Thursday, April 30, 2009

Technology Gap


I want to shed some "lyte" on technology today.  I was coming out of the library (yes I read actual books printed on paper!) and saw a 3 year old child strolling by talking on a Bluetooth.  Now, it wasn't actually operating, he was just holding it to his head, babbling away.  No doubt he was imitating either mom or dad, or both.  

And I started thinking about my own kids and this whole new generation that has grown up connected to technology in a way that previous generations never had.  Cell phones, video games, personal computers, are pervasive in our culture now.  I watch as kids tweet, IM, text, and interact on MySpace, all simultaneously.  I can't blog and listen to music at the same time.

Then I see the differences on how we approach technology.  Give a kid a new phone, and they will just start using it.  Same with a new computer program or a website.  My generation is locked into using that relic of the past, the no-longer-relevant owner's manual.  We want to read about how to operate something before we actually operate it.  My children just dive right in and figure it out on the fly.  We are much more tentative, afraid of making a mistake.

Now, there are all sorts of doomsayers out there, warning us that this plugged-in generation has no people skills, no understanding of one on one relationships.  But I beg to differ.  When I pick my kids up from their high school, I am struck by how much hugging is going on.

Yes, I said hugging.  They hug each other hello, and they hug each other goodbye.  I have yet to see two guys hugging as a greeting, but the girls hug and the opposite sexes hug.  This behavior crosses all the social caste lines.  Jocks hug. Geeks hug.  Skaters hug.  Even Goths hug.  When I was in high school, you were allowed to hug your boyfriend, but hug everybody?  Eeewww!!!

So while we have on the one hand, a very technically savvy generation, they also are very physically demonstrative as well.  Some will say these two behaviors have combined in the practice of "sexting", sending pictures of oneself in sexually provocative poses, but so far my kids texts revolve around the same stuff we passed notes about.  Who likes whom, what are are you doing right now, I hate this class, the same pedestrian, self-absorbed minutiae that all teenagers of all generations find so fascinating.  

Hey, maybe that gap isn't so wide after all....

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Getting Your Goat


I want to shed some "lyte" on scapegoating today.  Scapegoating is punishing someone, usually weaker than you, for sins that you have committed.  It comes from the biblical tradition of designating a goat to be sacrificed for a community's sins.  In the midst of this swine flu scare, Republicans are blaming illegal immigrants.

Just when I think the Republicans and the rabid right can't get any crazier, they one up me.  People are suggesting that immigrants are being infected and sent into our country from Mexico to spread the disease.

The truth is that more than likely this disease came into America with a bunch of students who were in Mexico for spring break.  I doubt an illegal immigrant, suffering from the flu, could hike across the desert in a desperate attempt to infect Americans.

Again the Republicans and the rabid right are casting about for something, anything to get angry about.  Let's not do anything to solve the problem.  Let's strip funding for pandemics out of the stimulus bill, by labeling it (pun so totally intended) "pork".  Let's filibuster the nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services.  And now let's blame illegal immigration for a virus.

I don't want to give them any ideas, but next they'll be targeting another favorite scapegoat, homosexuals.  They'll be saying that the virus was God's judgement on Mexico.  Did they legalize gay marriage?  Oh no!  Watch out Iowa and Vermont!    

Monday, April 27, 2009

Snipe Hunt


I am shedding a little "lyte" on reinvention today.  Before I go any further, I want to pat myself on the back.  This is my 50th blog!!  Yay me!  Okay, back to reinvention.  The Republican party is searching for a theme, an organizing mantra to coalesce themselves for 2010.  The theme they have chosen?  Drum roll please, check and balances.

Hmmm, funny that a Congress and White House controlled by one party didn't bother them at all when they were that one party.  I know, irony was written off the party platform in the 80s but still, suddenly they are all afire about checks and balances.

I think the single party in charge is a good idea for now.  Especially when the one party in charge is the one with actual ideas and thoughts.  Plus we need an apples to apples comparison of how the country fares under one party versus another.

This is what the Republicans are worried about.  If they don't make significant gains in 2010, we will have a crystal clear picture of what life is like under Democratic control and I have a sneaking suspicion it will be better than life under the Republicans.

I am going to use my feelings to make the comparison.  Republicans are all about feelings, just say no to facts and reality.  So here goes.  Thanks to the Republicans, we now know what real economic turmoil feels like.  Thanks to Republicans, we now know what terrorist attacks on our own soil feels like.  Thanks to Republicans, we now know what a shrinking of our civil liberties feels like.  Thanks to Republicans, we now know how watching a major US city drown on national TV feels like.  Thanks to Republicans,  we now know what prosecuting two wars ineptly feels like.  

