Is THIS Face "Un-American"?

Of course not! But, according to many right-wing "patriots" (too many to list here), and their equally pin-headed left-wing "humanitarian" (AKA: Isreal is the real reason for Palestinian woes, ad nauseum) wackos, Jews are somehow collectively guilty of whatever it is that doesn't seem to make sense to them. To the right-wing religious nuts, Jews are "wicked" for rejecting Christ (and, please, spare me all that tripe about Christianity being "the religion of love", because I've been there), so countless Christian dimbulbs thrill to the leaden prose of LEFT BEHIND, which leaves no stomach unturned in its zestful descriptions of the END TIMES. I won't assault your sensibilities by repeating some of the literary- religio-porn splashed all over the series pages like aborted fetuses (oh yes, there's at least one Christian Fundy website that offers images of, among other things, the Pope holding a "Last Supper" with said fetuses as the main dish. Yum!). On a later date, I'll try to list a few of these "Four-Square Gospel" and related leftist hate sites here, but I may run out of space even so. Yes, sadly, there are that many.
As always, these pernicious politico-fascist fetishists fasten onto the historically simple, yet factually far-out solution of Jews being the cause of all their problems. And what, pray tell, is their proof? Why, THE PROTOCALS, naturally. Y'see, they say gleefully, it's gotta be true 'cuz it's the minutes of an actual meeting of those 33 nasty rabbis that secretly rule the world! Sure, and I'm the Anti-Christ, too. But, hard as we may laugh at this stupidity, it's here, has been here for God-knows-how-long, and isn't going away. Not today, not tomorrow, not next year. Because, notwithstanding the falsity of its claims, this belief in Jewish world-control is easy to understand, simple in operation (after all, didn't Charles Dickens himself have an unnamed Jewish rag-picker in league with Fagin? Of course Jews all know each other, right?), and virtually unassailable in its "us against them" logic. Try convincing a believer that all those obviously "Jewish" names at the head of major corporations aren't up to no good. So how'd they all get there? Your run-of-the-rut bigot will demand. Not that he's asking. He knows the answer: Jews only help other Jews, he'll retort. Shake your head in disbelief at him and he'll produce---drum roll---a copy of THE PROTOCALS, or some other screed downloaded from the rabid-right-wing/loonytoon-left conspiracy sites. Hopeless, me thinks.
I believe Umberto Eco, in his THE NAME OF THE ROSE, gave about the best answer as to why these people insist on seeing a mere 3% (it may be slightly higher) of the world's population to blame for almost everything. He places, in the mouth of an illiterate peasant, the sublimly simple sentence that haunts me as I write this: "When your enemies are powerful, you have to chose weaker ones", he states unself-consciously (I am not quoting verbatim, of course). There, you have it---choose an enemy that (preferably) can't fight back. For all we have Isreal, we Jews still stand mostly out-numbered and out-gunned, even here in America. It was thus when we arrived on these shores penniless and pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps, as it were. Jews were never poor, many Christians believe (including my sister and brother-in-law). Jews hid money in the lining of their clothes, they say. (oh, sure, wads and wads of rubels, marks, and other foreign currancy that was worthless over here). Uh huh, and I suppose they stuffed their brogans full of gold coins, too (which explains why so many of them walked funny, I presume?)
Nevertheless, such intellectually-myopic hordes are to be feared because they outnumber us. Worse, they have panderers like Falwell, LaHaye, and Robertson who, while they might not openly preach hatred (or suger-coat it if they do), endorse whole-heartedly the "kikes are gonna get it when Jaysus returns" approach to God's Justice. And not only us but gays, Buddhists, Muslims, etc., as well. God's going to need one humongous Fry-Daddy come Judgement Day, according to the Fundies, who can't wait. Considering that most of our Repubican elected officials court these Fundies for their votes, rely heavily on their contributions, and even share some of the same beliefs---I say we'd better arm ourselves. Because you just know what's going to happen when the "wrong" messiah shows up...

Capitalism=Homeland Security?

