We don't hafta remember everything, do we?

For those of us on the sunny side of seventy years old, there's some good/bad news out there. Whether it's Alzheimer's or just the garden variety neorodegenerative sort of decay that has been ongoing between my ears for some years now, some crazy mice at MIT are threatening to uncover all of those suppressed memories I have of the "lost" years between about the time I was zero and (maybe) fifteen or so.

The news comes from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Picower Institute of Learning and Memory and apparently, the drugs that are discussed in the (linked-to) article are in use and available now; thus, this will all come to fruition quite soon.

Hmmm ... I might yet be capable of remembering what it was exactly that my brother, Richard from Connecticut, was trying to tell me before the 2004 elections that made me think that George W. Bush was the unheralded genius of our times. Better yet, I might yet recall the proof (papers lost, of course) to my Master's Thesis assertion that there are more residues than non-residues in certain runs within specific arithmetic progressions; e.g., 4m + 3 versus 4m + 1.

For your signature, Mr. President ...

Mediawingnuts would like to add one more voice to the chorus asking that President Bush sign legislation starting the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq on Oct. 1, 2007. If it were up to me, the bill would call for withdrawal starting NOW and be delivered to the President in a flag-drapped coffin, but whatever ... sign the bill now, Mr. President, so that as few additional deaths as humanly possible will result from the mistake that you made in March, 2003. I think you have surely given Al-Quaeda, the Iranians and nearly every terrorist in the world more than enough energy as a result of this ill-conceived war. Even the oil profits and billions of dollars earned by Republican-friendly contractors in Iraq don't justify the sad loss of American, Iraqi and others' lives over so long a time period ...

Sign the friggen' bill, Mr. Bush!

Let's bring them home ... now!

I really liked the way Hillary put it on a short TV clip this evening -- she said that she does not expect President Bush to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq before he leaves office even though they are mired in a civil war "where they're not even sure whose side they are fighting on."

"If this president does not end this war before he leaves office, when I am president, I will!"

She may not stand a chance of ever winning a Presidential campaign in earnest, but she (and most of the other Democratic party candidates) is certainly saying what needs to be said NOW!

Dresden 1945 or Baghdad 2007 ... seems all the same to me.

Dresden, February 1945
Well, I guess I finally really read Slaughterhouse Five this time. I didn't put it down until well after midnight last night and it was like nothing I ever have ever read ... including Slaughterhouse Five the first time--more than twenty years ago. As you know--or maybe don't--I am into one of those read-everything-he-ever-wrote stages of my life (again), but this time it's Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

It wasn't only about one of the many 20th Century apocalyptic stories of mayhem (the fire-bombing of Dresden by our unknowing pilots towards the end of WWII); it was also a crazy/not-so-crazy autobiographical sketch of KV himself.

I've never been there, never done that ... yet I was more or less there (Vietnam for one and the first Gulf War for another) and surely more or less done that. Reading the book again--this time devouring it--was like experiencing a dream that never ends.

If you haven't read the book, do so! You will become Billy Pilgrim. It ain't pretty, but, as KV would say it, "hello, farewell, hello, farewell ..."

I have always believed that he was the very best writer of my time; now I believe it ... again.


Baghdad, April 2007 ... and so it goes ...

Just exactly what about this war in Iraq is actually "true" anyway?

Corporal Pat Tillman and Private First Class Jessica Lynch

I managed to listen to the sad testimonies of Private First Class Jessica Lynch and Corporal Pat Tillman's mother, brother and an Army comrade (from the day he died) in a House of Representative hearings session earlier today. It's one thing for the media hype to be blown out of proportion (or truthful reality), but for our Government to order its own men and women in arms to lie to us so as to push its war agenda ... well, that's almost [sic] an impeachable offense, isn't it?

If tonight's newscasts don't get people stirred up, I don't know what will.

Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, promised to take his quest for answers in the case, which drew most of the questions I happened to hear, to the highest levels of the Bush administration.

Go, Henry Waxman, go! Admittedly, this was probably the work of (already dishonored) Donald Rumsfeld and not the President and/or Vice-President, but we the people of the United States of America demand to know the truth!

"Who knew what and when" is again what is being asked. Where and when have I heard that before?

Sheryl Crow says we should be able to "do with" one square of toilet paper per "sitting" !! Interesting ...

I read where singer and songwriter Sheryl Crow posted a really strange "solution" online about a new way to save the environment. She wrote: "I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting."

I guess if I had Sheryl Crow's derriere, I might be able to do with one square too.


