14 February 2012 Anything but Hallmark

http://us.cnn.com/2012/02/14/opinion/coontz-santorum/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Santorum's stone-age view of women

By Stephanie Coontz, Special to CNN

updated 11:15 AM EST, Tue February 14, 2012

 it is worth revisiting a couple of its points. Take, for instance, the book's dismissal of programs to help impoverished single mothers improve their job prospects by returning to school: "The notion that college education is a cost-effective way to help poor, low-skill, unmarried mothers with high school diplomas or GEDs move up the economic ladder is just wrong." Or its claim that unnamed "surveys" have shown that educated professional women find it "easier, more 'professionally' gratifying, and certainly more socially affirming, to work outside the home than to give up their careers to take care of their children."

The Santorums' apparent hostility to women's educational and professional advancement is insulting and out of touch with today's world. But it is also odd in light of their purported interest in the welfare of children. It turns out that the most powerful single influence on a child's educational success is not the mother's marital status but her own level of education and her educational aspirations for her children, according to education researcher W. Norton Grub.”

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/317-65/9958-fox-commentator-military-rape-qwhat-did-they-expectq

Fox Commentator: Military Rape, "What Did They Expect?"

By Andy Newbold, Media Matters for America

13 February 12

 Fox's Liz Trotta on sexual assault in military: "What did they expect? These people are in close contact."

during a segment about new rules regarding women in the military, Fox News contributor Liz Trotta attacked the Department of Defense for increasing spending on support programs for victims of sexual assault. Trotta also reacted to a Pentagon report showing a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults since 2006 by stating: "Well, what did they expect? These people are in close contact."

Trotta began by claiming "we have women once more, the feminist, going, wanting to be warriors and victims at the same time" and later added that feminists "have also directed them, really, to spend a lot of money. They have sexual counselors all over the place, victims' advocates, sexual response coordinators.... you have this whole bureaucracy upon bureaucracy being built up with all kinds of levels of people to support women in the military who are now being raped too much."

When Fox News anchor Eric Shawn said that "many would say that they need to be protected," Trotta replied: "That's funny, I thought the mission of the" armed forces "was to defend and protect us, not the people who were fighting the war."

From the February 12 edition of Fox News' America's News HQ:”

Cassi Creek:

          It is readily apparent that the GOP\teavangelist\Fox News triad of repression is primed to repeal all the social, cultural, and political gains made by women since the American colonies were established. 

          Santorum, accompanied by the males-only Catholic Bishops organization is frothing at the mouth in his intent to prevent any and all access to birth control and any other method of family planning than Vatican roulette.  History documents a long period, around 2000 years or so, when priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes saw no reason to suffer celibacy their selves while still denying any sexual activity to their captive congregations. 

          Trotta, expressing the Fox News approach to women’s rights, must have some terrific columns on the spike.  She’s an apologist for every rapist, for every wife beater, for all the actions overlooked in today’s America because they happen primarily to women. 

          It doesn’t surprise me to see this sort of stupidity and bigotry expressed by Fox News and its medieval viewpoint for life.  We all know that it supports the suppression of women right along with the suppression of intellect, equality, and truth.  This is the sort of comment that is going to show up later in speeches by Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann as they try to blame rape and murder on the victims while using religious arguments to convince the victims that they are at fault. 

          I don’t see it that way, never have, never will.  My mother brought me up to know better than that.  

          Still, the triad of repression will spend hours talking about the economic impact of today, Valentine’s Day.  They’ll push roses, chocolate, and expensive meals, all proffered in hopes of being compensated by the recipient with some sexual favors. 

          On this day of commercial celebration, sex is fine as long as the financial component is disguised expensively.  Hallmark generates large returns and lobbyists have an easy sell.  Two people, in love, making love, without benefit of commercial assistance – obviously sinful, forbidden, and should be banned by Bishops in Boston.

          “

13 February 2012 Happy birthday, Gloria

!

