Moonhowlings

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Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona apparently forgot her manners, again, and pointed her finger in the face of the President of the United States on the tarmac during President Obama’s latest trip to Arizona.  Governor Brewer later told the press that she felt threatened by the President.  A picture speaks  a thousand words.

I don’t know what Governor Brewer thought the President was going to do to her.  They were in plain view and the secret service security team was right there. 

Sadly, this encounter is just another example of the breakdown of protocol and manners in the country. Pointing or wagging one’s finger in the face of the President of the United States, regardless of who he is is simply not acceptable.  I feel certain that Brewer is now the darling of those Obama haters who feel she ‘told him off good.’ 

I think that protocol needs to be taught in every classroom across America.  Obviously much has been forgotten or in Brewer’s case, never learned.  There are just certain behaviors one upholds when speaking to the President of the United States.  We use terms like’ Mr. President’ when addressing him. We even do that if he is our best friend when in public.   (or her if that should ever come to pass) 

Brewer set a bad example for everyone who sees this picture and is an embarrassment to our country.  The eyes of the world are on us.  What must they be thinking?

Rick Perry has decided that he was been wrong about abortion.  After watching Mike Huckabee’s video on abortion, he has decided that the government does have a right to force a woman to bear a child that was conceived from rapeand/ or incest.  He was unclear about whether life of the mother should be discarded in favor of the fetus.

 My question is, when is it going to end?   If the new Perry position isn’t extreme enough, perhaps one of the big Ron Paul supporters is.  IN fact, the Ron Paul campaign is doing nothing to distance itself from this YoYo, reported  by outsidethebeltway.com :

Four years ago, the Ron Paul campaign generated controversy by not repudiating the endorsement of the neo-Nazi group Stormfront, but at least back then they didn’t actually promote the fact that they had received the endorsement. This time, though, they seem pretty proud about getting the support of a Nebraska Pastor who has made some pretty vile comments:

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There has been another VA Tech shooting today.  2 have been killed.  The news reports that VA Tech was very proactive and that students were given information immediately.  The shooter is still at large.  It is unknown if he is pinned down or roaming. 

Stay tuned.

ATF, State Police, FBI are all involved.  The VA State Police has taken over the investigation. 

The students are complaining that it is taking too long to apprehend the shooter. They are in lock down.   Come on kids.  Be  glad it wasn’t you shot.  They do not know the identification of the shooter.  No classes are in session.  Today is what is known as reading day.  Tomorrow begins final exams. 

My nephew is at Tech.  I am not worried.  Too ornery.  His father wanted to ship him back at Thanksgiving. 

VT alert sytsems are amazing now.  All VT computers give an alert, sirens sound, text messaging, etc.

Over the weekend, former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski spoke the following when he accepted the Jury du Prix Tocqueville Prize in France:

The foregoing observation is especially relevant to our understanding of the challenge facing contemporary America.  Though a democracy, it is becoming a country of socially ominous extremes between the few super rich and the increasingly many who are deprived.  In America today the top 1% of the richest families own around 35% of the entire nation’s wealth, while the bottom 90% own around 25%.   It should be a source of perhaps even greater concern that the majority of all currently serving Congressmen and Senators, and similarly most of the top officials in the executive branch, fall in the category of the very rich, the so-called top 1%.

At the same time, though still a unique super-power, America finds it difficult to cope with the consequences of the increasingly accelerating global changes that are spinning out of control, both on the socio-economic and on the geopolitical levels. Socio-economically, the world is becoming a single playing-field in which 3 dynamic realities increasingly prevail:  globalization, “internetization”, and deregulation. 

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Most of us were outraged over Pat Robertson’s words, giving the OK to divorcing a spouse with Alzheimer’s Disease. However, after thinking it over, maybe we should thank him.  He made us think of something that is fairly repugnant and he forced conversation.  We have probably had more discussion because of Pat’s ill-fated remarks than we have since Ronald Reagan announced he had been diagnosed with the disease. 

