Friday, October 19, 2012

Our National Disgrace



Recently, I had the pleasure of spending time with a friend who is an ex-Marine. This man turned down a scholarship to an Ivy League university and instead opted to serve his country in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was deployed to Somalia, and was stationed there during the Black Hawk Down incident. He later served a tour in Iraq and a tour in Afghanistan. I am very proud to know him. To the best of my knowledge, he suffered no long-term physical injury. While I am not professionally qualified to judge, it seems to me that, emotionally and psychologically, he is very well-adjusted. Considering the circumstances, I believe him to be one of the “lucky” ones.

Unfortunately, thousands of other current and former servicemen are not nearly as “lucky”. Beyond the thousands of young men and women who have given their lives, there are thousands more who literally gave parts of their bodies. Among those fortunate enough to return physically unscathed, there are thousands who bear the horrible emotional and psychological scars from their experience.  I know that there are some wonderful, private organizations trying to help these people. I suspect that the Veterans Administration at least does a decent job of dealing with the physical injuries suffered. I firmly believe our federal government as a whole has done a horrible job of addressing the emotional and psychological damage suffered and the concomitant problems these people face in adapting to life back home. I also believe that precious little is being done to prepare and help the families of these soldiers after their tours. This is an absolute disgrace – one that is completely ignored by our politicians in this election cycle.

As if this weren’t bad enough, what these people have endured was completely unnecessary, and the direct result of political fool’s errands. These fool’s errands were based on one man’s desire for revenge, and another man’s desire for war profiteering to benefit his cronies. To think that we could somehow impose, directly or indirectly, a democracy on Iraq was sheer lunacy from the beginning. I don’t have a graduate degree in history, but, unlike George W. Bush, I actually paid attention in high school. I know that the nation of Iraq is an artificial construct developed by the victors after World War One. Iraq, as we know it, was never suited to be a nation-state of any kind. With a populace comprised of Sunni and Shiite Arabs who detest each other, as well as Kurds who bear no ethnic relation to the Arabs, this area can never be an area of peaceful coexistence under one roof.  I’ll at least give credit to Joe Biden for recognizing this, and proposing a “tri-state solution” in 2008.

That’s where my credit to Joe Biden ends. When Biden and Obama say we’ll be out of Afghanistan in 2014, they are willfully lying to the American public. We’ll be there for many years to come, as will we be in Iraq. This is another exercise in futility. I never expected George W. Bush to know about the British experience in Afghanistan, but I admit I expected him to be somewhat knowledgeable about the Soviet experience there. Obama and Biden should know better, as I consider them to be somewhat smarter than Bush. The hope that we can somehow prop up any kind of centralized government (with or without Karzai) is sheer lunacy. This area is another nation-state that should never have been. These are tribal people whose fealty will always be to a tribal chief, and never to any kind of centralized government. Our mission there is completely wrong-headed.

How can people with no sense or understanding of history be allowed to lead us into these quagmires? For that matter, how can they get elected to high office? If Romney gets elected, how long do you think it will be before we deploy brave men and women into the Straits of Hormuz, because, for some reason, “it’s in our national interest”? How many of Romney’s sons will see action over there? I’m sick to death of hearing talk about “getting tough” from men who received multiple draft deferments.

This entire situation is a national disgrace. The bigger disgrace is that no one is talking about it.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Kickin' It Old School



I recently noticed that phrases such as “it wasn’t like that when I was a kid” roll off my tongue with increasing frequency. Those who know me will tell you that I have been in touch with my inner 85 year-old crotchety old man since I was rather young. This is true. And while it is true that I am fairly conservative in some ways, I am neither a reactionary nor a Luddite. I believe that the only constant in life is change. I applaud the various types of progress we’ve achieved in my lifetime. As a believer in the duality of all things, I recognize that progress can come with a down-side. I love the availability of 24-hour cable news, but recognize that it has left many of us with the attention span of a gnat. Cell phones are great, especially in the event of an emergency, yet have given us the huge problem of distracted drivers. Personal computers have broken down information and communication barriers, and also spawned identity theft and made life easier for pedophiles.

As I think about these dualities and about progress in general, I keep coming back to the notion that newer is not always better. Sometimes, the old way is still the best way. Two wonderful people serve as reminders to me that this is the case.

