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Like everyone in the world who doesn’t watch Fox News, I feel all white racists in Missouri should all be killed. However, there is just one small argument against it….

Massive non-violent protest is so much more effective….

To effectively protest, two things have to occur….

A)  It has to be massive. Gigantic… Huge…. involving the heart-strings of hundreds of millions.

B)  It has to be at a higher rung on the moral ladder than its opposite…

Both planks have to be in effect for the demonstrations to change policy…..

There are considerable examples demonstrating this:  One: the Arab Spring.  The size was there, and the freedom of the movement enthused populations more than the oppression of the status quo.  Another was Ukraine.  The oppression of one administration was balanced against the freedom of a new one. However in both cases, as it became apparent that the reality was replacing one oppressive system with another one, the enthusiasm dampened.

The opposite example demonstrates the need for numbers.  Occupy was full of enthusiastic people.  But though it had strong passive sympathy for its message against the one percent, it never generated the massive demonstrations needed on the scale of the Arab Spring….


What will happen over the fallout of these two (examples of power able to act outside the law with impunity using a Grand Jury process as long as the victim is black), will depend solely upon whether you (and everyone else) goes to a protest demonstration this weekend… One is being held somewhere near you….

If very few show up (if you do not show up), then rightfully, this is not a real issue….  It is a fake one being broadcast by a few highly concerned individuals over the yawns of many…. But …  If you do show up, and everyone else follows you to the demonstration, only then change is possible…

Democracy demands your involvement.  The only reason you have freedom today as we speak, is because your bloodline, or your neighbor’s bloodline, chose to get involved in the sticky, messy ordeal of defending what was right… It is the only way change ever occurs. If you choose to not get involved: then hell with democracy…  Might as well live under tyrants…






















































Did you ever walk into the middle of a scandal brewing?  Perhaps at work, or your church, or social club you frequent to get time away from your spouse?  You had no clue walking in that anything had happened, and the business meeting to censure someone is underway….

You get told… “oh, it’s terrible. It’s the end of the world, We have to do something.  Why have they not done something yet?”

And you are going… “Really?  What’s going on?  Someone fill me in. What started it?  Why is this so bad?  What really happened? Why do we have to get a new boss?”

Sort of like walking into the Monica Lewenski scandal midway,  and going,…. what? You’re impeaching the  best President of the United States we’ve ever had, …. over a relationship?


So can someone fill me in as to why this Veteran’s controversy is so bad? It is not like it is news.  We’ve known this, since forever.  The demand has always been greater than the supply. In fact, this leader whose head we are calling for, has moved the department competitently forward during difficult times.

Perhaps perspective is called for?

Did we fire the head of JP Morgan for the London Whale disaster?  Both are still working for JP Morgan, aren’t they?  Did the head of BP resign or get fired?  I don’t think so.  Is Freedom Enterprises still intact after spoiling the drinking water of all of civilized West Virginia?  Why yes, it is..

So what was so bad at the Veteran’s administration, that is so horrible, so abysmal,  that it trumps the theft or loss of $2 billion dollars, or a gigantic oil spill ruining miles of  5 state’s Gulf Coasts, or toxic licorice smelling chemicals infesting the tap water of a entire state’s largest  two cities?

Waiting lists.

Oh… waiting lists?

Yes… it it terrible, tragic, horrible, that due to insufficient space, veterans were put on waiting lists….

Uhh….. Ok.


Is there anyone out there who can explain why this waiting list thing is so bad, why it is being called a terrible scandal?  One necessitating the firing of the Secretary in charge of the Department?  Why is this not being treated as was Abu Ghraib , which was just some rogue soldiers messing around that certainly didn’t require chopping off the head of the Department of Defense?  What was his name back then?  Oh yeah… Donald Rumsfeld.

Especially since the only person who can fix the Veteran’s Administration in a timely fashion, is the very person Republicans are calling upon to be fired?

So please….  inform me.   Otherwise just stepping into this and trying to grasp what is going on, looks just like an exercise, similar to Benghazi…..   of watching people trying to make a GIGANTIC scandal out of one pea missing out of sequence from an unopened pea pod……

Isn’t the real scandal, seriously, one about the incompetence of these people shouting: its a major scandal?


Sheesh.  And people ask why no one cares about politics anymore?  Now, Lindsey Lohan? …. there’s a real scandal….


When one first starts blogging one always pens a brief note regarding Veteran’s Day.  After doing it several years in a row, one gets to feel that one is actually demeaning a special day, for over time, one loses the ability to come up with something new to say.  It’s all been said before… by you.

