America's Mass Murderer -- Richard Cheney

It looked at the time as though Cheney, not Bush, was running that administration's war policies and all the evil deeds associated with it. Not the least was the illegal war against Iraq.

It should be no surprise, then, to find Cheney (not Bush) attempting to justify his criminal acts. Only history will eventually reveal the full extent of American cruelties and murders committed under Cheney. We as Americans have not really admitted fully to our wrong-doing. Bits and pieces slip out to be defended by the Tea Party nuts -- and Cheney.

Thank the gods that we have an honest president now putting an end to these abuses of the Rule of Law as best he can. This is not to say that things are perfect now. I hate the reports of drones killing people from on high -- there was a TV run on same from which I walked away a few minutes ago. It is a sad business to see our TV media jocks giving Cheney equal time. It would be the same as offering such to Hitler post W.W.II!

Murderers, particularly mass murderers, are the worst of humans. Manifestly they lack empathy for others and enjoy inflicting their evils upon them. Watch Cheney's facial expressions as he lets rip yet another attack on Obama. This is not an individual defending what he has done. It is one continuing on with same. I hope Obama does not let himself be conned into becoming Cheney light. He has too much on his mind now to get it all right.

One almost wishes that a Hell really existed -- not really as this man is what he is for reasons beyond our comprehension.

And so it goes as this horrendous decade ends.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Where Did My Money Go?

Arianna Huffington suggests that we should take our money out of big banks and put it in small ones. The problem, however, is that the small banks are likely to put your money right back into the big ones. We have a local bank where we are very happy -- Banco Popular. However, our mortgage with them soon got moved to a big outfit and after that Wells Fargo.

As we all know some of our banks are rushing to increase interest rates and hit us in any number of ways for extra cash. Beware making a late payment. One cannot even be sure a bank will not lose a payment made.

I noticed that a mortgage payment for a house we own had not gone through my account. When I called to check, they had no record of receiving it and it certainly has not been returned by the Post Office. No charges that time except for a payment by phone.

I find as I run through bills error after error. Sallie Mae gives no monthly notice of payments due (our children's student loan remnants), but charges late fees. It provides a booklet and no envelopes for sending in monthly payments.

And then there are the mysterious increases in rates -- interest increases presumably. We have one outfit that ups rates from 3.99% to 29.99% with a late payment. Another demanded full repayment with a death of one of the card holders -- offered a deal of a reduced amount.

And then there are those odd phone calls as well as emails that one knows are crooks -- but how did they figure which bank was mine. Speaking of privacy there is no guarantee that someone cannot be bought to give out vital information.

Help!

********************************************

Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs

By Arianna Huffington and Rob Johnson, Move Your Money. Posted December 30, 2009.

How? For starters, you could move your money to a small bank

http://www.alternet.org/story/144882/take_your_money_out_of_the_hands_of_the_banking_oligarchs?page=1
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

No 100% Security -- but . . .

The current obsession with airplane security is probably misleading our efforts. There are thousands of potential attack sites in this country. I will not detail them here for obvious reasons.

But note that we blew it with this most recently publicized case because we did not listen to the warning from the guy's own father!

The point that I am leading up to here is that we cannot possibly guard all potential targets, but we can ask people to alert us with their suspicions. I am addressing this blog to the FBI -- sorry if this causes them bother. But we all should have phone numbers and email addresses that we can contact with danger information that we pick up -- even an overheard conversation. Friends and families are our best sources. But obviously we are going to miss things. We can only do what we can do. Right now I would get us off the plane obsession and think of other likely targets suggested by the daily mass murder reports from the Middle East.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

FBI-NYC

Where Is the Written Word Going?

The latest gimmick by mags seems to be an offering of reduced renewal costs if one identifies a friend who will get a free subscription. We took advantage of one of these.

However, I must admit that I am relieved not to be still teaching with the apparent shift over from books to computers. I am fortunate to have children who can bail me out when I need help with the latter, but I wonder how my older colleagues are doing with all the notices that they are receiving from our library, etc. on what is and is not available for students.

I used to make research and writing long papers my primary requirement for my students. I did get one reprint of an article from the Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Now with a few late papers I discover that websites are the bibliography.

What does this do to thinking? I enjoyed reading books from all backgrounds and learned much therefrom. But I wonder how many students do more than they have to for courses and, thus, narrow their knowledge span. Certainly much of our political nonsense these days seems so bound in. Obama did international affairs at Columbia as well as law school thereafter. He seems to respect facts -- that there actually are such. But one can find anything on the web that one wants to back up the craziest opinions.