Please don't use your imagination! My brother, Richard from Connecticut, is probably already upset with this posting as it is ...

Two Virginia Techs every day in Iraq

Sadly, the nation of Iraq endures the sadness of roughly twice the death toll which we saw in Virginia yesterday every day of every week of every month of every year ... since we invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003. Further, looking at only this month to date: in April, our US military has already endured twice the Virginia Tech death toll. And if you want to look at numbers, the 33 persons who died yesterday in Blacksburg, Virginia in the worst mass shooting in American history amounted to only about one percent of the total of the number of American deaths in Iraq over the course of the war during the past four years.

I heard it mentioned on Air America today that, although the President and Mrs. Bush rushed to Blacksburg to attend the memorial today ... he hasn't attended a single memorial for a single US GI who has died in Iraq over the entire course of the war.

Why?

With all of the horse-shit ongoing about Don Imus, how can we let a person like Kurt Vonnegut just slip into history?

Kurt Vonnegut -- the greatest author in my lifetime!
But you know? That's exactly as he would have had it. It was, in a sense, his last little joke on life itself.

And, if my pastor (Kerry Haynes of the Faith Community Baptist Church in Ocean Shores, Washington) is even 25% clever, he will open his sermon tomorrow with .. "The joke's on you Kurt! Whatcha think about the scenery in heaven?"

My eyes still moisten a little (especially this week) when I think of some of the humor (yes, really!) in Slaughterhouse Five or one of the things he wrote last year--or the year before maybe--when he wrote or said something like, "We need a really action-packed impeachment to liven things up around here!" (I'll leave it for you to Google up his exact quote.)

He hated war and its sadness/madness more than anything else in life, I think, and one of his funnier discourses while reminiscing about his time at Stalag 14 during World War II was the following:

"During the war, my whole division was destroyed and the Germans took those of us who had survived to this prisoner-of-war camp called Stalag 4B. The camp was full of British officers, who were incredibly kind and welcoming. We were hungry and cold and filthy and they fed us and put on this play to cheer us up. The play was Cinderella, with a male Cinderella, of course. I still remember a line from it - it was one of the best things I've ever heard in my life. When the clock struck 12, Cinderella turned to the audience and said, 'Goodness me, the clock has struck! Alack a day and fuck my luck!' "

Of course, as he grew older, the soldiers who really carry the burdens of war on their shoulders became relatively younger and younger. Once, I heard him on one of his television interviews refer to the kids in Iraq as "babies." He meant no disrespect ... nor do I. Whether it be Hiroshima or Dresden (where he spent some harrowing time) or Saigon or Seoul or Baghdad ... the down payment for "victory" in any war is death. There is no honor in "winning" a war.

But yes, I certainly feel honored and yes, "lucky" to have had so many wonderful books to read and reread over the years. Silly me ... I originally thought of him as a science fiction novelist way back when. Now, as I am writing this blog (teary eyed, yes) my bed is stacked with old paperbacks by a number of classic American authors, but the largest number of them, I believe, were written by Kurt Vonnegut, the greatest American writer of my lifetime ... no other even close!

Still looking for a "War Czar," Mr. President?

A Young George W. Bush with his father, George H. W. Bush

A clear possibility pops into my mind as I view this old photo of you and your dad from your family photo album, George ... why not your father--the one who had the common sense to accomplish our purposes in Iraq in 1991 and then pull back to the border of Kuwait ... and not lose a single American soldier for more than a decade?

How well I recall the happiness expressed by my comrades (the Saudi officers in the Royal Saudi Air Force in Riyadh) when he avoided releasing the (carefully controlled) ancient Sunni-Shiite hatred back then--as well as avoiding the spectre of a possible insertion of a US occupation force into a sovereign Arab country.

You have read your father's excellent book, haven't you, George?

Bush is looking for a "War Czar"? Hmmm ... Nancy Pelosi comes to mind ...

Hey, guess what? It's only taken about six years, but the White House has finally admitted that George W. Bush is not up to the task of being America’s commander-in-chief and Karl Rove's boss [sic] at the same time. Apparently, GWB has decided to look for a “war czar” to run the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

GWB's new "Assistant Decider" will handle the day-to-day activities involved in the two major wars that Bush has raging right now ... and will likely be available to take over any new wars that Bush might choose to engage in (spelled I-R-A-N) over his last two years in office.
Even Republicans are generally disgusted by GWB's latest idea. As for me ... I say, Forget a 'war czar.' What America really needs is a competent president! And yes, Nancy Pelosi comes to mind ... if only Congress can act quickly enough to impeach both Bush and Cheney before the US has disintegrated completely.

