Blindsided Justice

Lady Justice used to be depicted as blind, a symbol that, suppossedly, all received equal representation in the courts, regadless of economic status or any other social consideration. True, some cases are so egregous it has been hard to live up to those standards, while at other times, depending on the victim, her sense of smell tends not to make up for her lack of vision.

The case of Deana Wiliams of Georgetown Kentucky is a case, one of those rare ones that might tend to fit into both categories, and yet neither.

Her case revolves around the murder of one Ashley Lyons of Georgetown, a young teenaged girl, and pregnant, whose body was discovered by her father and brother in a Georgetown Park a year or so ago. Following a brief investigation, the murderer was finally apprehended-it was Ashley's former boyfriend, and father of the unborn child named Landon, who had only reently been sonagrammed, to the excitement and delight of the unwed mother.

Eventually, the conspiracy was unravelled. Not only was the former boyfriend involved, but along with him a friend, who supplied the gun which was the murder weapon, as well as Deana, his girlfriend at the time of the murder, and Deana's father as well. They were accused of knowledge and complicity in the case.

The murder and the sonagram became a subject of further controversy, and even spilled over into the 2004 presidenial campaign, when Kerry and Edwards refused to endorse a law that would have made the murder of a pregnant woman that caused the death of the fetus applicable for a double murder charge. Ashley Lyons' mother Sue spoke out against the Democratic ticket about this issue, which in Kentucky became wrapped around a state proposal known as "Brandon's Law", named after a fetus that died as a result of a car accident caused by a drunken driver.

The case also was mentioned in the magazine National Review, in particular singling out John Edwards due to his sudden failure to hear the voices of the innocent dead, harking back to a spectacular case early in his legal career, one that in fact was instrumental in jumpstarting his legal as well as his political career.

It became, therefore, a political as well as a criminal issue, and the people of Georgetown, as well as Kentucky, understandably demanded justice for Ashley and her unborn child. Retribution in the courts was relatively swift, and for the most part appropriate. But something got lost in the shuffle, and that something was equal justice.

Not having the funds necessary to retain a high powered attorney, Deana Williams, then a mere teenaged girl herself, was appointed an attorney by way of the court, who convinced the girl that things would go much better for her were she to plead guilty. She did as her court appointed attorney said, even though she insisted that she knew nothing about the plot.

The judge in the case sentenced her to seventeen years in prison. She immediately insisted that she had been mislead, in that her lawyer had promised a relatively lenient verdict. She had, she insisted, been mislead.

Had she been, really? I don't know, nor do I mean to infer anything whatsoever about her actual guilt, or innocence. All I know is, if she was truthful about the manner of her representation, or lack thereof, while some may say she deserved it, it's not so much that she got a raw deal-justice herself was stabbed in the back.

Ashley Lyons has recently had a memorial put up in the park where she was murdered, in her honor, which is certainly appropriate. But the memorial that may be most important as just one example of the myth of equal justice that has perhaps always existed in the United States justice system is a girl by the name of Deana Williams.

She may well deserve to be where she is today. But American Jutice herself deserves better.

The Greenpeace Japanese Whale Wars

The nation of Japan might be looking at the environmental group Greenpeace as an annoyance, but I'm sure the Japanese Whaling industry considers them to be about on the same level as the Western world tends to view Al-Queda. After all, there are livelihoods at stake here, indeed the industry as a whole stands to lose both in monetary terms and to an extent in public relations. Whatever the case, Greenpeace is adamant, that it will put a stop if at all possible to what it considers the abominable practice of "scientific whaling" which they seem to think, and probably rightly so, is a disguise for simple corporate plunder of marine life.

To this extent, they have employed two old vessels to the area around the Antarctic-the Esperanzo and the Arctic Sunrise. One of these shops was rammed by a Japanese fishing vessel in the Antarctic waters . In fact, one of the Greenpeace activists came dangerously close to getting harpooned.

The Greenpeace statistics I would not recomend be taken at face value, but for what they are worth for the moment, here they are. In the eighteen years since scientific whaling became permitted by the U.N, 6800 whales have been killed by the Japanese whalers. In all the 31 years prior to this only 840 whals were massacred. Quite a significant increase, as noted by the environmental group, for a program that was intnded as ameasure to protect the whales.

The first question I would ask is, just what the hell is scientific whaling to begin with? Is it the oceanic equivalent of thinning out the herd? If so, it seems unecessary, as I believe the herd is dangerously thin to begin with. Is it providfing tracking reseach to scientists in exchange for being allowed to kill a percentage? And do they stick to these quotas? What if they do not? If they do not, would anyone be in a position to know? If they know, do they really care?

Finally,as this possibly involves the U.N., the question which might be the most important of all? Does this have the makings of a "blubber for food" scandal?

Judge Cashman And The Vermont Controversy

There is bullshit, and then there is damned bullshit. When Bill O' Reilly claims he is not calling for a boycott on the state of Vermont, even though he puts forth on his show and web-site a poll question asking if "the folks" would support such a boycott, that falls into a third category all together-Goddamnd Motherfucking Bullshit.

Personally, I think Judge Cashman went way too overboard in exercising his judicial discretion by sentencing Mark Huelett, convicted of raping a ten year old girl over a four year period-beginning when she was six-to a sixty day jail sentence. His point was that, though Huelett was a level one offender, unlikely to reoffend (according to state mental examiners) he would not in prison be qualified to receive the treatment he needed, and so a long term prison sentence might cause him to become a repeat offender. This way, Cashman insists, he will get the treatment he needs, which in the long run will be better for society.

Personally, I think his reasoning is dubious at best, and might not even be a legal use of the judges discretion. If so, it is up to the appropriate officials of the state of Vermont to sort it all out, and it is up to the people of Vermont to, if they are displeased with the way it eventually turns out, express their displeasure at the ballot box.

But this knee jerk reaction from a wide variety of pundits and others strikes me as a little bit of grandstanding, the kind of thing where you damn well better not question their bombast on this issue,or your own morals will be called into question.

What the fuck ever. Personally, I'm wondering just exactly why there hasn't been an investigation into the degree of culpability by the parents, who seem to have been present at least physically during the four years during which all this went on for evidently at least a once weekly basis. I mean, I heard they are suppossed to be disabled, but can they really be that stupid? How could you not know something like this was going on for so long under your own roof with your own six, seven eight, nine, and finally ten year old daughter?

But there is more at play here, I fear, than mere righteous indignation. A good deal of this may have political ramifications. Coming on the heels of the recent Supreme Court nominations controversies, and the on-going struggle between left and right, "activist" versus "mainstream" judges, throughout the entire judicial system, in fact, I find it curious that the judges' detractors repeatedly infer that he might be of a libeal bent, though he is in fact a Republican.

In other words, this may be a salvo in the up-and-coming political year, in which judicial nominations and the status of the courts, especially the Supreme Court, will be a very important factor.

This is to be expected. But to threaten the economy of an entire state by hinting at the possibility of a boycott is really uncalled for, and is actually yet another attempt to bring all the states in line with the current popular witch hunt mentality. Once this is accomplished, it will be that much easier, the preedent having thus been set, to use other maneuvrs to bring them into line with the popular, and maniplated, sentiment of the day, whatever that might happen to be-by whoever might inadverdantly be calling the shots.

In the meantime, I'm going to stock up on good old made in Vermont maple syrup.