Help! What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

And Our Homeless?

Below is the NYC weather report. As I sit at my computer with radiators blazing away and protected by new sealed windows, I still feel the chill and hear the whistling of the wind.

I wonder what will happen to the homeless who are about to be expelled from our overcrowded homeless shelters to face this day on the streets.

Our news reports today are about good things -- crime and murders are down in our town this year. People are out taking advantage of sales, etc., etc.

But our employment rate is bad -- particularly for African American men. Some buildings are not that well heated, even if one still can remain in one.

I guess that we live in the only industrialized democracy that does not do a number of things for its suffering ones. Were I younger and well enough I would join my next door neighbor who works with the homeless at a neighborhood church. I hope some of these are opening their doors here in NYC. I do not read about it, if they are.

*******************************8

Partly Cloudy

Feels Like:
25 °F
Barometer:
29.82 in and rising
Humidity: 37 %

Wind: WNW 17 mph

http://weather.yahoo.com/united-states/new-york/central-park-23505566/
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Getting Things Right This Year!

I was thinking out a blog when I discovered a parallel in the Krugman Op-Ed below. The past year has been one in which misinformation -- downright lying -- has been given equal standing with the truth. The pattern of TV comments -- left/right 20 second hits with interruptions -- has left a majority of Americans totally confused as to what is true and what is merely false opinion to be given equal or even superior status to the truth. What medical reform means is a clear example of this pattern.

Other situations are more complicated and without certainties, e.g. should we stay in Afghanistan to stabilize Pakistan and avoid another India/Pakistan war -- this time with nuclear capacities?

I hope this year we can begin to get to the facts and get the facts as best we can to a puzzled and worried public. We may have an uphill battle here because the big guys are grabbing and distorting our media outlets. Teddy Roosevelt saw the hazards at the beginning of the last century and called for reforms then -- particularly anti-trust laws to prevent control of things by pure wealth. These laws are being ignored with obvious results -- the medical profit makers are trying to write our health reform bill; military profiteers are trying to tip as much of our resources their way as possible - even if that requires phony wars and threats of same.

*********************************

The Big Zero
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Let's bid a not at all fond farewell to the Big Zero -- the decade in which we achieved nothing and learned nothing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/opinion/28krugman.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Getting to the Kids

I all too vividly recall how we as children hated our enemies during W.W.II. We taught ourselves Japanese techniques for killing people with our bare hands (jujitsu ) which I all too well remember.

One hears that the children on both sides of our various world conflicts are traumatized and it is no surprise that they grow up ready to kill their 'enemies'.

Occasionally people make efforts to get kids together from conflicts which sometimes helps. As an exchange student at a British school, I participated in one of these -- British and German teens hiking down the Rhine with me as the odd American who had to change sides half way through ball games. It did make a difference. My dearest friend met his German wife while stationed in Germany. I spoke at his funeral, but Gudrun and I stay in close touch. She played a major role in her career of service to those in need.

I saddens me to hear of the retaliatory killings, e.g. Israel's recent 6 killed in response to one Israeli settler killed by someone.

It is time we got to work on these things before we are trapped by yet another nuclear disaster.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Nuclear Disaster in the Middle East?

Israel has a history of defending itself with overkill tactics - Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, Palestinians, etc. I hate to imagine what might be the outcome if Israel were to find that Iran is constructing a nuclear bomb which could more or less destroy Israel. I suspect that Israel would hit first with everything it needed to annihilate Iran, including nuclear bombs.

What the fallout would be I cannot guess. But none of us had better take this situation lightly. Iran seems to be somewhat in chaos now and perhaps with good reason with its Revolutionary Guards apparently running the show. I don't recall any suicide bombings by Iranians, but stupidity is not in short supply with military leaders and protest there has been silenced.

What should the U.S. do? Among things we should speak out about the perils of playing nuclear games as I am trying to do here. I see no way we can use military force to halt the Iranians. It is a large country situated in the middle of things where we are at present over committed.

I would hate to be Obama and his team trying to figure this one out.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

American Football Versus British Rugby -- Brain Damage

The recent discovery that head injuries from American sports can cause permanent brain damage reminded me of the radical difference in potential injuries between American football which I played as a student here and Rugby which I did as a British exchange student the next year

Here I had badly injured my wrist. A plastic cast was put on it and I continued to play along side a teammate with a similar injury. With those hard casts we were a menace to those playing opposite us.

