And on the aggressive atheism front

A group calling themselves American Atheists has filed a lawsuit trying to prevent the return of the steel beam cross that was found standing in the rubble of 9/11 to the new World Trade Center Memorial. They argue that the government is partially funding the project and the Cross is a religious symbol. The new memorial is set to open on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 (sans banos btw but that's a whole side issue). Mayor Bloomberg who always can be counted on to say the safe and nondisputable thing said on his weekly radio show on WOR that they have the right to sue. My take, by its very nature mourning is for so many people such an intensely spiritual and religious experience and this country has such strong religious underpinnings that goes all the way back to its Founding that only a bunch of Grinches with too much time on their hands and nothing better to do could do such a thing.

Rush, the Old Gray Lady and political masochism

As a very occasional reader of Shaw's blog "Progressive Eruptions" the topic of Rush Limbaugh comes up ALOT. To be fair she mentions Rush's name about as much as conservatives talk about New York Times editorials. I get the sense liberals form a core listenership of Rush's radio show just like conservatives probably form a core readership of the Old Gray Lady, in fact they probably subscribe. The New York Post has an occasional feature called TimesWatch but does the NYT have a counter-section called PostWatch? (I'm watching you buddy) I don't get caught up in this stuff. I say this, both should be allowed to peacefully co-exist. A nonopining newspaper, oh how I yearn! Rush is like the Mick Jagger of our national political discussion, I may occasionally tune in but there's newer stuff out there:)

The gutting of the 9/11 Zadroga Act

First responders who may have gotten cancer on that fateful day are not covered under the $2.7 billion compensation fund. Federal doc John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health says in a new study he can't seem to come up with a cancer/9-11 toxins in the air kind of link. Well that's one way to cut spending. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do in these financially apocalyptic times but makes you wonder why they wanna raise the debt ceiling and yet they won't cover these brave men and women. C'mon, not even a trickle of a trillion? By the time they finally get the bill right most of the ailing 9/11 heroes will be dead or maybe that's the whole point. Maybe this is one of the rationing aspects of Obamacare we're seeing but I wouldn't want to be accused of making another hate statement.

Pro-Choice = Pro-Abortion

Is this another Hate Statement? Why is it when you get close to the Truth of the Matter you're accused of making a hate statement? So nobody in the abortion clinic, not the doctor or the woman or the boyfriend or any member of the nursing staff or a counselor or the janitor is really for what is taking place? Everybody is morally sleepwalking through the entire procedure? It's a surreal conclusion.

Obama's State of the Apocalypse

Though it was a rather brief speech Obamawise I was furiously scribbling down notes in my little pad. The Debt Crisis - A Special Address. The speech and the president were utterly predictable, I could've written it. He hates capitalism but through a polemical sleight-of-mind cast himself as a compromiser and a moderate. Basically he is holding a resolution to the debt crisis hostage so he can punish the Rich so unwavering is that principle for him. If no deal is reached he said America will lose its AAA credit rating. Another point - two wars (that he continued btw) and a prescription drug plan added greatly to our national debt. SS checks and Veteran's Bennies are now in jeopardy, interest rates will rise on car loans and mortgages and credit cards (what, they're not high already on the credit cards?) and we won't be able to pay for Medicaid and Medicare. The whole address was peppered with the classic key words and phrases of Class Warfare. 98& of Americans who make under 250G as a household would see no tax increases (250G being the threshold I guess for being considered a millionaire these days) and he had to get in about corporate jet owners and oil companies his favorite mantra of late. Boehner's approach to extend the debt ceiling for 6 more months won't solve the problem and basically there are two approaches he said. First drastically cut spending without any revenue (read: tax increases), the Republican plan and two Our Way which is to close all those tax breaks and loopholes for the rich (one of David Brooks' favorite talking points). It's not fair he said that the wealthiest Americans and Corporations not contribute anything at all here (what, they haven't paid Taxes up until now?) and what we need is a balanced approach to reducing the debt and deficit (i.e. those tax increases again which Republicans are deadset against). He invoked Ronald Reagan 2X saying Reagan himself raised the debt ceiling 18X (he likes the Gipper when it suits him and Abe Lincoln too). Kicking the can down the road, he likes that one. Congress has one week left to act and it's a dangerous game we're playing. Yeah we have the challenges of entitlements and tax reform to consider. "Compromise has become a dirty word." If only he practiced it. Let's put Politics aside for God's sake!!! Then House Speaker John Boehner spoke. He's all for cutting and capping government spending which will eventually lead to a balanced budget amendment. We got a health care bill nobody wanted and Obama wants the largest increase ever in the debt ceiling after the largest spending binge in History. The Boehner Plan would cut spending by $1 trilion. So stimulate my stimulus. We now return you to Masterchef already in progress:)

