PRNK: It Never Will Be Missed, It Never Will Be Missed

Maybe this is the time that I always knew would be coming.  Back in the mid-1970's I joined the officer corps of the United States Air Force.  From November 1975 through November 1976 I spent a remote tour of duty at Osan Air Base in the Republic of South Korea.  During the summer of my tour, two US Army officers were brutally murdered by North Korean troops while supervising South Korean workers trimming the bushes at Panmunjom, the place where the cease fire was signed in the early 1950's.  Needless to say, we had a much tenser situation over there than was ever realized by the civilian population in the US.  In fact, it was on my order that the alert fighter pilots took to their planes.
Now, we have Pyongyang threatening not only South Korea but the United States itself with nuclear war.  This is only because we have let them develop this technology.  The ruling family, the Kims, are the most evil people in the world today.  They do not even have the excuse of being mislead by misreading the Q'ran.  Religious fanatics are to be pitied because their minds are so narrow (we have them in this country, too).  This regime does not have narrow minds -- it has pure EVIL in all its intentions, it always has, and it always will.
Therefore, I do wish that, as Koko in The Mikado had his little list, that we have ours and that Pyongyang and North Korea are at the top, ready to be wiped-out at the first direct provocation, because as he sang: "THEY NEVER WILL BE MISSED.  THEY NEVER WILL BE MISSED."
Special Note:  I am also sure that we have already taken care of Peking/Beijing. 

2013: A Few Thoughts, A Few Sighs

Well, 2013 is finally here for all the good it will do us.  Yes, I am feeling a lot cynical this year and for many good reasons:
Misogyny in its most horrendous forms has shown its evil head, leering eyes and subtle innuendo at all of us during this past year.  Not only has a brilliant and beautiful young woman been viciously gang raped and as a result murdered, more countrymen in India during the months of November and December have done the same thing to other women, some of whom were accompanied by husbands and friends.  One of these women suicided and another apologized -- apologize for WHAT I ask, just for being a living, breathing FEMALE!!!!  While in this country the damn GOP says the most egregiously stupid and hateful things about women and their sexuality that (even though I support full gun control) I would really like to take a flame-thrower to them, as Al Pacino does in Scent of a Woman.  Well, I can dream.
The NRA, like the Westboro Baptist Church, is a Hate organization.  More guns is NOT the answer to gun violence!  I sobbed -- and still cry when I think about those babies and educators in the western part of my fair state who were BRUTALLY murdered by a young man who was jealous of his mother's attention.  This was because the mother was mislead by the NRA into thinking that she NEEDED those weapons for protection.  NO ONE NEEDS MILITARY WEAPONS! (I am an Air Force veteran and I do not own weapons.)  I do NOT need protection from my government, which the NRA and many of the Right Wing ilk hint at in their literature (why else is there the so-called "militia movement" when we already have a militia in the National Guard).
I feel as if the stupid are taking over this world.  They have denigrated everyone who has a real liberal arts education and has learned how to think.
Well, everyone, I will try to blog more often and I might be positive as well.

Big Storms and Little

Last week's mini-hurricane (well, that's what it was where I am in South East New England) was only gale force winds and some rain, yet it did do quite a bit of damage on the coast line due to the full moon high tide.  I'm almost an olde Yankee hereabouts, so I don't get all put out about being out of electricity for a week.  That's what hurricane lamps are for, don't you know.  You also don't build on the beach, dim-of-wit!; or on land that is in a known flood area. (knocks head with flat of hand -- when will the stupid ever end!)  However, I am really glad that Cape May, one of the really beautiful places in New Jersey, did miss the storm.  I also regret all loss of life.  So, today's and tonight's nor-easter is just a little blip on my particular radar.  Bundle up, it's cold outside, the wind is blowing from the nor-east, and eat some marshmallows by your fireplace tonight with real hot cocoa and toddies.

Elections 2012

Oh hail, Goddess Columbia, Protectress of our great land,

Be with us I pray as we go do our duty as citizens next Tuesday.

May we still ourselves before your altars, remembering that

What we do should not be for selfish reasons but for the best

Of our country and its people as a whole:

That no one, including the government, should have control

Over another person, except in the criminal justice system;

 

 

 

And, finally, as that great Hero Franklin Delano Rooselvelt

said, we need to be free from the greatest fear of all -- fear

itself.



 

It is only by this that we can truly be a great nation:  one made

out of many.  So may it be, Great Columbia!



 



 

 

Why I Despair

One of my favourite blogs is The New Oxonian, which is written by Joseph Hoffman, PhD.  What I am citing here from one of his recent posts really spoke to me.

The failure of the culture to inspire has led to the failure of people to be curious and a general acceptance of the status quo in most things–especially religion. Why should people want to know more about anything when they have a thousand bucks in the bank, an iPhone, and a new MacDonalds opening up down the street? Starbucks is for people with jobs.
American culture is not hardwired to evoke curiosity about science, religion, or anything else. It’s designed to breed complacency. If Theodore Roethke had lived today, he would write about the inexorable sadness of shopping malls and gated communities and universities where nothing happens and a society where conscience dies daily in the onslaught of the latest economic data.   
. . . .
THE opposite of complacency is not excess. It is moderation, and if the argument against moderation is that it has nothing to show for itself, the counter- argument is that excess has much, much less.                      

Bring Out Your Truly Stupid

Summertime -- aah!  Now is the time when we see a number of human beings take themselves out of the gene pool in the hope that they will be the winner of this year's Darwin Awards.  The only problem with this is that young people who have not beeen taught otherwise can get caught up in the so-called adult hi-jinks.  However, the wonderful Second Amendment which always gets rights added to it rather than any other amendment, now seems to be applied to for private ownership of fireworks, some of which qualify as ordnance.  So, now I get to see these tacky outposts spring up during this time all over Connecticut and we have even more traffic because it is illegal to sell these things to idiots in Rhode Island.  So, appreciate the EMTs and Emergency Room teams who have to deal with the aftermath of 3rd/4th degree burns; traumatic amputations, etc.

Modern Snake Oil

How do I manage to rile up hornets' nests?  I would think that the promulgating of a so-called macrobiotic "therapy" for cancer and other serious illness calls for the reasoning that went into that decision and the number of specialist opinions that were sought before that decision was made.  Otherwise, it seems to me that this is another case of (tm) True Believers preaching.  The nest was on our local UU church's chat list FYI.  BTW, I am also a retired Medical Librarian and  do know how to search.  The following comes from the About.Alternative Medicine, which is meant for the lay reader.  Personally, I would pursue a middle way.  

Because low-fat, high fiber diets are often recommended for cancer and other chronic diseases, the macrobiotic diet has been used by people with these conditions. The phytoestrogen content may be protective and reduce the risk of estrogen-related cancers such as breast cancer. However, further research is needed to clarify whether the macrobiotic diet is effective in cancer prevention and treatment.
People with serious medical conditions such as cancer or AIDS should always seek proper medical care. Some people try the diet because they heard it can cure their disease, but reseach has not substantiated these claims.

The macrobiotic diet is considered by some nutritionists to be too restrictive and lacking in certain nutrients, such as protein, vitamin B12, iron, magnesium, and calcium. Lack of energy may result from inadequate protein.