I have been under the weather lately; that is, I somehow managed to lock my right shoulder while stretching out to pet one of our dogs. The pain, which started to manifest itself the next day, reached up into the 8.5 on a ten-point scale for me. I’ve visited my chiropractor twice and a pain management therapist trying to ease the pain and regain control of body movements. One of the things it literally hurt to do was type and move a computer mouse. The pain management therapist inquired about some of my habits and I mentioned this blog. She asked if I wrote with passion and I said I thought there was some of that in here. She then asked if it was passion with tension. I had to think about that for a moment and then realized she was correct. Therefore I will attempt to continue with logical passion minus any tension. But I am becoming aware of a tightening in my right shoulder trying to make me notice it.
First off, can’t thinking adults admit there is nothing wrong with the word Merlot? The recent flap over one man’s personal license plate using the word and another’s self righteous object is beyond me. In the opinions of both Lewis Black and George Carlin there are no dirty words. By the by, after tens years of use of said license plate hasn’t some sort of legal precedent be made? How does the State Tax Commission decide one plate’s worthiness and another’s non-worthiness? Is it at least two out of three votes against or does one person yield all that power? My brother indicates to me, based upon his professional professor status that his students have a completely different understanding of the term “milk shake” than you and I do. Do the students understand the meaning of these two harmless words in the context I think they do? If so, where are the word police?
To the Utahn with the under developed math skills who attempted to justify President Bush’s mid term removal of several federal prosecutors with President Clinton’s “mid term” removal of all sitting federal prosecutors on March 23 1993, my I remind mister wizard that President Clinton’s term started on January 20, 1993. Sixty days into his term, President Clinton cleaned house just like most Presidents have after taking office. This can hardly be deemed mid term. The real trouble here is not the firing of the prosecutors, but the reasons for the actions and any attempts to undermine the U S Justice Department by turning prosecution into a politically partisan exercise. By the way, isn’t lying about all of this under oath a federal offense? Isn’t that the reason they impeached President Clinton? Will you all take a closer look at this one?
How many of you have noticed George and Tony’s latest adventure. Two U S aircraft carrier groups off the coast of Iran are playing war games. Iran is holding fifteen British soldiers as captives. We have dueling GPS units establishing where said troops were when Iran detained them. I’ve always thought one of the military’s main goals was not to get captured by the bad guys. Not to be flip, but the report I saw of the detainees showed a group of young folks that looked like they were at a Friday night social. Where were the hard core military operatives who should have been tasked with this mission? Is it just me or is there something wrong with this picture?
That’s all for now. My back is indicating I’m not completely back in form.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Votes Count
Webster defines hypocrite as 1. A person who pretends to have a moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., he does hot actually possess. 2. A person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude. I give you Newt Gingrich. The former Speaker of the House of Representatives this past week has publicly stated that at the same time he was leading the Republican charge to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying about the President’s involvement with a woman outside of his marriage, he himself was at the time involved with a woman outside of his marriage. Do you think charges of lying about his digression would have followed Newt, (I just love that name) had a special prosecutor looking into his affairs spent $100 million dollars doing so? It appears Newt has accomplished this feat twice as evidenced by his third wife, twenty years his junior and his public statements. As if testing the waters of wrath that might befall upon him from the far right Evangelic Christians towards a possible presidential campaign, Newt made his announcement. I say, “Come on down.”
The use of the word “whore” implies the act of doing something for money or gratuity. “Payback” implies a similar set of acts. “Spineless” implies a lack of character or personal deficiencies of ethics or integrity. I give you Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. The governor's spineless non-action of allowing Energy Solution’s bill to become law without his signature is matched only by his whorish and payback actions of signing the bills which targets the Gay Straight Alliance Clubs at our high schools and the one which allowed the government vouchers for private schools. I don’t think a governor by the name of Matheson or his son, Scott Jr., as governor would have committed any of these cowardly acts.
