Thoughts

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The American Love Affair With Violence


There is a documentary out about bullying in American schools.  For some crazy reason it is rated “R”.  There is a movement about to get that rating reduced to “PG-13”.  As a parent, I would like to see the rating changed to “PG”.  The movement wants to give greater access to the movie to young people.  The thing is, bullying starts as young a six years of age!  Schools are required to report and respond to incidents of bullying immediately.  But bullying does not start in the school.  It starts at home!  The only question is: why?

I suggest the reason for bullying starting in the home is American’s acceptance of a violent society.  No other country in the world promotes gun usage.  Now gun ownership is not a basis for violence.  The person behind it is, of course.  But adolescents and teens are awash with images of violence on television, in the movies, and in their video games.  I have always found it curios that we take great pains in hiding one of mankind’s most wonderful and common acts, sex, while we flaunt violence.  Where is the sense in that.  A 14-year-old boy knows more about weapons than he does about his own sexuality.  He feels far freer to ask someone how to use a gun but is scared to death to ask someone about safe sex!

I am not suggesting that we open up pornography to our nation’s youth but I am suggesting that American parents are failing miserably in educating their children about sex while they take great pains to educate them about violence.  Most of that education, unfortunately, comes via the parent’s fascination in violence without properly instructing the child about it.  The parent will watch a blood and gore movie in front of his children and not say a thing about what the child is being exposed to.  But God forbid a well-made movie shows a woman’s breasts and the parents will be shooing the child out of the room.  We have the wrong forbidden fruit in America.  Where violence should be the forbidden fruit, sex is.

Children learn a lot from their parents.  Adults can be as much of a bully as a child.  When a child sees his parent yelling at a store clerk and verbally abusing such people, the child learns that such things are all right to do.  They turn around and practice those learned techniques on their classmates.  Similarly, when a child is in a car with a parent who is a very aggressive driver, or who has road rage, the child assumes such behavior to be normal and acceptable.

Every parent misbehaves in front of their children from time-to-time.  But when the responsible parent recognizes his inappropriate actions, he informs the child of how his actions were incorrect and not to be repeated.

I think far too many Americans act irresponsibly.  They are very slow to take responsible for their actions, and at times refuse to.  They forget that their bad acts, in front of their own children and other children, is showing bad example and teaching our children the wrong things.  Prior to my retirement from teaching I had occasion to take aside three students and apologise to them for what I considered some inappropriate actions.  And while they did not think what I had done to have been any big deal, their words, I said that I was wrong.  Children need to learn that adult authority figures make mistakes and are willing to take responsibility for those mistakes.

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Bicycling


I learned to ride a bicycle at a rather young age.  I never had training wheels.  My introduction to the bicycle came from the boy who live next door.  He had a new bicycle and he dared me to ride it.  His front yard had a very slight incline from the house down to the street.  I got on the bike at the top of that slope, saddled up, and rode on down.  My brief ride ended quickly as I was forced to take a fall right in front of an on-coming truck.  But when you are that age you are immortal.  I got right back on the bike and rode like I had been on it for a long time.

When I went home I badgered my parents into getting me a bike.  My mother had a friend who had an old bike in her cellar.  I can still see it.  Fat tires, spray painted gray fenders, and it only cost $10!  That was my first bike.  I rode it until it literally fell apart and my parents got me a brand new bike for my birthday.

From that time until I got my driver’s license I rode a bicycle constantly.  I rode one bike so much that one of the welds split apart and it broke in two.  I learned to fix the brakes, change the chain, fix any flat I ever got, and anything else it needed.  But the automobile spelled the end of my bicycling for many years to come.  I had fallen victim to the American love affair with the automobile and I had forsaken my physical health in that cause.

Then about 12 years ago I saw the need to exercise and took up jogging.  Everyone did it and you can do it just about anywhere.  For a person of my age and body type I did fairly well.  My best day jogging was a non-stop 12 mile run.  On any given day I jogged six or seven miles.  But after a while my knees started complaining and I noticed it became more difficult to keep up my pace.  My new bicycle had 27 gears, something I had not experienced before.  But it did not take me long to get used to it and to get a routine going.

It was not easy making an exercise routine out of it.  I did not know simple things like pacing and proper shifting along with which gear to be used and how fast my feet should be rotating.  That has taken a number of years.  During the interim I gave away my first bike when I decided to buy a carbon compound very lightweight bike that is made for speed.  That did not last long as I found it to be too much bike for me.  I sold the bike and got one far better suited for what I wanted to do.

