Life in OUR America, Volume 2, The Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

"The United States should place democratic reform at the heart of their dialogue with Russia?"

How about America's "dialogue" with Venzuela?

What's to be the tone and tenor there, I wonder? 

World - AP Latin America

"Chavez Threatens to Stop Oil Exports"

Mon Feb 21,12:00 AM ET  World - AP Latin America

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said Sunday that he would stop oil exports to the United States if the U.S. government tries to assassinate him.

"If anything happens to me, forget about Venezuelan oil Mr. (George W.) Bush," said Chavez during his weekly radio and television show.

"If I am assassinated, there is only one person responsible: the president of the United States."

Is life getting wierder and wierder, or does it just seem that way, these days?

And it looks like we won't have Hunter Thompson around anymore to get that answer from, from the sounds of things here, anyway!

And if anyone out there knew wierdness, it just might have been him!

After all, he did hang out with Millhouse "Tricky Dick" Nixxon, and that was a source of some real wierdness, if anyone was, back in those days anyway!

Top Stories - Los Angeles Times

"'Gonzo' Journalist Thompson Kills Self"

Mon Feb 21, 7:55 AM ET

By David Kelly Times Staff Writer

DENVER — Hunter S. Thompson, the counterculture literary figure who rode with the Hells Angels, famously chronicled the Nixon-McGovern presidential race and coined the term "gonzo journalism," committed suicide Sunday night at his secluded home outside Aspen, Colo., his son said.

Thompson was 67.

"Hunter Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek," Juan Thompson said in a statement.

"Hunter prized his privacy and we ask his friends and admirers to respect that privacy as well as that of his family."

Pitkin County sheriff's officials confirmed Sunday that Thompson died of a gunshot wound, saying they received a call from his home about 6 p.m.

Friends and neighbors said late Sunday that they were shocked by Thompson's suicide, but knew he had his demons.

"We don't know anything about the circumstances surrounding his death, but he was a volatile person," said Troy Hooper, associate editor of the Aspen Daily News and a longtime friend of the writer.

"I was at his house last week and there was nothing in his behavior that was different."

"He was no more distraught than usual; he was often either up or down."

Hooper said Thompson had been in pain from back surgery and an artificial hip.

And he had broken his leg on a recent trip to Hawaii.

"He said he was executing a hairpin turn at the minibar when he broke it," said Hooper, who said he was acting as the family's spokesman.

"Hunter was one of the literary giants of the 20th century."

"We are all just shocked."

Thompson, whose works included "Hell's Angels," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72," which chronicled the race between Richard Nixon and George McGovern, was a well-known firearms aficionado who took frequent target practice in his backyard.

In 2000, he slightly wounded an assistant while trying to shoot a bear on his property.

Woody Creek, a small town about eight miles northwest of Aspen, is home to a number of celebrities including the TV actor Don Johnson and John Oates of the singing duo Hall and Oates.

Thompson spent much of his time socializing at the Woody Creek Tavern.

"We're letting it rest for tonight," said a woman who answered the phone Sunday at the tavern, where Thompson ate lunch most days.

Buddy Ortega, 62, a real estate broker and ski instructor, met Thompson in the 1960s at a party.

The pair socialized over the years, and Ortega supported Thompson's quixotic run for sheriff — though he figured it was a longshot when he saw campaign posters with pictures of hallucinogenic peyote buds.

In recent years, Ortega said, the hard-living journalist had become more reclusive, hanging out at the home he called his "compound" and taking advantage of open space to fire his automatic weapons.

But Ortega hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary recently.

He said he last saw Thompson two days ago at Woody Creek's post office, and everything seemed fine.

"We all have demons," Ortega said.

"Who knows, man?"

"You sit down, have a few cocktails or maybe nothing — maybe you have a cup of green tea — and maybe nothing seems right."

"He was a little more complex than most of us, so maybe some of those demons surfaced and he didn't like what he saw."

