justlikeDennis.COM

Blurry vision but trying real hard to see

The New York Times > Health > Health Care Policy > Tell the Doctor All Your Problems, but Keep It to Less Than a Minute: "Just how often does communication between doctors and patients run amok? Research shows that only 15 percent of patients fully understand what their doctors tell them, and that 50 percent leave their doctors' offices uncertain of what they are supposed to do to take care of themselves. Studies suggest that women are better at building relationships with their doctors than men. The typical number of questions a male patient asks during a 15-minute doctor's visit is zero, while women average six, according to a study by Dr. Kaplan."

Legislature taking seriously desire to buy drugs in Canada: "Despite federal prohibition against buying foreign drugs, lawmakers say rising prices have persuaded them to turn to Canada for savings. Price controls there mean some prescription drugs cost as much as 75 percent less.

'Families are unable to fill prescriptions, they're skipping drugs, they're cutting the pills in half, because they can't afford them,' said Assemblyman Dario Frommer, D-Los Feliz (Los Angeles County), author of two bills approved Wednesday dealing with Canadian drug re-importation.

Frommer likened the move to the Boston Tea Party, saying the state and consumers should rebel against major drug companies have an average profit margin of 24 percent."

Progressive News - Pharmaceutical Prices by Ralph Nader: "If Sam's Club can negotiate for lower pharmaceutical prices, why can't Uncle Sam? Because the approval by the Congress of a new pharmaceutical benefit for Medicare was saddled with a legal provision that prohibits the U.S. government from using its considerable consumer market power to negotiate for lower prices on medicines. "

Lancaster Online.com: Lead Story : Why aren't they bugging us?
I heard my first and only cicada on last Wednesday but it just buzzed a bit. We found no shed casing. We might miss out on them this time. Sad.

Lighting bugs appeared first this week. By last night we were alight with them. I have finally finished planting my late garden and mulched today. Now we need a bit of rain.

Lemon lillies are coming out starting yesterday. The other lillies will be soon behind. Indian Blanket opened beginning of this week.

Looks like Sheri will be officially funded for a half time position at MIH effective June 1. Her appointment at EMM today will confirm that.

Seems we have a regular hawk feeding on our birds in the prayer garden. I saw it earlier this spring and now I hear a rukus from time to time. This week I found a dead catbird and yesterday a robin.

Two Lithuanian students working at Ramada Inn for the summer arrived this week to live at MIH. I've yet to meet them.

Today we will have the privilege of a visit from Gregg and Sharon Brubaker from Lithuania, our friends from a good way back and co-workers in Klaipeda and Siauliai (Sharon).

Dad and Mom stopped by last Tuesday as they were shopping at BBs. They brought a bag of leftover seeds and with some from Jim and Rozie Kreider I only had to supplement them with plantings (tomatos, eggplants, peppers) and okra and pumpkin seeds.

We first noticed the creeking of a cricket this past week. The children brought it to my attention. Summer and I found it coming from the yucca plant which has 4 bloom stalks zooming upward (probably 4 feet in a week and a half). It will bloom soon.

Last night, Eshelmann Elementary had their PTO end-of-year Luau. It was lots of fun for the kids and parents. Everything was free and included good food (BBQ, chips, hotdogs, strawberries, watermelon) and lots of activities to include three inflatable jumping houses. Colin won pencils, balls, candy and 6 goldfish.

TIME Magazine Archive Preview -- First Stop, Iraq -- Mar. 31, 2003:
(I'm sorry. But the profanity is from our born-again President according to Time Mag)
"' F___ Saddam. we're taking him out.' Those were the words of President George W. Bush, who had poked his head into the office of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. It was March 2002, and Rice was meeting with three U.S. Senators, discussing how to deal with Iraq through the United Nations, or perhaps in a coalition with America's Middle East allies. Bush wasn't interested. He waved his hand dismissively, recalls a participant, and neatly summed up his Iraq policy in that short phrase. The Senators laughed uncomfortably; Rice flashed a knowing smile. The President left the room. A..."

