RUSSIA, THE UNITED STATES, SYRIA AND IRAQ - GLOBAL HEGEMONY AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Boy, what a boring-sounding title. If I were a reader of my own blog and came across this, I might be tempted to skip it, but let me see if I can make it a bit less weighty-sounding and try to relate it to the blog post I wrote recently, regarding “World War II – Was It the Last Good War?”

In response to my Twitter buddy, Jason Linkins who writes political op-ed for HuffPo and does it very well, he is absolutely thrilled that we are once again being given the opportunity to hop back into a quagmire and protect the political aspirations of a bunch of affluent politicians, I can't say he's wrong at all. Thirteen years after 9/11, we've done. . . what? Killed Osama bin Laden, sure. But we've managed to destabilize an entire region, which we seem to be immensely terrific at doing (see Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) in the mid to latter part of the 20^th century.

So, Dubya got a hair up his ass, after 19 terrorists from Saudi Arabia, backed by money provided by al-Qaeda (suspiciously close to the Saud family, who were hand-holding with the Bush family, in case anyone forgot) bombed the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (although I wonder about that) and went tearing into. . . Iraq? Only after we had staged a semi-invasion of Afghanistan, and that was always kind of iffy to me, because Afghanistan is known as bein' the “Graveyard of Empires” and all. I'm still trying to connect the dots. When Dubya made his brave assertion “Mission Accomplished” just what in the Hell was he referring to? We never really managed to “quell” the “dissidents” in either Afghanistan or Iraq, a fact that can still be measured in body counts and terrible stories of atrocities, coming out of, now, specifically, Iraq, and of all places Syria, which has it's very own home-grown Strong Man in place, the son of the late President Assad.

In all honesty, I don't know if this is a good thing, or bad. I also don't know if it's a good idea for President Obama to sit down and treat with this man, seeing as how he's got lots of his own countrymen's blood on his hands. At least, Obama isn't sitting down with al-Qaeda, which was the worst idea I ever heard, since I said “yes” to Bill Nunnally. You DO NOT treat with terrorists. Terrorists are not countries; they are not sovereign entities; they are not realms or Kingdoms. They are a bunch of zealots with nothing in their jackalheads except creating terror in the hearts and minds of the people around them to further their cause, which is usually couched in some amorphous language and difficult to attain, even with more measured people and responses. They have no mission statements; they have no credo, other than “Death to the Infidel” and are sectarian in the extreme; they will kill members of their own “faith” quicker than Christians and Jews, because those Sunnis were closer to Allah and should have understood that they were committing heresies. I liken them to the IRA at its worst. The Crusades sound more moderate, when you remember that the Christians who lived there, routinely met and worked with the other faiths in the Middle East.

And now, we come to this: I TOLD YOU SO. Russia. Last week, I implied that basically, the whole mish-mash between Russia and Ukraine should be left alone. They've squabbled and gone back and forth for centuries. They are two countries, who, while not having a lot in common, bear a very similar culture and a shared history; at times amicable, at times, downright horrible. Stalin went out of his way to starve the Kulaks, the rich Ukrainian farmers in 1934, and several million people starved to death. It has been referred to as “Harvest of Sorrow” and a fine historical book of the same name, written by Robert Conquest, depicts the horror and devastation wrought upon the Kulaks. But, again, this was not the first time Ukraine and Russia had adversarial dealings with one another and would not be the last.

Again, there are many ethnic Russians living in Ukraine, just as there are many ethnic Ukrainians who live in western Russia and Belarus. The ENTIRE region has seen many different rulers, from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, to the Czarist rulers. It really is no wonder that one day, Ukrainians want one thing, and another day, they wish for something else. There is a kind of schizophrenic zeitgeist that exists in this entire region and when you look at the maps and how the empires overlaid one another, it is easy to understand why.

courtesy of: deviantart.com

The writer P. J. O'Rourke once went to Eastern Europe and Russia when the Iron Curtain first fell, and the salient point he took away from his experiences there, aside from all of the horrible automobiles looking like they had been made by the Dinky Toy Company, was the complete and utter confusion that the new “nation-states” wanted and why they wanted it. “We want Democracy!”, some shouted on one day. When asked why, they yelled, “Because, Democracy is good!” without having clue one what it was all about.

