Abortion

Think about yourself, whatever you are; the fetus is in the process of becoming another like you. But already it gets complicated, as there is something that is growing before many people are willing to call it a fetus. It started to grow when the male sperm fertilized the female egg. That is what science teaches. For me, from that moment it is another like me. When and where I grew up they called this phenomenon a baby. Never mind what the Catholic Church teaches or anybody else. This is what nature teaches if you’re willing to stop and take a good look at it. After it comes out of it’s mother’s womb, it has to be cared for a number of years or it will die.

Society forbids us to kill this little human being after it comes out of the womb. Yet American society permits us to kill this little human being before term, because it is not recognized as being a human being until it is born. And what is the primary overwhelming reason given for abortion; simply, the baby is not wanted. This ‘not wanted’ has been established by something called the right to privacy. Almost everyone understands, not wanted, but I think only a very few can reason this out of something called a ‘right to privacy’.

Go to some Internet site where the complete text of the majority opinion in Roe vs. Wade is available. Take the time to read it, and it will take some time. You will find its reasoning is not in science, its not in religion, there is nothing in the constitution that even remotely deals with abortion, and its not in case law or some statute. Well where does its rationale come from; this right to privacy that makes it legal to kill the unborn. It comes from the lobbying efforts of the pro-abortion political action groups.

Seven out of nine US Supreme Court Justices agreed to make abortion legal in 1973. Yet after 32 years and approximately 46 million abortions later, abortion is still the most divisive issue in America. President Bush is opposed to abortion. The anti-abortion forces hope Chief Justice Roberts and Bush’s latest appointee; Judge Alito (if confirmed) might move the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Maybe so? But would it not be better if the legislative branch of our federal government, take action to pass an amendment to the constitution returning the right to rule on abortion to the several states. Yes this would be messy. But real democracy is messy.

Five presidents appointed nine justices. Out of that we got legal abortion. The present court has the same make up. I would prefer the abortion issue be up to the 35 state senators and 65 representatives and governor from my state. Chaos, probably for a while, but each state will get much closer to the will of the people than what we got now. No, abortion is not going away in any event, but most state legislatures would put some fairly stiff restrictions on the abortion on demand culture of today created by Roe vs. Wade.

Withdrawal from Iraq

The first thing to understand is the USA is a free and democratic country. To talk about keeping our army of occupation in Iraq or not is not to speak out against our country or is not evidence that person hates his/her country. A patriot is one who loves their country and is willing to make sacrifices for it. Being for or against various policies of one’s country does not make or unmake one a patriot. To be for or against our occupation of Iraq has nothing to do whether you support the members of our armed forces or you don’t. If you support President Bush and his administration in their attempt to turn Iraq into a free and democratic country, that does not mean you support our troops, it means you support Bush in trying by the force of arms of our occupation army to make Iraq into a free and democratic country. It is not working. But it is the centerpiece of our war against Terror. Again, it is not working. If we withdraw then we loose our war against Terror. No we do not. We discard something that was tried and failed in our war against Terror. We will continue, as we must to defeat the terrorists. We are now worse off in our fight against Terror than we were before we invaded Iraq.

Cut and run is sailor talk. Sailors talk about a ship or a flotilla. Suppose on that dreadful morning of 7 Dec. 1941, the USS Arizona would have had most of her crew aboard and had steam up, her Captain would have cast off and made a run for open sea. Old salts would have said he ‘cut and run’. But it does not mean that anymore, it means to surrender and leave our troops at the mercy of the enemy. Cut and run is now an expression of the propagandist. To withdraw from Iraq is not to surrender and our troops are not being left to the mercy of Iraq insurgents. Our troops conquered the Iraq armed forces and occupied the country. That is what they were trained to do.
They were not trained in any way to create and enforce a social revolution in Iraq, to turn Iraq into a free and democratic county. Bush tells us that is their mission, but it is Bush and his administration who has betrayed the troops by
assigning them a mission they were never trained to accomplish and a mission that always has been completely outside the reason the USA has armed forces from the first days of the founding of our country.

