Letters to the Editor
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@Bebop
We all have 'um.
Sad personal experiences.
How can one not love this blog.
If you ever were on the dark side, it never penetrated to your soul. You are a survivor and we are all better for it. I hear that I’m a survivor song in my head when I enjoy your unique word songs every day.
I love this blog because I have found like souls that help me feel less helpless and inspired to keep on keepin on.
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To the Veterans
bebop-o, GO, RMP, HD, Jebbie, and all the others....
Thank you for your service.
Sincere,
Gordon Ginsberg“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”--Calvin Coolidge
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re:DiFi protecting the regime
Exactly. DiFi wouldn't think for one moment that the Busheviks don't play by the rules. Privately, she might be amused at how ideological and aggressive they are, but like the mainstream of the Democratic party, she cannot admit to herself that the Bushevik don't play by the rules and don't believe they should. She would consider talk about Republican voter intimidation and suppression as crude and exaggerated and would never support a serious investigation of the last two presidential elections. She would never consider her own and her husband's corruption vis-a-vis lucrative defense contracts as corruption, but as natural perks of her class. She is a corporatist through and through. She's instinctively uncomfortable with protest, opposition and disorder. DiFi, unlike Lieberman, is not a Zionist, she has no ideology, she believes only in the perks her class entitles her to. She believes in law&order and in the "Establishment". Although she grew up in San Francisco, she couldn't be more estranged from "question authority", "peace and love", "fuck the government"and similar staples of Bay Area free spirit thinking.
Understanding her in that context, it should be clear that she will always vote that way and will always be one of Bush's most reliable enablers.
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@bystander
“Perhaps instead of blog awards, bloggers and readers ought to consider a blogroll of decent reporters/reporting and offer awards for that?”
Great idea. A while back, I suggested that we get the journalism schools to honor those in the M$M who have remained true to their profession. It would have two benefits, recognizing true journalism and implanting in the minds of future journalists, who should be admired, who should be shunned and how important a role they can play when they honor their vital role in our government.
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DiFi: Stealth Republican #1
Dianne Feinstein is truly an embarrassment to all progressive San Franciscans. It's simply hard to believe she actually ever came from here.
As a long time resident, all I can say is: I'm really sorry!
And if you really want to get sick: read or hear the gushing things DiFi had to say about Condi Rice at her Secretary of State confirmation hearings. Bleuuahhch!
P.S. (heh,heh) And both of them set off my gaydar like an air-raid siren, I'll have you know.
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Veterans Day thoughts via the NYT
The NYT dedicated space to blogs from service men and women returning from the middle east. I can't remember precisely when it began, but presumably it was a guest blogging opportunity that ran for a discrete period, and then rolled over to a different topic and different authors. Then the Times brought it back. I run into it intermittently, and still have yet to figure out what the Times is trying to do.
Anyway. The Times dedicated space today for those 5 bloggers (4 men, 1 woman) to reflect on their service and middle east. I think it's worth a read. http://tinyurl.com/3cjj6u
Of course, the question that causes me endless hours of highly conflicted rumination is this one:
Q: Are we mature enough as a country to thank those who risk their lives on our behalf while voicing our outrage at the actions of the politicians who put them in harm’s way?
[Disclaimer: Jeffrey Barnett has been my favorite of the group. Others can be more poetic, or insightful, or evoke more empathy/sympathy, but Barnett is simply blunt.]
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BeBop
I grew up not with my family and I not really ever being affected by war.
A good life.
A happy childhood.
a protected life.
Maybe because my sisters are both pregnant now-and one is using a family name of Henry-that my mom is finally looking into geneology and found that her uncle Henry was one who died at 19 in 44. Maybe I should give her a little credit-cut her some slack.
Maybe since I was in the healthcare field and saw more death, it's affected me more.It's not just like reading an obituary and saying "aww, poor Phil..how unfortunate.."----I saw it firsthand and thought more about it.
I've read about Jim Morrison(Doors) and how he was haunted by images he had seen of a wreck of some Native Americans-hence the recurring naked Indian dream..
I also had something similiar to happen to me at about age 12.
I don't know why but not a week goes by that I don't think of it.
A wreck-that was particularly gruesome-a head-on that just had happened. People were thrown and several were in the median face-down-blood pooled around thier heads.
Mom told all 3 of us to put our heads down-and actually physically held my youngest sisters head down.
I looked-and saw the whole thing.
I had nightmares for weeks.
Traumatized? yep, I guess obviously.
but I don't understand how seeing it in a hospital never bothered me the same way.
When I think about wars-I get the same gutteral sick feeling as when I think back to those people laying in the road dead.
I think the difference is that the wreck and wars are personal choices-that when used irresponsibly causes that same gruesomeness-same car-wreck casualties (of lives cut short). In a hospital, for the most part, it's natural causes due to natural ocurrances.
I hate thinking that: "if they'd just done this....all those lives would be spared." Yet that's exactly how I feel-like a bystander watching a car-wreck about to happen. I hate it.
I don't think peoples'/troops lives should be so expendable-so maybe its' a good thing to be so affected by horrible deaths...
so it doesn't happen again.
know what I mean B.?