 courtesy of: allaboutturkey.com

Later on, during the same trip, P. J. asked some of the same people what they wanted. “We wish to stay with the Motherland!”, they shouted. When asked why, they hollered, “Because she takes care of us?”, although many were not sure this was true. This was over twenty years ago, and it is still pertinent today. If you look at the maps, you see that some of the western parts of Ukraine were in the Austro-Hungarian sphere, the southern parts in the Ottoman Empire, and the Eastern portion were part of the Russian Empire. Divestiture came in 1914, but in 1917, the Russian Revolution took place and the Communists were firmly in power, after fighting a civil war against the Royalists. After World War II, as part of the agreement at Yalta, Russia retained Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, and the other “buffer” states, as there were already ethnic Russians living in these places, and because Stalin was a murderous, land-grabbing rat-bastard. Regardless, I believe that, if by some miracle the Romanovs had remained in power, and they were somehow, by another miracle, able to best the Nazis, they would have demanded Ukraine and Belarus and all the rest as their spoils of war. This is a Russian thing; NOT a Soviet thing.

Again, it speaks to the peculiar phobia that Russia harbors towards the West and we help no one by meddling in this. To top it off, today's headline in “The World” is this:

courtesy of: HuffPo

I TOLD YOU SO!

Followed by this article:

courtesy of: HuffPo                   

I mentioned last week that the situation between Russia and Ukraine will find it's own solution. That may sound like weak sauce, but what I mean is they are better left to their own devices, especially since the west and most particularly the United States has such a horrible track record when it comes to intercession. People can quote Panama and Grenada all they want, but the simple fact is, we invaded weak 3^rd world countries, one in an attempt to divert a horrendous foreign policy decision on our part, when we were involved in Lebanon, in 1983.

Let's play a "what if" scenario and see if this doesn't make a bit more sense. Suppose the United States was having some kind of squabble with Mexico, over god-knows-what. Water rights, illegal immigration, the number of donkeys displayed in crappy mariachi bands north of the border was in dispute, whatever, and things got heated. Maybe we have some troops lined up along the borders, ostensibly to keep out "undesirables". We've had our issues with Mexico in the past, but we've always managed to get them straightened out. But this time, we're dragging it along, and for some reason, both sides are being belligerent. On the outside, the rest of the world is throwing their two cents in about what a bunch of imperialist dogs the United States is, and we should never have left Merry Olde England. Yada, yada. After several weeks of this, with tensions ebbing and flowing, things get kind of mind-numbing, what with all of the other stuff going on. Then, out of the blue, or not-so, England is invaded by France and Belgium, and some not-so-nice things begin to happen. Do you honestly think that for one minute, the United States isn't going to have something to say, or do something about that situation, to mitigate and save their long-time ally? The same case can be made for Russia as regards Syria, I refuse to say "vis a vis" because it's pretentious, and I realize I am kind of shoe-horning some facts in here and making it a bit ridiculous, but it's for a reason. 

The Russian-Ukrainian relationship is a very special one; much like ours is with Great Britain. Why? Because, history.

I'm not a historian, or a military historical buff, but I do understand long arcs and how actions from the past resonate into the present. What we do now will make a difference. It might be a decade, or it might be a century. Wise men have the gift of being able to predict what our actions now will predicate for our future. I am not one of those, but I'm a damned good observer and student of global hegemony. I truly think that we should do nothing at all about the Russian-Ukraine situation and tread very, very lightly with this mess in the Middle East.

This isn't even a war movie. It's an exploration into the heart of darkness, based on a Joseph Conrad novel.

I know I called for taking a stance last week, regarding ISIS or ISIL and they are fearsome and what they are doing is beyond horrific. I cannot imagine the charnel house over there, and the suffering of the people who live there. I have friends in Tunisia and Morocco and Egypt and I fear for them, but we did a terrible job in Iraq. We destabilized the country; something we excel at, and upon our departure(?) we managed to foist some mediocre bureaucrat upon the country, along with a less-than-useful fighting force. This is nothing but Vietnam Redux. Francis Ford Coppola did a much better job with “Apocalypse Now Redux” and it still sucked. Watch the original. But, let's not create our own “Iraq Redux”. That's nothing anybody wants to sit through.