What do most of us know about Alzheimers?  Does it run in families?  Does it hit those in middle age?   Are there different types?  How many of us knew it was the 6th leading cause of death in the United States?  I sure didn’t. 

Are there legal reasons for divorce?  Will divorce protect the surviving spouse from liquidation of assets if the afflicted spouse has to be institutionalized for care?  That’s something to think about.  I know several folks who chose to shack up to protect their retirement assets since remarriage would kick them out of the system.  Can divorce provide the same safety net?

Finally, people divorce over mental illness and substance abuse all the time.  How many of us would chastise a person for divorcing a spouse who was institutionalized because of severe schizophrenia or  other chronic mental diseases that seemed hopeless?  We are very forgiving about that.  How is Alzheimer’s any different?

Maybe we should thank Pat for providing the impetus for discussion.   These are definitely discussions that should be taking place.  Until Pat shot off his mouth, we just weren’t talking.

From Huffington Post:

Military jets escorted an American Airlines plane to a safe landing at New York City’s JFK Airport on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

NBC LA reports that the two F-16 fighter jets were called into action after three passengers refused to come out of a bathroom on a flight originating in Los Angeles.

There was initially some confusion as to whether the jets had been called, with NBC New York noting that a security official first said fighter jets had been launched and then another security official said they had been set to launch.

A law enforcement official told the AP that the incident isn’t thought to be terrorism.

Pardon my stridency.  What is wrong with people?  3 people who will not come out of the bathroom? How much did it cost us, the taxpayers, to send up those F-16 fighter jets?  How about sending the jerks the bill for that scramble?  If they don’t pay it, get a judgement on them.  Furthermore, how about a year in jail?   I am also ready to ban people who do stupid things on planes from boarding a plane in the United States for life.

From NBCLosAngeles:

The three men were later questioned and released at the airport, an FBI spokesman said.

Passengers told NBC New York after landing that they didn’t even know there was an incident on board until they saw police meeting the flight on the ground.

The three men were drunk.  Each week we read about some fool who wants to do something incredibly stupid on an airplane.  It should be painful and expensive to be stupid.  I don’t care how stupid the rules get.  The airlines and the government rule here.  I have a choice whether to fly or not.  If I don’t like rules, I can stay off planes (and I do stay off these days). 

Why are three people in the bathroom?  Is this a mile high club with a kink or two?  Get a motel room, on the ground, jerks.   They should not have been released.  They should have to pay for the expense to the taxpayers.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell fired back at what he called “cheap shots” made by former Vice President Dick Cheney, in order to sell his new book, due to come out on Tuesday.  Powell contended that Cheney swiped at many in the former Bush Administration and used such allegations to pump up his new book entitled “In My Time.”

Cheney has been stumping all the talk shows championing his new biography and saying it will make some heads explode.   To this, Powell takes exception.  Politico discloses:

Powell said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that many disclosures seemed to be “cheap shots that he’s taking at me and other members of the administration who served to the best of our ability for President Bush.”

Powell took particular umbrage at Cheney’s claim he felt more comfortable expressing his views to the public than President George W. Bush, as the book brings to the surface bitterness over the 2003 decision to invade Iraq.

“The president knows that I told him what I thought about every issue of the day,” Powell said. “Cheney may forget that I’m the one who said to President Bush, ‘If you break it, you own it.’ And you have got to understand that if we have to go to war in Iraq, we have to be prepared for the whole war, not just the first phase. And Mr. Cheney and many of his colleagues did not prepare for what happened after the fall of Baghdad.”

Powell disputed the claim from the book “In My Time” that Cheney had pushed him out in 2004, saying that’s when he had intended to leave.

The retired Army general, who had also served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the administration as dysfunctional at the time of his departure.

“It was clear by 2004 that the team was not functioning as a team,” Powell said. “And we had different views, and not just views, not views that could be reconciled. And so I said to the president that I would be leaving at the end of the year, after the election, and he ought to take a look at his whole team to try to resolve all these issues.”

Cheney also levels in his book some condescending criticism at Condoleezza Rice, Powell’s successor as secretary of state, and former CIA Director George Tenet, Powell noted.