Now the Democratic party has just started, but already we can feel the difference.  I know I sleep better at night, knowing there are grown ups in charge.  People are being put in charge of agencies based on their competency, not their voting habits.  You have a sense of things getting done, wrongs being righted.  I am not alone, polls show that a greater number of Americans feel that the country is headed in the right direction since 2004.

So, the Republicans think that checks and balances are what we need.  But so far they have only shown that they are capable of obstruction, not construction.  I suggest they get a few more ideas, that are based on reality and facts.  I think they need more time in the wilderness, searching for that all important clue.  I just hope they recognize it when they see it. 

Friday, April 24, 2009

Reality Check


Today I am shedding "lyte" on reality.  We are all atwitter about torture.  What to do?  A truth commission, an independent prosecutor, a tribunal?  What should we do!?  And not to sound insensitive, but I am kind of over torture.  I know we did it.  I know it is wrong and illegal.  But I don't think anyone is going to pay for it.

Yes, part of me would love to see orange jumpsuits and perp walks.  But I am going to date myself here, does anyone remember Iran-Contra?  We had the bastards cold; selling arms to the axis of evil, we are holding your people hostage, Iranians and then using the money to support a group of people in Nicaragua that were considered terrorists in their own country.  And all without the Congress's knowledge, support or permission.  What happened?  14 administration personnel were charged with crimes, 11 were convicted, and all were pardoned.  Ollie North got up there and said he did it because he loved his country and he would do it again.  He got a radio show.

So what do think is going to happen if we haul Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bybee, and company in front of judge or committee.  "I only did it because I loved my country."  "Our homeland had been attacked, we did only what we thought was necessary."  "Go ahead and imprison me, I'm still a patriot."  Yada, yada, yada.  The rabid right will enshrine these thugs as martyrs and we will all waste valuable time and energy and money on re-energizing their base.

President Obama knows this, so does Senator Harry Reid.  That's why they are putting the brakes on this, letting all the information be disseminated first.  Let the winds of public opinion blow and howl.  But don't act too hastily.  We have had a couple of years to get used to the idea that we were the bad guys, letting the truth come out would be cathartic.  Just don't start the subpoenas yet.

If there are trials, let them happen on an international level.  Put it out Nuremberg style, and let the world decide.  This would take it beyond our petty, partisan bickering and associate these thugs with the Nazis.  "I was only following orders."  Perfect.  But it won't happen.  This is our mess and we get to clean it up.

  

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Mommy & Me


So today I am shedding a little "lyte" on Take Your Child To Work Day.  Many of you are unaware of this invention.  It's origins are with the feminist movement and it started as Take Your Daughter To Work Day to encourage girls to focus on their futures and careers as opposed to daydreaming about their wedding days.  It has morphed to include boys now because, well, it was just so sexist to only invite girls, never mind that boys are encouraged practically in uteri to focus on their careers.  But I digress.

What most parents don't want to admit is that one of perks to working outside the home is that it is outside the home.  People go to work to get away from their kids.  There!  I said it.  But it is true that many working mothers secretly are relieved when their little darlings are tucked away safely at daycare or with a nanny and they are free to be themselves and not "Mommy".

Being "Mommy" full time is incredibly hard and fantastically thankless.  I should know, I stayed home and it was one of the most difficult things I did.  One day I was a dedicated career professional, the next I was a fat, neurotic breast feeding machine.  I am not kidding, I had twins, so I had someone attached to me pretty much 24/7.  I felt like those chimpanzees you see on Animal Planet, climbing the trees with a baby chimp latched on.

Now, I could rhapsodize that it was all worth it.  It was, but that doesn't make the day to day drudgery any less.  I read a quote once, "The days are long, but the years are short."  It is so true when you are home full time with your kids.  The day seems endless, and when you are the only grown up in the room for most of it, you go a little crazy.

Before I had the twins, I used to see moms at the mall by my office, and I would be so jealous.  There they were, casually strolling with their little bundle of joy, no deadlines, no boss, no pressure.  Just mommy and me, eating lunch and shopping for cute little outfits at Baby Gap.  My Mother of Twins club urged me to take the twins to the mall when they were about 3 months old.  I had never sweated so much in my life.  And try maneuvering a stroller more than 5 feet long into a changing room.  Or breast feeding one baby while the other one lays screaming in the stroller; with old ladies in the food court tsk-tsking you and asking why you don't go into the bathroom and "take care of that."  I told them to take their lunch into a bathroom stall.

