Wednesday, 11/11/09, Public Square

Veterans Day is an annual American holiday honoring military veterans.

Make an extra effort to thank the veterans you know for their service, and stop to remember and reflect on the freedoms those veterans won for all Americans.  Send good thoughts and prayers to those members of the military who are today in harm’s way.  And remember our Commander In Chief  who has difficult decisions to make about our nation’s security and military involvement, include him in your thoughts, prayers and reflections.

fnord

Newt, At Long Last, Has Found God…

Dana Milbank tells us that as Newt eyes a presidential bid, he is talking more about God.  For the longest time, Newt avoided any “up-front” comments about God and his faith – because, well, there was always some joker who’d insist upon reminding Newt about his serving his first wife with divorce papers when she was recovering form cancer surgery.  Or, other jackasses, would remind Newt that he was carrying on a sorrid affair with a staffer, whom would eventually become his third wife, while he was chasing down Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski.

Maybe the Republican party has changed so much and embraced so many religious candidates (think Huckabee, Palin, et al.) that he can’t really avoid the subject.  It is hard for me to see how blatant hypocrisy can help any political candidate, but go for it, Newt!

Newt is trotting out a robust offensive against the evil Secular America.  Has the public forgotten, can Newt get away with it?  We will see…

Tuesday, 11/10/09, Public Square

Tun Tavern, in Philadelphia, is regarded as the location of the first Marines to enlist under Comandant Samuel Nicholas. When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the Continental Navy was disestablished, and with it, the Continental Marines. The Corps was re-established on 11 July 1798, when the “act for establishing and organizing a Marine Corps” was signed by President John Adams.

The United States Marine Corps Birthday is celebrated every year on the 10th of November with a traditional ball and cake-cutting ceremony.

fnord

Scott Roeder’s ‘Defense of Life’ Defense

It is official, I guess, Scott Roeder announced to the Associated Press that he plans to pursue a defense whereby he will assert that pre-born children’s lives were in imminent danger and thus his execution of Tiller was justified.  Read more here.

I would say his chances of prevailing with that argument are a little less good than a snowball’s chance in hell.  It is just absurd and it seems like there should be some way of disallowing him to pervert the course of justice so that he can have a grandstand for his cause.

From the linked article:

“His confession came on the same day several strident abortion opponents released their ‘Defensive Action Statement 3rd Edition’ that proclaims any force that can be used to defend the life of a ‘born child is legitimate to defend the life of an unborn child.’  The statement’s 21 signers demand Roeder’s jurors be allowed to consider the ‘question of when life begins’ in deciding whether lethal force was justified.

“Among the signers are Eric Rudolph, James Kopp and Shelley Shannon — all serving prison time for targeting abortion doctors.”

What do you bloggers think?

Jon Krakauer’s Latest: Men, Testosterone, Machismo and Tragedy

I have to be in a certain mood to want to read a Jon Krakauer book.  Usually, that mood is not a good one.  I greatly admire his work which include:  Into the Wild; Into Thin Air; and Under the Banner of Heaven.  Krakauer’s latest:  Where Men Win Glory:  The Odyssey of Pat Tillman was definitely worthy of this author’s attention and talents.  As I see it, the beat that Krakauer works is the intersection of Men, machismo, and testosterone and the likely result  of the collision of these  forces is – Tragedy.  There could be no better places to mine these ores than in the NFL and the disaster currently called Afghanistan.

In his own machismo struggle, Krakauer took the photo that graces the cover of this latest.

The story follows the divergent timelines of unrelated events.  For examples:  1) when Tillman was in highschool, Ramzi Yousef was doing this; 2) when Tillman was in college, Osama bin Laden was doing this. 

The forces eventually meet.  And predictably not to a good end.

This book troubled me almost as much as the Under the Banner of Heaven did. The intentional deceit perpetrated by our government about Tillman’s death in its unique way made the tragedy worse than in the earlier book. 

And… the criminals in this latest book have not been held accountable.

iggydonnelly

Monday, 11/09/09, Public Square

I was looking for Indian summer images and found this blissful looking lady — thought some would appreciate this pic as much as colorful leaves.    She looks peaceful, huh?

It’s only four days ’till Friday!

How was your weekend?  Saturday’s weather made it one of those days to savor, and the House passed a health-care reform bill!  Let’s hear it for some small amount of progress!  Lots of hurdles yet to go, but it’s a first step!  After generations of doing nothing at least one step has been taken.

What are you thinking about that you’d like to discuss with others?

fnord

Sunday, 11/08/09, Public Square

Kansas has teamed up with Mother Nature to treat us to another round of Indian Summer.  Take a walk, plan a cookout, sit outside and read, enjoy.

fnord

Violence threatens from within

Where might another McVeigh—or worse—spring from?

The many fringe elements the Republican Party represents are angry they lost and getting more threatening and dangerous to society every day.  Right-wing tea-partiers, death panellers, birthers, skinheads, white supremacists, militia enthusiasts, paranoid fringe, and even average citizens who are encouraged by the rants of right-wing talk radio and Fox News are more than restless, they’re bordering on dangerous.