In Rugby I played center of the back which did risk rubbing one's ears against the butts of those with whom one was pushing together against the opposite side. One of my ears was slightly bruised for life by this. One of the things I had to learn to do differently was tackling. In the U.S. we hit people as hard as we could. In Rugby one goes for the lower legs simply to bring someone down who is carrying the ball. I had to be told not to use the American tactic which was hurting people.

I had some good British medical care, too, getting my wrist back in shape. None of our sports were harmful to people. We played a version of field hockey similar to that of American girls. No hitting people with our hockey sticks.

I for one would favor banning our sports that injure people -- particularly their brains. We could live with baseball, basketball, and soccer and do without boxing and football.

What do you think?

*********************************

THE CATALYST
Redirecting the Debate on Brain Injuries
By ALAN SCHWARZ
Representative Linda T. Snchez, a Democrat of
California, redirected the debate surrounding brain
injuries in football.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/sports/football/27sanchez.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Israel's Excessives

I support the existence of Israel, but not it excessive retaliations against enemies. Below is cited the Canadian report of 6 Palestinians killed in apparent retaliation for the killing of an Israeli settler:

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE5BP0CM20091226?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

I first noticed this pattern when Israel more or less destroyed Lebanon in 1982. Then more recently was the massive destruction of lives and property in Gaza.

The report of the six killed in retaliation for the killing of a settler is on our TV and I assume is more or less accurate. The Canadian report does not indicate that the killer(s) punished were the ones who killed the settler.

The tribal retaliatory approach to enemies is the great flaw that Israel shares with its neighbors. It could be doing such good by a a rule of law model of punishment rather than merely imitating the worst practices of the area. I have good friends in Israel and Palestine who do the best to make non-violence the model of protest, but they are outnumbered and silenced.

I see no good, but only disaster resulting from Israel's excesses. To make one's community hated is no way to go.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

"Terrorist" Is a Dangerous Term

There is no consensus on the meaning of the term, "terrorist." For those attacked the word is expanded and misused in conjunction with such as "war" to justify actions not that far removed from those of the "terrorists", i.e. killing innocent people.

Rather we should be reducing the actions of "terrorists" to what they legally really are -- murderers, crazies, depressives (when they commit suicide) and ignorantly naive. The rule of law is where we should be and not violating it with the excuse that we are at 'war' -- the Cheney cop out.

Calling people "terrorists" may indicate that they are enemies of us, of other religious and ethnic groups, etc. But it casts them in the light of being heroes from their own perspective to be rewarded either monetarily or by an insane perversion of their religion or sense of justice against their enemies.

It is long gone time that we ended our "wars on terrorists" and got down to the business of peace-making with those similarly afflicted by them.

What could be crazier than a 23-year-old trying to blow up a plane with some 278 passengers mainly from his own native country, many of whom were presumably planning to celebrate a joyful religious holiday with family (one of my college roommates was a Nigerian who has had a brilliant medical career both in Nigeria and now in the U.S., so this guy really gets to me).

************************************

Terror Attempt Seen as Man Tries to Ignite Device on Jet
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR and ERIC SCHMITT
A Nigerian man tried to ignite an explosive device as a jet
landed in Detroit on Friday in what is believed to be "an attempted act of terrorism," according to a White House
official.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/26/us/26plane.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Time to Adjust AND Learn Health Reform Bill Details

It was a relief to learn that the health reform bill will not be signed into law until some time in February. There has been so much confusion and misrepresentation that I imagine that the vast majority of us don't know what the bill's various forms entail. The hassle over having it is now over with the Senate vote today. I gather that only a majority of each house is needed to pass an identical version acceptable to both houses.

I am sorry that the Republicans have been our party of "no" throughout the deliberations. Having experienced what health care is in our fellow industrial democracies, I have been appalled at the nonsense inflicted on us by the profit makers: excessive costs for medications, arbitrary denials of coverage. My wife used to spend hours getting the latter straightened out and saved us many thousands of dollars in the process. I hate to think of the abuses of those not as sharp as she was in working through these things. I could not have done it and I have a Ph.D. in legal areas.

I have been appalled by the Republican misrepresentations of the facts and the TV pattern of repeating them in short form so that this primary source of information has misled those who need the right information the most.

Now there will be time to deliberate, make choices, and explain details and implications. We did not win it all, but we have a good start in the right direction. Yes, we should have single payer medicine as do the several dozen other industrialized democracies at costs half or less than the waste and moral theft that we have had with our basic health needs.