Some days I would fantasize about work.  Understand that I worked in collections.  That's how bad it would get.  Once the twins were weaned, I worked part time and loved it.  Conversations with grown ups!  Work that you could start and actually finish!  Performance reviews!  Lunch breaks where you could eat your food uninterrupted!  Heaven...

So thanks a lot feminists.  Now one day a year we are guilted into taking our kids to the one place that gives us break from them.  Next I will have take my husband with me to the hairdresser.      

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Wheel of Misfortune


Today I am shedding some "lyte" on whining. I hate whining, just ask my kids.  But I find it even more repellent in adults.  In Conde Nast's "Portfolio" there is a classic example of whining titled "Confessions of a TARP Wife".  I am warning you, if you read it, your blood pressure will rise and you will have to stifle a strong desire to hunt this woman down and beat her senseless.  I think she must have realized that would be the reaction of most readers, so she doesn't give her name, her byline is Anonymous.

She laments not the loss of her lifestyle so much as the necessity of having to camoflage it.  She still buys her friends presents at Bergdorf Goddman, but she has them sent to their homes instead of the carrying the bags on the street.  The poor thing had to downsize her husband's birthday party.  She refers to all this as a "complex algorithm".  What's that red stain on my shirt?  My heart, bleeding for this unfortunate victim of the economic downturn.

Never mind that her husband helped create it.  I guess I should be thankful that she is at least self-aware enough to recognize that her "problems" are of a different tenor than the rest of us.  But apparently she isn't smart enough to shut the f*@k up about it.  Excuse me for sounding bitter, but her bemoaning her lack of cooking skills and having to stay in and watch "Law and Order" strikes me as a stunning example of the very attitudes that got into this mess in the first place.

Maybe it has escaped her attention that there are people who are dying because of this meltdown.  The CFO of Freddie Mac was found dead this morning, an apparent suicide.  Every week there is another story of a family found dead, usually due to a murder/suicide that had its roots in true monetary distress.  These are real problems, not buying a new spring wardrobe is not.  I think even Marie Antoinette had more empathy than this person.

I could hope that she will use some of her husband's TARP money to buy a clue.  But I doubt it.  The kind of entitlement that you would have to possess to think about writing such a tone deaf article, let alone actually publish it, could easily withstand any onslaught of mere empathy.  No, once again, I will have to rely on the old karmic wheel.  I just want it to roll over her, stop, reverse, and roll over her again.     

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Chillax


I want to shed some "lyte" on trust.  The left is in an uproar since President Obama announced that the people who participated in the torture outlined in the recently released memos would not be subject to prosecution.  He has also expressed reluctance to investigating and prosecuting those who oversaw the torture program.

I can understand the left's dismay. We want heads to roll, we want perp walks, we want orange jumpsuits.  After all, these guys actually broke the law.  But, they were told by Bush's Justice Department and the White House Council that what they were doing was legal.  So what is an already busy President to do?

Wait.  The Congress is already investigating and the results aren't in yet.  Obama is taking a stance that he wants us to "move on" and focus on our future.  That is a savvy way to appease the Republicans and the rabid right that no witch hunts will happen with his blessing.  If the results of the congressional investigations show that laws were broken, and if the public outcry becomes deafening, then Obama can "cave" to the pressure and appoint a special prosecutor without any blowback from the right.

President Obama has shown again and again that he is usually about 5 or 6 steps ahead of the rest of us.   Remember during the elections and we were all worried that he was going to be chewed up and spit out by the Republican "swift boat" style of attacks?  Remind me of how that ended up, oh yeah, he stayed above it all and gained in popularity.  Remember during the pirate hostage crisis and the rabid right was saying how soft he was because he didn't come out on TV and say things like, "Dead or alive"?  Then he authorized sniper attacks and the hostage was freed.

I know that during the past eight years we got used to having a President that wasn't as smart as us, but things are different now.  So as the college kids say, "Chillax."  He's got this.  

Monday, April 20, 2009

Opposites Attract


Today I am shedding some "lyte" on beauty pageants.  Now, as a little girl growing up, I loved to watch beauty pageants.  Especially Miss Universe, I was enthralled by how so many women from so many countries could still look so incredibly similar.  It was like one facial structure with different skin tones.  I totally enjoyed the ethnic costumes and really looked forward to anything with feathers and a head dress.  It shouldn't come as surprise that I ended up living in a city filled with feathers and head dresses.

Now I cringe when I see a pageant.  I don't doubt that there are intelligent young women who participate, but it seems that they never make to the final rounds.  Then we are forced to listen to the excruciating attempts to answer the simplest questions.  I have a hard time tolerating the torture that our mother tongue is subjected to by these sweet young things.  And last night's Miss USA contest was no exception.

