12 March 2012 roads not driven

            I’ve never spent very much time pretending to be an automobile mechanic.  I believe the preferred descriptor is now “automotive technician.   At an age when many males were busily souping up their first cars  or taking “auto-shop” classes, I had no interest in joining the ranks of those who could rebuild a motor, perform brake jobs, or rebuild and paint the rusted out body of some early 1950s derelict coupe. 

            There was a select group of students at that time that drove new or nearly new cars to school.  They were the children of automobile dealers who were allowed to drive demonstrator vehicles, piling up miles on some local buyer’s new car before the ever saw it. 

            In nearly the same category were the fortunate sons and daughters of local surgeons, members of state government, and other upper social class families who were willing to provide their offspring with Detroit status symbols.  Also mentionable were the local standout ball players who were pampered and treated by booster clubs, all too eager to introduce young athletes to that world of under the table goodies. 

            In those distant days, a high school parking lot held mostly family cars on loan for the day, various pickup trucks driven in from local farm to market towns, and ten-year-old specimens in various states of repair that belonged to the vocational class’s students. 

            That is in stark contrast to what I have seen since.  Many high school student parking lots have newer and more expensive vehicles than do the faculty lots.  There seems to be a sense of obligation that compels parents to provide new vehicles as 16^th birthday gifts.  I did not and do not subscribe to such a practice.

            I had no personal vehicle.  I could sometimes share rides with friends, sometimes get a family car for events that required extra hours on campus.  I often road the city bus line, often walked in good weather.  As a last result, there was school bus coverage.  I generally preferred the five-mile hike home to the yellow cattle hauler.

            I never became infected with the desire to rebuild and repair vehicles.  At this point in my life I was a decent woodwinds musician and was becoming a better than average acoustic guitar player.  Had I not intended to enter a university after high school I might have been qualified for enrollment in motor-shop classes, to find a mechanic’s job that would fill the gap between high school and induction into the armed forces. 

            Almost to a person, the males attending motor-shop were there because they had no interest in any academic courses; while I was carrying a full college prep class-load and instrumental music classes.  Had I entered motor-shop I would have been immediately the outsider.  That certainly dampened an interest I might have found in such education.  However, the thing that really was the single most determinant lay close at hand.  Nearly every one of the motor-shop students and instructors were missing digits.  That single factor was all I had to see.  

11 March 2012 Crusaders need not apply

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-soldier-detained-after-opening-fire-on-afghans/2012/03/11/gIQAFFlW4R_story_1.html

“U.S. soldier detained after opening fire on Afghans; at least 16 killed

            “The Taliban was quick to weigh in on the incident, characterizing it as a “massacre” committed during the course of a night raid by American and Afghan forces.

            “The so-called American peace keepers have once again quenched their thirst with the blood of innocent Afghan civilians,” the Taliban statement said.

            “Provincial officials sent an investigative team to the villages where the shootings took place. The U.S. military launched its own probe.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1004/p13s02-lire.html

“Are U.S. troops being force-fed Christianity?

A watchdog group alleges that improper evangelizing is occurring within the ranks.”

          The new Crusades may well be underway.  We are currently engaged in a war in Afghanistan against a force of fundamentalist Moslems.  We are ending our involvement in another Moslem nation, Iraq, in which our major opponents are also Moslems of varying degrees of fundamentalism.  Inside our borders, we are engaged in surveillance directed against domestic Moslem, many of whom are citizens by birth and many others who are naturalized citizens.

          Since the attacks of September 2001, there has been a spiraling anti-Moslem behavior in this nation that is frankly wrong and dangerous. 

          The anti-Moslem behavior in the U.S. is largely driven by right wing evangelicals via mega-churches and “church”-owned media outlets; and by the politicians who look church ward for a political base and campaign financing. 

          While the 1^st Amendment to or Constitution prohibits any formation of a national church, the right wing teavangelists, if they can find a way to circumvent the Bill of Rights, would happily form and enforce a theocracy in the U.S. If any group of citizens or any individuals attempt to maintain the integrity of the Constitution by preventing a national religion being established, they are quickly tarred with the anti-Christian\war on Christianity label and held up as un-American.  The mechanism is highly reminiscent of the McCarthy era. 

          The military basic training program is being used as a means of obtaining access to soldiers in order to expand proselytization within the ranks using peer pressure and official intimidation to force compliance.  The end result is an army that is being repeatedly and loudly told that it is performing a “holy” war against anti-Christian forces at home and overseas. 

