God Bless Us, Every One!

But most especially --

• that homeless guy begging on the street corner, who most of us pass up because we suspect he's running a scam;
  
• the woman trapped in an abusive relationship, who can't take it any more but is scared to death (literally) to leave;
  
• the family waiting and waiting and waiting to hear from their missing child, not knowing if he's dead or alive;
  
• the wife who will answer her doorbell on Christmas Eve, to find two Army officers bearing the news of her husband's death in Iraq;
  
• the bullied child who wants to hide from the world;
  
• the old man living alone, waiting in vain for a ring of the phone or a knock on the door;
  
• the woman who wants to refuse treatment for the breast cancer that is just the latest blow in a lifetime of illnesses;
  
• all the poor, the sick, the lonely, the forgotten, who watch from the sidelines this swirl of manic (and often meaningless) activity that allegedly celebrates a humble birth in a manger.
  

Goodnight, Tiny Tim.

Deja Vu, All Over Again

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger."

Any guesses as to the source of that quote?

Dick Cheney?

Karl Rove?

Shrub?

Nah, that would be too obvious.



Hermann Goering, at the Nuremburg trials.

La plus ca change . . .

Good Grief!

The Hardee's fast food chain -- which, thank God, we do not have here in the Fattest City in the Universe -- has introduced a new goodie: the Monster Thickburger.

In this day of rampant obesity, high cholesterol, and even McDonald's introducing "healthier" items, contemplate with me, if you will --
two 1/3 lb. slabs of Angus beef
three slices of cheese
four strips of bacon
mayo AND butter on the bun

For a total of 1420 calories and (drum roll, please) 107 grams of fat.
That's in one burger. One.
(also available, of course, with fries)

With this level of corporate irresponsibility, I fully expect the Bush administration to give them a tax break.

Never Again

http://www.yadvashem.org/

Just a Thought

So with all this concern about what Shrub will do to our constitutional rights:

When was the last time you actually read the Constitution?

http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html

Semper Fi

San Antonio buried another son yesterday.

Staff Sgt. Gene Ramirez, USMC, died in Iraq on November 10, in the arms of his best friend. He was 28; a huge Texas Longhorns fan; and, by all accounts, the truest friend anyone could have.

This was Sgt. Ramirez' second tour of duty in Operation Shrub's Manhood. When he was home in September, his mother asked him not to go back.

He said he had to. It was his duty. He was a Marine.

And now his mother holds, not her son, but the folded flag from his coffin.
_________________________________________________________

The words of the prophet Jeremiah:
Oh, that my head were a stream of water,
My eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
Over the slain of the daughter of my people.

Alas! Poor Texas . . .

Once upon a time, PDL (pre-DeLay), there was a state called Texas. OK, so we did have an invasion of Maine-ers claiming TX as home. But still, it was something to see -- a state of wide open spaces and big cities. A state of oil millionaires and dust-scratchin' farmers. A state with a proud, if not un-checkered, history: the bravery of the Alamo, the defeat of Santa Ana at San Jacinto, the tragedy of the Galveston hurricane, the triumphant career of Nolan Ryan, the days when the Cowboys could justly be called America's Team. A state so insistent on voter turn-out that even death didn't end your right to vote.
Made ya proud to be a Texican.

Once upon a time.

And then came DeLay. It's not enough that he's arrogant beyond words. Not enough that his entire political history is the textbook definition of 'shady' (no offense to Eminem). Not enough that he has a gall to call Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle "partisan" for his investigation into DeLay's cronies. ((time to point out, for the record, that Earle's record on prosecuting politicians is: Demos 11, Reps 4. And Mr. Earle is a Democrat.)) Not enough that in one year, he's been admonished THREE times by a bipartisan House Ethics Committee.

No, none of that is enough. Now, just for him, the Republican Party -- remember them? the party just re-elected on "moral values"? -- have changed their 'ethics' rules so that he can still reign as Majority Leader even when (I refuse to say 'if') he is indicted.

Say it with me, folks -- Moral Values. Brought to you by Tom DeLay, R. TX.

Texas

1836-2004

R.I.P.

Dilemma

Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Do you realize what that phrase means?
It means that I am sentenced to four more years of praying for the safety of George W. Bush.

Sometimes I wish I had it in me to be an atheist.

A Modest Proposal

Four more years. My God, four more years.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Well, we can sit here and gripe and cry about it. We can rant & rave about tactics and candidates' errors and "those idiots" -- all 58 million of them. We can sulk and cry in our beer and throw up our hands in despair.

Or we can try to make a difference over the next four years. Herewith, my modest proposal:

Let's get off our butts and DO something!

Do you know who your representatives are? All of them? Go to www.congress.org. You can find your national AND state reps. With contact info. See what legislation is pending; even click on a link to read the entire bill (have aspirin ready). Find out who serves on which Congressional committees. You can even sign up to get a weekly email showing your representatives' key votes. And then --

You hold their feet to the fire. You pay attention to what they're up to, and let them know what you think. Regularly. By email, by snail-mail, by fax, by phone, by showing up at their local offices. You speak your mind, and remind them constantly that you vote (and you DO vote!).

