann Boyle my Wife and Grandmother to Kenny Jr and Richard William Boyle said that she would stay home with little Richie who was just three years old and would have been a hand full (Kenny Jr was five years old). Josephine Dorothy Coyle Boyle Kenny Jr and Richie’s Mom decided that she want to go too so now we had four adults plus Kenny Jr. going so Mike and I checked the internet and found that some US Navy ships were going to be at the 48th street and 12th Ave (West side drive) pier.
So on Saturday May 24th we all piled into Kenny Sr. and Josephine’s car for it was the only car we have that we all would fit into and Kenny Sr. drove us to Patchogue Railroad station. First I bought my senior ticket which was $13.95 as compared with the others $19.95 for an Off Peak round trips from Patchogue to Penn Station. The Metro-card of which we brought two both with $20.00 on them which was more than we needed, but what the hell they are good for a year. So we got onto the platform and waited for the train where little Kenny’s Uncle Mike started taking his picture I think he actually likes to get his picture taken which both his Uncle Mike and his Grandpa did a lot during this trip to the city.
The train came and we got on to find it was crowded, but at least we did find seats in the same area. Kenny Jr loved looking out the window and after a while said “are we going around in a circle” he was obviously relating the real train to a toy train so if toy trains go around in a circle why not a real trains? Kenny Jr started getting bored looking out the window and said “I have to go to the bathroom” so his Dad took him to look for the “bathroom” actually lavatory first going in one direction only to find of course it was in the other direction. (He did go before we left) We had to change at Jamaica Queens for the train we were riding in was a diesel and are not allowed through the tunnel to Penn Station so we changed to an electric train that is allowed. Fortunately we found seats on that train too even if it was more crowded yet and sure enough Kenny Jr said “I have to go to the bathroom” yet again and his Dad took him again to find the Lavatory and had better luck this time. We finally got into Penn Station and Kenny Jr.’s first train was over, but his first Subway was about to begin.
After coming out of LIRR platform we took the E Train to 50th Street which was just two stops from Penn Station it just stopped at 42nd Street before 50th. Little Kenny loved it the train that wasn’t too crowded and he played with the pole in the middle of the car floor. We must have taken pictures of him like every five minutes, but he didn’t mind it.
When we got out of the Subway Station at 50th St. and 8th Ave we naturally started walking in the wrong direction for some reason the Subway always turns me around direction wise. When we ended up at Broadway and 50th St. I knew we had walked the wrong way and we first showed little Kenny Time Square telling him that now he can say he saw Time Square if only for a second. We walked in the other direction up the 10th Ave then crossed to 48th street and while walking down 48th showing little Kenny all the sites we came upon two Mounted Policeman, I pointed them out to little Kenny and one of the Policeman crossed the street to come close to little Kenny then waved at him and he waved back at the Policeman. Right after that we saw the ships straight across the West side highway.
Access was free, but we did have to go through metal detectors they weren’t as sensitive as the ones at the Airports so you could walk through with your belt on. There were two soldiers with M-16’s as if terrorist are going to attack through their front gates, I wonder if their M-16’s are even loaded or were just for show. One was a female soldier, I think they impressed little Kenny anyway. One of the ships appeared to be a Coast Guard Ship and the other (I forget the names) a Helicopter carrier so we decided to go for the Helicopter Carrier and the lines were not bad a all, when we went to Fleet week a few years ago there were line was long just to get on the pier to get on the JFK that is what I was afraid of, but the crowds were small in comparison. The ship was not that big and they tried to crowd a lot of weapon systems into a small area and that made for a bit of a crowd. Little Kenny want to go on anything that had guns on it. One had a bit of a line because they were only letting a couple of kids at a time on the Vehicle which had two machine guns on it. So we told him to sit in a Hummer type Vehicle with an electronic Machine Gun on it. Then he got upon a Tank and even got into it. I don’t think he has any pro-war toys, but I am sure he at least seen them on TV and some of his friend might have them so I am sure they impressed him. After that we went up on to the flight deck to see the Helicopters. Little Kenny’s Mom brought him through one and his Dad brought him through another. He also liked the view of the city from the flight deck.
