“Yankee Go Home” doesn’t apply to South Korea where only a half year ago its citizens demonstrated against our 37,000 troops stationed there — what with the north’s incessant provocation. After fifty years the south is nevertheless more than a match against its neighbor despite its larger army but poorly equipped. Even though South Korea spends ten times what the north does in armament — $320 per capita, or 3.4 percent of its GNP — it could fortify itself independent of the US, except for a n...
The Pledge of Allegiance Case, U.S. v. Newdow, is simply a waste of time. School children have been held hostage of this rote exercise since McCarthyism. This is not to say that children shouldn’t show symbolic patriotism on occasion, nor is it so terribly obnoxious to show as an aside of religion once in a while. The flag, however, has no — implicit or explicit — reference to God; it is simply an allegiance to Stars and Stripes, as is the national anthem, and its implicit sacrifice ma...
John Nichols’ [The Nation, political magazine] “...Rural Strategy” is dead wrong for presidential candidates. On the contrary, “If they” [the farmers] ”pay serious attention” long enough to recognize their own distorted psyche, perhaps strides toward their interests will be reasserted. Nichols himself admitted that after the FDR improvement of the farmer’s status, the farmer in the 50s went back to his old rugged individualism ways and the Republican party. Of course, the same can be s...
Does it make any sense to rebuild Iraq’s schools when millions of kids here are stuck in obscene portable classrooms? And how about the billions for Iraq’s infrastructure when we’re stuck with pre-WWII railways and inner cities?Why is it that Medicare is an exclusive club for the elderly when untold millions of average citizens can’t afford even basic health care, let alone major medical? Compassionate conservative is a misnomer; rather, it is reactionary with a passion. Nowadays liberal ...
Globalization has been kicked around lately as it should be what with China trade dominance and NAFTA in shambles. In itself it is a positive because opening up trade routes since ancient times generated civilization. Yet globalization has always been controlled by thugs, such as in the slave trade and the exploitation of much poorer or less advanced countries. This has not really changed. Since China can exploit its own labor by offering western capital an attractive bottom line to produce o...
Ever since Roosevelt and Truman were shot down in their efforts to institutionalize health care, the US has been wary of “socialized medicine.” That Medicare in itself was passed is owed to JFK — nostalgia and legacy. Slowly, however, the nation is more wary of the monolithic determinism of the AMA, the pharmaceutical industry and insurance companies dictating the terms of health care. They abhorred Medicare because it acted as a check and balance against the laissez-faire profit motive in as...
Eliminate the credit card today and tomorrow rolls in Great Depression II. The bread line of the 30s was a result of blanket layoffs owing to the crash of capital, which is the facade of wealth. In reality what is the stock market but a gigantic credit card by which surplus capital is lent out to those who wish to partake in the growth of an economy. A child of wealth [capital in trust] not unlike royalty is crowned the billionaire of tomorrow by the simple process of investing in those that get...
As a kid I couldn't understand why my school chums didn't rush home from P.S. 33 to catch Jack Armstrong on radio. I guess each in his own way wanted to be the All-American Boy in rough play, whereas I chose to be Jack in my imagination. If my friends knocked on the back door between 7:30 and 8 PM on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays, I ignored them—lying low on the parlor rug with my ear riveted to the Philco console listening to the Lone Ranger. Radio now as it's supposed to be doesn't exist. ...
The End Run Vogue in this era seems to be to skirt real issues and trump up lame excuses to thwart peace and prosperity. George W. Bush is the epitome of this — war of choice, tax-cuts. He learned from Sharon who quickly — what little hope there may have been in September 2000 — crushed six years of Clinton and George Mitchell’s efforts to bring peace to Israel by treading, with armed police, on the Temple Mount and/or Al-Haram al-Sharif, which was precisely the lame excuse on which both ne...
Hi, I’m now stevendedalus — I used to be EZP. For the past week I’ve been going crazy trying to get access to my blog site but I was repeatedly denied. Apparently my login was lost — I thought at first I had somehow forgotten my password — only to discover from Stardock that there was no record of my email address! So if any of you bloggers know how I can retrieve my EZP articles — they’re still around — to drop into the new URL, I’d appreciate the tip.sd
Since its inception diehard elected officials in the Republican Party have been against social security — except at reelection time. Now they try to hide behind “privatizing” the fund, though it is primarily a safety net for millions who depend on it. Along with these diehards are the wealthy of both parties who simply don’t get it. The vast majority of us underlings are Wall Street ignorant and except for those lucky enough to have retirement pensions and 401K’s they have no investments no...
[1970] To play the heavy is as a rule a more difficult task than the role of protagonist on the side of righteousness. Rhetoric and oratory rely on the underpinnings of logic and ethics to persuade the enlightened; whereas sophistry relies on gyrations of half-truths, innuendoes and prejudice — no small task if deliberate, but ironically very simple if out of ignorance.Little wonder, then, that giants like Douglass, Walker and Garvey ring out through the ages as exemplars of style and persuasi...
When the so-called military experts state that the fighting men and women in Iraq were not trained for occupation or police duty, I find it laughable. In September of ‘45 there was no leaner meaner fighting machine than the 4th Marines which was sent in to take over Yokosuka Naval Base. We were heavily armed and ready for the worst but found the Imperial Navy ready to surrender. As a result we quickly became an occupation force ready to defend against rumored counter attack...
Live & Let Live “Live and let live” is not an absolute. When Dirty Harry challenges his captive with “Make my day” and is counter challenged, then death is the result. If the Maryland snipers resisted arrest there would be no qualms if they were sent off in body bags. So with “let Muslims be Muslims” is prima-facie for religious freedom, yet does not mean they are free to hate, maim or kill. From the Dark Age to the Puritans, let Christians be Christians had to be qualified in face of fatal...
Annually I’m distressed when floods and forest fires wreak terror on our populace and properties. We get all riled up over terrorism but never make any attempt to control these catastrophes. Because of FEMA we tend to think that floods are taken as a matter of course without an effort to begin planning a way to eliminate or at least minimize the devastation by mass projects of strategic dam-building and embankment construction. The US has lost its will to develop safety infrastructure secon...