Corportions, Unions with as Government Referee

Corporations, Unions, with Government as Referee

As a graduate student starting a dissertation, I discovered that the big three above should play balanced roles with the qualification that all three were largely run by decent people largely working in the public interest. How drastically things have changed with greed now running a country with millions in desperate need.

My first career choice for which I was awarded a B.D. degree qualifying me to practice theology from Union Theological Seminary with an exchange year at Oxford. But these very studies and faculty such as Reinhold Niebuhr persuaded me that the "social gospel" was not being promoted by by Billy Graham (and progeny) but rather being trumped by worse things now being replayed from the the past of Christianity -- wars, torture, burning people (witches/drones) including as well Muslims and Jews.

I would Google all this for you, but arthritis has reduced me to single finger typing. You can find if all there. Try the Children's Crusades, for example:
http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/children.html
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"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)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

How Fortunate We Are!

In 1979 I was able to negotiate a 'non-eviction' co-op for our building, 440 Riverside Drive at W. 116th St., where my wife and I have done public service including battle with Columbia -- from which we both hold degrees -- for its greedy conversion of our neighborhood to 'millionaires only need apply' (our 6 windows overlooking Riverside Drive and the Hudson River cost only about $20,000 then). We had sellers to us who had been had by Columbia which really wanted our prize building big time. They honored the public interest and even offered mortgages to those who could not afford them.

As I type this I look out on the beauty of the snow covered trees. My three children and 4 grands are a variously scattered from Manhattan to Florida for spring break and Presidents' Day. I feel so fortunate having chosen teaching in the City University of NY as my career rather than one of the big money things where I was more than welcomed -- wrote for Time Inc. pubs during my junior/senior summer at Yale where I had turned down Skull and Bone's illegal early invitation as News Chair and where I dropped out of our 'liberal' one for violating the privacy of student records when selecting our successors.
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"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)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

The Weight Of War: New Efforts To Treat Pain

[Having worked as a college student summers in some factory and construction jobs, I am well aware that heavy weights can injure backs permanently -- as was the aircraft plant back in the 1950s which prohibited us from lifting more than 30 pound loads. This was not altruism. They knew that injured workers could cost them money.

I am amazed, then, that those who have no knowledge of such things want to raise the age for social security, etc.

As an elder -- just turned 68 -- I am well aware of pain -- arthritis and treatments for it. I am suffering from those things mentioned below and getting the treatments -- heavy pain killers (may me dull and I fight that with coffee), physical therapy (a new field requiring 3 years of study and a great help to me, and other non-traditional treatments that help, too. One of my daughters is on her way to a Ph.D. in nursing with 4 children in tow. The other is a specialist in non-traditional meds -- yoga, massage, etc. Between the two, I have a close eye on my medical needs.

What really gets to me is the blindness of so many to the pain suffered by physical workers at early ages. One of my students fell off a roof and would halt the pain killers on class days so he could concentrate. I think Obama is aware of these things, but needs to fight harder against the Republicans who obviously don't give a damn about human suffering -- only their profits.

What follows reports on the suffering of our young soldiers who are carrying too heavy stuff. I fear that far too many of them will have their lives ended before they can be begun. Ed Kent]

The Weight Of War: New Efforts To Treat Pain

Patricia Murphy
02/15/2011 Share This

Soldiers and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan routinely carry from 60 to more than 100 pounds of gear. The heavy load shouldered over many months of duty contributes to the chronic pain suffered by many soldiers.

Specialist Joseph Chroniger deployed to Iraq in 2007. Chroniger is 25 years old and he suffers debilitating pain from a form of degenerative arthritis and bone spurs.

Chroniger: "My neck hurts every day, every day. You can't concentrate on anything but that, because it hurts that bad."

Pain care is an emerging field. Currently most doctors rely on some combination of painkillers and physical therapy. The Army is starting to incorporate other forms of treatment like yoga, acupuncture and meditation.

KUOW's Patricia Murphy has the second part of our collaborative series with the Seattle Times: "The Weight Of War."

http://kuow.org/program.php?id=22420
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"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)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Egypt's Lesson -- HURTING PEOPLE IS WRONG!!!!!

Iran opposition 'planning protests'
Seemingly emboldened by events in Tunisia and Egypt, there are reports about calls for anti- government rallies.
D. Parvaz Last Modified: 13 Feb 2011 14:24 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/2011212162526150718.html

One cannot predict at the moment what sort of democracy Egypt will produce or even that it may not be taken over by a military junta.

But I am incurably optimistic here. The rebellion has happened and will most likely stimulate others such as that intimated by Al Jazeera in Iran. The log jam of petty tyrannies running many Muslim and African countries has been broken -- and with the internet there is no putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. As soon as enough people have been educated in a nation, they will break the backs of its tyrants. We no longer live in a cold war world. Nations will be judged by their treatment of their own and others in need and not their military prowess.

