John Wayne She Ain't

According to FOX News Hillary Clinton   has apologized to Pakistan for a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Boy, how today's reality differs from yesteryear's fantasies! One of the memorable lines in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon was spoken in some context by John Wayne's character, Captain Nathan Brittles. "Never apologize.  It's a sign of weakness."

Apologies seem to make up a great deal of our foreign policy these days.  A great deal of our national psyche. Most of it occurs in Afghanistan for the killing of their supposed civilians.  Never mind the 'apology tour' the President took after he was first elected. Now the Pakistanis.  If their military weren't up to their ears in cahoots with the terrorists perhaps the mishap wouldn't have happened. Even so, it is war and the military is just that, military.  Unexpected, unplanned and regrettable deaths come with the territory.

I get the feeling we're being played.  We've extended our regrets for the incident every which way but naught.  We didn't utter the 's' word - sorry. ' Regret'  didn't do it.  'Sincere condolences' for the loss didn't do it.  They wanted to hear 'sorry'.  Now they have. I can almost hear them crowing, "We did it, we made them say it!"

Of course we got something for it.  The vital supply lines into Afghanistan are to be reopened.  Let's hope they uphold their end of the bargain. They've been held hostage since the incident, costing the U.S. billions in rerouting expense. Personally I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Tomorrow we celebrate our independence from the tyranny of King George III.  Today we  face another type of tyranny - that imposed on us by political ideology on one side and apathy on the other.  The freedoms we fought so hard to win are being siphoned away from us slowly and methodically.  When will we reach the point of no return?

It's not so difficult to foresee.  When apologizing for everything others haven't liked about us becomes the norm.  When leading from behind becomes the norm.  When parsing words into expedient definitions becomes the norm.  I could go on and on.

As long as any of my generation live and remember what we were in the heyday of John Wayne, unabashed flag waving patriots, the memories will be preserved.

I worry though about what happens next.  All those norms I mentioned are today's normal.  What the youth of this country will grow up knowing.  With the tendency we now have to revise history just as we parse definitions, when we're gone so will be the country my generation and those who came before created and grew.  No more. It isn't even being sustained.

Will there be another John Wayne?  No one comes close at the moment.  It certainly isn't an Alec Baldwin with his tempermental petulance.  Is the pendulum swinging back?  I don't see it.  All I see is division, distrust, partisanship and the depression that can't help but accompany it.

There is so much potential and pockets of success still out there.  It just isn't getting the press nor the support of a more and more repressive government.  Independence Day.  Just what does it mean to you?  Have you thought about it? Will you fight for it?

Weather As An Analogy

Ever since JFK was assassinated, I've seen a parallel between events and weather.  I remember that day.  My family was on the way to New York City.  My Dad had business, my Mom was going for fun and I was tagging along to visit some friends.  It was cloudy when we stopped for gas and the station attendent told me the news.  The President had been shot! I immediately rushed to the car and had Dad turn on the radio. We drove on in shocked silence.

As the news turned from bad to worse the rain came.  It wasn't an angry rain, more gentle and cleansing, but oh did it rain.  The restaurant where we had dinner was hushed.  We stopped by my friend's apartment and sat around for a short period trying to make small talk.  We failed miserbly.  The next day, the rain had stopped though the clouds remained.  Dad's business meetings were cancled, there was no fun for Mom and me?  Well, I just went numbly with the flow.

 It was winter of course so the clouds were expected.  It's the rain I remember most.  It seemed like the heavens were expressing the feelings of the country - crying in grief than cleansing the horror.

The storms that have recently hammered the Washington D.C. area brought a lot of that back to mind.  I see horrendous storms ahead.  Full of destrucive winds, driving rain, lightening that crackles, downed power lines, people suffering in extreme heat.   The fire storms in the west too. Devastation. The storms will all end.  The people will pick themselves up and move on.  It's what we Americans do.

But just what is the analogy?  The storm that is brewing over health care.  The implications of whether it's a tax as the Supreme Court has ruled, or a mandate as the administration continues to say.  There is a difference.  Oh, yes.  A huge difference.  There are the problems of implementation.  States saying the won't implement the law.  Law suits forming.  The Republicans insisting on repeal and replace but with what?  Everyone is stumbling around in a daze - even those who think that at least for the moment they have won.  Because they don't have the people.

Then there is the economy which is still struggling.  The unemployed and under employed facing a new tax burden.  Food prices rising because of the droughts and fires.  Oil beginning to go back up because of continued economic instability in Europe.  Stormy.

Iran is playing war games.  Syria continues to stink with the stench of death.  Egypt has a President that wants us to release a terrorist.  Hong Kong Chinese are protesting the visit of China's president.  Mexico is about to elect a President from a party of corrupt thugs.

The lyrics from Stormy Weather say, "Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky."  Actually, I do!

Sing Fat Lady, Sing!

As I was finishing up my morning coffee I browsed through the Wall Street Journal Magazine.  It is filled with all things high end and high maintenence.  I look sometimes wishfully, sometimes snickering and sometimes resigned to the fact that the magazine is definitley not aimed toward me.

