Let's get some Somali pirate discussion going.

You know that the American hostage Captain dived off the pirate lifeboat last night, tried to swim to the US Navy destroyer, but the pirates got him back...

Why in the world did the US Navy not have frogmen already under the lifeboat? The frogmen could have grabbbed the swimming Captain and saved him. Then they could have blasted the pirates.

Does the US have a submarine under the lifeboat? Does the US destroyer have frogmen onboard? Or, why in the world did the US not fly in frogmen immediately?

Or, even, why did the US destroyer not blast the pirate lifeboat as soon as the American Captain dived off? Were they snoozing? Are they stupid?

It would give you opportunities to tell her to Shut Up, Get Lost, and to laugh at her right into her own telephone ear. You could hang up on her whenever she gets cuckoo.

And, if you block your own number, she will not be able to bug you. Meanwhile, you can blow off your worries, and maybe work on relaxing et cetera.

What are you writing about?

You are free of them now. But, cryin' out loud, you have not even spoken to your mother for over a year??! Yikes!

You have passed a significant boundry: Now, you are the vital person, and your mom is an irrelevant old fadong boozy character. You need to start watching out for her. Abrupt transition, yes, but true.

Start calling your mother at least once per month. Just talk. You need not do much of anything, but you must honor her. (Git it? Honor thy mother? Ring a bell?)

Then, to hell with her! Do what you want to do. You need no excuse. Just do it. If you fail, try something else. If you fail nine times, blame yourself, not your parents.

Burdens pile up, but strength grows. Succeed. Then you will not have to blame your parents OR yourself. But if you fail, you have two options: Start over or blame your own self.

P.S. Cary, Too long of a response! Have you changed your meds?

Never write, "fellow colleague" again. It is an extreme redundancy. "Fellow" = "Colleague", exactly. You wrote it twice. Please edit before you submit.

Half the employees at my wife's data company were Asian/South Asian. All the maintenance people where we live are Ukranian. (Dobrey Rahnook = Good Morning in Ukranian.) All our grounds workers are Latin American (Buenos Dias).

Despite the official rhetoric, people have been pouring into the USA for many recent years. Most of them are legal. And most of them come from places other than south of the Rio Grande. Most of them are nice, but we have a giant problem.

Even if the Republicans finish the Nuevo Berlin Wall against Mexicans, and even if it keeps Mexicans out, lots of other people keep coming in. Immigrants are welcome here, no matter what your bad-accent racist Southern Senator may try to tell you.

And that fact may keep you from getting a job. In civilized countries (e.g. W. Europe), even yard clippers get health plans and retirement plans. That would be great for Americans, but Republican hypocrisy prevents that here in The Land of Opportunity.

And, even if you get a Masters Degree in Information Tech, they hire Indians and Chinese, rather than you. That may be okay, in an overarching world-justice sense, but the creepy Southern "patriots" deny it, even when they allow it. And you lose out.

...even though they are old grayheads (or would-be-gray-without-Miss-Clairol).

Rep. Bacchus would be ashamed of himself if he knew anything at all about McCarthy in American history. He would not even have made this statement. But he is ignorant, and so is his target audience.

Some "young" right wing christianists now believe Senator McCarthy was a genius whom "the left" smothered... Because they actually know nothing, and do not wish to be confused with the facts.

Anybody who ever saw and heard McCarthy would laugh, and make the sign of the Cross, and pray for deliverance.

We need a figure to compare. How much (with reference,please)? We need to know before we judge.

Mr. Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, had an interview on National Public Radio yesterday. He was obnoxious. His snotty, condescending tone, and his utter out-of-touchness, must be heard to be believed. The NPR anchor let him talk, gave him plenty of rope, and Mr. Blankfein hanged himself.

He reminds me of the snotty, dismissive, preppy Ari Fleischer, who spoke for G.W. Bush for a while. But obnoxious Ari never got as obnoxious as Lloyd Blanfein.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102887296

(This may be the print version, but you can get to the audio easily. Click on my signature if you wish.)

We need an answer. This is not a tough question. These might not be real profits. Somebody, please ask Wells Fargo, and report back.

And James Earl Ray, and Arthur Bremmer, the Ohio National Guard, and whacky old General Chesty Westy Westmoreland. And they did not bother us so much. We grew up okay and the USA survived.

Now, this stuff bothers me a lot. I am not scared, but I am sick at heart. Things are just about as bad as ever. No progress. No real hope.

Is this cretin still alive?

All of it (100%) is crazy right wing lies.

Do not respond to all this scathing criticism. Just move on to another topic. (You picked a silly, weak topic here, for your first column, but live and learn, and find a stronger topic.)

I would like to see you address the topic of torture next. Many people in the USA and the rest of the world are mystified. We wonder whether Republicans and American conservatives like to torture. Do you like to hurt people? Do you worry about going to hell for torturing?