Carrie Prejean, Miss California, gave an interesting response to a question posed by Perez Hilton.  When asked if other states should legalize gay marriage like Vermont, and the all important, why or why not, Ms. Prejean did to the English language what the CIA did to detainees over 200 times at Gauntanamo.  Take a Motrin, I am quoting her in full.  

"I think its great that Americans are able to choose one or the other.  We live in a land that you can choose same sex marriage or opposite marriage, and, you know what, in my country and my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and woman.  No offense to anyone out there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be, between a man and woman."

Whew, thank goodness she clarified that; because for moment there I thought she was advocating marriage between true opposites, like vegetarians and carnivores or between dogs and cats.  I also appreciate that she "thinks she believes" that California is a country.  I think I know that California thinks that it believes that too.  Ouch! How's that for painful?  Now all I need are some implants and door knocker earrings and I can be pageant contestant too.  Oh!  But  I want feathers and head dress.  I will be representing the country of Las Vegas and need to be in native attire. 

Friday, April 17, 2009

Biggest Loser


I want to shed some "lyte" on rationalization.  As Jeff Goldblum put it so succinctly in 
"Big Chill", "Try to get through the day without one good rationalization."  And in the recently released torture memos, the Bush administration came up with a doozy.

In an attempt to justify limiting detainees rations, the Office of Legal Council offered up that limiting the calorie intake of detainees was not punishment.  Millions of Americans limit their caloric intact to less than 1000 calories a day.  It's called dieting.  Just look at Jenny Craig or Slimfast.

Okay, I'll give the kudos for chutzpah.  Comparing keeping detainees on starvation rations to Valerie Bertonelli trying to shed her post-divorce poundage takes balls and some imagination.

I think we can take these rationalizations even farther.  Maybe the Office of Legal Council would consider the torture the detainees suffered no different that the brutal workouts that contestants are put through on "Biggest Loser".  Hey, and a lot of Americans wear orange and jumpsuits too.  Just not at the same time.

And we vacation in the Caribbean.  Gitmo is like Club Med, with enhanced interrogation techniques.  It is a never ending vacation and fitness regiment all rolled into one!  You'll lose weight, get a tan, and learn to hold your breath during waterboarding.  But sorry, no postcards allowed.  I can hear the jingle now, "Come to Guantanamo and lose your rights.."  
  


Thursday, April 16, 2009

Money In Their Mouths


Today I am shedding "lyte" on socialism.  This word is getting a lot of air time lately.  The Republicans and the rabid right are constantly throwing it out there.  McCain tried to use it to win the presidency.  Fox News trumpets it 24/7 like some demented town crier, "It's 3 o'clock and Obama is a socialist!"

Maybe they are not aware that we have had socialist programs in this country for quite some time.  They are called Social Security and Medicare.  They work well as a safety net for our elderly and infirm.  Medicare runs more efficiently than any private insurer, with administrative costs in the 3% range, as opposed to private insurers who have costs ranging from 12-18%.  

Social Security needs reform.  Mostly due to simple demographics, there are more people retiring and receiving it than people working and putting into it.  If they removed the salary cap, limited pay outs to those that needed them, and instituted common-sense immigration reform that had those workers contributing to the system, a lot of the projected short-falls would disappear.

But the Republicans and the rabid right like to use socialism as a boogeyman.  And they certainly have never let a little thing like facts or reality stand in their way.  Now they are clamoring against universal healthcare.  According to them, giving people a choice of opting into government-run health care would make us all communists.

The key word in that last sentence is "opting".  The President's plan would not require all of us to use the government-run program, if you like your present plan, you could keep it.  It would merely set up an option to private insurance.  The fact that free-market advocates are against giving us more choices is ironic, but not surprising.  

The thing is; if we have a for-profit medical system, then there is no incentive to keep people healthy.  Healthy people do not need to visit the doctor or take pharmaceuticals.  Healthy people don't line the pockets of Big Pharma.  When you have a chronic condition, like high cholesterol, you are a virtual ATM for your doctor, your pharmacist, your lab, and your pharmaceutical company.  You have to visit a doctor regularly, have your blood tested regularly, and get drugs regularly.  And everybody (except you) profits.

If Republican lawmakers are so dead set against government run healthcare, they should literally put their money where their mouth is and opt out of the government run healthcare that they get as members of Congress.  They should support the free market that they love and try to get private health insurance.  I am sure they would be socialists in no time.       

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Sound And Fury


Today I am shedding a little "lyte" on protests.  Don't get me wrong, I am big fan of protesting.  I just like it to have some purpose, some cohesion.  I am not fond of large groups of people getting together just to yell.  That's what sporting events are for.