This brings me to Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives Greg Curtis. Is the Salt Lake City Tribune Sunday headline of “Friends of Curtis fare well with ‘07 bills” a ringing endorsement of the “good old boy network” or “the beholding to special interests” of the Utah legislature? Or is it a searing indictment of an abuse of power for the enrichment of a select few? Think about that as you read the article in the Tribune. Even the authors of the Tribune article acknowledge the re-election of Curtis by a mere 20 votes. I suggest the formulation of the committee to find 21 more votes against him in the next election. Or how about the committee to find the 11 folks who voted for him in the last election who have had enough of his votes for abuses of power and will now vote against him in the next election. How about considering these names for the committees, The Magnificent Eleven or The Knights of the Twenty-One? If I were the speaker I would be extremely aware of the tenuous nature of my power. A small grassroots group could have a major impact on Utah politics and negate one of the largest campaign expenditures of the last state elections. Food for thought?
What are you going to do with your vote in the next election? Are you going to go to the polls this time or keep making excuses about your vote not counting?
The use of the word “whore” implies the act of doing something for money or gratuity. “Payback” implies a similar set of acts. “Spineless” implies a lack of character or personal deficiencies of ethics or integrity. I give you Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. The governor's spineless non-action of allowing Energy Solution’s bill to become law without his signature is matched only by his whorish and payback actions of signing the bills which targets the Gay Straight Alliance Clubs at our high schools and the one which allowed the government vouchers for private schools. I don’t think a governor by the name of Matheson or his son, Scott Jr., as governor would have committed any of these cowardly acts.
This brings me to Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives Greg Curtis. Is the Salt Lake City Tribune Sunday headline of “Friends of Curtis fare well with ‘07 bills” a ringing endorsement of the “good old boy network” or “the beholding to special interests” of the Utah legislature? Or is it a searing indictment of an abuse of power for the enrichment of a select few? Think about that as you read the article in the Tribune. Even the authors of the Tribune article acknowledge the re-election of Curtis by a mere 20 votes. I suggest the formulation of the committee to find 21 more votes against him in the next election. Or how about the committee to find the 11 folks who voted for him in the last election who have had enough of his votes for abuses of power and will now vote against him in the next election. How about considering these names for the committees, The Magnificent Eleven or The Knights of the Twenty-One? If I were the speaker I would be extremely aware of the tenuous nature of my power. A small grassroots group could have a major impact on Utah politics and negate one of the largest campaign expenditures of the last state elections. Food for thought?
What are you going to do with your vote in the next election? Are you going to go to the polls this time or keep making excuses about your vote not counting?
Monday, March 5, 2007
With respect, Mrs. Galvez
I have just finished reading Mrs. Galvez’s piece in the Sunday Morning Editorial section of the Salt Lake Tribune and I’m complied to reply.
First let my say that I have great sympathy for the loss of your son’s life which he gave in ultimate sacrifice to this country. He was following orders, doing what a soldier does. The closest I have been to the Iraq war is the recent safe return to the states of my nephew from the horror and chaos of Iraq. I served in the Utah National Guard 19th Special Forces Group Airborne during the Vietnam War years. Before any of you say I was taking the easy way out of that war you need to stand in the door of a perfectly good moving military aircraft at 1000 feet above the ground preparing to exit. Seventeen successful parachute landing falls and six years of commitment to this country allow me the opportunity to speak.
Those of us who have opposed the Iraqi War since before the preemptive invasion, along with the majority of the citizens of this country who now believe we should not be there and Mayor Rocky Anderson as part of either group have the right as well as the responsibility to speak out against a war we believe to be illegal and ill-conceived. Osama Bin Ladin, the real planner of the attacks of 911 is still alive somewhere in Afghanistan or hiding somewhere nearby. What happened to President Bush’s pledge to bring to justice the perpetrators of this horrific deed? Al Quaida is in the mist of resurgence and growing stronger there as we speak. Asking questions and raising our voices in protest of this war in no way diminishes our support for the young men and women who are now in Iraq following orders. To suggest otherwise is both naïve and a distortion of logic. The Uniform Code of Military Justice speaks of unlawful orders. It provides guidelines and consequences for actions taken by soldiers in regard to such orders. It places responsibility on a soldier for actions and decisions he makes while being part of the military. If the code holds a soldier accountable, why then should the electorate be held any less accountable? The code provides for decisions and actions not taken through blind obedience. Why then are we, who have questions and speak out about this war, being castigated as non-supportive of troops or non-patriotic for not blindly falling into step with this administration?