          I seriously believe that the driving force behind the murder of 16 Afghan civilians by a single U.S. soldier will be tied to fundamentalist Christianity.  It will be found to stem from anger over the required awareness demanded toward Islam and Islamic traditions and, once again, the perceived insults and fictitious war against Christianity.  Someone within the soldier’s unit handed him a bible, harangued him about “Christian rights” in Moslem nations, and shoved him out into the local populace to become a Jihadi for Jesus, hopefully initiating a new iteration of the Crusades. 

          I hope I am wrong, that this was not instigated by the efforts of teavangelists in or out of uniform. But this is no longer the America that believes in the 1^st Amendment or the 6^th Amendment.  This is the America being shoved down the path to theocracy by leaders who should know better and by citizens who have no reservations about forcing their religion down the throats of their neighbors and fellow citizens. 

          And if the teavangelists can destroy our Bill of Rights in the pursuit of a theocracy, what are a few more Afghani deaths?

10 March 2012 Burning Daylight

          Defined as wasting time that might better be spent in productive labors generating income or other things beneficial to the individual or the enterprise.

          Daylight Savings Time descends upon the nation, or most of it, at 0200 tomorrow morning.  This is earlier in the calendar year than DST once went into effect.  In my youth, DST began in April and ended in October.  There was also no official national statute from 1945 – 1966.  States and locales could inflict or prevent time adaptation. 

          There have been several Congressional intercessions since 1966.

http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/e.html will provide a history of DST in the U.S. and other nations. 

          In a local application of “burning daylight”, I just reset my watches.  I have two solar-powered titanium wristwatches.  One is a dual read-out analog & digital Citizen product.  The other, also a Citizen, is an analog chronometer. 

          I reset these watches twice a year, when we change to and from DST.  The accuracy of both watches is tight enough that I have never noticed more than a 10-second variation from the U.S.N.O official time clock.  It takes me about 30-45 minutes to maintain and reset these watches, 

          In all honesty, I require more accuracy from my watches than most people will ever need or demand.  When I began in medical lab analysis, we were still performing many functions manually against stopwatches and timers.  A second or two of error could invalidate many procedures and necessitate a lengthy repeat for a whole series of patients.  Burning daylight generally indicated a loss of attention or a non-functioning timer had caused an entire run to fail.  Having a highly accurate watch on one’s wrist often removed an external variable and wasted time. 

Don’t forget to set your watches and clocks ahead one hour tonight.  Don’t forget to change your smoke detector batteries.  Ours are hard-wired, so all we have to do is change clocks. 

          That’s the watchword for the day.

9 March 2012 855 Collections

          The morning began well.  Woke up, happy to be here.   Took Loki out for the morning hike with Mike. 

          Upon my return, Gloria told me that “a litigator” had called from Missouri.  He told her that we had been used as references by a former son-in-law in order to obtain fraudulent loans.  He also told her that we were legally liable and would be subpoenaed.  He gave her a phone number in Florida where the supposed culprit lives. Insisted that we call that number and then report back to him. 

          To my discredit, I delivered the target person to him.  If he owes on loans, that is his affair to settle and I have no knowledge of them still, if I had thought this through I would have known it to be a lie. 

          Here’s the facts as they shake out.  

          The person who called Gloria goes by the name of George Rubin.

          Mr. Rubin claims to work for AFB & Associates, a California based company that makes large revenue chasing down college loan defaulters.  Mr. Rubin claims to be a “Missouri litigation officer.” 

          Mr. Rubin told Gloria that we were going to be subpoenaed and required to travel to Missouri.  He flatly misrepresented the amount of money supposedly obtained by fraud and stated that our signatures were on the fraudulent forms. 

          Down to brass tacks, Mr. Rubin lied to Gloria.  There is no subpoena and we are not involved in any college loans for anyone. 

          Mr. Rubin used the callback number 885-893-2466.  855 Area code is notorious for being used by collection agencies and scammers.  When I called him to complain about his lies and efforts to intimidate Gloria, he laughed and hung up on me. 

If Mr. Rubin or someone like him calls you, don’t believe their story.  Any call from an 855 number should be considered suspicious.   You are under no obligation to talk to or help a collection agency that lies to you. 

Shrimp tacos for dinner tonight.

Shabbat Shalom

8 March 2012 Teavangelists say Trustworthy Corporate Bureaucrats can be believed

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gops-gasoline-alley/2012/03/07/gIQAbN9rxR_story.html

“The GOP’s gasoline alley

By Dana Milbank, Published: March 7

            “The Republicans are synthesizing a higher-octane blend in their bid to fuel Americans’ anxiety about rising gas prices.

