ISIS for Dummies

A very small amount of water is sufficient to grow mold. ISIS is the mold that grew from a vacuum as big as an ocean. A vacuum created in a misogynist world without freedom for men as well as for women. A vacuum that the U.S. left after it invaded Iraq and removed the firewall between Shia and Sunni.
Under the rule of dictators for thousands of centuries, with no understanding of what it means to draft a social contract with their people, ISIS is the consequence of an ignorance equated to the earned expression of lacking a mature civilization.

No secular mind in today's modernity can relate to hellish, murderous ideologies, whether it's ISIS or boko haram. It would be as if going to sleep in 2015 and waking up to find oneself living in the Medieval Period. ISIS and boko haram degrades humanity to such an extent we may as well be living in the Dark Ages.
The latest attack in San Bernardino carried out by a married couple with a six month old baby, the husband American born and raised, with a good solid job, and his hopped-up Hijab wife, strips away the last vestige of law enforcement's ability to think they can profile potential terrorists

The news of our days has turned so abnormal and psychotic one can actually draw parallels between the global actors and The Real Housewives franchise. To dilute such a serious matter sounds stupid but comparisons readily apply:
In its desperation to regain a prominent position, Russia is Atlanta's NeNe Leakes with an over-inflated ego and attitude.
Turkey is Beverly Hill's Brandi Glanville. Throwing shade and starting fires to gain attention.
Syria is Beverly Hill's Kim Richards. No longer able to hold it together, Hell in all its fury has broken loose and no one can fix her except herself.
Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon; all contenders for the bitch-slapping chaos the women of RH promote to stay relevant.
Iran is Tamra Barney of Orange County. Traumatized and emotionally disturbed, to prop up her insecurities she makes alliances with prior enemies and makes enemies of friends and when she's called out on a lie she has no shame.
Lisa Vanderpump of Beverly Hills is Saudi Arabia. Queenly superior in her tastes and decorum and riches. When she smiles, fire-breathing dragons burn your eyebrows if you stand too close.
Millions are spent by the RH to scaffold their aging facial veneers. But all the Botox, fillers and cosmetic surgeries and bling on their necks and fingers cannot make up for the vacancy in their eyes and in their hearts. Billions of U.S. dollars have been spent on Afghanistan and Iraq.
And for what? Our men and women in uniform have given their lives or nobly sacrificed their limbs and sanity for rewards that have been all but forgotten, or lost to ISIS.

The American Civil War has Never Ended

                                                                     
April 9, 1865 was supposed to mark the end of the horrors and injustice of black slavery. But every riot our country has sustained since the American Civil War conveys the war is still not won. The photo above is from the Baltimore riot of 1968.

There is a great abyss of time between the burning of Atlanta and the burning of Baltimore and the bad memories of our ugly past keep dredging up. What should be taught as history is a current crisis. There are millions of children today that live in abusive, drug laden communities, are raised in housing with lead poisoning walls and are educated in public school systems that teach nothing. Generally such towns and cities are populated mostly by black families and governed by local black officials.

This is not news. But what is always overlooked is the politics that run those communities. Black or white spurs corruption and ignorance and ego driven legislation that empowers politicians and not children. This is a disaster. The results of this cultural genocide lie in the ashes strewn on Baltimore streets and in the psyche injuries of our children and police.

This neglect has to stop now. Today. But where are the answers to absolve the ruinous impact of all this neglect? The answer lies in human willpower. The willingness to change, to do things different. To look for another way, a better way. Common sense knows Change can only come with decent jobs and better education. Children who eat nutritional meals, are shown compassion and love and most importantly discipline, thrive and grow into moral citizens of the world. Social reforms which means prison and school reform should be the first priority.

In the past days Hillary Clinton has come out swinging for prison reform. Can we forget it was her husband who funded building more prisons? Under Bill Clinton's terms more black men than ever before were thrown in jail for minor drug infractions. During Bill Clinton's administrations manufacturing jobs were virtually eliminated with his signing of the NAFTA bill. Hillary Clinton professes to idolize Eleanor Roosevelt, but Eleanor's husband, Franklin Roosevelt, say what you will about progressive politics, never took his eye off the poor. The Hillary run for the presidency will not be able to piggyback off her husband's legacy.