The Anti-Defamation League is tracking about 200 militias, up from 50 in 2002, according to Mark Pitcavage, the ADL’s director of fact finding. “The single greatest factor in the agitation is Obama, Pitcavage says, adding “I see so many parallels today with 1994.”

Billy Roper, the head of White Revolution, a fast-growing white-nationalist group, says, “For years, white Americans were just concerned with watching sports and drinking beer and being consumers,” Roper said. “They were like bad puppies. Obama is like the rolled up newspaper smacking their butt. And now they’re baring their teeth. We’re at the stage kind of like the original 13 colonies around 1760. We’re at that awkward stage of the revolution when it’s too late to work within the system and too early to shoot the bastards.”

Ammunition manufacturers can’t keep up with the demand, the exaggerations become more outrageous on a daily basis.

Read more here.

How bad do you think it is now?  Will it get worse?  How can it be controlled?

fnord

Saturday, 11/07/09, Public Square

Women’s suffrage in the United States was achieved gradually, at state and local levels, during the 19th Century and early 20th Century, culminating in the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, on August 26, 1920, which provided: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

On November 7, 1893, passage of a referendum made Colorado the first state to grant women the right to vote.

The Kansas legislature passed a law in February 1887 giving women in our state the right to vote.

fnord

The Palinite Putsch?

Eugene Robinson comments in his column today that recently there has been some good news and some bad news for the GOP.  The good news is that with tea bag parties, the base has been riled up and they are active.  The bad news is 1) the base is too small to pull off any national or many regional election victories, and 2) the far right led by such rightwing stars as Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are helping the GOP cannibalize their own.

A state congressional district election in a solidly Republican part of Upstate New York, elected a Democrat Bill Owens.  This occurred because rightwing GOP operatives ran, their candidate, Dede Scozzafava, out of the race due to her unacceptable positions on gay rights and abortion.  Erick Erickson [not the famous psychoanalyst, but instead with the conservative RedState.com] said, “This is a huge win for conservatives. . . . We did exactly what we set out to do — crush the establishment-backed GOP candidate.”

Here is to hoping for more “huge wins” like that for the GOP.

Speaking of “huge”, I have heard [Not that I have any first hand knowledge...] that there are a number internet porn actresses posing as Sarah Palin-like characters.  The above photo [I don't know if it was photo-shopped] helps me see why this phenomenon might be happening.  I am no expert on such matters, but if that image wasn’t photo-shopped, those have to be fake.

Friday, 11/06/09, Public Square

Another week in the record books!

It’s First Friday in Old Town so if you’re into music that’s the place to be in Wichita.

Did you hear the news about the House may meet tomorrow and vote on health-care reform?  Personally, I’ll believe it when I see it.  They can surprise me, I like surprises!

This is your thread, you choose the topics.

fnord

Thursday, 11/05/09, Public Square

I’m a bit ‘fed up’ with all things ‘political,’ but I sure like talking things over with the Prairie Pops.   Here we always find laughs, information, pats on the back, and encouragement to share.

Mother Nature is sure offering some beautiful November weather!

So — good company, good friends and good weather — those are a few of the important ingredients of happy days!

Love is not blind – it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less.

fnord

The 11-04-09 Teabag gathering

   

There were still people filing in to the Teabagger event when I left at 12:40 p.m., but I am estimating that attendance was about 300 – which would be 1/10th of 1% of the population of Wichita, KS.  Thank goodness their numbers are so small.  When I first got there a guy asked me:

“Do you work for the FBI?”  He had noticed me taking photos.

For a split second, I debated whether I should act like I did not hear him and get out of there.  But I finally replied, “No, sir, I don’t.  And I don’t think that anyone has ever asked me that question before.”  That seemed to satisfy him.

There is always the horse rider that shows up at these events and the ever present Abortion Protest larger than life photos on the “Truth”-Truck.  I remember the first time my daughter saw one of those gory signs – I cannot recall her age, but she was still riding in a car seat – she said, “Oh Daddy, those pictures don’t make me feel so good.”

     

What was real noticable was that among all the signs against socialized medicine, it did look like well over half of the protestors were old enough to recieve Medicare – the granddaddy of all socialized medicine programs.  You know, they should have had a sign saying “Socialized Medicine is okay for me, but not for thee!”

I did not see anything that looked like a counter-protest anywhere.  That was disappointing.

It did appear to me that the teabaggers were enjoying themselves.  They were laughing and greeting new and old friends alike.  Maybe something like this should be planned on a daily basis – might keep those folks off the street and out of the way… of progress.

iggydonnelly

Guitar Player Elitists

Wednesday is guitar lesson day at my my house.  My teen daughter plays bass guitar and my teenage son plays regular guitar.  This afternoon, after school, we will make our weekly trek to the local music store for their lessons.

I was telling my daughter on the way to school this a.m. that George Harrison was considered to be not be that great of a guitarist among guitar players.  After having said that, I thought how really silly of a statement that was, since he will always be a much better guitar player than anyone I will ever personally know.

Peace be with you, George, where ever you are, across the universe . . .

Wednesday, 11/04/09, Public Square

It was one year ago today Americans voted and elected Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America.

Do you have any stories of that day one year ago?

fnord