What Comes Out ......

Back in the Dark Ages of Education when I was attending Mt Carmel High School in Chicago, we had a sports opponent in the Catholic League in a school by the name of Brother Rice.  (Don't ask me who Brother Rice was, as I had and have no idea.)  Along with our standard repertoire of cheers during such sporting events, we had a special special one for this particular opponent which went: "What comes out of China man's ass?  Rice!  Rice!  Rice!"  (Yes I know that such a cheer is politically incorrect, then and now, but we were high school kids living in an age 40 years ago when being PC was far less important.  I use it now only to illustrate a point, which I could get to if I wasn't so busy explaining my prior offensive behavior to you here.)

Of course it was stupid and politically incorrect, but it served its purpose of infuriating the other team and distracting them from more important issues going on around them.  You know, like the game ....

Today we have our own 'Rice' issue going on surrounding UN Ambassador Susan Rice and the talking points she used on five Sunday talk shows soon after the attack on our Consulate in Benghazi.  For myself, I must continue to say,  "Who cares who gave Ambassador Rice her talking points, who changed them, and why she repeated them on each successive show?"  Maybe she was just being a team player?  Maybe she's a self-serving bureaucrat trying to claw her way up the ladder in the State Department?  Maybe she's a simple-minded fool or drank so much of the Kool-Aid that she would believe anything handed to her from the right source?  

Speaking of who cares, who cares if Republican Senators believe her?  Who cares if they're more confused after questioning her than before?  (Though I would have to say that if this is actually the case, these guys might better spend some of their time watching "NCIS", "CSI", or "Law and Order" as a way of improving their interrogation skills.)  What I can't help but ask myself is why they and we are distracting ourselves with 'Rice Cheers' questions about what she said; as if it mattered then or now in the greater scheme of the game?

The real question in fact is why, in an area of obvious unrest, the Libyan US Embassy in Tripoli wasn't well-staffed enough to be able to send a large protection team of its own down to support the AMBASSADOR (its most important functionary) at the consulate in Benghazi?  Why did we not add staff or beef up the defences of the compound after two prior attacks on it?  Why did we stay after both the British Embassy and the Red Cross had left the area, considering it too dangerous?  Why did they pull a military protection team deployed to Libya specifically for the embassy's protection out a month before the attack?  Why were there apparently no backup teams (military or private security) deployed in an area crawling with US bases and ships, to assist during a running seven hour battle?  Even if things had settled down after the initial assault and fire (and during which the Ambassador was evidently killed), why wasn't significant fire support team immediately sent to the area for no other reason than to secure the Consulate and Embassy (which are by international treaty, US territory); and to discover where and in what condition the Ambassador was?

For some reason however, we have become distracted by the meaningless to care more about who was in the circle and what rules were used for the government official game of 'Telephone' being played in Washington DC, who the head of the CIA was sleeping with that he shouldn't have, why some military base social climber is getting nasty emails from that CIA head's mistress, and of course the in and outs of the gross misstatements of Ambassador Rice.  Four people (including an ambassador) were killed! 

With all of the other things that we don't know, we should at least recognize that the events surrounding Susan Rice are less than a side-show unless and until the actual attempt is made by the President to nominate her for higher office.  The entire Rice episode, like that of my high school days, is a distraction to larger events unfolding, and to a rather nasty foreign policy failure on the part of the current Administration on which no one seems to be able to keep their eye on the ball.  So if you'll pardon my language, I know what comes out of a China man's ass ... rice.  I also know what comes out of the nonsense of Ambassador Rice where the real story of Benghazi lies ... NOTHING.

  

The "Stuck On Stupid" Dictionary #35

Fall is upon us and the election rhetoric (among other things) is heating up around the world.  While we have slacked off on our program of "the beatings will continue until morale improves" where the staff is concerned, the occasional 'head slap' or 'kick in the slats' continues to be a regular practice in motivating the lazy lexicographers working on the "Stuck on Stupid" dictionary.  

It was a surprise however, to discover that it had been some three months since the most recent entry to this tome of tomfoolery, used to document the misuse of the English language.  For that reason if no other, there will be multiple listings in today's effort.   Senior staff will shortly be receiving a memo to report for their own 'slap and slat' session as well.