And just where are we in our current wars anyway? Well, I knew that the famous portrait (below) that I've saved in the "My Pictures" folder would come in handy some day ...


Look Familiar?

Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern finally has a daddy ... now ... who the heck is Larry Birkhead?

DNA tests apparently have shown Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend Larry Birkhead (the kooky-looking guy on the left) is the father of her baby. Whoopie! The deaths in Iraq continue to climb, Congress continues to paw away at Alberto Gonzales and Iranians are ... doing what? Building nuclear bombs?

But hey ... let's get focused! The news of the day is embodied in Larry Birkhead's statement, "My baby's going to be coming home pretty soon."

And oh yes, one other thing worth cheering about--J. Howard Marshall II! Okay, so he's been dead for more than ten years--but baby Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern (soon to have added to her name "Birkhead") is likely to receive a healthy chunk of the half billion dollar fortune that has been up for grabs since J. Howard Marshall II's death in 1995. Her mom (a Playboy Bunny who's been dead for a few weeks, I think) married well a few years back.

Now aren't you glad that you now know that important news of the day? Or would you rather I follow the lead of just about every talking head today and concentrate on something Imus said about some African American female college basketball players?

Who's Imus?

Joe Klein really dissed the Pres in the Time Magazine that was waiting for me in my mailbox after work today ...

Wow! I don't believe that I've ever read a more scathing attack on the President than the Op-ed piece in today's Time Magazine. You can read it for yourself, but the first and last sentence say it all. It started with arguments that "The three big Bush stories of 2007 -- the decision to 'surge' in Iraq, the scandalous treatment of wounded veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys for tawdry political reasons -- precisely illuminate the three qualities that make this Administration one of the worst in American history." And it finished with ... "[I]t is increasingly difficult to imagine yet another two years of slow bleed with a leader so clearly unfit to lead."

I spell the entire article with the letters, I-M-P-E-A-C-H !!

These words from the Pope's Easter message say it all, I think ...

"Dear brothers and sisters, through the wounds of the Risen Christ, we can see the evils which afflict humanity with the eyes of hope. In fact, by his rising, the Lord has not taken away suffering and evil from the world but has vanquished them at their roots by the superabundance of his grace. He has countered the arrogance of evil with the supremacy of his love. He has left us the love that does not fear death, as the way to peace and joy. ‘Even as I have loved you, he said to his disciples before his death, so you must also love one another' (cf. John 13:34)."

Surely, the Pope and the sacred Scriptures say it a whole lot better than the sacrilegious poster below sarcastically suggests ...



The Pope did address the war in Iraq to an extent when he stated that "nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees." Although this one sentence does not argue with the "right-ness" or "wrong-ness" of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, it surely argues against any further escalation or expansion (into Iran, for example) of the ongoing carnage there.

At least that's how Mediawingnuts reads it ...

What is it about first one "Monica" and now another that ultimately gets our President in trouble?

Good grief! Another "Monica" so soon? Like Monica Lewinsky (shown on the Time Magazine cover below) during the last decade. Monica Goodling (shown above with Karl Rove, Senior Advisor to President Bush) has a serious problem. Monica L. was ultimately required to deliver a stained dress to the Congressional committees looking into Mr. Clinton's sworn falsehoods; Monica G. will ultimately have to deliver her testimony to Congressional committees looking into sworn falsehoods that lead through the Attorney General to the President through (God, not him again!) Karl Rove--yeh, the guy at her right above.

Sadly, the stellar 1995 graduate of graduate of an evangelical Christian school, Messiah College, and a 1999 graduate of Pat Robertson's Regent University School of Law has gotten herself into a real kettle of fish by listening to her bosses ... who have told her "just say 'no comment' for everything" (according to her somewhat distraught mother.

Deep in my heart of hearts, I feel sorry for Ms. Goodling who must be going through some serious trauma as she is forced to either accept the "truth" as fed her by the right-wing Republicans who made her the senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Justice Department liaison to the White House or accept the truth as she knows it from a really Higher Power (whom she probably previously thought was synonymous with the AG and WH).

She resigned suddenly the night before last--on Good Friday--without explanation.

My prediction is that, like Monica Lewinsky a decade ago, she will be given immunity from prosecution that will strip her of her ability to use her Fifth Amendment rights to refuse to testify.

I also believe that, even with that protection, she will tell the truth ... in obedience to a much Higher Power to whom she owes absolute fidelity.