Hunter Stockton Thompson was born July 18, 1937, in Louisville, Ky.

His father, Jack, was an insurance agent.

In 1963, he married Sandra Dawn, the mother of his son Juan.

He served two years in the Air Force in Florida, where he was a newspaper sports editor.

He was the Caribbean correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune in 1959, and worked as a South American correspondent for the New York-based National Observer from 1961 to 1963.

But he earned his outsized reputation for his work in Rolling Stone magazine.

Thompson was the flip side of American novelist Tom Wolfe.

Both established themselves as brand names in the literary journalism movement that sought to capture the strife and youthful boldness of the 1960s.

Thompson was the wild man who embraced the chaos, while Wolfe was often portrayed as the buttoned-down neutral observer.

Thompson called what he did "gonzo journalism," differentiating it from mainstream reporting by aggressively injecting himself into the story and giving up any pretense of objectivity.

Thompson's style of journalism — well-armed, well-drugged and wildly iconoclastic — made him a counterculture figure of rare longevity.

"I hate to advocate weird chemicals, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone … but they've always worked for me," Thompson said.

His irascible and volatile persona seemed to outsize the books and essays he wrote.

Twice his life was brought to the screen — once by Bill Murray in 1980's "Where the Buffalo Roam," and again in the 1998 Terry Gilliam film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," in which Johnny Depp took his turn as Thompson.

Both actors remained friends with Thompson.

Thompson also triumphed on the comics page — ensuring that the most maverick journalist of his generation could get a spot in the mainstream newspapers that would never dare print his profanity-laced essays.

The character of "Uncle" Duke in the "Doonesbury" strip has for decades been a thinly disguised and always mercenary caricature of Thompson.

William McKeen, a University of Florida professor who wrote the 1991 critical biography "Hunter S. Thompson," kept in touch with the journalist.

"He had clearly been amid a great renaissance in recent years where the public had rediscovered his value and their interest in him," McKeen said Sunday night.

"The news is stunning."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writers Samantha Bonar, Geoff Boucher, Megan Garvey, Ashley Powers and Richard Fausset contributed to this report.

end quotes

And I have to wonder what Hugo Chavez thinks about this?

A plot here, maybe?

Him and Hunter as a twosome?

Strange stuff!

Strange stuff, indeed!

[jeffmoskin]

And I have to wonder what Hugo Chavez thinks about this?

A plot here, maybe?

Him and Hunter as a twosome?

Strange stuff!

Strange stuff, indeed!

Well,as somebody once said, "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

So Hugo Chavez, the elected president of the people of Venezuela, was briefly overthrown by Pedro Carmona, in a CIA sponsored "coup" which they were only able to maintain for 48 hours. What the coup leaders hadn't counted on was the sheer determination of the Venezuelan people to rise up and defend their democracy against a dangerous, fascist attitude - covertly and unscrupulously played out by the United States over the years in numerous countries around the world - that ignores
and would contemptuously trample on the will of the majority for the benefit
of big business and the wealthy few.

Chavez's ultimate crime was that of being an independent thinker whose, some
might argue "misguided," measures undertaken in trying to revise flawed,
inequitable domestic policies had somehow become "unacceptable" to
Washington. Translated that means, he dared to place the interests of his
own impoverished people over and above the corporate, money-making interests
of the United States.

Can't fool him again.

[Abu Beacon]

And that brings me back to a topic that we are monitoring in here, which is Mr. George W. Bush going to Europe to call for unity, when he has been probably the biggest factor in the last fifty years in creating disharmony, not only here in OUR America, but all throughout the world as well, as though he were Gilgamesh reincarnated!

Mr. Bush is in Brussels right now, or at least he was, because I heard him on the radio a little bit ago, speaking from there, and so .....

In this following article, Mr. Bush is calling for unity!


An issue where the allies may find common ground is a demand that Syria withdraw its forces from Lebanon — a declaration prompted by the assassination of a former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, in a massive bombing in Beirut last week.