That is the bike I am using today and it is just about at its 10,000 mile mark.  I have done that in about 4 years.  I was going to replace it at that mark but I have decided to replace certain parts and hold off on a new bike until next year.  I learned that things like chains stretch, the rear gears wear down, and all those moving parts need to be changed more often than I had dreamed.  I have replaced all of those parts but still have a few more to go.

For the past twenty plus years there has been a group called the Rail Trail Conservancy that has been acquiring abandoned railroad lines and converting them to use as bicycle paths.  The funding is a combination of private donations and federal funding.  I am fortunate to have such a railtrail near me.  The Minuteman Rail-trail goes from Arlington through Lexington to Bedford, a distance of roughly 10.5 miles.  I access the railtrail a couple of miles from its beginning that gives me a total roundtrip route of 23 miles.

I have found that doing that 23 mile trip 4 times a week or more is enough to give me a substantial cardio-vascular exercise routing.  I average 14 MPH on my route.  To put that in perspective, the average pleasure rider goes around 8 MPH, a normal exercise speed is around 12 MPH, while mine is listed as a strenuous rate.  Still, that is far slower than the 18 – 20 MPH average that speed racers move in their routines.

A good exercise routine is measured in large part by how much time you put into your daily exercise.  My 23 mile route takes around 1.5 hours to complete.  That is 3 times longer than the suggested minimum for a good amount of exercise.  I find it usually is pretty easy to do 1.5 hours on a bike as my mind is engaged in a constantly changing surrounding.  That is as opposed to exercising in the gym where the only thing changing is the people around you, and even that happens very slowly.

Even though I like using the rail-trail there are days when it is not a good place to go.  It is a very popular route for people walking.  A lot of people on the rail-trail makes it rather difficult to maintain a constant speed safely.  At those times I move over to the road and that is where other problems begin.

For the most part, motorists are pretty good about sharing the road.  But there are some who seem either oblivious to anything else on the road, me in particular, or who are resentful about sharing the road.  I have had many close calls with cars and have been hit once.  That one time a woman decide to turn right when I was right along side her car.  I was going about 15 MPH so my reaction time was extremely limited.  Fortunately I have always been someone who bounces well so I bounced off the side of her car, taking off her side-view mirror in the process, and then off the pavement.  I had my share of cuts and bruises along with an injured back but nothing serious.  She rushed out of her car very apologetically and said she had not seen me.  I was tempted to suggest she might have looked into that side view mirror I had taken off her car and should would have seen me.  I am rather hard to miss.

True, there are too many bicyclists who do not observe the rules of the road as they should and I believe the police should come down on them.  That includes me too, of course, when I do not follow one.  But I do stop at red lights and stop signs.  I stop for people in cross-walks, and I always ride with traffic and never against it.  I do not go up a one-way street the wrong way, and I always walk my bike on the sidewalk.

I think the use of bicycles in the U.S. is going to continue to rise.  I hope so.  But right now our roads are not made to accommodate cars and bicycles very well.  Motorists need to be aware that a bicyclist has as much right to the road as he does.  Even more, at least in Massachusetts, when you are on a four lane road the bicyclist has a right to one of the lanes.

I hope that state and local governments will provide for bicycling in their annual budgets and planning.  I also hope that motorists will realize how vulnerable a bicyclist is to their car.  In a collision, the car always wins.

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Political Identity Crisis


For my entire adult life I have been a registered Democrat.  I am not certain what in my childhood pushed me in that direction as both my parents were registered Republicans.  I loved my parents.  Politics was never discussed in our house so that was not an influence.  But I know my parents supported Eisenhower and Nixon.  In 1968 when Nixon was elected president I was in the army but I did not trust him for reasons I am not certain of.  I was not of age to vote but I remember having strong negative feelings about him, even though I was already in the military.  Those feelings did not change some years later when he was responsible for a huge increase in our military pay.

I bring up my military background because I have very strong feelings about the military.  I am very proud of my service and feel very protective towards it when I see anyone threaten any part of their existence.  That is, I have never fully embraced the base closures and reductions that started under the first Bush and have continued to this day.