Then we left the flight deck and the ship, on the pier we came on some booths and one had what they called the US Navy Seal challenge that is if a kid could do six pull ups or fifty push ups they would win a recruiting poster. Little Kenny wanted to do the pull ups, he did them and got his poster.
Then we walked back up 48th Street looking for someplace to eat lunch as little Kenny kept reminding us that he was hungry. We found a place called Social’s a Bar and Grill with specials of $7.95 each and it was empty so we sat in a back booth. Little Kenny’s Uncle Mike took him to the lavatory for of course he had to go. The men ordered Heineken beers and Josephine and little Kenny had sodas while we played I spied with my little eye with little Kenny on until the food was served. Josephine gave little Kenny half of her Hamburger of which he ate very little. After lunch we decided to go the New York Museum of Natural History to show little Kenny the Dinosaurs.
I had thought that the number 1 or 2 train went to the Natural History Museum which I knew was on Central Park West somewhere in the 80’s. So at the 50th street station we took the number 1 train uptown and got off at 86th Street station because I knew the museum was somewhere in the 80’s when we got out on 86th street I looked up and down and thought I saw more tree in one direction than the other looking for Central Park so we started walking and of course we were walking in the wrong direction again I asked a passer by in which direction was Central Park West and he pointed to the direction we just came from saying it was about four blocks. So we started walking the other way and sure enough we did get to Central Park West, but I wasn’t sure if the museum was above or lower than 86th street so I asked a doorman that was nearby and he said it was on 81st street and when we walked down to 81st street there it was with painted horses in front of it. After taken some more pictures of little Kenny we followed a crazy dressed lady in.
The first thing we saw when we went in was some dinosaurs on display in the lobby. We went up to buy tickets and the casher said the “suggested donation” was 54 dollars do you want to pay that, well Mike wanted to say no I’ll pay a lower amount, but of course we paid the “suggested” amount and we know they need to make money to keep the museum going. We then went in to the room with the stuffed elephants in the middle of the room and displays of stuffed animals that I think are the same ones that were there when I was little Kenny’s age some sixty years ago when my parents brought me to the New York Museum of Natural History.
Little Kenny seemed very interested in the displays looking at each one and asking questions. We wanted to find an elevator and after a little bit of looking we found one and took it to the fourth floor where the big dinosaur display was. When we got there he looked at all the displays and a short movie on how animals evolved. He seemed to like the museum which encourages us to bring him to more museums in the future.
We decided it was time to go home and we went down to the Subway Station that connects to the museum and found a notice saying that the C train was not running this weekend and everyone had to use the A train which we did and it was crowd for the only time during the trip we had to stand, but we got to Penn Station and guess what getting off the subway we first went in the wrong direction.
We got the 4:12 train to Patchogue and little Kenny fell asleep before we got to Babylon where we had to change from our electric train to a diesel train to Patchogue. Little Kenny was very good and I am sure this was only his first trip to the city.