So, today is Tax Day and the Republicans and the rabid right are throwing "tea parties" throughout this great land of ours.  I guess this is a twenty-first century version of the famous Boston Tea Party that protested taxation without representation.  They are encouraging us to send virtual tea bags to the White House.  They are dumping piles of tea bags on the ground in parks.  They are saying, "Let's tea bag the President!".  

I have more that a couple of problems with this.  One, we have representation in our government.  It is called the Congress.  Two, the original tea party dumped loose tea into Boston Harbor.  Virtual tea bags are lame. Three, the term "teabagging" refers to a sexual act that apparently these folks are blissfully unaware of, or they enjoy all of us in the know snickering at them.

But, I have to hand it to the Republicans.  Once again they are getting folks to act against their own economic interests.  They have this down to a science.  Use something, anything as a wedge issue to polarize the voters.  Get them all riled up about it, so riled up that they don't notice that said issue has absolutely nothing to do with them.  This time they have these poor, clueless Americans protesting a tax hike that doesn't exist.

Most of the folks attending these "tea parties" earn less than $250,000.  Under Obama's plan, they are getting a tax cut.  The non-existent tax hike?  It is when Bush's tax cuts expire.  This expiration date was written into the original legislation.  Who wrote this bill?  The Republicans.  So, they have their supporters out protesting their legislation, but thinking they are protesting against President Obama.  Oh?  And how much of a non-existent tax hike is it?  Are you sitting down?  A whopping, mind-boggling 4%!

This is another stunning example of just how wacked the rabid right has become since the election.  Protesting something they did, using a hilarious sexual euphemism to do it.  And we have more than 3 1/2 years to go in the Obama presidency.  The hits just keep coming.     

   

Monday, April 13, 2009

Tick Tock...Not?


I want to shed a little "lyte" on procreation.  Chinese researchers have found a way to grow eggs from adult ovarian stem cells.  "Wow," you say, "what does that mean?"  It means that proverbial biological clock may have a snooze button.

Biologists have always held to one truth, women are born with all the eggs that they will ever have.  In fact, we have the most eggs in our ovaries while we are in the uterus, and we start shedding them through out our lives.  Most fertility specialists have put the tipping point for women's fertility at 35 years of age.  After that, our eggs are too few and of too poor quality for viable success in fertility treatments.

But wait a minute, what about all those post 40's moms you see in People?  Some use their own eggs, but most are using surrogate eggs.  (A profitable cottage business for fertile college students with high pain thresholds and looking for some extra cash !) 

In experiments using mice, Chinese researchers were able to find and tag female "germline" cells, which could possibly become eggs.  They tagged them with a glow-in-the dark dye and injected them into other mice that could not become pregnant due to chemotherapy.  All of the mice produced eggs.  This was proven when some of the mice were killed and autopsied, and the eggs produced from the tagged cells glowed.  The remaining mice got pregnant, gave birth to healthy, normal offspring.  These offspring, if female, had eggs that glowed as well.

Now, mice are not people.  As one researcher put it, "Except at Disney World, humans are not large mice."  But this is a significant breakthrough for fertility.  If this procedure works for us, women's reproductive options would broaden considerably.

Women who are rendered infertile due to cancer treatments could go on to have children.  Women who for some reason have defective eggs could possibly grow better ones.  Women who want to postpone motherhood would no longer be working against that over 35 deadline.

It's all about choices and options.  I can't imagine having babies later in life, but dammit, if we want to have babies at 70 like Tony Randall, why shouldn't we?  Then you'd both be in diapers at the same time.  Maybe Pampers would give you a discount.  

Friday, April 10, 2009

Hooked On The Book


Today I want to shine some "lyte" on social networking.  I recently joined Facebook.  Now I am a FB junkie.  I never really understood all the hoopla about social networks.  I preferred to make my friends the old-fashioned way, face to face, one person at a time.

But no more!  I am in a friending frenzy.  Facebook is like a big party that is happening 24/7.  You can drink cocktails, share good karma, and find out which TV mom you most resemble.  Apparently, I most resemble Sharon Osbourne.  I know next to nothing about the woman.  But I do know that my husband is nothing like Ozzy Osbourne.

I have found old high school classmates.  My cousin, who lives across town, and I have been in contact more than when I moved here...ten years ago.  I've reconnected with folks all over the country.  I haven't spent this much time on my computer since the first time I played Myst.

A word of caution about friending.  Unless you are a teenager, think long and hard before friending them.  If you want constant updates on their state of mind, great.  But I have two of my own, and I get plenty of that action in real time.