The tragedy in Oslo

It is now just coming to light that the 32-year old man Anders Behring Breivik wanted to target ex-PM of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland who led 3 Labor Party governments in the 80's and 90's and is known as the "mother of the nation." All told 76 people tragically lost their lives last Friday and after bombing Oslo, Norway's capital Breivik gunned down scores of Labor Party youths on the island of Utoya. Apparently he left alot and I mean alot of online rants, manifestos on the Web filled with hateful and violent and extremist rhetoric which begs the question with such a lengthy cybertrail were authorities asleep at the switch? I mean how could he do what he did, was nobody keeping tabs on the guy? Well now we know Breivik is some kind of right-wing fanatic motivated by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment and according to Liberal Theory there exists some kind of mysterious, mystical connection between all right-wing groups. In other words we are all guilty, somehow implicated, Palin/Bachmann so please Curb your Free Speech. Breivik wanted to spark some kind of Crusade and transformation over there, prevent "cultural Marxism" and Islamism from taking over Europe. Expect liberals to make hay and politicize Tragedy here:)

The Good Ole Summertime

Yesterday it was 104 degrees in Central Park a record for July the 22nd. There was no major power outages to my knowledge but you dread them just the same this time of year Crank up the temps and folks naturally crank up the AC units then naturally blame Con Ed when the power grid can't handle it and they don't fix it in a timely enough fashion as in NOW. People today don't want any discomfort, no more that shared sense of sacrifice for the greater good and gone is the day of the Fan you used to see in those old black & white film noir detective movies with the gumshoe's feet on the cluttered desk and the old and tired dog in the corner. Now I'm not against the AC, I'm not against Progress by any stretch and schools, stores and most especially hospitals need it this time of year. The elderly and the sick are most at risk during a heatwave but what about the Rest of Us? Ceiling fans, there ya go! What if most of us opted to use a fan in order to reduce the chances of the next major blackout? just a thought. Think of how much you can save on your next electric bill. Anyway there's a definite difference between 90 and 100 and yesterday even just going to your car or sitting on your porch reading the paper was like being on Venus. It's hard on the pets but they know what to do, take it easy. We haven't even gotten to the dog days of August yet, oy vey!

The GOP field is giving me a migraine

I've decided to hold off on doing the usual, blogging about the ever-growing GOP field for president and so we get ten different conservative bloggers going with ten different conservative candidates but something tells me we'll be talking alot about Michele Bachmann in the near future. BTW how are President Obama's bowel movements?

The thought occured

I made an OJ joke the other day at work and the black guy made a good point, "if Casey is innocent then OJ is innocent too." Now we are taught that no matter how a jury decides in controversial and high-profile cases we should respect their decisions. The system worked and other nostrums. Fine but if we accept juries' decisions then how come nobody is out actively searching for the real killers? in fact nobody seems to care. You can't have it both ways, if jury verdicts represent some kind of philosophical truth, legal realities then everybody needs to start these now open cases over again and ferret out the true perps and bring 'em to justice. Imagine that, the killers of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman and of little Caylee are still walking the streets!!! On the other hand if you concede as I do that juries are frequently just plain stupid and don't follow instructions then there really is no problem, no intellectual inconsistency to speak of. Do ya know what I'm sayin'? Just another exhibit in why Conventional Wisdom is so often wrong:)

I need a pill for the pill for the pill for the pill......

Shift Work (Sleep) Disorder or SWSD, from Wiki: "SWSD is a circadian rhythm sleep disorder characterized by insomnia and excessive sleepiness affecting people whose work hours are scheduled during the typical sleep period. There are numerous shift work schedules and they may be permanent, intermittent or rotating; consequently the manifestations of SWSD are quite variable." BUT there's good news, there's NUVIGIL!!! Nuvigil may cause side effects like, oh I don't know a serious rash or a serious allergic reaction that may affect parts of your body such as your liver or blood cells which may result in hospitalization and be life-threatening. A skin rash, hives, sores in the mouth, blisters, swelling, peeling or yellowing of the skin or eyes, trouble swallowing or breathing, dark urine or fever. Then there are the serious sides: mental (psychiatric) symptoms such as depression, anxiety, sensing things that are not really there, mania, suicidal thoughts, aggression or other mental problems. Symptoms of a heart problem including chest pain, abnormal heartbeat and trouble breathing. Some of the more common sides include headache, nausea, dizziness and trouble sleeping, you know the usual. Why not deal with the Original Problem instead of twenty myriad other ones?