Society cannot put a responsible two parent system into every child's life, but society must work to provide and ensure there is an answerable and engaged school system in every public school building. Education empowers and strengthens the fibers of morality and motivation. In the void of no hope, the soul of a child withers and turns to arson and rock throwing.

Ebola

In our century the Black Plague would have been talked to death.

We have the best doctors, nurses, medical care and training. Or do we? We've been talking about the Ebola scare for well over a month. Finally its long anticipated arrival has reached our population and still all we do is talk about it!

The NBC doctor and her henchmen violated their 'voluntary' quarantine. If a doctor cannot be trusted to protect other humans, who's left? And all we do is yak about the scandal.

Weeks ago President Clinton was asked by Jon Stewart what his thoughts were on the Ebola crisis. Because of Clinton's 'hands on' intimate knowledge with resuscitating Haiti, I expected him to have an immediate response that would quell this country's anxieties of catching this contagion. Imagine my disappointment when Clinton, with a broad smile on his lips, advised that conferences were scheduled to discuss strategies. End of topic. I knew then his feeble response meant death is coming. And it has.

Some time back the CDC had its funding cut. Four years ago The White House did away with travel restrictions in cases of pandemics. A short time ago Bill Gates contributed 50 million to emergency facilities that treat Ebola in West Africa. Mark Zuckerberg just woke up and cut a check for 25 million, but that was after he spent 100 million buying up land in Hawaii. Haven't heard if the Koch Brothers donated dimes but then again, if it's not in their political interest.....

The thing that haunts me is how could the staff in that Dallas emergency room have sent index patient number one home when he walked in complaining of a high fever and mentioned that, oh, by the way, I just flew in from Liberia. How could that have happened in our hyper media alert world? How could that happen?

Maybe we should look to Hollywood film directors and writers who know a thing or two about people dropping like flies from scary viruses...let them have a say on to eradicate an invasive, intangible repugnance. Or we can turn to the many authors who have written recent books about the impending health crisis. Clearly these people had the insight necessary to prepare ourselves and even with their talking book tours, nobody listened. Oh well, it's too late now. The real, non-fiction, ultimate health terror is really here and its concentric circles of contact will continue to fester and grow.

Our last revelation at rescue may come out of Wall Street and the effect Ebola is having on market prices. At least stock and bond traders don't wait around talking about fixing problems. They've got too much at stake.

Is it really better to have loved and lost than never....

Just as oxygen is necessary for the human body to stay alive, being in love is necessary for the human spirit to feel alive.  After air and water, love is the most essential quality humans need if they are to thrive.  Newborns not held and cuddled often die. Children not emotionally nurtured with love and warm caring grow up disturbed and dysfunctional.  Intimate adult relationships not fostered by genuine love and real passion turn into battlegrounds of betrayal and reckless behavior.

While falling in love can make you feel like you're on the greatest high - suddenly you don't need food or sleep to survive - all you need is love ! To fall madly in love could be exactly that – madness. For the term "lovesick" it turns out, is surprisingly accurate. People experiencing romantic love have a chemical profile in their brains similar to that of people who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Love lights up certain areas of the brain and releases chemicals that provoke hyperactivity, recklessness and exhilaration. That's why we can stay up all night and feel brilliant the next morning. Love, it seems, does blur the line between mentally healthy and psychopathology.

Being in love masks heavy sorrow and pain. It is the most powerful high and anyone that has experienced that joyful bliss will be hell bent on getting their love fix again and again and again. Enough is never enough. So much so that falling in love with love, really is our most toxic addiction. And since bad love can be  so toxic to the human spirit, it can turn into the most powerful lethal weapon one human can use against another, to murder even or suicide, love and the loss of love is in fact, the true gateway to every street or prescriptive drug known to mankind.

What do Women really Want

 
It has been fifty years since the first birth control pill generated an all-out socio-political revolution between two genders and our culture, the way we communicate, the way we raise our children, conduct business, as well as in the way we see ourselves and view others. Seismic vibrations have occurred in the landscape of men and women's lives and any improvement in baby daddy's sensitivity training is often accommodated by damaging wear and tear on the couple's relationship.

But in all those years women have made very little headway in escaping sexual objectifying and individual dignity. Is that simply because an embryo matures in the body only of a female? Stepping away from that big black hole of controversy I'd rather look at what and who has risen from the ashes of bonfires set in order to burn bras and raise women's consciousness.

