Oklahoma GOP Lawmaker Wants To Ban Using Aborted Fetuses as Flavor Enhancer in Human Food. WTF?

Yes folks. Just when you thought the GOP could not get any crazier, its ignorance and paranoia have reached new heights.  Oklahoma State Senator, Ralph Shortey, has introduced a bill into the Oklahoma State Legislature banning the use of aborted human fetuses in the production of food for human consumption. Yes that's right-- the inmates are now officially running the asylum.

Just in case you forgot how crazy things are in Oklahoma, that's the place where last year they seriously tried to pass a bill banning the institution of Sharia Law and where every small, jerkwater town has at least ten fundamentalist Christian churches vying with each other for confusing ignorance with religious faith.  This is the place where people still think our President is from Kenya and where domestic terrorist, Timothy McVeigh, blew up the Federal Building in 1995.  So I'm not surprised that this is also the place where a clown like Shortey could be taken seriously.

Shortey introduced the bill based on something he read on the internet ( we know everything you read online is true, right?) and voila-- he has become a celebrity himself.  From TPM to HuffPo, proud Birther and illegal immigration foe, Shortey is the talk of the blogosphere.  The Huffington Post  article offers a pithy Shortey quote that explains it all ( go read the whole piece for an in depth view)

“People are thinking that this has to do with fetuses being chopped up and put in our burritos,” Shortey told NewsOK. "“That's not the case. It's beyond that.
“There are companies that are using embryonic stem cells to research and basically cause a chemical reaction to determine whether or not something tastes good or not,” he said. “As a pro-life advocate, it kind of disturbed me that we would use aborted embryos or aborted human fetuses to extract stem cells and use them for research to basically make things taste better.”

Why am I not surprised that the bill has no co-sponsors.  I wonder how long it is going to take Shortey to figure out what a fool he has made of himself introducing a bill  based on a bit of online fiction?  I'm thinking a long long time since he probably thinks he is doing God's work.  Wonder what God thinks?

The Ugly Truth About Israel

There is an ugly new truth rearing its head in America. Israel is no longer automatically considered the good guy. Those of us raised on the heroic efforts of  its founders after WWII, the brilliance of it's underdog army,  and  who were shocked by what happened to Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics are saddened and disappointed to see how the nation of Israel is behaving these days. Can it be true that Israel is not wearing the white hat and that perhaps there is no black or white.  All hats are gray?

As accounts surface of what really happened last week when the Israeli Army attacked a flotilla bringing supplies to beleaguered Gaza, Israel is looking more and more like the aggressor, not the victim it would have you believe it is.

The ship, Mavi Marmara, was boarded in international waters and nine activists were killed. One Israeli soldier was wounded. It was definitely overkill.  The question being asked is who fired the first shot? Israel claims self defense, but with 60 reporters on board to witness and record the event, it is not possible for Israel to hush this one up. It tried. Reporters were jailed and their film and videos confiscated.  Both sides are putting their spin on the facts. As usual the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.  The story is being told on YouTube. Watch the videos below to get an idea of what I mean.

It's classic, isn't it?  Victims of abuse so often end up  becoming victimizers themselves. Hey Hey USA-- stop being the classic enabler . A  thorough, neutral, international inquiry is in order here-- not a show trial conducted by Israel  with President Obama as an " advisor"  For an excellent analysis of the situation and good links to even more information, see Glenn Greenwald's excellent article at Salon.com.

Interview with Al Jezeera Reporter

Video of Attack Shot and Edited by Israeli Defense Force

It's just like kids in the schoolyard. It's hard to know who started the fight so the only alternative is to stop the fight, separate the kids and keep an eye on the bully. The truth may be ugly, but it is important to get to it. Another ship challenged the blockade today and was stopped by Israel with no incidents. Let's see what happens next, shall we?

Dancing With the Russian Bear

Something really important happened yesterday that passed almost unnoticed amid the domestic din here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
While most of us were distracted by the healthcare debate here at home, President Obama announced to the world that the missile system proposed by the Bush Administration to be built in Poland and the Czech Republic( nicknamed son of Star Wars,) will be scrapped and a water based missile program aimed at monitoring doings in Iran will be substituted.