If you stopped by any Veteran’s Day Memorial Celebration, you probably felt the same as I.  The heads of office all get up to spout off some words their publicist dashed off in the middle of last night, the functionary guild officers roam the crowd and do their politicking, the high school band looks like it got up too early on it’s school day off.

It seems shallow; perfunctory.

That is not what I saw.

I saw 200+ people who got out of bed and made it a point to attend. Why? I saw some in current uniform.  Some in their American Legion of VFW uniforms.  I some some in jeans, . But for some reason, some deep underlying force motivated them to get up, get showered and dressed, get into their cold cars and drive to and then park, and even then, walk half a mile in the cold to sit under at tent for two hours of boring speeches all the while exposed to elements.

I saw the US Flag with the MIA flag underneath it, and the 5 service flags all waving in the breeze, while the functionaries droned on and on, each trying to make it sound like they were America’s solders’ best friends. It waved magnificently.

When one writes a blog and centers it on passion, a lot of phrases oneself used in the past, when uttered again ring hollow from overuse.. Perhaps they still inspire those hearing it for the first time.

Every year brings something different .  A new perspective.  This year was no different….

Perhaps because it was the 95th anniversary of that day when the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, caused the guns to go silent.

A moment of silence was offered.  And since I wasn’t paying attention to all the blah-blah-blah leading up to it, the silence hit me stronger than before.  There was all this background noise, and suddenly it was quiet…

Don’t know if any of you have been in war, but war is full of noise.  The closest to that situation then, is the 53rd Parallel today.  Shots are randomly being fired, and no one really pays attention to who is firing them.  Sometimes one side even gets orders to use up as much ammunition as possible, since peace will soon be coming upon them. Yes, war is ruled by the dumb.  Those things happen.

But what it must have been like to have heard the distant non stop booms of artillery for the past 8 months, and suddenly then, it stops.

Instinctively you wait for the next one…. and it never comes… Slowly it dawns on you that it is over.  You made it.  You didn’t die.  You might make it home after all….

It is hard to imagine that feeling unless one has lived it.  One’s duty done.  One’s memory bank full.  One’s emotions unexplainable except through eye contact with fellow soldiers.  You get to go home, and many of your friends… won’t.

There are a lot of things you wish you could take back. Actions against the enemy you wish you hadn’t taken.  You don’t feel like the hero you will be hailed as when you get back..  What you did was dirty business. But you are going to praised for it back home.  You tell yourself, it is just how it is, and you put up a brave face….

You are scarred.  When you get back, you see other people who didn’t go, and they seem so immature.  They act like they are in elementary school.  Gradually it seems like everyone is like that.  A whole society is completely engrossed in a television series the played the night before… Don’t they know that is just made up?  Don’t they realize it is just  pretend?

Your best friends, who you longed to get back to normal with while you were under fire, now think you are weird.  When you walk into a room, you can tell, they weren’t praising you, and you simply don’t know why.. Weren’t you the one… WHO DID ANSWER THE CALL?

Only others, those coming back with you, seem to accept you.

It is no one’s fault really.  Just an educational divide that has to be experienced to be believed.  And war is an experience that we don’t want happening very often.

That is why black, Hispanic, Caucasian, Asian, male, female, those petty differences don’t matter any more.  By the unique experience of serving the United States of America, these comrades are family.

And so…. they get up early on Veteran’s Day.  Dust off the parade uniforms, and squeeze themselves back into those now tight fitting clothes.  Some are pulled by memories.  Some are pulled by psychology.  Some are just pulled.

They are America’s true heroes… As foes become friends, and friends become foes across the spread of years, ideologies and philosophies fall by the wayside.  Words like Democracy and Freedom and Liberty ring hollow, especially when as an invader you brought none of that. You brought martial law.

But the bond exists between all those who’ve faced someone trying to kill them.  Someone who doesn’t know them. Someone who in another time or place would be hilarious to get stinking drunk with. Someone who may miss their loved one.  Someone who may have more kids.  Someone who loves their mother, maybe even more than you.

But we ask these men, and often tell them… to disregard humanity, that there is a greater purpose, one justifying taking a life just like yours….  A greater cause that can only be fulfilled by having more soldiers left standing then the other side is capable of replacing on their side…

These men, these women, fought war.  War, the senseless, cruel, wasted reality that makes no sense once it is over.   They fought war. War which is stupid.  War which is costly. War which kills.

There is only one reason war exists… One side wants it…. and as a defensive nation, through most of our history, we were not that side.  We fought to end wars.  We fought to stop it…

These veterans for their small part they played, all tried to do what they could in their own small way, to end war…

And for that… we must honor them always…..