For those of you who have somehow managed to miss previous postings in this area (shame on you, now go back and read all of the postings under the label of dictionary), the SOS dictionary is a reference guide to terms which nominally mean something to the rest of the English speaking world, but appear to mean something entirely different when looked at through the jaded eyes and rose colored glasses of the SOS dictionary staff.

Now you would think that an establishment created to store and lend some of the greatest literature in the world (along with some really hideous Barney videos) would have a better grasp of the English language.  Like that organization in its choice of words and acronyms of common parlance, you would apparently be wrong.  While they are not alone in self-abusive articulation, they are first on today's list.

SOL

1.  An acronym of common parlance that stands for Shit Outa' Luck, which for those not up on common parlance means that you either had no luck where this situation was concerned, or if you did, you no longer retain it; placing your odds at a successful result in your efforts in the range of dismal.

2. An acronym currently being used by the Toledo Public Library as a marketing slogan in support of their November levy request, and designed to stand for "Save Our Library".

3. The likelihood that that the Library marketing scheme will be remembered, and if remembered, will not be confused with the term of more common parlance.  Its use will probably be sniggered over as an error in judgment at best, and a massive screw up in their levy attempt at worst (see FUBAR).

4.  The likelihood that the Library levy will pass if this is the level of marketing and political savvy possessed by their organization.


Arab Spring

1. A political resistance movement that began in December of 2010, in which oppressive governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen were overthrown; and in which civil uprisings continue in Syria and Bahrain in the hope of one day replacing their oppressive regimes. 

2. A political resistance movement which appears to be so important to those involved that it's capable of being side-tracked by Cartoons, YouTube videos, and public statements by people who only their neighbors have heard of before. (And now no doubt, by this definition.)

3. A political resistance movement which has largely succeeded in replacing oppressive secular dictatorships and monarchies in the region with oppressive 'democracies' that act far more like the oppressive theocracies which most foreign policy experts insisted could never take control.

4. A political resistance movement which has been largely supported by pronouncements from the US State Department and funds from US Foreign Aid; and which has been rewarded for such support by the killing of a US Ambassador and three other Americans (so far) and millions in damage to US Embassy property.

5. Yet another of the current Administration's foreign policy nightmares marked by inconsistency and apology, in which the US pays protection money to governments run by thugs and terrorists, with little if anything to show for it's investment other than hate, murder, and destruction.  (The President's former minister Jeremiah Wright once previously called this "America's chickens coming home to roost.)


Since I didn't manage to put together a good weekend rant, and because I can still hear the scribes appropriately scribbling behind their locked door (I have the key); it seems likely that there will be yet another SOS posting before the weekend's over.
   

TFP Column: The Beam In Our Own Eye

I sat down Tuesday evening with every intention of writing my normal mid-week rant on society. (I really did!) The next thing I knew, I had penned an effort worthy of submission to my friend and hero, editor-in-chief of the Toledo Free Press Michael Miller.

I think that it was the result of the President's non-explanation of why we are shooting missiles and dropping bombs on Libya, the assumption that somehow the United States has somehow been appointed as the world's policeman (mostly by those in the US government), and the combination of ignorance and indifference to the history of this country that I see constantly exhibited these days.

The result of these efforts was some 750 words that seemed to write themselves: "The Beam in Our Own Eye". Agree or disagree if you will, but I hope at least this effort will inspire some to pick up a history book every once and a while and stop viewing the history of this country through the rose-colored glasses of a Mel Gibson movie.

Spring Cleaning

Spring is upon us (not that you could tell by the weekend's weather), bringing snows that melt and rivers that overflow, income tax forms that must be filled out and filed, and of course that most dreaded of warm weather calamities ... spring cleaning. This task is particularly difficult for me this year as the cleaning required is more in the nature of a mental one. No, its not that I have a dirty mind (well OK, maybe), but simply because there is far too much clutter rattling around in the otherwise empty storage area that I call a head for me to wander around it the way I like to. This is not a condition that I am fond of, as it seems to cause endless bouts of stumbling in the dark up there. I have therefore decided that it's time to clear some of it out. So in no order of importance and with no conscious agenda that I am aware of, I place these thoughts on the table before setting them aside for proper recycling or disposal:

• Republicans in State governments are seen to be attacking unions, and unions are returning the compliment by attacking Republicans in those state governments. The battle is one over the compensation packages of unionized state workers, and the claim is that it's being fought to balance state budgets. I find it curious that the party claiming fiscal responsibility and chipping away at compensation of those working under legally negotiated contracts are doing so without once touching their own lavish compensation packages.