#ROW80 2ND QTR 2014 – THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

It's been a long time since I've written ANYTHING for #ROW80, or really tried to start any kind of schedule, since the A-to-Z challenge, and it's really time I did. Without any kind of schedule or balance, I tend to zone for days, or just react to whatever is going on around me. Not much there to think about, and certainly not much of a way to live, when someone has gone through the hell I have. I could say I'm merely coasting, but that's not my style; now that JC has started to feel better and we seem to have put that behind us, and I've recovered from the “shock and awe” of A-to-Z, I feel it's time to start putting out some effort in the writerly part of my life once again. The viola part of it is never a problem, now that I have my e.t. (essential tremor) under control, but I do feel another chance has been tossed my way and I'd be stupid not to grab that brass ring, along with a mixed metaphor or two.

So, it's back to the beginning of “Music of the Spheres”, to untangle what is surely (or, maybe not) one of the more fucked-up ideas for a speculative-fiction, or sci-fi book in a long while and see if I can possibly straighten it out, do some editing mo-jo and make it something that people will want to read. To that end, I might try writing a few short stories, or something along the way, as I've never written fiction, so I might want to think “baby steps, baby steps” before attempting the Boston Marathon. Or not. Anybody who has ever told me “no” has had cause to regret it, although in this case, I might take the advice of much more seasoned authors than myself. I have a cute idea for #StoryDam; if nothing else, I get to hang with them on Twitter and they always throw a good party!

The only other thing(s) of note here recently, were these:

I do a butt-ton of work for SETI@home as a volunteer and Dan Werthimer lets us know what is going on with the project run at Cal Berkeley. He is Director of the SETI Research Center and he and Seth Shostak of SETI, along with countless and nameless others, have created open-source programming that have created spinoffs of the original SETI project. The full text of his speech to Congress last week can be found here.

I work on several different projects, but my primary team is located some 70 miles north of me, and is called “The ********”. I kid and tell everyone that my team are a bunch of retired Navy SEALS, spooks and people from the NSA, CIA and whatnot. Most of them aren't around and a 65-member team has 7 active members. But, between the 7 of us, we can crunch some numbers. Being a total numbers wonk, I go and look at our world-standings. We've been as high as number 462 on the charts globally; this week, in the U.S., we're number 71, ahead of U.C. Berkeley. We seem to be in a vicious winner-take-all war with the Iowa Hawkeyes, as we routinely swap 70^th and 71^st positions with them daily. This volunteer work is a stone-cold bitch! And this is just the USA! I haven't even mentioned the Russians!

I still can't believe we trounced MIT; they must have had finals. . .

Teams slap down challenges; I feel like they're holding Royal Flushes, and I'm stuck with a pair of 8s; the air is fraught with 18^th century-style duels. Statistics are king and we have MIT huffing along in our rear-view mirror! Now, if only our errant spooks would return from their missions and do some heavy lifting, we could leave MIT in the dust; we've already buried “Get Off My Lawn”; it's time for us to take on “DigitalDingusBoinc” and sweep the field!

Is There Anybody Out There? Not just a cool Pink Floyd tune from "The Wall" but an existential and philosophical question. Math and Metaphysics are mapping the Milky Way.

But this is all in the BOINC realm of volunteers and people who believe that using their computers and their smarts to try and detect E. T. The spinoff from the original software is being used for everything from Breast Cancer research to mining Bitcoins. Metaphysically speaking, we have run the gamut from attempting to discover the origin of the universe to running what appears to be the selling of current-day Amway products, or possible Ponzi schemes. I may be misinformed, but at least it's misinformation I've parsed myself. Leave my shibboleths alone!

But that isn't even what sent me into an uproar last week. What happened last week was Dan Werthimer went and gave a nice little speech before Congress. I found out about it in the usual manner, which is a nag screen from my BOINC software, so I read the speech and thought, "Gee, wonderful things are happening up in the skies and all, and we're parsing and analyzing the data received from Areceibo just as fast as we can. Dan thinks it'd be a swell idea if Congress went along and helped on the funding". This isn't the first time in recent months that Congress has held a hearing on aliens. In December, the Science House Committee held a two-hour meeting about the ongoing search for extraterrestrial life. The publication, The Wire said at the time that the hearing was the “best thing Congress had done in months.” I tend to agree.

"Congress Debates the Finer Points of Aliens" I suggest each member just look across the aisle; or better yet, in a mirror. Here is the HuffPo article.

