Loving the troops is PC and it makes it sound like everything is just fine

Americana, Politics

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When it comes to supporting the troops, Politicians always say the right thing. But how they vote is often a different matter.

World War II, generals did not talk about loving their soldiers, but I they usually took care of them better than today. One reason for that was the Army Chief of Staff’s, George Marshall,  insistence that in a war for democracy, our military had to act in a manner consistent with democratic values, which meant firing officers who didn’t perform. But I think an even more important reason was that almost everybody in the Military had been drafted. They were not separate from the general society like the Volunteer Military is today.

Not only does the volunteer part of the Volunteer Military make for a military that doesn’t reflect our country, it makes for an ex-military that is easier to ignore. After WWII, Congress passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 which was better known as the G.I. Bill of Rights. It was major legislation that provided a wide range of benefits for returning World War II veterans that included low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business, cash payments of tuition and living expenses to attend college, high school or vocational education, as well as one year of unemployment compensation.

The Volunteer Military came in during the Nixon administration but it is hard to blame him as Congress was controlled by the Democrats. Either way, it was brilliant or stupid depending on your point of view. Brilliant if you want the United States to be involved in more wars – and spend more money on equipment like the F-35, that we don’t need – and stupid if you don’t want the United States to be involved in lots of wars (spending the money on, say, better schools).

When is torture, torture?

Americana, Current Affairs, Politics, Psychological Musings

There are times when I read the The New York Times – or, atleast, look at the front page – when I think that newspapers, and especially the New York Times, are all that is standing between us and politicians running wild. That a free press is critical to democracy. Then there are times when I think the papers will do anything, print anything, the politicians want.

For as long as I can remember, waterboarding has been torture.  Everybody called it torture. When we learned about the Spanish Inquisition _ and it is interesting that, in a burst of PC religious tolerance, it was called the Spanish Inquisition not the Catholic Inquisition – waterboarding and burning at the stake were highlights. It was defined as torture by the Geneva Convention that we signed. I was taught we didn’t do stuff like that – Nazis did stuff like that, North Koreans – it was one of the main reason we were better than them.

Then we start torturing and the New York Times – as well as the Los Angeles Times – started referring to waterboarding as enhanced interrogation. The NYT defend the new terminology by saying it is somewhat misleading and tendentious to focus on whether we have embraced the politically correct term in our news stories. There seemed and still seems to be no recognition that what the paper called torture for fifty or sixty or seventy years – and has now been changed – is more than just a politically correct nicety.

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When the wars started and the military said that it would embed journalists, there was a short dust-up about whether they could still be objective. But journalists are already embedded: they are embedded with the Washington establishment and they are not objective. Hell, they are part of the Washington establishment. Actually and even worse, they may be objective but are afraid to say anything negative.

As an aside, for some strange reason – unknown to me – the only thing that seems to break loose from the black hole of sympathetic and sycophantic news coverage of Washington elites by other Washington elites, are sex scandals or racist remarks. A politician – especially a powerful politician like the president – lies about, say, WMD’s; the papers go along. End aside.

When, Stephen Colbert, speaking at the White House Correspondents Dinner, attacked the stupid things George Bush was doing, the assembled journalists were shocked. It was rude. As if unnecessarily going to war isn’t rude. No wonder torture has become enhanced interrogation.

Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival – 2010

Uncategorized

For me, one of the highlights of summer is the Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival. It is always surprisingly good but the high goodness factor shouldn't be surprising. Palo Alto is the cultural capital of Silicon Valley – or, probably, more accurately – the Haute Culture capital of Silicon Valley and Silicon Valley has a lot of young, educated, hip, very rich people.

In many ways, Palo Alto is an mid-America city with shady residential streets and a small Art Center. Except that, per square foot of lot and house, it is one of the most expensive places in the known universe. Behind the trees are alot of very wealthy people and the Art Center reflects that by putting on very sophisticated shows.

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My first taste of the Craft Movement came at the Renaissance Faire – note the classy "e" at the end of Fair – which featured very primitive crafts. One glass artist I talked to, reminisced on how his first glass teacher could barely blow glass. Forty five years later, the artists have become very good.

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The ceramists – ceramics being my first craft love – are getting especially good. Some of them are making forms that highlight the nature of clay and some are making exquisite bowls.

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  At this point, Michele and I have enough handmade bowls and plates to last usd for the rest of our natural lives but it is still a treat, on a summer afternoon, to wander under the trees looking at all the goodies.