            “The Republican National Committee sent out talking points instructing party faithful to take up the issue. House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) urged his caucus to do the same. And, on Wednesday, the House energy committee obliged: The Republican majority called in a bunch of oilmen for a hearing dedicated largely to blaming President Obama for high gas prices…

Cassi Creek:

            The GOP\teavanagelists and their propaganda machine are busily spreading vicious lies about the cost of gasoline and other energy products.  They are using every form of media and every personality that they can hire to convince the public that the current price of gasoline is the responsibility of the current POTUS and his fictitious plot to push gasoline prices to $5.00/gallon.  This lie is being repeated endlessly on television, talk radio, and via every other form of media tangentially affected by or infected with Fox News. 

            Gasoline may well be sold for $5.00/gallon before this year ends.  However, if such prices are inflicted upon us, it will be at the choice of and for the profit of the energy corporations.    The mob, sadly, will continue to believe that the price increases are due to the current administration’s policies.  As with every other attempt by Obama to reverse the economy and to better the nation’s problems with health care, employment, and other ongoing problems, the mob will follow the judas goats provided by the propagandists working for the teavangelists and their ultra-wealthy financiers.    The mob is currently too poorly informed to vote intelligently and is descending to a point of even less well informed. 

            In December, in hopes of reducing medication costs, Gloria changed her Part D Medicare (pharmaceutical program) from coverage by United Healthcare to coverage by Humana.    I have a deep and long-standing distrust of Humana.    The Humana Rep promised Gloria that her current medications would be covered by Humana.  Without this assurance, Gloria would not have switched to a Human plan. 

            It is now March.  Since February, Humana has denied Gloria coverage for prescription renewal for the most expensive of her medications, the one she was specifically told would be picked up without interruption.  Gloria’s physician’s office has appealed, faxed multi-page forms to Humana, and called Humana.  All this has gained is a subsequent, rapid denial # 2. 

            The bureaucratic layers at Humana are demanding that Gloria document failure of a medication regimen that she attempted prior to being prescribed her current anti-glycemics last July.  They want to see a reported A1C value outside the range indicating successful treatment. 

            In short, Humana is demanding that a diabetic patient be denied a proven effective treatment in order to undergo 3 or more months of improper, non-tolerated medication, while her diabetes is allowed to become un-controlled.  This is Humana, risking certain harm to an insured patient in order to decrease benefits to that patient. 

            Please tell me again how we should believe the GOP\teavangelists concerning their claims that we should fear a health care plan with government  bureaucrats deciding who is treated adequately, who inadequately, and who denied  any treatment.   How do insurance company bureaucrats provide any better or more humane care for patients when insurance companies are driven solely by profit motives? 

            If you believe the energy companies and the health insurance companies’ propaganda, I have a bridge you might like to buy.

7 March 2012 Still I Live in hopes to see, the “Holy Ground” once more

. 

          The United States seems to be besieged by puritanical, pious, sanctimonious, bible-thumping evangelical Christians who have it in their minds to replace our democratic republic with a theocracy.  They will, of course, legislate endlessly to obtain this governmental nightmare and to require that all citizens and residents of this nation become carbon copies of the fundamentalists, they think their religion demands. 

          Look at Iran, or perhaps Pakistan and you’ll see what the evangelical goal for  this country is.  If you prefer a Catholic theocracy, you need only look at Latin America with its native peoples enslaved by the Church and birth rates that eclipse those of rabbits. 

          Tennessee’s teavangelist/GOP primary took place yesterday and the winning candidate is the potential Grand Inquisitor, former Senator Santorum.  The state’s evangelicals seem to be willing to roll the social and cultural calendars back to the 19^th century or earlier.  The chance to become a national candidate for office may fall into the lap of a white male who rejects birth control of any form, who will watch an adult female die painfully and needlessly rather than save her life by terminating a pregnancy. 

          I have listened to Santorum’s pronunciations and have no doubt that under his administration the separation of church and state would vanish into his agenda to restore public floggings, forced maternity cloisters, criminal penalties for selling, purchasing, possessing, and using any form of contraception beyond Vatican roulette.  It is easy to see him and his religious emulators bring back the religious conflicts that initially aided immigration to the new world.  Mass expulsions, the demise of public schools, forced membership in a state-sponsored church are not that improbable if such overly sanctimonious men gain and control public offices.