We were lucky after my retirement to have all covered so that we only had some heavy bills for medicines to carry.

Let's hope for better things now.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

U.S. Only Industrialized Democracy Without Universal Free Healthcare

It looks as though we might be making some progress towards joining our fellow industrialized democracies (several dozen) which offer their people -- citizens and visitors -- free medical care.

Four members of my own family have been beneficiaries of such care in two European countries. Actually my daughter studying for a semester in Italy had to pay $25 for the coverage. Another daughter working in a summer program in Britain paid nothing. And my wife and I as students at Oxford 1957-8 had excellent care.

One time when my wife and I had pneumonia a doctor came to our flat and also scolded us for being smokers. When a bag fell and cut my forehead badly while I was working as a heavy freight porter at Oxford station, I had highly professional stitching done by a doctor who saved me from a permanent scar. Britain did not give aliens much in the way of job choices and needing money I took that job rather than working as a stringer for Time Inc. which came with the restriction that I would have to stick with the job for a year, messing up my grad studies. Made some good friends there.

We have not yet made it to single payer medicine, but the present bill looks like a start. Let us hope that we can get there. Our competitor nations pay generally less than half our health costs out of general tax revenues rather than paying huge profits to our medical suppliers and for their bureaucracies and all those ads that haunt us daily.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Allowing Us to Die in Comfort?

It is no secret that Medicare waste is due too often to a dozen or more specialists claiming services to people who are dying.

In my view, when the end is plainly in sight, we should be allowed to die in comfort. Pain relief is easy and cheap to administer. And frankly I would want the option of euthanasia were I facing the terminal stages of cancer or some other unstoppable medical killer.

I speak as one who spent much time in hospitals this past decade, caring for my wife who died in the end quickly and in complete comfort (she was not conscious). She was beloved by literally hundreds for her community service. She hung in there until suddenly blood leaking in the brain put her out for the last weeks.

The problem that one encounters is that relatives all too often control the treatment of patients who are dying. They are unwilling to face the inevitable and they bear my sympathy. But it is the person dying who should have the last word. I want to specify that in advance in writing, should I not be able to speak at the time.

Euthanasia is not a universal right now. It should be with limiting conditions protecting against depression induced suicides. But it should be a basic human right. People died quickly before advanced in modern medicine allowed us to stretch things out.

What do you think?

****************************************8

MONTHS TO LIVE
Weighing Medical Costs of End-of-Life Care
By REED ABELSON
Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center is confronting a hard
truth: it's difficult to know which critically ill patients
will benefit from its high-intensity approach.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/health/23ucla.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Origins and Meaning of Christmas?

The Christmas story as we know it appears only in the Gospel of Luke with an echo in Matthew, is not mentioned in Mark which is considered to be the earliest of the Gospels. Christmas was dated and first practiced in the fourth century in competition with the Roman gods of that time -- perhaps as a starting point of each new year.

As I read through comments this morning on the web, there looks to be considerable concern with the commercialization of Christmas as the big sales event of the year. Children particularly are focused on presents to be received, not the religious notions of care and concern for people of Jesus.

I have happy memories of this annual celebration which I shall review in memory this year as my beloved wife (recently deceased) and I celebrated it over the years -- first in Oxford where we were studying and then with her family, then with our own.

I wish the sentiment of Christmas as care and concern for those in need could be universalized and its range be extended beyond just Christians.

I am not a religious believer myself, but I do hope always to better the lives of those in need which seemed to be the mission of Jesus' life and cause of his death at the hands of the well-off of his day who were threatened by such as his Sermon on the Mount.

Better gods of peace than of war. And this is one of the primary meanings of Christmas to me -- not "marching off to war," but ending all wars to enable us to do better things with our energies and resources.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Those Damned Ads!

I tune in to TV in hopes of getting the most recent political news -- domestic and global. As my attention wavers, there is the usual blast of an ad at a higher volume than what was being covered.

But what gets to me more is the rapidly degenerating content. More and more we are getting soft porn. We are paying costs for medications that all too often turn out to be dangerous. The picturing of sick people is downright depressing. And is the sex life of Americans so bad that they need a half dozen chemical remedies to produce those glazed looks on the faces of middle aged couples?

Our medical reform bill will obviously be limited and flawed to meet the lowest common prejudices of some of the 60 necessary to pass something -- maybe later we can make improvements. But as things stand now part of our medical expenses in addition to the bill denying/collecting medical insurance and drug profit-making lies in those damned ads.

