We've fallen! And we won't get up!

There's been much hand-wringing over the news that the United States lags behind 41 other nations with regard to life expectancy. Oh my, they say. How could the richest nation in the world be surpassed by lesser mortals? We're #1! We're #1!

We're #1 alright. Thanks to our gluttony and laziness (with kudos to the food industry and the government), we have the highest rate of obesity on the planet. A third of adults over 20 are considered obese. Two thirds are overweight. We gorge ourselves on fast food. Know nothing about nutrition. Refuse to exercise. So, duh, we've got heart disease. High cholesterol. High stress. Depression. Anxiety. Addiction.

Thanks to our avarice, we also have record foreclosure rates. A negative savings rate. High expectations for our personal prosperity but an unwillingness to work for its attainment. Or, conversely, we are workaholics who spend our lives like rodents in a wheel, running to pointless exhaustion. The rest of the time we sit, slack-jawed in front of the TV or the computer, passively enjoying life from our Lay-Z-Boy deluxe armchairs. Not exactly Heidi in the Alps.

Many of the nation's problems are tied to our lack of self-care and low standards for our own health and well-being. Quick to place blame, we are rarely the culprit. We rely heavily on others to slap expensive Band-Aids on the woes we've created for ourselves. We are Americans. We are entitled. To whatever we want. From whatever pocket.

It's a twisted existence we're living. We are ruining ourselves. We are ruining the rest of the world. I'm overjoyed that our life expectancy isn't the highest. I've already had enough and I'm only halfway there.

Twin Towers given Second Life

Tea Room Etiquette

Don't get me wrong. I am as happy as anyone to see Larry Craig unveiled as the hypocrite jerk that he is. I'll be thrilled to see him lose his place in Congress. I only wish he'd been voted out of office for his twisted ideology. Or been hit by a bus.

Am I the only one bothered by the fact that a lone punk cop, sitting in a bathroom stall, can take down Larry Craig? Or any man? No witnesses. No evidence. Just some gay-hating cop sitting in a stall watching him tap his feet and peer through a crack in the door. Such horrors! The officer's dead-on description of cruising behavior seems to be evidence of Craig's guilt. Am I alone in thinking that it smacks of police training? And since when has a subtle sexual overture, if that is in fact what Larry Craig made, been a crime? If you listen to the interrogation, Craig says that the cop made an overture to him as well, which the officer now denies. So it is a case of he said/he said. Since when has the burden of proof not been on the shoulders of the accuser? No proof, no case.

If Larry Craig stuck his penis under the divider, that would be considered indecent exposure. If he pinned the officer against the wall and groped him, that would be assault. What exactly was his crime? Our glee that it was a bigoted ass like Craig who was caught in this sting allows us to ignore the amazing erosion of civil liberties at the hands of the state underlying the case. Who cares about the rights of bathroom-lurking gays? They aren't us. We're still safe.

If I were you men, I would start to go to the bathroom in pairs like we women have always done. We do it for social reasons. You should do it to protect yourself from your, uh, protectors.

Counting sheep

See ya in the clink...

Quietly, with little mention in the press, the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive was signed in May 2007. This directive places all governmental power in the hands of the President in the case of a catastrophic emergency (as defined by him alone). It also allows him to take control of the private and nonprofit sectors. It effectively abolishes the checks and balances built into the Constitution and demolishes the Bill of Rights. This is, of course, necessary to keep us safe in case of a national disaster. The "Unitary Executive" would be able to act quickly and decisively, without any interference from those other two annoying branches of government, slow-moving and contentious as they are.

Our Constitution has never been about efficiency. The checks and balances built into it were created to keep any one individual or branch of government from having unilateral power. It lays the groundwork for a democracy, not for a well-oiled machine.

George Bush has shown extreme disdain for the Constitution, the very document he swore to uphold. He has vetoed only a handful of bills while in office, but he has attached signing statements to more than a thousand, clearly indicating scorn for Congress and his commitment to enforce only the laws he chooses. He has taken bills designed to protect the American public and has amended them to be used against us. Congress recently handed Zippy even more power by passing the Police America Act 2007. He has stripped us of our right to privacy, our right against unreasonable search and seizure, our right to due process. All in the name of the fighting terror.

We already know that President "Hyperbole" Bush is a master of exaggeration, if not outright prevarication. He and his oil buddy, Cheney, lied to get us into Iraq. They've lied to keep us in Iraq. Long ago they planned to get their hands on all of that beautiful unctuous black gold under the desert. They are not about to cede power to a successor until they've gotten the goods. What terrible national catastrophe is up his sleeve that will enable him to retain power?

I won't speculate about what the catastrophe will be, but WorldNetDaily.com reported yesterday that the administration has been authorized to set up civilian prisons at military installations, something that has not been done in our country since the WWII Japanese internment camps. Under international law, internment camps are used in times of war to incarcerate large groups of people deemed to be enemies or "belligerents," indefinitely and without trial, of course. Hasn't Bush already warned us that if we are not with him, then we are with the terrorists? Read the handwriting on the wall.

When the occupant of the highest office in the land decides what the law is, singlehandedly, we no longer live in a democratic society. We live under a dictator, the Unitary Executive. While we were sleeping, Zippy the Monkey's big dream of being THE Decider has been realized. We are basically living in an autocracy. The Founding Fathers are turning over and over in their graves. But few of the living seem to care.

Prepare yourself for the war with Iran. Prepare yourself for the impending terrorist attack. Prepare for the national catastrophe that will allow the Unitary Executive to suspend the 2008 election and stay in power indefinitely.

Just watch. He'll do it. He's the DECIDER. We gave him that power. And he's willing and able to use it.