Cluster Bombs

2008-04-10T10:36:00.001-04:00

CONTACT CONGRESS TO BAN CLUSTER BOMBS, WAR’S DEADLY DEBRIS
Three young Cambodian boys were playing near their village when they found four small steel
objects that they picked up and used to play an impromptu game of marbles. Their newfound
toys, however, were actually "bomblets" left from a cluster bomb that had been dropped years
before. In the middle of their game, one of the balls was struck by another, triggering an
explosion. One boy died from massive abdominal wounds. The other two boys survived with
serious injuries.
A cluster bomb consists of a canister designed to open in midair
and disperse smaller
submunitions – bomblets that
can kill all living creatures within an area as large as several
football fields. Though designed to explode on impact, many bomblets initially fail to detonate,
leaving behind large numbers of hazardous explosive “duds” that are de facto landmines,
injuring and killing civilians and contaminating the land long after conflicts.
This April is the 33 rd anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, yet millions of unexploded
cluster bomblets litter the countries of Southeast Asia the
deadly garbage left from U.S.
bombing campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s. In Laos alone, more than 11,000 civilians, many of
whom were not born when the bombs were dropped, have been killed or injured by these cluster
bomblets. Stories like the one above are all too common in wartorn
areas countries
affected by
cluster bombs include:
Afghanistan
Albania
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Cambodia
Chad
Croatia
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Iraq
Israel
Kuwait
Laos
Lebanon
Montenegro
Pakistan
Russia (Chechnya)
Saudi Arabia
Serbia (including Kosovo)
Sierra Leone
Sudan
Syria
Tajikistan
Vietnam
Western Sahara
Cluster bomblet duds are killing and maiming civilians and US troops in Iraq; Lynn Bradach, the
mother of a U.S. marine who was killed in Iraq by a U.S. cluster bomb, has asked Congress to
honor the memory of her son by passing a ban on the weapon that killed him
Like landmines, cluster bomblets must be located and destroyed one by one, a dangerous, costly,
and timeconsuming
process they
have proven to be a serious and longlasting
threat to
civilians, soldiers, peacekeepers, and clearance experts.
B1
Lancer releasing cluster bombs
The United States has the largest stockpile of cluster munitions in the world and is a major user,
exporter, and producer of the weapon. The U.S. has a stockpile of about 5.5 million cluster
bombs that’s
728 million bomblets Aerojet, Alliant TechSystems, General Dynamics, L3
Communications, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Textron Defense
Systems are all associated with the production of cluster bombs
Cluster bomblet.
The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (Senate Bill 594, House Bill 1755) is a step
towards mitigating the death and destruction caused by cluster bombs, one step towards ending
the horror of war. This legislation would:
(a) Immediately prohibit the use of cluster bombs in or near populated or urban areas.
(b) Require governments using U.S.made
cluster bombs to quickly clean up unexploded
bomblets.
(c) Prohibit the use, sale, and transfer of U.S. made cluster bombs containing bomblets
with a failure rate of more than one percent; as nearly all cluster bombs in the US arsenal
have a failure rate of more than one percent, this would essentially ban the use and sale of
cluster bombs.
Below are members of Congress who are considered potential ‘swing’ votes in supporting the
Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act. As veterans for peace we draw on our own personal
experiences to raise awareness of the true costs and consequences of war. We must raise our
voices and tell these members of Congress to support the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection
Act.
Senator Norm Coleman—MN
Senator Chuck Hagel*—NE
Senator George Voinovich—OH
Senator Gordon Smith—OR
Senator Arlen Specter—PA
Senator Susan Collins ME
Representative Jeff Flake—AZ
Representative Chris Shays—CT
Representative Jim Saxton—NJ
Representative Chris SmithNJ
Representative James Walsh—NY
Representative Walter Jones—NC
Representative Ralph Regula*—OH
Representative Steven LaTourette—OH
Representative Phil EnglishPA
Representative Joe Pitts*PA
Representative Ron Paul*TX
*Veterans
Offices, phone numbers, & email addresses can be found at www.senate.gov and
www.house.gov.
The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act is a step towards the US joining the more
than eighty countries which support a treaty banning cluster bombs. The Cluster
Munitions Civilian Protection Act is a step towards ending one horror of war, one step
towards peace.
Cluster bomb victim
RESOURCES & INFORMATION
Human Rights Watch http://hrw.org/doc/?t=arms_clusterbombs
US Campaign to Ban Landmines http://www.banminesusa.org/
Friends Committee on National Legislation
http://www.fcnl.org/weapons/clusterlanding/clusters_landing9.htm
Article
compiled by Mike Felker, VFP Chap. 31 member, who served as a hospital
corpsman with the 1 st Marine Division in Vietnam in 1970 and cared for the victims of
landmines and other weapons, mfelker@cis.upenn.edu

Spitzer, Paterson and oh yeah the election

2008-03-15T14:13:00.002-04:00

"I did not live up to what was expected of me"

A prominent politician, especially one known for a certain righteousness, is alleged to be a customer of high-priced call girls.

As Spitzer resigns, David Paterson becomes New York's governor and a pioneer. But can he end the state's gridlock?

Reverend Wright an Obama supporter said:

"Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home. Barack was," Wright says in a video of the sermon posted on YouTube. "Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary! Hillary ain't never been called a 'nigger!' Hillary has never had her people defined as a non-person."

Ferraro stirred controversy with her recent remarks that Obama's campaign was successful because he was black.

Castro Retires and Obama wins the Cheese and Pineapple states

2008-02-21T09:47:00.003-05:00

Raul Castro bring "Change to Cuba"

The Baseball cap instead of the

Block Cap of his brother Fidel

Obama may change things in Cuba, but McCain will blow another chance to

improve things for the Cubian people

Looks like Obama vs McCain

2008-02-15T10:25:00.002-05:00

McCain = spent taxpayer's money on other countries.