Colin Powell has a long distinquished military record  that pre-dates his service in the Bush Administration.  He is one of the least partisan of anyone who has served as Secretary of State.  He broke rank with Republicans in 2008 by supporting the candidacy of Barack Obama, a Democrat.   He added he didn’t mind that Cheney revealed that the administration wasn’t always in agreement.  What he found offensive was placing the administration’s disagreements  on par with  tabloid news.  He felt that Cheney had going over the top in his efforts to promote his  own book, often at the expense of those who served in the Bush Administration. 

Who else from the Bush Administration will protest the ” ‘heads will explode”  rhetoric used by Cheney?  Will the former president be embarrassed by Cheney revelations or will the book endear us to George Bush and vilify Cheney?  Did he go too far with his less than flattering depiction of Colin Powell?  Powell seemed to take more offense at what Cheney said about others rather than about himself. 

From the Huffington Post:

OSLO, July 23 (Reuters) – A suspected right-wing fanatic accused of killing at least 92 people deemed his acts “atrocious” yet “necessary” as Norway mourned victims of the nation’s worst attacks since World War Two.

Police were hunting on Sunday to see if a possible second gunman took part in the shooting massacre and bomb attack on Friday that traumatized a normally peaceful Nordic country.

In his first comment via a lawyer since he was arrested, 32-year-old Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik expressed willingness to explain himself in court at a hearing likely to be held on Monday about extending protective custody. Read more…

From the Washington Post:

The Guardian reports that Sean Hoare, the former News of the World reporter who first claimed that Andy Coulson knew of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead at his home. The police told the Guardian that they do not know how Hoare died, but do not believe the cause of death to be suspicious.

Hoare gave an interview to the New York Times in 2010 that bolstered allegations the phone hacking was a widespread and accepted practice at the tabloid. He also said that Coulson encouraged the practice. Hoare was let go from the News of the World for problems related to drinking and drugs.

Hoare had been in contact with the Guardian and the New York Times only last week, stating that the News of the World staff used police technology to track phones.

Here is the 2010 BBC interview with Hoare speaking about the phone hacking.

So why do people just die but nothing is suspicious?  The guy doesn’t look old enough for it to have been from natural causes.  In fact, he looks downright chipper.  The more that is turned up, the more suspicious all of this story is beginning to sound. 

It can’t all be about phone hacking.  As nasty of a habit as that might be, it isn’t worth the head of Scotland Yard resigning and the Prime Minister (or 2 or 3) ducking and heading for cover.  Was Sean murdered to protect some big muckety muck in England?  Will the Murdoch scandal cross the Big Pond?  Will Steve Doocy continue to make up excuses and exclaim that the media is ‘piling on’ poor Rupert Murdoch?  Are the friends at Faux News getting a little nervous over their jobs?  If Murdoch crumbles, can their godfather be far behind?

Inquiring minds want to know. 

By now, nearly everyone has heard that Casey Anthony was found not guilty of the murder of her little girl, Caylee Anthony. Not since the O.J.  Simpson trial has America been more united in a collective agreement of guilty. Yet the jury acquitted her of all charges except providing false information to law enforcement. The American public is furious.

Marcia Clark, one of the chief prosecutors in the O.J.  trial said, in a column in the Daily Beast on Wednesday, that the Anthony case is even worse than the O.J. trial because Anthony didn’t have the star power that OJ did. The public hadn’t been wowed with  the athletic prowess,   movies and star power  of O.J. before hand. There were no surprises and there were no racial overtones that people wanted to avoid. She simply was not found guilty despite all the unanswered questions. Read more…

Rewind back to last summer.  The local uproar was over the new kids in town, KK’s Temptations  adult boutique, that was to open in October.  Some of the City folks had a fit because the shop was in Old Town Manassas.  People envisioned hordes of perverts lining up to see the bustiers and nighties.  It didn’t matter that the City also has Fashion Fantasy over on route 28 and at least one adult movie store over near the library, within blocks of Kindercare and Parkside Middle School on Mathis Avenue.  This new store was going to be in Old Town near the Candy Factory.  Each and every person I talked to who was opposed to the opening of KK’s used the location as the main, if not only reason for objection. 