(And unbelievable, we are being asked by our government to believe that we "nice guys" were deceived into invading Iraq by who else but IRAN itself)

The Iranian option
by Anthony Barnett:
"According to a US intelligence source, the Pentagon has now stopped subsidising Chalabi after “a review of thousands of internal documents”. This has led it to the conclusion that: "...

“Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the United States through Chalabi by furnishing through his Information Collection Programme information to provoke the United States into getting rid of Saddam Hussein.”

"But spare a moment for Iran, whose people are overwhelmingly pro-American and mostly oppose the current regime. Iran’s ruling mullahs too are divided. They aided the US in the removal of the Taliban from Afghanistan, helped to ensure Saddam’s overthrow and have called for patience as the US blunders into the holy cities of the Shi’a. What do they get for their cooperation? Denunciation for their wicked plotting.

Opinion columns are filled with reassuring noises that “the axis of evil” is history and the Bush administration has learnt its lesson and is pulling back from its neo-conservative agenda. If I was in Tehran, or in John Kerry’s campaign headquarters, I wouldn’t be so sure. "

SojoMail: "Are liberal Christians phony?
by David Batstone

The query came into my in-box this week, with the obvious inference that SojoMail is both liberal and phony. The accuser identified himself by name, adding that he had his Ph.D. and hailed from the state of Texas.
Without getting caught up in political labels - my self-proclaimed 'liberal' friends stumble over some of my faith-informed views - I found his theology intriguing. Without a doubt, he clearly drew borders that zoned Christians into different political territories.
He opened his note as follows:
Liberal Christians have no understanding of the God-given role of Government. Liberal Christians are Peter-Pan Christians who demand that Governments, before the return of Jesus, foolhardily beat their God-given swords into plowshares and live according to the Sermon on the Mount. Liberal Christians do NOT realize that the plow-share things happens during the 2nd Coming of Jesus, when Jesus takes back the swords from Human Governments as He establishes God's Kingdom on Earth. This is why our Hero taught us to pray: 'Please hurry Thy Kingdom to come, so Thy will is done on Earth as it is in Heaven.'
If you have never had exposure to a 'dispensational' view of history, my accuser's stream of thought may make no sense to you. I grew up in an evangelical Christian church that espoused a dispensational theology, so let me explain. God, it is assumed, has divided up history into different eras, or dispensations, and each will run its course. In our present era, the forces of good (God's chosen) battle against the forces of evil (under Satan's spell). God looks to government to practice order and suppress evil with the sword. This current dispensation will end with the second coming of Jesus, who will establish God".....................

The New York Times > International > Middle East > From the Editors: The Times and Iraq: "...But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged or failed to emerge.
...
Some critics of our coverage during that time have focused blame on individual reporters. Our examination, however, indicates that the problem was more complicated. Editors at several levels who should have been challenging reporters and pressing for more skepticism were perhaps too intent on rushing scoops into the paper"

Hole in the Wall Puppet Theatre Director

Saturday, the children and I enjoyed the puppet show, Doctor Dolittle. Sheri was in Arkansas at her sister's wedding.

America after 9/11: victims turning perpetrators George Soros - openDemocracy: "This war on terror has claimed more innocent victims than the 11 September attacks. This fact is not recognised at home because the victims of the war on terror are not Americans. But the rest of the world does not draw the same distinction and world opinion has turned against us. So, a tremendous gap in perceptions has opened up between us and the rest of the world. "

Sorry. I have to include this one.