And then, the fit will hit the shan (so to speak).

Yeh, Rosie ... the truth will come out ... someday!

Credit for the following portion of an article written by Greg Szymanski is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003

From the beginning, the Bush administration claimed that burning jet fuel caused the collapse of the towers. Although many independent investigators have disagreed, they have been hard pressed to disprove the government theory since most of the evidence was hastily removed by the federal government prior to independent investigation. Critics claim the Bush administration has tried to cover up the evidence. The recent 9-11 commission has failed to address the major evidence contradicting the official version of 9-11.

Some facts demonstrating the flaws in the government jet fuel theory include:

• Photos showing people walking around in the hole in the North Tower where 10,000 gallons of jet fuel supposedly was burning.

• When the South Tower was hit, most of the North Tower’s flames had already vanished, burning for only 16 minutes, making it relatively easy to contain and control without a total collapse.

• The fire did not grow over time, probably because it quickly ran out of fuel and was suffocating, indicating without added explosive devices the fires could have been easily controlled.

• FDNY firefighters still remain under a tight government gag order to not discuss the explosions they heard, felt and saw. FAA personnel are also under a similar 9-11 gag order.

• Even the flawed 9-11 commission report acknowledges that “none of the [fire] chiefs present believed that a total collapse of either tower was possible.”

• Fire had never before caused steel-frame buildings to collapse, nor has fire collapsed any steel high rise since 9-11.

• The fires, especially in the South Tower and WTC-7, were relatively small.

• WTC-7 was unharmed by any airplane and had only minor fires on the seventh and 12th floors of this 47-story steel building, yet it collapsed in less than 10 seconds.

• WTC-5 and WTC-6 had raging fires but did not collapse despite much thinner steel beams.

• It’s difficult if not impossible for hydrocarbon fires like those fed by jet fuel to raise the temperature of steel close to melting.

NUMEROUS HOLES

Despite the numerous holes in the government story, the Bush administration has ignored all critics. Mainstream experts, speaking for the administration, offer a theory essentially arguing that an airplane impact weakened each structure and an intense fire thermally weakened structural components, causing buckling failures while allowing the upper floors to pancake onto the floors below.

Hard evidence is lacking due to FEMA’s quick removal of the structural steel before it could be analyzed. The criminal code requires that crime scene evidence be kept for forensic analysis, but FEMA had it destroyed or shipped overseas before a serious investigation could take place.

And even more doubt is cast over why FEMA acted so swiftly since coincidentally officials had arrived the day before the 9-11 attacks at New York’s Pier 29 to conduct a war game exercise, named "Tripod II."

Besides FEMA’s quick removal of the debris, authorities considered the steel quite valuable as New York City officials had every debris truck tracked on GPS and even fired one truck driver who took an unauthorized lunch break.

"The government has failed to produce significant wreckage from any of the four alleged airliners that fateful day,” said Reynolds. “The familiar photo of the Flight 93 crash site in Pennsylvania shows no fuselage, engine or anything recognizable as a plane, just a smoking hole in the ground. Photographers reportedly were not allowed near the hole. Neither the FBI nor the National Transportation Safety Board have investigated or produced any report on the alleged airliner crashes."

'Tehran' Rosie ... 'Tokyo' Rosie ... or just 'Tell-it-like-it-is' Rosie ...

Rosie O'Donnell (left ... while wondering, "oooh ... should I have said that?") seems to be taking a lot of heat for her latest PC-NOT remarks, although this time she seems to be hitting close to the vortex of the truth in a number of sensitive areas.

Don't get me wrong ... I too find a lot of what Rosie says to be "crude, rude, cruel and abusive" (to quote a close friend of mine) ... but the truth will simply have to be told one of these days as we drift further and further towards an all-out war in the Middle East.

Few will argue now that the events of 9-11 are directly linked to our invasion of Iraq (even if the attackers on 9-11 weren't connected in any way with Iraq) and the events of the past two weeks in Iran will ultimately be linked to an attack against Tehran (although neither the British seamen/woman who might have accidentally strayed in and out of Iranian waters are in no way connected to any such desires for an attack).

But Rosie O'Donnell is certainly the least likely candidate for tying the events together in a possibly too-close-to-the-truth manner so as to jeopardize both her own career and the well laid plans of the Neocons in Washington who have watched their actions moving along in a methodical manner since George Bush entered office in January of 2001.

The right-wing talking heads are beside themselves with ugly remarks about Rosie and others who oppose the direction that the US is drifting ... that make each of them sound more and more like Joe McCarthy in his hey-day.

