I heard it. At first I thought it was an aberration. Perhaps I had mis-heard. But then. Again.
Homicide bombers.
I had heard several months ago that the administration was attempting to get the media, the military and anyone else who was reporting on activity that might be classified as “terrorist” to refer to suicide bombers as
Homicide bombers.
Was that a snicker?
Who’s laughing? Helen, is that you?
Yes. There was a bit of snickering and an immediate dismissal. I don’t even think the Daily Show picked it up, but I could be wrong.
But then on some weekend talk show on the am dial there it was. And just in case I thought it an anomaly, there it was again
Homicide bombers.
Who but foxnews would be the ones to start changing the image of the bombers as decreed by his majesty bush?
But there’s just one itty bitty problem. You see (sigh) saying homicide bombers is actually being redundant. What else would a bomber be but someone attempting a homicide? That’s a lot like saying studying students or automotive autos. Now if you say suicide that gives the listener a more complete picture – a more accurate picture of what happened – instead of a person lobbing a bomb (homicide bomber) this person actually became part of the bomb – blowing himself up with the bomb – thus suicide bombers. It makes more sense. Even in this “after the death of the English language” which came about around the beginning of the millennium. I remember a pre-death of the English language era. It was a time when words actually described the image that was presented. It wasn’t there to manipulate, minimize, dismiss, contradict, deceive. No. We could read a title of an agency or organization and know exactly what that agency or organization stood for. But in this post-death period, words are there to satiate the masses. In a society with an average attention span of 8 seconds per subject, it is easy to flash something before the eyes of people who are continuously in a cursory frame of existence. Anyone who actually spends any time analyzing and questioning the facades that are placed before him is easily discounted. Slap a title on him and that’s all society needs. Traitor. Anti-American. Unpatriotic. Aider. Abettor. Disgruntled. Terrorist. Eco-terrorist. Global warming kook. No child left behind. Clean skies. Free market. All sounds so cut and dried. I think we need to start paying a bit more attention.
Biden was on the Bill Maher HBO show this past Friday. I have to say, I have always liked him, but I forgot how much I liked him until I saw him on the show. He is so awesome. He makes such sense. It bothers me to no end that the right wing has hijacked my religion and labeled me as “godless”. Biden gave a rather lengthy – but extremely enlightening synopsis of what is actually happening in Iraq and the ties that there are with Turkey and Syria and Iran and how we went in not understanding the culture and historical animosities. He was so clear. So easy to understand. He gave a very good description of what was happening, what was going to happen if we pull out – which he said bush was already doing (like bringing troops home). He said that what needs to happen is all of the countries in the area with Shiites and Sunnis and any other cultural tribe have to insist on diplomatic negotiations and peaceful resolution. Because who the heck really wants a regional war? We can rattle our sabers all we like but our people are an ocean away, what about the people in the area? They don’t want their resources, their capital to be sucked into the great, bottomless black abyss a.k.a war. That was Biden’s bid. It was a history lesson that was like a glass of ice water in the desert. God! Finally! Someone who FINALLY can give us a clear representation of the situation in Iraq and how to get the heck out without any more bloodshed.
I have to say that when a film has Ben Afleck in it, that is usually a movie I don’t really want to see. But he was also on the panel with Biden and I had no idea how passionate he is politically. He obviously has spent a great deal of time either getting current on all the issues or he is actually following what’s going on, because he was on top of every topic thrown out there. At times he ran himself into tangles, but he came out ahead and was actually surprisingly well read. Impressive.
Bill’s stumbling point, in that he can forgive bush some things but the 7 minutes it took him to respond to hearing that our nation was under attack, well, he couldn’t forgive him for that. Not in the nuclear age. The brave republican on the panel did his best to defend his response, but Bill said something about how would he respond if it had been Clinton instead of bush. The guy could not help but show his bias, blinking speechlessly.
That’s what I don’t get about any of this. The amount of dismissive actions and statements in response to very serious allegations of treason, illegalities, indiscretions, torture, and incompetence is almost too much to comprehend. It’s kind of like the deficit. The number is just too big for us to get our heads around. I mean, if we as individuals get into serious debt we would be so stressed. But like the numbers flying by tabulating the cost of the war in Iraq. They are just too far out there to be earthly. In the same fashion, we don’t even want to consider all that this president has been a party to while in office. I remember how starr went after Clinton. Relentlessly. Like a pitbull terrier constantly digging. Yet contentions are falling out of the sky on a daily basis in regards to this administration and the closest people to it. And nothing.
