Dan Schorr Dead at 93

A bright light of journalism has gone out, and I think we are all a little poorer for it. Here is how NPR put it: “Journalism Legend Daniel Schorr Dies”. He was 93 years old.
Not much more to say really. This guy started reporting when he was 12 years old and never looked back. He took on the big boys, breaking the Watergate story, uncovering CIA assignation plots (illegal) and being where the action was through the Cold War.
His keen insights on people and events were deeply informed by decades of firsthand experience. I will miss his commentaries and wit, and I am sure millions of people around the world will as well.
I doubt if there is anyone left big enough to fill his shoes.
Image: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/12116.html

Don't Blame the Doctors and Nurses

I woke up this morning. No dirt nap. That in itself is a good thing. But the world is facing an uncertain (some including myself would argue the future is certain: there certainly will be a future!) future. I read an essay by Thomas L. Friedman (1) about the impact 7 Republican senators could have on the energy bill now before Congress. Passage would put us on the right track and going in the right direction, while failure would almost certainly result in an acceleration of the degradation of the environment and a speeding up of climate change globally. He pointed to the projected population of 9.2 billion by 2050 and the impact that alone will have as the third world tries to get to the standard of living we enjoy now, but, in my opinion, we will surely lose in the next 30 years.
The answer is not “blowing in the wind” but is quite clearly in front of you. The answer is greed. The Republicans want the status quo ante regarding energy policy to stand, and are willing to sacrifice the economic future of the country and the entire globe to keep oil flowing into the country and coal flowing to be burned in old and inefficient plants.
I keep hearing the charge that the Democrats have led us into economic disaster by the Obama programs being passed by congress. Let me offer an analogy: if someone beats you almost to death, breaks your bones and then leaves you by the roadside, are you going to blame the orthopedic surgeon that spends a million dollars putting you back together for wasting money? Are you going to blame the Doctors and Nurses for the rehab pain you suffer every day? If you do, you are just plain stupid. The point? Eight plus years of Republican domination of government beat us up pretty badly. The debt soared under Bush, the middle class lost real wages, the economy imploded (yes, BEFORE the Democrats took over. (2) Why do you think they won all those seats in Congress and the White House? Not because the Republicans did such a great job running things I can tell you.) And the world learned to hate America. That was the beating.
Now the rehab is starting and it is painful. But don’t blame the Doctors and Nurses. Look to the culprits that caused the problems, and are now lying through their teeth and the rest of their orifices trying to get back in power. Wait and see if the therapy actually works before you go back to the bully and ask for another beating.
The next time you probably won’t survive. You may not anyway, but, what the hell, you might as well have a fighting chance, No?
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/opinion/21friedman.html?src=mv
2. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/16/politics/main2939036.shtml
Image: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/16/politics/main2939036.shtml

Woody's List of Good Guys

There are a couple of people in the House and Senate that I like for one reason or another. They are representative of many groups: men, women, gays, liberals, conservatives and probably others if I could think of them. I won’t go into why I like each but I can generalize this way: These people pretty much say what they mean, and like it or not, you usually know what they think about something. Here’s my list in no particular order:
Bernie Sanders
Henry Waxman
Barney Frank
Olympia Snow
Russ Feingold
Lindsey Graham
Bill Nelson
Chuck Schumer
Tom Udall
Notice that only one Representative, Henry Waxman, is on the list. Not many of those guys rise to the level of constant watchdog like Waxman. I love the guy and would vote for him if I could.
I don’t agree with all or in some cases most of what these representatives of the people espouse, but I trust them to think for themselves, and I value that. Time will tell what the next election will bring, and I don’t know which Senators are running this time out. And as much as I would love to see the republicans lose seats in the next election, the few republicans on this list would get my vote. If fact I will probably vote for the independent in the Florida Senate race this fall. Who me? A democrat? Well, until I moved to north Florida where many elections are decided in the primary, I was an independent. Card carrying. And I still think that way.

Oh, and did I mention President Obama?

Image: http://liberalsattack.blogspot.com/

Where is Mr. Ed When We Need Him?

The republicans show their ass again by killing a special session (vote 67 to kill, 44 to debate) to let Florida voters decide on oil drilling in Florida waters. One heckler yelled that all 67 were "in the pocket of BP." Others called for the people to decide. Well I know where I fall in this rather abrupt continuum. And by the way, all 67 “neighs” were republican and the 44 yeas were democrats. Pure politics. But in my case I think the politics of letting the people who put them in there in the first place vote is the right politics.
The thing that really gets me is this: most of these neigh-sayers will probably get reelected and the government of Florida will stay in the neigh column. Remember, Florida joined in the suit to block the drilling moratorium, too. And, Florida republicans voted to kill an extended jobless benefit for 200000+ Florida workers. Would you be pissed off? I would. And am. Pissed off. An old expression is “better to be pissed off than pissed on”. Can you tell the difference here? I can’t. Looks like the republican legislators are pissing on the people that put them there in the first place.
Survivalists tell you to drink your own urine when things get really dry. The elected republicans from Florida are going one better: they are drinking BP’s urine and then pissing on the people. I sincerely hope this bites them in the butt, but given the ability of the average republican voter to think, I doubt it.
Image: blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2009/06/pair_of_...
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/20/1738869/party-line-vote-ends-floridas.html#ixzz0uFi2qNNQ