The guilt for our war dead, their widows and orphans, and our wounded; the dead and wounded Iraq enemy armed forces and civilians, belongs to President Bush and his war supporters. Many of those supporters are having a change of heart. The political act of the war on Iraq, regardless of how or why it was sold to the American public, or how its aims were modified once the occupation got under way, is now seen as a political disaster and mission impossible. Still the Bush propaganda machine attempts to convince people that to withdrawn from Iraq is to sever a sacred bond of trust between our men and women in the armed forces and civilian citizens of our nation. Bush tells us that our troops believe in his mission to transform Iraq into a free and democratic country. I do not believe our troops in Iraq believe in this. There are certain groups of officers in our armed forces who may subscribe to such political beliefs that Bush propounds, and attempt to politicalize their troops, but the vast majority of our armed forces understand their mission is to locate the enemy, engage him, and kill or capture him. If we withdraw, then it must mean we do not believe in the basic reason we have an armed force to begin with. This is false, most Americans and the men and women in our armed forces know why we have armed forces. Because the President is the Commander in Chief of those armed forces, he has no right to politicalize those forces into his notions of turning the world into a paradise of democracy. And then when some citizens challenge the President’s political ideas on what to use the armed forces for, those same people are breaking faith with our Army and Marine Corps. This is false. The other false guilt is that our war dead and wounded; died and were maimed for life was all in vain. To withdraw from Iraq is to trash their deaths and suffering and dishonor their service to our country. That is an absolute lie. They died and were wounded carrying out the orders of their superiors. We Americans honor our war dead and the great majority of us, who support our troops, look to the care of their widows and orphans, and our wounded.

Go to the Vietnam War Memorial, stare at those names, and also think about the millions of dead Vietnamese. It is now time to fight it out in the American political arena about what we are about in Iraq and where do we go from here. Let’s stop the bull shit talk of ‘Stay the course’, and ‘Cut and run’, and calling honest Americans traitors; because its time to call a spade a spade, before another generation of Americans are staring at the thousands of names on some Iraq War Memorial, and also thinking about a couple of hundred thousand dead Iraqis. The idea if we withdraw is that we lose. Well lose what? You have to say what win means in specific political terms in order to say that we lose if we withdraw. Furthermore you have to agree we can actually win those specific political terms if we stay and you have to tell the truth about estimated costs. Unless President Bush can spell out what win means in specific political terms and he can convince you we can achieve those goals and gives an honest estimate of what that will cost and you agree with those conditions, you should demand withdrawal now.

Influenza Pandemic – Worldwide Problem

In the past few weeks I’ve done a lot of reading at the Internet sites of the World Health Organization (WHO), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Very, very little bullshit is on these sites when they are talking about the possibility of facing a worldwide influenza pandemic generated by Asian bird flu A (H5N1) if it mutates into a strain easily transferred from person to person. Can this happen – yes. Will it happen – there is a good probability. What is a good probability: the answer is that given a time span of 10-15 years, there will be a flu pandemic.
Why should a person be concerned? The models constructed from the flu pandemics of 1918, 1957, and 1968; and the vast database we have on influenza indicated that the death toll will be way beyond any thing any of us has ever experienced.
The standard defense against being infected with influenza is to get inoculated with the current seasonal flu vaccine. That will protect most people. If you get infected there is no cure. It runs its course in about a week and you get over it without ill effects. If you are young, have other illness, or old, it may kill you.
Right now there is no vaccine for A (H5N1). The experts say not to worry, because this strain does move from person to person. But it is deadly: out of 120 or so cases of people who became infected by handling infected birds, 60 of them died. A statistical drop in the bucket; but enough to scare the crap out of responsible public health officials. Furthermore, the pharmaceutical industry does not have the ability to produce enough vaccine to meet worldwide demand. In addition, the precise structure of the virus has to be known before the vaccine can be made, as the vaccine will only be effective against that specific virus.
If and when A (H5N1) mutates into a strain that passes easily from person to person, we have to develop the following: greatly increase our ability to produce huge amounts of vaccine, and produce this vaccine in a very short time span, and get people inoculated immediately.
In the meanwhile there are antiviral drug(s) that could and would be used to deal with a flu pandemic or seasonal influenza. I’m talking about Tamiflu and Relenza. The following is known about Tamiflu. Hoffmann – La Roche
owns the license and produces it outside the USA. HHS says it has about 5 million courses (10 75mg caps) in stockpile. Maker and public health officials say it would be effective in use against a person-to-person transferable strain of A (H5N1). First as a prophylactic if you start to take it before becoming infected. Second if you become infected, need to take it within one day of the infection. First and Second options are loaded with questions, but there are no answers yet. Big caution here, Tamiflu has never been tested on people with respect to A (H5N1). I don’t know about Relenza, but am trying to educate myself about this antiviral. To greatly increase the production of these antivirals is in the realm of politics as is the matter of a vaccine.
Suppose the flu pandemic arrives before we get loads more of a tested antiviral and or vaccine. We are now reduced to the simple, yet it will save many. Contain the spread of the infection. The basics here are quarantine, mandatory masks, hand washing and disinfecting, and rapid disposing of the dead. Each one of those elements will require public education, knowledgeable and honest local public health officials who can communicate, material wherewithal, and an understanding that failure to cooperate with these public health measures will bring death to those around you or maybe even yourself. For example, the mandatory masks require a certain material wherewithal. These masks are manufactured off shore. Considering the worldwide demand for them, should we set up factories in the USA to satisfy our needs? This is not trivia. It’s not the story of the ‘want of a nail’. If you or your loved one is in contact with an infected person and there is no mask, you or the loved one is now infected. Syringes are also manufactured off shore, but as we have no vaccine to put in them, we can deal with them later.
Let me leave you with a most depressing scenario. If you find it outrageous, do some research on the subject, you will find out it is authentic. City X, USA. A mutation of A (H5N1) has been identified and is spreading from person to person. It is extremely virulent. One out of four infected are dead within three days. The spreading is accelerating. No question, it is the feared pandemic. There is no vaccine. Tamiflu is only 25% effective of what it was predicted to be. Tamiflu supplies are almost exhausted. Complete quarantine is in effect and martial law has been declared. After two weeks half the health care work force are now infected. Thousands are attempt to breakout from the quarantine area as US Army and Marines seal off the area. I leave the rest to you.

