The Dummies Guide to the Middle East

 I'm not one of those knowledge off the top of my head type guys.  I'm more of a Captain Google tbh.  Wikipedia the Assad dynasty in Syria and you could easily go into the wee hours.  Get your brandy snifter.  Bashar al-Assad during his earlier life actually graduated medical school and then went to London to train to be an eye doctor but was recalled back to Syria after his older brother died in a car crash and he then became heir-apparent to the regime....military academy...Syrian occupation of Lebanon...Arab Spring...Syrian Civil War...war crimes...human rights violations...chemical weapons...the UN, Obama, Trump.  Turkey's Erdogan later became a kind of foe and worked behind the scenes...LOTS to go through.  Bashar al-Assad has now been ousted as we all know by rebel forces and the head of HTS an al-Qaida offshoot is practically running the new government.  Turkey is heavily involved and the new HTS-led Syrian government is trying to moderate its image.  Putin has granted al-Assad and his family political asylum in Moscow.  He may have brought a bag of gold coins with him.  He always wore nice suits and believed in climate change and even recognized the State of Israel in private.  Otherwise a brutal dictator.

There I've done my homework.  Trying to give this blog some heft.

I haven't read the Trump Bible

 

I've drifted away from reading.  Haven't read a book cover to cover in probably years.  I'm more into pipe smoking and pondering and a little yardwork from time to time.  Reading is mostly a sedentary activity.  You're not circulating the blood.  Helps your mind but maybe not your health.  If anything I'm a skimmer and a scanner.  I like the field guides and a few reference works.  Worked in a public library for a few years back in the day.  Books more important than food for some folk.  One guy checking out the latest spy novels said he doesn't care if Village Hall burns down but not the library.  Consider the tons of books in the library that just sit on the shelves gathering dust and never get read.  Do most authors need another source of income to get by?  Ever read a toothpaste tube?

50 Shades Of Diddy

 Not a whole lot to report on the culture front.  Actor Robert De Niro thinks Trump won't relinquish power if elected to a second term.  He needs to reacquaint himself with our system of government first.  84-year old actor Al Pacino now has a 1-year old son.  Don't play too rough and give Dad a hernia.  The T. Swift/Travis Kelce romance.  Pop star Sabrina Carpenter getting competition from upstart Chappell Roan.  I was driving to work this morning, stopped off and sent in my mail-in ballot for Trump/Vance then on the radio they were talking about the sad and tragic death of 31-year old One Direction member Liam Payne who jumped or fell from his room in a Buenos Aires hotel.  TMZ facing backlash over pics they posted of his. The Al Smith Dinner tonight.  Trump came but Kamala Harris didn't.  She sent in a pre-recorded video instead.  Who does this?  NY Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan disappointed.

Got anything? 

Trump Derangement Syndrome

Is TDS an example of mass formation psychosis?  Do you believe Trump is an immoral person who tells lies?  So far so good.  People have probably applied this to almost all modern presidents at one time or another.  Do you disagree with the recent SCOTUS decision granting Trump limited immunity and feel he should be prosecuted for varied crimes?  I disagree but you're still within the pale.  Do you believe the former POTUS is an actual threat to democracy if he wins a second term?  Now you're crossing over.  If Trump gets another term in office do you really think he'll install himself dictator for life and cancel all future elections?  Now you need someone to talk to.  Studies show dictators had to have the full weight of the military behind them first and also weren't pushing 80 as a general rule.  Now there was Trump's recent speech to a Christian group saying they'll only have to vote this one time but most of the media clipped out the next few seconds when Trump explained because the problems will be fixed opening up a more prosaic interpretation.  Biden's failed covid vaccine mandate for companies with over 100 employees some might argue that was a threat to democracy or at least a government overreach.  Bush Jr.'s march into Iraq over nonexistent WMDs what was that?  History has the final verdict. We can all come up with examples.  Going back further Nixon had to resign.  Checks and balances.  Very hard for an American leader to become a dictator but somehow Trump is supposed to swoop into a second term with regal powers and act like Caligula.