Write a letter to the editor of your local paper; make it on something you feel strongly about. And then do it again. And again. And again.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that Washington D.C. is the only place that counts. Learn, if you don't know already, what's going on in your local area. Go to a meeting of your favorite (or least un-favorite) political party; heck, make the occasional contribution, if you can. Find out what your City Council is up to. Your county commissioners. Your state Public Utilities Commission. Your governor.

Yes, I know you have a life. No one can be 100% on top of all of this. (I certainly haven't been. ) Pick a topic, or a politician, or a congressional committee -- pick anything that matters to you. Learn what's going on. Share that knowledge with others. And scream to high heavens when something stinks.

Bush has four more years. OK. That's four solid years to hold him and his cronies accountable:

• accountable for every lake & river that's been ruined because the EPA has been defanged;
• accountable for every child who goes to bed hungry because their parents make an obscene minimum wage, or no wage at all because their jobs have been exported;
• accountable for the working poor who have no access to health care;
• accountable for every body that comes back from that unprovoked war we went into under false pretenses;
• accountable for every dollar Halliburton steals from this country;
• accountable for, to steal a phrase, what they have done, and what they have failed to do.

And keep doing it. Week after week, month after month. Make it a habit.

Many of us who give a damn can point to a defining moment in our political development. My daughter's, I think, was when she first heard Paul Wellstone speak. Mine was a generation earlier, a horrible long night when I was 14, spent curled up in a bentwood rocker, watching news broadcasts all night until the news came that Robert F. Kennedy was dead.

Something died in some of us that night. But something stronger had already been born -- the conviction that the political process IS worth working; that individuals CAN make a difference; that things CAN be made better, if only enough people care.

So, thank you Bobby. And thank you, Paul. We lost you both too soon, but the lucky among us learned lessons from you as from no one else. And if we live them, and pass them on, then your work, and your lives, were not in vain.

Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.
George Bernard Shaw

E-day 2004, part 2

OK, I was pretty sure the hope of landslide was just wishful thinking.

But as I watch the map turn red -- although as I write, it's still "too early to call" -- I wonder if it's just wishful thinking to expect people to THINK, fer-cryin-out-loud.

In the richest country in the world, children go to bed hungry, while the rich get tax cuts and no-bid federal contracts. Do people not KNOW, or do they just not CARE?

The newly-created jobs our Fearless Leader keeps mentioning pay, on average, over $8000 per year less than the jobs that have been lost under his administration. Do people not KNOW, or do they just not CARE?

Bin Laden can send out videos because instead of carrying out the "War on Terror," we went to Iraq instead. Do people not KNOW, or do they just not CARE?

We are the shame of the developed world when it comes to health care availability for our citizens. Do people not KNOW, or do they just not CARE?

The U.S. no longer even has energy or environmental policies, except as they related to helping the rich get richer. Do people not KNOW, or do they just not CARE?

No, these are not rhetorical questions. I truly do not understand. As Yul Brynner said in "The King and I:" Is a puzzlement!

E-day, 2004

And now we wait.
Some random thoughts --

Wouldn't it be interesting if the result turned out to be a landslide? If ALL these pundits and polls were completely wrong?

What is it about this particular election that has aroused such violent emotions? Usually calm, rational people (such as myself!) are going ballistic. It's not just "I disagree with his positions/actions," it's "He's an idiot/fraud/danger to the universe." Yard signs are stolen on a massive scale; grandmothers are brainwashing grandkids; couples are sleeping in separate beds; friends are afraid to even mention the subject. Healthy political discourse? or nationwide psychotic break?

And finally -- does that smirk George Bush has been wearing lately REALLY a twin to the Jeter Smirk? Or is it just proof that the above paragraph applies to me?

I'm afraid it's going to be a looooong night . . .

The Scandal

Well, having put the Church first in my blog description, might as well get this topic out of the way (at least for now) --

Everyone repeat after me:
Celibacy does NOT equal pedophilia.
Celibacy does NOT equal homosexuality.
Homosexuality does NOT (repeat, NOT) equal pedophilia.

Are we all clear on these concepts? As horrible as any abuse of children is, to blame it on the celibate priesthood (a discussion for another time) is just plain ignorant.
If the requirements of the Roman Catholic priesthood are the cause of child abuse, explain to me why the vast majority of abuse is committed by other than priests. What is your explanation for abuse by parents? step-parents? teachers? ministers of other denominations? atheists?

None of this is to excuse those priests. Nor the higher-ups who moved them around, in effect condoning their actions. If I Ruled the Church, John Cardinal Law would be spending the rest of his life as an anonymous lay brother, cleaning latrines in a desert monastery.
But I don't, and he's not, and my blood pressure goes up every time I see his name in the news. He and those like him have left a trail of disaster behind them. Broken lives, faith destroyed, beloved parishes being closed due to the financial strain of lawsuit settlements. This all lays directly at their feet.

I used to think that we needed a conciliator for our next Pope. Not any more. The next Pope needs to take as his image and model the Jesus who threw the moneychangers out of the Temple. He needs to get angry over things like this -- publicly and visibly angry. People who are there only for themselves need to be thrown out. On their ears. Preferably in front of a full crowd at St. Peter's Square, with worldwide media coverage.

Kyrie Eleison.