What I got a bit pissed off about was HuffPo's coverage of Dan's speech. Understand that I exist in a culture where the idea of E.T. being here is taken for granted, and even though that is the text of Dan's speech boiled down, it's not that simple, and the wording of HuffPo's Headline sounds as though this is not a serious undertaking. We operate under the assumption that E. T. and friends have been here, (wherever “here” is; it doesn't necessarily have to be boots on the ground) for some time, and this is nothing new for us. We're crunching numbers fed to us from satellite arrays like crazy to prove uncategorically, that YES, THERE IS INTELLIGENT LIFE THAT DID NOT ARISE FROM THE PLANET EARTH. I have a scientist uncle who based a whole set of mathematical equations on his observations of flying unidentified craft and their motions that defied E=MC² and the math works; you can't get much more truthier than that. He, for reasons obvious to anyone who's been around the naysayers for any length of time, disappeared off the grid several decades ago, not because he felt he was in any danger, but because he was tired of having his bona fides questioned. Who can blame him? If I had to play a four-octave scale and 50 etudes before every concert I ever performed in, I would have packed it in early, too.

But, as long as knowledge is used as a form of currency and it matters so in certain circles and in politics and in the establishment of world hegemony, there will never be a reckoning about many ideas and past events. Black helicopters and men in black will be talked about in whispers. It doesn't matter whether they exist or they don't; the IDEA of them does, because we see these things as a symbol of power and manipulators of populations, with the ability to either sway or silence us via covert means, and they are powerful indeed. So, when HuffPo (who should know better) posts an idiotic headline like the one above, I get a bit. . . cra-zy. Not in the sense of haul-off-to-the-Loony-Bin-Baker-Act cra-zy. Been there, done that. But cra-zy in the sense that, the journalism is irresponsible, and to me, that is unconscionable.

Although people who read HuffPo, are by and large, much better informed than the eejits who watch any type of broadcast or cable news, with the exception of BBC or Al-Jazeera, there are still a goodly number of people who are not well-informed and do not think critically at all who read the HuffPo. Just try reading the comments on a story that is not all that complex, and you'll see what I mean. Without any kind of epistemological imperative to seek the truth, they are more than willing to swallow any old guff handed to them. Maybe I am the one who is lacking here. I ferret out facts and snuffle up data to buttress my arguments, because I believe in the truth and I have no platform or agenda of any kind that I am trying to push onto someone else. I expected better of HuffPo. They're not Politico, nor are they WaPo; they usually try to gather news from many different sources, as well as using their own journalists, rather than rely on stringers, or feeds from other news agencies.

Or, maybe because the story comes out of Washington D. C.'s hallowed grounds, HuffPo just can't help themselves and they're caught up in the Never-Never Land world of Brobdingnagian shenanigans, or may have contracted the peculiar disease that seems to afflict all and sundry who end up in Foggy Bottom, although my Twitter pal, Jason Linkins, who writes for HuffPo and is a cracker-jack political analyst seems to have no trouble discerning the make-believe and wish-it-was from the slap-in-your face reality. But, I have really, really digressed. Color me pissed.

No doubt, SETI@home will survive on a shoestring and we'll all cobble together some wild financing and up our donations. I understand Bitcoin is in on this; oh, yay! A brand name that is better-associated with drug-trafficking and probably arms-dealing will bail out the SETI@home while taking a hefty chunk of BITCOINage for themselves. But that's alright; we're all one in this together on this big, enormous project that involves the entire world. Right?

About the only other thing that is newsworthy on this here home front is that no one has died here on Nebraska Avenue in a while. That's a good thing. That's not to say, we haven't had to run out in the middle of the street to make sure Señor Cerveza didn't get run over, when he fell down, but he'll live to annoy us another day. And that's all right.

Mama has a new thing. For those following along at home, Mama is the stray cat that adopted JC a few years ago, when she was pregnant and had been thrown away. We lost the kitten, and JC had Mama spayed and she's been with us ever since. When JC had his heart attack in February, he was in the hospital for several days. Mama is used to having the front door left open and coming and going as she pleases, but with JC gone, I couldn't take the risk of leaving it open, at all; day or night, so Mama had to become an indoor kitty, while he was gone.