Obama = spent taxpayer's money on America.

Presidental Election as of 30 Jan 2008

2008-01-30T15:59:00.000-05:00

Obama wins South Carolina

Hillary and McCain win Florida

Edwards drops out

What is a debate anyway?

2008-01-23T11:20:00.000-05:00

Hillary and Barack point out each other’s weakness and try to put fourth their strong points, now I am just a common old working man, but isn’t that what debates are all about?

Nevada and the Republican South Carolina Primaries

2008-01-20T14:08:00.000-05:00

McCain wins South Carolina and Mitt Romney picks up Nevada for the Republicans

Hillary Clinton wins in Nevada, but race with Barack Obama is still close for the Democrats.

The Michigan Vote of Jan 15 2008

2008-01-16T12:41:00.000-05:00

Michigan Vote:

Mitt Romney 40%

John McCain 30%

Mike Huckabee 16%

Ron Paul 6%

Frederick Thompson 4%

Rudy Giuliani 3%

Hillary Clinton 55%

Dennis Kucinich 4%

Hillary and Meet the Press

2008-01-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

Hillary was on Meet the Press with Tim Russert plowing over very old ground, it was more Histroy than News.

Lets elect a President 2008 as of Jan 10

2008-01-10T19:16:00.000-05:00

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/action/conversation/conversation.aspx?sc=1100

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/semr?source=SEM-register-google-obama-search-national

http://www.johnedwards.com/

Lets elect a President 2008 as of Jan 5

2008-01-05T14:15:00.000-05:00

Terrorist our new enemy

2008-01-03T10:41:00.000-05:00

Symbols and Attitudes

2007-11-03T10:32:00.000-04:00

People seem to think that Symbols like flags and the Swastika is what makes people like the Nazi, Fascists or American patriots think the way they do. It is not the Symbols it is the Attitude of the people that “We are better than anyone else” We are Rich and “they” are poor so we must be smarter and better bred than they were therefore better. We are German, Japanese, Roman, or Americans etc. so we must be better than anyone else. If Attitudes don’t change it won’t matter if you change Symbols.
The Christians found when the Bible was finally printed and available to anyone that can read that it was the words of Christ that shapes one’s attitude toward the poor and less fortunate and not the symbols like the cross. It is an attitude of bring people together Rich and poor that makes a real Christian.
The world is under going another great change as a Global culture is starting to grow, but people don’t like to see their local culture become museum peaces for tourists. It can be a good thing if this brings understanding between people and fewer differences. There were many cultural changes in the past some good and some bad, but people had to change with them and so will we, hopefully with a better Attitude toward one another.

Immigrants Access to Driver’s Licenses

2007-10-11T09:09:00.001-04:00

Immigrants Access to Driver’s Licenses

Even as a common old working man I can see that giving Driver’s Licenses to immigrants is good the security of the United States as it documents the before undocumented. Governor Spitzer of New York announced that New Yorkers can obtain a driver’s license without regard to their immigration status. The new policy will benefit millions of New York residents, as hundreds of thousands of motorists who used to be uninsured will be able to obtain a driver’s license and automobile insurance making our roads safer.
Congress passed the Real ID Act in 2005 in an attempt to federalize state driver’s licenses by imposing a broad array of regulations on how they are issued and verified. Should the Real ID Act become law in New York, it will force the Department of Motor Vehicles into the business of enforcing federal immigration law by again requiring that all driver’s license applicants prove their lawful immigration status.
States are not required to implement the Real ID Act, and seventeen states already passed legislation rejecting it. Governor Spitzer to protect the important progress made should express his opposition to the federal Real ID Act.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks, anybody Listening?