With an editorial in the Washington Post titled “With No Consequences, Our Credibility Is At Stake“, Mr. David Ignatius makes some erroneous suppositions, then basis his argument upon them….

His words:  “It becomes obvious in recent weeks that President Obama whose restrained and realistic foreign policy I admire, needs to demonstrate that there are consequences for crossing the American Red Line.   Otherwise the coherence of the global system begins to dissolve…”

Is that true?  Do you lose respect for someone who doesn’t Immediately punish you after catching you red handed?  

That, I think, depends upon how much clout that person has.  Let’s look at this same situation in other types of relationships.

Parent-Child.  Do you punish your child for every single wrong thing they do?  From toddler up?  If so, where do you stop:  at 21 or when they move out?  Bottom  line, one would be hard pressed to find someone who belts their child over every little infraction. That childhood punishment would be the equivalent of war I think.  In fact, most of us who knew of a parent who did so, would feel obligated to call Child Services.  A parent could use a time out corner.  Take away a privilege, or in most cases, threaten a punishment and not deliver, and get sufficient results.

You reading this are grownups.  Some of you were whupped, many of you weren’t.. Is there anyone out there who doesn’t respect their parents because they weren’t excessively belted?  I’d guess very few.  The point is, that we respect people for making good choices; not for pettily following rules, which may be petty at times.  We respect people who make punishments fit the crime.  We disrespect those who pull out the belt over every tiny infraction. Those that suffer the belt, only do so because they know that if they run away, they have no food, no shelter, no toys, no money. They figure better to take the momentary abuse, than run.  The fact they choose to take it, doesn’t make it right.

Let’s jump to the workplace.  And look at the relationship with one’s supervisor.  We all know that the bosses we respect, are the older ones who practice wisdom, who arbitrarily apply punishments only when they are necessary.  And when they do, all means get exhausted first, before firing the employee, (probably the equivalent of a first strike in this situation). They never lose respect; they maintain it.  It is those brand new mangers no one respects, who walk with a book in their hand, and upon any infraction, they fire people. The movie depiction of the young kids who were fast food managers is a good example.  if someone uses multiple threats to fire, and then acts accordingly, he has no respect.  None.  In fact, he is disrespected  to the max simply because he fails to apply wisdom to the issues at hand.   In fact one has the most respect for a supervisor, who has the right and valid reason to fire you, but gives you one more chance.  Most of us respond and change our behavior to justify his wisdom in choosing that action.  Our actions prove him right, and we have tremendous respect for that.

Again, respect is not derivative of excessive behavior.  Respect is garnered more strongly to those whose decisions we trust

And what about respect in marriage?  Does one have to be the dominatrix and the other subservient, for a marriage to function?   Most would say divorce would be far better.  Do you really want a spouse threatening you, then taking those threats out on you while you sleep?  Not much sleep you will get.  Our future president once had to make that choice.  Under a lot of advice to dump her cheating husband, for some reason she chose not to.   And it worked.   It always works…

Which is why it is extemely odd for David Ignatius to propose that unless we go to war RIGHT NOW,  no one will respect the United States.  I beg to differ,  Just saw a poll of 93% against Syrian action, and only 6% in approval.  Truly, do you think that by going to war, those 93% are going to respect the president?  What a ridiculous notion!

Do you think most of the nations we have to work with, will respect us if we go into Syria, even after they have all stated they would not join, and would not support such an action?  If we attack Syria, will all those nations and their inhabitants hold us in higher esteem?  I think not.

Since in these four real life cases, the premise stated by David Ignatius is the exact opposite of what actually works best, most normal people would be hard pressed to accept that in the case of Syria, against natural law, it would achieve the desired results….

The premise that our respect comes only from our ability to deliver upon threats, is childish in the least.  Most people lose that idea forever with their first baby.

Next, David makes a very odd, perhaps misguided assertion.  He says:  “Look around the world and you can see how unscrupulous leaders are trying to attempt to exploit Obama’s attempt to disentangle America from the tumult of the Middle East… “

Is that true?  Is a nation that’s felt the onslaught of America’s military ordance within it’s own territory, really unscrupulous because it doesn’t automatically succumb to what the USA wants?  

In Yemen and Pakistan, we send drones overhead on a regular basis to take out hideaways.  Would Americans roll over if we were the ones getting our airspace violated?  Iraq, suffered American occupation for over 6 years.  Are they now unscrupulous, because they don’t automatically succumb to what the USA wants?  Iran, as actually since the last election, become far more moderate.   Even with that, despite our history, should they acquiesce to whatever the USA might want?