TDS.  It's why I've turned on comment moderation.

The Church Sex Crisis

With the Pennsylvania grand jury report and some calls for the Pope to resign is the Catholic Church in eclipse?  What's bizarre imo is the seeming lack of "normal" sex scandals (e.g. a high-ranking bishop having an affair with a prioress say).  How did ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick rise so far for so long?  Is there no fear of Hell?  How many clerics are in actual prison these days?  Is this a case of trying to destroy the Church from within?  Thoughts:)

At what point can we say there's a problem with some aspect of Islam?

The Halloween terror attack in Lower Manhattan. You know the details: a 29-year old radicalized man from Uzbekistan, Sayfullo Saipov rented a Home Depot pickup truck in NJ then drove to Lower Manhattan on the West Side and deliberately used the vehicle to kill eight people on a bike lane just north of and literally in the shadow of Ground Zero. Among the dead were some Argentinian tourists in town for a reunion. Saipov then yelled the customary "Allahu Akbar" meaning "God is great" when he left the truck brandishing a pellet gun and paint gun and then ran down the street before he was shot in the abdomen by a hero cop whose career trajectory would seem to be way up at this point. You know the rest: radicalized over the Web, lover of ISIS videos, requested an ISIS flag during his hospital stay etc. etc. So then model Gigi Hadid called some alt-right woman on Twitter a fucking moron for saying something about the lack of decency of two women walking around in hijabs in the area of the attack so there's that. Well anyway as the post-title says throw your coins in the fountain here.

Trumpology

Transgendered people cannot now serve in the U.S. military.  The rationale being to go to the Pat Robertson bbq?

The James Comey Testimony

This is the biggest thing to happen to bars since the O.J. Simpson trial. On balance it would seem the Comey testimony is at least partially damaging to the President. He has already gone on record as calling Trump a liar five times. The New York Times took a hit when it appears their reporting of the Russia investigation may have been off base to some extent. John McCain had some daffy moments and people are tweeting he should more or less retire at this point. None of this will sway the Trump partisans however and they'll only hunker down more. I never voted for Trump and I never voted for her so I don't have that anxiety in the back of my head over when I should actually jump the Trump ship or not. This is a great lesson imo of default voting against your hated candidate which political reasoning might work most of the time but this was a special case which should have caused most to jettison that logic. I've been hearing the RNC is calling Trump the Messiah and he's going to save Christianity in this country. Scary stuff. We'll see how it all plays out I'm just saying have a lifeboat ready is all.

The Manchester Attack - the new normal?

At last report there were 22 dead and at least 100 injured including 12 children in that suicide attack at the Manchester Arena Ariana Grande concert. ISIS is now claiming responsibility which was almost a foregone conclusion. The lone suicide bomber a 23-year old man by the name of Salman Abedi. So nobody's really talking about it at work today just the normal grind. I brought it up a little and there was a small discussion but it's like these things are now accepted as part of the day's news just a normal and inevitable element of the news cycle. President Trump in Saudi Arabia said to Muslim leaders you need to drive the extremist elements out and likened the War on Terror to a battle between Good and Evil. Not much to disagree with there. I felt maybe the security in Britain could be better but others see it as no matter how good your security these tragedies can and will still happen. NYC Police were on a heightened state of alert last night as to be expected which begs the question why does it take an incident for police departments across the nation to be on a heightened state of alert? It seems only a matter of tragic time before this gets imported here and becomes a part of the nightly news. One thing I see though Obama's intellectual decision to refuse to call radical Islamic terror radical Islamic terror has done absolutely nothing to defeat extremist ideology.

The 4 patron saints of lost causes, where do I rank?

They are Sts. Jude, Rita of Cascia, Philomena and a Gregory.  With so many millions the world over praying to these big four for impossible cases despaired of where do I rank?  Main problem: chronic tinnitus and let's throw in maybe a couple other problems while we have the divine connection.  On one website of prayer petitions is a woman who wants a problem employee removed from the workplace.  Where does tinnitus rank?  Is it higher on the list?  It's at least a medical/health issue and they're big on that although it can't rank as high as cancer of course.  How do these four saints go through literally millions of petitions and decide which ones deserve their attention first?  Do they have computers?  They must have large staffs helping them.  Excuse me I just got a text message......oh that's just another YPD Alert.