This is really important stuff. It is the opening step in a complicated dance that will lead to a key collaboration between Russia, NATO and the United States when it comes to dealing effectively with the pressing international problems of Iran and Afghanistan.

You are going to hear lots of moaning and groaning from the right on this,but pay no attention. Obama has not lost his mind. We have much more to gain by working with the Russians than by antagonizing them, something the Bush Administration with its macho posturing,failed to grasp. It's not that Russia is a participatory democracy or that Vladimir Putin and his puppet president, Dmitry Medvedev are teddy bears. Not at all. It is just, as my grandmother used to say, that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Abandoning the missile program proposed for Russia's doorstep is part of a quid pro quo program of diplomacy and not, as the Bushies would have you believe, a sign of weakness.

I am sure that President Obama's announcement was part of an orchestrated ballet negotiated and agreed to before the event. It sparked an immediate response from Russia. No sooner had President Obama spoken than the Kremlin announced that in response to the American position, Russia would cancel the medium range ballistic missles slated for Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania. See? Quid Pro Quo:-)

The next announcement came from Nato's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen who called for a new strategic partnership with Russia. and urged both Russia and the United States to study the possibillity of a joint missile defense system.

Next week, President Obama will chair a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York-- the very first American President to do so. Nuclear dis-armament and non-proliferation will be on the agenda.

I hope Tehran and Kabul are taking note. There is a new strategic alignment in the offing, one that bodes well for keeping the peace and preventing nuclear disaster. It's the old " enemy of my enemy is my friend" routine. Nobody wants to see nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran or the Taliban back in the saddle in Afghanistan.

One way or another, the world simply won't let it happen. And that is why America is dancing with the Russian Bear while Nato calls the tune.

Bye Bye Lockerbie Bomber

The Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, went home to Libya yesterday. In case his name doesn't exactly ring a bell, he is the guy who was convicted of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.


In 1988 the world was a very different place. Reagan was in the White House and the Cold War was going strong. Libya's Muammar Gaddafi' was playing the Russians and Americans off against each other. The PLO was beating it's chest. Iran was yelling " Death to America" but all that didn't seem too important compared to the possiblity of nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. Then poof-- there went Pan Am Flight 103. It shocked the world. The trail was hard to follow, but it seemed that this was an act of state-sponsored terrorism and the sponsor was Libya.

Megranhi and a co conspirator were wanted men. Libya refused to turn them over for trial for eight years, keeping them under house arrest in Tripoli, where it must be said they were seen as heros rather than criminals. Finally, in 1999 a trial began in the Netherlands. Only Megranhi was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment in Scotland. Lucky for him it wasn't an American jail. He would have been dead within a year. The inmates would have killed him.

What Really Happened?


I always had the feeling that Megranhi was a scape goat and that there was more to this story than met the eye. Conspiracy theories have abounded over the years. Some have pointed the finger at the PLO or the CIA. Iran has been implicated, but nobody has proof of anything. Megranhi is a former Libyan intelligence officer ( former?? I wonder) who always maintained his innocence. There are, it must be admitted, a lot of loose ends.

Now, Megrani, suffering from terminal cancer, has been allowed to go home to die , his sentence commuted on grounds of compassion. Lots of people are quite upset-- from the families of the victims to the President of the United States. I don't blame people for being angry. Me? I feel there is something funny going on. Part of me would like to see this guy rot in jail. Another part of me thinks this is about somethng bigger than just one man-- innocent or guilty.

Muammar Gaddafi',the bad boy Libyan dictator, has recently decided to play nicely with the West. This is going down well in high places because Libya has more oil than any other country in Africa. Gaddafi has stopped his nuclear program,restored diplomatic relations, gotten America and the EU to lift economic sanctions, paid reparations to the Lockerbie families and issued an apology. And now Megrani's sentence has been commuted on compasionate grounds. It's a regular little lovefest, isn't it? Nice to get that nasty Lockerbie thing over and done with forever.I don't know what is really going on, but I would guess that as always, it would be illuminating to follow the money.

