See a pattern with recent posts yet? I'll give you a hint... frequency. Now do you see it? Yep... I haven't posted in a while. Well, I'm stretching out my mental muscles and might not have my "A" game going today... here goes.
I'm learning to play guitar. Not sure how this is really going to work since I seem to be functionally tone deaf, my singing being the key indicator. Also, I'm not sure my fingers will bend the way they're supposed to and they hurt real bad right now. I've got a young college kid teaching me how to play. I think he's going to be a good teacher. I know for sure that he's a great guitarist. About halfway through the lesson he told me about his band. He and his band are playing all over the state this summer. If the others in the band are as talented as he is they'll be a great show. (This concludes the "feel good" portion of this particular blog post so if you're feeling happy and don't want to lose that gentle smile... stop reading now.)
Good job to the House of Representatives. They passed a bill that will withhold half the funding that the US gives to the UN, that enormous, parasitic, redundant, beauracratic organization... sorry, got caught up in the moment. The House bill, if passed by the Senate would withhold half the US funding until the UN proves it can handle it's business.
We all got a glimpse of the porkbarrel that is the UN when US Marines captured Saddam's multiple palaces, primarily bought with money Saddam made in the UN controlled (loosely used) Oil for Food program. Yes, Iraqi children starved while Saddam sat on his gold toilet and everyone involved in the Oil for Food oversight got rich. We have also seen the UN demonstrate it's absolute powerlessness as UN peacekeepers stood by and watched the genocide in Rwanda. The UN continues to ignore what may be classified a genocide in Sudan. They can adopt a resolution about tsunami aid and they can adopt a resolution about US preemptive military actions and they can adopt a resolution about genocide but it all boils down to, "blah, blah, blah... " and nothing more.
Tell your congressperson (see how PC I am?) what you think ought to happen with the UN and ask them to support the bill the House passed. Next step: evict the UN from that very expensive real estate we provide for them in NYC.
Showing posts with label Saddam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saddam. Show all posts
Friday, June 17, 2005
Thursday, May 12, 2005
The Bad, the Bad and the Ugly
Hopefully your life is full enough that you are not "following" the Michael Jackson trial. If you have, however, seen the highlights on the news every night you know that Jackson is a full-blown, certifiable, cut-the-strings-of-reality WACKO. It's really sad to see him in this state because if you're my age you can remember him when he was young, good looking and nobody suspected his destination was today's insanity.
The problem at Neverland (I can't bring myself to call it Ranch... maybe petting zoo, but that has too many negative implications) is that Jackson was so wealthy, so powerful that no one dared to challenge him. Everyone around Jackson was on his payroll. They were making their livings, most of them quite lucrative, off of his generosity. Jackson had an infestation of leeches and lampreys that attached themselves to him and would not risk their parasitic pleasures by questioning Jackson's activities. A long time ago... maybe when the world was still seeing a young artist at the very beginning of a life of greatness... someone should have checked Jackson. Someone should have held him by the lapels and looked into his face and told him, "That's not acceptable. Get control of yourself." Now, years later, the artist formerly known as The King of Pop is a barely recognizable human freakshow. It is a tragedy.
There are other examples of this type of power and ego run amok. Kim Jong Il is the "beloved" leader of North Korea. The stories of his life,(I particularly like the story of his first golf outing wherein he shot 6 holes in one) as they are already being recorded by state historians are ludicrous and laughable, except that they tell a story just like Jackson's. No one sits with the North Korean leader who can tap him on the shoulder and tell him, "Come back to reality." Now, with nuclear capabilities and a willingness to preemptively strike perceived enemies he endangers the entire world.
Saddam Hussein was in this camp also. As Hussein thumbed his nose at the US and the UN in the last five years most of us couldn't imagine his motivation. I wondered, and I probably wasn't the only one, if he was insane. Apparently, no one in his cabinet was willing to tell him the truth about his military capabilities. The generals who answered to him were all continuing to give him glowing reports about their respective responsibilities. No one said, "You can't really defeat the US. You can't even put up a good fight."
Most of us don't run the risk of becoming so powerful or so wealthy that the people around us are unable to confront us when we stray. Consider that a blessing. Consider friends who know you well enough to be brutally honest with you a great gift. Be willing to hear the truth from your friends. Encourage them to correct you. Ask for accountability.
The problem at Neverland (I can't bring myself to call it Ranch... maybe petting zoo, but that has too many negative implications) is that Jackson was so wealthy, so powerful that no one dared to challenge him. Everyone around Jackson was on his payroll. They were making their livings, most of them quite lucrative, off of his generosity. Jackson had an infestation of leeches and lampreys that attached themselves to him and would not risk their parasitic pleasures by questioning Jackson's activities. A long time ago... maybe when the world was still seeing a young artist at the very beginning of a life of greatness... someone should have checked Jackson. Someone should have held him by the lapels and looked into his face and told him, "That's not acceptable. Get control of yourself." Now, years later, the artist formerly known as The King of Pop is a barely recognizable human freakshow. It is a tragedy.
There are other examples of this type of power and ego run amok. Kim Jong Il is the "beloved" leader of North Korea. The stories of his life,(I particularly like the story of his first golf outing wherein he shot 6 holes in one) as they are already being recorded by state historians are ludicrous and laughable, except that they tell a story just like Jackson's. No one sits with the North Korean leader who can tap him on the shoulder and tell him, "Come back to reality." Now, with nuclear capabilities and a willingness to preemptively strike perceived enemies he endangers the entire world.