My kids mock me.  Well, they are a little put out, since I am now horning in on their computer time.  My husband (typically) is not interested in setting up his own site, he prefers for me to yell out updates on our friends and family while I am on FB.  

So, it is official.  I thought blogging would make me feel like I was part of the World Wide Web.  No, it took a party.  Some things never change.


Thursday, April 9, 2009

Stark, Raving , Mad


I want to shed some "lyte" on just how batsh*t crazy the right and Republican party has gotten lately.  A couple of nights ago, "The Daily Show" did a great bit on the "tyranny" fest that Fox News is having.  Apparently, being duly and legally elected by the majority of Americans makes President Obama a tyrant.  So it begs the question, what did being appointed President by the Supreme Court make Bush, an emperor?

But I digress.  Just when I think they can't get any nuttier, well, they do.  Spencer Bachus, a Republican congressman from the great state of Alabama, has come up with a secret list of socialists that are serving in the House.  Yes, I said a secret list of (gasp!) socialists.  A whole 17 of them, plotting to redistribute our wealth, force universal healthcare down our throats, and encourage dogs and cats to mate.  Okay, I made the last one up, but watch, tomorrow that will be all over the Internets.

Then you have White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs being asked if President Obama bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.  Now this question came from a CNN reporter, not a Fox reporter.  This scares me.  I used to think that CNN fell somewhere in between Fox and MSNBC on ideology.  But I guess having the Democrats controlling both houses of Congress and White House requires our mainstream media to shake off their "liberal bias" and remind us all of who signs their paychecks.

And to up the stakes on batsh*t crazy; you have this whole tea party business.  Maybe the folks at Fox need to watch a little more of the History Channel (I wouldn't dream of asking them to actually read history), so they would understand what "taxation without representation" really means.  Oh, and is there a Dictionary Channel they can watch to find out what "fair and balanced" means?

People!  President Obama hasn't been in office for more than 10 weeks.  You have a long way to go.  Outrage takes a lot of energy.  This isn't a sprint, it is marathon.  Pace yourself and your batsh*t crazy, or where will you be in 4 years?  Oh yeah, where you are now.  On the sidelines in your red straight jackets.   

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

License to Kill


So today I want to shed a little "lyte" on guns.  I started my morning by reading about another shooting spree.  This one was in California.  Luckily, only one person was killed, another 4 were wounded.  Well, I doubt the family of the one person killed are feeling all that lucky.

That brings the total to 58.  58 lives taken by gun violence since March 10.  If spinach or Tylenol had killed those people, there would be recalls, congressional hearings, and the like.  What is the response?  An ammunition shortage.  Yes, rather that question the wisdom of having nearly 1 gun for every US citizen, there appears to be run on ammo.  

I grew up with guns.  My dad kept an unloaded gun under every bed of our home.  We used to joke that if anyone broke in, they would poop their pants when they got upstairs and found 4 barrels of 4 shotguns pointed at them.  My father is a lifelong member of the NRA.  He used to hunt and we would eat what he shot.  I have always wanted to learn how to shot a gun, particularly a revolver, thinking it is a useful skill; like driving stick.

Since President Obama's election the paranoid have been stocking up on guns and ammo.  There is a persistent rumor that he is going to enact far-reaching gun control legislation.  It is laughable, since he has never spoken a word in favor of gun control, and has far bigger fish to fry right now.  But it fires up the base and stokes their delusions.  And that's the Republican playbook for victory at the polls.

But back to the month's carnage.  What is causing this outbreak?  Some think it is the economy.  I think that sometimes gun violence runs like a virus through our country.  Remember the horrifying series of high school shootings?  Or the spate of shootings at McDonald's and post offices?  And the thing is, every one of the shooters so far has had a permit.  What does this say about our current gun control laws?

The weird thing is that Canada has more guns per capita than we do.  But their citizens are not as tempted to use them on each other.  Are Canadians more civilized?  I doubt it, but maybe they get their violence fix in other ways, like on the hockey rink.

I don't have an answer for this, but I am sure of one thing:  loosening gun registration requirements is not the answer.  Neither is allowing people to pack heat in schools, parks, or at work.  Our country needs to have a serious discussion about guns.  I have to go through more stringent licensing requirements to drive a car.  A CD is tougher to get out if its packaging than an AK47 is to operate.  We are a technology driven society, why haven't we made guns that can't operate in anyone but the owner's hands?

But that wouldn't have made a difference to those 58 dead people, their killers lawfully purchased their weapons and permitted themselves.  We gave them a license to kill.   


