one more time

i love christmas. i miss my ma, she passed five days before christmas in 2001. i was locked in a michigan prison, in solitaire cuz i was assaulted. I begged to see my dad who drove to Jackson to see me. They wouldn't let me. My dad had to send me a telegram to tell me ma was on life support and he was going to honor her stated wishes to disconnect these measures. this is the family values i attach to the engler, bush, reagan, rumsfeld set. My Family is Valuable-yours is expendable as "acceptable losses".

PEACE ON EARTH; GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN

ckick on the title above to access article at dissident voice I earlier posted I would have more after the new year, now i feel like i must pour out more of my yearning and hope for peace and for the public to express its weariness of this war. what can possibly be the end of this except another permanent outpost like S. Korea? Because there is oil there it seems "worth it" to some observers. These do not have children in that windswept sand. enjoy the holidays

What is Beat?

This most holy time of year. I wish I had a pocketful of money and lots of good news. We are mired axle deep in a military situation that our President calls war; yet is not war as it is taught in history when I was a kid, going to Gen. Douglas MacArthur Elementary School in Southfield, Michigan. Those textbook war where fought between armies in the European way; and surrender meant SOMETHING. VietNam and Iraq may not be equivalent in the potential rewards of conquering and having a "footprint" as the geopoliticians call it; but they are the same because they are "POLICE ACTIONS". Why anyone would send their youth to a foreign land and try to communicate to them by force our ways is a non-issue. We don't do that. NOW THERE IS A WORD THAT HAS AFFECTED MY ADULT REASONING MORE THAN ANY SINCE I LEARNED TO TALK IN MY INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. THAT WORD IS OVERDETERMINED. I LEARNED THIS WORD FROM THE AUTHOR, M. SCOTT PECK; THE WRITER OF THE BEST SELLING SELF HELP BOOK; "THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED," PUBLISHED IN THE EIGHTIES. OVERDETERMINED is a description of subject matter that people express opinions on that are strong yet whose stated factual basis is less than empiric. Human religion is such a category. These early deaths of American youth in Mesopotamia are another overdetermined subject. Each side of the argument may argue now throughout our mortal lives; yet it is the limitation of human linguistics that prevents "finality." Our religions are based on language and the relationship one has to it. Fundamentalism is a term used in both Christian and Muslim circles or descriptions of these beliefs. This is definitive of the relationship one has to the Holy Book of the creed. I know Christian fundamentalists who decry the very thought of examining the authorship and dissection of the Holy Bible. For fundamentalists the treatment of their documents is tantamount to reverence of God. But does the reality of God depend on Scripture or is Scripture evidence of God? THESE ARE THE KIND OF THINGS DEBATED IN THE OILY DESERT THAT WE HAVE IN THIS COUNTRY ABANDONED TO INDIVIDUAL TASTE GENERATIONS AGO. WITHOUT THE PROSPECT OF A GUSHER THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE WORKING CLASS WOULD NOT BE BLEEDING IN THE BABYLONIAN SAND. I remember being quizzed by my Jewish Mother-in-Law about the factual basis of the Virgin Birth. I was then the 18 year old blockhead who would marry her daughter and I defendewd what I was told in Sunday school, as best I could. Since then I have learned how many religions use the construct of a virgin birth to portray divinity. As I sit here as a forty five year old man; it doesn't matter "what the facts are", Joe Friday-like; the divinity of Christ is in his message and the telling of it. Something so beyond the mundane is carried forward in these things; that balms the hurt of the bereaved and poor; I don't need an archaeological dig to "prove" to me that Christ lived or what His significance is. WHAT WE NEED TO BE ABOUT IN THIS NATION IS DECIDING IF WE ARE GOING TO LET RICH BUSINESSMEN KILL OUR OFFSPRING IN FOREIGN WARS THAT DETERMINE NOTHING OR IF WE ARE GOING TO BE A NATION RUN BY GROWN-UPS. We need to expand Congress to something verging on the 30,000 per representative that exists in the Constitution of the United States of America. We need to have elections so unpredictable you can't buy them no matter how rich you are. Democracy is our method, i.e. voting; Republican is our Constitutional Government itself; which is the election of smart people to keep watch over us. Winning elections has become the object of commerce and that will be ruin in the long run. Already our autoworkers are sacrificing all so the shareholders of China Inc. can build cars for the aggregate labor cost of $7 an hour. You can't buy a burger here for that labor cost. Our president holds fast to the "Patriot Act" and spying by the Federal Government within our borders. The funny thing is these things have gone on anyway but now they want to codify it; I say hell no; take your chances with Congress if you want to wipe yourself with the Constitution; don't use TV as a means to subvert our style of government. I will have more after the New Year. Happy Hannakah to my Jewish family. Good Kwanza to my African American friends and readers.