Black Bush for Prez

Nostalgia, playground of the emotionally distant

I checked myself in at 6 a.m. I was alone, wearing a fluid dress that hugged the contours of my round belly, overnight case in hand. I sensed that the woman behind the desk felt concern for me. She looked at me and showed visible relief that my left hand bore a diamond ring.

"When will your husband arrive?"

"Pardon me? Oh, I'm not sure. Soon, I imagine," was my bright reply.

At 4 p.m., having walked the halls alone for hours, pushing my IV cart, I was finally ready to deliver. Dave showed up in the nick of time to witness the birth of his namesake, and promptly fell asleep in the father-to-be chair. The baby's umbilical cord was wrapped tightly around his neck. I watched my doctor's face as he strained to move the restrictive cord, to allow my little David James to fill his lungs. Ironically, the only sound in the room, as we held our collective breath, was the sound of Dave's snoring.

After my sweet baby was safely delivered, the nurses woke Dave and asked him if he'd like to cut the cord. Groggily he replied, "Ah, no thanks. You can take care of that." More sympathetic looks my way.

Well, you know what? I didn't care. I don't care. I experienced the joy and pain of bringing David into the world. I remember every minute of it. I was there, fully connected, acutely aware. I have no need to live it again. I'm happy he is here with me every day, playing his trumpet, running cross country, reading books, listening to his iPod, challenging me with his edgy sense of humor.

If you ask Dave about his experience, he will relate to you a similar story. You'll hear about the endless hallways, the escape to the lunchroom, the scary epidural, the last-minute name change, the cord incident. He can probably tell you the Apgar scores...the struggle over the decision whether to circumcise or not. His face will likely be covered with tears as he "relives" the pain and beauty of David's birth.

He wasn't there. My companions were the nurses, my doctor, my parents and siblings. Nostalgia is often synonymous with absence. With unknowing. A lost chance to experience life and love.

But it most definitely makes the heart grow fonder.....

A few good men

We know we can't trust our government to tell us the truth about the war in Iraq, or anything else. Nor can we trust the corporate-controlled media. But an opinion piece in today's New York Times, written by 7 non-commissioned military men just returning from a 15-month tour of duty, provides some insight into America's noble fight against the nation of Iraq.
 
Let's hope that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.

The Madness of King George

Sailing to the New World to escape tyranny was a temporary fix. We are living with the ghost of King George.

In the past six years, George Bush has sought to accumulate all governing powers into one place, his grubby hands. He has repeatedly violated the Constitution's command that the President "shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed," by breaking many and refusing to enforce others. The Constitution grants Congress the power to make laws; after both houses pass a bill, the President can only sign it or veto it. Bush, however, takes a different tack. He has vetoed just three bills, then quietly attached "signing statements" to more than 1,000 congressional laws, indicating his intent to follow only those parts with which he agrees. He flouts the law every chance he gets. Usually with a stupid grin.

The King's latest blatant power grab, the Police America Act 2007 (PAA), revises the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). FISA was passed in 1978 in response to Tricky Dick and the FBI's unlawful surveillance of critics of national policy and other political enemies. FISA required that a panel of judges grant permission to an administration to spy on individuals within the U.S. Surveillance would only be allowed if the judges could be convinced that the communications to be monitored were exclusively those of foreign powers and that there was no substantial likelihood that an American would be overheard. FISA was designed to protect us from the government, not the other way around.

Not surprisingly, this new act takes the power to approve spying out of the hands of the judges and gives it the the Attorney General. Currently the highly esteemed Alberto Gonzales. An old friend of the King's. A known lackey. It also requires telephone companies to collect data and turn it over to the Feds. And, of course, grants them immunity from lawsuits. Our brave and noble Congress passed this bullshit legislation with nary a whimper. Behavior we've come to expect from our "representatives."

Protect America, my ass. To say that this shocking theft of our freedom is to save us from terrorists, from Al Qaeda, is a frank lie. Terrorists are well-trained. They move with stealth. They have face-to-face meetings. They don't call each other's cell phones and chitchat about the latest and greatest plans. Our government is well aware of this. No, PAA is directed at us. The American public. Especially those of us who slander the dictator.

King George is simply a tyrant.

The Daily Sham

I'm no Jon Stewart, but I think I could start a rival program. It might not be overly humorous, however. The Bush administration's assaults on constitutional protections and liberties seem to be happening on a daily basis.

Today according to Reuters:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States may soon name Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (RGC) a foreign terrorist group, said U.S. officials on Wednesday, reflecting frustration over Tehran's nuclear program and suspected role in Iraqi violence. (Pardon me while I puke).

The designation would be the first time the United States has placed the armed forces of any sovereign government on its list of terrorist organizations and enables Washington to target the Iranian group's finances. (Wow....crazy times, crazy times).

I'm not even going to bother with any sort of comprehensive analysis. Here is the bottom line. The U.S. is making an official state military unit indistinguishable from a terrorist organization. Paving the path, illuminated by the Patriot Act, for war with Iran. By taking the RGC from under the banner of a sovereign government and calling it a terrorist organization, Bush may legally bypass congressional approval and do whatever he'd like with the power granted to him in the post-9/11 hysteria, via the aforementioned Act.

Here's how I see it playing out. Bush will order air strikes in the near future against Iran to curtail their (now nonexistent but apparently very dangerous) nuclear build up, using the unilateral power granted to him under the never-read Patriot Act. This will, of course, incense Iran and her inhabitants. Iranian terrorist organizations, or maybe Al Qaeda, will retaliate with a strike on U.S. soil (with our help, of course). This will happen, conveniently, shortly before the November elections allowing King George to declare a "national catastrophe" which will crown him Unitary Executive. He will hold all decision-making power. And he will suspend the 2008 election for the security of the nation.

Place your bets.