So yesterday, Gaddafi sent his private jet to pick up Megrani and fly him home. Jubilant crowds waited at the airport in Tripoli. In two weeks Gadaffi will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the military coup that brought him to power. In three months or so, Megrani will be dead. In six months oil will be flowing and big money will be made. No doubt Megrani's family will get their share.

Families of the victims will continue to mourn. Terrorists will continue to plot. Nations will continue to jockey for power, and we, the people of the world, will believe what we wish to. Bye bye Lockerbie bomber. Are you a mass murderer or a patriotic soldier who fell on his spear for the good of his people? Truth, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder.

Sunday Gold Star for Susan

Susan's blog, Everyday People, is one of my favorites. She gets a gold star from me today for talking about right and left wing conspiracy theories in a post I can only say I wish I had written. It is just terrific. Go have a look for yourself.

Everyday People: Enough With the Conspiracy Theories!

My Experience With Socialized Medicine

They are wrangling in Congress right now about universal healthcare. Everybody knows that the current American system is broken, but there is a lot of disagreement about how to fix it. Personally, I think that what we need is a single payer, government run system or what a lot folks are referring to rather stridently as " socialized medicine".

They say it like they are discussing Armageddon. You would think that Joe Stalin was going to come back from the grave and throw them all into prison or something. " You won't get to choose your doctor" they say. Well, do you get to choose your doctor now? is my response. Not if you have an employer funded health insurance plan. Your employer chooses your doctor not you and if you lose your job( as millions of Americans are in the process of doing) you won't have any insurance at all. Get a grip folks. The only people doing well under the American system are the insurance companies and big pharma.

I had a personal experience with socialized medicine a few years ago in Iceland. I sprained my ankle very badly( I'd like to say I did it hiking a difficult mountain pass, but I actually fell off a curb in Akranes)In any case, it was a bad sprain. My foot was the size of a basketball and I couldn't walk.

A friend took me to the local hospital. We walked in and within ten minutes I was seeing a very nice, white coated, English speaking doctor. There were no forms to fill out, no releases to sign. He examined my foot and sent me down the hall, where a nice technician(also English speaking) took four x-rays of my foot and ankle to make sure no bones were broken. Next, the doctor bound up my foot with some very tight supportive bandage, told me no bones were broken but I should stay off the foot and take ibuprophen. We shook hands and off I went to pay the bill. I was worried because I didn't have travel insurance and was wondering about the cost. I handed over my credit card. The total charge for everything, including the four x-rays was $50.00. The x-rays and emergency room visit in my home town would have been five times that amount, and I had no insurance at the time. It made a believer out of me, I can tell you.

47 million Americand have no health insurance, and the number is growing as jobs are lost. Many more are under-insured. The leading cause of bankruptcy in the USA is medical bills. People lose their homes if they get cancer or have a heart attack. It is crazy. The United States spends more on healthcare per capita than any other developed nation but we are at the bottom of the list when it comes to infant mortality and life expectancy. Medicine is not a business. It is not about profit. It is about people.

Let's hear it for socialized medicine

Please Stop Talking About Sarah Palin

Could we please stop talking about Sarah Palin now? She's resigned and I don't really care why. I wish her well. She was in over her head from the get go and I for one don't care whether she is escaping an upcoming scandal, working on her book and negotiating a talk show with Fox News, or planning to stay home and cook moose stew for Todd. It doesn't matter. Let her be an ex governor and private citizen and for God's sake stop talking about her.

True, her resignation speech took everyone by surprise and was a bit odd--she rambled on with many sports analogies and seemed to be saying that by resigning she was not quitting but doing the right thing for Alaska-- huh? OK well, whatever. Personally, I think she is having a bit of a breakdown. But really, let's stop the rumor mill right now. We'll know eventually what the real story is. Until then, leave Sarah alone.

Meanwhile, TV pundits, how about turning your attention to, oh let's see, the President's ground breaking trip to Russia, the health care bill currently in congress, or even the Michael Jackson funeral.