I wish George Bush well. I really do.

The very bottom line is -- What's best for America ?

It's really tempting to want to see George Bush fail in his attempts to build a few bridges with his counterparts in Europe.

And if it were just his reputation and his well being on the line, it would be a very easy decision to make.

Let him go down.

However, if he is able to get some kind of help in Iraq, ANY kind of help, from the Europeans, especially France and if this would shorten the time the American troops are being bull dozed into staying in Iraq, I say " let's go for it. "

American lives are worth more than his ego.

There will be enough heartaches and misery in the next four years for us to handle.

We do not need a failure creating a failure.

We will see photo after photo of Bush shaking hands with Chirac, both smiling like the fox that just outsmarted the hunter and the hounds.

We will see picture after picture of our side in ' serious conultation ' with the other side.

It will mean nothing.

Europe has changed course since 911.

No longer will they automatically our lead.

The EU has already made up its mind about what they will do.

If there is enough in it for them, they will get in step with us, but not for any long distance.

If there is no gain for them, they will say all sorts of nice things about our new attitude.

And they will do nothing. And that may hurt George Bush, politically, but ---

It will also hurt all of the rest of us.

So, I do hope we get a commitment for some help.

God knows we need it.

A.B.

[Abu Beacon]

Maybe we should start talking about "Justice" again. Without Justice, we certainly won't have peace. And without peace, how can there be liberty?

And speaking of "Justice," I was at a wedding last night, and sat next to an old friend whose son(in Med school when 9/11 happened) volunteered for the National Guard. "Why not," he thought. "My country's been ATTACKED; I will soon be a doc; if we get hit big-time here at home, I could be of service."

B*SH SH*T

Bait and switch.

Next week, he gets shipped to Iraq.

How does that serve wounded Americans here in America after ne next9/11?

Bush Lies.

Bush Lies.

Bush Lies.

Bush Lies.

"No Justice, no peace." -- heard in L.A. after Rodney King Riots, 1992

Great article in today's ( 2-22-05 ) N. Y. Yimes, by columnist Paul Krugman.

It's worth a read.

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Wag-the-Dog Protection
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: February 22, 2005


he campaign against Social Security is going so badly that longtime critics of President Bush, accustomed to seeing their efforts to point out flaws in administration initiatives brushed aside, are pinching themselves. But they shouldn't relax: if the past is any guide, the Bush administration will soon change the subject back to national security.

The political landscape today reminds me of the spring of 2002, after the big revelations of corporate fraud. Then as now, the administration was on the defensive, and Democrats expected to do well in midterm elections.

Then, suddenly, it was all Iraq, all the time, and Harken Energy and Halliburton vanished from the headlines.

I don't know which foreign threat the administration will start playing up this time, but Bush critics should be prepared for the shift. They must curb their natural inclination to focus almost exclusively on domestic issues, and challenge the administration on national security policy, too.

I say this even though many critics, myself included, would prefer to stick with the domestic issues. After all, domestic issues, particularly Social Security, are very comfortable ground for moderates and liberals. The relevant facts are all in the public domain, voters clearly oppose the administration's hard-right agenda, and Mr. Bush's attack on Social Security stumbled badly out of the gate. It's understandable, then, that critiques of the administration's national security policy have faded into the background in recent months.

But a president can always change the subject to national security if he wants to - and Mr. Bush has repeatedly shown himself willing to play the terrorism card when he is losing the debate on other issues. So it's important to point out that Mr. Bush, for all his posturing, has done a very bad job of protecting the nation - and to make that point now, rather than in the heat of the next foreign crisis.

The fact is that Mr. Bush, while willing to go to war on weak evidence, hasn't taken the task of protecting America from terrorists at all seriously.

Consider, for example, the case of chemical plants.

Just days after 9/11, many analysts identified sites that store toxic chemicals as a major terror risk, and called for new safety rules. But as The New York Times reported last fall, "after the oil and chemical industries met with Karl Rove ... the White House quietly blocked those efforts."