Red Cross fury at attack on wedding - After Saddam - www.smh.com.au: "Baghdad: The International Committee of the Red Cross yesterday condemned an 'excessive' use of force by the US military, after media reports accused troops of killing dozens of Iraqis at a wedding reception.
'The excessive use of force violates international human rights,' said its spokeswoman in Baghdad, Nada Dumani.
'Even if [you came under] fire, there are rules of proportion in retaliation and the absolute need to prevent civilian casualties.'
Residents of the western desert town of Qaim, on the Syrian border, said US helicopters targeted the wedding reception on Wednesday, apparently after people had fired in the air, a customary form of celebration in the Arab world.
The US military said US forces raiding a suspected safe house for foreign fighters in the open desert near Syria had called for 'close air support'. "

Blog, blog, blog...

OK ... Perhaps my political rant has run its course. I am winding down today. I will attempt to either refrain from pointing out the disaster the present American political represents or perhaps create a separte blog for political rants (and one for the American medical mafia and one for the American Evangelical disaster....) and keep this main one for a personal diary (happy thoughts, pics and literary expressions of the beauty of life and so on). This blog is unknown apparently although it is findable on the search engines and I have actually had the nerve to tell some friends and family that it exists but no guestbook entries to date (except my own cryptic concoctions). Rainy days are here again and the world is lush and verdant.

Colin the Creator

INDUSTORIOUS CLOCK ||| MONO*CRAFTS3.0
http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/%7Eyugo/storage/monocrafts_ver3/03/hand.swf

Challenging Christian Zionism:�� Christians Committed to Biblical Truth & Justice: "'The Christian Zionist's particular reading of both history and contemporary events, determined by the dubious exegesis of highly selective biblical texts, as well as their theological presuppositions, is essentially fatalistic, polarized and dualistic. It sets Israel and the Jewish people apart from and above other peoples in the Middle East. In so doing, however unintentionally, it perpetuates, exacerbates and justifies the endemic racism and mistrust plaguing the Middle East because 'The Bible tells them so.' Steven Sizer "

Health-Care Reform - A Mindful Approach
'Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts.'
(attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan)

The New Yorker: THE GRAY ZONE
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.
:
"According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon's operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld's long-standing desire to wrest control of America's clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A. "

The New York Times > Interrogations: Rumsfeld and Aide Backed Harsh Tactics, Article Says:

"Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and one of his top aides authorized the expansion of a secret program that had permitted harsh interrogations of detained members of Al Qaeda, allowing these methods to be used against prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, according to an article in The New Yorker."

"According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials," Mr. Hersh wrote, "the Pentagon's operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq."

President Bush supports Rumsfeld as the best defense secretary America has had. We are now learning what in President Bush's opinion constitutes a good secretary. This reflects on the whole administration. If "gay" marriages undermine family values... what exactly does this kind of "conflict management" undermine or better what does it not undermine? Someone's got to go!

Bush Vows To Pay Closer Attention To Needs Of Non-Presidents:

"'Perhaps, in the past, I've been somewhat lax in addressing the day-to-day problems of the nation's non-presidents,' Bush said during a White House press conference. 'Well, that's about to change. I hereby pledge to hear and heed the concerns of non-chief-executives - a group of people who are very valuable to our country, in their own way, even if it's not always readily apparent how.'"

Herald Sun: Iraq disgrace worsens [15may04]:
"Two Britons held at Guanatamo Bay for two years said yesterday the abuses there were similar to those in Abu Ghraib. Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal said they were 'deliberately humiliated and degraded by the use of methods that we now read US officials denying'.

They squatted with their hands chained between their legs and shackled to the floor for hours.
Dogs were used to frighten prisoners; detainees were left naked in the interrogation room, and 'women (were) brought into the room who would inappropriately provoke and indeed molest them'.

The US has denied abuse at Guantanamo.

At Abu Ghraib, Mr Rumsfeld told troops: 'Don't let anyone tell you America is what's wrong with the world, because it isn't. We'll get through this tough period - let there be no question.' With General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, he told soldiers they had come to 'look you folks in the eye and tell you you're terrific. What you're doing is important."