Sweet Moses on a buttered cracker, I hope to never go through that again. It's supposed to be, if not easy, at least do-able, to turn an outdoor cat into an indoor one. Not so with Mama. She didn't tear anything up, or do anything bad, or not use her litter box. She's very clean, in all aspects. But, she became depressed, when she couldn't find a way out of the house. Oh. My. God. I took this sweet, little animal, who was already missing JC (at one point, she thought I'd stuffed him in the cupboards, I think) and made her become something sad and miserable. It was awful and it broke my heart. As soon as JC came home, I let her out and she ran off; I went in the backyard and cried and cried. She had run off and I was sure we had lost her. I cried more for the harm I had done this sweet animal, who had never done anything to anyone, than for what I thought was her loss, although it would have broken JC's heart.

Well, she came back, within half a day as if nothing had happened. She was so happy to see JC and is back to her normal self. She's pretty spoiled, but she deserves it. She'd been abused before, and bears the scars of either a beating, or a horrible cat fight and is blind in her right eye. The only thing that has changed from her sojourn inside the house, is that she comes inside to use her litter box. No more pooping out in the backyard for her. There's one other thing she does, that I have never had any other cat in my life do and this is really something.

The other evening, I was on my computer and Mama had been running in and out of the house all day. Generally, she's a stealth cat; you don't know she's around, unless she's hungry, and I usually feed her between 7 and 8 pm. JC feeds her in the morning, and I feed her in the evening. Cats are hardwired and if you mess with their routine it really confuses them. Mama is so hardwired, that for a long time, I had to sit in my chair on the porch; it was the only way she'd approach me. Now, she expects me to be in my computer chair. If I'm sitting on the couch, she's not too sure who I am, I suspect, until she gets close enough to smell me, then she's fine.

Anyway, this particular evening, I didn't have my headphones on, for a change, so I was conscious of the ambient sounds around me. My hearing began to register from a distance, a small “eeeeeeeeee” that was coming closer, but there was no cessation in the “eeeeeeeeee”, it just kept coming closer and getting louder. Now, it was “EEEEEE” but wasn't stopping, it just kept coming closer, and still, getting louder. Now, it was “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!” and Mama came through the room at a brisk trot, on her way to the kitchen, where JC was making tea, or Ramen Noodles, or brownies; I can't remember. I was just astounded; I had never heard a cat do that. As she passed by, the “EEEEEE!!” gained it's apex, much like a Doppler effect, and then began to retreat in the distance, now “eeeeeeeeeee” once again, and then fainter, “eeeeeeeee”, as she arrived in the kitchen to beg from JC. A drive-by MEOW, without the M and the OW. Cats are a wonder; as da Vinci said, “The smallest of the felines is a Masterpiece!”

Mama, beside my leg, enjoying a siesta on the porch.

Sorry for the length of the post, and my apologies for my lengthy absence, between Mother's Day and now. This week is #IWSG, along with #ROW80 check in for Wednesday. I hope to have something to report regarding editing of both “Music of the Spheres” and the material I have planned for my e-book on my life. I have enough material that covers my early life and school, careers in music and computers, my days in the homeless shelter, up to the present.

#ROW80 - 3RD QTR 2013 – POST 5 – WHY KNOWING SHIT MATTERS, HUBBY 3 IS MAKING ME THE HONESTY POLICE? OR MY NEW MEDS ARE MAKING ME A TAD STRANGE...

NOTE: I WAS GOING TO POST THIS EARLIER, BUT WAS WAITING ON A REPLY FROM HUFFPO. STILL WAITING, SO ON WITH THE SHOW!

I know, nice and vague, just the way I detest things, but there's a reason for this and it has to do with a couple of ideas that have been rolling around the old noggin, that were put there by some magic fairies, one of whom is Andi-Roo and the other, is Jason Linkins, he of the hilarious, but dead-on descriptions and I've-boiled-down-this-Sunday-show-so-you-don't-have-to-watch-the-horror or “EAT THE PRESS” as it's known over on HuffPo. It is no secret the I <3 Jason.

He sends out weekly updates of the crap he's been reporting on all week, but this merited particular attention “Let's Put a Park on the Moon ForSome Reason!” Oh dear god. Of course, I sped right over to HuffPo to play along. First off Newt Gingrich has some kind of moon fixation that he should probably see a shrink about, along with several other weird fixations, but hey, that's Newt! Secondly, the bill from 2 congresspersons, Dems Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tx.) would created a National Park around all of the junk left around on said Moon by missions Apollo 11 through 17.