Among conservatives, it seems to me, there is a belief that if you are a registered Democrat you are not strongly in the military’s corner.  Nothing could be further from the truth for me.  I guess that means that my beliefs about the military are extremely Republican.  I have no desire to change that in the least.

Then there is my somewhat strange stand of being anti-abortion but pro-choice.  For me there is nothing conflicting about such a stand.  I think abortion to be morally wrong, reprehensible.  But since I view it as a moral issue I also believe in the idea that each person must have the right to make a decision about the morality, or lack of morality, associated with abortion.  Every woman must be given the right to decided if having an abortion is the right thing to do.  Were I to be asked by such a woman, I would always tell her that I think she should not have an abortion, regardless of the condition that made her pregnant or of any implication of the state of the child upon birth.  I simply believe that upon conception there exists a human life.  We as a society decry the taking of a human life and I extend that to mean “at any stage of life.”  To differentiate is to abrogate responsibility.  This, quite sadly, includes cases of rape, incest, and where it is reasonable to expect that a live birth will result in a child with substantial physical and/or mental problems.  I am also against the death penalty for the very same reasons.  I believe in consistency and I think it inconsistent to believe in one but not the other.

I think that we as Americans have a responsibility to the unfortunates of our society.  That includes programs such as welfare and other such government sponsored programs.  But that said, I also think we have gone beyond the point of reasonableness in the administration of these programs.  We have made it easier for some to continue on such welfare programs than it is desirable for the individual to remove themselves from its roles.  The size of social programs need reduction, desperately.

We are one of the most violent nations in the world.  We want all deserving Americans to be afforded the right to possess the fire arms of their choice but we are unwilling to take the responsible task of clearing each person for their right to possess any single arm.  It seems to me reasonable that any law-abiding person would not mind a background check to ensure they have not at some point in their past given up the right to legally possess a fire arm.  I do not think there should be any restriction, with a very few exceptions, on the type of fire arm a person might purchase, just on how that comes to pass.  Any reasonable person who truly desires to have responsible purchase and sale of fire arms necessarily wants safeguards in place to restrict the criminal element from gaining access to such arms.  That does not exist in America today.  That means Americans, right now, do not mind criminals purchasing fire arms since they refuse to allow reasonable background checks.

In that same vein, Americans are also unwilling to provide for the proper incarceration of criminals, particularly violent criminals.  America’s laws in the prosecution of violent criminals can vary greatly from one state to the next.  A criminal can commit a murder, admit to it, and walk free because of certain deals that prosecutors make.  If we are ever to get a substantial reduction in our crime rate we must do several things.  One is a more uniform sentencing criteria from one state to the next.  Part of that would include a universal minimum sentence requirement in all states, to include cases where a criminal makes a plea deal.  Minimum sentencing would eliminate any criminal from getting “a walk” on a serious crime because of his help in prosecuting another criminal.  But this also means we are going to have to build more facilities to accommodate the increased prisoner population.  We also have to increase the size of our police forces and their budgets of course.

There is no place for God in our American government.  God is a purely religious concept that has as many variations as there are people in the United States.  To allow God into the government, regardless of the level, necessarily requires definition.  The creates the problem of what definition is accepted, and ultimately, how is that definition fair to all the people of the United States.  To be fair, there are millions of people, other than atheists, who do not believe in God as the Judeo-Christain concept goes.  Ultimately those people are opted-out when such a definition is decided upon.  Our government must be better than that.  It is better that all religious definition be removed from our government than to allow even an amalgam in.

I believe in my state that my district US representative and both my state’s US Senators have failed us.  The are more concerned with political expediency that constituent desires.  I have heard nothing out of the Elizabeth Warren camp in her opposition to Scott Brown, the incumbent Republican.  My tendency now is to vote for Brown even though I am a Democrat because I think the arrogance of the Democrat party in Massachusetts has resulted in too much failure.  I can only think Warren is displaying some of that arrogance now, thinking Massachusetts Democrat tendencies will propel her come November.  She will be surprised if she continues to think that way.