The mystery of depression

Whenever I've suffered from depression I can almost always trace it to some major life event that triggers it and it can run the gamut from romantic rejection or breakup, lost loves or betrayal, guilt/remorse/regret to an illness or problem in the family to prolonged joblessness and even job rejection itself can at times get it going. It could be the job itself is depressing, I've had those and they say a major side issue of cancer patients is depression caused by having the cancer. There are those however and there are millions out there who are depressed and don't know why, who can't get out of bed in the morning but can't trace it to any life-situational thing. This is the common everyday depression we hear about in the news and a whole pharmaceutical industry has burgeoned up around it. I don't deny this reality but I've never fully understood it either. It's not spiritual depression or angst or a midlife crisis or a state of mind caused by your overall life situation it's just, well depression. It's all about the chemistry of the brain, neurons and gray matter and stuff. In other words people who should be happy but are dragging all day. It'd be like being in the Garden of Eden before the original sin and not being happy and God scratching His head. It's over my head so feel free to elucidate and clarify.

The post-50 years

It must be in keeping with the aging trend but I find myself sleeping less.  I fall asleep ok but I find myself prematurely waking and most of the time not really getting back to sleep.  An alternative Alex Jones theory of tinnitus: maybe we can simply hear things other folks can't hear.  While others may enjoy their joblessness it has a weird effect on me.  It brings to the fore any depressive issues that may exist and when you're past the half-century mark you think alot more about your own mortality.  Life really is short and tortoises live alot longer than man.  Also when you get older you start taking the issue of hell more seriously, at least I do but I was raised Catholic and it never really leaves you.  I've blogged about this before, I actually don't like work but I also don't like being out of work if that makes any sense.

It's hard to believe the American electorate is this dysfunctional

OK I probably wasn't in my right mind when I said I'd vote for Trump if it came down to that. What's the GOP to do? too bad Jack Kemp weren't in a cryogenic freeze and we could reanimate him. Trump's first tv ad is out calling for an outright ban on all Muslim entry into the US until we can figure out what is going on. On the other side there has to be some on the liberal divide who can't vote for Hillary for various reasons so these are the choices we're usually given every four years. The political menu usually sucks and that goes right back to our two-party system. I hate not to vote but it might be the only viable option this time around.

Random thoughts on random violence

Re yesterday's very tragic events in San Bernardino CA -- Premature liberal commentary as usual headed by the president himself and Nicholas Kristof and the editorial board of the NY Times. Apparently it's too much to ask to wait a day or two before opining but opine they must framing yesterday's massacre in the usual gun control terms when terrorism hasn't been ruled in or ruled out yet. Some of my preliminary thoughts: the act was carried out by a young couple in their late 20's and it involved a social services agency so my first thought was it's easy enough for any bureaucratic dept. of the gov't to piss people off but then we got some Egyptian/Middle Eastern names going and the husband recently made the obligatory trip to Mecca and the way they carried the whole thing out struck many initially as being something other than the usual gun violence in this country so there does seem to be some reluctance on the part of liberals to go down this road, they don't want to offend CAIR and the guy did work there or something so...such commentary is a form of leftist political masturbation, they can't help themselves and it serves no purpose but being a habit they need to get it out of their system and anything that may even tenuously smack of the need for more gun control becomes a kind of social/political trigger, a liberal frenulum. So basically it doesn't really matter what the investigation comes up with it's just another golden opportunity to discuss gun control and maybe Obama can even put the whole thing in the larger framework of climate change who knows?

What's app with that?

NYS State Governor Cuomo announced the launch of the See Something Send Something app for iPhone and Android.  I'm probably gonna install it but just the same is a Muslim man and his friend allowed to take pics of the GW Bridge at twilight or of the Croton Dam?  Meanwhile Charlie Sheen who's a public health menace could be having sex in both places and it'd be no biggie.  I'm gonna go to the Play Store right now and check it out.