The Church Strikes Again:(Warning: Mild sex-related terms below)

This time in an effort to defuse (my opinion) the worldwide condemnation of the Catholic Church for the thoughtless and dangerous way they have so far handled the sex abuse crimes of priests, the Church issued a strongly worded change to Canon Law that makes this abuse, when proven, eligible for instant excommunication. Left out was any mention of a “first strike and you are out” rule adopted by the US Church. That being said, the re-interpretation was welcomed as a step in the right direction.
Then the bomb dropped: In the same revision, the Church raised the ordination of women to the same level of crime as pedophilia in priests, with instant excommunication for both the woman ordained, and the priest that carries out the ordination. Now, if you are a Catholic, you know that excommunication effectively cuts you off from the church. No sacraments, no funerals or anything like that, and no going to heaven. It seems that although Jesus died for your sins and loves you, the Church trumps him in this issue. It seems that although the God of Catholics is a loving God, the Church is less so when it comes to women. It seems ridiculous, but isn’t.
This juxtaposition is one more example of a Church that has lost touch with its spiritual roots and the very people it is supposed to serve. WWJD? I know, and He damn sure wouldn’t condemn women to hell for eternity for wanting to be part of a church. The reason the Church gives? Jesus had no female apostles, therefore none can stand in apostolic succession. What crap. Who says a penis is needed to know and serve God as a priest? The Pope, that’s who (ex Nazi by the way.) Certainly not quite a few of the churches in America that are Christian. Maybe it is time for women to abandon the Catholic Church all together and become Methodists.
Oh, and statistically it is likely that at least one of the male apostles was gay. So why the stricture on openly gay men being priests? There are priests that are Native Americans or Swedes or Chinese and yet none of the Apostles were from these cultures. No, but the men all have dicks, and therefore have all they need to be priests.
It’s enough to make you an atheist. Or an agnostic. Or at least a Methodist. (Church of Christ is a good one too for ordination of all kinds of people.)
Image: http://doctore0.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/pope-penis.jpg

Looking Back

I just spent a little time looking back at some of the 200+ essays on my blog. Some remained like bright stars while others seemed dated and unrecalled. Some were angry rants and some reflective observation. Some were tales of events in the real world and some were more, well, otherworldly. I read through quite a few of them and found a few typos and grammar issues that were unintended, while others had some intentional misspellings and free form grammar used for some purpose. Some were about family, some about strangers and some about friends.
I was pleased that I could see no mean-spirited rants or innuendo-filled snide shots at anyone.
A friend told me something her husband once told her that seems present in many of the things I write. He mused that he figured we are all born with a quantity of patience, and as we get older we use it up. At some point we are pretty much out of it, and we begin to take on the world. That’s me. Where once I would have just gotten pissed off at something and moved on, now I am more likely to confront and openly express my own point of view.
For example, I was never abused by a Priest as a youngster, but that whole thing still upsets me, and when new insults arise, I check my “patience bucket” and find it low. So I react, more for the point than with hope of influencing change. For example, the Vatican has just released revised canon law that makes pedophilia and ordaining women to the priesthood equally “grave defects” and orders instant excommunication for both. What a load of crap. But there it is. So I will write and talk about it for awhile without hope of bringing sanity here, but to inform maybe a few readers who will in turn inform a few others.
When I started this enterprise I didn’t think I had much to say. Wrong. What I didn’t know was that I was nearly out of patience. Very dangerous for someone who has strong opinions and time on his hands.

Image: Used with permission of the artist, Marc Archambault: http://papershine.com/archives/category/daily-icon/
News source:http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/836880--revised-vatican-law-labels-sex-abuse-female-priests-as-crimes

You Never Forget

That’s what they say: Once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget. Correcto!! Over the weekend a friend gave us two nice bikes. Boss Cruisers. Six speeds of thigh-tiring work.
This morning I took my test ride. You should understand that in the old days, read that when I was 14 or 15, a 20 mile ride, up and down hill on my heavy one speed Columbia, was no big deal. Later when I got my brother’s 3-speed, it was even easier. So anyway, this morning off I went, down the driveway, dogs barking and hackles up, out on the road (down hill) and flying. Whee! Suddenly I remembered a hiking truism: When the trail goes down, it will go up just as far. Same with bikes it turns out. The bottom of the hill came fast, downshift, peddle like mad to go up, panting, thighs burning, slow down, turn around, fly down, and then up into the driveway. Crikey!!! Semi out of breath, thighs belong to someone else, dogs snarling at me and the bike. What fun.
I can easily walk 5 miles, and we do walk 3.5 miles every Saturday and Sunday on the same road that just defeated me in, what, 1000 feet?
They say you never forget HOW to ride a bike and that is right, but your legs sure as hell forget how to peddle up hill for a mile, or even 100 feet. The next ride will be the St. Marks trail. Nice and flat. I figure a couple of trips on that will begin to get things back in shape. In the mean time I will try the 1000 foot challenge every day this week and maybe even later today. I’ll keep the cell phone on in case I have to call 911.

Image: http://www.students.stedwards.edu/mstewar4/mountainbiken.jpg