I am disillusioned with America’s Republican and Democrat political parties because I think it painfully obvious that each has allowed PACs to rule its positions, to select its candidates in some cases, and to ultimately become insensitive to the needs of its constituency.  Each party has with lies, which it euphemistically calls spin, to justify positions it takes.  Each party uses various fear tactics to reel in voters to the positions they desire, even when such positions are at the peril of the very voters they represent.  As Pogo said so eloquently, and so long ago, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

 

 

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The American Military Crisis


The murder of Afghan civilians by the American Army soldier was not only avoidable, but to some degree, predictable.  In this age of immediately available information it is sad that the American public is so uninformed about its soldiers.  I can tell you from personal experience that being a soldier is like no other a person can experience.  It therefore is the responsibility of the government to inform and the American public to be informed.  Both scenarios have failed.

The last time America fought a war like World War II was World War II.  From that point on warfare has changed dramatically.  Guerrilla warfare was developed by the Japanese during World War 2.  It has been adopted as the preferable form of fighting by small fighting forces everywhere since.  Vietnam was America’s introduction at a large-scale to that form of warfare.  To its credit, during the Vietnam conflict the Department of Defense seldom required a soldier to serve more than a single one year tour of duty in Vietnam.  It relied up rotating in new troops on their first tour to take the place of departing troops.  A single unit, the 25th Infantry Division, for example, stayed involved in the war for much of its duration.  But on a man-by-man basis, replacements were brought in as an individual soldier completed his one-year tour.  That was a formula used at both office and enlisted levels.  The U.S. seemed to have learned that battle fatigue was a real detriment to the effectiveness of a fighting unit.  And anytime a man was returned to the war zone his thinking necessarily made him feel more vulnerable to a bullet with his name on it.

During that era there were always upwards to 1.5 million men on active duty so the ability to rotate men through the war zone without using them more than once was more easily accomplished than it is today.  During Vietnam there were many men who asked to be sent for a second tour in Vietnam, and few who asked for a third.  But in the individual soldiers mind was the knowledge that if he had already been to Vietnam once, he would not be required to go again.  Such knowledge is absent from the soldier’s psyche today.  Worse, those being required multiple trips to war zones are those who volunteered to be reserve troops.  That only happens when the numbers of active forces are too low to meet requirements.

What makes this even worse is that since the government has taken the tack of base closures, it has also reduced the size of the military.  In some instances the size of individual units have been reduced by as much as two-thirds while others have been totally disbanded.  The reason given, as always, is the level of funding.  The problem with such thinking is simple.  It is foolishness in the extreme.

America for over twenty years now has been trying to enforce peace and guarantee the safety of Americans on the cheap.  You cannot properly assess the strength and preparedness of the nation’s military in terms of dollars and cents alone.  History shows clearly that a country’s budget for its military is necessarily large, at least as long as it desires to be fully prepared.

Today, America has 10 active Army Infantry and Armor Divisions and three reserve infantry divisions both of which are a part of the National Guard.    In 1989 there were 19 active divisions and 10 reserve divisions.  Why is it we could afford that level of preparedness then but not now?  Simple math shows that we reduced that part of our defense by over 55%.

During those same years the size of the Air Force and Navy also have been reduced in both active and reserve numbers.  It would seem that our politicians have lost sight of the fact that in the end it is people, not machines, that win wars.  Technology serves a very important part of our readiness but technology is worthless without a sufficient human presence.  But on the battlefield, the place where the ground soldier must operate, even the best technology has its limits.  It should be painfully obvious to all but the most apathetic that the biggest deterrent to an enemy force is the number of men it faces, not their technology.  The Taliban certain respects America’s technology but it does not fear it.  Right now they know they have a superiority of number and are willing to play the game of attrition.  They know they are not going anywhere and can simply wait out America and hope for its resolve to wane.  But were they to face a very large increase in the number of men on the ground, their resolve would necessarily weaken.  They know American does not have such resources, so they simply wait, pick their fights, continue the battle of attrition confident in their ability to wait things out.

This scenario is not going to change in the future even as our enemy does change.  America must increase the size of its military, greatly, and become willing to pay for it.  But the cost of such an increase will reap long-term rewards.  Our military’s ability to keep fresh troops in the field will be enhanced.  It is morally wrong to ask the same small group of men to put their lives in harm’s way over and over and not expect there to be both short and long-term negative effects.  With enough men at its disposal the Army could have looked at SSG. Bales request, or requirement, to be deployed to a war zone for the fourth time in 11 years as the assumption of unnecessary risk and blocked his deployment.  With the shortage of manpower, such as it has, the Army’s hand was forced, and now we have the results.