I find myself trying to block out this stuff without missing news by using the silencing equipment, but the pictured remains and is in some ways worse than the verbal chatter.

What to do, I do not know. We live in an oligarchy that looks to be pretty much controlled by the super rich corporate heads. And the worst ads are theirs of the political lies they promote that are destroying what little democracy that he have left in this country.

Help!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Where Will Columbia Get the Money?

Columbia's eminent domain grab of lower West Harlem's Manhattanville has been denied by a 3-2 vote of the Court of Appeals. However, a similar vote on a comparable patch of Brooklyn was overruled by the NY State Supreme Court. I imagine the same will happen with Columbia.

However, as a graduate degree holder from Columbia, what bothers me is how Columbia will pay for its planned expansion? It has been rumored that it was promised massive loans ($100 million) from our state government (or NYC?). But with the economy where it is, I wonder whether Columbia has not bitten off more than it can chew. Its planned medical research faces global competition and its boast that it lost less endowment than competitors (below) is not all that reassuring. Will it be student tuitions that take the blast?

We shall see, but I am worried that these guys let the bubble carry them away. Now we are in a deep recession and monies are no longer flowing freely.

**************************************

BOSTON (Reuters) - Columbia University said on Friday that its endowment lost 16.1 percent in its last fiscal year, far less than its Ivy League rivals Harvard and Yale.

e/idUSTRE58B02520090912
-- http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE58B02520090912http://www.reuters.com/articl
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Con Artist Emails -- and Phone Calls, Too?

One figures that one will get a dozen or so con artist emails a day looking for ways to gain access to one's resources. Last evening I had what I figure might have been a phone equivalent from a very nervous lady trying to persuade me to have my mortgage paid out of my bank account or credit card. I did not. It only occurred to me later that such information would be sent by letter, not an evening phone call. Perhaps it was innocent, but I imagine that this is one of the new tactics for getting at our basic info.

I admit that I don't check all things listed as purchases, but I do check balances. Several years ago I discovered too long after the fact that I had paid someone's credit card bill and sent someone from NYC to Florida.

With all the computer skilled people on the loose, one wonders how long any of us will be safe from being raided. We have several virus detecting systems, but each of these is obviously obliged to update frequently to keep ahead.

My basic credit card offers protection for a small monthly fee and calls whenever it suspects something odd. I guess one can battle back if one reports things quickly.

What a damned nuisance. I wonder what percentage of people out there are computer crooks. Needless to say not all are based in the U.S.

Help!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Aging Is a Damned Nuisance

I was fortunate as a college teacher to be able to keep on teaching until I was 74. Then I realized that I was beginning to fade with my last class of the day and that it was time for me to retire. One figures that one will be able to put one's feet up and relax with retirement. No way! It is then that the problems begin. We lose dear ones. Then one figures I might enjoy getting in touch with some of my old friends with whom I have been out of touch for decades. One is all to often in for a shock when one Googles and finds that they left this world some years ago.

It is the physical stuff that really is a nuisance. Most of us have some condition or another that requires pills, pills, or some equivalent that measure out the hours of one's day. Yuk! And if one has had some bone injury many years past, one discovers that one can predict the weather with it -- it hurts again which it has not done for decades when the pressure or weather change.

Most irritating for me personally is that I cannot go and do all those things that I put off for so many years until I was free of binding responsibilities. In my case I have a bone spur pressing on a spinal nerve which requires heavy pain killers and which keeps me tied pretty much at home to avoid setting off pain responses and dizziness from the heavy med.

Frankly I don't know where I would be if the internet had not come along when it did. Reading books and articles has been hard with my eyes, but my computer opens the world to me. I can blog which I am doing here and I have made many new friends around the globe who share concerns -- both from Israel and Palestine, for instance. I also started some discussion group things in areas of interest of my own listed below. Some are pretty barren, but some are most active with no particular efforts on my part apart from getting rid of the spammers.

Many of my students have presumably stuck with my student list which I had set up for them to share things -- they did not, but still seem to be there. Battles rage on some of them over peace and Israel/Palestine, for instance. Some people really hate each other and say so frequently. One never knows what is going to turn up.

If you want to become a blogger, just enter that to Google and you will get there. There are some enjoyments along with one's grief. And if one has been able to do things one wanted such as teaching was for me, death is no big deal. As Socrates suggested, either one gets to see one's old friends again or else gets the best sleep one has ever had.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FindingHumaneJobs
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OurStupidEconomy
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net

Global Competition for Jobs?