2007-09-25T15:06:00.000-04:00

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks,
But is anybody listening.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran was invited to talk and answer some questions at Columbia University on September 24, 2007. Columbia University President talked before Ahmadinejad and told the students not to listen to him that all he is going to say are lies. Lee Bolinger the University President is called a expert on freedom of speech, but he seems to say you can talk, but I’ll have cotton in my ears (some expert), instead of let him speak then telling the students where he was wrong and why, but Lee instead insulted not only Ahmadinjad, his university, but both Iran and the United States of America. A lot of what he said was obviously untruths like more children dieing in Iran than anywhere else, what about Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan which of course calls into question the rest of his “facts”.
Ahmadinejad actually answered all the questions given to him before they were even asked, but not with the answers the professors wanted to hear. Nuclear power Ahmadinejad said that they were using it for peaceful purposes and international agencies have confirmed this. This should be easily checked out the fact we have not heard that he is wrong does this mean he is right?
What should have been the main topic Human Right inside Iran got only a little time most of which was about a Columbia University intellectual that got in trouble with the law in Iran? Like most Islamic countries Iran does not live up to Western standards for Human Rights.
What was the most talked about topic was the Holocaust and Israel which seem to be the most important to the professors and students. He said there is a need for more research from a different prospective, but many seem to fear what more research would find out after all there is a lot under that rug. He said there should be elections in Palestine to see what kind of country “they want”. He said “You know quite well that Palestine is and old wound. For 60 years these people are being displaced, for 60 years these people are being killed, for 60 years on a daily basis there’s conflict and terror, for 60 years innocent women and children are destroyed by helicopter and airplanes”
When asked about homosexuals he made a joke in an effort not to answer the question. Iran is ruled by Islamic clerks who watch over everything the government of Iran does and like most religious groups they don’t like homosexuals.
What happen in New York that day tells us more that freedom of search has a long way to go in both countries than anything about Iran.

Sicko

2007-07-24T09:33:00.000-04:00

I thought Sicko was Michael Moore’s best film so far because he covered all his facts with sources, which he did not always do in his other films leaving it up the movie going public to check the facts by reading books on the issues. There are two reasons that I can think of for this, one is the subject matter there are more sources on health care than any other subject and two it would have made his other movies less entertaining it is easer to list sources in books than in films unless you put them in the credits that no one reads.
The big difference between Michael Moore’s Critics and Michael Moore is his backs his facts with sources and his critics don’t. Michael Moore made CNN back down from many of their criticisms. A lot of what the supporters of the American Medical system say about the other systems around the world are either lies, BS, half truths, or true about one system, but not about others and many are also true about the American system sometimes worst in America. The thing that Americans hate most is Taxes which would go up a lot if we went to a one payer system, but that would be made up for in the fact that we or our employers would pay less for Medical Insurance making America more competitive in the world job market. The fact that we are 37th in health care does not mean there are not good things about the American system and the fact that France is number one does not mean that they don’t have problems, but medical care for profit have problems built into it that other systems don’t

Fireworks for the Fourth or the Fourth for Fireworks

2007-07-06T07:06:00.000-04:00

Fireworks for the Fourth or the Fourth for Fireworks

The fourth of July 1776, the day John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence (the others signed much later) was the date set a side has the date the United States of America started. Actually independence didn’t come until 1789 when the treaty of London was signed. Since I was a kid the fourth has been celebrated with Fireworks, but I always thought that the important thing was that it is Independence Day not the Fireworks themselves. Fireworks are nice, but they shouldn’t be the important thing. They are not freedom as some have said they are dangerous and should only be in the hands of Professionals

First Democratic Debate

2007-04-27T15:37:00.000-04:00

The first Democratic debate on April 26, 2007 in SC in my humble opinion helped me to get to know the positions of some of the candidates.

Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel; I did not know him before and even if they did treat him like a potted plant, when he did get to talk he was very good and I liked him a lot, but they will probably make him look like a nut. I don’t know what his position on other issues than Iraq like health care and education.

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich; I like his position on Iraq, but I would have to hear more about his positions on health care and education.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards; I think he has the most detailed position on health care, education and how he would pay for it. He has to work of his Iraq position a little more other than saying he is sorry for his vote on the war.

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; she has a good position on the war in Iraq if she gets elected, she has had a great position on health care since she was first lady. I would like to hear more about education, but her husband was good on education when he was president.