Tuesday, April 7, 2009

First, Do No Harm?


Wow, today I am going to shine some much needed "lyte" on torture.  I am hard-pressed to find anything even remotely funny about the International Committee of the Red Cross's scathing report, originally written in 2007, that is now available online.

My recommendation is that you read it in between meals.  The treatment of 14 "high value" detainees reads like something from an episode of "24" that was written in hell.  What was done to these people is criminal.  It violates not only the Geneva Convention, but the boundaries of decent human behavior.  The fact that medical personnel were on hand to ensure that no one died, makes me furious.  How could anyone trained in the care of human beings stand by and allow torture?  One of the medical personnel is quoted in the report as saying, "I look after your body only because we need it for information..."

And what information did this torture procure?  According to then-President Bush, "nothing or little of intelligence value".  See, life isn't like a "24" episode, torture does not get the terrorist to reveal where the bomb is, it only reveals our inhumanity and creates newly minted terrorists with legitimate reasons to hate us.

I was hoping that our new President, with his pledges of transparency, would expose these practices to light of day.  But so far, the actions of the current administration mirror the actions of the previous administration.  Sure, we are going to close down Gitmo, but investigate and prosecute those who ran it?  Not so fast.  I can understand the CIA resisting any type of investigation, those guys claim they were just following orders.

Hmmmm?  Where have I heard that phrase before?  Nuremborg?  Do we really want to use the same defense as Nazis?  Is that the American way?  Besides, I think that we should prosecute the ones who issued the orders.  They are the real criminals.  Obama needs to grow a pair on this issue.  

As for the medical personnel who assisted the CIA in torture, you better hope they are not working for your HMO.  Wow, I guess I did manage to find a joke in all this.


Monday, April 6, 2009

World Series of Poker


I want to shed some "lyte" today on blackmail.  It seems that the Senate Republicans are threatening to filibuster certain Obama judicial nominees if the Justice Department releases the more explicit "torture memos".

This is blackmail, pure and simple.  It is amazing that the same people who screamed for a simple up or down vote on judicial nominees suddenly are using the very rules they ridiculed to protect themselves.  If these memos are what is rumored, they will show that members of the Bush Justice Department advocated specific torture techniques.  This could be the smoking gun that would be used for indictments.

I think that the fact that Republicans are going to such lengths to prevent the memos from seeing the light of day is pretty good indicator of how explosive these memos are.  It is ironic to see what lengths the law and order crowd will go to to protect their own.

The Obama administration should call their bluff and release the memos.  The only way to prevent similar things from happening in the future is to let the bright, light of the media spotlight to shine on such dark and dismal machinations.  I am sure that the general public will be horrified that our government sought to sanction such illegal actions in name of security.  And the Republicans need to know that they will be held accountable for their actions.

This is the same party that spent $70 million (seems like such a paltry sum in today's trillion dollar spending spree), to prove that a sitting President was unfaithful and was willing to lie to all of America rather than tell the truth to his formidable wife.  This is the same party that than tried to impeach that President for the lie.  Now they are blackmailing a President to keep their nefarious deeds secret.

Call 'em out Obama.  Put all the cards on the table.  The American people are grown-ups and can handle it.  And if the Republicans try to filibuster your candidates, well, they might be a little too busy for such high jinks if they have to answer for their own crimes. 

Friday, April 3, 2009

Little Rainbow Houses




I want to shed some "lyte" on gay marriage.  Today the Iowa (yes, Iowa) Supreme Court ruled unanimously that gay couples have the right to get married.  Iowa follows Massachusetts and Connecticut in granting this privilege to same sex couples.

I have blogged on marriage before, so you know how I feel about the institution.  Why gay people want the opportunity to ruin perfectly good relationships, I have no idea.  Actually, I do, since our society encourages marriage by giving married couples tax breaks and other financial perks.  Also, it gives gay couples rights when one gets sick or dies.  It allows them to be recognized as legitimate.

I have no problem with this, but most people do.  Most states (including my own) have passed "marriage protection acts".  I find this amusing since gay people pose no threat to a heterosexual relationship.  I am not sure why marriage needs protecting.  Prostitution (which is legal in my state) poses more of threat.  Strip clubs pose more of a threat.  But again, they are legal in most states. 

What most people miss is that marriage is both a religious ceremony and a legal contract.  They conflate the two, which is wrong, since we have a separation of church and state in this country.  That's why most marriages start in a church and end in a court.  Granting gay couples the right to the legal contract of marriage is fully supported by our Constitution.  Individual churches have the right to not perform the ceremony, if it is supported by their doctrine.  