Almost as if wiping out the history of the past decade, he makes the assumption that only a military strike into Syria, would again pull these people back under America’s umbrella.  I really can’t see the reality David thinks he is standing on.  If you were in a bar with your best friend, and someone walking by suddenly suckered-punched him, really hard, putting him on the floor, according to David, you would get off your chair, shake hands with the perpetrator, and scold your best friend for whatever he must have done to make this nice guy knock him out.  According to David, you would not grab the perpetrator by the collar, and you would not attempt to slam your closed fist into his nose repeatedly!

What kind of world does David live in?  (Oh, I see.  He lives inside the Beltway! Ohhhhh)…

Then he says:  “Here is another thought to ponder. Is it possible the the Syrian chemical weapons attack was planned and coordinated with its key ally, the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards?  Surely they were in the loop.”

He knows this….  how?

Isn’t this what we call pure speculation?  Does he have the cable dispatches from the NSA?  How does he know they didn’t collude with North Korea?  They did before!   From the buzz I’ve heard the only people who really know what happened were on the ground at the attack, and inside Assad’s palace in Damascus.  But David makes the assumption that Iran must also be in on it, because it fits in nicely with his scenario of how the Middle East works.  Forget reality.  It is what’s in David’s head that matters.

He solidifies:  “The main rationale for military action by American and it’s allies should be restoring deterrence against the use of chemical weapons”.

Syria has been at war for 2 years.   if it hasn’t changed its attitude while being under attack from the constant bombardment by the rebels, how will a few more extra explosives change his will which seems bent on keeping power?  if you are going to get bombed by the USA, might as well do it now, when all they will be bombing, is already slated to be torn down and rebuilt…

He defines:  “The strike should be limited and focused. rather than a roundhouse swing aimed at ending the Syrian Civil War.  But it should be potent enough to disable Assad’s command and control structure so he can’t conduct similar actions in the future.”

So let’s be clear.  He spend all his effort describing how we need a gigantic threat to cow the middle east in line, and we are going to do it with very limited means.

let’s replay that bar scene above, except this time the stranger just flicks the ear of you friend…  Does your friend go: “gee, ha, ha, that was funny, Biff.  You a thousand laughs, Always a joker”?  My guess is that he will try to hurt the perpetrator, and you might help him.

So what does an ear flick prove?  Can you imagine John Kerry’s press conference, “We have sent a signal to the world;  if you use chemical weapons, we will flick your ear.”

But that is exactly what David is arguing for.  Saying we are going to teach the world a very valuable lesson in respect…. (flick.)

Then to make his point, he becomes very confusing.  He brings in Putin, and decries that Putin is determined to take advantage of our reticent president and the fatigued nation he represents.  Well, duh, that’s his job, isn’t it?  To pursue Russia’s interests? He next jumps to Saudi Arabia and Iran.  “US action against Assad, might not deter the Iranians, but it will at least make them think twice about crossing Obama’s red line.”

“Ok Iranian Council.  Has anyone thought about the US retaliation?” A hand goes up. “Has anyone else given thought to US retaliation?”  Another hand goes up.  “Ok, that’s twice, We’re cleared. So when should we begin our action?”

And then he comes to the point.

The contention among members of the Mideast, is that Obama is a weak president. Obama won’t change the opinion by a military strike. But a military strike will at least remind people that American military power is not to be taken lightly.

A weak president?  Hmm.  He sent a task force into Pakistan and captured Osama. His administration sends drones into three nations daily to hunt and kill citizens of those nations. He orchestrated the toughest economic sanctions against Iran hthat have ever been seen.  He hammered out an agreement between Israel and Morsi, that completely shut hostilities down on the West Bank. He changed the regime in Libya by going in with force.  He is forcing the Afghans to come to grips with the fact the US is leaving Afghanistan on a strict timetable, with no delaying action.

David must be having hallucinations.

So a dad must belt his child. So a young boss must fire over every single violation. So a married couple must divorce at the first sign of disagreement……

If none of these are true, neither is David’s argument over Syria.

There are many ways we can achieve the same ends, as does a parent, as does a wise boss, as does a willing spouse, without having to immediately take the path of our most forceful action!

The biggest question today…. is why does David no know this?

The Social Media outlets erupt: “Oh no, another school shooting” “I’m so saddened by the sickness in America” “My hearts go out to the families of all involved…”

Another shooting… Seems like one happens after every big blockbuster release these days…

This shooting in Connecticut, is our Norway-bloodbath it appears… The idea that children so small getting torn apart by bullets makes every normal person pause. It is terrible.