Under the category of 'what', one vertigo inducing spin initially started with Rush Limbaugh's incessant use of the term femi-nazi. His strident campaign, meant to denigrate, demean and ultimately destroy the front line of gender equality in the workplace proved very successful, not only among men and women living in middle America, but it was also pitch perfect to men on both coastlines who hated falling in line with what they perceived to be nothing more than a passing trend.

More recently, thanks to the brilliant marketing strategy of Roger Ailes, president of Fox News Channel, media watchers now refer to female Fox news talking heads as 'talking legs.' Talking legs actually evolves from Ailes original stable of Stepford blonde anchor women. By redesigning the news sets so that an anchor's desk has only a top but no walls to hide the anchor's lower body parts, those same blonde helmets are instructed by Ailes to keep their legs always crossed. With the camera's eye intentionally focused on this provocative pose, the spoken word is organically airbrushed out by man's imagination.

But in the larger context, women themselves have to be accountable for not achieving better results and to that point I blame their poor fashion choices. For how could a cultural war cry mutate into a backlash for the freedom to show as much skin as possible without fear of getting arrested for prostitution? How does it help women's causes if they dress in the same street wear preferred by women of the night. These same women vilify men who are attracted to silicone breasts and thongs peeking out of low-rise jeans. How can women demand equal rights, bring work colleagues up on charges of sexual harassment and command respect, all in an attempt to stop being sexually objectified, if they're lining up voluntarily and enthusiastically across the country to get a tramp stamp. Nearly 25% of the American population aged 18 to 50 has a tattoo, out of which almost 20% of the women have a lower back tattoo. How can these mothers even look their teenage daughters in the eye and expect a different result?

Another disturbing female enthusiasm concerns young women drinking alcohol in such huge amounts they pass out. Like men. Is this one of those gender based equalities Gloria Steinem and her pack rats fought to achieve? The high rate of alcohol consumption among college women has raised a lot of concern among campuses and has made psychologists anxious to run studies in order to try and determine the cause for an alarming cultural change in college female behavior.

I'm old enough to have read the original literary articles on women's liberation. The failure of the decades to advance makes me think that perhaps women growing up in the sixties and early seventies were merely crying out for attention.

I would love to know what you think on this matter. If you agree with anything I've said or completely disagree, scribble me an essay or a short note. And if you want, please include your age. On this subject I think age has a lot to do with a female's opinion. Ciao for now - e.

Rush Limbaugh and Teresa of RHONJ Speak with the Same Forked Tongue

After hearing the Supreme Court's ruling on Obama's health care reform, Rush Limbaugh on his radio program made the following statement; My ambition is to make you the happiest man in bed. Whoa! What the? No, no, no. That's not it. How embarrassing. I really have to be more careful with copy and paste. No, what Limbaugh said was; What we now have is the biggest tax increase in the history of the world!

It's this low level of discourse, this classic Limbaugh word play manipulation that welcomes the same audience to the social slander captured by Teresa's catty backbiting-on the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Both Rush and Teresa are very-very good at turning black and white into a pale shade of gray. For according to findings from WNYC's Marketplace, notwithstanding taking on the entire world, Rush Limbaugh's hyperbole isn't even close to the actual state of the matter. In 1982 Reagan's payroll tax increase was and still is, the largest and most dramatic imposition on this country's employees and employers, surpassing even Clinton's huge tax hike in 1993. It seems Rush Limbaugh airbrushes facts like photographers airbrush model's face like I would like to airbrush my age.

Within the cluster of millions that tune into Rush's syndicated transmission everyday, you'd think at least one of his listeners (I'm only asking for one) would be grabbed between the ears by a tinge of doubt and dispute or least question what the Limbaugh smoke and mirror program cooks up and then spits into their brain.

I'd love to know what you think - write me a quick scribble. Ciao till tomorrow - e.

A quick piece on Jon Huntsman

The press corp frenzy over whether Sarah Palin is going to run or not for the presidency is more embarrassing than reality TV. You couldn't ask for a more perfect example of pompous egotistical vanity. To have so-called professional journalists given no itinerary and watch them actively run after a bus is ridiculously creepy. The news media's hysteric, sweeping coverage of a non-candidacy is exactly equivalent to say, the French Salons of the 17^th and 18^th century. Insipid groups of pedestrians whip lashing themselves into thinking they're holding an intelligent conversation.