Bode Miller-Hung Over Until The Olympics

Have I missed something in all this controversy about Bode Miller, and the oh so shocked crowd that seem to think he is obligated as an athlete to pander to their prohibitionist views? Just today, the firestorm was further inflamed by the report that Miller claimed to enoy skiing down the ski slopes with a buzz. Yet, when I first noticed the reports, and paid any attention to them, I got the impression that he had actually said that he felt pretty rough when, following a night of drinking, he tried to ski the very next day. Now, if this is what he said, it doesn't exactly sound like a ringing endorsement, to me, of wild partying, especially the night before a scheduled sporting event. Thus, shouldn't he be commended for pointing this out?

But now, the story seems to have changed from the original version which I first heard, so I'm going to try and do a little detective work here. See, I've been in this predicament myself, though it's been a while back. But I do remember clearly the day when I had to get up and walk to work the morning after kicking back a few Buds. I felt awful, to be sure, but I dragged my sorry ass out of bed, took a quick shower, and walked the some twenty blocks, being without transportation at the time. This was a temproary janitorial job I was going to, and it entailed sweeping and mopping a gymnasium floor, if I correctly recall. One thing I remember all too clearly was that I felt like seven layers of hell wrapped into one, until about the first hour. But, lo and behold, once that first hour passed, I felt pretty damn good.

But not good enough that I cared to repeat the experience. I stopped drinking shortly afterward, and stayed dry for a long time. When I did finally get around to drinking again, it was seldom, it was moderate-and it was never on a work night, or prior to any important undertaking. You see, no matter how good something might feel initially, those paybacks just ain't worth it.

I'm sure Bode Miller found that out. Sking in a competition has got to be a little more demanding than sweeping and mopping a gymnasium, though the cold fresh air might, indeed, feel all the more exhilerating.

Dr. Martin Luther King-The Man

J.Edgar Hoover did the world one really big favor, as far as I'm concerned,though that certainly wasn't his intention. But in conducting illegal surveillance on the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., acting probably with the tacit approval of the Kenedy Administration, he did indeed uncover the truth about King. That truth was disgusting and sordid to Hoover,but that reveals in itself the kind of man Hoover was as much as it does about King. The kind of man Hoover was? Well, not much of one, regrettably. As for King, he was, thankfully, a man, a real, honest to God, flesh and blood man. A "tomcat" to Hoover, a subversive with communist connections-but a man, nevertheless. A real, honest to God, flesh and blood man, the kind of man who knows what he is about, warts and all, and yet still determined to rise above his follies and foibles, his flesh and blood limitations, and make a better life, not just for himself, but for everybody.

One thing that is often overlooked about his presence in Memphis those last days leading up to the time of his assasination, is that he was there in support of a garbage workers strike. Although there may have been a preponderance of black workers, I think it's safe to assume there was an appreciable amount of white garbage workers in Memphis Tennessee as well. Even if not,there can be no doubt that Kings actions were in support of working folks of all colors, all races.

What he accomplished is beyond scope, and really hard to understand, coming from a context of those who lived after the era of the civil rights movement. To an extent, those days seem as distant and as mythical as the antediluvian age. But they were real. Real people were marginalized, sufferred,and were murdered, and all of us sufferred a loss of our humanity due to the nature of what was really an ongoing misery of the human condition. Along with the likes of Ghandi and Mandela, King belongs to that very small class of people who honestly helped,and lead the way, in making life better not just for a few, but for humanity as a whole.

It is way too easy to mythologize a man such as him, and this does him no real honor. Nor does it help the average person, in fact, it defeats the whole purpose of Kings very real message,that people, real people, can change, can make things different, can make the world and humanity better.

I am happy to honor Dr. Martin Luther King on this day. But at the same time, I am glad to know it is a man that I so honor. That does not detract from his legacy, not in the least. In fact, when you stop to think about it, it makes him all that much more of an inspiration.

Delegate Zero

Also known as Subcommandante Marcos, the Mexican revolutionary from the State of Chiapas has been identified by Mexican Intelligence sources as a former university professor named Rafael Sebastian Guilen Vicenze. After some six or seven years of self-imposed exile, he is once again making the rounds of various areas of Mexico, where he is being greeted largely as a hero. This despite his somewhat checkered past, which included heading up an insurgency which ended with the loss of well over one hundred lives.

Since then, he has retired to a remote jungle area, where he has been the head of a project of experimental communities, all of which have met with notable success, though dependant on outside financial contributions and other support. He would like to see this project expanded throughout the country. More to the point, he is unhappy, very unhappy, with the recent results of globalization, particularly with what he sees as the devastating effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement on Mexico, especialy on the underpriveleged Mexican worker and family.

Yet, as civilian leader Delegate Zero, Subcommandante Marcos has no desire, he says, to run for any political office, including the up-and-coming Mexican presidential elections. At the same time, he is expresing grave reservations as to the qualifications and intentions of the current front-runner for the position, a former Mexico City mayor by the name of Andreas Manuel Lopez Obrador, who heads up the left leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution.

On the face of it, he would seem to be yet another in a long line of socialist oriented politicians who have emerged in Latin American politics, such as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Evo Morales of Bolivia, and of course Fidel Castro of Cuba. As such, one wonders exactly from where and whom Marcos is drawing his support, or hopes to. And if he holds true to his word to seek no office for himself,who then will he support? Or is he merely, like Caesar, aiming at public acclamation before revealing his true intentions?

It may not be such a bad thing, this sudden attraction to socialism in Latin America, it may give pause to the monolithic stampeed of international corporatism in it's obvious attempts to do what big business does best-wipe out the competition and establish a monopoly, or to put it more aptly, a loose confederation of monopolies, dependant on corrupt politicians on both sides of the border for it to flourish. The ultimate casualties of course would be the rights of workers, as well as the environment, to say nothing of true democratic politcal representation. Oh, and I almost forgot yet another eventual casualty-capitalism.

In fact, for all their faults, the Latin American socialists, may well provide the one thing that capitalism, as well as democracy, seems to require in order to not only survive, but to thrive-competition. This is a lesson that has not been lost on me since the fall of the Soviet Union, and the almost immediate launching of what George Herbert Walker Bush, when still President, termed, "The New World Order".

The old world Europeans, back in the days before the discovery of America, had another term for it-feudalism. If Subcommandante Marcos is to be yet another general in the front of the war on globalization, I hope he has a secure armor, as he will need it. I wish him well.

On the bright side, Vincente' Fox, nearing the end of his term, will not be allowed to run for re-election. Thankfully, Mexican law now forbids more than one term in office for the presidency of that country. Hopefully, by the time this situation all plays out, this will indeed be as good a thing in reality as it would seem to be now.

Environmental Impacts

The last year or so has been a great year for the mining interests, and it's easy to see why. One of the most powerful Senators in the U.S. Senate is Republican Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who is, like most Republicans, friendly to business interests. Additionally, McConnell happens to be married to Ms. Elaine Chaou, who is the Secretary of Labor in the administration of George W. Bush. And she is, like most Republicans, friendly to business interests.

Unfortunately, while it has been a great year for the mining interests, it has not been that great a year for the miners they employ. Not only was the recent disaster in West Virginia which claimed the lives of twelve miners out of thirteen testament to that, but on the heels of this tragedy, and all but ignored, was the recent colapse of a mine in Pike County, just outside of Pikeville, that claimed the life of a miner.

Of course, the point can be made that mining safety has vastly improved. The mining interests would claim this to be the result of improved technology,which is true, but it is also true that it is due to years of oversight by labor interests, who had to fight tooth and nail to achieve influence. In fact, it took an appreciable amount of bloodshed, as a perusal of the history of mining and mining unions in Kentucky and elsewhere will quickly attest.