The first such individual is a Twitter mate of mine, @OTOOLEFAN. He is a fabulous writer (check him out at http://otoolefan.wordpress.com) and all-around wit. He recently wrote a wonderful piece about razor blades. Yes, you heard me – razor blades. It turns out I’m not the only man tired of spending a small fortune on less-than-satisfactory razor blades. I’ve tried everything on the market, and have done so for years. I’ve tried electric shavers; with all due respect to Victor Kiam, they do NOT shave as close as a blade. The best conventional product I’ve used has been Gillette Fusion. It’s better than most of its competition, but one blade lasts me one week and costs approximately $4.00 each. Then I read OTOOLEFAN’s piece about razor blades and asked him for advice. At his behest, I purchased a razor from the Edwin Jagger Company. It is a simple, single-blade safety razor – the kind my grandfather used until the day he died. It is absolutely fabulous. Replacement blades, which last me for two weeks now, cost $.09 each. You can keep all the new fancy-schmancy razors on the market; I’m sticking with what ALWAYS worked best.

Most importantly, my mother, hands-down the smartest person on the planet, is a constant reminder to me that good, old-fashioned common sense always trumps everything else, even when it’s advertised as “new and improved”. If you’re one of those people who has jumped on the neti pot craze in the last few years, I applaud you for saving your money and staying off ineffective drugs – my mother was telling me about neti pots 30 years ago. Why? Because that’s what her mother and grandmother used.  If you’re the type of person who is always on a “diet” and finds that the diet never sticks, I’m not surprised. Starving your body of carbohydrates, or eating steak and eggs for breakfast every day will get you nowhere. The only people who benefit from these diets are the people who are selling these ideas to you. I stay in reasonably good shape, and not because I’m on a “diet” or because I’m a gym rat. It’s because I have a mother who told me a long time ago to eat what your grandparents ate – a healthy, balanced diet which includes the fat and carbohydrates that your body NEEDS.


So I’m gonna keep kickin’ it old school. Thanks, Mom!
 

The Luckiest Dude



Jon Stewart is right: Barack Obama is the luckiest dude in America.  Any other candidate shouldered with today’s economic statistics wouldn’t stand a chance of being re-elected. The official unemployment rate is about 8.3%, a rate that would normally kill a candidate’s campaign. The real unemployment rate is far higher. Government statistics don’t account for the thousands who have already burned through 99 weeks of unemployment checks. The official statistics also fail to capture the true impact of all those who are grossly under-employed. These are the facts that DNC shills like Al Sharpton and Ed Schultz like to omit when they beat their chests about all the jobs that Mr. Obama has “created”. 

Were it not for Ben Bernanke printing money faster than it can be spent, Mr. Obama’s statistics might rival those of a former President with whom I compared Obama in June 2008 (BEFORE he was nominated): one Jimmy Carter. Like Mr. Carter, Mr. Obama promised to change Washington culture. Not surprisingly, Mr. Obama started handing out the goodies to his contributors right away. Washington is as rife with lobbyists as it ever was. He named Tim Geithner to be Secretary of the Treasury, which is no different from asking the obese guy to guard the Twinkies. While Mr. Carter chose to ignore Congress, Mr. Obama has chosen to defer to Congress instead. He lets Congress determine the agenda – a Congress where the Republican majority has stated publicly that their primary goal is to deny Mr. Obama whatever he asks for.  A real LEADER would have used the bully pulpit and taken his case to the people on a daily basis in order to put pressure on the GOP (especially leading up to mid-term elections in 2010). Unfortunately, the “cool”, “aloof” Obama doesn’t like to get his hands dirty; he prefers speaking in platitudes.

I have described Mr. Obama in these pages as feckless and spineless. This is commentary on his leadership skills. On a personal level, he seems like a wonderfully charming human being, the kind of guy I’d spend time hanging out with. His oratorical skills are masterful. Unfortunately, given the mess he walked into, these traits aren’t enough for me, or for our country.

Based on all the above, he should get creamed in November. He won’t. He’ll get at least 54% of the popular vote and will exceed 300 electoral votes. Why?

The Republicans nominated Eddie Haskell.

Ah, the luck of the Irish.