Our wonderful prez is all set to outsource a completely useless and cost-ineffective port authority with a private company. WoW! Isn't Capitalism great? No more paperwork, keeping track of all those ships. No more overtime pay for all the cops needed to police the docks and, best of all----no more unions! Just look at all the money we'll save. I mean, can this get any better or what?
Oh sure, Dubai is an arab nation and all that, but George knows they won't let in any terrorists. Besides, Dubai is an ally of ours, right? Just like Saudi Arabia, so of course we can trust them! I mean, it's Syria and Iran that are the bad guys now. Everybody knows the 9/11 terrorists all came from Iraq, and that's why we went after Saddam, y'know? And those ports will still be ours, even if the guys with the guns are foreigners, so, like, who cares! Our government wouldn't sell us out. No siree, the Republicans don't let minor considerations like bribes, etc. influence their decisions. If they're bought, they make sure it's an American company. And they're honest, too. Once they're bought they stay bought.
Hey, let's outsource everything! Y'know, like the military, the FBI, CIA---what the hell. It's money saved, isn't it? Our tax dollars! Like, we could even get big IRS refunds if this deal goes through. Well, yeah, I know that the rich will get theirs first, but it all trickles down eventually, right? So let's all give a big cheer to Dubya. Yippee, we're all gonna die!

Killer Cartoon

So, this is the terrible insult that Muslims are using as yet another excuse to riot/throw tantrums, scream "Death To Denmark!" in the streets, and generally act like radical college students in the 60's over. My, my, how quaint. Seems like only yesterday when we Boomers threw public tantrums about perceived injustices to our generation and threatened to invade Congress. Alas, we have "invaded" government---only to find we're no better at it than our parents. Sigh.
Yes, rioting and tantrums do feel good when you're downtrodden, but that kind of childish behavior doesn't change anything. Take it from an old hippie/Yippie/has-been, and stop this stupidity before you find yourself facing your own "Kent State", as it were. We thought we were invincible, too, but bullets don't respect character. We found that out the hard way. Sure, yell all you want, but be careful when you think to burn down buildings, behead people, that sort of thing, in God's name, because God isn't going to act as your "human shield". You risk getting peaceful Denmark angry, and angry people can strike back at Muslims, both innocent and guilty, as the American government struck back at us college radicals.
Besides, why should we respect your prophet when your newspapers show similar cartoons about our religions? Face it, as I've said before, God or Allah is a big boy, and he can smite "infidels", sinners, etc. without human help. Or don't you believe God is great? Be careful, he might not want to "get involved", y'know. Salami, salami, baloney, baloney....

If Life Sucks, Does That Mean Death Blows?

No, this is not a "trick" question. Got your attention, though, didn't it? Seriously, it often does seem that life sucks---as when receiving the wonderful opinion of a psychologist that your 22yr-old son will probably never mature enough to marry, let alone give you grandkids. Okay, it's not like I hadn't intuited that possibility before, but it sure hurts coming from an expert.
Needless to say, I've fought battles for schooling, etc. for years, and none of the experts has been proven right---yet. Ay, there's the rub. Not being morbid like Hamlet, however, helps. As with everything in Judaism, there's at least 3 sides to every problem. Hey, it gives more options, right? What's that Yiddish saying---"A good question is half the answer"? And that's the point; if the answer is bad, change the question! We all know how precise wording is essential to slanting those polls just the "right" way for enabling our government's predetermined solutions "democratically". You know, like Fox News---We Distort, You Comply? So, are the distorters liars, or only "deceived deceivers"? Don't ask me. I just write this stuff for fun.
Nevertheless, I'm disturbed by the swift judgements these experts are wont to hand down---often after only a perfunctory "interview" with the "client". I know that this particular expert will test him to see if these assumptions are true, but what of the others who won't? And what's truly worrying is the fact that I have to pay for these tests even though he's already a "client" in our community mental health services, which is supposed to test for free. What of those parents who haven't the money (God only knows how we manage to scrape up the money!) to avail themselves of private tests? Prozac Nation, here we come!
So, at this moment life sort of sucks for me, but I won't give up. If I'd listened to all those experts in the past, my son would be one of those drooling, drugged-up zombies wandering the streets, rather than a college student. Not that the experts didn't mean well, they just overly rely on the words of their fellow experts instead of testing for themselves. And yes, I know how expensive testing can be, and how strapped most community health programs are for funds. Still, it's my son, so what else can I do? Sadly, though, it's always someone else's child that's not our problem. Sigh. I'm as guilty as the rest. Divide And Conquer---pit the LD funding against the CP funding, so the parents of learning-disabled kids battle the parents of kids with cerebral palsy instead of banding together to demand funding across the entire health-related spectrum. For my son, the future looks brighter only because we can afford (so far) a "future" that's not routinely spit out by the "machine", so to speak. We all speak of the "Deux Ex Machine" (often translated as "ghost in the machine" but equally translatable as "god" as well) in cynical terms. For once, I'm hoping God is "in the machine".