---- When American Christians find themselves defending what cannot be defended --- then we truly have experienced the "Strong Delusion" of which Paul speaks. Yes, this isn't new. If you get past the front line "pop" news sources you will find that America has been a leader in war-mongering and torture. It's time Christians became aggressively non-violent. Christians must agree not to kill people. If gay marriage "degrades" traditional family values, if abortion degrades the value of human life; how much more does war degrade every level of human morality. War participation by Christians must FIRST GO! ------------
WAKE UP AMERICA!

2 Thess 2 (Amplified Bible)
7 For the mystery of lawlessness (that hidden principle of rebellion against constituted authority) is already at work in the world, [but it is] restrained only until he who restrains is taken out of the way.
8 And then the lawless one (the antichrist) will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by His appearing at His coming.
9 The coming [of the lawless one, the antichrist] is through the activity and working of Satan and will be attended by great power and with all sorts of [pretended] miracles and signs and delusive marvels--[all of them] lying wonders--
10 And by unlimited seduction to evil and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing (going to perdition) because they did not welcome the Truth but refused to love it that they might be saved.
11 Therefore God sends upon them a misleading influence, a working of error and a strong delusion to make them believe what is false,
12 In order that all may be judged and condemned who did not believe in [who refused to adhere to, trust in, and rely on] the Truth, but [instead] took pleasure in unrighteousness.

High noon for Rumsfeld? John C. Hulsman - openDemocracy:

'He (Rumsfeld) ended by saying: "judge us by our actions, the world should look at how a democracy deals with scandal."

For those who favour the positive view of Donald Rumsfeld, this is the nub of the matter. Surely the secretary is right to point out to moral relativists everywhere (besides the obvious massive discrepancies in numbers) that under Saddam such excruciating self-examination would never have occurred; that in trying to correct the horrific acts committed in Abu Ghraib prison, Rumsfeld is rightly exemplifying what is best about America - the ability to act in times of great crisis, to acknowledge fundamental problems and attempt to make them better.'

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba authored the investigative report about abuses of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison at the hands of American soldiers.

Read it at the link above. Go to the final pages for the summary. If we must have heros in a war, you will find a few on pages 48 and 49. Here you will find soldiers who resisted pressure from US Military Intelligence to mistreat prisoners. You probably won't find them paraded up and down small town streets. And there are plenty of villains not to exclude Brig Gen Karpinski, who according to MG Taguba refused to acknowledge the problem when brought to her attention months ago.

Though this report was available to Rumsfeld and others they did not read it till public pressure forced them to read it.

Reminiscent of Lee Greenwood's classic bit of xenophonic euphoria, "I'm glad that I'm an American where at least I know..." I can abuse the entire world with impunity.

"ABCs of Patriotism," written and designed by Bobette
Bryan, 2001

Music by Lee Greenwood, God Bless the U.S.A.

Army Times - News - More News:

What does the Army Times have to say about the revelation of on-going torture by the Unites States of America in Afghanistan and Iraq (yes, at least two known deaths of prisoners have been declared homicides)

"This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war."

Rumsfeld Takes Responsibility for Abuse (washingtonpost.com): "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday took responsibility for the abuse of detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and expressed regret for failing to advise President Bush, Congress and the public of the mistreatment before disclosures by news media."
Offering his "deepest apology," he also promised "appropriate compensation" to detainees who suffered "grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty" at the hands of U.S. soldiers.

(This means more tax dollars but no resignation. Rumsfeld rushed us to war...it just couldn't wait for the rest of the world but with torture and abuse...that could wait until soldiers themselves released the photos ... HE MUST GO! If America hopes to retain a shred of moral credibility)

Red Cross told Iraq abuse "part of process":
"The International Committee of the Red Cross also described British troops forcing Iraqi detainees to kneel and stomping on their necks in an incident in which one prisoner died.
The Red Cross said it had repeatedly alerted U.S.-led occupation authorities to practices it described as 'serious violations of international humanitarian law' and 'in some cases tantamount to torture'.
It confirmed the confidential February 4 report, which appeared on the Wall Street Journal website on Monday, was genuine.
The 24-page report concluded that 'persons deprived of their liberty face the risk of being subjected to a process of physical and psychological coercion, in some cases tantamount to torture, in the early stages of the internment process'."

Is this an example of the "special relationship" between the UK and USA?

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | UK forces taught torture methods:

"One former British special forces officer who returned last week from Iraq, said: 'It was clear from discussions with US private contractors in Iraq that the prison guards were using R2I techniques, but they didn't know what they were doing.' "

"Using sexual jibes and degradation, along with stripping naked, is one of the methods taught on both sides of the Atlantic under the slogan "prolong the shock of capture", he said.

"The feeling among US soldiers I've spoken to in the last week is also that 'the gloves are off'. Many of them still think they are dealing with people responsible for 9/11".
---------------------
"Lord, bless our military as it advances freedom’s cause around the world." Phrase from the National Day of Prayer

BBC NEWS | Americas | US powerless to halt Iraq net images

Rumsfeld is indignant... indignant that people have digital cameras...

"Mr Rumsfeld was indignant at the publication of such images: "We're functioning with peacetime constraints, with legal requirements, in a wartime situation in the Information Age, where people are running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media, to our surprise." "

At what must he be indignant?

"...at least one website is showing a video report containing footage apparently shot from the cockpit of a US military helicopter and showing the killing of a wounded insurgent in cold blood."

And now a reminder of the recent National Day of Prayer -

"Lord, bless our military as it advances freedom’s cause around the world"

Ludicrous phrase from the recommended national prayer - Where exactly can one fit using military might to advance freedom within the blessings of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ? Oh yeah, the night before his arrest, Jesus told his disciples that two swords would be adequate and then rebuked Peter when he used one and also immediately restored the injured person to health. Is that the part?

The New York Times > Washington > Rumsfeld Offers Apology for Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners: "'Beyond abuse of prisoners, there are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence towards prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman,' Mr. Rumsfeld said. 'There are many more photographs and indeed some videos. Congress and the American people and the rest of the world need to know this.'"

Stop the occupation, start the rebuilding by Jim Wallis: "...abuse and atrocities are the consequence of war, and especially military occupation. They always have been, and they will continue to be. In Vietnam, a brutal American war and occupation created bloody insurrection. Viet Cong fighters did terrible things to American soldiers, and, in turn, the soldiers did terrible things to Vietnamese civilians. It is simply the cycle of violence. "

Apology for Iraqi abuse

Perhaps an apology sets America off from other countries who are caught abusing power. Now if we can move on to the next stage and make commitments to justice that do not require getting caught in order to address them.

"But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged." Apostle Paul - 1 Corinthians 11:31

From Jurist - The Nuremberg Trials

"No trial provides a better basis for understanding the nature and causes of evil than do the Nuremberg trials from 1945 to 1949. Those who come to the trials expecting to find sadistic monsters are generally disappointed. What is shocking about Nuremberg is the ordinariness of the defendants: men who may be good fathers, kind to animals, even unassuming--yet who committed unspeakable crimes. Years later, reporting on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt wrote of "the banality of evil." Like Eichmann, most Nuremberg defendants never aspired to be villains. Rather, they over-identified with an ideological cause and suffered from a lack of imagination or empathy: they couldn't fully appreciate the human consequences of their career-motivated decisions. "

ABCNEWS.com : Former Iraqi Prisoners Recount Abuse



"Lord, bless our military as it advances freedom’s cause around the world." Phrase from the National Day of Prayer recommended incantation.

Do you see any incongruity with aligning your God with your warmongering?

Terrorism & Security | csmonitor.com: "As serious as the prisoner abuse was, we must remember that these crimes were the acts of a few, and have no relationship to the conduct of the tens of thousands of Americans who have fought in this war. "

What is "serious"?

"breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick..."

Yes, and the first quote could come from the Nuremburg Trials with the change of "American" to "German."

Hate is the standard product of war not the exception.