If one looks to see how other nations are arranging jobs for their citizens, one discovers several radical differences with us that leave us in real trouble.

Some nations doing much of the manufacturing are running it with their governments, not private profit oriented corporations. China fits this model and has taken millions of our blue collar jobs by exploiting their own workers with low wages and no benefits. The corporations of still other nations have been buying up our businesses and arranging them so that we cannot compete, e.g. foreign car production done much here in the South -- minus labor union and other worker protections.

Still other nations let their governments and taxes handle expenses that put our corporations at a disadvantage, e.g. medical care done more cheaply in every other developed democracy but our own where insurance waste and high expenses put our business providers at a disadvantage.

"Cut your taxes" sounds good but it hides the real taxes such as lost jobs and high medical expenses. We are not rebuilding our infrastructures either that require tax outlays or other economies.

In short, the U.S. is living in an economic world of the past and paying the price against competitors who have modernized theirs. The Republicans attack Obama for trying to update our financial systems, but their living in the world of the past is what is killing us. Witness our big banks which no longer serve the people, but rather divide us into the jobless and scared versus the super rich who care only about accumulating massive fortunes.

And so we are facing our second potential great depression -- brought on by economic attitudes that were fought by both Roosevelts in the century past. Notice that "No" in response to every economic problem solves nothing! Help!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Homeless?

An old friend and long term neighbor and I met while leaving our building this morning. I asked how things were going with the homeless with whom she works through a local church. She said, "They can't believe what is happening to them."

It used to be that our homeless were mentally injured veterans, addicts, or generally poverty stricken people. Now any of us with some bad breaks -- loss of a job, home, massive medical bills, etc. -- may find ourselves joining the mob of lost ones. In a comment the other day I pointed out that our mayor spent $100 million to get re-elected. He is by many billions our wealthiest NYC resident. Imagine what $100 million could do to alleviate the conditions described below. Can you imagine getting to sleep on a floor for 3 hours before being booted out on the streets again. Here in NYC we are experiencing record cold -- heavy winds and freezing temperatures. How many places will let one in to warm up?

Our churches are doing their best -- or some of them anyway. But they, too, are overwhelmed as my neighbor noted as we rode down in our warm elevator to the bitter cold outside.

I hate to guess how many others around the U.S. are facing similar conditions. Do you know what is happening in your part of it? I hear the elderly in rural areas cannot even get to doctors. I hate to guess how their heating is. We are currently renting a two family house which had two older women in residence. They could manage only some of their housing expenses, so we helped as much as we could. One recently died. We are now obliged to sell it to keep us ourselves together on a teacher's pension.

I both hope that you have a home and have in mind any who do not whom you can assist?

***************************************

"They said men and women have been forced to sleep in chairs and on tables and floors. The city is required by law to provide beds for the homeless. . . that women are regularly bused to a shelter and allowed to sleep for only three hours."

http://news.gothamgazette.com/t?ctl=16571AC:DF7B9BA7F88D8CA4814469A6142223BDE8B2AAF67EB281F0&
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Mistreatment of U.S. Children?

Scarcely a day goes by when we do not have another report about mistreatment of our kids. Thirteen million are hungry:

http://www.frac.org/

The Children's Defense fund urges us to support medical care for them:

"Don't Forget: Casey's Children's CHIP Amendment (#2790) Call-In Day
Today!

Tell your Senators to Support Senator Bob Casey's (D-PA) Children's CHIP Amendment to Prevent Millions of Children from Being
Worse Off After Health Reform."

One hears that one in four girls are sexually abused.

We are cutting back on schooling with the budget crisis. Too many children are left at risk as they try to get home from school -- where their parents are not with jobs needed to support them.

I realize that there are many other financial problems that are tying up our funding, but it is time that we stopped trying to be the army running the world. We can't afford it.

Let's try to get our priorities straight.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Waiting to See What Is Planned for Afghanistan?

I am in a wait and see state as to what is planned for Afghanistan. It looks to me as though we must give it back to the Afghans while still protecting our military there. It does not look like a national government is possible, but perhaps we can give support to the various subgroups? Whatever, we need to get out of there while protecting Pakistan where the bombs are.

I simply don't have a clear picture as to the best way to go on the latter front. Perhaps our government doesn't either.