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden; he has the best position on Iraq of any of the candidates, but I need to hear more about health care and education.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd; another potted plant they didn’t call on him much, but he sounds like a run of the mill politician. I didn’t hear his position on Iraq, Health care or education.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama; he said he is against the war, but when asked how he would respond he sounded more pro-war than anti-war and he had very poor response to health care and I am still waiting for his position on education

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; Poor on Iraq, Gun control, health care and education. He fell more than anyone in my opinion as a result of this debate

Military Lies

2007-04-25T12:19:00.001-04:00

Since the first recorded military report thousands of years ago there probably has not been one account of military action that has told the whole truth. Which is why they say that history is written by the victors and today’s military is no different.
The Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch stories illustrate how easily the military lies without even thinking about it. Pat Tillman was said by the military to have been killed the enemy in a firefight with al-Qaida and Taliban troops as he led his unit to assist a group of ambushed soldiers. Actually Tillman was killed by a group of US Soldiers that were itching for a firefight and mistook him for the enemy. The military also said that they took him to a hospital where they continued medical care. Actually his head was half blown off and he was dead on the battlefield. The question for congress is how far up does the cover up go.
Jessica Lynch an Army truck driver who was captured in an ambush during the early days of the Iraq war. The military put out the story of the little girl Rambo from the hills that went down fighting. This was not true she was wounded with broken legs and a cut to her head and she had pasted out. She said that she thought this might not be bad because “it would inspire our troops and rally a nation”. What she wants to inspire our troops to do what is the question is it to take unnecessary risks trying to be another Rambo and endangering their lives and that of their follow troops.
So when you hear stories from a War Zone take them with a lot of salt.

Don Imus and Free Speech

2007-04-20T09:27:00.000-04:00

What Don Imus said was not covered under the first amendment because he stepped on other people’s rights mainly the Girls on the Rutgers Basketball team and he has a history of using his radio program to do just that to others. The right wing media has tried to marginalize the issue by pointing out how many people were on Don Imus’s show, or how many people had to apologize publicly giving them another excuse to play the file film of President Clinton which has nothing to do with making racial and sexist statements on the air. Speech has never been free actually the ink was not dry on the first amendment when the Government made it against the law to say anything against the president (John Adams) and his administration. Eventually that law was repealed I’ll bet some in the Bush Administration wishes it hadn’t been. No one should have a right that hurts other people that is why Don Imus was and should have been fired.

Cho's Message

2007-04-19T12:13:00.000-04:00

Cho’s Message to NBC

Seung-Hui Cho sent a package to NBC containing Photos, Videos and his writings mostly a lot of double talk about the fact he came from a poor family and had to work hard for what he got. When other students seem to have everything they wanted for little or no work. Now they say that Cho was mentally ill and some people knew about him being dangerous for months if not years a judge even said he was dangerous to himself and others. The question here is was he ignored because he was Korean or what? Why was he still able to buy handguns when he had a history of being mental ill? Another question is if his family had stayed in Korea would he have been set off by better off Koreans? You don’t hear of Massacres in other Countries unless there is a war going on. So maybe it was a combination of things. He is poor while other students seem like spoiled brats with everything, but not looking at the fact he had a lot more than other people. He might have felled like an outsider, but there were students from all races and one of his victims was Korean herself. He might have been caught up in the American culture of violence that made the other pressures come to a boiling point that otherwise wouldn’t have happened.

Virginia Tech Massacre

2007-04-18T11:00:00.000-04:00

Virginia Tech Massacre

The first report about the Virginia Tech Massacre I heard from CNN was that it set a new record for school massacres, that’s what we need to set new goals for our young people. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said he didn’t think anyone should use the Virginia Tech massacre for a political hobby horse while he flew back as fast as he could from Japan to gave a news conference on something he knew nothing about so he could get his Photo-op. Everyone from University officials, Campus police and Doctors patted themselves on the back at how well they did and no one should look back on their actions (Monday morning quarterbacking, 20/20 hind site etc), but the only way we learn from our mistakes is to review our work or we will repeat our mistakes over and over again. The only way to change the culture of Violence is to educate future generations that violence only begets more violence and to give peace a chance.