Will liberals continue to use the race card?

Proba-blee. Now by any objective standard Obama's first term has been more than a bit of a dud, even the alleged bin Laden slay doesn't seem to have any staying power. The nub of the matter, Obama is not a good president. Conventional political wisdom says people vote mainly on the economy, economy still ain't doing so good and the jobless rate is up to 9.2% with only 18,000 new jobs added for the whole month of June. I don't care if the guy is black, white or polka-dot you can't vote for the guy. The Obamanauts will though and they'll make a whole racial thing about it but how can I in good conscience vote for a black Jimmy Carter? Obama doesn't suck because he's a black guy, he's a black guy who happens to suck. He made History though, duly noted for the Almanac:)

If we were living in a police state he'd still be alive today

This seems to be the thrust of NYS lawmakers in the wake of the Leiby Kletzky tragedy. Known as "The Leiby Initiative" incentives would be offered local merchants to set up surveillance cameras around their places of business. As everyone knows 8-year old Leiby Kletzky was abducted by a stranger by the name of Levi Aron early this past week on his first solo trip home from day camp and he got lost in Borough Park, Brooklyn and asked Mr. Aron for directions. Leiby was smothered to death sometime later after probably putting up a great struggle and dismembered by this monster ironically of the same faith. I knew I would be blogging about this of course but at first my thoughts turned to such philosophical things like The God Problem, why does a loving God allow such tremendous evil? However it takes but a day or two after a tragedy or disaster or some type of social calamity of this sort (think the LIRR massacre or whatever else fits here) for our heroic legislators to step up to the plate and what I am against is the politicization of tragedy. Now we have Caylee's Law being enacted in several states. Bill O'Reilly is for that and it means if you don't report a child missing within a very short period of time, say a day or two then you can be charged with a felony. Evil has been around since the dawn of time and recorded history and yet our lawmakers seem to think they can somehow legislate it away or at least contain it or reduce it or modify it or circumscribe it or mollify it or something. Anyway that's just my view and I'm sure there will be disagreement. The other thing, hindsight is 20/20 of course and now people are coming out of the woodwork as they always do saying Levi Aron was weird, this and that and the other thing, the way he sliced meats down in that kosher deli in Tennessee and do you wanna know how many weird people I worked with over the years? To be weird is not a crime so let's not malign the whole community of the weird here however you define that and OF COURSE he was a loner. Now the vast majority of loners would never even think of doing such a thing and I think we can go out on a limb here and say while the majority of these type killers may be loners the majority of loners are not killers. Finally not that long ago we had a good rollicking discussion, still going on apparently on Race and Crime and while blacks do commit a disproportionate share of everyday crime (I hate to make crime sound so prosaic) whites seem to commit the more bizarre acts of a kind of mind-boggling evil that defies all logic and this goes all the way back to Charles Manson and beyond. This latest tragedy has brought together the Hasidic enclave in Borough Park and shows a tight-knit faith community and that is heartening. There are no more words I can say except don't push the latest atrocity in order to set up some kind of police state as we all know what the road to hell is paved with. That's not the way to go and if folks would just come out of their prescription drug induced fogs or whatever the hell everybody is in these days maybe someone would have noticed something wrong in this situation and taken action without the use of the extra surveillance network the Albany lawmakers are advocating. See Something Say Something. Prayers:)