Honey, you need to stand closer to that rover thingy. Damn! Honey, did you pack the sunscreen?

Daddy, can I have the keys to the lunar module tonight?

Newt is thinking this is all a swell idea, with all of the moonbeam ideas he has had, like mirrors in space to aid in parking and crime-fighting or something. I guess the mirrors just fry the miscreants like so many bugs under a magnifying glass. Saves money spent on those slowly turning wheels of justice.

Zzzzzzzzt! "Nice going, dude. You just fried Betty Sue, Knuckles McGoon is still on the loose!"

So, to get to the point and so you can see I'm not raving any more than usual, we get the comments section, and Christ on a cracker, everyone is deadly serious about this. If people really stop and think, there is a snowball's chance in hell of anything of this sort passing. The moon belongs to the planet earth. I think Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain may have something to say about this. Eminent Domain, anyone? Just because we got there first, is it ollie-ollie-oxen-free? I think not. Someone was caviling about Space Law, and really? Is there such a thing? I treated it with the irony and sarcasm it deserved and moved on.

What got to me is this: Last week there was another article about Egypt possibly moving onto a position of working towards a democratic state. Let's face it. A state who wishes to transition towards democracy, in this day and age is in for a perilous road indeed. Outside forces will do much to see that either does not happen, or will insert key players into the mix to try and subvert the best of intentions. I am glossing this over in the interests of brevity. As an American, I do NOT think we should be involved in the Middle East; they must find their way. There are many, many brilliant and passionate people there who are devoted to their countries and who are looking for a better way that does not include Al Qaida, the Taliban, or Tribalism.

I truly think that in the main, the entire 5th estate is a giant bag of dicks. So there!

Read the article that got me revved up here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/05/david-brooks-egypt_n_3551427.html

What got me about this, is the article was the last of a series of articles written by David Brooks, of the New York Times, where he in essence, after a series of articles, touting the insurgence in Egypt, explaining that over time, mitigating forces will calm the Muslim Brotherhood, as has been seen elsewhere, he just all of a sudden comes up with this gem: the conclusions that Egyptians “lack the basic mental ingredients for democracy.” This was after a series of articles that explained and defined the approach to a democratic process. As Mr. Linkin of HuffPo pointed out, “a more charitable view defined by Max Read would be (“Shall we note here, the day after Independence Day that it took the United States of America 13 years to after rejecting monarchy to settle on a constitutional form of government.”)

So, the argument becomes that their descendants aren't smart or capable enough for democracy?

A wonderful point, and what a slap in the face to the Egyptians. Let's see; they were responsible for building the pyramids. The library of Alexandria, Astronomy, Mahmeluks of the Ottoman Empire resided there, as well as in Istanbul. Yet, the comments section was horrendous. I have never heard so much bigotry and stupidity and bias in my life. In a very fair, and balanced, but also nuanced way to show how wrong David Brooks is, a fair amount of the people who read Mr. Linkin's articles, who shouldn't; they don't have the brains, or their filters are too widely meshed to follow Mr. Linkin's logic, so they take what he is saying at face value, when what he is doing is the opposite, he is telling us in his patented Jason way, (which I LOVE) that Brooks needs to just stop writing. Mr. Jason does this brilliantly to dunderheads who need a good public shame-ass-kicking.

So, of course, I have to weigh in with my sharp tongue and it is indeed sharp and I can eviscerate, as follows. I ran across this gem of a comment and after I peeled myself off the ceiling, I went to work:

Okay, so you just read the article and the bit about the Founding Fathers and chose to ignore that? Lessee here...

I actually mis-spoke regarding the 13 years to detach from the British monarchy, although technically it is true, as the American Revolution was fought for a few years. I riposted with this:

By now, I am just sick and tired of what has become an argument gone off-the-rails. We are way off point, if we are besmirching my googling skillls and my apparent lack of ESP, since I didn't make the automatic link between "unable to do democracy and garbage city" and come up with Egypt. I don't think that's ESP and it sure as hell ain't mathematics; it smells suspiciously like prejudice and bias to me, and yes, Giglawyer, (I googled him; he's some kind of half-assed musician, as well as a half-assed lawyer) the Ottoman Empire weighs heavily into all of this, you asshole, since the Mamelukes were part of the Empire for quite a while. Go find a copy of "Asia Minor For Dummies." I am sure it's in there. But, I did not say this.