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Massachusetts: An Example of How Government Fails People


If you are not from Massachusetts you are probably unaware of a severe cash shortfalls one of its agencies is experiencing.  Massachusetts and all of the other 49 states, as-well-as the federal government, is tasked with supplying certain services to all its residents.  One of those is transportation.  That transportation consists of all the roads with their bridges, all the airports, all the seaports, and all forms of public transportation.  Massachusetts is currently experiencing a serious budget problem with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).   The MBTA serves over 70 eastern Massachusetts communities.  The MBTA says it has $130 million shortage.  To deal with that shortfall it is saying it will make serious service cutbacks along with fare increases.

The MBTA is a state agency no different from the state police, Public Utilities, Parks and Recreation, and dozens of others.  Each is funded by a line item in the annual state budget.  That budget is put forth by Governor Deval Patrick and passed by the state’s representatives and senators after they have made their modifications.  Included in that budget is the MBTA’s budget.  Massachusetts also had another half-dozen or so regional transportation authorities that also receive funding from the state.  They include RTAs in the cities of Lawrence, Lowell, Fall River, Brockton, Worcester, Fitchburg, Springfield, and Greenfield.  Each of those areas supplies bus transportation to those cities and surrounding communities.

Massachusetts politicians have been extremely quiet on the financial troubles of the MBTA.  We have heard absolutely nothing from Gov. Patrick or any of the state’s senators and representatives.  Considering they are charged with overseeing the welfare of our transportation this is an unacceptable situation.

The MBTA managed to gain the $130 million shortfall for a variety of reasons.  One thing MBTA officials point out is that they collect roughly 35 cents at the fare box for every dollar spent.  They go on further to say how that number is low compared to other cities.  Studies have shown that Massachusetts does collect less than other cities.  But comparisons must end there and viewed as unequal.  That is because things like capital expenses, age of infrastructure, size of population served, debt service, and many other factors vary greatly from city-to-city.  The MBTA has the oldest subway in the United States.  That all by itself is hugely problematic.

In the 1980s and 1990s Massachusetts aggressively expanded its commuter rail system.  Boston, unlike cities such as Philadelphia, Washington, DC and Baltimore, has an extensive track system that lends itself to commuter rail.  But about half of its current system consisted of abandoned or freight only tracks that required upgrading or complete rebuilding.  Additionally, the MBTA expanded its commuter rail diesels and coaches.  It had inherited an aging fleet of rail diesel cars from the B&M Railroad that needed replacement.  But that happened over 25 years ago which happens to be the expected lifetime of such equipment.  Simply said, the entire fleet needs replacement.

In the past several years the MBTA upgraded the Blue Line by rebuilding stations and replacing the subway cars.  But the entire Orange Line fleet and half the Red Line and Green Line fleet also needs replacement.

The Green Line is the most problematic of all.  The ability of any rapid transportation system to serve the public is measured by how many passenger per hour can be served over any portion of its track.  The Green Line’s tunnel from Kenmore to Government Center is currently serving all four of the system’s routes.  The volume of traffic exceeds the ability of that stretch of tunnel to allow the passage of trolleys.  The solution is a simple, yet very costly, one.  A second tunnel must be built.  Anything short of that will not allow for any growth in Green Line traffic.

As for the MBTA’s bus system, its structure is almost completely outdated.  Many of the existing bus routes are leftovers from the 1960s when the MBTA took over the area’s  private bus companies.  For example, the 85 route goes from Kendall Square Cambridge to Spring Hill Somerville.  There is not a particularly high demand for this route.  If you look at the route two questions come to mind.  First, why not extend the Cambridge end from Kendall Square to Lechmere and then on the other end extend the route to Davis Square, a short distance from Spring Hill.  Or maybe this is a route that simply needs to be eliminated.  At the opposite end of the spectrum is the 66 route that connects Harvard Square to Dudley Square.  This is a heavily used route that, as anyone who travels it knows, frequently has standing room only on its buses.

That the MBTA is threatening draconian service cuts is not only unreasonable, it shows just how miserably they have failed.  They are using this scare tactic at this time because rising gas prices along with increased patronage gives them the feeling that they have leverage.  It is not leverage that is needed, it is honesty.  These managers are at the very least disingenuous and more likely, outright dishonest.

These are but a few examples of the MBTA’s extreme mismanagement of its system.  Mismanagement always results in overspending.  This mismanagement is not just within the MBTA itself, but from those whose job it is to oversee the MBTA, the governor, his counsel, and others.