Sarah Palin is old news. So stop talking about her, OK?

Mark Sanford is the King of TMI

South Carolina Governor,Mark Sanford, keeps trying to explain his extra marital rumpy bumpy and to let us all know that he really isn't a bad guy even though he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar(so to speak) The more he explains the worse it gets.

Last week's press conference where he admitted he was in Argentina with his honey and not hiking the Appalachian Trail was bad enough. Explanations of the "sparking thing"that developed between him and a " dear friend" along with lots of " I've been a bad boy, don't know what got into me, and I won't do it again" yah da yah da yah da. made me cringe. I swear, all adulterous husbands read from the same script, but most of them don't hold press conferences and tell it to the world. It was definitely TMI( too much information) and I know I wasn't the only one cringing. I bet his wife, Jenny, was just a tad embarrassed at having the family laundry washed quite so publicly.

But yesterday, Mark went and made it worse. Like a knight of old, coming to the rescue of the tarnished reputation of his ladylove Sanford told reporters

"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story. A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day"

Great. I bet his wife, Jenny, was happy to hear that. Another brilliant TMI moment in which not only Mark Sanford's marriage, but also his political future hit the skids. What is he thinking? I guess I know. He's not thinking. He's feeling, And what he is feeling is life, love, and youth passing him by. He is having a classic mid-life crisis. Poor baby. He is madly, hopelessly, idealistically, crazily in love.

It's a guy thing and I don't pretend to understand it. But I do know, that in the end he is apt to lose his wife and possibly his children and his career as well. We all know what hell hath no fury like. I suspect that the lady in Argentina is apt to rethink things too and he won't end up with her either.

So set em up Joe and play another chorus of " Don't Cry for Me Argentina." But please please please, don't let soon-to-be-ex- Governor Sanford hold another press conference. I've had enough and I hope he has too.

Freedom Will Not Die in Iran

No matter how brutal the repression, freedom will not die in Iran. The more you try to stamp it out, the more it will surface. Once the people have spoken, their voices will not be silenced.

This video was uploaded to Youtube just today. I can't read the Persian, but I definitely get the idea. Have a look and you will too.

This Saturday We Are All Iranians

It is Saturday, June 20th, the day that the tipping point was reached in Iran. Today is the day that demonstrations in Iran stopped being about who won the election and started being about freedom. Yesterday, the blood started to flow in earnest as the government played hardball with dissenters and as evening fell fear was in the air and death was on the streets.

The people of Tehran stood on their roofs and prayed to God. A young Iranian woman captured the moment in a moving poem and posted it on YouTube for the world to see. Please watch and listen and as you do offer a prayer not only for the people of Iran but for all of humanity everywhere. Because this Saturday, June 20th, we are all Iranians.

Tweeting the Revolution

This is my third day of tweeting the aftermath of the elections in Iran and the experience is just blowing me away.

On Sunday, Twitter had the news long before TV and the amount of info that was being shared online, albeit without vetting, was just amazing. I won't mention the names of the Tweeters in Iran for security reasons, but picture this.

I'm in New Jersey, reading tweets from an Iranian student sitting with a laptop on a balcony in an apartment building in Tehran. I'm getting a blow by blow of what's going on in the street below. Iranians in New York and London are tweeting reports from their friends and relatives in Tehran. Demonstrations are being set up in front of Iranian embassies all over the world on Twitter. Links to Youtube and Flickr give me up to the minute graphic images to chew on. Meanwhile, CNN is re-running a report from Iran filed hours earlier by Christiane Amanpour. Let's see-- Twitter or CNN? It's a no brainer. It was a watershed moment in the world of communication not unlike CNN's coverage of the first Gulf War. The gap was so great, we will never be the same again.

By yesterday, half of the Twitterverse had green icons, in solidarity with the Iranian people. Efforts to block twitter and silence the Iranian twitterers were being countered by internet saavy geeks and hackers all over the world. Demonstrations were increasing. Tension was mounting. CNN was scrambling and the beat went on.