I had crafted a carefully-worded argument about his fallacious assumption and told him his argument was specious. He had no evidence to base the Egyptians' inability to handle democracy, other than their ability to pick up after themselves, which in and of itself, proves nothing. I stated that, being a lawyer, or implying such by his title, he must have at least had one or two courses in rhetoric and logic, as I was required to do so, by the Jesuits, because, Jesuits... Since he cared so little for staying on topic, my last 2 sentences were something like, "Please do not reply; admit you were bested and move on. You are becoming a Royal Pain in my Ass. (In essence, I PWNED him, because he had no closer. But, I, in turn was pwned by the system. My final remark to him was removed. Either because I said "Ass" or he had it removed; which is entirely possible, so I'm re-creating it here.

I really don't give a good goddamned who wins or loses an argument, as long as it is fought intelligently and with the Marquis de Queensberry's rules, even if we're not boxing. With the Trayvon Martin ruling, we have once again seen some horrendous, egregiously bad law in play, from top to bottom. The "Stand Your Ground" law in Florida, signed by Governor Rick Scott, R-FLA, who couldn't understand a law, even if it was just the law of gravity, signed the thing. Its deliberately ambiguous language, the porous construction of the bill itself allows for a multitude of interpretations. It is a bad law, that favors people who are wielding weapons, EXCEPT when we don't want it to, as in the case of a Florida woman who fired a warning shot. An African-American woman, who is serving 20 years. She killed no one. She invoked the "Stand Your Ground" law. Next time, she'll kill. I would have killed, after a 3rd warning, no warning shot, nothing. But, I am white. I am also deemed (I love that word) mentally ill. Actually, I may give no warning. It's all that vague in Florida.

Mentally ill I may be, but I do keep my promises (don't you love the smooth segue?). Back on May 22, 2013, I wrote a post about my 3rd husband and what an unmitigated bastard he turned out to be. I went from being the "best thing that ever happened," said to me, by him when his slut of a daughter became pregnant, her senior year of high school in 1997, to utter garbage in 6 short years. I stayed mum and listened to him during all of that drama. 

When I fell ill, a mere 6 years later, he really treated me horribly and the mental abuse began. I ran away from the marriage, with a physically failing heart in January, 2005, in fear for my life. Not that he would physically abuse me, but that my ailing heart would stop. Not one person in that family cared, asked, or tried to contact me, with the exception of my ex-husband, who wrote a letter in March, I believe of 2005. I was staying with a violinist friend, half-blind, playing when I could. He wrote, asking for money. In that post, found here, http://homelesschroniclesintampa.blogspot.com/2013/05/row80-wednesday-check-in-post-9.html I talked about some of the things done and said at the end of the marriage. 

I understand that it is a two-way concern. I really wanted this marriage to work, but somewhere into the 1st year, I felt a change and I was never able to re-establish closeness. No matter. I have made it clear to him and the family that he was to at least acknowledge the first post, or I would reveal some other details which I am sure he would prefer not be made public. Since my wants and needs were of such little consideration while we were married, let me return the favor. 

Bill Nunnally, I really didn't appreciate the 8-ball jags on weekends at the house on Annie Street in the late '90s. While you and Herb may have enjoyed them, at the time, they terrified me. Y'all were up all night, jabbering and then getting meaner than snakes towards the end. Now, I'd put you both down for the mad dogs you are. John Holley may know about it, but I'd be willing to bet the girls don't. There is a reason I never did coke. It's a goddamned werewolf. And I am an addict. I've known that since I quit drinking the first time. 

I knew it the night at PJ's when, after 14 years of sobriety, you said "Hey, one beer ain't gonna hurt." I knew it would and it did. It's on my head, but you cannot act as if you are the wronged party here. I told you over, and over, and over that I was an alcoholic. When you offered me coke, I thought "What's next, is he going to be selling my ass on Nebraska?"  Drinking was bad enough and hard enough to quit. Anyway, enough dirty laundry. You ready to admit you read this, and maybe did some of this shit, or do you want a few more installments? I'm real good at this.