why fight?

click title to go to my website; a two issue endeavor now. i appreciate readership. i now choose to convet love to all humans. the absolute necessity of the Iraq military action seems to diminish daily. the lessening of terror and suicide tactics won't happen this way. unless we plan on killing everyone, a paradigm of communication has to be established. i believe it is necessary now to identify the power structure among those called, "the insurgency". we are ocxcupying the second most significant sites to Islam that exist. It is foolhardy to assume this can be overlooked. I have no particular critism of the Bush White House. While others maintain the administration participated in gainsaying or embellishing intelligence, I admit I have no such knowledge. Deductive logic indicates to me that unstated purposes were followed by our attack of the anemiac Iraqi forces, over two years ago. Creating a footprint in the region has to be considered as the most plausible. Female circumscision; if openly discussed; would make most Americans willing to topple a power streucture that condones this mutilation of innocent baby girls. It is not PC to approach the truth. Most people consider the practice of an "enlightened" form of religion to be a positive thing; even if the observer is agnostic or atheist, based on the scientific method. All "fundamentalist" religion has to do with the status of scripture within the subset of particular faiths. When the scripture is held out to be superior to scientific observation, and claims are made to its inerrancy; we are faced with a problematic coningency, no matter whose faith we are concerned with. Though I have been raised Baptist; it has been presented to me how some members of Islam have a beautiful and realistic apprehension of Deity. And while I do not water down my Christian belief; I no longer hold the opinion that people who do not share a common belief are doomed to Hell. Partly this is based on St. Paul's oration in the Book of Acts that some righteous people form a "law unto themself", it is common sense. The need for war in the present economic environment is telltale. One would be hard pressed to find anyone from my age group (45) who, just too young for VietNam; has not heard how "money flowed like water" during the nation's participation in that war; which was characterized as illegal and a war of aggression, by people who had the education and status to make such a claim with accuracy. Our invasion of Iraq, is worth a great deal of money to some people, an elect few. The upholding of American values cannot be supposed to bring us to unilateral military action. There is a sideshow to this action that is more illustrative of purpose than any spoken by the administration or its cohorts. Loose accusations do not befit us; a rational equation would be helpful.

city of new orleans

The hurricane has revealed the major flaw in our way of life. Property rights extend to the ability to protect yourself from natural disaster and terrorism. Terrorism is not a nation state in uniform. Terrorism is a method; the method of the impotent. It is a criminal conspiracy and ought to be approached as such. This is the area which demands cladestine operations. Attacking the nation of Iraq as we have has alienated the Arab sentiment more than ever before. Not declaring war has become a nasty habit. A declaration of war is not just a matter of semantics. It is the only legal way the Constitution allows for applying violent force internationally. The size of the Congress has much to do with the runaway power the executive branch weilds. At the end of WWII; Germany and Japan were de-facto territory of the US. That is the nature of war; which can only end in surrender. When the weaker side runs out of ammunition. The experience of Viet Nam has not been heeded by our politicians. Much of the action of the Viet Cong fall into the category of terrorism. We didn't use the term as readily in the late 60's. The size of the Congress as dictated by the Constitution is that a Representative will sit for no fewer than 30,000 people. Currently the number of reps is constrained by a 1920's era federal statute which sizes it to the capacity of the Capitol Building. This is unacceptable. Too many states have more senators that reps. The gerrymandering of voter districts coeval with cencus taking gives power to a majority party to effect future elections. The cry for campaign finance reform is about the ability to control eletion results with money. We could allow for elections where the chips fall where they may. The status quo would be in jeapordy; this is a good thing. We build hockey rinks in the desert of Phoenix; we have the resources to construct a new meeting place for the House of Representatives. The collective fear many have about the right to abortion is caused by the abandonment of the legislative branch dicey issues. Allowing executive orders to exclusively control the actions of the military abroad is not the Constitutional paradigm. Anyone with a TV set could know the calamity beforehand that has visited the gulf coast. While the president is commander in chief of our forces INSIDE this country the delegation of authority to act in circumstances as urgent as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina is necessary when the life and death situation arrises. We have seen the vertical power structure caught completely flat-footed. It is for we unaffected by the storm itself as terrifying as the damage wreaked upon our neighbors. There is in military strategy the concept of "acceptable losses". I saay this extends to our highways where a number equal to the combat deaths of Viet Nam perishes every year. Whose purposes this fact serves is readily apparent; who profits from the one-person-to-a-car method currently in practice? Media seems to endorse car pooling for the purpose of lowering fuel costs alone. The relation of highway death to lowering the traffic is a blind spot. It is fair to say that the price of oil is fixed by the amount allowed on the market. It is pure price fixing. No one in Washington D.C. has the guts to confront this fact. The notion that government is going to have any say in the amount of oil we collectively consume is equivalent taking away our pistols. We need to wake up. Our attachment to structures like the Capitol and the Pentagon serves as an impetus for the terrorist to attack them; they believing their loss will affect our government or our determination to carry on. The awful delay in accomidating the people who were in the path of Katrina could have a remedy. It would involve legislation or a Constitutional amendmentto allow commanders to act within given perameters. The commanders in the field have to have some latitude. If the Airborne divisions of the Army and Marine Corps had acted sooner the loss of life from a poor evacuation effort and the lack of food or water for the infirm would not have occured. It is not impossible for this to happen without stripping the authority of the executive branch of government. The scrambling of super sonic aircraft above New York on 9/11 should have happened. President Bush was in Florida reading to children. Contigency plans in effect for these occasions must be allowed. Our safety from the weather and terrorism depend on timely response.