@ the Movies

I really don't go to the flicks that much anymore but my friend wanted to see Horrible Bosses so we went. Besides it was a scorcher of a day so at least I can sit for an hour and a half with the AC and meditate and ponder and ruminate if the movie sucks. I didn't like it that the plot revolved around three pals trying to do in their respective bosses. That happens in real life and it ain't funny but that's Hollywood. Jennifer Aniston was hot though, didn't even know it was her at first and Kevin Spacey always plays a mean prick of a boss. Oh the Previews!!! Movies never start on time of course and just because the schedule said 1:30 that just means when the Coming Attractions start. It lasted it seemed for 20 minutes and there were six of 'em. Reminds me of why most movies are pure dreck and the Cancer Movie with Seth Rogen (I only vaguely know the latest names but my friend is up on this) looked downright depressing. You really gotta do a cancer movie right and even then I don't wanna see it. That Marine Sgt. who invited actress Mila Kunis to the Marine Ball on YouTube...let's try that again, that Marine Sgt. who invited Mila Kunis on YouTube to the Marine Ball...that Marine Sgt. who posted an invite to Ms. Kunis on YouTube. I don't even like her movies and word on the street is she may not be going after initially accepting because she's in the middle of work on two flicks, crappy no doubt. If I did something like this I'd be a stalker:)

The true test of a retired conservative

Return all your Social Security checks.

Thoughts on Jaycee Lee Dugard

It was Compelling TV. I wasn't gonna watch all of it but I did, the Diane Sawyer/Primetime Live Special with the first exclusive interview with Jaycee Lee Dugard who in 1991 was kidnapped at the age of 11 somewhere in CA and held captive in a nightmarish world for the next 18 yrs. by the charming Phillip and Nancy Garrido couple. Now during the latter years of her ordeal she had ample opportunity to escape with the two daughters Mr. Garrido helped sire with her so why didn't she??? They were at an amusement park couple of occasions, there was Phillip's new printing company (what Hallmark Cards with a pervy twist?) which gave her access to the Web and the chatter inevitably turns to Stockholm Syndrome or some variant thereof and yet why do so many of us stay in bad jobs, forms of corporate slavery, endless mindgames, manipulative bosses, the alternate reality of the Office, the Hell on Earth that is the 9-5? They say there is a soulmate for everybody and Nancy fell in love with Phillip Garrido while he was serving time in prison for earlier sex crimes. She went to visit an uncle then something must have happened, a romantic spark, the lust on the apple or maybe it was just his eyes, those psychotic baby blues. This husband and wife perv team, this existentially creepy couple, him with his quirks hearing angels' voices and making some contraption to commune with God and her holding the kid down in the backseat of the car, this 1/2 Manson who made her life a living hell yet somehow didn't kill her, fed her and gave her kittens in between molesting her...and yet so many nice men out there who can't seem to find Someone and conjugate with them who eventually spiral down into the circle-jerk hell of bad gas station porn and Jose Cuervo. The second half of the special had Chris Cuomo's investigative report on why the federal bureaucracy didn't work in this case. I mean how could parole agents have visited that fantastic Garrido compound on 60 separate occasions and not notice anything even remotely peculiar? took two amateur female campus security officers to get things rolling. Chris needs to seriously bone up on his Peter Principle, this is the way a bureaucracy is supposed to function. Jaycee came off well and poised for a gal who's been through so much and her book or memoir comes out today. I can't believe I'm living:)

A Simple Experiment

There is only way to ultimately prove the political validity and viability of either liberalism or conservatism as a way of correct governance for Society. Now in Science tests are done, experiments are repeated endlessly and new ones thought up to winnow through the various theories that sprout up to help explain this or that so as to ferret out better conclusions and so Politics should be no different. The Eternal Political Debate, Shaw, Dave, BB, Saty et al making their respective points, passionately argued of course and so what I propose is simply that we have fifty years of pure liberalism and fifty years of pure conservatism. Liberalism can go first if it wants. Of course this is a long time, real political epochs spanning generations but a Study of this magnitude and import takes time and you don't want various conservative pockets like Reaganism and fig Newtons let's say to offset the results, to give false positive readings spawn from a quirky kind of giddiness that doesn't prove anything anyway one way or the other. These things take time and since we'll all be long gone and dead by then it will be up to posthumous generations to study and collate the results and infuse the wisdom found therein to political systems in the future and so we'll all be more enlightened by then to know what to do and how to proceed...Oh wait, we've already had 50+ years of liberalism:)

Is Wealth evil?

Obama in the so-called budget talks with Republicans says we have to end tax breaks and close the loopholes for wealthy Americans and oil companies and corporate jet owners. He's had philosophical issues with The Problem of Wealth his whole life, it bothers him and animates him and inspires him and it's not just him, it's the whole Democratic Party. Wealth is evil is a kind of unspoken Democratic Party platform. The constant engagement in the rhetoric and tools of class warfare, now it'll be dressed up as practical and responsible measures to lower the debt and reduce the deficit but what is the real motive here? I would submit they have a philosophical problem with wealth as does the president and on a psychological level it's really all about punishing the rich who when you get right down to it create jobs for the rest of us. Though I cannot relate to the rich, they are out of my orbit but if a person comes by his wealth honestly and through sheer dint of hard work why should they be punished in the form of confiscatory taxation? I can come up with no valid reason except for the psychological one, you resent them. This doesn't make me pro-the wealthy just being honest. C'mon admit it all you liberals, you hate the rich!