Nearly three and a half years after 9/11, those chemical plants are still unprotected.

Other major risks identified within days of the attack included the possibility of terrorist attacks on major ports or nuclear plants. But in the months after 9/11, the administration flatly refused to allocate the sums that members of the House and Senate from both parties thought necessary to secure these sites.

And when the administration does spend money protecting possible terrorist targets, politics, not national security, dictates where the money goes. Remember the "first responders" program that ended up spending seven times as much protecting each resident of Wyoming as it spent protecting each resident of New York?

Well, it's still happening. An audit of the Homeland Security Department's (greatly inadequate) program to protect ports found that much of the money went to unlikely locations, including six sites in landlocked Arkansas, where the department's recently resigned chief of border and transportation security is reported to be considering a run for governor.

Nor are Mr. Bush's national security failures limited to nonmilitary policy. The administration appears to be in a state of denial over the effects of the endless war in Iraq on U.S. military readiness, particularly the strains on the reserves and the National Guard.

The ultimate demonstration of Mr. Bush's true priorities was his attempt to appoint Bernard Kerik as homeland security director. Either the administration didn't bother to do even the most basic background checks, or it regarded protecting the nation from terrorists as a matter of so little importance that it didn't matter who was in charge.

My point is that Mr. Bush's critics are falling into an unnecessary trap if they focus only on domestic policies, and allow Mr. Bush to keep his undeserved reputation as someone who keeps Americans safe. National security policy should not be a refuge to which Mr. Bush can flee when his domestic agenda falls apart.


A.B.

[jeffmoskin]

Great article in today's ( 2-22-05 ) N. Y. Yimes, by columnist Paul Krugman.

It's worth a read.

  OP-ED COLUMNIST
Wag-the-Dog Protection
By PAUL KRUGMAN

...Then, suddenly, it was all Iraq, all the time, and Harken Energy and Halliburton vanished from the headlines...

Not to mention:

Enron. Kennyboy Lay still at large

Plame. Judith Miller awaits jail sentence while Robert Novak continues to bloviate.

Torture. The promption of Alberto Gonzalez to Torturer General.

"Mission Accomplished". Shouldn't we have a National Holiday to celebrate this feat?

My memory still works, Mr. Bush. Although I can't remember what I had for dinner.

[Livyjr]

I wish George Bush well.

I really do.

The very bottom line is -- What's best for America ?

A.B.

You know, Mr. A.B., YOU ARE RIGHT in your attitude here, about George W. Bush failing!

If ever I have been in what I would call a baby-and-bathwater situation here, this is it!

And it really makes me think on "government", and what it is, and what it should be, separate and apart from "politics", which is not at all the same thing, BUT, usually gets right up "front-and-center" in the limelight, or spotlight, ALL THE TIME!

Do I want to see George W. Bush "fail"?

No way, as an American, but it is my belief, A.B., that he already has, AND THAT IS WHAT IS BAD FOR AMERICA, and the only real cure that I can see is for George W. Bush to vacate the White House, like Nixxon did, all those years ago!

There have been too many lies, too many deceptions, and too little veracity out of this administration, and to me, they have used up their credibility, and consequently, their time!

"Give up the stage here, boys, and let the next contender take a turn; the act is just stale now!"

As your article from the New York Times makes clear, this crowd is nothing more than a "one-trick" pony, and that is the last thing that we need now, a one-trick pony!

I'm running tight here, today, because of another death in the family, and the necessaries that go with that, so, I'll have to be brief, right now, but A.B., and jeffmoskin too; this "my way or the highway" crap out of George W. Bush just does not cut it, and I am not "going over" to his side!

No way!

Not with what it means for "DEMOCRACY", and for OUR America as well!