what are we fighting for?

we are in Iraq trying to set up a democratic situation there. some of the people there like this and some hate our guts for imposing our will. the congress of the us did not declare war. they haven't since 1941. the size of the house of representatives is set at 435 members per a 1911 fed statute. this tailored the size of the body to the dimensions of the capitol building. the constitution says a rep will sit for NO FEWER THAN 30,000 people. this is important. it displays their opinion about the workings of democracy. Plato, a writer they were familiar with; whose shoulders they would readily admit they stood upon; stated that democracy worked only in small groups. the apathy shown by voters in our elections indicates two things. people are so busy and dependent on their wages they are willing to sacrifice their franchise. Also and just as important in national elections is the representation has diminished because the legislative bodies refuse to grow. the result of this policy is these elections are very manageable and predictable and a single vote seems not to matter. local issues in which numbers are crucial gain voter participation. it would take courage to face this possibility and advocate any change. the status quo involves a real opportunity risk of shoving away the responsiveness people feel they want from their government; that we were taught in elementary school was our heritage. but in these past decades with the assassinations, Watergate. budget deficits. exponential debt. undeclared and futile wars. it seems it is impossible to reclaim the quality of democratic solution to our problems. i believe if the number in the house was raised to the level the constitution called for the power would be restored to congress and representational democracy would experience a resurrection. finance reform would be meaningless if the very nature of the odds in any election were beyond buying off.

what are we fighting for?

BRIGHTMOOR JOURNAL TWO of the issues I really care about are the size of congress and the manner we vote, the brevity of it. The Constitution states a house member would represent no fewer than 30,000 people. A 1920's federal law fixes the size of the house to not outgrow the Capitol Building. When billions are spent to build ballparks and hockey rinks inPhoenix; I think we ought to house a representative body the framers devised. The elections would be harder to control and congress might get less pork barrel accomplished but that's a good thing. We need a three day weekend to vote.

what are we fighting for?

BRIGHTMOOR JOURNAL august 16, 2005 Cindy Sheehan is a brave lady. She is protesting the war in Iraq. I respect her. President Kennedy once noted that the chinese symbol for crisis is made of two characters, one denoting disaster the other opportunity. People who call this a volunteer military do not recognize economic reality. And just because you join the military does not need you ought to be fodder for military adventure. You can't get into a mess like South VietNam or Iraq without the intention of making a de facto 51st state. Otherwise you admit to the proposition we are simply there for an undetermined period of time sacrificing our youth and killing people. The horrors of life under Saddam are right up there with the atrocities common in history. What can we do to insure that a strongman won't take over as soon as we leave the desert? We can't. Ending the VietNam era draft was in part done because it had become a farce with so many loopholes for the priviledged that it resembled the tax code. Not having anything like the WPA, the CCC or any economically viable alternative to the military it is not surprising to see the socio-economic profile of the enlisted ranks to be quite the same as it was in the draft. That is why people who opine that these volunteers know what they are getting into and David Horowitz seems to think they get what they deserve is elitist calumny. They should swallow their tongues.