The solution is not easy but it is not all that complicated either.  First of all, the Massachusetts government must step in and assume the $130 million shortfall and provide more funding in the short-term.  Next, the Gov. Patrick needs to step in and replace all the political hacks that are entrenched there and replace them with transportation experts, people who have degrees in urban planning and transportation along with a long history of experience in those areas.  He must put an end to the history of patronage that has hamstrung this system and kept it from making desperately needed progress.

The state of Massachusetts is responsible to its people to make a comprehensive study detailing what must be done now and in the future to keep the MBTA running at its present level and at an increased level in the future as demand requires.  This means the governor and other officials are going to have to come up with how much money will be required to take the antiquated MBTA from the 20th Century, where it now exists, into the reality of the 21st Century.  This likely means an increase of the state’s tax on gasoline.  But if the public is provided a full disclosure of the costs involved in running the MBTA, and the other RTAs, the public will accept, if begrudgingly, the necessity of a small tax increase.

The state of Massachusetts, like the federal government, is dishonest with its citizens.  It keeps large amounts of vital information the public needs to make well-reasoned decisions.  The government officials do this for political expediency or because they do not believe the public will understand what they are saying.  This sort of dishonesty must end now.

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Are Americans Naive, Gullible, or Really Lazy?


There was a news report yesterday that about 50% of Americans blame President Obama for the current high gasoline prices.   Really?  That is what I do not get!  Presidents seldom have any effect on current gas prices.   Mitt Romney said in Alabama that gas prices have doubled since Obama was elected.  I checked that claim out.  On the day he was elected the average price of a gallon of gas was about $3.60.  By the time he took office it had plummeted to $1.90 and since then it has been slowly climbing back up.  Romney was something less than honest with us, cherry picking the data that suited him.

There are a number of things that affect the price of gasoline, regional stability in the middle east, amount of crude being pumped, amount of oil being refined, and speculators.  Mostly, of course, it is global demand versus oil-producing countries supply.  The only effect a President can have is his releasing America’s oil reserves, and that is a very limited effect.  To a lesser degree the major oil companies have some effect.  One thing Americans need to become aware of is the fact that every year about this time the price of gasoline rises as refineries change over from the winter gas mixture to the summer mixture where the summer mix is more expensive.

This, of course, is not the only area Americans seem to be either naive or lazy about but right now it is making the headlines.  I have stated in earlier blogs that I wish Americans would do more thinking for themselves and stop allowing politicians tell them what to think.  Politicians, regardless of party, are dishonest.  But rather than say politicians lie both parties say the other side is putting their political “spin” on something.  There is only one truth about any one thing.  There can never be two.  For example, as I look out my window right now I can describe the sky as being blue.  Most people would consider that as completely true since that is also what the weatherman is saying.  But it is not.  The sky, in fact, right now is a hazy blue.  The sun is not shining nearly as brightly as it could be.  This is exactly what politicians do all the time.

Americans, next time a politician offers something as being true without showing proof, DO NOT BELIEVE IT!  Demand proof!  If a politician says he is going to do something, demand a detailed accounting of exactly how he will do it, otherwise he is likely LYING!  The truth is, he hopes he can do it but does not really know.

As long as Americans practice laziness, which they have been, things are going to get worse!  Americans are turning over important decisions to people who are not truly committed to following through, or do not know how to follow through, or who will compromise their beliefs as they wilt before their party’s power mongers.

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Rush Limbaugh Takes on the Feminazis


I do not understand why any woman in the United States who has any self-worth would want to be a Republican today.  I cannot help but wonder if some of these women have been completely brainwashed by either their parents or their spouse.  As much as I despise the politics of both major parties in the United States, the double standard of the Republican Party galls me the most.

Rush Limbaugh thought it all right to call Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University Law student, a slut and a prostitute.  I do not know how much more insulting one person can be but Limbaugh honestly believed what he said.  He, of course, tried to retract his statements when the stuff hit the fan but he did not mean it.  He spoke his truth with the first words out of his mouth.  The sad part is, he speak for a lot of the Republican Party.  How can I say that?  There was little condemnation that emanated from his fellow Republicans following his statement.