Government needs to go to Rehab

DON'T raise the debt ceiling.

The Casey Anthony verdict - NOT GUILTY!

There is alot of public outrage over this. Here are my thoughts -- The only charges she was convicted on were four misdemeanor charges having to do with lying to investigators which begs the obvious question if you're innocent why all the lying? If she really is not guilty then that means the murderer is still out there yet nobody seems to be looking for him or her (O.J. Redux?). Casey's mother Cindy looking up the subject "chloroform" on the house computer, consensus is she lied to protect her daughter from the death penalty about which more in a minute. Now it's a free country and God knows what topics I've googled over the years, they sure as hell ain't your more popular Yahoo trenders but chloroform out of the blue? It's an unusual topic to search on the Web, it's free speech and it's your right but I could be bored out of my skull and I'd sooner look up muskrat or the Eastern King Snake. It took this jury just under 11 hours, yes hours and not days to render a verdict from a 36 day trial and that in and of itself shows a lack of respect imo. I guess what was obvious to them ain't so obvious to the rest of us. Clearly to many people the defense team fogged the jury here with tales of family dysfunction and the father molesting his daughter which even if the judge deleted that so to speak it still plants the seed and that's all you need. Could 2-year old Caylee have accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool? Sure but people don't usually cover these things up but grieve like mad the rest of their haunted days. I'm not comfortable with totally circumstantial cases especially involving the death penalty, it's far preferable to have evidence. Reasonable Doubt - those two former NYC police officers who were acquitted in that rape case involving a drunken female Manhattan executive, despite feminist excoriation of the jury it had reasonable doubt written all over it so I understand perfectly well how the system is supposed to work. In this case one of the alternate jurors was talking to Matt Lauer this morning. Let me put it this way, I respect the fact that in our system a jury can reach a conclusion that might be different from mine ("thank you for your work") but what I absolutely hate are pinheads:)

Coyotes in Westchester County NY

So I'm driving to work yesterday in the wee hours and see a coyote crossing North Broadway just past Executive Blvd. in Yonkers and enter the woods of Lenoir Preserve. Silvery fur, nice canid and told a few people at work what I saw. Now I didn't make the official phone call, report a sighting. I didn't want to be kind of a dick because folks get excited and I mean real excited over these things. Actually there's woods there, they were here first so I figure they have every right to dwell and they come down from the Old Croton Aqueduct but there was another reason I didn't want to involve my local government bureaucracy. Last summer a couple coyotes showed up on Park Ave. by Roberts at about 2 in the morning, people called of course and since it was their jurisdiction a couple Yonkers cops, one a sergeant, showed up. So the sarge encounters one of the critters and takes out his pistol and fires off some shots. WTG!!! I got some issues here: first he ain't part of Animal Control and hasn't been trained as such, two an errant shot could have hit some innocent bystander, say some guy dropping a girl off and three he could have mistaken somebody's pet for the wild canid as there can be some confusion here with certain breeds (maybe BB here can link us up with the rare coydog). Now they say you're supposed to scream at the top of your lungs if you encounter one and as my friend goes it's all part of the Pussification of America. Later that night nothing on the tv so I hit the Audubon Field Guide to the Mammals, second time I read it: cruising speed from 20-30 MPH (can I jog that fast?), top speed 40 MPH for short distances, can make 14 foot springing leaps, they weigh anywhere from 20-40 lbs. (kinda a light dog so what's all the fuss about? it's not like a feral Sasquatch), average lifespan in the wild 6-8 yrs. This was right before the Hastings-on-Hudson border but more Yonkers so I know how these things play out. Did see a couple of dead coyotes recently on the side of the Saw Mill Pkwy. in the Hastings/Ardsley corridor which runs parallel to the much-used South County Trail butcha wanna know something? My exercise and my health comes first, went for my powerwalk this morning and I'll be damned if I'm walking there with my murse slung over my shoulder and start screaming at the top of my lungs like some little bitch:)