As online petitions are floating about to have ABC cancel Rosie's The View ... and while those of us who are totally opposed to the continuing painful occupation of Iraq are being called "unpatriotic' ... and worse, it is more important than ever to hold true to the course of openness and ask for the truth to be told ... about (yes) Building 7 -- official cause of collapse stated as "unknown" in the 9-11 Commission Report -- and the peculiar events leading up to and following "Shock and Awe."

I might wish for Rosie to be less crude in her raves (and less vociferous in her nonsensical feud with Donald Trump), but I support her courage in trying to highlight the truth as she sees it when she has the podium.

As Mr. Bush threatens his veto of the Iraq funding bill with its courageous limitations on his powers ... let us not forget ...

"We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility. Good night, and good luck." Edward R. Murrow

Sainthood? Well, far be it for me to say "it ain't so"!!

Having grown up as a Roman Catholic, I have to ask myself, "Is this for real?" with some serious contemplation. Well, I really don't know, but Sister Marie Simon Pierre (photo left) looks like a lovely and honest woman who is clearly not trying to make a name for herself -- indeed, she has tried to remain in the background from about the time she was cured of Parkinson's Disease. She was a "groupie," so to speak, of the late Pope and a very humble one at that. As for the miracle, well she was "cured" of Parkinson's Disease after her community of nuns and herself prayed one evening shortly after Pope John Paul II's death.

The various documents that "prove" the miraculous nature of the cure -- before-and-after x-rays and other before-and-after proofs, such as her handwriting which went from unreadable to almost perfect and a left arm that hung limp before and is strong and healthy today are enough evidence for this old curmudgeon to at least suspect that Jesus Christ (my personal Savior) was involved in some manner and that it could very well be (in some way) connected to the late Pope John Paul II.

For the record, the nun is a member of the Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Motherhood in Aix-en-Provence in southeast France ... and me? Well, I attend a Baptist church just around the corner whose pastor might or might not agree with the Vatican's ultimate decision.

And also for the record, I am reasonably convinced about the miraculous nature of Sister Marie Simon Pierre's healing -- although I'm a skeptic by nature.

Of course, it's up to the Roman Catholic church to go through some beatification "process" for Pope John Paul II (below right) about which I know very little so as to create a "Saint" out of him ... but I'm willing to state up front that "Jesus cures!" and don't really worry too much about what the Vatican comes up with ... one way or the other.

Hurray for Jesus! What a nice gift for Holy Week.

Please, Mr. President ... grant no more of Mr. bin Laden's fondest wishes!

Osama waiting for the next "present" to come his way

Just how many “presents” can one president give the butcher of 9-11? First, we allowed bin Laden’s family members to fly out of the US within a week of 9-11 and then continued to provide and execute one after another of the very actions that the architect of the worst attack on American soil must have wanted very dearly:

1. (already mentioned) Allowed his family members to fly out in a private plane before the FBI could even question them immediately after the Twin Towers fell.
2. Managed to “trap” him in the caves at Tora Bora then managed to permit him to slip out by only enclosing roughly half of the routes out of the Tora Bora area.
3. Invaded a Muslim country (Iraq) that had not killed a single American in a decade, giving his Al-Qaeda murderers both a “cause” and brand new new training grounds.
4. Transferred control of the Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia that Osama had asked that we abandon for years before 9-11. (That was, if you recall, Osama’s cause célèbre prior to the 9-11 attacks.)
5. Captured and allowed for the (bungled) execution of one of Osama’s most hated enemies, Saddam Hussein, the secular butcher of Baghdad (no loss there, but Osama referred to Saddam as an Infidel again and again!)
6. Provided an opening for the Sunnis in Iraq to organize a Civil war against the Shiites. (Yes, Osama is a Sunni)
7. Emboldened Iran to show itself as a threat to Sunnis throughout the Middle East.
8. Drove an unbelievable wedge between Osama’s homeland (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and the US … even King Abdullah has now attacked our Iraq War as “illegal” during the past week

Okay … so Osama bin Laden turned fifty this year, but couldn’t we concentrate on making sure that he doesn’t reach fifty-one before another 9-11 befalls us? Please, Mr. President … no more birthday presents for Mr. bin Laden!

Permission to think it through ... denied!

Click on the "comic" strip above (or on this link) to see the strip clearly.

Only Garry Trudeau could capture exactly what is in most of our minds this April Fool's Day. But it's not an April Fool's Day joke ... not even slightly.

Thank you, genius and American hero, Garry Trudeau!