          That control seems all too possible given the GOP\teavangelist platform of taxing the poor to help the rich. If the planks that support destroying the 1^st Amendment are allowed to remain in the agenda the right’s voter base will eagerly destroy the freedom from state religion that we now enjoy.  Part of the groundwork has been laid by idiots such as Palin and other evangelicals who eschew science for mythology, education for illiteracy, history for propaganda. 

          We need to recall that the puritans landed in New England not because they were seeking a legal means of practicing their religion; but because they were such pious, sanctimonious, judgmental, un-forgiving, bastards that no one was willing to live near them.  That is who I recall when I see an image of Santorum with his finger pointing upward as if he has some link to the Vatican via some unwashed, hair-shirted hermit. 

          Look back to today’s title.  The white males who will back Santorum’s demands to return to the morality of the 19^th century, the male-dominant portion of it will thrive in the double standard that existed then and which will rapidly evolve again.  While copulation will, of course, only take place for procreation, women will die carrying and delivering unwanted fetuses; of STD’s brought home by their male masters, and of sepsis caused by home-made or back alley abortions.  

          The “Holy Ground” above is not a church, a hospital, or even a cemetery.  Far from it!  The Holy Ground is a prime example of what a theocracy would encourage. The Holy Ground was any of several brothels in seaports around the world.  The town of Cobh in Ireland may be the source for the song.   There was also s NYC red-light district known as the Holy Ground, 

          We know how destructive theocratic wars can be.  We know that the most vicious, most costly of civilian lives, wars are those started by religious fanatics.  If there is ever a 2^nd American Civil War it will likely be started by people claiming that there is a “war on Christianity.”  There isn’t such a war, despite the insistence of various demagogues and fanatics.  However, there may well be grounds if we don’t find a mechanism to delete religion from civil life. 

            “And regarding the New York “Holy Ground”, From City of Eros:

“The most prominent prostitution district after 1770 and into the early nineteenth century was the famed “Holy Ground.”  In the two blocks along Church, Vesey, and Barclay streets, the city’s most expensive “houses of debauchery” prospered on land owned by the Episcopal church and adjacent to King’s College (later Columbia University). On the eve of the Revolution, one observer remarked that over five hundred “ladies of pleasure [kept] lodgings contiguous within the consecrated liberties of Sr. Paul’s [Chapel].”  

            “There is nothing surprising that prostitutes and sailors might frequent the same neighborhoods.  I have long thought that the claim that prostitution is the “oldest profession” is obviously wrong.  After all how could the ladies practice their profession without a pre-existing sailor?  Sort a chicken and egg problem involving who gets laid, so to speak.”

Nor is there any real separation of harlotry and high Church official in the years since Constantine legitimized the Christian faith.  Countless priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes have demonstrated that males will overlook the transgressions of males as pertains to canon law and civil law.  I would expect nothing else in a new American Taliban. 

            I trust Santorum and his theocratic supporters no more than I would trust the Taliban in Afghanistan or Pakistan. 

“The Holy Ground

1. Fare thee well my lovely Dinah,
   A thousand times adieu
   For we’re going away from the Holy Ground,
   And the girls we all love true
   We will sail the salt seas over,
   And then return for shore
   To see again the girls we love,
   And the holy Ground once more
   FINE GIRL YOU ARE
   You're the girl that I adore,
   But still I live in hope to see
   The holy Ground once more
   .
2. And now the storm is raging,
   And we are far from shore
   And the good old ship is tossing about,
   And the rigging is all tore
   And the secret of my life, my love,
   You're the girl that I adore
   But still I live in hope to see,
   Holy Ground once more
   FINE GIRL YOU ARE
   You're the girl that I adore,
   But still I live in hope to see
   The holy Ground once more
   .
3. And now the storm is over,
   And we are safe and well
   We will go down to a public house,
   And sit and drink like hell
   We will drink strong ale and porter,
   And we’ll make the rafters roar
   And when our money is all spent,
   We will go to sea once more
   FINE GIRL YOU ARE
   You're the girl that I adore,
   But still I live in hope to see
   The holy Ground once more, FINE GIRL YOU ARE

6 March 2012 How easily teavangelists forget reality

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitt-romney-how-i-would-check-irans-nuclear-ambition/2012/03/05/gIQAneYItR_story.html