There has also been a coal boom,so miners have a degree of job security over and above that of most industries, for now. Yet, the fact that so many mines are operating in the face of flagrant violations, which are seemingly being ignored in some cases, is certainly troubling. But it is a sad reality that as long as politicans give the industry pass, the majorityof the people will, when the alternative would obviously be higher energy costs.


Environmental impact is another aspect of the mining industry that is disconcerting. The most obvious example of this would be the Martin County coal spill earlier in the year, which sent tons of coal waste from a sludge pond breaking it's boundaries and spilling over into the drinking water of the county, a disaster of such proportions it took months to litigate. It was finally settled, after months of wrangling, but this was strangely underreported by the suppossed "liberal media".

But more than this singular incident, flagrant and staggering though it was, is the ongoing ressurrection of the process of strip mining, which seems to be about to once more commence, despite federal law that was passed decades earlier to put an end to it, or at the least to minimize it's negative impact on the environment. According to federal law, whenever stirp mining occurs, it is to be followed by land restoration, a mandate by which the original contours of the land is to be restored to as great an extent as possible.

Now personally, I have my doubts as to the degree with which this federal law was enforced to begin with. The phrase "to as great an extent as possible", if that is he way th federal law is actually worded, seems to me to leave some wiggle room. Andif that weren't bad enough, somebody seems to have found another littel known exception to the federal law-it can be disregarded in the event of need for community expansion.

And so the race is on. Pikeville will be just the begining, and I see no end in sight. Add to all this the increasing influence of the Republican party in the state legislature,the governorship of the state of Kentukcy being held by a Republican, all but a few of Kentucky's Congresional delegation being Republican, both Senators being conservative Republicans, and one of these married to a Secretary Of Labor who is more a shill for business inteests than she is an advocate for labor interests, and it all adds up to cause for alarm. And it is not even an anti-business stance on my part, it is simply a concern for the lack of balance and perspective that accompanies one party domination over state politics. Were the oppossite party in power, I know from experience there would be equal cause for alarm from the other extreme viewpoint.

One bright spot, and this is a fairly recent development, is the recent pro-environmental stance adopted by certain branches of evangelical Christianity. Frankly, I don't think there was any magnificent plan involved in the creation of the Kentucky mountains, or any other aspect of creation. In fact, I don'teven likethe word "creation", I find preferable the word "formation", as it is far more accurrate a portrayal of what actually happenned.

At one point in the geological history of Kentucky, it was struck by a meteor, which landed exactly on the spot of the present day town of Middlesboro. The impact crater can be seen to this day. This meteor strike possibly played a significnt role in the formation of the mountains of Kentucky,and possibly beyond, and Cumberland Gap as well. The coal that lay within the mountains is probably the result of this impact as well. A lot of the flora and vegetation of the day was doubtless killed, and buried, and formed into coal as a result of the tremendous heat nd pressure it overwent for a significant though unknown, to me, period of time.

I would imagine that most Christians would view this event as a divine act of God in the formation of this world, and understandbly,they would want to treat God's creation with the respect it deserves. Personally, while I do not subscribe to the theory of a divinely directed or intellient creation, I do consider the prospect magical, and even divine, in the sense that the energies that formed the gods, and all the universe, can be seen here at work, and cetainly can sense the work of nature in enabling the strengthening and the adapttion of life to this set of circumstancs.

However you choose to view it, it should be obvious that nature should be respected, and any changes in the environment should be approached with caution and due dilligence, and not undertaken lightly or haphazardly. Unfortunately, too many people don't seem to understand this, and out of those that do, a significant number of them don't seem to really care. While out and about on my forays into town I got to know a girl at the local jail, a prisoneron work release. She was from Bell County, in fact she was from Middlesboro. When I mentioned something about the impact crater her town was buildt within, she gave me this curious look. "No, I didn't know that", she said.

One of the last times I saw this girl was on an upper floor of the County Court House, where a male work release prisoners was engaged in trying to drag her into the men's bathroom. All ofwhich seems symptomatic of the human condition. Life goes on all arond us, and we make our way through it, oft times unaware. But it goes on, nevertheless.

Hal Rogers H'ain't No Dan'l Boone

Since Washington lobbysit Jack Abramof pleaded guilty to bribery charges involving several Washington politicians, mostly Republicans, a good deal of them, as well as some Democrats, have opted to return money they had received from the man-or donate said money to charity. Pesonally, I am of the mind that if they took that money in good faith, assumming the contributions were legal, they would not only have the right to keep the money, they would be well advised to do so. Personally, I am not impressed by the show some of these folks are putting on, including Democrats such as Hilary Rodham Clinton, herself a recipient of largesse from the lobbyist. After all, there is nothing illegal about campaign contributions, and this is not the reason Abramof was charged.

Yet another Washington Congressman who has received contributions from Abramof is my own Kentucky Fifth District Republican Congressman, Harold "Hal" Rogers, whose original and major qualification for the congressional seat he firmly holds is the little "r" that is generally displayed following his name.

Put it this way, the man is no Daniel Boone, despite the fact that certain of his supporters saw fit to replace the name of the famous frontiersman, one of the all time great early Americans, on the former Daniel Boone Parkway, a road that goes through a large section of Kentucky's Daniel Boone National Forrest. As out of line and innapropriate as it may seem, this road now bears the name "Hal Rogers Way". Still the same road, maybe with some improvements, but it just don't seem right.

Not that Rogers is a bad Congressman, as a matter of fact, he's a pretty darned good one, especially when you consider the fact that, in order to insur re-election in this district, he really doesn't have to do a goddamned thing. Still, he does what any good Congressmn is supppossed to do, I guess mainly out of pride in position. He brings home his share of the pork to the Fifth District. Now, I said he was a good Congressman-not a great one.

And, he has done more than this, really. Most notably, he is the brainchild, the founder, of Operation Unite, an organization dedicated to fighting drugs in Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky. It works, or is suppossed to work, in conjunction with educators and law-enforcement personnel, in addition to social services agencies, in attempting to do it's part to rid this part of the state of the scourge of drugs, especially the abuse of such drugs as Oxy-Contin, better known as "Hillbilly Heroin", and Meth, in addition to crack cocaine, marijuana, and all the other illicit drugs that afflcit the region.

It takes a three pronged approach to this. Law enforcement, by co-ordinating agencies to conduct stings of drug users, and pushers, is just one aspect. There are also resources dedicated to rehabilitation, which the organization rightly realizes is the key to insuring lives are put back together whenever possible. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, education, mainly through the public school system, in order to hopefully reach the vulnerable and instill in them the knowledge as well as the common sense they need to understand and avoid the dangers of engaging in this destructive lifestyle.

I would have to say Rogers deserves credit for this idea, it is one that has been greatly needed in this state, and similar programs elsewhere would be equally appropriate. Therefore, I decided I would not begrudge him what I assummed was the heartfelt gesture in turning the $3500.00 in campaign contributions he had received from Jack Abramof over to the coffers of Operation Unite, an organization which can certainly not receive too much money.

There is only one problem, which I just learned as of today. Veering over to the organizations web-site in preparation for this post, I made a somewhat disconcerting discovery. The last time the web-site has been updated, as of twelve o'clock noon today, EST, the 13th day of January, 2006-was in October of 2004. More than onr year. Somewhat strange for an organization that seems to depend to at least a large degree on citizen donor support, in terms of both financing and volunteer participation.

