January 2003, week 5
|
January 2003, week 5
|
|
Monday January 27 , 2003 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." -- Herman Goering from an interview at the Nuremberg trials "...the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious." -Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister -Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister The quotes above are true I have substantiated it in three places Sopes, (Click on the Quotes icon)
I got the hoax about the Gold Star Mothers today... nasty little piece about how Hillary Clinton snubbed the Gold Star Mothers... total wall to wall lie. It has been denied by all involved from Hillary to The Gold Star Mothers themselves... Read about it here and here. I looked over the GoldStar site in the hope that they had made a statement of some kind in support of or against the impending hostilities. Something to give me an idea about what they stand for. There is a lengthy page about how and why they were established but nothing to tell me which way they lean politically... I had hoped there would be some subtle comment pro or con... nada. Nothing political there at all. It's actually a sort of bland site... I hope there is more substance to their organization than their site implies.
That is nice... Autumn is sick today... weak as a kitten, a fever, seemed to want to vomit a few times, She got the Mokie Disease. Mokie seemed sort of punky this morning from her bout with the flu yesterday so we kept her home too. We packed them up and went to pick up Mike at school for his meeting at Probation. I drove like a bandit and got to the office 10 minutes late... (I had to get gas) and the PO wasn't in today... he had a "personal emergency" and was out of town. He had apparently been gone all weekend... no one called me... that outfit is run like they don't give a damn about anybody but their individual selves... the lady working the reception desk is a zombie, the PO's act as though they are all autonomous entities... they don't post their calendars so no one knows where they are or when they left or when they will be back or how to get hold of them or anything...I guess I am going to have to write a rant like this every third Monday ... just walking through the door pisses me off... The pin head Raider Fans went and tore up their own town... Just how stupid are those people? They have a section at their field called The Black Hole... a bunch of Gong Show rejects dress up like demented circus clowns and just generally act like idiots for three hours... Raider Fans... makes you wonder if there is any hope for humanity doesn't it. Tuesday January 28 , 2003 Autumn is still sick, Christy took her in to Kaiser... she has Strep... damn. Mokie called from school at about 1300 saying she was feeling poorly, Christy went to pick her up. I am listening to GW... State of the Union... He hasn't convinced me he has a clue what he is doing. Lots of passionate rhetoric and no substance, lots of promises and no plan, lots of accusations and no proof. I still can't get past the fact that it is impossible to prove a negative... I could walk up to George Bush and call him a child molester... I could say it's not up to me to prove he is, it's up to him to prove he isn't... what the hell is he going to do? He could prove he was one in a heart beat but there is no way he can prove to me he isn't if I choose not to believe him. That's what he is doing to Saddam... Saddam is a creepy guy, but he's not a threat to the United States. Christy went to a School Board meeting at the SDA Academy... she left at 1800, it's 2200, I'm gonna crash. Wednesday January 29 , 2003 Autumn is still pretty tired and not looking too chipper. We will probably keep her home tomorrow... We kept Mokie home too... truth is I don't feel so hot myself. I am listening and reading lots of debate on last night's speech. George and his Manifest Destiny rhetoric seems to have seduced a lot of people, and alienated just as many. The implication that we have the responsibility and the right to do any damn thing we want to do simply because we are blessed by God and are a moral people. The reality is the worlds greatest military power is dead set on wiping out a third world has-been country that hasn't had a viable military in a decade... I just don't understand it. George even quoted from a Hymn called Power In The Blood when he said "There's power, power, wonder working power" saying:
Now, what was that all about... "Apply Compassion" ... It means nothing to me, just Bush mush-speak, it sounds good to his constituents but commits nothing and means nothing. There was no plan there no method, no commitment no nothing . People were citing George's evidence that Saddam is an evil SOB with WMD's and financing terrorists is interesting I heard the same speech and I heard no evidence, all I heard was accusations. Demonizing Saddam to justify an action that could potentially kill millions of people when with a little imagination and creativity we can keep Saddam boxed up with perpetual investigations till hell freezes over and nobody dies. I am waiting for the manufactured "Smoking Gun" George has promised money for AIDS before, In last years SOTU when it came up$15 Billion for drugs and condoms to be sent to Africa to prevent mothers from passing on the disease to their babies. He Vetoed it.
Today's Hoax mail was about crooks tricking you into dialing
#90 on the
telephone total
garbage. I have no idea what the motive was but the e-mail sounds scary
as hell... but it's just gibberish. I think it's really strange that just about
every day I get another hoax. I and I'm not even talking about the
desperate
letters from Mr. Abba Gana and all his
little buddies who all need my money to guarantee...whatever, they keep
coming so I assume that every once in a while some poor idiot bites... this is
the first Scam I remember hearing about, Ole Jack Webb explained it on Dragnet
50 years ago... amazing Thursday January 30 , 2003 I have always appreciated people who can come up with a witty remark at the spur of the moment Couple of jokes let me grin today.