Remain dedicated to overcoming terrorism

The war in Iraq is not a war on terrorism. It is a war on Iraq that we have easily won and we are now the army of occupation. Our army of occupation is now trying to force the Iraqis to become a democratic country. We say this can be done and will result in an end of terror in Iraq and Iraq will become a peace loving country. When you try to think this whole matter through, you will come up will many questions, questions that are paramount to understanding what America is about in the world and specifically in Iraq. You will have to turn to many different sources in seeking answers, but unfortunately, there is no consensus among honest thinkers and people of experience on the foreign policy of the USA. There is of course no magic in consensus, as consensus is a concept that proves most useful to the elected representatives in a democratic state, and is basic to how the citizens of a democracy think about political matters.
Foreign policy is the interactions between states, as one state tries to influence another state. Well, what state is terrorism? The Talibin was the lawful government of Afghanistan when bin Laden’s Al Qaeda attacked us on 9/11. Al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan. So the Talibin had to kick bin Laden out and join us or else. They choose or else and we conducted a half-baked proxy war on the Talibin, while bin Laden slipped away. Now we got 20,000 US troops occupying Afghanistan were they’re supposed to building a democracy. We also picked up 600 POW’s from our proxy warlords through CIA bribes that we have locked up in Guantanamo Bay. Overall, not too bad an operation; as we had to do something, and we did upset bin Laden’s training base, even if we did not get him and his primary operators. As to the 600 POW’s; I say we should indict them, put them on trail in a public court, and let the chips fall where they may.
Then President Bush invades Iraq. That’s it folks, that’s our war on terrorism. Sure, we created Homeland Security and passed the Patriot Act, had the 9/11 Commission pretty much explain how 9/11 came about which was painful, but most useful. Homeland Security fails completely to deal with our most fundamental concern in combating terrorism and the Patriot Act is nothing but an invasion of your civil liberties. Oh yes, the Congress was hand in hand with Bush on both of those measures.
So what is the answer? If there is an answer, it’s only partial and it’s far from perfect. Mine is two fold. First, know your enemy. Yes, even sit down and talk with them from time to time. No telling what you might learn, especially when you don’t know much to start with. You mean to actually have formal meetings with the evil powers of earth to find out who they are, how they think, and what might be open to negotiation. Yes, the more the better. You might find the root cause of our problem with the terrorist mindset. It may be possible to mitigate the cause. But we should know why these terrorists want to destroy us. Unfortunately, the second answer is one that we have often failed miserably at and is at odds with our basic freedoms, but not the cause for our failures. Its intelligence, the kind of intelligence that is all down and dirty; you get it by sleeping with the enemy and living with then, and praying, and drinking, and eating with them, and smelling like them. And if you slip once, you’re dead. And the few who can be bought, buy them. Let’s suppose you can do this. Now what do you do with the information? Thwart the planned attack or let it go ahead, because the risk of blowing your cover is high if you disrupt the attack, but to score big later, you can’t afford to blow the present cover. This is a dilemma for those in charge, e.g., the planned attack may produce 500 killed, but we also have some fuzzy information that a nuclear bomb might be exploded next year in some US city, so to thwart the planned attack will blow our cover, the cover we need to get more information on the dreaded nuclear bomb attack. Well, what do we do? The spy business is morally bankrupt from the get go. The people who operate these enterprises are corrupt. Like vampires, sunlight destroys them. To paraphrase Lord Acton, ‘Secrecy corrupts; absolute secrecy corrupts absolutely’. Democracy demands accountability for our actions and our money. Its citizens also demand their civil rights and sacred liberty. So there is the rub, how do we fight terror and still preserve our liberty. The possibility of loosing our liberty at home during the terror fight is very real.
I believe we can defeat the terrorists, if we can keep from becoming terrorists ourselves. To kidnap suspected terrorists, torture them, and then murder them is against the principles that made us a free country. That is what we are now doing and if we keep doing it, we will become terrorists ourselves. Besides it will not work. It will not stop them from being able to attack us. We have to know our enemy, and we have to get inside them. And we have to do this without surrendering our liberty.