Yet, you can see it for yourself. Assumming I clicked on the correct link earlier today, and not an old and outdated one,you can click on the link in the post title and see for yourself. October, 2004, the last update. And that was a reference to an earlier event, like in September of that year, if I remember correctly. Otherwise, there's nothing happenning, as far as I can see.

So, I wonder just what's up with that?

The Ashkenazi Jews-Four VERY Used Up Women

According to a recent bit of research that I found most enlightening, 40 per cent of the Ashkenazi Jews of the world, are all descended from either one or all of the same four women. An Ashkenazi Jew, by the way, is one of thoe Jews who settled in the Central and Eastern European area, I believe around the seven or eight hundreds A.D. It is not known to what degree these women were related, or indeed even if they lived in the same span of time, even in the same century. But comparisons of DNA strands revealed the same mitochondrial DNA links that apply to this 40 per cent of the population. And, evidently-and this is important-these Ashkenazi Jews, or the four women from whom they are descended, are also descended from Ancient Jews who left Israel (then known as Judaea) in either the first or second century A.D.

So this puts to rest, I hope, a recent theory I happenned to run across, which was all the more bizarre in that it originated from a person who was himself a Jew. This theory, which never got much traction, (in fact I believe it was largely ignored and even derided in most academic circles), stated that the vast majority of Jews, if not every single one of them, were descended not from the Jews of ancient Israel and Judaea at all, but are in fact desendants of an Alto-Altaic tribe known as the Khazars.

These were in fact a Mongoloid race from central Asia, akin to the Huns, who were converted by one of their kings to Judaism. Or, as the proponent of the theory stated with a hint of revulsion, Talmudism. They were a fierce, warlike tribe of people who passed this warlike trait on to their present day descendants, who founded the concept of Zionism. They have sought to conquer the world by way of extortion and bribery since then. In other words, the present day Jews, according to this theory, have no special rights to the Holy Land. They are no more descended from Abraham than am I.

Now, I can believe a great deal of the present day Jews of Central and Eastern European stok are actualy descended from these Khazars-but all of them? And Zionism is a plot to conquer the world, by these people who aren't truly legitimate Jews, by race? Some things are just too bizarre to be believed, so damn scary you hope they are not true, but too compelling to ignore. Yet, this story has never been spoken out loud by any legitimate source, and so I have never heard it discounted.

So what religion were these Khazars before the time of their conversion to Judaism, or, "Talmudism"? Well, suppossedly, they were "phallic worshippers", which, according to the author of this theory, was "a filthy practice."

This, obviously, can mean nothing else than that they worshipped the dick. It would be referred to in more polite company, I guess, as a fertility cult, but to specify "phallic" worship, in this case, leaves no doubt as to what the author had in mind.

If true, it brings up yet another interesting point. I have always felt that, one way or another, conscously or unconscousy, a person will naturaly gravitate, in one form or another, toward the religions of his or her ancestors. So if this theory is true, I guess that explains why there are so many gay Jews.

Be that as it may, if this research holds true-and it has been given high marks in scientific circles for it's thoroughness and attention to details-then at least these forty per cent of Ashkenazi Jews are indeed descended from four women who were themselves descendants of Jews from the Holy Land.

Four women! All I can say is, must have been some damn good stuff.

New Orleans-Now On Fire

A four and a half acre fire earlier today shot walls of flames high into the sky, visible for miles, as smoke filled the air of New Orleans with the potential of yet further contamination, as a big pile of refuse, made up of paper, wood, discarded clothing and furniture, as well as mechanical items, such as refrigerators, and possibly other items which held coolants and other chemicals, seems to have gone up in flames in a conspiracy of spontaneous combustion. Most of the refuse, if not all of it, originated from the areas of New Orleans, in particular the Ninth Ward, which had been heaviest hit by flooding.

Yet, George Bush, on a visit to the city yesterday, would have us believe that New Orleans has made great progress, is on the road to recovery, and is more now like, in his words, the city he used to visit (as though he ever visited the Ninth Ward). He went on to encourage other families to visit the area. As he spoke these words, however, there were no signs of Jenna and Barbara, the Bush's daughters. But to be fair, these girls are doultess not used to invitations to places that are accompanied by the notation, BYOB.

From what I've pieced together, the only parts of New Orleans that are or would be appropriate as a tourist destination, as of now, are those parts that were not greatly affected to begin with, relativly speaking. Sure, the French Quarter would doubtless be a good spot to come for the food, drink, and jazz and blues music. Unfortunatly, the accommodations are not up to the level they once were as far as availiability for large numbers of tourists, and pollution, and the prospect for contamination, is still an issue, as these problems pay no attention to geographical boundaries. At least, they can only be held in check up to a point with any degree of assurrance.

As for the residents of the Ninth Ward, and other poorer neighborhoods, they are adamant as to future plans for their respective homes and streets. One man informed Ray Nagin, the mayor, that he would protect his property with a baseball bat, if he had to. There is a great deal of controversy over tentative plans to turn certain areas into open parks, on the grounds that rebuilding in these areas would be too expensive, and innapropriate due to future safety considerations.

Of course, it could be pointed out that ensuring the levees are properly buildt and maintained, and that there should be regular tests conducted of the pumping system in order to insure any future flood waters are pumped out in a timely manner (as much a reason for the flood here was a failure of these pumps, as it was the levees failing) would be two good first steps.

On a related front, there is now a move to force a recall vote on Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, on grounds of incompetence. Unfortunately, a successful recall drive would necessitate the collection of enough legitimate signatres to equal one third of the voting population of Louisiana. At last word, Ms. Blanco was unnavailiable for comment. She was in the Netherlands, studying flood control.

Kenya-Elephants On The Rampage

It seems that a number of factors are heightening the effects of normal draught conditions in certain parts of Africa, as of now, at least and maybe especially in the nation of Kenya. There, a number of deaths have been blamed on rampaging elephants, desperate to find water sufficient for their needs,which are considerable. At four and a half tons, the elephant is the largest land mammal on the face of the earth, eats in food roughly one third of his body weight per day, and his normal water intake, unless I'm mistaken, is to be measured not in the ounces or gallons, but in the hundreds of gallons, per day.

Unfortunately, in Africa, drought conditions are being heightened evidently by global warming, in combination with damage to the natural encironment. This could be due in part to the shrinking of the rain forrests, in all parts of Africa,and if I had to wager a guess, I would imagine the increasing diversion of water from rivers to provide water necessary for farming is a factor as well.

Elephants, in addition to being huge, are also among the more intelligent mammals on the face of the earth, and evidently their increasing desperation to find the water as well as the food they need, has lead to their rampaging, and so they are responsible now, at last count,for the deaths of at least two farmers.

It's hard to fault them. Elephants have an emotional attachment to their kind, especially their mates and offspring, which I witnessed once on a visit to the Cincinnati Zoo. There, while in the process of giving birth, a female elephant was locked up, out of view, while her mate, the male, was obviously worried, and swayed back and forth in utter anxiety. Imagine the desperation then of these animals in Africa, who due to poachers have more than enough reason to be wary of man to begin with. Elephants are very intelligent indeed, and as the old saying goes-they never forget.

Hopefully, this issue will be resolved to the beneit of both species. The elephant is now half in numbers to what it was when censuses first began to be kept concerning them. It would be a shame if this magnificent creature were to be further endangered due to lack of availaible sustenance, and this due to the recklnessness of man.