Wild West America

2007-04-18T09:10:00.000-04:00

We all watched as the Pro-Gun people were trying to explain away Cho Sung-Hui with such statements as “there were too few guns on campus”, “It is irresponsibly dangerous to tell citizens that they may not have guns at schools.” This is just some examples of the thinking of the Pro-Gun Culture in America and that keeps the United States of America near the top of Murder by firearms Number eight behind South Africa, Colombia, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Belarus, and Costa Rica. It is interesting to note that Countries with Gun Control have low murder rates per-capita than countries that don’t. See the Web site below:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_wit_fir_percap-crime-murders-firearms-per-capita

Gun control measures might have made it hard for Cho Sung-Hui to get a gun, but not impossible, what is need is a change in the Pro-Gun Culture which is one of the reasons that Virginia Tech Campus Police did not shut down the campus after the first shooting and a gunman which still loose on campus. It was too normal for someone to shoot his girlfriend in Virginia; if they had thought different they might have saved 31 lives.

A True Planetary Emergency

2007-03-23T10:51:00.000-04:00

Al Gore took his case to save us from ourselves to Congress and I for one thought he made a good case. Judging from the reaction of the Senators some seem to think of Global Warming another way Liberals are tiring to keep them from making money. This is not an issue like evolution that can and probably will be debated until the end of time. Changes that Al Gore and Scientist (Scientist not in the employ of Corporations or Government) says must be made now or the end of time will be sooner than we think. We all may have to pay a little more now, but our children and our children’s children will receive a world worth living in.

St. Patrick's Day 2007

2007-03-17T13:09:00.000-04:00

When the Irish Catholics came to America they to a Man and Women were of the Working Class many in the 1840’s were escaping Starvation in Ireland when Countries like Britain and America would only help non-Catholic Irish. When the Irish got to America they found they were hated as much here as in their homeland except in America they had food. So you would think they would have empathy with other minorities that are suffering the same way their ancestors did and some do, but a lot seem to think the best way to be accepted by Society is to become the haters instead of the hated. They have turned Irish originations into hate groups and have excluded some minorities from the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. I am picking on the Irish, but other ethic groups have followed this path as well. The world would be a lot better place for all people if you just would remember where you came from!
Happy St. Patrick's Day

Democrats take over Congress

2007-03-16T11:07:00.000-04:00

Yes it is a good thing that the Democrats have taken over the house by a good margin and the Senate barely because it put some progressives the head of some committees. There are more progressives in the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. The question is there enough progressives to get anything done for the working class in America, it seems that so far Congress has been tried up with Iraq and sending more working class people to died, than social programs to help them. Now they are starting the 2008 Presidential race ahead of time. So it seem like the good news is the Republicans are not in control of Congress and the bad news is that the Democrats are.

I return at last

2007-03-16T10:33:00.000-04:00

You might have noticed (but probably not) that I have not posted since October 2006. I have some excuses like I was busy with putting videos on YouTube, digitizing old photos, a trip to Ireland and a little thing called prostate cancer.
The videos I put on YouTube are mostly of the trips my wife and I have taken over the years. Some are Slideshows other videos (one from 1977 was on super 8 film) I put music to a lot of the slideshows and videos and have gotten a good response from the YouTube viewers.
It’s going to take me a long time to digitize the entire old photo collection especially since when I find a new and better way to do it I go over what I already did, but it keeps me alive.
Our trip to Ireland was great and you can see videos of it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=bellrich . we went to Dublin for a week then to Kerry on the west coast of Ireland.
The Doctor gave me the options of doing nothing about my prostate cancer in the hopes that something else would kill me before the cancer could. Implanting radio active seeds in my prostate or removing my prostate. There are side effects to all the options, so I took the middle one and had seed implants.
There have been a few big news events since I last posted and I will try to catch up.

What Military option?

2006-10-13T16:12:00.000-04:00

North Korea, Bush’s Military option?

In his Rose Garden News Conference Bush laid out what he thought were his options.
One; bilateral talks with North Korea by the Bush administration which Bush says will not work because Kim Jong-Il has told “Lies” before.
Two; get other nations in the area that are in harms way like South Korea, Japan, Russia and especially China to pressure North Korea to give up their Nuclear Arms.
Three; The Military Option bomb and invade North Korea.
Now Bush being a wise man says he chooses option two, but he says option three is still on the table. The reporters let him get away with this and some seem to want him the bomb North Korea.
Well I am just a common old working man, but it seems to me that we couldn’t handle North Korea in the 1950’s when that was the only war we were fighting and we had the drift. Now with an Army of only people we can fool into joining and fighting two and a half wars it seems to me that Bush has no military option and in fact has only the option he so wisely chose.