Over 56,000 Americans died in Vietnam. The number of wounded must have been near the number now serving in Iraq 154,000. Over 3170 troops have been killed in Iraq, including Mrs. Galvez’s son. More than 23,000 troops have been wounded. A term which in no way does justice to the pain, suffering and the continued long term effects or consequences of being wounded. I believe I give much more support to my nephew and his fellow soldiers with whom he serves by speaking out against this war than by blindly accepting President Bush's decisions. Especially decisions made with “faulty intelligence”, “intelligence skewed with intent” or “intelligence filtered with bias”. Have we forgotten the inability to find WMD’s or the lack of Iraqi throngs throwing flowers as our troops entered their country?
Does Mrs. Galvez really believe she pays a higher price or more justified tribute to her fallen son by asking another mother to pay an equally high price with yet another son’s death without the people asking why? Do you truly believe that those of us, who call for a stop to the bloodshed before another falls, fail to pay grateful thanks or respectful homage to those who all ready have? I strongly suggest this is neither the case nor are we ungrateful or unpatriotic. To even hint at this is contemptible, void of logic and worse yet, an attempt to deny us of rights and guarantees afforded by the constitution.
First let my say that I have great sympathy for the loss of your son’s life which he gave in ultimate sacrifice to this country. He was following orders, doing what a soldier does. The closest I have been to the Iraq war is the recent safe return to the states of my nephew from the horror and chaos of Iraq. I served in the Utah National Guard 19th Special Forces Group Airborne during the Vietnam War years. Before any of you say I was taking the easy way out of that war you need to stand in the door of a perfectly good moving military aircraft at 1000 feet above the ground preparing to exit. Seventeen successful parachute landing falls and six years of commitment to this country allow me the opportunity to speak.
Those of us who have opposed the Iraqi War since before the preemptive invasion, along with the majority of the citizens of this country who now believe we should not be there and Mayor Rocky Anderson as part of either group have the right as well as the responsibility to speak out against a war we believe to be illegal and ill-conceived. Osama Bin Ladin, the real planner of the attacks of 911 is still alive somewhere in Afghanistan or hiding somewhere nearby. What happened to President Bush’s pledge to bring to justice the perpetrators of this horrific deed? Al Quaida is in the mist of resurgence and growing stronger there as we speak. Asking questions and raising our voices in protest of this war in no way diminishes our support for the young men and women who are now in Iraq following orders. To suggest otherwise is both naïve and a distortion of logic. The Uniform Code of Military Justice speaks of unlawful orders. It provides guidelines and consequences for actions taken by soldiers in regard to such orders. It places responsibility on a soldier for actions and decisions he makes while being part of the military. If the code holds a soldier accountable, why then should the electorate be held any less accountable? The code provides for decisions and actions not taken through blind obedience. Why then are we, who have questions and speak out about this war, being castigated as non-supportive of troops or non-patriotic for not blindly falling into step with this administration?
Over 56,000 Americans died in Vietnam. The number of wounded must have been near the number now serving in Iraq 154,000. Over 3170 troops have been killed in Iraq, including Mrs. Galvez’s son. More than 23,000 troops have been wounded. A term which in no way does justice to the pain, suffering and the continued long term effects or consequences of being wounded. I believe I give much more support to my nephew and his fellow soldiers with whom he serves by speaking out against this war than by blindly accepting President Bush's decisions. Especially decisions made with “faulty intelligence”, “intelligence skewed with intent” or “intelligence filtered with bias”. Have we forgotten the inability to find WMD’s or the lack of Iraqi throngs throwing flowers as our troops entered their country?