Jill Carroll-Still No Word

As of now, the 28 year old free lance journalist who filed reports on behalf of The Christian Science Monitor, has not been heard from, but there can be little doubt as to the trouble she is in, assumming she is alive. Disguising herself as an Arab woman, she had travelled to the Adal section ofBaghdad, a Sunni Arab nighbohood which has a reputation as one of the toughest parts of the city, in order to meet Adnam al-Dulaimi, the head of The Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance. Unfortunatley, al-Dulaimi was not there, but Carrolls' abdutors were, and in the process of taking her captive, killed her translator.

This in itself belies, to my mind, any indication she might have been abducted by one of the roque elements who have made kidnapping of westerners a thriving enterprise, or who would try to, anyway. These are kidnappings of opportunity, and there seems to be more to this. The abductors knew Carroll would be there, and were waiting. There is or has been as of yet no word as to the possibility of collusion with al-Dulaimi, but his absence from the area is curious to say the least.

Carroll had a reputation as strong willed and brave yet at the same time, a professional and cautious reporter. Yet, she is a woman making her way through a country that is for the most part virulently anti-Western,and certainly anti-American. And she worked for a newspaper which is an arm of a Christian denomination, however objetive in it's reportage, and even liberal in certain of it's editorial positions, it may be.

The easiest assumption to make is that she was captured by one of the pro-Saddam factions, former Ba'ath Party insurgents. If this is the case, they may try to break her will, tear down her resolve, in an effort to prepare her for an appeal via tape to an American and Western audience, possibly as a means of striking fear into the hearts of any other journalist who may tread the soil of that beleageured nation. It is easy to say she will not be so easily broken, but remember,these are Ba'athists I'm talking about. It would be no surprise were she to be brutally raped, even purposely disfigured. Or, of course, simply executed, after being forced to make an appeal for American withdrawal, which of course they would know will never be acceeded to.

Of course, she could possibly be the captive of one of the more radical Islamic factions, such as Al-Queda in Iraq, which could be even worse. Their feelings about the role of women are pretty well known, and it is unlikely they would have a high level of tolerance or sympathy for an American woman, especially a journalist, disguising herself as an Arab woman. If they are her abductors, she is probably a dead woman, whether she is presently breathing or not. They might kill her on tape, or they might not. They will almost certainly kill her, barring her being found and rescued, assumming that is still an option.

I am hoping for a miracle, of course, but I do not expect one. The only appeal to her captives would be to simply point out that to murder this woman, to mistreat her in any way, would do their cause no good, in fact would only increase the degree of civilized animosity towards them. Of course, this too would be a vain hope, probably, as in truth they probably don't care. More to the point, it's not exactly a civilized audience they are trying to reach.

Concerned Alumni Of Princeton-What Would Burr Do?

I think personally that a lot of Republicans and conservatives may be making a little too much over the reaction from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's past membership in the conservative Princeton organization, Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP). They point out that this group has in the past claimed members such as former judge and frequent Fox News analyst Napolitano,as well as conservative radio host and pundit Laura Ingraham.

They go on to insist that there is no evidence that Alito had any involvemnt with any of the groups more controversial positions, writings, and declarations. Their position against Affirmative Action programs, for example, in the placement of women, minorites, the handicapped, and gays. They went on to crow that the recent acquisition and perusal of documents from the group from the Library of Congress, in the aftermath of the rather entertaining spectacle of the back-and-forth yesterday between committee chairman Senator Arlen Spector (R-Pennsylvania) and Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), showed no evidence of any degree of particiapation in the group from the nominee. In fact, he wasn't even mentioned.

Alito insisted that his sole degree of support for the group stemmed from his agreement with their position in support of the presence of the ROTC on the Princeton campus. Otherwise, he disavowed any agreement with any of the groups previously mentioned, more controversial positions, and further asserted he did not even belong to any of the gender segregated eating clubs which were a feature of the campus during the time in question, the 1970's.

It was hard not to feel some degree of sympathy for Alito, who will almost certainly be confirmed in his position as Associate Justice to the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Conor. It was almost impossible to not feel sympathy for his wife, Ms. Baumgartner, who broke down in tears as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) apologized forthe behavior of his coleagues, almost himself at one point near to breaking down in tears. Alito's wife beame so emotional she had to leave the room.

It was high drama, to be sure ( it was certainly worth the price of admission), but it ignores one simple fact that is very easily overlooked. And that is, how could Alito not remember having belonged to the group? How could he "not recollect", as he claimed,the more controversial aspects of the groups mission? When pressed, he certainy remembered the groups stance as to the presence of the ROTC on campus, but even here, the timeline is in dispute.

The controversy actually began during the late nineteen sixties, during the height of the Viet Nam War. By the time of Alito's purported involvement with the group,however, this seems to have become a dead issue. Nothing more than, at most, a few murmurs from die-hard faculty radicals, is my guess, but nothing that had enjoyed any degree of support, either among faculty or the student body as a whole.

Yet, Alito insisted that this was his one reson for joining the group, and that he knew nothing else about them. Yet, he put his membeship, his association, with the group, on his resume when applying for a job in the Reagan Administration in 1984.

Anybody can change, and should be given the benefit of the doubt, and a man of the stature of Alito is certainly no exception to this all too often overlooked rule of humanity. On the other hand, it is one thing to disavow a support or affiliation with prejudice, as Alito rightly did. It is quite another thing all together to conveniently forget, or, as he put it, to "not recall" it.

It was right for Kennedy and the other Democrats on the comittee to bring this matter to the attention of the nation, as well as the matter of Vanguard, where there was some legitimate question as to whether Alito had recused himself from ruling in a case, as an appellate judge, as he promised he would do, when the case came before him. The reason for this was that he had owned a mutual fund with the company, and so there would be a legitimate question as to his ability to judge impartially in the case. However, as it was pointed out, Alito had played no role in the management of this mutual fund, and so his sitting on the case was not improper. Still, he later recused himself,to avoid any apearrance of impropriety,and so the matter in this case seemsto be settled. Still, it was a legitimate matter for discussion before the committee.

And so much more with the matter of the Concerned Alumni of Princeton. It is still troubling, to me at least, not so much that he belonged to the group, but that his memory seems to have become so faulty concerning his past association. Like it or not, it does go to the question of his integrity, though in no other instane before this committee was any legitimate question raised concerning this. I have to wonder if, in this one instance, he is actually the victim of bad advice as pertaining to any discussions of the matter.

Whatever the case, Kennedy and the other Democrats came away looking like bullies, fools, and shills for the extreme left, all of which may be accurrate appraisals, sad to say. And it gave the Republicans a chance to make hay,which of course is what they did, and to great political effect.

Alito will be confirmed, and probably should be, barring any further radical revelations pertaining to his past or his character. His past will probably remained shrouded in mystery over some of these matters, which are more than likely incidental anyway. I have no idea what kind of Supreme Court Justice he will make. Of course he will tend to be conservative, which is not necessarrily a good thing or a bad thing, in and of itself, it is just a thing.

It just depends on the context, and on the case being decided, and even then, it is in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I am hoping for the best from this Princeton alumnus. Burr would be proud.

Pikeville And The Vanishing Mountains

When a hurricane hits land, it suddenly starts to break down. A weak category two will almost immediately become a category one. It has something to do with the friction of the land, in combination with the sudden lack of warm Gulf water by way of which the storm is fueled. As even the most monstrous of storms makes their way up into the interior of such states as Alabama, or Mississippi, and on into the mountains of Tennessee, even the strongest, most monstrous of storms eventually become degraded to the point that for the most part they become at worse bad thunderstorms. Under the best of condtions, they can spawn off tornadoes, even when they reach into the state of Kentucky. But at least, by the time they make it up that far, their hurricane days are over, even if they originally made landfall as a category five or a strong category four.