• While we're talking about the benefits that certain government workers get, can we please define how many vacation days that the president gets? I mean come on! Most jobs give you 2-3 weeks in your first year of employment, but this President seems lately hardly to be working more than that in his first years in office. Don't get me wrong here, most of us are normally far better off when politicians are taking time off from their normal foolishness and misdeeds; but if they're only going to work half of the year, maybe we could start paying them only for the time they work.

• Many of the same legislators who had a lot to say when this country took military action in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan are curiously silent as we ramp up our efforts in Libya. Not only are they silent on its justification, but few if any are talking about the cost of Tomahawk cruise missiles and jet fuel. Is this inconsistent ideology, political expediency, or simple hypocrisy?

• I have officially had it with the NCAA basketball tournament! Apparently in spite of this being the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament, geography is not a subject being taught in the association. While I understand that one of the goals is to balance the brackets and even the chances for all schools in the tournament, but east coast teams playing in west coast brackets and vice versa seems ridiculous. And playing the Southwestern finals Richmond, VA is wrong on so many different levels that I have trouble talking about it. Could we please pretend that the compass matters and that geography is not subject entirely to the whims of television ratings (or simply drop the geographic element from the tournament entirely)?

• Can we please stop pretending that red light cameras are about safety and not about revenue? If the politicians actually believe this and are not just hiding behind political expediency, let them donate the money earned by such devices to charity to prove it. If the cameras are about the revenue however and not the driver safety that they attempt to defend these nefarious photographic accusers with, let those cities using them stop pretending otherwise.

• Does anybody else remember that the government took great pains to break up the monopoly on providing phone service in this country? Of course now that we've all moved on to cell phones, the fact that more and more of the land line phone companies have merged again doesn't mean much; but the fact that cell phone companies are doing the same might be an issue. Sprint bought Nextel, AT&T just bought T-Mobile, and now it looks like Verizon will buy Sprint. I thought the concept was to inspire competition. How does that happen when companies are just buying them?

• Chad Ocho Cinco is trying out for the professional soccer team in Kansas City. (A team called Sporting KC, catchy huh?) It's not like I needed another excuse not to watch professional soccer (which I find about as exciting as watching the grass on the field of play growing); but if I did, having to watch this pompous ass would have provided it.

• How many different ways can you spell a Libyan dictator's last name? In the last few days I've see Gaddafi, Qaddafi, Gadhafi, Khaddafi, and Qadhafi. I mean Jeez, can we all just pick one spelling and agree on it? How about we just go with whatever Muammar (for which there are also apparently multiple spellings) usually goes with, or what he uses when he signs his next ultimatum or execution order?

• Speaking of names ... the end of an era is approaching and it makes me rather sad. First Carty Finkbeiner lost his job as mayor of Toledo, and now Mark Funkhouser is about to lose his job as mayor of Kansas City. The current mayor didn't make the cut in the primary and will be replaced in May by mayor-elect Sly James. While having a mayor named Sly certainly has some potential for comment, it's just not going to be the same without the raised eyebrows every time someone from out-of-town hears the mayor's name. l guess I'll just have to move to another city that has a mayor with a goofy last name. (Hey, I wonder if Muammar is looking for new gig?)

Wow, this spring cleaning thing feels kind of good! There's definitely a bit more room in here now, and the straight line path between my ears once again holds little in the way of resistance to the nonsense attempting to penetrate (and immediately thereafter, escape).

TFP Column: The Right of Intervention

Discussion has turned a lot lately to the concept of Rights in this country. There are the inalienable Rights that are set forth in the Declaration of Independence, those outlined in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, and a lot of other ones that people like to tack on from time to time. They include a good job, a livable wage, health care, and a bunch of other stuff that we are increasingly being told that we are guaranteed because of living in this country (or simply living).

The one that I haven't hear a lot of discussion about is the right to impose a form of government upon another sovereign people. And while I know our government likes to pick the winners and losers in business, picking the winners and losers in internal conflicts going on in other nations might be just a bit out of bounds. All of this led to this week's effort in the Toledo Free Press, "The Right of Intervention". Agree or disagree with the premise, I hope that it at least makes you think about the path we have once more started down.

As this column is going up on the website early this week, there will be lot's to see and read in both the Star edition and the regular TFP, Toledo's largest Sunday circulation newspaper.