Cassi Creek:

          You came into my life at a time when neither you nor I was looking for any involvement.  I was scheduled for job interviews in Alaska in the early months of 1993.  I still carried layers of armor that made human contact unlikely at best. 

          When you should have never looked twice you shoved any angels foolish enough to be hanging around aside and opened your door and your life to me. 

          I recall vividly the thrill of seeing those first photographs of you.  I remember how your smile lit up the entire airline gate on a bleak late autumn day.  I remember how happy everyone was at our wedding! 

          We’ve traveled, danced, and dined.  We’ve endured hurricanes, tornadoes, high water, hot weather, and excessive snow.  We’ve fished, paddled, and you’ve learned to shoot.

          It’s your birthday again.  I’m thrilled to share it with you.  I hope, at day’s end, that you will be happy that we are us.  Always remember, you are the great joy, the great passion, and the great love in my life. Bonne Anee!

12 February 2012 Adventures in the realm of heat resistance

Cassi Creek:         After cleaning the wood stove Thursday, it has been in continual use since Thursday evening.  Temperatures fell to 17°F last night with a wind chill below zero.  The stove has consumed copious amounts of wood since last lighting it. 

          About 2300 yesterday I began to set up the stove for the overnight burn.  I added two large logs to the firebox, which contained a good bed of coals.  When I closed the door, one of the logs shifted, pushing the burning log on the bottom down and doorward.  This prevented closing the door and the wide gap between door and stove allowed outside air to enter the firebox. 

          I have welder’s gloves I use to feed the stove.  They have grown old and thin with use.  They offer no thermal protection from anything bigger than a spark.  They were absolutely worthless in removing the offending log. 

          In early January, I ordered a pair of fireplace gloves.  They arrived in a timely manner and I laid them aside near the stove.  Last night I thought to place them into service.  This seemed to be the sort of complication that called for new, flame resistant, gloves.  I pulled them on, grabbed the obstructing log, and laced the air with obscenities and profanities as the index and middle index fingers promptly flame-hardened and blistered my fingers.  The gloves are not very flame resistant. 

          The appropriate 1^st aid for a 2^nd degree burn involves removing the injured body part from further contact with the heat source producing the injury.  Immersion in cool water is helpful for extremity burns.  But I had a blazing stove with an un-secured door that was the more urgent problem.  I ripped off the new gloves, grabbed the old ones, and spent another 5 minutes wrestling with a problem in space and force before I finally managed to close the loading door.  During that time, the old gloves were absorbing heat from the stove handles and pumping it into the existing blisters. 

          After securing the stove, I started cooling down the burns.  By 0030 the pain had subsided sufficiently to allow me to drift off to sleep.  At 0400, I was up feeding the stove again.  I’ll bring in more firewood this afternoon. 

          I have two blisters on my index finger and one on my middle index finger.  I’m fortunate that the injuries were not more serious. 

          I spent a large portion of the morning reading ads for new flame-resistant gloves and reading customer reviews of LL Bean fireplace gloves.  Several reviews specifically indicate being able to pick up burning wood.  I’d rather not challenge that capability directly.  But it is only February and the stove-feeding season stretches out ahead of me.  

11 February 2012 Don’t throw no celebrations. Don’t hold no parades, no

Not unless you hold ‘em on Desolation Row.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dont-throw-us-an-iraq-victory-parade/2012/02/08/gIQAfy5O4Q_story.html

Don’t throw veterans an Iraq victory parade

By Colby Buzzell, Published: February 10

“The Iraq war is over. Should we throw a parade?

After all, the Super Bowl champion New York Giants got one this past week, complete with 30 tons of confetti falling from the Manhattan sky.

            …“We simply don’t think a national-level parade is appropriate while we continue to have America’s sons and daughters in harm’s way,” said a spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

            “I’m not all that concerned with parades, not in a big city or a small town, at halftime or any other time. What concerns me is the day after the parade, the day after the Sept. 11 anniversary events, the day when the flags are put away and America stops cheering and it’s back to business as usual. That’s what scares me.

