My pirate name is:
   

 

    Black Bess Cash   

 
 

    Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine.    Arr!
   

  Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
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Islam and America

http://www.c-span.org/Events/Pres-Obama-Secs-of-State-Defense-Meet-Remains-of-Four-Killed-in-Libya/10737434131-1/

This was so heartbreaking – four Americans lost their lives working for America.   Working for a country that seems only to care about the latest reality television show.  These men died in service to a nation whose people are mired in narcissism and hatred.   How do we repay their service or the service of any of those who have died for our country?  Do we repay them by promoting more hatred and sending them out to fight impossible wars?  Or do we repay them by promoting peace and tolerance?  So many people were quick to judge our President after the tragedy in Benghazi.  What do these people expect?  Should we have sent troops there to bomb and kill more people?  Would that have solved anything at all? 

If anyone has 35 minutes or more to spare – please watch this and think about how we repay those Americans who give their lives for something they believe in.  I don’t pretend to have the answers – I just feel so sad for our country.

Civility in America

Another 4th of July has arrived and Americans are celebrating in the standard ways - mowing the lawn, having pool parties, going to the shore (oops, I mean to say "down the shore"), etc etc. There are American flags flying throughout the neighborhoods and everyone is cheering the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Perhaps I'm jaded, or maybe my activism has put me in the face of too many cretins, but I'm not sure that all Americans really have any idea what "freedom" means anymore. Sometimes I wonder if I know. There are so many horror stories in the news. Is there really any hope for this country anymore? Will we keep traveling this path on which every individual has their own idea of "freedom" and no one has a clue what "justice and liberty for ALL" means?

What is wrong with this picture?

While millions of Americans go without adequate (or any) health care, the reptiles in the Republican party and a few select reptile-wannabes from the Democratic party are holding the health care reform bill hostage over abortion language. Excuse me? Politicians are more concerned about keeping their jobs than they are about serving their country. But there I go again, imagining a world where politicians actually *care* about their constituents' welfare....

Yes Virginia, the Pope really is dead

Okay, the Pope has finally been laid to rest, so why don't we all go back to the business of caring about the living? I wonder how much money was spent by the 4 million people who went to stand in line to view a corpse? What if every person who stood in that line had dropped one dollar (or one euro, one dinar, one franc, etc) into collection baskets, how many meals would that have provided for the hungry? How many homes could it have provided for the homeless? How much further could that money have taken cancer researchers into finding a cure?

Instead, the pious are turning out in droves to mourn one man's death. Where is the morality in this? Why couldn't the pope have stated in his will that there would be a cover charge to view his body, with 100% of the proceeds going to benefit Habitat for Humanity, or a medical research organization?? Do you think the pious would have been so pious if they were asked to part with a few coins in order to view their beloved's body?

The hypocrisy of the media coverage and the pomp and circumstance surrounding the death of the pope, and lately of Terry Schiavo is absolutely obscene in light of the real horrors in this world.

Though I have never though of myself as particularly adept at mathematics, I would have to agree that Bush+Cheney+Rumsfeld+Rice=War. For more fun with numbers, read this (NY Times content, you'll need to register but it's free and oh so worth it!!)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70E1FFC3B5C0C738EDDA80894DD404482&n=Top%252fOpinion%252fEditorials%2520and%2520Op%252dEd%252fOp%252dEd%252fColumnists%252fMaureen%2520Dowd

'nuff said?

See for yourself: http://www.bushflash.com/14.html