Last night I read an interesting blogpost laying out the proposition that the whole thing was a well planned Israeli effort to destabilize Iran by delegitimizing the election. You can read the whole post here and decide for yourself whether it is truth or disinformation. Whatever it is, it made me stop and think.Not only is the situation in Iran a watershed moment in the world of politics and a sea change in communication techniques, it might also be a new wrinkle in espionage.

Whatever is happening and whatever the truth is, it is big. Very big. The world will never be the same again and as events unfold, we may just find ourselves tweeting more than one revolution.

AIG Gets It Wrong Again

What is it with AIG? First it got a whopping $173 billion of American taxpayer money during the Wall Street meltdown last fall. Then it proceeded to spend part of that money on swanky corporate junkets and $35 billion in bonuses for the very executives who had run the company into the ditch.

The public outcry was so great that Congress got into the act and hauled top execs in front of an investigative committee. Eventually, the boys gave back their bonuses and we thought AIG had learned its lesson.

Well, here we go again, folks. If you had a look at today's New York Times, you saw that AIG made the front page of the Business Section and it wasn't a good thing. Seems that AIG insured the US Airways jet that bellyflopped in the Hudson River on January 15th and they are not going to pay up.

Evidently airllne insurance doesn't work like homeowners or automobile insurance, AIG is only required to pay if the crash resulted from the airline's negligence. Since it was a flock of geese and not pilot error that caused the plane to go down, AIG is playing hardball and refusing to honor survivors' claims. To its credit, US Airways has already handed out a $5,000 check to each passenger, though it had no legal obligation to do so.

The cruelty and inhumaneness of this kind of corp-think takes my breath away, but I suppose I should not be surprised. Welcome to the wonderful world of American free market capitalism. They must be going nuts over in the corporate relations department of AIG today. I'm hoping that once again Congress will get involved on behalf of all of us American taxpayer shareholders and force AIG to do the right thing.

Sometimes the spirit of the law is more important than the letter, and this is one of those time. Shame on you, AIG. You got it wrong again.


source: New York Times

God Guns and Right Wing Crazies

Why is it that American right wing crazies carry guns and think they are doing God's work when they murder people? The last few weeks have been pretty hairy here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. The American Taliban is trying to force its nut-job notions down the throats of the rest of us once again and unfortunately they have the Constituional right to bear arms.

First we were shocked by the murder of Dr. George Tiller, who was gunned down in church by an extreme right wing, pro life, activist with a history of mental instability. Scott Roeder thought he was protecting the unborn by committing murder. How very illogical and how very sad. He doesn't seem to have cared much about the rights of the already born.

Dr. Tiller was one of the few doctors in the country performing late term abortions and while I have my own issues with late term abortion, I at least know what it is. A late term abortion is done at 20 to 23 weeks of an ordinary 40 week pregnancy. Nobody does abortions on a baby that is viable outside the womb( that's 27 weeks folks). Ironically, Dr. Tiller's murder has made him a martyr and has exposed the extremism of the right wing of the pro life movement.

Then, just yesterday, an 87 year old Neo Nazi walked into the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC carrying a gun in his hand and hate in his heart and started shooting up the place. James W. Von Brunn killed one security guard and critically wounded two others before being shot himself. He is currently in critical condition in a DC hospital.

This guy too is clearly one sandwich short of a picnic. He's a white supremicist who hates black people and Jews. Guess who he scapegoats for all the world's problems. You got it: blacks and Jews. He had a website and a whole history of angry paranoid rants not to mention an ex-wife in Florida who claims to have divorced him years ago because he was " a racist, abusive, alcoholic." In 1981 Von Brunn broke into a meeting of the Federal Reserve and tried to kidnap a member of the board of governors. You'd think that somebody like that wouldn't be allowed to own a gun, wouldn't you ? But no. Not a problem. He probably owned a whole arsenal.

Two politically motivated murders in less than three weeks. Quite a record for the right wing isn't it? These people would be pathetic if they weren't so dangerous. Myself, I think that if Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity and Dick Cheney would just shut up and stop telling everyone the sky is falling it might cut down on the murder rate and alleviate the fear based hatred that is running rampant these days.