But as happens with every tragedy there is soon a period of accounting that takes place, to see if vulnerabilities occur elsewhere in our system, if we are truly secure, if it could happen to us….

Television brings it close. Our media has the capacity to transfer what used to be a printed newspaper byline: “shooter kills 28 in elementary school” into putting us right there into that very school’s parking lot seconds after it happened. We see moms and dad, teachers and support staff, and 3rd Graders themselves… telling us in their words what happened…. As we see the same clips over and over, it is as if it happened to people we personally knew.

In real life when one witnesses a horrific crime, the residue from it stays with them forever. Whether it causes them to overcompensate, or go crazy, that event makes some dent in their destiny…..

It just makes sense that our emotions would choose not to distinguish between one that happened to us, and one was electronically beamed. To our emotions, both are very real.

We say: someone has to do something!.!.!

And often the medicine we prescribe is worse than the disease we are trying to cure…….

In an effort to put this in perspective, here are some facts I’m willing to share.

There are 39,200,000 elementary students in school today, both public and private. Today we lost 18.
Just saying if you stood every student side by side in a single row starting from Delaware’s Old Courthouse in Old New Castle,…. (39,200,000 feet at 5280 feet per mile, gives you a row of elementary students standing side by side, that is 7424 miles long)…. meaning it would stretch 2 and a half times across our nation… almost exactly the distance Forest Gump ran in the movie Forest Gump.

As you drive home today, imagine a line of students looking at you from the side of the highway from the beginning of your commute to its end. Imagine if that line continued to California, and came back on the other side, and then headed out again!… Imagine as in the Hunger Games, some authority, divine or otherwise, picked out just 18 from that line…..stretching beyond as far as our eyes can see….

We truly do live in a very safe society where most of us have no real fear that our lives won’t emerge at the end of the day, very similar to how they began at it’s start……

We have a lot to be thankful for… that those numbers are not a lot higher….

If we truly want to get that number down to zero, we need to begin fostering a culture where anger and depression are treated as normally as is a common cold. We need to open lines of communication where any child who is abused at home, can simply feel extremely comfortable telling any public official such, and that abuse can stop… We must continue our work against continued suppressed emotions by dissolving anger before, as it did today, it breaks out into an even bigger tragedy.

Steve buried it first.








He wasn’t much to look at… In fact, a lot of people more in tune with the rush of life, kinda made fun of him.. A dotey old man. One whose humor, and politics had long been used up and become obsolete.

He took pictures, lots of them, of every occasion. So much that when any one else pulled out a camera, the group would groan, and his name would bounce around, with a couple of laughs…

His own spouse brushed him off. He was doofy, couldn’t remember what he was supposed to do, could not be counted on, and probably had to be taken care of like a teenager, which taxed her a little too much, since she was bringing in all the disposable income…

To kids he had a big heart, and big stories…. Especially about Korea.

Soon a precision guard of 6, will unload the casket from a hearse parked on an Arlington road way, pivot the flag draped casket 180 degrees and march to a grave site up the hill, set it down, and stand holding the flag during prayer. Three shots will be fired, taps will be played, a final salute, the flag folded and handed to the closest of kin….

No one really knew he was wounded in combat so many long years ago…

His nation never forgot…. Entitled by law, to a full burial with military honors, his worth to this nation, forgotten while alive by those quite close, his honor was restored in death. Quite a few of those standing around the ceremony, will never have such an elaborate funeral…

One has to love a country that takes such good care of those who fought. It is a nation we are all part of… and proud of.

One can never forget it’s obligations.

It is a simple vote…

Should we or should we not put this man in an administrative function.

Please vote yes…. or no…..

(It should be open cut because a majority have already said they would support Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Agency.) Just get it done…

But, it never goes to vote. In a motion to stop debate requiring 60 votes, 53 are found….

There is nothing more to debate. Vote yes or no… The argument has been on the table for months… But no… it cannot go forward because the Republican Party (all of it) had 45 members who voted against it…

The agency still has no one at the top to get it rolling. There is no one regulating Wall Street as we speak, simply because the entire block of Republicans, who voters put into minority receivership based on their previous track record, voted NOT to stop debate.

There will be no government until there are no Republicans.
There will be no Congress, until there are no Republicans.
There will be no Democracy. until there are no Republicans.
There will be no United States of America, until there are no Republicans.

(Sad thing this is not hyperbole. This is not campaign rhetoric. This is not hateful bantering. This is what is really happening. Makes a veteran want to cry)