Last time around we supported a military takeover and then backed away. Will we do something like this again? I imagine that this is a Pakistani worry.

What do others think? I have not seen such a precarious problem since major wars of the past.

I guess that the best that we can do is to try to protect our guys and hope for better things with Pakistan? But as we all know, this is not what many of us want here.

Any good suggestions?

And then there is Iran!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Stressed Out?

In a recent blog on the good old days for workers with whom I had joined summers during my student years, I forgot to mention the pleasures that many enjoyed -- boating weekends, one had his own plane, none manifested anxiety about life or work.

Needless to say we are nearly all stressed out now. I hate watching TV news and particularly those ads that warn of dire medical conditions. We are overwhelmed both by knowledge and facts. We never knew of the suffering of millions around the globe in those days. We had survived a murderous war and hoped for peace from then on. Even the Cold War threat of nuclear war was minimal -- each side saw that such would be suicidal. But now we have suicide bombers who kill indiscriminately. People whose religious views have moved backwards in time to the barbaric origins of our major Western religions.

Religion these days is too often used as a gift giver rather than a means of helping those in need. Pray to your deity and he will give you a job raise or a hoard of virgins to enjoy. Colonialism is both under fire and still lurking to reward the winners of this or that war or control by a corrupt government.

I grimly read the news each day and get the worst of it from internet sources for which I signed in at some past date. As an elder I feel too frail to fight back as I would when I was younger. I blog my feelings and concerns and chat with friends with similar concerns around the globe.

Where we are going from here I honestly do not know. I hope Obama can make things better for us, but he is under fire for trying to do so.

And so things are.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Catholic Church Reforms?

The Roman Catholic Church does many good things, but sadly at its most recent major conference, Vatican II, its reform disposed Pope died and the Church has since been a major enemy of vital human rights, particularly those of women and gays. Manifestly women need all the protections they can get against venereal diseases. Gays should not be attacked because St. Paul proposed that they deserved death.

It looks to me as though the major problem of this church is that noted by Luther -- domination by a Roman Empire model of political controls. The Times editorial below gives a whack to one of my least favorite among the political control figures. There are worse. Probably celibacy should be abandoned. It serves no particular positive purpose and has caused evils such as those noted in this editorial. There are many good Catholic scholars who have been silenced when they have spoken out, e.g. Hans Kung and John Courtney Murray, S.J. whom I included in my field text, Law and Philosophy, many years ago.

I gather that the Church is losing ground both in Europe and in Latin America, gaining in some parts of Africa. I wonder what will happen here where many good Catholics disagree with their Church on some of the issues noted above?

I leave you here with the Times editorial sentiments which demonstrate that the Church is under fire and will probably be more so publicly in the future. The current Pope is no hero of mine -- only a Hitler youth and not a supporter of the Nazis as one pope was during WW II.

Enough said.

A Bishop's Words
It is chilling to read Bishop Edward Egan's response to the
alleged accounts of child abuse by priests in recently
released documents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/opinion/07mon2.html?th&emc=th

..................
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Good Old Workiing Days

Half a century ago when I needed summer jobs to support my studies, I would try to find different things each year -- tutoring two lovely little girls, writing short stories of enterprise for Fortune Magazine, building houses for factory workers, packing parts in an aircraft factory, destroying bomb fuses for a scrap metal company -- Suisman and
Blumental in Hartford, Conn. I mention them by name as they were the only company to my knowledge that hired African American men in that area and also gave some scholarships to college.

The most intriguing group with which I worked were the guys at the aircraft plant -- most were former oil well workers from Texas -- a hellish kind of job, I gather. One day a foreman was discovered face down in a ditch with a knife in his back, so they told me after the usual week of hazing. They called me 'preacher' when they learned of my studies in theology and were very protective, as they knew I was working two heavy jobs to earn money for marriage and a year in Oxford -- where I also did time as a heavy freight porter at Oxford station.

In those days unions were strong, pay was good, and employers treated workers with respect. There were still some women working in the aircraft plant as a carry over from WW II. The very large husband of one of them apparently got the idea that I was chasing his wife and came at me with murder in his eyes one day. He stopped suddenly and walked away. Wow, I figured, guess I scared him off. Then I turned around and saw that my buddies were putting their switch blade knives back in their pockets.

Needless to say things have changed. Foreign car companies build in our South where unions don't limit them. Jobs are scarce and even those employed are running scared.

And so things have changed in the U.S.