BLOGGING CHALLENGE FROM A TO Z APRIL 2013 – LETTER F

FUNNY

As in, I am not... I am the Straight Man Of The World. As the least funny person on the planet however, I do have a wicked sense of humor and can come up with a good observation or two, and an occasional one-liner. My parents were screamingly funny. I alas, do not have that gene. But I am woefully addicted to hilarious hijinks, stupidities, randomness and amusing and sarcastic, but cutting reviews of ineptly made blockbuster or artsy-fartsy movies that come from other people. Extra points if the movie is a horribly made science-fiction movie that looks like it was made in someone's garage and everyone chipped in 5 bucks.

I'm sure this was great, even without MST3K. Music by Autoharp and Snare Drum. Plot by Atari. Script by Commodore 64 and Sanyo-Bot.

I love Cracked.com and HuffPo's "Eat the Press" on Sunday mornings, hosted by the inimitable Jason Linkins because, Blargle, and lately have been hanging out at the A.V. Club. Not for all of the sparkling wit of the articles necessarily, or because I am a movie and TV show maven. It's for the reviews and of late, the comments from the readers. For instance, the A.V. Club is currently embroiled in reviewing “The Following,” with Kevin Bacon, on Fox, which originally drew me in, but other than the Baconator, the show reeks out loud. I have ended up staying for the reviews by an intrepid soul, Mr. David Sims, and the readers comments, which are hysterical. Absolutely hysterical. To the point of apoplexy. If I were ever to have a crappy Death Metal Band, I would name it “Hysteria and Apoplexy,” except now, I'll have to name it “Silly for Killing” which has become a sort of rallying cry amongst the readers' comments in this show, which also has set a sort of record of gaining 2 Fs in a row.

We are breathlessly awaiting a 3^rd this week. We all have no lives apparently. But, back to funny stuff. Gina Valley, who is participating, in this A to Z Challenge is hilarious! Consistently funny. She also has the added ability of being able to confuse me more than I am already and I love enriched confusion in my life. It just adds to the hysteria, in a good way of course! Andi-Roo over at The World 4 Realz is also no slouch in the laffs department. She can write funny dialog in a way no one else can. She has a post regarding her adventures in the ER last 4^th of July that I read about once a month. I want to be buried with that post. It's about a cotton Q-tip she got stuck in her ear. It's great.

Gina's post that cracked me up was about the Alphabet Song-dependency she's developed. (In DSM-V there's probably a pill for this, but no thanks, I already have several diagnoses for an alarmingly long list of things deemed unfit by society.) She has to do the whole Q, R, S, X, U, T thing. This got me laughing for several reasons. Firstly, Gina's a cracker jack edumacator and has a pack of kids and a professor hubby, and is extremely well-read and writes well, but I can relate. Even though I tested at reading, writing and comprehending at a post-doctoral level at the age of 15, I still run through A, B, C, E, F, I. See? That's messed up and I ain't fixin' it.

Secondly, I remembered the TV show “The Smoking Gun Presents the World's Dumbest” hosted by several Grade Z comedians, writers, athletes, ex-cons, etc, who demonstrate the world's idiocies with videos and their commentary. It's my guilty pleasure and I laugh like a hyena through every stupid episode, as Danny Bonaduce talks about what a dumbass he was and Gary Busey says something sort of sane. Tonya Harding is the voice of reason. This show is like "Jack Ass," only classier.

You're singing in public; you're being made fun of by these guys. You stink out loud, or have forgotten the lyrics, or your pants fell off. THAT's funny and yes, I would do that!

Guy Who's 90, Drunk and Gets Pulled Over For DUI, Sings ABC Song to Cop: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and so forth... Drunk Girl At Karaoke Chooses to Sing ABC Song, Because She Knows No Other Song?... A, A, A, (ad infinitum, even with help from a drunker friend.) The show kept returning to this; it went on for a while, but no one seemed to mind. All of this is hilarious to me and then I remembered when I first started learning to read music and I had to laugh at my own non-clue, artless behavior. Understand that this was back in the Pleistocene Era of 1966 and I was eager to learn, we'd done the whole A, B, C, D, E, F, G thing. I don't even remember my first music teacher, and in my usual way I was in a rush and was not looking at books. I was looking at my very 1^st violin. I just couldn't wait to learn about the H note. I'm still waiting.