Does Mrs. Galvez really believe she pays a higher price or more justified tribute to her fallen son by asking another mother to pay an equally high price with yet another son’s death without the people asking why? Do you truly believe that those of us, who call for a stop to the bloodshed before another falls, fail to pay grateful thanks or respectful homage to those who all ready have? I strongly suggest this is neither the case nor are we ungrateful or unpatriotic. To even hint at this is contemptible, void of logic and worse yet, an attempt to deny us of rights and guarantees afforded by the constitution.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Damn Yankees
What will you sell your vote for? How many of you will go to the voting booths in the next general election and vote your straight Republican ticket again? When will you wake up and smell the coffee? I know what it is, they, the Republicans keep a secret stash of liquor and on election day with the correct password and counter sign you can enter their secret spot. There in hiding you can drink you fill so that you can then vote for them under the influence of diminished cognitive ability. Thereby relieving yourself of any sense of responsibility for your vote and that accompanying feeling of hypocrisy.
Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. does not veto Energy Solutions’ bill to do away with local and state over sight responsibility for nuclear waste deposal in the state. He lets it become law without his signature to “show his disapproval of the law” according to his spokesman. What is he saying to the seventy percent of you who did not want this bill to pass? Did he listen to the 1,000 telephone calls against the bill or the five favorable calls he received, according to local television news coverage? Who did he represent? Not me, but then I didn’t vote for him in the first place.
Seventy percent of us did not want to spend taxpayer dollars on Real Salt Lake. They decide to spend $35 million on the project anyway. Did they represent you, the average constituent or special big money interests? Who gave them the most campaign contributions?
The Republican dominated legislature passed a tax cut. Your state income tax liability will decrease approximately two hundred dollars. If you buy a $20,000 car your sales tax on the purchase will decrease twenty dollars. The lowering of the sales tax rate on food will save you about seventy-eight dollars. These figures all brought to you from local television news coverage. I do the math and for about three hundred dollars they bought your vote. Oh, I forgot, they threw in a little self-righteousness and throttled the Gay Straight Alliances in our high schools.
By the by, how large was your health insurance premium increase this year? How much more money did you spent on prescription drugs? How many gallons of gas did you buy at the inflated price of an extra dollar per gallon so big oil could make record profits this year. What was your personal portion of the federal deficit this year? Remember each and every member of your family gets to pay that one, even the newest baby. I do the math for an average Utah family of five with two vehicles and come up with about $10,000.
Which way does that scale weighing $300 less on one side or $10,000 more on the other tip? In Damn Yankees the tragic lead character at least got to keep the Yankees out of the World Series in exchange for his soul.
Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. does not veto Energy Solutions’ bill to do away with local and state over sight responsibility for nuclear waste deposal in the state. He lets it become law without his signature to “show his disapproval of the law” according to his spokesman. What is he saying to the seventy percent of you who did not want this bill to pass? Did he listen to the 1,000 telephone calls against the bill or the five favorable calls he received, according to local television news coverage? Who did he represent? Not me, but then I didn’t vote for him in the first place.
Seventy percent of us did not want to spend taxpayer dollars on Real Salt Lake. They decide to spend $35 million on the project anyway. Did they represent you, the average constituent or special big money interests? Who gave them the most campaign contributions?
The Republican dominated legislature passed a tax cut. Your state income tax liability will decrease approximately two hundred dollars. If you buy a $20,000 car your sales tax on the purchase will decrease twenty dollars. The lowering of the sales tax rate on food will save you about seventy-eight dollars. These figures all brought to you from local television news coverage. I do the math and for about three hundred dollars they bought your vote. Oh, I forgot, they threw in a little self-righteousness and throttled the Gay Straight Alliances in our high schools.
By the by, how large was your health insurance premium increase this year? How much more money did you spent on prescription drugs? How many gallons of gas did you buy at the inflated price of an extra dollar per gallon so big oil could make record profits this year. What was your personal portion of the federal deficit this year? Remember each and every member of your family gets to pay that one, even the newest baby. I do the math for an average Utah family of five with two vehicles and come up with about $10,000.
Which way does that scale weighing $300 less on one side or $10,000 more on the other tip? In Damn Yankees the tragic lead character at least got to keep the Yankees out of the World Series in exchange for his soul.
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