Limbaugh says what other think, and he has a long history of such remarks.  He knows the more outrageous he sounds the bigger his audience.  But the sad part of that, a lot of his audience is allowing him to do their thinking for them.  Some years ago they took great pride in being called “ditto-heads.”  Even though that is not being said anymore, the sentiment has not gone away.

Back in the 1980s when I was in graduate school, I took two courses in women’s studies.  In both courses there were about 20 women and me, the only male in the class.  I can tell you unequivocally that about half the class wanted to cut my balls off and feed them to me.  I finished both courses and received an A in each.  The courses were taught by a female professor so I did not get any break there.  But I learned a lot in those courses about women’s history.  The said part is, too many men still view women in a negative light.  It is my belief that the majority of those men are quite conservative.  They still like the barefoot and pregnant tack.

Sandra Fluke was simply testifying before Congress about her experience with birth control.  Prior to that she had no celebrity.  No one outside her family and friends knew her.  She was just someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s friend.  But then Limbaugh that it appropriate to attack her for her beliefs.  In doing so he has assaulted every daughter, every wife, every sister in America.  His narrow bigoted beliefs trumped everything else, at least as far as he was concerned.  Rather than address Miss Fluke’s appearance before Congress in a rational and respectful manner, he chose to defame her otherwise good character and vilify her before all America.  The bell is rung and cannot be unrung.  Sandra Fluke has been negatively labeled in the minds of millions of conservative American women for no good reason at all.

In Limbaugh’s mind, every daughter, every wife, every sister, every mother who has used birth control is a prostitute and a slut.  There is no other was to interpret what he has said!  Every mother, every sister, every daughter, every wife who has used birth control should be outraged.

For these reasons, and others, I find it so very difficult to understand how any American woman can look herself in the mirror and be happy with herself if she has not condemned Limbaugh’s actions.  I cannot understand the Republican Party’s loud silence on the subject as well.  Limbaugh labeled all women who fought for women’s rights and equal protection under the law as “feminazis.”  He has not taken that back nor has the Republican Party distanced themselves from him.  It just makes me wonder.

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It Is Another Day in Paradise


Tomorrow is my birthday.  I will be 63.  I really do not like this getting older, but what then are the alternatives?  There is one really good thing about getting older, your perspective improves greatly.

When I was young, a teenager and early 20s, I felt the constant desire to be on the move.  I constantly desired to be going somewhere, doing something, seeing things.  For the most part that was a good thing.  I followed through on those desires and saw a lot of the world as it was.  I experienced many countries and many different people.  But the problem with youth is an almost complete lack of perspective.

When I was young I thought the town I grew up in was hopelessly boring.  It never occurred to me that even if that were true, and it was, that might actually be a good thing and something to be taken advantage of.  Boston attracted me but I never got further than the very entertainment areas.  That sort of visiting other places did not follow me as the years went on, fortunately.  One of the foolish feelings of youth is a sort of immortality, death is far away and not to be concerned with.  Because of that feeling I did not fear wandering into some of the more suspect areas of foreign cities without a worry in the world.  Nothing ever happened to me, fortunately, and the experiences did offer me views of life as it exists on many different levels.

The years passed and my traveling slowed down.  I slowed down too.  Slowing down, it turns out, is an extremely good thing.  People should do it more often!  It gave me the opportunity to consider everything I had done, everywhere I had been, everyone I had ever encountered.  No, I do not have a perfect memory for all my travels.  But I do remember large portions of them.  They allow me to smile.

A lot of places I have visited I would not want to live.  Not because they were dirty or ugly, unfriendly or poor, but because my spirit would  be too confined, too restricted, too limited.  Beirut is an absolutely wonderful city with extremely friendly people but it is not a place I could live for very long.  Part of the attraction to such a city is its being exotic but that is the very reason it would not be good for me.  It exists outside my comfort zone.

What does all of this have to do with paradise?  Quite simply, paradise is where you find it.  I cannot say I am very enamoured with where I am living right now but I am not far removed from much beauty and pleasure either.  I can get there quite easily by putting myself out just a little bit.

My cat is a bit of paradise too.  She is perfect, graceful, soft, beautiful.  She likes me just as I am and I her.  Consider what a gift it is to have an animal that does not mind co-existing with humans.  Most animals find us unbearable.  We have trespassed into what was formerly entirely theirs but there is nothing they can do about it.  There is a red-tailed hawk which nests on the side of a building very close to here.  From my 14th floor vantage point I can see her soaring effortlessly on the currents of air.  Such beauty is surely reserved for paradise, is it not?