            “Less than 2 percent of Americans serve in the military, and for them, a parade would be just another superficial acknowledgment of a sacrifice that has not been shared and certainly not celebrated. Some people argue that it’s a way to show support for the troops, some argue that it’s premature since there’s still a war in Afghanistan, and others argue that Iraq and Afghanistan are different fights.

            “While all this arguing is going on, veterans are struggling. In this country, an average of 18 veterans commit suicide every day. The jobless rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is as high as 15 percent. They are trying to find work despite having been labeled ticking time bombs, unable to assimilate back into society, plagued with post-traumatic stress.

            “Later this month, on an evening like any other in America, nearly 70,000 veterans will spend the night on the street …”

Cassi Creek:  We woke up to find blowing sleet and snow at 0600.  Gloria decided to stay home rather than to drive into Johnson City for a class on engraving.  We have been treated to falling temperatures, more snow, short intervals of blue sky, and 15-20 MPH winds from the NW.  We had planned to dine out tonight but Gloria isn’t feeling up to par and we’ll celebrate the occasion another day.  Instead, we’ll hunker down and let the wood stove do the heavy heating, as much as possible.  That will require a series of trips outdoors to bring in large, cold, segments of former trees to convert into heat and ashes.  The dog is happily stretched out in front of the stove, moving only long enough for me to add fuel before reclaiming her space. 

          The purpose of a victory parade seems antiquated now.  We are no longer actively waging war on our home real estate, we conquer and keep no ground, expending lives in order to occupy it temporarily as if doing so will change the attitudes and behaviors of those shove aside.  We hope it will, for we know it matters all too little back in the world where IEDs no longer serve as traffic signals. 

          Perhaps 2% of our populace now has shared the commonality of a barracks and weapons in our hands every waking hour.  The rest have no idea that a parade marks a transition, a change of command, honors afforded to a comrade, or other symbolic event.  The end of continental or global wars deserved a parade to mark the end of those wars and to honor the troops who took entire nations and held them long enough for new governments to be established.  But those reasons no longer exist except in the reality of soldiers, sailors, and airmen.  The military leadership knows that the world has changed diametrically since the late days of 1945.  Ideological control of nations now replaces seizing land masses. 

          With the change in why and how we fight wars one would expect a change in how we treat our troops.  But it has become easier for the masses that no longer serve to also no longer recall.  Mountain View Veterans’ Affairs Hospital began its existence as a home for men who fought the civil war and then wound up homeless, jobless, and of no use to society.  We no longer make pretence of helping our soldiers who saw too much.  There is no public concern for the “shell-shocked,” “battle fatigued,” or those with PTSD.  They are expected to absorb the cultural and emotional shock to their minds and bodies and to pick up their lives at the point where they hopped off the civilian routine and into the meat- grinder of modern combat. 

          Some of us manage to return to civilian life and to become “normal” and productive.  Others find that the return is not as easy or as complete.  PTSD can hide for long periods, surfacing, creating havoc and discord before being shoved back under for another genie in the bottle existence. 

          During a recent physical, I mentioned to my primary care doctor at VA that I wasn’t sleeping well – something that was a marked change for me now.  She ordered consults and I went to the appointments.  I’m sleeping better again most nights.  There’s no way to decrease the shoulder and neck pain that is a partial cause of my insomnia.

          Unlike many VietNam veterans, I’m fortunate to be sleeping indoors, eating regular meals, in a loving marriage.  I spent most of my life after VietNam working in a technical job; retiring only due to work-related injuries.  I have no addictions, and I receive regular medical care.

           I’ve lived with PTSD for 44 years now.  No parade, no free steak dinner in San Francisco, no amount of ethanol and war stories in a VFW bar would have prevented it.  The military is beginning to realize that everyone who serves in combat is going to undergo some degree of PTSD.  The Joint Chiefs are correct.  It is not time for a parade.  It is time for Congress to understand that they authorized the conflicts that are going to tear another generation of troops apart at the hidden seams.  They need to quit allowing lobbyists for Halliburton and other profiteers to drag us into wars.  They need to value our steadily diminishing numbers of men and women in uniform as the heroes the truly are. 

