I have a new hero. Thank you Anthony Weiner for standing up for what is right for this country and for all Americans.

Torture, slavery, feudalism and other medieval horrors...

So there is a proposed amendment to the 2010 intelligence bill that would officially make torture illegal, and mandate punishment for any representative of the US military who commits torture. Evidently this is controversial among Republicans in the house. I never could have imagined, when I was learning civics in junior high, that my country would openly justify the brutal, barbaric, behavior we have seen this past decade. I know it used to happen, but at least people who did it were properly ashamed and hid it as best they could. Will slavery be the next to return? How about indentured debt slavery? That would be a great compromise. It would solve the problem of all those people who can't pay their mortgages and also the servant problem for the rich folks who can't find decent help. We need another Fox TV program to make acceptable in the eyes of the general public.

Thank God for the rescue?

Thank God?
It's a classic story. The poor woman has been buried under the rubble of her collapsed house for five days and when she is finally dug out, alive, she cries out her thanks to God for saving her life. Wasn't it God who sent the earthquake? And wasn't it human beings who, at great risk to themselves, actually saved her? If she really does believe that God saved her, what about the thousands who suffered for days before they died? Did God not give a hoot about the others?
What a weird kind of faith that is. It's not very nice if you ask me.

Rush Limbaugh (faugh) is a nasty vicious little demagogue. He is nasty because of his personal habit of hypocrisy, preaching family values with his 3 divorces and pill-popping past. The image of him going on Caribbean vacations with suitcases full of viagra is just too disgusting to pursue.
He is vicious because he uses his power and platform to foment hatred and meannness. He spews meanness like a playground bully while his sycophantic followers huddle in his gargantuan shadow like a Greek chorus. He is little because his aspirations are small, pitiful, to disrupt and destroy unity in this country. He fits the definition of a demagogue exactly, using hatred and fear to elevate himself and gain power and money.
What a creep.

The one percent chance

Dick Cheney (in)famously made the case for invading Iraq by stating that even a one percent chance that Saddam had nuclear weapons made preemptive war imperative.
Now the vast majority of scientists are warning us that global climate change presents a significant risk of destroying civiliation, and where is Dick now?
Running his mouth and criticizing those who are trying to clean up his messes.
This must be the most evil useless person in America.

Why are so-called conservatives so resentful and afraid of universities? On every right-wing blog or radio show, we can count on hearing mocking comments about the "pansy elites" and their efforts to corrupt our pure youth.
I think it 's because conservatives really are afraid of education. Education is a force for change, for growth, for moving toward the unknown - and that scares the pants off a typical right-wingnut.
They claim to education but their actions betray a deep and subconscious fear of the results. What a conservative really supports is training. The whole"no child left behind" fiasco focused on training children, not educating them. The difference springs from the latin word e-ducare from which we derive "educate". Educare means to lead forth, to lead out. It means we don't know where we will end up at the end of the process. Human progress throughout history has occurred when brave souls had the guts to go in a new direction.
Training is a whole different process whereby the ends are pre-determined. We can train children to perform tasks, and measure those tasks with rubrics and exams. We can't measure education so easily. A true education may simmer for years before producing flowers that are unique and lovely. How can we measure this?

Decent health care for everyone or third world country ?

The first line of the constitutions states that it was established and ordained to promote the general welfare, among other purposes. If health care isn't the general welfare, what is? We need a strong public investment in health care for all Americans, or this country will no longer be the great beacon of hope and freedom we love.
The health care industry, along with the military industrial complex, is draining vast resources that could be going to education, scientific research, and public works that benefit and advance our society. How much of that money is siphoned off to go to insurance companies? Insurance companies provide no health care. They solely exist to make a profit and the only way they can do that, is to restrict access to health care. Providers must pay a large percentage of their income to workers who do nothing but deal with all the paperwork involved in filing claims to all the different companies. Consumers pay vast sums of money to insurance companies who ration their health care. Doctors don't decide what you need. The insurance companies tell doctors what you may have.
What a waste.
Our lack of a decent system of efficient health care puts us at risk the next time a virulent pandemic appears. And it will. History tells us that disease is as likely to bring down a culture as invasion. Ask the Incas and the other Native Americans who were conquered by the smallpox virus and the measles virus which decimated their populations and allowed them to be subjugated by Europeans.
Look at the black death, which forever altered the structure of medieval society.
If we work together as a nation, we can do this. We can develop a real, health care system and conserve our resources.
Or we can go the route of greed and corruption, of division and fear, and finally, the end of the American dream.
It ain't looking good.