I wish our American right wing crazies didn't carry guns.

Obama Hits Another Home Run in Cairo

President Obama was speaking in Cairo at 6 am EDT this morning, so I didn't watch the speech live. I was still asleep. By the time I was sipping my first cup of coffee at around 7:30 am though, the speech was over and the President's crack communications team had posted it on the internet in several places and translated it into a dozen languages.

I could tell watching videos and TV talking heads, as I let caffeine revive my sleep- soaked brain, that Obama had knocked it out of the park once again. It was another home run for my President. Thank God we have a man like this at the helm right now.

This was more than a great speech. It was a rhetorical tour de force that will be remembered and talked about for generations. Where it stacks up for the rest of the world, I don't know, but for me, as an American, it ranks right up there with the Gettysburg Address or JFK's innaugural speech or MLK's" I have a dream speech

This was a speech that really moved people. It did not mince words or prevaricate or minimize very real, perhaps insoluable, political problems. It defined a moment in time with honesty, passion, and an intelligent understanding of the issues confronting both the West and the Muslim world. It did not patronize or threaten. It simply stated what is. A speech isn't going to solve all the problems. But this speech totally changed the nature of the engagement. It was a tipping point. Now we will at least talk to each other instead of shouting at one another and swaggering about Texas style.

The really important thing that Obama did in this speech was what he, as a multicultural person who has so often felt ouside the mainstream personally, does so well. He emphasized the humanity we all share, the similarity of what we all desire for ourselves and our children, the common roots our religions have and the respect we owe one another. Bravo Obama.

Sometimes the pen really is mighter than the sword and this morning was definitely one of those times.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Racism Republicans and Sonia Sotomayor

The Republicans have done it again. After proclaiming themselves an inclusive "big tent" and reminding us all endlessly that they are the party of Lincoln, the Republicans have let Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gigrich open their mouths on the subject of President Obama's Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sotomayor.

Rush has been calling Sotomayor a " reverse racist" (whatever that is.) Seems to me one can be a racist or not a racist, but not a reverse racist. In fact to even use the term "reverse racist" infers a racist mentality on the part of the speaker. But then our Rush was never the most cerebral Neanderthal on the block. His heart trumps his brain every time.

Newt has been comparing Judge Sotomayor to Harriet Miers and making all sorts of silly noise, in spite of the fact that Sotomayor's educational and legal credentials are flawless and she is far from an avid lefty. She was even appointed to her current job on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by a Republican President.

All this right wing whining is not going to go down very well with either hispanic or women voters and is not going to do the GOP any good at all. President Obama is no fool. He made a very astute strategic choice and over at the White House they must be laughing their heads off at Rush and Newt. These guys are not only tearing up the Republican Party, they are making idiots of themselves. Why don't they just shut up?

Call me crazy, but it looks to me like over at the GOP, the inmates are running the asylum.

Obama Wows the Washington Press

If President Obama ever wants to make a career change, he has a great future ahead of him as a stand up comedian. He wowed em in Washington at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner last night. Thank you MSNBC for broadcasting the whole thing live. I had a ball.

The prez was a hoot, throwing out zingers and one liners like a Las Vegas pro. His timing was perfect. My favorite line was about Dick Cheney's memoirs being tentatively titled " How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People. " I also loved the part about Rahm Emanuel having a hard time with Mothers Day because " he isn't used to saying the word day after the word mother". Is that clever, sophisticated material or what?

President Obama was polished, pointed and funny, but never stepped over the line into slapstick or bad taste. He even managed to make fun of himself with grace and style. What a guy!

It says something about the state of the media that the New York Times, for the third year in a row, refused to attend the event out of journalistic scrupulousness, while the twitterati were live blogging every real-time detail from their iphones(#nerdprom).

For those of you who didn't catch President Obama's comic debut last night, here's the video from Youtube-- all nine and a half minutes of it. Enjoy!

Photoshop Anyone?

Chuck Schumer is furious, Mayor Bloomberg is livid and President Obama is not too pleased. We won't even talk about how the people of New York feel about seeing a jet flying low over the financial district, but the White House Office of Military Affairs got their pix of an Air Force One look alike flying low over New York City.