10 February 2012   “ But their religion wants world conquest!”

Cassi Creek:

          For today’s message, brothers and sisters, we find our inspiration in the eloquent work of the cartoonists, Luckovich and Telnais.  Please open your Washington Post to the Opinions section.  Join in as we take up the matter of “Obama’s attack on religion.

          The religious right, spearheaded by a largely masculine leadership and power structure is once again dragging out the fictitious “war on religion (read that as war on Christianity).”  In an unwarranted action, the GOP\teavangelists\Roman Catholics are trying to roll back the availability of reproductive health services for women to the pre-Sanger days, and the status of women nationwide to that of women in Colonial America. 

          There is no war on religion.  However, churches enjoy taxation loopholes similar to corporations due to their supposed “non-profit \ charitable” nature.  Churches are not non-profit entities – track the real estate holdings of the Roman Catholic structure and the worldwide worth of the LDS.  Both of those “churches” routinely lobby and attempt to legislate from their pulpits in a manner that would be equally at home in Saudi Arabia or Iran.  These immense churches want not only to dictate medical and social choices for their members; they insist upon inflicting their medieval canon law upon civil law and life in these United States.  They essentially want social, cultural, and legal dominance over every U.S, citizen and resident.   This is the same dominance they object to in those nations that are officially Islamic in nature. 

          There is no war on religion in the United States.  That is not to say that there should not be.  I harbor a great deal of animosity toward mullahs and imams who pray and plan for the Caliphate to be established again.  I harbor an even greater amount of animosity and anger toward those “Christian” leaders who would happily take us back to the days of state religions, the Holy Roman Empire, and witch trials for heretics, apostates, blasphemers, and atheists.  Our “Western” religions have undergone enlightenment along with the civil nations of Europe.  They have no justification for their patterns of rejecting modern science and medicine in order to teach and enforce the practices of superstition and mythology upon their members.  But to attempt to enforce such practices upon non-members is simply criminal. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/catholic-leaders-reach-outside-their-flock/2012/02/09/gIQAa5lM2Q_video.html

Shabbat Shalom!

9 February 2012 steaming dog, putty in my hands, will work for biscuits

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gop-scrambles-for-a-bogeyman/2012/02/07/gIQAyrZwzQ_story.html

The GOP scrambles for a bogeyman

By Harold Meyerson, Published: February 8

“Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, one thing is increasingly clear: Boy, do the Republicans miss communism…”

For those of us who grew up in the days when we were encouraged to check under our beds each night for “Reds”, that single sentence rings loudly true and covers much more ground than younger people can ever imagine.    In those not so distant days J Edgar Hoover’s “Masters of Deceit” was required reading in those school districts that liked Ike and Nixon.  The Boy Scouts, admittedly a para-military organization in those days before fear of litigation transformed the program into a competition for membership numbers, showcasing adolescent males in uniforms designed by an Italian fashion house, were encouraged to spy upon their families and neighbors in order to detect communist spies. 

          The GOP was in tall cotton, blacklisting musician and folk-singers, investigating “un-American activities.”  They added “God” to every document and desk that didn’t escape or evade faster than the worshipers of the senile Saint Ronnie could stick his name onto ever-public edifice in the late 80s.  The John Birch Society spearheaded all sorts of idiocy, demanding we leave the United Nations; cheerleading client state wars with Soviet proxies like Gingrich, Palin, and the teavangelists are trying to start new ground wars in Iran and Syria.  And of course, those wars, if we buy into them, will be fought by the poor.  Never knew war was a social safety net?  You do now!

Cassi Creek:

          Today began at 0500 and a drive into Mountain Home VA Hospital for an Occupational Therapy consult.  The therapist took lots of measurements and agreed with me that I have lost range of motion, grip strength, and dexterity.  She sent me home with a book of exercises, a high-resistance sponge, and some medium resistance putty to use in those exercises.  She is also ordering two resistance devices that may be of help. 