And when I come back, I am going to develop that theme, as I have been doing above, with my talk on "LIBERTY", and "JUSTICE", versus "FREEDOM", all of which are at their roots, "mental constructs" underlying true democracy, versus the "demockery" of George W. Bush, which I equate to slavery, for me, anyway, and likely for all of you as well, unless, of course, you "convert" to being Republicans, before the "sword" comes down on your neck for being an "unbeliever" in George W. Bush.

We are now approaching being "old men", and so, we should be beyond "glee" at the downfall of ANYONE, including George W. Bush, which is why I continue to call for us having compassion for him as a fellow human being, BUT ....

OUR compassion can also blind us, and make us into fools, if we do not have some balance here!

SO!

Hard times ahead, A.B., as I see it.

Hard times!

[jeffmoskin]

I'm running tight here, today, because of another death in the family, and the necessaries that go with that, so, I'll have to be brief, right now, but A.B., and jeffmoskin too; this "my way or the highway" crap out of George W. Bush just does not cut it, and I am not "going over" to his side!

My condolences, Livyjr. You seem to have had more than your share of these lately.

[Gabrielle]

Great article in today's ( 2-22-05 ) N. Y. Yimes, by columnist Paul Krugman.

It's worth a read.

  OP-ED COLUMNIST
Wag-the-Dog Protection
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: February 22, 2005
...

Just days after 9/11, many analysts identified sites that store toxic chemicals as a major terror risk, and called for new safety rules. But as The New York Times reported last fall, "after the oil and chemical industries met with Karl Rove ... the White House quietly blocked those efforts."

Nearly three and a half years after 9/11, those chemical plants are still unprotected.

Other major risks identified within days of the attack included the possibility of terrorist attacks on major ports or nuclear plants. But in the months after 9/11, the administration flatly refused to allocate the sums that members of the House and Senate from both parties thought necessary to secure these sites.

And when the administration does spend money protecting possible terrorist targets, politics, not national security, dictates where the money goes. Remember the "first responders" program that ended up spending seven times as much protecting each resident of Wyoming as it spent protecting each resident of New York?

Well, it's still happening. An audit of the Homeland Security Department's (greatly inadequate) program to protect ports found that much of the money went to unlikely locations, including six sites in landlocked Arkansas, where the department's recently resigned chief of border and transportation security is reported to be considering a run for governor.



The ultimate demonstration of Mr. Bush's true priorities was his attempt to appoint Bernard Kerik as homeland security director. Either the administration didn't bother to do even the most basic background checks, or it regarded protecting the nation from terrorists as a matter of so little importance that it didn't matter who was in charge.

My point is that Mr. Bush's critics are falling into an unnecessary trap if they focus only on domestic policies, and allow Mr. Bush to keep his undeserved reputation as someone who keeps Americans safe. National security policy should not be a refuge to which Mr. Bush can flee when his domestic agenda falls apart.
A.B.

A.B.,
Here's my paranoid take on the administration's attempts to quietly block homeland security: they want to leave us wide open. Terrorist attacks will only benefit this administration. Especially if they occur around the 2006 or 2008 elections. Terror makes people seek out the father-figure GOP. They will use the threat of terror, and if that fails, the terror itself, to retain power, maintain the public's focus on war, so they can continue to pilfer the public's coffers.

Nor are Mr. Bush's national security failures limited to nonmilitary policy. The administration appears to be in a state of denial over the effects of the endless war in Iraq on U.S. military readiness, particularly the strains on the reserves and the National Guard.

Once or twice I could understand Bush's denial. But this pattern is repeated over & over again. This group of neocons in power behind Bush are no group of dummies. It is my conclusion that they know full well the "effects of the endless war in Iraq on U.S. military readiness" and that for some reason they are choosing this course of action. I like to follow the money in these sorts of situations. Seems to me all money flows into Halliburton, the defense industry, and is ciphoned off into the GOP's efforts to dismantle Rosevelt's New Deal.

This post has been edited by Gabrielle: Feb 22 2005, 01:19 PM

[Gabrielle]

My condolences, Livyjr. You seem to have had more than your share of these lately.