...Randy ("B"'s SW) called 12:00 to say he would pay us a visit at 17:00... Ick... House is (As usual) a toxic dump... I was picking up poor Mikie who was too sick to continue with school or sum such BS I brought him home he helped with the house for about 20 minutes and took off to Donnie's house to help them pick up some lumber at Home Depot... He came home at about 21:45... lets see if I pick him up from school again real soon. I picked up some medicine at Kaiser and hit Wall-Mart for some other sundries... I cleaned and picked up kids and cleaned some more and just as we were about done Randy called and said he couldn't make it... Christy had told him about Autumn and Mokie being sick and he said he had just gotten over the flu thank you very much and he wasn't going to stop by... but he did go by and see "B" at the school. I am still grumbling about Bush and his plan to cut Billions from the tax revenues and spend Billions on his little war. But I dislike the little weasel so much I can't be objective I guess... I would really like to know how this makes any sense. He is running up a biggest deficit than Ronnie and his daddy put together, the National debt has risen more precipitously than any time in the history of the country, and it is still skyrocketing with no end in sight. How does this make sense? Friday January 31 , 2003 Not much accomplished today, but I did manage to keep the house clean... did most of the laundry and even took a nap... "B" and Cindy had no school today... and they were great... till Christy got home from teaching. I don't know what it is with "B" but he just has to create havoc at least once a day. He teases and prods an pokes until everyone is all upset and yelling... silly. Three interesting articles in today's N Y Times, one by Hans Blix refuting Bush's accusations about his findings I have heard nothing on the news about this... another an ex-CIA agent refuting Bush's accusation that Iraq has gassed it's own people... (I have heard this before) and another one on the environment... Why isn't the TV - Radio News picking up on any of this... not even NPR? I get the morning news from them I like the editorials and World News http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?Tag=/&URI=http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/ Interesting. I got this this morning and spent an hour or so looking for the article mentioned,
Did you see in
the news last week that the A C L U doesn't want any crosses on Federal
Property? I wrote to the fella that sent it to me and he wrote back saying: "Pete, I was not the originator of the article. It might just be a hyperbole to illustrate the ACLU's excesses." so this is apparently just a cheap shot… I thought there might have been some substance to it… I have never really looked at the history of the ACLU but I did last night, here is some of what I found...I’m not really surprised, the ACLU has been accused of excesses since it’s inception in 1920 when they worked at combating the deportation of aliens for their radical beliefs (ordered by Attorney General Palmer), opposing attacks on the rights of Industrial Workers of the World and trade unions to hold meetings and organize, and securing release from prison for hundreds sentenced during the war for expression of antiwar sentiments. And when Tennessee's new anti-evolution law became effective in March 1925 the ACLU at once sought a test of the statute's attack on free speech and secured John T. Scopes, a young science teacher, as a plaintiff. Clarence Darrow, a member of the Union's National Committee and an agnostic, headed the ACLU's volunteer defense team. Scopes was convicted and fined $100. On appeal, the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the statute but reversed the conviction. And in 1939 Mayor Frank ("I am the law") Hague of Jersey City claimed the right to deny free speech to anyone he thought radical. The ACLU took Hague to the Supreme Court, which ruled that public places such as streets and parks belong to the people, not the mayor. And again in 1942 Two and a half months after Pearl Harbor, 110,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were citizens, were evacuated from their homes and relocated in a series of inland U.S. concentration camps. The episode was a national tragedy, rightfully called by the ACLU "the worst single wholesale violation of civil rights of Americans citizens in our history." The strongest voices against evacuation and relocation came from ACLU affiliates on the West Coast. During the Cold War era after World War II, Congress and many state legislatures passed loyalty-oath laws requiring one group or another, particularly public school teachers, to swear that they were not Communists or members of any "subversive organizations." Throughout the decade the ACLU fought a running battle against the government's loyalty-security program. All and all I think the ACLU has a pretty good track record… it’s mandate is to preserve the freedoms mandated in the Constitution and in the Bill of Rights. I have a real hard time when they defend the KKK and the American Nazi Party but as long as we have the right to speak freely so do they I guess. I have a problem with their insistence that a persons right to privacy extends to a right to anonymity. but I think that, on a whole, I am glad they are around to protect the disenfranchised and tilt at windmills from time to time.
|