          We bathed Loki this morning.  It took both of us to encourage and shepherd her into the bathtub.  The last time the three of us occupied that space we were hearing tornadoes roar by.  Loki tolerated the process, shook to dry, and promptly laid down by the wood stove to steam the afternoon away.

          I had no breakfast this morning as I thought I might buy some sort of country breakfast at VA.  When I looked at the serving line, it didn’t look that appealing.  I enjoy buttermilk biscuits but I think I’ll have to buy some to have on hand at home.  I don’t want fast food biscuits.  Only the finest biscuits will do.

          VA, I believe, is granting my compensation request for PTSD.  I’ll have to appeal the hearing loss claim.  I’ll be keeping an anxious eye on the mailbox. 

“Guilt by association was so much simpler when the association, or alleged association, was with communists. In their absence, Republicans have had to grow more ridiculous. They’ve been up to the challenge.”

meyersonh@washpost.com

8 February 2012 E-file and be done with it

Yesterday at 1400 I sat down to file our 2011 tax forms.  By 1500 I was done with the paperwork.  Granted, I used the free version of TurboTax obtained via the IRS.  Granted I had most of the paperwork organized.  But mostly, we generate so little revenue that we have fallen from the former middle class into the near poor class.  As do far too many Americans, we live from payday to payday.  We haven’t been to a movie theater in more than 7 years.  (Yes, we’ve been to several concerts in that period, primarily family and old friends).  We don’t buy DVDs, don’t rent movies or stream them.  We read a lot.

           We don’t buy meat or seafood that isn’t on sale.    As for box meals, junk foods, soft drinks, and other such items that load the average grocery cart, we gave those up long ago.  Our largest expenses are medical and pharmaceutical. 

          This isn’t the life we imagined, watching ourselves dropping down the social ladder rung by rung while the political and social structure becomes more and more like pre-industrial Eastern Europe.  However, it could be far worse.  No one is shooting at us over internet remarks.  There will be someone to vote for this year, running against Phil Roe, whom I can vote for without lying to myself.  In addition, the IRS accepted our tax forms.  We’re through for another year.  There is no refund to wait for.  There is no unpaid tax bill to worry about. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/post/rick-santorum-wins-colorado-missouri-minnesota-beyond-the-sweater/2012/02/08/gIQAMQ79xQ_blog.html

Posted at 01:08 AM ET, 02/08/2012

Rick Santorum, beyond the sweater

By Alexandra Petri

            “Santorum’s pitch has always been old-fashioned. One would expect nothing less from a man whose sweater vest is his most constant companion. He spoke of the Declaration of Independence, to which the Founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their “sacred honor.”

            Sacred honor is not a term you hear flung around very much nowadays. Since Ms. Blackman, Honor has taken a bit of a downturn. But that’s what Santorum is all about – restoring the America of the Founders. Especially the honor bit. And, if he’s lucky, the parts where no one in the country has access to any form of birth control not available in Colonial times, and gay people not only can’t get married but are liable to be tried for witchcraft…”

Cassi Creek:  Santorum’s performance in Missouri is not at all surprising.  St. Louis and the outward population expansion were largely fueled by French Catholics, German Catholics, and German Lutherans.  The southern part of the state is overgrown with Pentecostal, evangelical, fundamentalist, and bible thumpers of every sort.  This is a state that remembers what “Southern Baptist” means.

           In the 1990s, a woman was appointed Postmistress for the town of Nevada MO.  She happened to be Black.  The town of Nevada MO has an annual celebration commemorating the town being burned by Union troops during the civil war because locals had helped William Quantrill stop a hospital train and murder the wounded troops aboard it.  At that time, the total black population of Nevada MO was 0.  There was suddenly no housing available in the entire town.  The new Postmistress wound up living in neighboring Fort Scott KS 25 miles westward, where housing was available. 

          While Catholics are also a very small portion of the populace, Santorum’s rabid fundamentalism fits the voter base in the Southwestern MO.  I have no doubt that Santorum and the GOP carried the town of Nevada MO and most of the surrounding counties.