Saddam Hussein was in this camp also. As Hussein thumbed his nose at the US and the UN in the last five years most of us couldn't imagine his motivation. I wondered, and I probably wasn't the only one, if he was insane. Apparently, no one in his cabinet was willing to tell him the truth about his military capabilities. The generals who answered to him were all continuing to give him glowing reports about their respective responsibilities. No one said, "You can't really defeat the US. You can't even put up a good fight."
Most of us don't run the risk of becoming so powerful or so wealthy that the people around us are unable to confront us when we stray. Consider that a blessing. Consider friends who know you well enough to be brutally honest with you a great gift. Be willing to hear the truth from your friends. Encourage them to correct you. Ask for accountability.
Monday, November 22, 2004
Insurgent's Publicist is Doing Great Work
There's a syndrome or an affliction of some sort known as "white man's guilt" that is best described as overcompensation in regards to all things racial. There seems to be a variation of this syndrome in America today in regards to all things Islamic.
A US Marine is shown by NBC shooting an Iraqi insurgent. Apparently, such an inconceivable atrocity (sarcasm, since it's in the midst of war) makes it newsworthy. This choice by NBC should be seen in contrast with their decisions not to air the multiple videos of Islamic terrorists beheading US and British civilians. This imbalance portrays the US Marines as cold blooded killers rampaging through the streets of Fallujah murdering any Iraqi man they encounter whereas the Iraqi insurgents (to call them insurgents is generous) are portrayed as freedom fighters, struggling to match forces with a vastly superior US military. That view of these current events is only possible when the complete context is ignored.
I can read a single sentence of any great book and you, faithful reader, will have difficulty identifying the author or the work. Let's not make that same mistake as we review these recent events in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein, with the help of his sons committed such gruesome acts against the people of Iraq that the memory of them and the videos of them make me physically sick. Let's recall the men being dropped off of three story buildings. Let's recall the arms being cut off with circular saws. Let's recall the tongues being cut out. Let's recall the hands and arms being broken with wooden poles. Let's recall the mass graves filled with men, women and children. Let's recall the poison gas victims lying burned and bloated in the streets where they fell. Let's recall the original Abu Ghraib prison, with it's rape rooms (built to hold women who were raped and then killed) and torture chambers where Iraqis were brutalized in whatever way a depraved Uday Hussein could invent. Let's recall the gold and marble of Hussein's many palaces as the children of Iraq starved to death. Let's recall the heroin, the pornography, the bundles of cash in those palaces as Iraqi children died because their water supply was contaminated and they couldn't get medicine for common diseases. Let's remember that the men who are videotaping themselves cutting the heads off of aid workers, contractors and civilians (working to make Iraq a better place) are Saddam's friends. These men, friends of Saddam want to make Iraq what it once was under Saddam Hussein, a royal paradise for them and a bloody, nightmarish hell for anyone that didn't agree with them.
Don't get misty eyed over these poor Iraqi insurgents. If they have their way Iraq will return to it's former "glory" and you can bet there are Iraqis who begged for a bullet in the head to end their misery in those "good old days." Don't be tricked into a new form of white man's guilt. We are doing good things for Iraq and for the world. Don't let (the media coverage of) one Marine's decision in the heat of battle make you believe that we are anything but the good guys in this world.
A US Marine is shown by NBC shooting an Iraqi insurgent. Apparently, such an inconceivable atrocity (sarcasm, since it's in the midst of war) makes it newsworthy. This choice by NBC should be seen in contrast with their decisions not to air the multiple videos of Islamic terrorists beheading US and British civilians. This imbalance portrays the US Marines as cold blooded killers rampaging through the streets of Fallujah murdering any Iraqi man they encounter whereas the Iraqi insurgents (to call them insurgents is generous) are portrayed as freedom fighters, struggling to match forces with a vastly superior US military. That view of these current events is only possible when the complete context is ignored.
I can read a single sentence of any great book and you, faithful reader, will have difficulty identifying the author or the work. Let's not make that same mistake as we review these recent events in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein, with the help of his sons committed such gruesome acts against the people of Iraq that the memory of them and the videos of them make me physically sick. Let's recall the men being dropped off of three story buildings. Let's recall the arms being cut off with circular saws. Let's recall the tongues being cut out. Let's recall the hands and arms being broken with wooden poles. Let's recall the mass graves filled with men, women and children. Let's recall the poison gas victims lying burned and bloated in the streets where they fell. Let's recall the original Abu Ghraib prison, with it's rape rooms (built to hold women who were raped and then killed) and torture chambers where Iraqis were brutalized in whatever way a depraved Uday Hussein could invent. Let's recall the gold and marble of Hussein's many palaces as the children of Iraq starved to death. Let's recall the heroin, the pornography, the bundles of cash in those palaces as Iraqi children died because their water supply was contaminated and they couldn't get medicine for common diseases. Let's remember that the men who are videotaping themselves cutting the heads off of aid workers, contractors and civilians (working to make Iraq a better place) are Saddam's friends. These men, friends of Saddam want to make Iraq what it once was under Saddam Hussein, a royal paradise for them and a bloody, nightmarish hell for anyone that didn't agree with them.
Don't get misty eyed over these poor Iraqi insurgents. If they have their way Iraq will return to it's former "glory" and you can bet there are Iraqis who begged for a bullet in the head to end their misery in those "good old days." Don't be tricked into a new form of white man's guilt. We are doing good things for Iraq and for the world. Don't let (the media coverage of) one Marine's decision in the heat of battle make you believe that we are anything but the good guys in this world.
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