Fast forward back to the present.  In the past couple of weeks, I have heard some mumblings and grumblings over KKs from two friends who I can clearly say are on different ends of this argument.   KK”s had planned to do some events for  Susan G. Komen for the cure to raise money.  Their  first plan had been a wet tee shirt contest.  Elena and I spoke briefly but negatively about this plan and basically backed off.  Because of issues with the City, KK’s plans changed to a bikini contest at Backyard Grill at the corner of Sudley Road and Williamson Blvd.  We didn’t like that idea either because of the objectification of women but kept our mouths shut.  It was Kim’s business.  In other words, do no harm.  We didn’t. Read more…

When the tea party first rose its head a couple of summers ago, we were told they were all about ‘getting our fiscal house in order.’  Many proposed draconian, drastic cuts, others trooped around in three cornered hats and did the fife and drums thing.  What was not said was that they were also the social conservatives, the radical Republicans.

We can see now that the social conservatives finally got their nose under the tent and House Speaker John Boehner has been put on notice–do what we say or lose your job.  Boehner is a smart enough politician to know that there are just some issues you don’t  tack on as a rider to a budget.  Obviously he had no choice.

Perhaps we will all survive.  But we look absurd to everyone else in the world.  We have debt problems but we protect the very wealthy.  Some knuckle heads continue to think, even after 25 years of it not paying  off, that protecting the very wealthy will produce jobs. Where are those jobs?

We are involved in three wars, and we almost  shut the government down over abortion?  And not even the right to abortion–it was imaginary abortion.   The radicals wanted to kill off Planned Parenthood.  Now Planned Parenthood is universally known as the place where people who don’t want to get pregnant go.  Patients can get relatively inexpensive birth control and required health services.  Planned Parenthood also takes medicaid patients, unlike so many other medical facilities.  What idiots want to shut down places to get contraception in order to fight abortion?  Now where is the logic?

Most Americans don’t see abortion or Planned Parenthood as big threats to our country.  What they do see as threatening are rising food costs, foreclosures, joblessness, job insecurity, overcrowded classrooms, expensive health care costs and crime.  They don’t give a fig about abortion or the fact that some penny of their tax money might find its way into co-mingling money used for abortion.

The culture warriors need to be driven out.  We need to get on with running the country.  We need to tell these clowns that they are making us the laughing stock.  We need to make sure the tail isn’t wagging the dog.

ABC News:

Several conservative groups and individuals plan to boycott the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) which takes place later this month  (Feb. 10-12)  in Washington, DC.  Why are the groups boycotting and who are they?

From speakers like Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to panels on “How Political Correctness is Harming America’s Military” and “Reagan at 100: Role Model for the Next Generation,” the agenda for the three-day gathering is chock full of personalities and events designed to fire up the conservative base.

Read more…

This afternoon, NASA will have a major announcement.  Naturally people are speculating that they are going to announce evidence of alien life.  Other speculation is that there are 3 times as many stars as previously thought.

I think they are going to tell us that the moon landings were a hoax, just like all the rednecks used to say and that NASA and NBC planned the hoax.  Just kidding, just kidding!

Would it be good news or bad news if alien life were discovered?  I am not so arrogant to think that we are the only beings out there capable of human-type thought.  However, I am not so sure I want them here. 

As more and more information has been released from the American vaults of secrecy, who knows what has been discovered or what will be released.

From the American Library Association:

Censorship can be subtle, almost imperceptible, as well as blatant and overt, but, nonetheless, harmful. As John Stuart Mill wrote in On Liberty:

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

— On Liberty, John Stuart Mill

Banned Books Week began back in 1982.  It is always designated as the last week in September.  It is the only national celebration of  the freedom to read what we want.  More than a thousand challenges from every state have come in since 1982. 

 The following list is the top 100 banned or challenged classics:

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