That, however, is all about to change, thanks in part to a partnership between two men very few, even in Kentucky, have ever heard of.

Donovan Blackburn is the city manager of the Easter Kentucky town of Pikeville, and he has recently formulated a plan in conjunction with Jim Slater, the President of Central Appalachian Mining. The plan now all but in the process of implementation is one whereby the mining company would be contracted to mine all the coal out of at least two large mountains on the outskirts of the city. Once the coal is sufficiently removed, the land would then by flattenned, and then used for various development projects. Mainly for homes, but there is also an agreement in the process of being finalized involving a Mr. Mike de Bourbon, an attorney who represents local airports. There has also been discussion concerning the prospect of baseball and soccer fields.

As you might have surmised, we are talking about a whole lotta land here. Enough to change not only the landscape of Pikeville, and Pike County, but more to the point, completely change the environmental structure of potentially the entire state of Kentucky.Especially viewed n conjunction with other, similar projects that have been undertaken in recent years. A baseball field in nearby Prestonsburg, for example, necessitated the removal of a significant portion of mountain land, now flat land.

The reasoning in the current Pikeville project can be sumed up as the need for lieberstraum. The 6500 person population town of Pikeville needs room for expansion. One might hope for a different, more environmentally friendly solution. Ashland is not that far away, for example, and what the hell is in Pikeville anyway. Whatever is not there, it probably won't be there any time soon. Just more people, and increased social services to meet not the needs of the general population, but those of the newcomers. But of course, extra tax revenues in Ashland would not translate into higher salaries-and bonuses-for city officals of Pikeville.

The Pikeville development project, however, might well translate into a serious climactic change for the state of Kentucky, and in fact this has been ongoing for several years, in fact, for going on two decades now. Winter snow is pretty much a thing of the past, at least in comparison to years gone by. Rain in the winter was actually all but unheard of in Kenutcky.

Now, winter rain is a common Kentucky occurrence, and it is a nasty rain, an unhealthy rain, as there is a significant lessenning of natural flora to prevent flooding and erosion. Winters are not as cold, but they are sitll cold, and so on the worse of days, instead of snow, we are blessed with sleet and hail. There is significant snowfall once every few years, but it is rare. There is seldom any accumulation that amounts to anything, nor does it stick around when it comes.

As for the summer years, there is an increase of tornadoes to contend with, once a rarity, now practically a yearly, and frequent, occurrence. The reason for all this can be traced back directly to mining, development-and politics.

When the Democratic Party held the state of Kentucky in it's grasp, the party naturally became so corrupt, that it all but imploded from within, and the Bop Trop scandals, resulting from a federal investigation, spelled the end of Democratic Party domination of the state. But the Republicans achieving parity with the state Democratic Party only made things worse, in a lot of ways, and environmental issues are just one example of this.

Now to be clear, the Democratic Party in the earlier days were not exactly pro-environmental tree huggers. It took a significant amount of protest and threatened court lawsuits to prevent Red River Gorge from being turned into a giant dam project. And this was in the days of Democratic monopoly over the state.

Of course, in those days, environmental activism was in it's infancy. Yet, Red River Gorge ws one of the early successes of the modern environmental movement. Now it is almost forgotten, and there have been whispered rumors, once again, that the Gorge area as well may be slated for some future development.

Back in those early environmentally aware days, it became plain that the practice of strip mining, in which entire mountaintops were removed and levelled, would have a future negative impact on the surrounding area that would have far reaching consequences. And so, environmental laws were passed, on the federal level, that mandated the restoration of mountain lands, after strip mining, to as much of it's original contours as was possibile.

Unfortunately, Messrs. Slater and Blackburn have apparrently, suppossedly, found some kind of obscure exception written into this federal law that allows for development in the case of need for expansion. I don't expect the Interior Department or the Environmental Protection Agency under George W. Bush to be much help in rushing to prevent the development. It would probably take a court order to get it stopped, and another series of court battles to order the project permanently halted. As of now, I know of no one rushing to the courts. The only briefs being filed would appear to be the ones covering the pocket pool doubles currently being played by the mining and other development and business interests, and Frankfort politicians.

As such, I don't expect the project to be stopped, now do I expect it to be an unusual case. I expect more, in the years ahead. For all his faults, Governor Paul Patton managed to prevent mining on Black Mountain, which is the highest elevation in the state-for now. Along with the Red River Gorge, it too is probably once more in danger, as I'm sure there are greedy eyes yet turned toward it. Just waiting for the right opportunity, fo rthe right go ahead from the right person. Or for the right heads to be appropriately turned away.

But it looks like that's just the way it is for now, until the people stand up and shout, enough! Again, I don't expect this to happen either. There are too many wedge issues by which voters can be distracted, and who cares about a place like Pikeville anyway? Or any place else in the mountains of Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky, for that matter. Any change would be an improvement, right?

Fine. But think about this. In the event a strong category four or five hurricane batters into Florida, and makes it's way up to Kentucky by way of Georgia and/or Alabama, it might be more than a strong thunderstorm by the time it makes it here. It might in fact be a strong category one hurricane still, or even a weak category two.

Actions have consequences. Unfortunately, the people that are repsonsible, or will be in the event this shortsighted policy of greed isn't reined in, are not the ones who will suffer those consequences, as for the most part they probably won't be living in the affected areas. Or if they do, they can easily leave.

No, it's all the rest of us chumps who will be left to deal with the devastation. The average citizen of Kentucky, the descendant of that rapidly vanishing breed, the mountain people, who a century from now, at this rate, will be remembered, if at all, as a long extinct breed of person. Maybe even as a category of faerie folk who, for all their mystical powers, could not prevent the storms.

Burning Bushes

Of all things for the Bush Administration to choose to pick a fight over, you have to wonder why they would choose to get involved in the up-coming Supreme Court case involving Anna Nichole Smith, who is attempting to overturn the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco) appeals court decision which itself reversed a previous decision that allowed Ms. Smith 89 million dollars from the estate of her late husband, the late Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall. The amount had been lowered from the original 474 million originally sought. Mr. Marshall's son has fought tooth and nail to prevent Ms. Smith from receiving any benefits from her late husband.

The former Playboy bunny, a Playmate of the Year, was only 26 when she married Mr. Marshall, who was himself 89 years old at the time. He died a year later, in the year 1995. Marshall's son fought the settlement with Ms. Smith on the grounds of mental incompetence on the part of his late father.

Originally, Ms. Smith was disallowed any kind of inheritance from the estate of her husband, but she was finally awarded the 89 million in the aftermath of a bankruptcy petition. And here's where it gets sticky.

Supposedly, the Bush Administration has opted to join in this lawsuit, on the side of Anna Nichole Smith, on the grounds of protecting the rights of federal courts to rule in bankruptcy cases, over the rights of state courts in settlement cases.

In other words, the Ninth Circuit seems to have ruled in a way you would expect would meet, for once, the approval of the Bush Administration. They ruled in favor of recognizing the jurisdiction of the State of Texas Courts to decide wills and property disputes.

But, no, the Bush Administration, Republican and suppossedly conservative, filled with ideoloques who purport to be for keeping bankruptcy cases under tight control, and in limiting any kind of monetary damages to what they would consider a reasonable level, if any at all-have decided in favor of the federal bankruptcy court.

Is it stating to make sense? It does to me, but only if you suspend disbelief that the Bush Administration cares a rip about a woman they probably perceive to be a tawdry tramp out to make as much money as she can get out of a naive old, lonely, and foolish man. They would probably explain they are not judging the case on it's merits, they are simply standing up for the rights of the federal bankruptcy court to make whatever decision it comes to, right or wrong.