Mine, too, Livyjr.

[jeffmoskin]

A.B.,
Here's my paranoid take on the administration's attempts to quietly block homeland security: they want to leave us wide open. Terrorist attacks will only benefit this administration.  Especially if they occur around the 2006 or 2008 elections. Terror makes people seek out the father-figure GOP. They will use the threat of terror, and if that fails, the terror itself, to retain power, maintain the public's focus on war, so they can continue to pilfer the public's coffers. 
Once or twice I could understand Bush's denial.  But this pattern is repeated over & over again.  This group of neocons in power behind Bush are no group of dummies.  It is my conclusion that they know full well the "effects of the endless war in Iraq on U.S. military readiness" and that for some reason they are choosing this course of action. I like to follow the money in these sorts of situations.  Seems to me all money flows into Halliburton, the defense industry, and is ciphoned off into the GOP's efforts to dismantle Rosevelt's New Deal.

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean the bastards aren't out to get you."- R.D. Laing

And when you say "Defense Industry," don't forget to include "The Carlyle Group"
which includes Dubya's Pappy.

This post has been edited by jeffmoskin: Feb 22 2005, 01:25 PM

[Gabrielle]

Not to mention:

Enron. Kennyboy Lay still at large

Plame. Judith Miller awaits jail sentence while Robert Novak continues to bloviate.

Torture. The promption of Alberto Gonzalez to Torturer General.

"Mission Accomplished". Shouldn't we have a National Holiday to celebrate this feat?

My memory still works, Mr. Bush. Although I can't remember what I had for dinner.

You have hit on the point that drives me most insane about BushCo and the American people's reactions - that innocents are punished while the guilty go free - over and over and over again.

And there is no public outrage.

Soldiers in Abu Ghraib are imprisoned for years for carrying out orders that came directly from the Oval Office.

Martha Stewart sits in a WV jail while Ken Lay is free to do as he pleases, year after year.

I totally support a Mission Accomplished national holiday! We can all buy fighter pilot's suits and hang Mission Accomplished banners on our homes/apt. buildings. I think we owe it to Fearless Leader to fully honor his true moment of patriotic glory!!!



This post has been edited by Gabrielle: Feb 22 2005, 01:29 PM

[Abu Beacon]

Mine, too, Livyjr.

Mine too Livyjr

A.B.

[Snuffysmith]

I don't normally post commentary - but I must say this is an excellent thread and I thank you all for running it. Unfortunately, I don't think there will be any outrage unless and until there is another 9/11 type incident and then I fear big time for this country. There will be no excuse at that point for the goverment, the Congress, and the media to hide behind wmds in Iraq, government inertia, FAA failings, and the whole nine yards of incompetence and coverup.

[jeffmoskin]

I don't normally post commentary - but I must say this is an excellent thread and I thank you all for running it. Unfortunately, I don't think there will be any outrage unless and until there is another 9/11 type incident and then I fear big time for this country. There will be no excuse at that point for the goverment, the Congress, and the media to hide behind wmds in Iraq, government inertia, FAA failings, and the whole nine yards of incompetence and coverup.

You are right. Gabrielle expressed this earlier in the thread:

Here's my paranoid take on the administration's attempts to quietly block homeland security: they want to leave us wide open. Terrorist attacks will only benefit this administration.  Especially if they occur around the 2006 or 2008 elections. Terror makes people seek out the father-figure GOP. They will use the threat of terror, and if that fails, the terror itself, to retain power, maintain the public's focus on war, so they can continue to pilfer the public's coffers. 
Once or twice I could understand Bush's denial.  But this pattern is repeated over & over again.  This group of neocons in power behind Bush are no group of dummies.  It is my conclusion that they know full well the "effects of the endless war in Iraq on U.S. military readiness" and that for some reason they are choosing this course of action. I like to follow the money in these sorts of situations.  Seems to me all money flows into Halliburton, the defense industry, and is ciphoned off into the GOP's efforts to dismantle Rosevelt's New Deal.

