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SUICIDE: COWARDICE OR COURAGE?

2009-08-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

Last month it was reported that British Opera maestro Edward Downes, 85, and his wife of 54 years, Joan, 74, died in an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. Their two children held their parents’ hands in their final moments, and later issued a statement that, "After 54 happy years together, they decided to end their own lives rather than continue to struggle with serious health problems.”

Downes, knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1991, was almost totally blind and increasingly deaf. His wife, a dancer, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Downes’ manager, Jonathan Groves, while stunned by the news, described the action as, “typically brave and courageous.”

I didn’t know Sir Edward or his wife, but I would agree with Mr. Groves. Suicide-- an act many of us were brought up to view as cowardly and sinful-- can often be the ultimate brave and even compassionate act of rationale human beings.

Our judgment of those who choose to die is too often based not on what such decisions mean for the person dying, but on what those decisions may mean for those left behind. When adults have lived their lives, contributed in some way to society, or long suffered in isolation, unable or unwilling to find serenity, they ought to be free to peacefully exit at will.

I watched my brother die of pancreatic cancer. I saw a strapping man vomit himself into an emaciated shadow of his former self. I cooked him meals he said he craved, that he would devour with gusto, unable to keep them down for more than ten minutes. I saw him weep for his children and thrash in helplessness for the freedom from pain that eluded him. Only after his suffering had spanned five months of misery for him and for all those around him did people see his death as a “blessing.”

Death may be a blessing whether it arrives on it own, or when people summon it earlier than others may feel is appropriate. Whether the body surrenders to age, illness or fatal injury, or one’s heart stops because that person is determined to stop it; the sleep that follows may always be sweet.

Only the harsh judgment of others, unable to get inside the skin of the suffering and exhausted person, smacks of bitterness, and seems more sinful than any suicide ever could be.
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SOTOMAYOR : YOU GO GIRL!!

2009-06-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

Women may not yet have full equality, but Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the US Supreme Court proves we can compete with the big guys now. It also means that women accepting patronage (and every political appointment is patronage) have an equal shot at getting pounded in the process. And when mud flies, women, like men, need to get over it and stop apologizing, as Sotomayor has in recent days for a handful of impolitic statements over the years.

This nomination is a lock. No backpedaling is required

Fact: President Barack Obama is one of the most popular presidents in US history. More importantly, he has the votes to get Sotomayor confirmed despite the ranting of opponents.

Fact: Latinos earned this appointment. Their support ensured Obama's election. Given the historic rivalry between blacks and Latinos in America's cities, that support was not easy to muster, and, once tendered, had a big price tag. One of the realities of politics is that everything given either creates a future debt, or is given to pay a debt owed.

Let's not pretend it's about how brilliant Sotomayor is, how impressive her career or her decisions. It's not about her mother or her public housing upbringing. Qualified as she is, she more pointedly checks the gender and ethnicity boxes Obama needed to check in order to settle his political accounts. Now he can silence whining Latinos, worried liberals, and a lonely Justice Ginsburg. This appointment is a three-fer: female, Hispanic, (hopefully) liberal.

No apologies.

Once Sotomayor is sworn in, liberals longing for a stronger voice on the court must hope she will stand up to the likes of Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito.

Will she be the Latina who sometimes panders to "los hombres" as the new kid on the block eager to please, or the tough chica ready and able to take her seat on the high court with all the confidence she has earned? The jury's still out.

Sotomayor's recanting of her 2001 remarks that a Latina judge would often reach a better conclusion than a white male judge who hasn't lived the same life is disappointing. She need not apologize for the unique richness of her life experience or its influence. All justices bring their personal context to the bench: it is humanly impossible not to. Thomas brings his blackness, Scalia and Alito their oft-mentioned Italo bent and so on.

This is not racism, but the reality of being human. If we apologize for that reality, the country is in worse shape than we thought — and that, too, is a fact.
________________________________

THE HIGH COST OF DRINKING

2009-05-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

Cigarette tax hikes nationwide have many smokers kicking the habit. The current economic mess may also have gamblers going to casinos less often. Yet, one costly vice always seems to get a pass: the use (and abuse) of alcohol—expensive, dangerous and sometimes deadly.

This is not a call for temperance: sharing a drink with friends can be relaxing and fun and medical findings say an occasional glass of wine may even be beneficial. But selling alcohol in clubs and restaurants is where the profits lie since the tossing of a shot into a glass costs much less than whipping up great tornadoes Rossini or a spectacular tiramisu .