How I would check Iran’s nuclear ambition

By Mitt Romney, Published: March 5

            “Beginning Nov. 4, 1979 , dozens of U.S. diplomats were held hostage by Iranian Islamic revolutionaries for 444 days while America’s feckless president, Jimmy Carter, fretted in the White House. Running for the presidency against Carter the next year, Ronald Reagan made it crystal clear that the Iranians would pay a very stiff price for continuing their criminal behavior. On Jan. 20, 1981, in the hour that Reagan was sworn into office, Iran released the hostages. The Iranians well understood that Reagan was serious about turning words into action in a way that Jimmy Carter never was

            “America and the world face a strikingly similar situation today; only even more is at stake. The same Islamic fanatics who took our diplomats hostage are racing to build a nuclear bomb. Barack Obama, America’s most feckless president since Carter, has declared such an outcome unacceptable, but his rhetoric has not been matched by an effective policy. While Obama frets in the White House, the Iranians are making rapid progress toward obtaining the most destructive weapons in the history of the world…

            …”My plan includes restoring the regular presence of aircraft carrier groups in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf region simultaneously. It also includes increasing military assistance to Israel and improved coordination with all of our allies in the area.

            “We can’t afford to wait much longer, and we certainly can’t afford to wait through four more years of an Obama administration. By then it will be far too late. If the Iranians are permitted to get the bomb, the consequences will be as uncontrollable as they are horrendous. My foreign policy plan to avert this catastrophe is plain: Either the ayatollahs will get the message, or they will learn some very painful lessons about the meaning of American resolve.”

Cassi Creek:

          This little day dream of Romney brings up one of my favorite examples of GOP\teavangelist self-deception.  What Romney overlooks is that the Iranians hated Carter for his decision to provide political and medical asylum rather than leave him to the tender mercies of the ayatollahs.  They would have held our citizens hostage forever to avenge that insult.  Coincidentally with that factor, Reagan had initiated an arms for hostages deal via back channels to have the hostages freed as he took office.  Further information may be found by following the “October Surprise” and “Iran – Contra” search strings.  Principle players in the October surprise were General William Casey and former POTUS GWH Bush.  Before this was finally brought to investigation, Casey developed terminal brain cancer and Reagan became obviously mentally impaired. 

          The myth that Iran feared Reagan is just that, a myth. 

          Romney is trying to promise another Reagan administration with himself in the title role. 

          This nation can’t afford another arms and troops build up such as took place in the 1980s.  The Soviet Union is no more and there will not be another potential invasion of Europe or battle of ballistic missiles such as were postulated during the final years of the Cold War. 

          No one wants an Iranian regime armed with nuclear weapons.  That is, no one but Iran wants such a regime.  There are, it must be noted, other nations that have little or no objection to a nuclear arsenal controlled by Iran’s Mullahs or revolutionary guards.  Those nations are quite content to let the dance for power between nations play out inside the borders of other nations.  They can envision a U.S. disabled to some extent by Iranian actions.  They might also be willing to ally with Iran

          While Israel may be able to cripple some of the Iranian nuclear facilities, it would require, essentially, a large suicide mission, costly in men and aircraft.  Such a strike would also generate massive retaliation by Iran and further incursions by Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Hamas and Hezbollah.  Such a raid by Israel would not be a repeat of the Osirak raid or the Syrian strike. 

          Even attacks by the U.S. would most likely only delay the Iranian program.  And it must be noted that only the right wing nuts want to start another war with an Islamic nation controlled by fundamentalists. 

          We can’t sustain another ground war in Iran and we can’t afford the cost of trying to bomb their program and facilities into glowing dust.  Nor, do we wish to be responsible for the dispersal of radioactive debris that would certainly follow bombing raids on nuclear facilities. 

          Our warmongers should also recall that Iran produces sufficient revenues from oil to buy nuclear warheads’; and that Pakistan and North Korea are cash poor enough to be willing to sell ordnance to Iran.  Neither North Korea nor Pakistan has any lost love for the U.S. 

          The religious right, the teavangelists, GOP right-wing nuts, and other chicken hawks have all been shouting about their anticipated bravery in office.  They’ve been comparing Obama’s plans of actions to those of Jimmy Carter while beating their own chests like actors in a bad post-apocalyptic movie. 

          The truth is that none of the candidates was brave enough to put on the nation’s uniform and risk their own lily-white asses in a shooting war.  While Obama has been busy taking out Islamic terrorists by use of drones and in the termination of bin Laden in Pakistan; the current crop of candidates has be cowering at the thought of having to censure that ultimate REMF, Limbaugh. 

          March on, brave candidates.  None of you has the balls to risk your fortunes or your lobbyist-paid lifestyles in the wars you helped start or the war you want to start next.