The French 9/11 and limited intelligence

First off there should be an investigation of the French intelligence agency to rule out any radical Muslim sympathizers in some top spots. President Obama plans to forge ahead with the G20 Summit in Turkey anyway which will focus on climate change naturally. Yesterday's ISIS-coordinated multiple terrorist attacks in the heart of Paris - NBC News is going with the planners involved probably used social media codes to pull it off to escape the usual cell phone and other surveillance. I agree and thank you Mark Zuckerberg. I've always felt and made the point that a disturbingly high % of users on social media are a bad element and in particular a terorrist element. IMO ISIS terror is coming to the shores of America and that very soon. The Xmas shopping season is just around the bend, it's a definite Christian ritual and ISIS has said this is the first of a storm. Personally although I never did I would not go shopping on Black Friday. Don't participate in the madness. For the near future I am no longer going to the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack and the Danbury Fair Mall in CT. is a definite soft target. I'll also see Mockingjay not on a crowded weekend showing but on an off-day. The Russian jetliner and now the Paris attacks, these are highly trained professionals who know what they're doing and some of you have made the point you're not concerned with what's happening over there because we have other things to worry about over here like Pat Robertson. Mistake. On another related note it has always been my personal view that the famed vision of the Third Secret of Fatima publicly released on June 26, 2000 pertains to a future terrorist event of enormous magnitude perhaps even involving Pope Francis himself. ISIS itself has a peculiar theological fixation on the city of Rome if you've noticed. The Sodano Interpretation is so much bullshit and it's just as well Benedict XVI who should know better retired when he did (bad conscience?). I've always maintained ISIS deserves our top priority and attention and not things like processed red meat causes cancer and the latest doings of the Kardashians. ISIS has upped their game when our world's intelligence agencies are woefully lagging behind:)

Gimme that old-time religion

I was watching Bishop T.D. Jakes last night on Daystar.  He's a black evangelical minister and his audience is mostly black although I saw some whites.  Suffice to say he's extremely passionate in his preaching and his listeners really get into it as well.  All in all a very passionate evening.  Compare this with your typical white average Catholics who go to Mass every weekend and who barely know the readings in the OT & NT.  You might catch some rolling their eyes at a long homily and then somebody else has to crane their neck to see who just arrived in the back of the church.  Then some old guy's cane falls and everyone looks around for five minutes.  Some be leaving around Communion time, someplace to go I guess.  You never see anyone leaving during a Jake's sermon though.  Pull up a chair we're just getting warmed up.  The faith of African-Americans puts us Catholics to shame!

Papal thoughts

Re the wonderful papal mass at MSG it would have been such a nice touch if that great cantor got to sing the Prayer of St. Francis.  I have a somewhat more positive view of Francis after his trip to the States although he needs to get off the climate change.  What's up with Boehner?

More from the Opining Pope

Maybe after he's done with the environment and maybe the $15 minimum wage he can promulgate an encyclical on Donald Trump after he excommunicates Hannity.

Why throw rocks at a junkyard dog?

The Garland TX Mohammed cartoon shootings, our little version of Charlie Hebdo - ISIS is now claiming responsibility which even if true you'd think they'd be a bit hesitant as it hardly came off in their favor, not their best work you could say. Pamela Geller of her American Freedom Defense Initiative coordinated this event in TX and from what I understand it was some sort of cartoon contest for who could come up with the best sketch of the Prophet Mohammed I guess. I might be in the minority but her subway ads in NYC which the MTA had a huge problem with I don't find them the least bit offensive. I'm sure you've heard of them and they always have the angle of radical Islamists are anti-Semitic which they are so it's kind of hard for me to unravel just why the MTA has their collective knickers in a twist. However having said that what was the point of this little sketchathon in Garland TX? Are they suddenly interested in this particular faith system? Are they contributing to global culture? Was the whole affair designed to be provocative? (x) I'm thinking we have enough to worry about. Thanks guys and gals and all you Bob Ross wannabes.