On the other side of the TV screen is a man who seeks the highest office in the land and by all judgmental accounts, is a genuine, grounded, articulate, intelligent Republican candidate who believes in evolution and actually has a viable economic plan to get people back to work and save money in their banks. He's hardly a blimp though on most radar screens and has the lowest of ratings. Is it just me scratching my head or does the media really make or break a candidacy?

Why I think the world of Jon Huntsman:

• He can't stand Mitt Romney.

• The Wall Street Journal and Larry Kudlow (can't get more conservative Republican than these two) love Huntsman's economic strategies to bring America back to life.

• Except for being against abortion (as long as Republicans don't put to death Roe v. Wade, who isn't pro-life?) Huntsman is amazingly liberal on social issues.

• When President Obama, a democrat, called on Huntsman to become Ambassador to China (2009- 2011) Huntsman showed he was a true statesman and stepped up to the plate.

• Because of Huntsman's ability to speak Chinese and other Asian dialects, he is the perfect man for this time in American history.

• Because of Jon Huntsman's experience with China, its diplomats and culture, his inside track knowledge about the people of China's mindset; the ways they think about themselves, their ambitions, their goals within their restricted media, literacy and pop culture environment, who better than Jon Huntsman to lead America into the future being able to speak directly to China's communist leaders, in their own tongue. (Anyone who knows what happened with fair trade agreements recently made with China over manufacturing cars knows how valuable speaking the same language can be.)
  

• Because of Jon Huntsman's knowledge, experience and wisdom gained by living and working behind China's Great Wall, who better than Huntsman to prevent China and China's allies from taking over not only our money, our jobs, our freedoms, but our souls.

To find out more check out www.jon2012.com

A Must Read

For anyone insulted by the news media's idol worship of Sarah Palin, the current Rolling Stone Magazine profile of Michelle Bachmann is a must read.

The concept that these two women represent not the far right, or the religious right, or the neoconservative right, or merely the Republican's right to free speech, but the best and the brightest women to reach the altar of campaigning for the presidency...the thought that such a privilege should be given to the likes of these two women is a slap in the face to even the smallest achievements that came out of the Women's Lib Movement.

I say that not as a feminist. Not as a card carrying liberal. I am none of those things. But I am of the age that remembers when the Nurses of America and Teachers of America were the only two after-school clubs a female high school student could enter. We'd like to think we've come such a far distance from those days. But actually all we've come is full circle. Back to being Stepford wives and lazy thinking civilians. Palin and Bachmann? Really? They're both a disgrace.

I am not a world historian or anthropologist or sociobehavioral Ph.D. but I do know stupid when I hear it. And the backstory for both these women sets the advancement of women studies back more than a century.

If only Hillary Clinton hadn't felt it necessary back in 2008 to blow smoke up everyone's ass and lie about being under attack. What is up with the women in today's political arena? Their lame brain antics and small capacity for true intelligence and common sense makes Cleopatra and Helen of Troy mental giants.

Musings

I love the color palettes and attention to detail found in J Crew clothes but what is up with their catalog stylists? Why do they insist on grotesquely mismatching tops and bottoms? Why are they trying so hard to bring back material patterns that belong where they died. In the sixties.

J Crew designers are supreme masters at cutting perfect A-line dresses. But in their latest catalog, whose idea was it to pair up men's oxford shoes with evening apparel?

Only once in the past year was I tempted to purchase anything. It was a skirt. Not just a skirt. A whimsy of cream cloth worn over tights. As soon as I saw it I had to own it. But it had no item number to reference. No descriptive copy or price attended it. I called customer service anyway. After all, the thing of beauty I coveted appeared on a page all its own. There had to be an explanation behind the mystery.

When the customer service representative could not retrieve any information on the skirt and seemed just as fluxed as I was, she put me on hold to check with her supervisor. When she got back on the line she casually informed me the skirt actually belonged to the model in the photo. But it can't be! I cried into the phone. Why would J Crew send out a catalog presumably filled exclusively with their merchandise and showcase a chic piece a model happened to bring along with her to the shoot? For all we know she could have simply thrown it on before walking out the door, never thinking it would end up as property of J Crew. Surely I'm not the only customer in the entire world asking for the uncommon item.