Our country is being polluted at an alarming rate. Those finally believing in the authenticity of the global warming movement is growing. Why? Open the window. Check out google from space. This is going to be a bitch of a summer, it’s already been in the nineties. In April? Geez. Polar bears are starving to death. The seals up in Canada have no ice. Yet those spinning around this administration are still trying to act like it’s a “theory” held by “junk science” and the “fringe element”. Wow. I am just grateful that over 4500 evangelical churches have banded together to make a statement that God’s planet is something to which we need to be responsible stewards.
I remember someone telling me that bush’s intention was to rid the US of it’s centralized government. Bankrupt it, essentially, so that the states could run themselves. That’s beginning to look a lot more like reality.
And then we have Brazil. Why!? Why do you taunt us so, Brazil? Sticking its tongue out at us, laughing, pointing, mocking. We see you! At least we can hold our heads high in our inability to be energy self-sustaining. We don’t have that ridiculous brazen, pagan festival in Rio where everyone is conducting themselves irresponsibly. Ha. So there. Think you’re so great not needing anyone else for your energy supply. We choose to engage with the world. Go ahead! Be an isolationist. We’ll be invited to more parties and wars and stuff than you.
And now to immigration. I heard all last week attempts to minimize the efforts of those marching and protesting.
They don’t even know what they are marching for.
Given an opportunity to ditch school these kids would take it, regardless of the reason.
May 1st is a communist holiday.
hese demonstrations are professionally organized by career protestors.
The Mexican, South and Central American radio stations are acting irresponsibly.
This is about increasing ratings.
Where are the American flags?
They don’t care about becoming citizens they care about Mexico.
Do you think any of that is made up? I heard every single line on the radio. And that is but a sampling. I find it amazing that as many people who are against the war – we cannot get the numbers out there to protest. Yet, they are expecting a million people in DC today. There were 500,000 protesting Dallas over the weekend. And you can minimize that? Wow. No credit at all for coming out when it could be dangerous to your status as a citizen? There are people taking pictures and filming with video cameras. This is a group of people (undocumented workers) who have been invisible because of the need for survival. I wonder if you could choose between coming over legally and working, or traversing the scorching desert following someone who has your money and not your best interest at heart - which you would choose. The problem has always been the discussion of people as not people. Illegals has become a noun. It is not a noun, it isn’t even a word with an s on the end. These are people. They aren’t the enemy. Just because rednecks have organized “militias” to embody their racism doesn’t mean we need mercenaries to tackle this problem. These are human beings. Human beings who are coming here to work. How ridiculous are these people who screech and wave their arms like lunatics about draining our healthcare system (what healthcare system!!???) and our social services.
Shut………up.
Elitist crap.
Figure out a way to get citizenship to the people who are here. Figure out how to ensure our borders are controlled. This is a continent. The Americas. This is not our house. It is a country that is part of a continent that should be traveled freely. No one wants regional war in this area. Why are we running around acting like everyone is our enemy? Isn’t that the quickest way to gain more enemies? Refusing to render aid to those in dire situations that they got themselves into? Don’t we have rescue shows that herald the bravery and goodness of those that run in and help people who managed to find themselves in serious situations – avalanches for skiers, falling while rock-climbing, crashing while mountain biking. And that’s all for entertainment. Are we cutting off aid to these guys as well? No water for those migrant workers in the desert, no rope extended from a helicopter to the guy on the ledge who fell while hiking? Is that what we do now? Or do we only render aid to those who have the cash to go bungee jumping and hang gliding? This fist waving, intolerance and paranoia is way out of hand. It reflects a bunch of short men who are feeling a bit insecure. We can do better than this.
And finally, the report that has come out of California that those violent offenders put into treatment are less likely to re-offend than those imprisoned but not treated.
Doh.
That to me is like saying – the tennis ball. We don’t know if it can bounce until we run a test. A battery of tests to see if the time it fell off the table and it bounced was actually a fluke or a certainty. We will need to run tests for a lot of money for at least ten years to show that our theory is that over an extended period of time we can prove that a ball will bounce on a regular basis.
If someone is sick and you treat him, there is a much better chance that he will get well than if you do nothing whatsoever.
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