Maybe. But I have to wonder if there is something else going on here behind the scenes. The Marshalls doubtless have little regard for the Bush family, who they probably think of as transplanted Yankee tenderfoots trying to trade in a manufactured image of Texas machismo for political capital. They may have been politcal supporters of this wealthy, conservative talking, politcal dynasty, but I doubt there were ever any real bonds between them.

And, there may have been no real political affiliation as well. I have no idea as to what the politcal leanings, in general, of the Marshall family may have been, or are now. It is worth noting, however, that throughout most of it's history, Texas has been, though conservative, a Democratic state.

The wealthy, more than anyone, hedge their bets, contributing appreciable amounts of money to Democratic candidates, even though for the most part, of course, they understandably prefer Republicans. Yet,it is conceivable that the Marshall family, as a good many others, may have been supporters to one degree or another, of such notable Texas Democratic luminaries as Lyndon Johnson, John Connolly (who switched from Democrat to Republican in his later years), and former Governor Anne Richardson, and a host of others. In addition, it's a safe bet that, as well as viewing with disdain the Bushes Texas pretensions, the wealthy Marshall family has looked with alarm at some of the none too conservative positions, and actions, of the Bush family over the years, and have supported considersable oppossition to them.

Of course, I could be well off base in all this. It could well be that the Bush family has no reason whatsoever to go after the Marshall family due to some perceived politcal slight. In fact, it could well be the Marshall familyhas been, in the past, dependable supporters of the Bush faamily-at least politcally.

One thing is for sure, though, the Bush family would be well advised to not count on any continuing support from them.

The Countdown Factor-Olbermann versus O'Reilly

It all started in the wake of the court settlement between Bill O'Reilly, the host of Fox News Channels "The O'Reilly Factor", and a former female producer who had accussed him of sexual harrassment. O'Reilly appearred on the air, in the format of his highly rated program, to inform the viewers that what he had experienced was the worse kind of evil, and now that it had been settled, he would "never speak of it again".

Following this, his MSNBC competitor, Keith Olbermann, the host of the quirky "Countdown with Keith Olberman", had this reply, and I paraphrase-"It's not over until I say it's over".

The first volley of the war had been fired. It's been ongoing ever since.

Olbermann has no qualms about replaying episodes from Fox News, mostly O'Reillys Factor segments, when he wants to make a statement or a point. John Gibson has also been a recent target, however. In either case, he pulls no punches, nor is there any doubt as to who or what he is talking about, as he gleefully identifies his targets by name, position, and netwok affiliation.

O'Reilly is a bit more persnickety about this, or it could be a matter of Fox company policy, but whichever the case, O'Reilly has never mentioned Olbermann's name, nor the name of his program-not so much as once.

He mainly refers to MSNBC, saying that it is "out of control", that it is falling apart, and that his "competitor" (Olbermann) is a smear merchant, and that O'Reillys early morning fourth rerun (actually, the third rerun, to be technical about it), beats his (Olbermanns) first run eight o'clock showing in the ratings.

"Unbelievable", exclaims O'Reilly, who obvioulsy wants Olbermann gone from the network, if for no other reason than simple general principle.

To this, Olbermann replied a few days later on his own show, actually replaying the preceeding mentioned clip, that this was a dodge, and that it wasn't about the ratings. He never denied O'Reilly's ratings were better than his, he said, then adding that "five and a half million flies can't be wrong."

And on it goes. At various times, O'Reilly has been, according to Olbermann, the days "worse person in the world". This of course is a segment in which the three worse persons, according to Olbermann, are listed, counted down from number three on down to the absolute worse, number one. When Olberrman listed O'Reilly as that particular days worse person in the world, it was over the "Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays" brouhaha for which John Gibson has also been targeted by Olbermann.

On another day, O'Reilly was actually named all three of the days "worse persons in the world". Another time, during a final installment of theMichael Jackson trial "Puppet Theatre",( in which newsphoto heads are superimposed on top of a popsickle stick, while a voice, obviously Olbermanns, narrates a ridiculous, suppossed utterrance of certain persons involved in the proceedings), the Michael Jackson puppet, in relief at finally being acquitted of the charges of child molestation brought against him, exclaims to fellow puppet and brother Randy Jackson, "now at last I can finally take off this mask."

Do I really have to tell you who the Michael Jackson puppet was revealed to be?

Unfortunatley, O'Reilly has been on vacation over the Chistmas season, and probably won't return until after New Years. He will probably continue to refrain speaking the name of Keith Olbermann, or the name of his show, on the grounds that his competitor shouldn't be so dignified. But I'm thinking he might have some reply to make in defense of all those five and a half million flies who are his viewers. How could he not?

In the meantime, my viewing schedule is pretty well set for eight o'clock. From here on out I watch O'Reilly, until I get my needed bitch fix. Once the fly remark, and all it's attendant implications, are addressed, naturally I will turn back over to Olbermann. I'm sure he won't dissapoint.

It's more fun than professional wrestling. And it's for real.

Austria-Land Of Terminators

An astute historian knows, ofcourse, that Adolf Hitler was not truly German. He was Austrian. To him, this was a distinction without a difference, and he quickly set about doing away with the distinction when he annexed his home coutnry to his adopted land, prior to the onset of World War II, wihtout so much as a shot being fired in protest, or in fact with little if any protest. Out of all the countries involved in the world conflagration that quickly followed, Austria probably sufferred the least. Out of all the millions killed during the conflict, Austria's casualty rate was among the lowest, probaly less than a percent of the total, at least of the civilian population.

Of course, there were military personnel, and Nazi Party oficials in particular who left behind a legacy. One of these was Kurt Waldheim, who for a brief period was Secretary General of the United Nations. Another would be the father of naturalizd American citizen, and actor, and currently Republican governor of the state of California, Arnold Swarzenneggar.

It seems odd how the Austrians, at least the officials of that nation, have turned on the man they once considered the homeland hero. Especially seeing as how they have so few of them. And to be sure, I am no fan of Arnold Swarzenneggar, either of his politics, or of his acting. But give him this, he simply did his job in the case of convicted murderer Stanly "Tookie" Williams, who was finally put to death after Swarzzeneggar refused to commute his sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole. He simply followed the law. He agreed to review the case, and having done so, found no grounds whereby commuting the sentence would be justified. It's really just that simple.

With all due respect to my European based friends and associates-America's ancestors left Europe for a reason, in fact, for a bunch of damned good ones. Europeans have their own peculiar-very peculiar-way of doing things, and we have ours. We can debate the merits of each individual instance of difference over a steaming hot cup of coffee, perhaps, but in the final analysis, our laws are ours, and whether we keep them or adjust them, is really a matter for us and us alone to decide. Europeans, or no other outside nation, has a say in the matter, really.

So, while you continue to award Nobel prizes only to Americans who tow the line according to what you perceive to be the politically correct policy, and while you remove native sons names from roads and boulevards and sports stadiums, know that when you do these things, we join with Arnold in giving you our blessings to do so.

You see, we don't have to concern ourselves with the prospect of passing ridiculous laws that nullify freedom of speech in order to make up for our past misdeeds. We have a way of making up for our considerable misdeeds, in the long run, not with words, but with actions.

True, we still have a long way to go. But when we get there, it will be here. Not there.