[Livyjr]

Well, I am back, and thank you everyone for the condolences!

They are appreciated!

[jeffmoskin]

Welcome, Livyjr. May your next gatherings be for other than purposes of burials.

Apropos of nothing, I was talking to my butcher, Roy, today. We are both the same age and both of us share a desire to drive to Texas one day for the sole purpose of urinating on the grave of LBJ. He has his reasons; I have mine.

On the way home my mind wandered (it does that a lot of late) to an HBO series that aired several years ago called, "Band of Brothers." I wonder if any of you saw it. It ran Sunday nights at 10PM out here. I had to tape it because it was so intense that if I watched it in "real time" I would not get to sleep. Consequently, I watched it Monday afternoon.

The last episode featured some of the surviving "real" soldiers of "Easy Company." Hearing them talk, seeing them weep! brought tears to my eyes. Here were 80 year-old men crying about the awful experiences they had some 60-odd years before.

Incredible.

Worth watching if you haven't seen it. It's probably out on DVD. Most everything is.

[Livyjr]

Welcome, Livyjr. 

May your next gatherings be for other than purposes of burials.

On the way home my mind wandered (it does that a lot of late) to an HBO series that aired  several years ago called, "Band of Brothers."

I wonder if any of you saw it.

And thank you again, jeffmoskin, for your kind thoughts!

The family was really trimmed down quite a bit in this last week or so!

But today, we gathered, those that are left, and we reminisced about those who are now gone, and what was really nice was to hear that a generation younger than mine has memories of their own of those who have passed, and so ....

For us older ones, however, our own mortality stares us right in the face, and that just is as it is, I guess!

As to "gatherings", when I came in here, it was for that purpose, to get back to "LIFE" again, although, to be truthful, I am still a little discombobulated in my thoughts right now, BUT ....

LIFE must go on!

SO!

And here, jeffmoskin, I have to confess that while I know of this excellent series that you talk about, "Band of Brothers", and even had someone give me the series on videotape, I didn't watch it, because in truth, I just cannot!

I have to stay clean away from it, even after all these years, which are as nothing!

Now, of course, if it was going to be a videotape or better yet, live footage, of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleeza Rice all getting their a**es booted out of a helicopter into the heart of Sadr City, so that THEY WOULD HAVE TO FIGHT THEIR WAY BACK OUT, then that is something that I just might force myself to watch, and perhaps with relish, just to see how much they would enjoy the "experience" they are presently affording to all these real soldiers like those in "Band of Brothers" had to experience in a war many wars before this present one we are now embroiled in over there in Iraq, which incidentally is supposed to be both a democracy and a sovereign nation standing on its own, which it clearly is not, on either count!

But as to the real thing, or portrayals?

NO, I have to stay away!

Been there, done that, had it done to me, and to this day, I am still sick to my heart about it, and I don't wish that experience on any other living human beings, except for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, this Wolfowitz, and all those in the world who think war is cool!

Put them all in a great big pit somewhere, where they cannot get out, and let them have at it!

As for the rest of us, boy, the peace that would bring us!

And that is where I must keep my thoughts focused these days, jeffmoskin, lest I too die of a broken heart for what could have been, but wasn't, because of war!

[jeffmoskin]

And thank you again, jeffmoskin, for your kind thoughts!

The family was really trimmed down quite a bit in this last week or so!

But today, we gathered, those that are left, and we reminisced about those who are now gone, and what was really nice was to hear that a generation younger than mine has memories of their own of those who have passed, and so ....

For us older ones, however, our own mortality stares us right in the face, and that just is as it is, I guess!

As to "gatherings", when I came in here, it was for that purpose, to get back to "LIFE" again, although, to be truthful, I am still a little discombobulated in my thoughts right now, BUT ....

LIFE must go on!

SO!