What was J Crew thinking? "Oh, by the way, when you come in tomorrow bring a few pieces of your own because although we're known for selling well crafted fashion apparel, and we are indeed one of the mail order fashion houses strongest contenders, our own line falls short of having enough garments to fill up the required pages."
"Well, it is an odd request but if my own fashion sense is included in your catalog, how does that translate to the vision of J Crew and do I receive any residual payment?"
"No. You do not get a penny extra for lugging in your own wardrobe and why shouldn't we use your own clothes. After all, at J Crew we think of ourselves as every woman.

Politics is for Entertainment Purposes Only

By law psychics must post somewhere in their ads or on their premises that the service they provide is for entertainment purposes only. If you listen to talk radio and take in a steady diet of dinner with a side of cable airheads, you should take under advisement the same laws that apply to spiritual healers apply to watching news pundits.

I strive to be an equal opportunity listener, however it hit me like a brick after several days of listening to talk show conservatives rant on and on about the evil stimulus package Obama is trying to push through congress, that these men and women who say they speak for their fellow man clearly do not care about the welfare of their fellow men.

I am not supporting the stimulus package either way here. The way it is written I do not see it as a healing agent for our economic woes, though I do want to give a shout out to Paul Krugman and his piece in last week's Rolling Stone Mag www.rollingstone.com. I thought it provided great insight in how best to handle our economic crisis. In fact Mr. Krugman had the mindful authority to personally pitch his piece directly to the president.

But to hear right wing conservatives blast the stimulus package in the same forked tongue they used to advance Bush's war monger ideology is nothing short of blasphemy! Joe Scarborough this morning was carrying on about how wrong he and all his republican cohorts were when they listened to Bush and supported invading Iraq even after the weapon inspectors found no WMD's. He then said in the same breath, so why should the republican party now follow Obama into economic purgatory. Where is the logical thread here? Where is the rationale for comparing apples to oranges? These people get paid for talking. They get paid a very lavish salary, especially in today's depressed times. Yet there is not one insightful, smart, illuminating thought among them. Stand on any line today and strike up a conversation with the person behind or in front of you, and regardless of their party allegiance, you will have a more engaging, intelligent dialogue than you will hear on any of our highly technological advanced airwaves today.

There were plenty of loud voices raised before there was ever a raised fist singing praises to 'shock & awe' but did Mr. Scarborough or any of his party members listen? NO! They did not! But to listen to Mr. Scarborough this morning you would have to assume that Bush sucked out his brain for the last eight years and only now, in the light of a new day, did he get back his cerebral skill set.

Again, I am not defending Obama's stimulus proposal. But I am in desperate search of an intelligent approach to dissecting the proposal's pros and cons. I am in agreement that the dems apparently did sneak in a whole bunch of dusty agendas they kept hidden away from Pappa Bush. But to hear Joe Scarborough scream about the monies going to food stamps and unemployment insurance as wasteful and deplorable is too much to stomach.

Moreover, where were all these Republicans screaming for President Bush to stop throwing millions of our tax dollars onto the streets of Baghdad? Why didn't they demand accounting for millions of our dollars when our soldiers over in Iraq can tell you how many times they were ordered to hand out bags of cash to people with no intentions other than to use the money to work against and harm our soldiers. Our soldiers can tell congress just how wasteful all that 'throw about cash' was, and how no good came of it. No reliable intelligence or helpful information was revealed or uncovered. Just our tax dollars hard at work at 'WHAT?'

If nothing less but for all the American families that have recently lost their incomes and have no idea how they are going to get through these very difficult times, to collect unemployment checks and buy food via food stamps, it is absolutely imperative for congress to pass some kind of emergency fund budget.

If congress wants to cut out all of the stimulus bill's so called pork and remove every Democratic Christmas wish list item, so be it. But to yell about food stamps and increased social service programs in these horrific days is the same as kicking a man when he's down!! How egregiously hard-hearted can one Republican get!

How can any Republican look himself or herself in the mirror when they know every single day that goes by now hundreds of thousands of American families and individuals have just been cut from their life lines. How they can deny food and medical services to these families and their children? Thank God the SCHIP bill finally got signed, no thanks to the republicans. At least that will help somewhat in the absence of the stimulus package getting approved.

As long as their own families are being fed and taken care of I guess Republicans on the airwaves will always be nearsighted when it comes to passing social programs for the poor.