Echo The Dog

A dog has a distinct method of killing something it perceives to be a threat, or an annoyance, or as competition. Take rats for example. The dog will snatch the varmint up in his powerful jaws, and shake the unfortunate creature, until it dies from internal injuries. And so it was when Echo, a German Shepherd/Huskie mix-according to some reports, a dog/wolf hybrid-snatched within his powerful jaws little two week old Ethan, the only child of his owners, the Vest family, newly moved to Georgetown Kentucky. Both mother and father had stepped outside the house, leaving the infant alone in the house with Echo, when they suddenly heard the baby's screams. They made it in time to retrieve the child from the dog's jaws, whereupon the child was transported to Unversityof Kentucky Medical Center, where his condmition was just recently upgraded from critical. Apparently, little Ethan is going to be all right.

Echo, meantime, managed to temporarily escape from the cage in which he had been placed by the animal control people, and ran off. He was found some eight miles or so away, about as many days later. He was apprehended, and transported to the animal control sanctuary, where his fate for quite some time was uncertain. The dog even seemed to know his days were numbered. He quaked in terror in front of the cameras that filmed him for WLEX-TV out of Lexington, one of the many local news outlets that covered the story.

It was almost a sure bet the former family pet would be put down, sometime after Christmas, but a flurry of calls-more than 300 of them-to the Scott County Sheriffs Department, saved the dogs life. Upon word of the upgraded condition of the infant, the animal was transferred to the care of the Wolf Run WIldlife Sanctuary in Nicholasville, Kentucky. There he will be free to roam in an open though controlled environment, with plenty of space to run and romp. He's probably still wondering what all the fuss is about. Soon, he'll probably forget the incident ever occurred. He is, after all, a dog.

Too bad his former owners didn't have the common sense that would have been necessaryto realize this simple fact of nature, befoe they left the dog and theinfant alone in thehouse, suppossedly assumming-according to their statement to police investigators-that the two wee in seperate rooms. The police are still investigating theincident, though officially, for now, the incident is oficially considered to be pobably an unfortunate accident.

All's well that ends well. Still, this should be a cautionary tale for those who can't seem to understand that dogs, like all animals, including those of the human vairety, are programmed by nature to perform certain functions, and react to a certain set of stimuli. Through years of association, he had doubtless truly developed a bond of affection toward his human masters, the Vests. But little baby Ethan was a different matter. To Echo the dog, the baby was just another
threat, just another pest, just anotehr pest. Just another rat.

Translation to the Vests and to all those who think like them: Echo the dog is not Ethans loving uncle, brother, or trusted friend, or baby sitter.

HE'S A MOTHERFUCKING DOG!!!!

Burning The Red Cross

Once again, problems with the Red Cross, only this time it's not entirely their fault. The scope of the Katrina disaster was so great, they outsourced a lot of their volunteer work to private contracters, who took advantge of their positions to enable their friends to collect money targeted for homeless Gulf Coast residents. The majority of this fraud came from a contact center in Bakesfield California. The Red Cross, and the contributors, and of course the victims, were defrauded to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, at least.

The Red Cross itself came under scrutiny when it failed to deliver a large portion of contributions it received in the wake of 9/11, saying it should keep a portion of the money in the event of futue disasters. There was a big stink raised over this, and the then diector, Dr. Bernadette Healey, ended up resigning her position.

This in itself should have brought national attention to the problems with this dinosaur, behemoth organization, which went to it's overall structural integrity. It's a problem that's been around a while, one which I have personal first hand knowledge of. I had an uncle, now deceased, who was a sergent in the Viet-Nam era, in the Air Force, stationed in Thailand. While there, his wife had a baby, that died soon after birth. He had no way of getting home, and so turned to the Red Cross. He was told they could not help him. As a result, he would have not been able to make it home to be with his wife at their childs funeral, had he been unable to borrow the money. Luckily, his father, my grandfather, was able to wire him the money, and so he made it home.

He had not been there four hours when a representative of the Red Cross approached him at my grandparents house, offerring his condolences, and assurring him if there was any way the Red Cross could help, he should let them know. He told them to go to hell. I guess he had more integrity than I do, I would have accepted the offer, putting the confusion down to an example of bureacratic bungling and red tape.

But that's just the point. When you deal with any large organization, even a charitable one, it gets to the point that overhead expenses become the primary concern. By the time all this is taken care of, there isn't that much left over for the actual services the organizations are suppossedly meant to perform. I'm afraid that way too often, red tape becomes more of a convenient excuse than an actual reason.

But in the case of this latest example, where the Red Cross is not the actual culprits, the question becomes, how hard can it be to vet the private contactors to ensure they are reliable and trustowrthy? Even with the reasoning that action had to be taken quickly, there should have been some kind of oversight of the contractors.

At least, the Red Cross has promised swift action will be taken to violate the offending parties. Here's hoping they don't bungle this job.

Tea And Cookies

No more Yahoo Groups. No more questionable web-sites. In fact, very few web sites. Period. When it gets to the point you can't even trust the New York Times, you know the world is spinning out of control. So, what exactly am I talking about? I'm talking, of course, about spy-ware. Those little malicous and certainly not so sweet things called tracking cookies that enter your system, ostensibly for the purpose of tracking your internet browsing, at times merely to iform the site of the number of browsers they have attacted, at other times for more nefarious purposes, liketo send you ads and pop-ups.

Over the last week, I disabled at least thirty of these pesky critters, and incidentally also disavbled the cookies for this site. For a bief time, therefore, I had a problem logging onto Blogger. But now, just for now, the problemis solved. It would help if Blogger were to identify the name of their tracking cookies so a peson could know what not to delete, should they be detected by such agencies as MacAffee, and others whose sole purpose for existence is the disabling of cookies, worms, viruses, and trojans.

Frankly, if I had to do without Blogging, it would be well worth it, if it meant peace of mind. And who the hell needs Yahoo anyway. A clue-nothing in this world is free, and that damned sure includes free e-mail. And so, from now on, anytime I am in contact with my Yahoo Groups, even the one I own, Paganbitchslap, and the other I moderate, which is Voting Pagans, well, it's just going to have to be through this Blog. If they want to bitch and moan or otherwise give me some hell, they'll just have to come on this Blog and post their comments here.

Like I told someone else, I've become the Howard Hughes of computer viruses. For good reason. So I might as well tell you now, in case you haven't all ready learned it. If you ever get a sudden pop-up purporting to be from Microsoft, and it tells you that as the result of an error, your Windows willbe shutting down, and you may as a result lose your work, approachwith caution. Do not click on any of the links in this message, as it is probably not actually from Microsoft, though it certainly looks like a legitimate Microsoft message. More than likely, it is a forgery, a worm known as the Sasser worm. Here is what you should do if you receive this message.

Go to your control panel, click on Start, and then Run
Type in CMD, press Enter
A window should appear, in which you should type Shutdown A, then press Enter

This should prevent the infection, or eliminate it. However, if you have Windows, you should install every update Microsoft makes availiable, and do everything you can to prevetn this scourge. Some programs take a long time to download, and rventhough it isn't really necessary, I can'thelp but watch the downloading process. A bit like watching grass grow, or snow melt. Or, if you're not like me (obsessive) you can simply minimize the window and go on about your business. Me, I just can'thlp myself, so I simply brew a strong cup (or two or three) of hot tea, have a cigarrette (or three, or four), and just sit back, and watch. And watch. And watch.

And count my blessings. After all, if these hackers were really all that smart, they would be able to come up with a way to get into your system that wouldn't slow you down, wouldn't crasdh your system, and more improtantly, in a way in which they couldn't be detected. A way in which you wouldn't even know they are around.

But, of course, they are around. So be aware.