Spring will be on us in a few days.  The leaves coming into bloom has always been a wonderous sight.  They emerge, as if by magic, for what looks to be dead sticks, first into flowers and then into leaves.  How did nature figure out how to do such a thing?

We will soon enter into the season of thunderstorms.  I have always called them nature’s light show.  When I lived in El Paso, I liked to go up the side of the Franklin Mountains and watch the thunderstorms as they moved across the desert below.  Even here in Cambridge, my window on the world allow me a great view of the magnificent bolts of lightning as the streak through the clouds to the earth below.

Only in paradise can you get entertainment daily and it costs nothing save the time you take to enjoy it.  While walking in the rain recently with a friend I commented on how I love a rainy day.  The rain, water of course, is one of the basics of life.  How can you possibly dislike something that is responsible for your very being?

Some years ago I was calling a friend’s house and I would frequently get his answering machine.  His message started “It’s another glorious day in paradise.”  At first I found his message totally annoying.  But that was only because I had not taken the time to consider the truthfulness of it.  Now I have and I invite everyone to consider it as well.  We do live in paradise.  It is here for us to enjoy.  But the only way to enjoy it is to recognize it.  I submit that paradise is all around us.  Do not look any further.  It has found you and now you need to find it.

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The Six Worst “Best Picture” Movies


1.  The Artist (2012) — I have already written about this in an earlier post so you can see my comments there.  I think “The Descendants” and “The Help” were far superior films.

2.  Chicago (2002) — This movie was actually pretty good but not worthy of the award.  The movie which should have won it that year was “The Pianist.”

3.  Gladiator (2000) — This was all about women loving Russell Crowe and men liking all his testosterone.  It was a good movie however the movie “Traffic” was easily its better.

4.  Rocky (1976) — What was so good about this movie?  How did it win over the movie “Network”?

5.  Oliver (1968) — Did this movie get nominated because Hollywood knew it would never again make another musical.  Did the academy put blinders on when they viewed “The Lion in the Winter” and “Romeo and Juliet”?

6.  The Sting (1973) — The only reason for “The Sting” winning this award is because Hollywood wilted under the power of the Catholic Church which decried “The Exorcist” that was also up for the award.

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Urban Myths, Folk-Lore, and Old Wive’s Tales


A friend of mine informed me today that one in five cell phones has been found to have human feces on it.  That is not exactly the type of thing I care to hear even if it is true.  But I challenged her by asking exactly who had made such a proclaimation.  She did not know.  I told her that the cynic in me is very reluctant to allow for such “facts.”  That brings up the great question of who “they” are when someone says, ” you know, they say . . . ”  I cannot say off-hand who “they” are which leaves me doubting what is said.  My friend did offer that it would be just like the federal government to pay for such a project.  I observed that such research has got to be a huge waste of time and money.

New England is renown for its folk lore.  One of the most famous, of course, is the red sky in the morning and red sky in the evening.  It turns out that such a sky is quite a good predictor of the coming weather.  There is also the tale that cows lying down is a sign of rain as is birds flying into the wind.  While I do not know about the cows thing, it turns out that birds flying into the wind is true.  The birds do that because they are drawn by the moisture in the air.

Then there is the don’t walk under a ladder, do not put shoes on a table because your luck will walk out the door, if you spill salt you have to immediately throw some over your shoulder the negate the bad luck it brings, and how the number 13 is somehow unlucky.  You can make a laundry list of such beliefs.  I believe them all to be a bunch of bunk.

Even so, such folk-lore is an extremely important part of history.  These tendencies people have account for certain actions they might take.  For example, if a large portion of a certain grouping of people considered something to be unlucky, it will affect how the go about their daily life.  For example, let’s say that a group of people in a particular village considered Friday the 13th to be particularly unlucky and therefore did not work on such a day.  If a flood hit that particular day and wiped out the community, historians of the future will know the answer to why so many people were home on a day normally devoted to work.

My recommendation is that they next time someone says something that is all encompassing, particularly if it starts as, “you know what they say . . . ”  Challenge all such things by requesting an offer of authoritative proof.  Authoritative proof does not come from fortune tellers, the guy on the news, the National Enquirer, or Facebook.  Such authority comes from a source who is an expert in a particular field and can show you the research results.