But Jesus never had an opinion about gay marriage.  The Old Testament, specifically,the book of Deuteronomy is the Biblical authority that most use to bolster the view that homosexuality is an abomination.  Great, but we don't follow most Mosiac laws, so why cherry-pick this one?  The Old Testament also supports slavery, and recommends stoning as the punishment for wearing blended clothing.  It stipulates that every 50 years, all debts should be forgiven.  Funny, that particular law is never enforced.  It sure would come in handy in light of today's economic situation.

And the Old Testament is the law for Jews, not Christians.  Jesus kept it pretty simple; love God, and love your neighbor.  It is that second commandment that is so hard to follow.  Especially if your neighbors are two gay guys named Bruce and want the chance to legitimize their love.

If Iowa can legalize gay marriage, I have hope that eventually the other 47 states will remember that we are nation of laws, not men, and do the same.  It is the "Christian" thing to do.  

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Too Much, Too Soon


Today I want to shine some "lyte" on overreaction.  House Minority Whip, Eric Cantor apparently feels that the Democrats are doing too much in response to the economic crisis.
He shared his feelings with reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.  According to Cantor, "Doing too much has huge pitfalls too."

Now this guy also thinks that Rush Limbaugh has ideas.  So anything that he says should be taken with not a grain of salt, but like, a huge truckload of salt with extra salt on the side.  Representative Cantor is again demonstrating the lack of ideas or for that matter, the lack of compassion, that exists in the Republican party.

Representative Cantor is either unaware of the new unemployment numbers that show that unemployment is at a 26 year high, or he just doesn't care.  How can you do "too much" for over 12 million unemployed Americans?  How can you do too much for the countless citizens that have lost their homes, their savings, and their futures?  

There is one Republican who has a clue, sort of.  Newt Gingrich is warning the Republicans that they risk creating a viable third party by 2012 by failing to respond to the crisis. Now, Newt needs to be accompanied by his own truckload of salt, as he is positioning himself for a possible run for the presidency in 2012.  Maybe as the standard-bearer for the new 3rd party?How convenient.

Paul Krugman, Nobel prize-winning economist, feels the exact opposite.  He has been arguing that the Obama administration isn't doing enough.  The stimulus package was too small.  The bailout plan put forth by Secretary Geithner is not bold enough, the banks need to be nationalized.  I admire Krugman, but he is an economist, not a politician.  His ideas are great; if they didn't need to written as legislation and then debated, and then voted on, and then reconciled.  That process takes great ideas and waters them down to weak tea that pundits and populists like to drink by, well, the truckload.

Too much or too little?  Act now or wait?  Paper or plastic?  Everything does not fit into nice either/or propositions.  What we need is more of a both/and approach.  President Obama and his team are trying to listen to the all the voices, or at least they are pretending to.  Then they will do what they think will work.  Will it work?  The Dow broke 8000 today for the first time in months, despite the bad employment news, so maybe an end is in sight.  Then again, maybe not.  But if we had Republicans in charge, I am confident that we would still be exploring the bottom.  They are the masters of too little, too late. 

    

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Chantin' In The Streets


I want to shed a little "lyte" on youthful exuberance.  The G20 summit is convening in London today.  Lucky London!  Thousands of angry youths protesting (in no particular order): global warming, capitalism, human rights, drug policies, ethical treatment of animals, the earth rotating around the sun (okay, I made that one up), well, you get the picture.

A lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing, to quote Billy S.  Hey, I love the G20 summit protests.  Remember when it was the G8?  And they tried to burn down Seattle?  You must admire the sheer strength of their angst.  They broke into the United Bank of Scotland.  Awesome dude!  Trash some copiers and set some desks on fire!  Just don't burn the money.

Bankers are the new terrorists.  Scotland Yard told financial workers to either stay home, or, I am not kidding, "dress down".  It must be another example of that dry British humor.  I have always said that you can tell when a movie is made by who the bad guys are.  In the 60's and 70's it was Communists.  In the 80's and early 90's, Columbian drug lords.  By the late 90's and early 00's, Middle Eastern dudes.  I saw a movie trailer recently where the bad guys are, you guessed it, bankers!  

What's ironic is most of the kids that filling London's streets today will be working in the buildings they are trashing tomorrow.  Just ask any Woodstock era hippy.  Sooner or later, you become the Man.  Sure, there are few that stay angry, but anger takes two things: energy and focus.  Time takes care of both.  You run out of the former and the latter is difficult to sustain.  Marriage, mortgage, job, kids, and the next thing you know, you're shaking your head and saying, "Where do they get their energy?"   And then you change the channel.