Ed Kent

Budget Cuts Hurt Worst Off

Most of our states are making budget cuts -- of those programs most needed by our worst off citizens -- education, Medicaid, low cost housing, jobs for the lesser educated. When we hear of job losses, let us not forget who is losing most of them -- not the more media focused middle and upper classes. Our younger college grads will eventually get there, but not older people who are losing their savings as well as employment and employment opportunities who are in dire circumstances.

The U.S. has become a nation drastically divided between poverty and wealth. The unemployment figures in NYC for African American men are our most drastic -- and race discrimination looks to have become a hiring factor as well.

I have watched the changes in recent decades in my neighborhood -- Morningside Heights with Columbia and other academic institutions. We used to have single occupancy residential buildings -- they have all been converted to co-ops or high priced rental buildings. Our restaurants are now all expensive. We have lost the low cost businesses -- to increased lease prices (many by Columbia).

We used to have people sleeping in the rail line running at lower Riverside Park. I have not seen them of late. We do have a guy who regularly begs at the corner of Broadway and 116th St. But we no longer see poor people on our streets. Harlem to the north of us is being gentrified and one of the few remaining lower income housing areas just to the south of us is also being converted to high cost stuff.

Where all this will end, I do not know. We seem to be owned and operated by our billionaires -- among which is our newly reelected mayor who is all for high cost development, budget cuts, and diminished enforcement of civil rights.

And so it goes.

-- "A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli) -- Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Hatred, Anger, Dislike, Respect

The extensive interaction with many nations about which I knew little, has made me aware what 'tribal' folk we humans are. We tend to identify with our own groups -- ethnic, class, nationality, gender -- and manifest a variety of attitudes towards others ranging along the spectrum of the subject terms above.

Wars tend to stimulate hatreds which can become broadly murderous. It is obvious that some of our young military returning from the Middle East are stricken by what they did to some there.

Anger is a milder disposition. It can come and go, be stimulated by things that still don't produce the deadly disposition to kill.

As members of groups, we may feel dislike or indifference to others than ourselves.

Sadly there is these days too little respect for others -- groups or persons. Only respecting others allows us truly to live full lives with people and engender trust and justice among us.

Some people are manifestly disposed by genes or upbringing towards one or another of these dispositions.

The suicide bombings that have been haunting us of late are deeply flawed manifestations of human despair, hatred, teaching or whatever stimulates them. Killing in wars is not much of a gain over this sort of blind murder. Innocents are too often the victims.

What to do about such, I am not quite sure. Teaching has been my personal route to making a difference in people's lives. It does not always work, but I have seen great progress made by our great teachers -- some of whom in the past became our religious models.

Where we go from here, I do not exactly know. 'Respect for Persons' is my ideal. I hope our present 'wars' will not diminish it.

And so it goes.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Patriotic Gore

I am a bit appalled by the constant (vicious) attacks on Obama while we are 'at war'. They look damned unpatriotic to me. Ordinarily our nation has unified when we have been attacked. Terrorists or Nazis -- one does not attack the Commander-in-Chief defending us. I recall some unease among the Republicans about Roosevelt assisting the Brits -- until we were hit ourselves on December 7. Then we pulled together. And there were some Hitler supporters among us, too. But they shut up quickly -- a Bush doing business with the Nazi corporations fully involved by then in anti-Semitism.

I am going to leave this blog short. I have no desire to attack Republicans in detail. But with eyes, one can see. Hopefully it will stop. Obama has made every effort to reach out.

And so it is going.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

December 7, 1941

I well recall this day as an eight-year-old. Back then families had one big radio and around 5 p.m. kids programs would run. I was listening to "Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy" when the news broke in that the Japanese had attacked our Pacific fleet mainly stuck in Pearl Harbor. I went to the kitchen to tell my parents of this strange interruption.

The nation was taken off guard as Japanese officials had been negotiating with us in Washington only a week prior. Of course, Germany and Italy followed with declarations of war shortly thereafter and the hell of WW II was launched. Our home on a hillside soon because an aircraft warning station -- such were scattered across the nation and I became an expert on planes -- theirs and ours. And I also was the eight-year-old who helped train in the volunteers who put in two hour shifts -- 24/7.

I had two uncles in the war who were pretty much destroyed by it -- never finished high school and had drinking problems after traumatic war experiences from which they never really recovered.

I learned early on that war is hell. The death toll was somewhere between 68 and 76 million and the Holocaust murdered some 6 million Jews and many others.

As my quote from Livy below indicates, war is a last resort.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice