The truth about Putin

Another  day, another e-mail from my dear friend, the scurrilous chain mail  forwarder. Today's is a gem, lauding Vladimir Putin for.... well here's enough to give you the picture:     

Vladimir Putin on Citizenship,

I would suggest that not only our leaders but every citizen of USA should pay attention to this advice. It is a sad day when a Communist Leader makes more sense than our LEADERS here in the U.S.A. but here it is!

 "Putin, addressing the Duma, (Russian Parliament),  gave a speech about the tensions with minorities in Russia:  "In Russia, live like Russians. Any minority, from anywhere, if it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, it should speak Russian, and should respect the Russian laws. If they prefer Sharia Law, and live the life of Muslim's then we advise them to go to those places where that's the state law. "Russia does not need Muslim minorities. Minorities need Russia, and we will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell 'discrimination'. We will not tolerate disrespect of our Russian culture. We better learn from the suicides of (US of)  America, England, Holland and France , if we are to survive as a nation. The Muslims are taking over those countries and they will not take over Russia. The Russian customs and traditions are not compatible with the lack of culture or the primitive ways of Sharia Law and Muslims.........."

At which point the original sender of the e-mail adds: "If you keep this to yourself, you are part of the problem!"

        I love the way this ends with "you are part of the problem!"    Really? What/which problem,? No US legislator has ever suggested the things such as instituting Sharia Law or changing a national language, so other than anti-Muslim bigotry​, obviously the writer's problem, what are we talking about here? Oh wait, I get it. We now love Vladimir Putin. Get off the obvious political bandwagon and consider how ludicrous that really is. So we now want an "elected" (in quotes 'cause it ain't so) "President for life" who is so deep in the pockets of the Russian oligarchs he has to look up to kiss their balls?  Donald Trump, alone, would "get" this, because that's all he values, himself.

        Of special interest is the implication that Russia has been more effective combating the insidious effects of sectarian Islamic violence. Of course, maybe Putin's  tough talk have been effective in limiting deaths in Russia due to Islamic terrorism, no?  A quick look shows that in just two incidents, the Moscow Theater attack and the "apartment bombings, Russia lost 430 persons to Islamic terrorist acts.  

        There are some obvious considerations to be made here: First of all, over Putin's reign ("term" is simply too ludicrous to consider for an emperor for life) the rate of Russian deaths per million by terrorist acts has been 1.01 fatalities per million population. In the US during the terms of President Barack Obama (the unmentioned but implied "slammee" of this piece of whatever it is) the US death rate from terrorist acts has been .012  fatalities per million, which is 1/84 th of that in Russia. Now tell me again how Putin's tough talk and bare-chested swagger have kept Russians safer? No?  Didn't think so. Of course the US did have the one great act of terrorism on 9/11, but at the time there had been none of the issues Putin speaks of related to  circumstances in the US. Of course, the President did have a warning, but, as it was prepared by the Clinton administration, it was essentially ignored due to a multitude of screw-up's involving CIA, FBI and Bush White House refusal to take it seriously, all also established facts and on the public record. 

        What this diatribe also conveniently omits is the fact than much of what Russia faces is due to their insistence that Chechnya, historically Muslim, must now be Russia, and Russian in essence. Many (by no means all!)of the "Russian" deaths attributed to terrorism either happened in Chechnya or were perpetrated by Chechens. These actions aren't due to  Chechens trying to force their religion down the throats of Russians, but rather the opposite; historical Muslims trying to hold on to their religion in their own land. 

       From the 13th century, Chechens have been primarily a Muslim people of various sects,  although the Russian incursions beginning in the 16th century spurred massive conversions to Sunni Islam, as Sunnis were seen as the resistance to Russia. If this sounds distressingly familiar, it should, as the US 2001-2007 destabilization of Iraq also offered the proposition that only the Sunnis (now united as ISIS) were the true resistance to western incursions.    

        Putin is a thug. He is Stalin without even the thin veneer of political principle.  Period. Discounting 9/11,  His policies have been responsible for massively larger amounts of terrorism in Russia that we have seen in the US.

      In fact, Timothy McVeigh, homegrown fine young Christian that he was, killed more Americans in one day that the entire Obama administration death toll from terrorism.

Musings for a Saturday

Musings for a Saturday

      Are all weather persons required to have cutesy pooh names or just a lucky few? Storm Field (WABC) , Ray Ban (Weather Channel), Dallas Raines (KABC),  two Porn star names, Rick Dickert and Topper Shutt , plus local fave Rusty McRainey are but a few examples. Every time I hear Rusty's name, I keep waiting for the rest of the set - Sunny Daze, Tommy Tornado and  Iggy Isobar.

      What exactly do these things have in common?  Intestines, manic approbation and  work vehicles? Beats the shit out of me, but apparently there is a cult of Neo Deo-mechanists who worship them in one personage - a  pickup truck manufactured by the Chrysler corporation. Sam Elliott is apparently their chief priest, because we periodically hear him call the faithful with the reverently intoned "Guts, Glory, Ram."  Must be time to slaughter another sheep (before it gets recalled, like most of the others.)  

      At what point is it "OK" to stop referring to a heinous deed as "alleged" and just say , "OK, he did it!?" I have watched  reports of a deputy kneeing a handcuffed prisoner in the chest, seen the victim fall to the floor in agony, and seen him a year later showing the scar where his ruptured spleen was removed.  His police officer assailant  has been fired and is under indictment, yet the news stories regarding this incident, show the video of the holding cell and the assault, followed by describing it as the  "alleged" kneeing by the officer. I have seen football decisions overturned with less convincing video than this! Alleged my ass! He did it, we've all seen it. The only remaining issue here is how long will he spend in jail, (hopefully in general population!) and how much will the civil rights lawsuit cost the taxpayers of Orlando.

      And finally (for today): Remember when  TV commercials used to delicately dance around the more basic bodily functions?  We knew what they meant, but there was some sense of  decorum and restraint when advertising certain products.  I don't mean when Lucy was pregnant and CBS refused to allow the word "pregnant" to be uttered on the show. After all, how could she have become pregnant anyway? They were never in the same bed for all the years the show aired! I'm referring to things like menstruation, elimination, menopause, and the like.

Specifically, of late, we have seen new, cleverly named laxative/intestinal related  products like "Mira-lax", "Xifan" "Movantix." and others.  Get it? - "Mov" as in "go potty" or "do #2"). What I find in marginally bad taste is not the commercials addressing a problem which obviously affects millions, or the drug names, however cutesy-pooh they may be. It's the graphics accompanying the description of the drugs' function. One such actually shows a pink knotted bundle of animated intestines  walking around, which is bad enough, but a recent animated example actually shows a pink tube with a purple (no other way to say this at this point) "turd shaped" obstruction.  Not to worry, though, because one little dose of (whichever) wonder drug has that little guy gently moving onward and downward to the porcelain depot at the end of the line. 

Really? Please.  

999

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-largest-number-you-can-represent-3-digits-nope-its-ed-trice?trk=eml-b2_content_ecosystem_digest-recommended_articles-49-null&midToken=AQFqBmC1jqjJ0g&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=0GDVXu5u6-17c1

        The above referenced article link was e-mailed to me by a friend who, I think, sees it as a denunciation of "Common Core."  A more careful reading, however, shows that even the parent who wrote this doesn't get the real basis behind either education or Common Core. It also reveals that this is a work of poor fiction, like that of most of the far rightist, rewrite history, quash critical thinking loonies.  Here's enough of a snippet to give the gist of the article:

 "This post is about my fight against "Standardized Testing" in math, and what later became "Common Core." It goes back to 2008 when my daughter was in grade school. I got a call to come to the principal's office. "Your daughter was being disruptive in class."....It was like an arrow through my heart. I looked over at her. There were tear-streaked marks all down her face. She looked down at her shoes when I shot a glance over at her. And she started sobbing again. The principal continued his monotone diatribe, while I walked over to kneel besides my daughter and hug her. "Really, Mr. Trice, that's not appropriate..." I continued to ignore him. "Are you OK?" I asked her. She looked up, nodded her head, and sniffled.  "Your daughter tried to correct her math teacher. The teacher explained why she was wrong, and she insisted that she was correct."

"What was the question?" I asked. The teacher was also present, and he spoke up. "The question was, what was the largest number that can be represented with 3 digits. I said it was 999, your daughter disagreed."

I remember thinking "Uh-oh. What the heck was she thinking?"

That's when she spoke up, anger in her voice, "Oh yeah? Tell me what 9 raised to the 9th power raised to the 9th power is then??"

        Reading the rest of the article reveals a very carefully constructed fictional account  of what is almost assuredly a non-existent event. read the responses below the article itself; they are spot on. As for the attitude reflected by the writer, see my comments below:  

       This isn't even about standardized testing or common core. If true (it isn't) , it would  simply about an asshole teacher who placed the need to be infallible over the need to teach critical and innovative thinking and an even more gaping asshole administrator who abetted them. Of course, the real irony here, is that philosophically, the teacher and principal in the article, as portrayed, are  actually far more  representative of  those who oppose common core, that is, unimaginative trolls who would bend facts to fit their pre conception, admitting no alternative  response, no matter how well reasoned. 

     The child's thought process in analyzing the question (again, if true)  is the very essence of critical thinking, a goal of Common Core, opposed by some, especially Evangelicals who fear their children may actually learn to reason.  If this were a standardized test, there would be no discussion of the question in class anyway.  The final proof of this being bovine excreta is the allegation that all this was "remedied" including changing standardized test scores nationwide, in three months, or that the child's grade couldn't have simply been corrected at the school or district level. Test scores come back to the school and are entered locally by admin staff. Any principal, even the supposed moron cited in this fairy tale, could have simply had the transcript changed. The real relevance to the child's future would never hinge on one question on a grade school test, and most teachers and any  administrator I ever worked with or for would have  smoothed this over immediately.  
     
       Finally, this blog entry was written in early 2016, and the writer asserts his daughter is now a sophomore in College. Regressing the years would have had this math genius as a 7th grade student, at the very least, at  the time of the alleged incident. The supposed question is far, below the 7th grade level, and almost assuredly would not be on any standardized test at that grade level.         

      I am always amused and sometimes saddened as well, when educators are attacked as a group by parents  whose agenda is to expiate their own demons. 

The wrath of Gawd-uh!

       There are many persons of the Christian faith who do unselfish, morally upright, and unconditionally good things on a daily basis. It should be noted that there are  many Buddhists, Jains, Atheists, Jews, Muslims and Wiccans  who do so as well.  There are, in each group, also many who mouth the platitudes, go through the motions and wear their religion on their sleeve. These are easily identified by their insistence on public prayer at the drop of a hat, even though in the case of Christians, their Nordic leader, Sven Christ (see any picture) spoke specifically against it! Somewhere in the cesspit below the second basement of organized Pseudo- Christianity  is the region of hypocrisy reserved for the Cruzes, Pat Robertsons  and Michelle Bachmanns.

       Ted Cruz, according to his father, a megalomaniacal evangelical preacher, is "The anointed one" apparently sitting beside God  himself in some celestial green room, waiting to ascend to the throne of the ....oh wait, this isn't a theocracy, Ted, piss off.

       Meanwhile Pat Robertson, afflicted with terminal bat shit crazy, continues vomiting forth such edicts as: "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

        More recently, Michele Bachmann, well known  Minnesota moron and former Congressional cloakroom joke, has taken it upon herself to interpret the recent terror attacks in Belgium, as only she can, as God's revenge on the USA,  apparently for daring to elect a non-white and not raving loony super Christian as President. She chides President Obama for being in Cuba in the first place and the seems to think that he should have rushed home. And done what, exactly;  suit up, put on body armor, fly to Brussels and kick some ISIS ass? The fact that this woman actually graduated William and Mary law school must be a source of great pride for many of the faculty there.  A an aside, the Minnesota state bird is the common loon.  Coincidence? I think not!

        She is so obsessed with the fictional "end times" of Biblical fame, that if anyone refuses to kowtow to Israel she sees it as heresy.  She has said, “The Jewish state of Israel truly is a miracle of the hand of God. This is a fulfillment of God’s word.”  “We recognize the shortness of the hour and that’s why we as a remnant want to be faithful in these days and do what it is that the Holy Spirit is speaking to each one of us, to be faithful in the kingdom and to help bring in as many as we can — even among the Jews — share Jesus Christ with everyone that we possibly can because, again, he’s coming soon.”

        So watch out Jews, you better convert, Michele says so. Arrant ego driven horseshit of this caliber has seldom been seen, but then Bachmann's vengeance seeking God has actually never been seen. We have, however,  witnessed  the vicious revenge centric mentality of his adherents, haven't we? I mean what the hell, worship one golden calf and 3,000 must die? (Exodus 32:26-28) On the other hand, remember all those brutal hordes of militant atheists who have ravished the world in support of their disbelief? Me neither. Ever. At all. Not even once.

        The most troubling aspect of all this is that both Bachmann and Robertson, and to a degree Cruz, see their God and their religion  as their own personal weapons to smite those whose socio/political beliefs are at odds with their own narrow minded and dogmatic beliefs. Not only that, but he uses surrogates to make his point. Obama   goes to Cuba; uh-oh, God  kills Belgians! By this logic, if I have a legitimate problem with my neighbor, I could just go to another neighbor and kill his dog (or wife, or children or all his line unto 40 generations, or whatever bovine excreta we're selling at the moment. You can't make this shit up........oh wait, yes you certainly can. 

Wrong is Wrong, whatever the reason!

       This infuriates me! The law by which this child is being taken from her foster parents of four years was meant to prevent the barbaric and too common practice, which existed some decades ago, of taking American Indian children from their homes simply as a source of adoptive and adoptable children for childless white couples. The assumption, and rationale, racist and misguided beyond belief, was that the child would be better off for having been "raised white." 

     This case bears little or no resemblance to that grossly misguided intent. This child was taken from her addict and felon mother at the age of two and the only stable family she has ever known has been the Page family, who, for two years have been trying to adopt her. Both parents have long since given up custodial rights and all parental rights, so who's taking Lexi?

                        Lexi with foster father and would be adopter Rusty Page and his wife (green shirt)

       The Choctaw Indian nation, citing a 1978 law which was aimed at protecting Indian children from having their heritage and stability ripped from them by cross culture adoption, has decided that because Lexi's biological father (who gave her away, remember?) is 1/64 Choctaw, Lexi is Indian. Although the only stable life and culture she has ever known has been provided by the Pages, who love her, the Choctaw Nation ABC News in an earlier statement that they want what is "the best for this Choctaw child." "The tribe's values of faith, family and culture are what makes our tribal identity so important to us," the statement added. "Therefore we will continue to work to maintain these values and work toward the long-term best interest of this child."

      At this point allow me to interject that this point of view was exactly the reason cited by Indian activists in opposing sending Indian children East to "Indian schools" like that at Carlisle PA, where they were forced to abandon their cultural norms and become "good little white children" , even to the point of being punished for speaking to each other in their native languages. This however, is analogous to what the Choctaw nation is proposing to do in the case of Lexi!  "Lexi doesn't know another home," Rusty Page says. "She finally knows what mom and dad means and they want to take that away from her."

     Wrong is wrong, political correctness notwithstanding, and this is not political correctness anyway, as the law is being misapplied. If being 1/64 of any ethnic group makes you a member of said culture, then I'm Greek, because a distant relative 20 generations back left Greece and migrated to Germany around 500 years ago. All the intervening German, Scottish, English, etc infusion means nothing, at least it wouldn't to the Choctaw Nation, who in fact are also transplants, having been uprooted by Andrew Jackson's unconstitutional Indian Removal Act and relocated from Mississippi and Tennessee (both Indian words!) to Oklahoma. 

     One might think that having been forcibly removed from their cultural roots in 1830 would have inculcated a sense of understanding of the hardships represented by such actions, but apparently that isn't the case. Shame on the Choctaw nation and shame on the state of California for ignoring what is best for this child.

Blackfish? Bullshit!

This in response to several posts regarding the cessation of Orca breeding at Sea World, citing "Blackfish" as if it were actually a documentary. 

Calling Blackfish a "Documentary" is almost like calling "Avatar" by the same name. If this were truly a valid documentary, one has to wonder why the Academy completely ignored it as such the year it was eligible!  First and foremost, what the movie makers did was to draw a conclusion and back fit the movie to support it, you know, like Creationists? The commentary within the movie was primarily from (and again no mention of this) disgruntled (as in terminated and pissed) employees. I don't want an argument here, because the varying opinions are never going to coincide, but our daughter,  has been at Sea World for 30 years, and knew Dawn Brancheau (the dead trainer) well. I coached the Sea World Ladies softball team some years ago. A number of my players worked with Orcas, so I put great value on their opinions vice a fired and angry ex-employee. To a person, they felt that the Orcas enjoyed the social interaction with humans and, more importantly having been born in captivity could really only exist in and were content that setting. They all believed they had the best job in the world. My response to those who would say they (Orcas) are not happy (never having worked with them) would be to ask "How do you know?" 

RE: the death of Dawn Brancheau, If there was a mistake made it was that Sea World allowed Tilikum, a wild caught, and in his early years of captivity, abused, Orca to be in the tank with people. He had already demonstrated that he was quite different from the captive borns prior to being bought by Seaworld, but as he was a fertile guy, they brought him to the Orlando park where he has sired a number of calfs, two of whose births it has been my privilege to witness firsthand. He was simply not as stable all the time as he was most of the time. 

      Tilikum is very ill now, and, at 35 is at what is usually the end of life span for a wild Orca, which refutes one of the many falsehoods/half truths in Blackfish. He was caught off Iceland and kept in a tiny tank, followed by finally being transferred to the rundown Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia, Canada, and forced to call his barren 100-foot-by-50-foot pool—just 35 feet deep—his new “home.”

     Food was withheld from him as a training technique, and he regularly endured painful attacks by two dominant female orcas, Haida and Nootka. He was forced to perform every hour on the hour, eight times a day, seven days a week. The constant stress and exhaustion gave him stomach ulcers. When the park closed its doors at the end of each day, the three incompatible orcas were crammed into a tiny round metal-sided module for more than 14 hours until the park reopened the next morning.

           This treatment is completely at odds with Sea World practices. I can't help wonder why the people who are so concerned about an intelligent sea animal are not more concerned about captive Gorillas and Orangs or even Beluga whales and dolphins. maybe one of them should kill a trainer? Factually, Tilikum's story is akin to that of an abused child who grows up to be a social misfit and violent offender. perhaps the real tragedy is in not treating him as such, but rather counting too much on the rehabilitative power of affection across the human/ Orca boundary. There simply was not and never has been "abuse" of Orcas at Sea world except in the minds of those who would define it as their agenda dictates.

Not even wrong!

Physicist Wolfgang Pauli once evaluated the theories of a student as "not even wrong" meaning they were so far off course as to be unrelated. A recent letter entitled "Voters should ask hard questions" falls within that descriptor as well.

       One example is the assertion that "allegations," (by which one assumes he means the interminable obsession with Benghazi)  surrounding Hillary Clinton, are unresolved.  If over $20 million, 682 days, 7 investigations and 32 hearings  all controlled by the opposition party in both houses of Congress doesn't constitute thorough, then what does? To date political enemies of  former SecState Clinton have spent  longer attempting (and failing) to smear her performance and her character  than they did in investigating Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, Hurricane  Katrina, , and the Iran-Contra Scandal. In those last two under Republican Presidents' watches, investigators found a lot wrong. 

        Next is the statement  that Bernie Sanders' agenda is " a continual slide toward secularism and the rule of man.....(etc)."   In another "not even wrong" moment, the writer is seemingly oblivious to the fact that the founders went to great lengths to insure  that they created  a secular government. They would be gratified to know that we remain so today, in spite of occasional fits and starts of regression toward theocracy in the minds of some. I'd wager, however,  that the writer stridently supports the death penalty, in spite of its obvious conflict with the sixth Commandment!

        Finally the writer  lauds free market (free trade) as "motivating self reliance, productivity and economic  superiority." All this we watch  real income of American workers remain stagnant while jobs are shipped off shore and a significant portion of our debt is held by foreign interests. Of course, foreign  products are cheap at Walmart, America's largest retailer, who used to proudly advertise "Made  in America."  Mr. Sam Walton would hang his head.