SNAFU. FUBAR. Haven't these guys ever heard of Photoshop? Your tax dollars at work folks. Enjoy!

Waterboarding and the Spanish Inquisition

Dick Cheney doesn't seem to feel any pangs of remorse about waterboarding or other forms of "enhanced interrogation" used by the Bush Administration. Cheney thinks waterboarding is just fine when practiced by the "good guys" on the "bad guys."

According to him, waterboarding Khalid Sheik Mohammed produced information that prevented an attack on Los Angeles so it was just great to do it.We'll never know the truth of this assertion, but we do know that before Bush made it OK by special memo, waterboarding was definitely considered torture by the United States and is still considered torture by most of the world. We didn't think much of the Nazi's using it during World War II. But then, what are a few trivial details?

Not since the days of the Spanish Inquisition has there been such a bruhaha about what does and does not constitute torture. Tomás de Torquemada would be proud. In his day the justification was that by getting a heretic to recant his heresies you were saving his soul, even if you were using thumbscrews to do it. Death was not a problem as long as the soul was saved.

It seems things have not changed much in the ensuing years. It's still a very slippery slope when one starts thinking that the end justifies the means and Pride still heads the list of the seven deadly sins. Perhaps there is still time for Dick Cheney to learn humility before he meets St. Peter at the pearly gates.

illustration from:http://whgbetc.com/mind/inquisition.html

So Much for the Tea Party

Thank God the tea party is over. It seemed like something out of Alice in Wonderland to begin with. Didn't you find the whole thing a little surreal? Kids carrying faintly racist placards, geezers in colonial costume, blue rinse ladies in wide brimmed hats festooned with teabags-- I mean it was a pretty bizarre happening from the looks of things on TV.

In spite of being billed as a grass roots, nationwide event, the whole thing had the smell of an orchestrated publicity ploy that didn't quite come off. From the use of the word "teabagging"( yes, Virginia, we all know what it means) to forgetting to get a permit to dump teabags in Washington's Lafayette Park, this was the gang that couldn't shoot straight. I don't know about you, but I was laughing my head off during most of it. It was like a cross between a church supper and a Saturday Night Live skit.

The Texas tea party featured lots of talk about Texas secceeding from the Union.... love it. Go ahead, Texas. Mexico is waiting to annex you. Adios, amigos. New York barely noticed and Boston simply tolerated the whole thing.

I am sooo glad it's all over. Now Fox News can get back to bashing Obama and MSNBC can get back to bashing Fox News and everybody can stop snickering about "teabagging"

Let's put the kettle on and have a nice, soothing cup of tea. Wonder what fun public relations stunt the Rush Limbaugh crowd will think of next?

America and Guns - Are We Crazy ?

In the wake of two highly publicized mass shootings last week and the week before, polls show that most Americans are still against gun control. I'm an American too and I just don't get it. Are we crazy? What kind of freedom are we protecting by allowing practically anybody strong enough to pull a trigger to carry a gun?

A week ago Friday, Jiverly Wong,a Vietnamese immigrant, walked into The American Civic Association in Binghamton, NY and fired off 98 shots killing 13 innocent people. Wong had been taking English classes at the Association and was upset at having recently lost a job. He was the licensed owner of two semi-automatic handguns--a .45 and a 9 mm. How come? What did this guy need two high powered semi automatics for? Well, we found out the hard way, didn't we?

Last week in Pittsburgh, Richard Poplawski, killed three police officers with his AK47. The guy was paranoid, had been discharged from the army because of anger management issues, frequented racist and anti semitic websites and was clearly unstable. How come a guy like this was able to amass a cache of guns and ammunition-- all purchased legally and fully licensed? He was a disaster waiting to happen.

Get a grip my fellow Americans. We have the highest gun murder and suicide rates in the developed world. It's easier for an American teenager to buy a gun than a pack of cigarettes. If we don't rethink gun control and do something to keep guns out of the hands of whackos like Poplawski and Wong, we really are crazy.