Memorial Day or Why One Should Perhaps Not Enumerate Their Flightless Fowl Prematurely

So the "repeal" of DADT has passed and as soon as sixty days have passed after it is signed, as soon as the report is finished and filed as soon as the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs has decided as soon as the Secretary of Defense has agreed. Then by god the President will sign off and something will happen. Probably. Maybe. I'm sure.

I do find it interesting the way that various minority groups fight so hard to get their asses shot in war, or for that matter just to get into the military. Of course the other half of that is that straight white men fight so hard to be the only ones to get to have their asses shot at or off as the case may be.

I remember when I was in the Air Force and basic training and it was explained to me by one of the more knowledgeable airman that in California it was legal to be homosexual, but you did have to register. But then that was three years before Stonewall and ten or twelve years before I started working at Antioch. So my knowledge of the "alternative life styles" of homosexuals was shall we say a little less than complete.

Well at any rate I was more than a little naive at the time concerning all things sexual (although I did learn a great deal from the southern recruit, which each squadron was issued, who would explain his sexual conquests to us every night in the old World War II barracks as the rest of us would lay their trying to get to sleep and wishing we had been as lucky). Once again I guess I was just lucky because when I got out the sexual revolution had started and unlike our colonial war I was in the front lines at college along with the war on [for?] drugs, (I was more successful in the war on drugs as I was able to defoliate large herbal areas by myself if I remember correctly, and I doubt if I do).

Where was I? Oh yes, I think that on the whole young people are more knowledgeable and more able to deal with people who are different than I was when I enlisted back in the winter of '64-65. The Air Force was at the time I think more segregated than the Army, I do not think that there was an African American in my squadron in basic, and it was only after I had been stationed at Randolf for awhile that the first African American was assigned to my squadron. I had been in almost three years before I saw my first black officer.

None the less, I still fully expect Obama to screw this up and that we will end up with a system in place in the military that will continue to screw over the homosexual service people.

Dog Days

Muslims Are Everywhere

Who would have thought that the South Carolina BMV had been taken over by Muslims.

Phished?

So that is what it means. My wife is back on Yahoo (with much more security)(if we told you we would have to kill you), but never to be permitted on Facebook under her former handle.

Friends who made the mistake of responding to the original emails, are still getting follow ups that are more specific and more detailed.

Her "christian" "friend" is still angry and calling to complain about getting the emails. We must get a land line to speak to her she says. My wife says that is no problem she will not be speaking to her in the foreseeable future. She will not be going into the book store, but will be buying things on the Internet instead of at a local place owned by a person who used to be a friend.

It is very strange, all our mostly not very computer literate (and christian) friends chuckle and move on but this person is still angry at us for compromising her. How she was compromised we have no idea, nor I suspect does she. Although she is now positive that her bank account and her adult children's bank accounts have been breached, no amount of reasoning can convince her otherwise.

Oh yeah, she has told my wife that if we lived a righteous life this would not have happened and we wouldn't have caused her so much trouble. Of course my response is one word: Job.

It is kind of sad since the previous owners of the bookstore were real wackallones who were more than willing to sell the Clinton murder tape and she is not willing to participate in that kind of silliness.

An absolute fear of something she does not understand and does not want to understand. So she blames the "victim." Although really not much of a victim and since the email was simply a request for money and since no one sent the money ............................. more of an irritant I'd think.

I guess the attack by her long time friend is what is so disturbing. I now see how people in worse situations were more than willing to turn friends and neighbors in to the police state de jour. Well I guess I do not understand why or how, but I see it happening.

Perhaps it is just because we watched Trumbo the other day that it seems to resonate. Frightened people.

The Commune

So today the Paris Commune fell and the victors executed somewhere north of 20,000 French in a week, perhaps north of 30,000. That is French killing French.

Who hears about them now, where is there a Tale of Two Cities or Scarlet Pimpernel or Nicholas and Alexandria about the aftermath of the Commune? No Marx does not count. It is no where I think. Why do you suppose that we sigh about the noble and brave oligarchs who die at the hand of the "mob." A mob who for a short time only gets a chance to give back some of what they and their ancestors endured for centuries at least.

So the writers and other creators know which way the wind blows and are more then willing to create stories that romanticize the aristocrats. Part of the reason is money I'm sure, but a lot of it is just the general suck upidness of the hoi poli for their betters. The French aristocrats ground down the peasants for ever. The Romanov's managed to do about the same to the Russian peasants and added a disastrous war. They are not criticized for what they have done (or really only in passing) but romanticized for how they died. Now how about Lenin or the guys who ran the Terror? They killed fewer and for a shorter period. Still they are the ones who get the balk of the condemnation. How fascinated and in love we are with the doings of the wealthy even as the rest of us struggle to just make ends meet. How we are willing to forgive them, but not those who over threw them in our name.

What is wrong with us as a species that we are more than willing to help the oligarchs keep us down? Who the hell knows.

Hacked

So my wife's Yahoo and Facebook accounts have been hacked. Most of the people have either deleted the requests for money or called us and then deleted the requests.

However, one person, the owner of the christian book store in our town called the cops. Now the email said that we were in London and had been robbed and needed $1,500.00 to get home and gave a place to send the money. Most people either knew that we weren't out of the country or called or sent emails to see what was really going on.

However, one friend of my wife's, the owner of the christian book store freaked out. As I said she called the cops and then when my wife went in to the store to pick something up that she had ordered, she informed her that she (the bookstore owner) was now compromised and that we could no longer communicate with her either through email, facebook, or on the telephone (unless we obtained a land line). Further that she would contact the other law enforcement agency (the sheriffs department) if she got any other emails. My wife told her that she was concerned for the safety of our dogs (since cops were known to shot dogs) the woman said she didn't care.