OnToThe Next Disaster...

Finally got back to whatever's "normal" for me, as the urologist removed the stent this morning after the x-ray showed me clear of stone fragments. Couldn't believe how long that bugger was---at least 12 inches! One end started way up at the top of the left kidney and hung all the way down to the urethra (sic), where it was anchored by a nice little curl on that end. Yeah, real nice. It felt like I had a fishpole stuck up there, and every time I voided it felt as though I was hooked, too. Boy, nothing like having a plastic tube (green, mind you, and about the diameter of a pin worm) lodged "up mine", so to speak.
Having it pulled out was soooo much fun! No anethesia, just a dab of lidocane to deaden the pain (hah!) around the hole while the doctor inserted some kind of torture device (I kept my eyes shut) and slooooowly pulled all ten feet of that stent out. Okay, so it wasn't ten feet, but it sure felt like it! Then he playfully dangles the thing over my face and, as I'm not wearing my glasses, I nearly yell because it looks like he's pulled some green parasite out of me. Jeez! Good thing I don't mind snakes. And then he hands me a plastic gallon jug (empty) that I'm to fill with 24hrs worth of urine---so he can maybe figure out why I got a kidney stone---"No hurry", he says. Yeah, like I'm really gonna fill it right then.
At any rate, he said he'd be happy to keep treating me, since he has two kids in college and could use the income, which is only fair, I suppose. But now I can actually sit without using a rubber "doughnut", so it's worth it. (By the way, click the photo to see it larger.) I'm going sledding! Yippee!

It's Official! I'm Still Alive,If Full Of @#$%

Yep, I'm not-so-happily passing pumice from my erstwhile kidney stone---and those tiny pieces hurt like hell! Still, it's coming out, which is better than the alternative, I guess. What I should have mentioned last time, though, was where I got this cartoon. The website is great! You can pick from several poses of Bush, Kerry, Der Governator, etc., and put your own words in the balloon. The url is on the bottom of the cartoon. Try it.
In other news...Ariel Sharon's massive stroke will likely mean Netanyahu's rise and ,considering the accounts of Palestinians who openly celebrated this tragedy, I can't wait. If the Palestinians don't want peace (and their celebrations seem to say this) then continue the wall, I say. How many Isreali "suicide" bombers killed their innocents? How many Isreali children volunteered to become "martyrs"---with their proud parents standing behind them?! Sorry, but Isreal has no choice but to wall them off. Isreal has been the only partner in this sham "peace process" to actually offer real concessions, remember. Share Jerusalem? What, are you nuts? Are the muslims "sharing" Bethlehem, or Nazareth? Now that they pretty much drove out all the Christians from these places, do you honestly think Christians will ever be allowed to have power there again? Hah!
Let the Palestinians have Gaza and most of the West Bank (sans Jerusalem, of course). Complete the wall and leave them to stew in their own cesspool. They want peace, they can show it by acting responsibly. Until then, no more concessions.

2006-Same Old @#$%

Okay, so I'm crabby today. I admit it. But you wouldn't feel so charitable either if tomorrow you faced what is euphemistically referred to as "day surgery". Nothing serious, just a stupid kidney stone the size of a grapefruit (okay, a marble, but it's gonna hurt the same) that will be pulverized by lithotripsy (from litho-rock and I have no idea what "tripsy" comes from) because it's too big to pass. Seems Solomon was a bit too optomistic about that "gam zeh ye'avor" (this too shall pass) advice, I guess. Then again, maybe he never had a kidney stone, either.
Anyway, it's not the surgery---I'll be knocked out, thank God---but going home right after that I dread. Yeah, I know medicine has advanced and all that, but coming home feeling as though my left side was kicked by a mule certainly doesn't thrill me. Plus all that pulverized @#$% coming out when I urinate, which I have to catch in a strainer, no less, and keep in a speciman jar for the doctor visit later this month! I wanted a vacation, but this is not the kind of "trip" I envisioned, believe me. And Saturday I turn 57, too. Happy birthday to me. Well, at least if they don't get it all pulverized this time, they'll probably succeed next time. After all, the lithotripsy machine only comes to my hospital once a month.
Uh oh, gotta go---literally. That phospho-soda I had to take to clean me out is about to explode. Hope you have a nice day.