Now, I'm old, I'll admit, and as one ages one's perspective can change.  To me the women look emaciated.  Seeing light between their thighs is just too skinny.  The men look like shoulderless wimps trying to grow facial hair to make them look like they can actually afford the clothes they model.

And the clothes.  Even when I lived in New York and San Franscisco I never ever saw anyone in the designer garb being hyped.

After I finished up my coffee I had a doctor's appointment.  My weight and blood pressure were both down and the nurse was kind enough to tell me I didn't look my age.  Well.  That was nice.  I had told my doctor that I was consciously working on the weight but I no longer weighed myself nor took my blood pressure because I was obsessing over both and Hub was getting more than a little weary listening to me.

But there is a point to this.  I do try.  I do care about my appearence.  Is that a generational thing?  Maybe yes, maybe no.  I just don't like torn jeans or tattoos or body piercings, or my body not quite squeezed into my clothes. There must be a happy medium.  I wonder, though, what the fitness industry is trying to accomplish with it's latest trend, gyms banning slim clients !

This seems to be counter indicative of incentive!  Of course in this age where everyone wants everything to be free and painless,  being made to feel uncomfortable because you're a tad hefty and your fellow exercisers may not be quite as much, is self defeating, isn't it?

I don't know.  If I were going to a gym and everyone looked like I do, I'd wonder why I was bothering.  I want to see what I might be able to achieve!  My self esteem would not be affected in a negative manner. It just might get the kick in the pants it needs.

If we cocoon ourselves with only those like us, and it's easy to do, we'll never achieve anything.  We'll begin to feel we're the norm, that we're just like everyone else.  Take a walk through a parking lot or store and you see more stouts than slims these days.

On the other hand there are the designers of those frocks in the glossy magazines.  Even though they've gotten hip to the idea many of us are larger than a size 2, the models appear the same no matter what.  And they fudge the sizes.  I have no idea what size I actually am.  It all depends on the label. But I sure don't look like the models.  Never have and never will.

I can sing though.  Being not quite thin by today's standards, I measure my accomplishments no longer by scale but by how many of the 'skinny' clothes in my closet are gradually beginning to fit again.  It gives me a huge sense of satisfaction.

So let the fit and trim into the gyms!  After all, it's how they got that way and how they maintain it and gyms may well be the last bastions of good examples. If you're going to belly up to a bar, the juice bar at the gym might be a good choice. The test will be when you can reach the juice before your belly hits the bar!

The Wisdom Of The Supremes

I have not yet had the time to read through the Supreme Court decision on health care and probably won't until all the hyperbole dies down and cool heads prevail.

I do feel, however, that Chief Justice Roberts couldn't be more correct when he stated, "It is not our job to protect the people from the outcome of their political choices."

There is nothing more important to remember as this election season continues.  Consider the consequences for there will be consequences.  Good, bad and indifferent.

Sean Hannity Was Right!

Back when the turmoil first began in Egypt, Sean Hannity did little but harp on the possibility of the Muslim Brotherhood taking over the government should Mubarak fall.

Never having thought Hannity is much more than a parrot for conservative causes, I listened to the "experts" who assured us that the Muslim Brotherhood had a miniscule presence in Egypt and the chances of their gaining a foothold was basically nil.

So much for self-proclaimed experts!  The Egyptians have now elected a member of the Brotherhood to the presidency. I harken back to the thought we had best be careful of what we wish.

He was elected democratically.  That brings me to a Dogwalk theorem. A democratic election doesn't necessarily bring democracy nor  do democratic elections necessarily mean a change in culture.  Consider that an Egyptian plumber beat his pregnant wife to death because she didn't vote for the Brotherhood candidate, Mohammed Mursi.

That aspect of Islamic culture isn't going to change.  We're now stuck with keeping our fingers crossed that the military will keep him in check.  This will be no bed of roses since the military are no fans of democracy in the first place and you have an Islamist to lead what had been a secular country.

As is usual the rest of the world will be expecting the United States to take the lead in how relationships are handled.  There may be a lull until after our election since the world, though wanting it, has come not to expect such leadership from this administration.

To make matters even more sticky, the mother of Hillary Clinton's chief of staff has served in the women's division of the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood, and is a close associate of President Mursi's wife.  She alledgedly represented a charity known to have spawned at least one terror group designated by our government as an official al Qaeda front as well as other activities with terrorist ties.

Secretary of State Clinton has spoken at the university where Saleha Mahmood Abedin teaches and praised her work.  It brings back memories of when than Hillary, then wife of President  Clinton, spoke at a Palestinian function and exchanged a kiss of affection with Yasser Arafat's wife.

Oh the intrigue of international relations!  I can't help but wonder if blood runs thicker than water in this instance. Will we find out?  It's a concern to me when someone with the power of the Secretary of State has a person related to another with known terrorist ties on staff - especially chief of staff.

It's one thing to have no foreign policy.  It's so much easier to turn a blind eye to the atrocities in other countries but to have people with known terrorist ties in top positions in the most sensitive areas of government seems to be recklessly putting the country at risk.

It bears watching and is one more reason I keep harping on our lack of direction in foreign policy.  Keeping our back turned to what we'd rather not deal with doesn't mean it isn't there.  The adage 'the best defense is a good offense' should be heeded, not ignored.