Drinking at home isn’t cheap, but it is far less expensive than drinking out. Yet there is little said about the club-hopping crowd blowing rent or grocery money at bars and dining rooms where a few beers can run $10 - $20 and the cost of two martinis equals a restaurant entrée.

This doesn’t occur to some diners when at, let’s say, a mid-level urban eatery, Couple A drinks mineral water or diet Coke with dinner and Couple B has cocktails and two glasses of wine with the meal. Those alcoholic beverages add the equivalent of two additional meals onto the bill. So Couple A ends up paying for three full meals in its half of the tab. (Would anyone order a second entrée and expect the other couple to pay for it?)

New England clubs and restaurants see no decline in drink orders with prices (beer, $4.50 - $5.50, wine, $6 - $10, or cocktails, $10 - $13) still seeming reasonable to patrons. Suburban bar prices are at least a dollar cheaper on beer, wine and cocktails than in most city bars. Still, budgets can be strained by a couple of Grey Goose martinis at $10 or more each, or a few shots of Patron tequila, at $8 or higher per shot.

Mark Gasbarro, fourth generation owner of Gasbarro Wines in Providence sees more patrons seeking cheaper ($9 - $10) bottles of wine. They understand that a bottle of good wine often costs less than one glass served by a bartender. A 33 oz. bottle of Grey Goose Vodka at $35 retail, meanwhile, makes 17 martinis-- enough to keep most drinkers happy for a week.

Two glasses of wine totaling $18 (plus a tip) equal at least 8 gallons of gas, a meal in many fine restaurants, at least two packs of cigarettes, three tickets to most movies, the co-pay for a doctor visit, one day’s worth of groceries, an hour at the quarter slots at Foxwoods Casino or a few races at the track with average luck, and a whole lot more.

Multiply that $18-worth of socializing times the number of nights most regular patrons drink out, and we’re talking serious dents in rent, prescriptions, insurance, telephone, child support, tuition, and many other serious monthly bills. (Then there are also the related “drinking costs” for parking, parking tickets, “picking up the tab,” auto damage, injuries and worse from drinking and driving.)

The deep recession reminds us that the phrase, “Drink Responsibly” has an economic edge as well, and one worth managing prudently, perhaps at home.
______________________END_______________________

A DRY WEEK IN KENYA

2009-05-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

"We have looked at all issues which can bring people to talk and we have seen that sex is the answer," says Rukia Subow, chair of the Women’s Development Organization, Kenya's oldest women's group. And with that, 11 feminist organizations in Kenya banded together to withhold sex from their men for one week in an effort to stop the political squabbling threatening that nation’s fragile coalition government. The women are paying prostitutes to temporarily go celibate, and the wives of Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have also been asked to participate.

Men in Kenya are polygamous by law, and AIDS rates are high, so there may be increased sexual activity with multiple partners. If this is true, organized sexual inactivity could influence male politicians. More likely, not all women will comply and men will have their way by intimidation if necessary. Also, seven days isn’t enough time.

Such a plan would be even less likely to work here at home.

Internet statistics about frequency of sexual activity among Americans--particularly married people-- indicate that abstaining from sex for a week would be fairly normal. This isn’t a nation of sexually hyper-active folks, especially in the over-forty ranks from which political leaders usually come.

Michelle Obama doesn’t seem like the type of woman who needs to join in such a strike. She could probably just talk Barack into submission.

Lacking a prime minister, we’d have to look to Hillary Clinton our Secretary of State as the other possibility. Hillary probably adopted the withholding-sex-from-Bill strategy long ago (not that he’s since “gone without.”)

Leaders like (use any first name here) Kennedy and Chris Dodd have always demonstrated that they could have as many women as they wanted, wherever, whenever. Across the aisle, Republicans like John McCain give the impression that their interest in sex is but a memory. In the case of conservatives such as Orrin Hatch, one wonders if they ever have had a sexual temperature beyond 98.6.

Then there is the Barney Frank contingent (exact numbers still hiding in the great congressional closet) to whom threats of sex-withholding by people of the opposite gender mean nothing.

The Trojan idea of women strapping on chastity belts toward political ends will probably fail to resurrect democracy in Kenya. It does, however, remind us that empires and political careers have historically been kicked to the curb in exchange for a moment or two of lust. (Eliott Spitzer, Gary Hart and others can, have and will write books on the subject. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s wife also went public again this week on her husband’s zipper problem.)

Power remains a great aphrodisiac and one likely to allow the endless supply of available men and women determined to sample just one more dose, whenever they can, to find each other.
_________________END________________

NOTRE DAME DE "MIXED MESSAGE"

2009-04-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

Richard V. Allen, Ronald Reagan’s national security advisor, recently wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times strongly defending Reagan’s honorary degree from Notre Dame University on the basis of the former president’s alleged “pro-life” politics. Allen, a Notre Dame alumnus, just as strongly argued against a similar honor planned for President Obama in May.