I am kind of amazed. This is the only person who has responded this way, but I would expect that she represents a certain per cent age of people who are that scared of everything that they don't understand.

Explains a lot doesn't it?

Loki In Love With Traci's Birthday Present

Lazy Sunday

At rest

Really at rest.

Hey Anybody Still Here?

God I hate Windows 7. There that is off my chest.

I've been trying to write this week and pretty much failed totally. The BW and I have had flu since about last Sunday morning when I felt queasy at breakfast and then it was down hill from there. I'd started to read Manufacturing Depression by Gary Greenberg and by the end of Sunday I'd gotten about 2/3 of the way through.

Went to bed and at about 3 a.m. both the BW and I woke up with aching stomachs and really aching everything. Things stayed pretty painful for the next 24 hours and then just exhaustion through and through. I was able to go into work for about 2 hours on Wednesday and another 3 on Friday. Couple that with the rains, it was as thought we were living in a tropical hell hole for the entire week, nothing but rain rain rain. Until I think maybe today (I hope cause the grass doesn't cut itself). Well today the sun is out which means the grass should grow like gang busters today. I expect that it will have grown back to this morning's length by the end of the day if we are able to cut it, since the sun as I say is out again.

The depression book is pretty interesting (or at least I think so) since his position is kind of close to mine: If you really understand life then of course you are depressed or at least melancholic. As the author points out particularly given the current never ending wars and the economic slow down (shut down for the lower 20% of the population) and the control of the government by the oligarchs or plutocracy whichever you prefer. The book kind of follows a history of the disease of depression in psychiatric thought, so as a history major it certainly interested me. The guy is better at describing the disease and its development than at suggesting ways out of depression and I kind of get the idea that he really thinks that generally depression or melancholia (or I think dysthymia) is a rational response to life, as I say.

Given the exhaustion as I say, I didn't finish the book until last night.

Oh well, time to tend my garden in a manner of speaking (that's lit. talk for mow my lawn).

Welcome to Weimar

Every single time I think that Obama and his people have done their worst, they come back and go one better. Now our very own democratic AG is telling us that we will probably have to cut back on Miranda warnings given to those who are (they always ARE, they are never accused) terrorists, because well because we are in an existential war with them. Which as I understand it means that we are having some sort of French Indochina or Algerian experience again. No it means that we are in a fight to the death with a couple of hundred of people who for the most part live in tents and caves half a world away who can kill a couple of us an scare the rest of us to death I guess. So in a clever response to this we will destroy our own freedoms before they can do it to us. That will show them.

I read about outrage overload on another blog the other day (forgot which one), but it is where I am. I have decided that will become my catch phrase for awhile. Well perhaps I am actually in Weimar. No oversight for the Fed, no real control over Wall Street, but by god we will pull you in and interrogate you without the right to counsel. 5th Amendment? Oh don’t worry your little head about that, you don’t need it if you are innocent and you don’t deserve it if you are guilty and you are always only guilty if we have you in this room and are interrogating you.

Now we have a wonnerful, wonnerful nominee for the Supreme Court, except no one knows anything about her except maybe Obama. Of course, the usually suspects are more than ready to support anything Obama does. One of my (formerly?) favorite bloggers TBogg takes some time out to excoriate those of us who have doubts.

In particular you should read the comments defending the post and Obama. They have a number of points, the point of the blogger: He's Obama, therefore I Trust Him. Nothing we say will make any difference. I never expected him to be a radical liberal (although no one is arguing he is a radical and any more no one is arguing that he is a liberal, well no one with half a brain).

So anyway, the AG says we've got to cut back on basic rights, and Obama nominates someone who is really gung ho into the concept of expanded executive power. And the usual suspects are more than willing to climb on board and back her sight unseen. Had Obama a history of doing things that were kind of liberal or a history of appointing people who were kind of liberal then trusting him would make a certain about (although not total) sense. He has a history of appointing people and ensuring, continuing, enabling policies that are beloved of the plutocracy and those who serve them.

The incredibly frustrating part of public life discourse right now is the number of people and organizations that I thought were liberal or progressive (not radical, not ultra liberal, whatever that means) just kind of liberal that are unwilling to pressure the prez or his people. Hell I am watching people I thought were truly liberal maybe even ultra liberal (see Sanders, Bernie) cave at pressure from the WH and back most any corporate position Obama wants. No single payer, no Medicare for all, no complete audit of the Fed. In return for backing these positions they turn on those who refuse to be buffaloed and eviscerate them and attack them for being "unreasonable and for demanding purity" few of us really demand.

So to loop back again, I look at us like we are indeed Weimar, or perhaps a house of cards which is simply waiting for the one man (or woman now a days) on horse back to blow us over with a relatively light breath. I suspect it would have happened by now if Palin wasn't beyond belief corrupt and was simply bought off with money rather than power. Lucky Us?

Outrage Overload

I do believe that I would include Obama in my list of liar presidents, but I give Hersh points for wishing.



I hope to get back to regular posting tomorrow. I read that about outrage overload on another blog that was talking about Holder's discussion about how we need to limit Miranda to those accused of terrorism, I'm sorry TERRORISM, next it will be those who use drugs, then those who write blogs.

Read It and Weep

Happy Fifth of May

Kent State

Forty years ago today. My haven't we come a long way, now we pay people to do our killing for us so we do not upset the white kids at school.



How about Jackson

Karl and Harpo Marx My Heros

Damn missed May Day comrades. However, I hope this makes up for it.