Happy New Year to you ALL!

This New Year’s Eve, like so many in America, I will be with a group of friends from a Twelve Step group celebrating the incoming 2011 with coffee and home-made pies and pizza at the local Alano Club.

Not all of those present will have a home of their own to go home to. Many, even in so remote an area as Western Washington, are homeless--but even many of these persons will sleep on cots and couches in the relatively warm homes of those of us more fortunate than they are.

But there is still considerable needless suffering throughout America as we shuffle into 2011. So many persons are suffering for lack of food, shelter, medical care and other problems--problems that these persons did not bring upon themselves.

And yes, there is a difference between inevitable suffering and the suffering we bring on ourselves. Admittedly, much of our suffering is self-inflicted.

Have you heard of the monkey trap? It has a very small opening at the top. When the monkey reaches into it for a piece of fruit, he is unable to pull his hand out again because his fist clutching the fruit is too big. To be free, all he would have to do is open his fist and let go of the fruit. But that is the one thing he, like the Republicans in Congress, have been unwilling to do.

And so he is caught. He is caught by his own greed....

But then, don't we all--Democrats and Republicans--find ourselves in similar situations time and time again? Don’t we make our life a monkey trap? We trap ourselves with our own greed, fear, lazy habits, addictions, anger and resentments ... in a word, everything we hold onto.

But right now, my thoughts are with the very poor and homeless. I hope that the millionaires and billionaires who held 97% of America hostage--including the chronically unemployed and unemployable--so that they could hold onto the tax cuts for themselves are happy tonight.

We'll have to wait until next month or the month after that to see what more the new Republican-led House of Representatives can attempt to grasp from the poor so as to shore up the "economy" while reducing the National Debt.

They need some time to get Christmas out of their minds before reaching once again into the Monkey Trap.

Merry Christmas, America—or should I say, “Merry Christmas, earth!”

Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signing START III in early April of this year
Merry Christmas, America—or should I say, “Merry Christmas, earth!”

Curbing atomic weapons proliferation is not simply a sincere vision of our President, it is the vision of all peace-loving persons around the world. Besides limiting the arsenals of Russia and the US to 1550 strategic nuclear weapons within the next seven years, the new START (STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty) will signal to Iran and North Korea (among others) that they are flying in the face of Russian-US cooperation in promoting global peace—and hopefully, curtail a number of nuclear weapons programs underway—or soon to be underway—in several less-than-stable countries in North Africa, East Asia and the Middle East ... and elsewhere.

Interestingly, Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed the treaty on April 8, 2010 more than eight months ago, yet the Republican opposition claimed not to have had enough time to review the seventeen-page document … and nearly blocked ratification of the treaty.

It was politics at its lowest and ugliest.

Although both major political parties are often guilty of politicizing that which ought not be politicized, the actions of the Republicans in the Senate (and speeches given by Republicans in the House) in recent days reached a new bottom, in my opinion.

The other bills being hurried through Congress in this “Lame Duck” session pale in contrast to the immense importance of the ratification of START. An accidental nuclear war would even leave the don’t-ask-don’t-tell matter as a forgotten endnote to the lifeless mass of radiated matter once called “earth” ... the smoldering sphere would be our fitting legacy to the Cosmos if we're not extremely prudent in this arena.

Who needs a reincarnation of Joe McCarthy while we have Glenn Beck to do the ranting and raving Monday through Friday on Fox Cable News [sic]?

McCarthyism in 2010
I've about had it up to here (flattened hand well above the level of my eyes) with Glenn Beck's rants and raves about President Obama being a socialist, Marxist, communist, racist and God-and-America-hating liberal (said with a low growl) scourge on humanity. I'll leave it to another time to discuss the distinct differences among the various labels we have put on various economic and political systems, but a quick peek at the excellent verbiage in Wikipedia under "socialism" would help--although it's clear that Mr. Beck has no idea what the subject is even about.

If it's on one of Rupert Murdoch's cue-cards or on the Fox Cable News teleprompter in the vicinity of Glenn Beck, that's sufficient to get a dizzying and hateful act of fear-mongering at its worst.

It's sufficient to mention that there are two systems, both often referred to as "socialism", but actually quite different. One is socialism as practiced in the former "people's democracies" of the Soviet bloc, considered to be a precursor to communism and the other is better known as "social democracy", and is practiced to a greater or lesser extent in most western European countries.

Actually, Obama is neither although I might find myself leaning towards the latter more conventional definition.

The former definition almost always degenerated into totalitarianism.

Beck has on at least two occasions denigrated the public transportation systems of France and Germany--which he cites as only one of the failures in these countries stemming from their "socialist systems" of economics and politics. I'd personally recommend he spend eight to ten years in either place (for my family, it was Germany).

Germany has a population density of almost 600 people per square mile, more than all but 4 states in the US (NJ, RI, Mass. and Conn.) so to expect the same type of transportation services is silly. Oregon with 39 people per square mile has wonderful mass transit in Portland (the only place that needs it) and none anywhere else. How would a high speed rail compete with Southwest Airlines at $99 for a flight to San Francisco (which has a train from the airport to downtown every 20 min at the most).