And here, jeffmoskin, I have to confess that while I know of this excellent series that you talk about, "Band of Brothers", and even had someone give me the series on videotape, I didn't watch it, because in truth, I just cannot!

I have to stay clean away from it, even after all these years, which are as nothing!

Now, of course, if it was going to be a videotape or better yet, live footage, of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleeza Rice all getting their a**es booted out of a helicopter into the heart of Sadr City, so that THEY WOULD HAVE TO FIGHT THEIR WAY BACK OUT, then that is something that I just might force myself to watch, and perhaps with relish, just to see how much they would enjoy the "experience" they are presently affording to all these real soldiers like those in "Band of Brothers" had to experience in a war many wars before this present one we are now embroiled in over there in Iraq, which incidentally is supposed to be both a democracy and a sovereign nation standing on its own, which it clearly is not, on either count!

But as to the real thing, or portrayals?

NO, I have to stay away!

Been there, done that, had it done to me, and to this day, I am still sick to my heart about it, and I don't wish that experience on any other living human beings, except for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, this Wolfowitz, and all those in the world who think war is cool!

Put them all in a great big pit somewhere, where they cannot get out, and let them have at it!

As for the rest of us, boy, the peace that would bring us!

And that is where I must keep my thoughts focused these days, jeffmoskin, lest I too die of a broken heart for what could have been, but wasn't, because of war!

I completely understand, Livyjr. I wish you closure and peace.

[Abu Beacon]

A.B.,
Here's my paranoid take on the administration's attempts to quietly block homeland security: they want to leave us wide open. Terrorist attacks will only benefit this administration.  Deal.

Gabrielle -----

I sincerely doubt that you are paranoid.

What you are is AWARE.

You are seeing things that are not supposed to be seen.

Your leaders ( and mine ) count on the American's people's desire to not look very deeply into what's really going on.

Thank God, you do.

When enough Americans care enough to peer under the lid, we might get some other people to lead the country.

Hopefully, they will be cut from a better bolt of cloth.


A.B..

[Gabrielle]

And that is where I must keep my thoughts focused these days, jeffmoskin, lest I too die of a broken heart for what could have been, but wasn't, because of war!

I'm starting to understand you a little better Livyjr. I'm starting to understand more and more the uncanny beauty I find here.

You have seen and done things no human being should ever have to see/do.

In my profession I've had the priveledge of working with many men and women like you - but mostly men.

The combat veterans I've met from WWII, Korea, Vietnam & Desert Strom have one thing in common: the dept of their experiences and the profound effect those experiences have had on the way they see life. The veteran's understanding of life, war, death, horror, tragedy, community, isolation, home, is so much more profound. And they are so much more beautiful to me because of this fact.

You know, last night I read a post of yours over at A.B.'s corner about my grandmother and how she was to be admired because she had not been beaten down. I'm still a bit unsure of myself in these threads and so I did not say what initially came to my mind after reading that comment, which I may very well be taking out of context.

But since I have a clearer vision this evening after reading your posts on Vietnam I will share my original thoughts with you.

That I respect people like A.B., my grandmother, you, and many others, not because they have not been beaten down. The way I see it life is incredibly hard on people. I respect you all because life has beaten you down but some force inside of each of you refuses to stay down, refuses to follow the well-travelled paths of the masses. Because you all have faced down your own demons - some of them repeatedly, some of them daily, and some of them will continue to challenge you (us) all until the day you (we) die. I respect people like you because I see the human condition so clearly in your eyes, your words, your actions. Men and women who have greatly suffered and overcome (I use this term fairly loosly as "overcome" is often a fluid, cyclical process) see everything around them with a clarity of vision that often escapes the rest.

Not only do I admire these people, but I also find them to be the touchstones I run to when I am lost. Not because they have never been lost or broken - but because they have been.

There are so many ways people are broken. And it is in those broken places that I think people are their most beautiful.

This post has been edited by Gabrielle: Feb 22 2005, 08:53 PM