Ironically the Republicans have arrived in DC just in time to commit hari kari with their focus on cutting budgets rather than using them intelligently to assist those in desperate need. "Hari kari, also known as sepuku, is an ancient form of ritual suicide that defeated samurai, or those whose shame was 'too unbearable' would use to restore their honor in death."

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_hari_kari#ixzz1DrEWwgND

Praise Allah that we have a president who cares about the well-being of people! Even the greediest of CEOs will feel this pressure as people speak out. I am proud to be an American who believes that we can always fix things if we work at it. And I think the brave Egyptians have shown us the way!
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"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)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Egyptian Democracy Is Not a Threat to Israel

I can entirely sympathize with Israeli nervousness over the apparent advent of Egyptian democracy -- not yet certain under a military regime.

I have good friends in Israel/Palestine about whom I care greatly. But I think this historical event gives them new powers to enlist justice for themselves and abused Palestinians. None but a suicidal mad person would attack Israel now and risk its massive capacity for retaliation. On the other side of the fence Israelis (e.g. Avigdor Lieberman and his party from the old Soviet Union) had better shape up if they don't want to bring down the wrath of their Muslim neighbors, but also their understandably nervous fellow Israelis!

It now may be possible to put some pressure on such as Hamas to take democracy seriously as well as Israelis to recognize that Palestinians are fellow humans!

I criticize Israel for its its abuses; my right wing classmates on a small 1956 Yale list accuse me of being an anti-Semite. This is a bit ironic as I exposed Yale's anti-Semitic admissions practices as Chair of the Yalie Daily.

Hopefully the U.S. will redirect its financial aid to Egypt and Israel from the military to the real needs of people. We need not blow so much -- as the original rationale under Carter no longer exists -- keeping the peace between the two with big handouts. Others are equally, if not more deserving. And it is time for us to move from being the world's arms brokers to becoming a global peacemaker.
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"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)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Muslim Democracy? PANIC!!!

One of the myths bought by Americans and Muslims alike is that it is the U.S. goaded by AIPAC that is allowing Israel to abuse the Palestinians. See the comment by Netanyahu featured in the latest AIPAC (below).

The truth of the matter is that the greedy Muslim dictators in that area have been using the U.S. as their cover for profits garnered from the abuses of the Palestinians and their own people. See the range of funds from our U.S. foreign aid budget: #1 Israel, #2 Egypt, etc., etc.

The panic here is multiple -- no more big U.S. bucks, no more excuses for abuses of the Palestinians -- and other Muslims by their own greedy dictators.

If you check with your neighbors -- I live in the Upper West Side of Manhattan -- you will discover that Jews as well as the rest of us are deeply distressed by the Israeli excesses. And Bibi looks a bit scared that his game may be up with the Mubarak out of there:

"Israel Concerned Egypt May Fall to Islamic Extremists" (Bibi)

"Israel is keeping a close eye on developments in Egypt.
The recent mass protests in Egypt have caused the Israeli government to reassess its security needs as Egypt may fall to Islamic extremists opposed to the existence of the Jewish state, the Associated Press reported. "In a state of chaos, an organized Islamic group can take over a country. It has happened. It happened in Iran," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "A takeover of oppressive regimes of extreme Islam violates human rights, grinds them to dust ... and in parallel also pose a terrible danger to peace and stability." More...

http://www.aipac.org/

Wow! Bibi concerned with peace and human rights? A new day?

The positives that may emerge from this chaos are that we may actually see some democracy in some of the Muslim nations -- looks like their greedy dictators are as nervous as Bibi.

Needless to say caring people such as Obama may be wrestling to find the right way to go. And he will have to cope with the Sarahs and Randys who live in their respective dream lands. Will a few sane Republicans wake up to this new day -- or many Democrats as well. Habitual propaganda is hard to shake.
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"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)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Dispositions of Humans: Caring, Indifferent, Murderous

We humans do not have 'free will'. We have dispositions that can erupt in all sorts of situations -- and can be enlarged by these. Our political bodies illustrate such with all the rationales supporting each.

Our Supreme Court formats this phenomenon numerically -- all those 5-4 votes. Four now care. Four are murderous. One is an occasional swing vote.

The sad breakdowns of returning veterans probably illustrate caring young people who are shocked by the murderous things they were induced to do or simply see. They were drilled with the military thing of taking orders from superiors which induced various types of inherent appeals -- distress to the caring, indifference to others, and pleasure for the inherent killers.

Under stress the indifferent or even caring can be driven towards murder. As a child of WW2 I was steered in that direction only to be drawn back to my innate dispositions with group meetings set up with British and German teens to make peace (I was an American exchange student greatly helped, too, by this process).

Needless to say the Tea Baggers are some mix of the indifferent and murderous. And sadly the Republican party seems to have lost its soul in recent decades. The degree of human suffering in this vast and wealthy nation now is staggering! We have lost our European roots and are degenerating into a greedy CEO run nation -- another Egypt, if you will.

Where this is leading us I fear thinking or saying.
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"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]