Please, Mr. Beck, don’t just travel someplace and pretend to understand the good and bad features of its governmental structure. I don't truly believe I fully understand the good and bad features of the German culture/government/economic system after having lived there for almost a decade.

Live in France or Austria for a period of time. Take a subway ride out to the poor suburbs surrounding Paris (I did!) and see if you feel safe (I did!). Learn to work your way through the day to day life. Get a drivers license, find an apartment, get a land line phone, get a job and pay taxes. Until then you will not understand the meaning of a democratic socialist nation. Perhaps then you will have a better feeling of whether people are happier and more secure or not.

In the meantime take a lesson learned from the late Senator Joe McCarthy and don't equate every more egalitarian "welfare" society than ours as a gigantic step towards "Atheistic Communism" (your words, not mine). Newsweek recently reported that Finland and Switzerland were the two best countries in the world within which to live. Both are as egalitarian welfare states as you could ask for.

For the record, I never feared for my life anywhere in Western Europe during the 1980s while my family and I lived there--even with the Soviet Bloc states right next door.

It's funny that Socialism is such a magic "bad" word in America. We're not talking about the totalitarianism of communism on the march, but a more egalitarian society where the gradations between poor, Middle Class, and rich are less pronounced, as it was in the 1950's while I was in high school and undergraduate classes in Cleveland, Ohio.

I'm very tired of the "Capitalist" game of who's got the most marbles. It is not only sadly funny but also poignantly destructive. I have travelled in the 'socialist' countries like Canada and France. These countries have vibrant, attractive, and safe cities unlike our often decaying aged hulks in which we fear to tread. It is my perception that the citizens of these countries are happier and more secure because they are less concerned about the personal consequences of economic turmoil. Finally, they have the most advanced mass transportation high speed passenger trains in the world. You be the judge. Why is Socialism a curse here when it seems to be working just fine for our Allies? Was Eisenhower a communist because there were 90% marginal tax rates on our richest citizens?

We've had over a decade of demagoguery now. Karl Rove took it mainstream with both Bush campaigns, and after 2010 special interests kicked it into hyperdrive with the Tea Party.

The U.S. is a nation in decline, and it is also a nation without a powerful vision for the future. Who are we? Who do we want to be? I thought Obama could articulate and push such a vision forward but he's been stopped by Senate filibusters and the Party of No at every turn.

Until Congress and the President provide a real vision for the future--and that future vision grabs the American imagination, no amount of rational argument is going to be enough to counter the angry, fearful folks like Glenn Beck from clamoring for the imaginary American past.

Beck's movement, if a movement it be, is a fascist moment--it could lead to the birth of American fascism. Reason does not apply here, but a powerful progressive vision just might, if only we (largely Congress) had one.

Who is/was the greater demagogue?
A demagogue |ˈdeməˌgäg¬| is nothing more than a charismatic leader (not simply political, but often popularly watched talking heads on television) who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational arguments.

Why in Heaven's name did God create FLEAS?

And speaking of Heaven, would God really have something like this hopping around in Heaven??

Thus far, my weapons include flea traps (ugh! the flea paper sticks to your hands when you go to change it), flea powder (caused a rash on Rosie's back), flea/baby/Dawn Liquid Dish Detergent shampoo (kills nothing and makes Rosie cry even louder), garlic in dog's and cats' food (dog and two of the cats now fart under my covers), and a variety of chemicals that make me Ocean Shores' absolute expert on those chemicals that absolutely DON'T WORK!

I also bought a flea killing Fogger (a.k.a. fumigator), but haven't the foggiest idea how to get my seven cats and tiny dog out of the house for three hours of "fogging" plus an hour to de-fog the fogging agent with fans and non-existent air conditioning. Problem is exacerbated by the fact that I live on a sand bar (for all practical purposes) and sand fleas thrive on/in the peninsula of Ocean Shores.

After the past several days, I look back on George W. Bush's "War on Terror" during the first decade of this millennium with absolute fondness. And, in that regard, my own--and my dog's and my cats' "War on Fleas" has me about to the point to resorting to nuclear weapons.

At this point in time I'm broke, haven't slept for days, am unemployed and all of my pets now hate me ...

Any ideas?

"You know." ... Elizabeth Edwards

A Profile in Courage ... Elizabeth Edwards

Elizabeth Edwards, the estranged wife of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, has been advised by doctors that "further treatment of her cancer would be unproductive," according to a statement from the Edwards family.

A source close to the family told CBS News, "She is dying." The source said Edwards would likely die within weeks and possibly days.

Elizabeth Edwards, 61, posted to her personal Facebook page a message to friends reading in part, "The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that."

The Facebook message to us all is below:

Mrs. Edwards' Facebook Message ... Click on it to read her message if type font is too small!