Apparently Mr. Allen was so busy working for Reagan that he never noticed the president’s actual history on abortion rights. As one “pro-life” writer points out on www.issues2000.org

“Reagan was not as obsessive about anti-abortion legislation as he often seemed. Early in his California governorship he had signed a permissive abortion bill that has resulted in more than a million abortions. Afterward, he inaccurately blamed this outcome on doctors, saying that they had deliberately misinterpreted the law. When Reagan ran for president, he won backing from pro-life forces by advocating a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited all abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother. Reagan’s stand was partly a product of political calculation, as was his tactic after he was elected of addressing the annual pro-life rally held in Washington by telephone so that he would not be seen with the leaders of the movement on the evening news…”
(Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 812 Jul 2, 1991)

Notre Dame has given honorary degrees in the past to publicly pro-choice people like Obama including U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, President John F. Kennedy, and actress Cicily Tyson, a Planned Parenthood advocate, to name just a few. (Notre Dame also gave an honorary degree to Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the president, a Catholic and an alleged bootlegger, public philanderer and long-time paramour of actress Gloria Swanson.)

In 2005, another Catholic college, Loyola University, gave former seminarian Rudy Giuliani an honorary degree, seemingly unconcerned that the former Republican mayor and presidential candidate was pro-choice, had a series of marriages, divorces and public infidelities, abandoned his wife and children, and supported homosexuals, all in defiance of Catholic teachings.

President Obama is at least as worthy in the “Catholic context” as many others on Notre Dame’s past lists of commencement speakers and honorees: so-called “good Catholics” who don’t think so need to stop changing the rules whenever it’s convenient.

Obama, not a Catholic, worked as an attorney helping the underprivileged, shunning higher paying jobs to do this good “Catholic” work.

His record as a politician, as far as we know, is unblemished by the usual shady behaviors and tendency to overlook (if not participate in) graft and corruption.

Obama’s respect and love for his elders, wife and daughters, as well as for those less fortunate than himself, shows that he understands and embraces the greatest commandment to “Love thy Neighbor.” Regarding “basic family values” he excels where Reagan (divorced, remarried, estranged from his children, and no friend to the poor) failed miserably.

If the Catholic Church-- losing membership, wanting in new priests, and steeped in scandals which are bankrupting dioceses left and right-- can’t get its values in order, at least its defenders should try to get their facts straight.
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ITALY EARTHQUAKE UNITES US

2009-04-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

The letterhead of an itinerary planning firm I used to own, asked, “Have you ever known anyone who went to Italy and never wanted to return?”

Probably not.

Italy enchants. It fascinates with its reverence for ancient ruins and it tantalizes with its innate elegance, visible on the streets of Milan, Florence and Rome as well as on its volcanic islands and in its remote villages.

If disclaimers are necessary, I am proud of my 100% Italian roots. My father was an immigrant from a small town outside Pompeii, and his parents as well as those of my mother were born on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. I make no apologies: I love Italy.

In that affection, I am joined by millions around the globe. Italy has been Europe’s top tourism destination and it remains a country which citizens of the world adore.

Now, as it struggles to rise once again from yet one more assault by nature in the earthquake-ravaged Abruzzi, sympathetic admirers from around the globe rush to send whatever relief they can. Here at home, the millions of Americans with roots in the boot, interrupt their Easter plans to raise monies, gather supplies, contact friends and family who may have been displaced and establish bridges of hope between the leveled towns of Italy’s Southwest and the struggling cities of the USA, those latter leveled economically by the current and deep recession.

Even Italians outside the stricken region are raging and mourning the unnecessary death toll because government funds provided years ago—after similar quakes—were apparently skimmed by politicians instead of being used to build the earthquake-proof buildings that might have saved so many lives. Americans share that disillusionment as they look around at the plundered financial landscape around them as well.

We can only do what brothers and sisters do in tough times like these. So we share what bread and water we have between us and send what pennies we can spare along with clothing, blankets and medical supplies. Those of us who pray should do so.

All of us, meanwhile, should think positive thoughts and work for justice, for in Italy’s current moment of tragedy we join her in the allegory of the greed of the powerful bringing down ruin on the serenity of the struggling.

In that sense, we are all family.
___________________END___________________
Aid to earthquake victims in Italy can be given by calling 1-800-REDCROSS

IS GOD GOING GLOBAL??

2009-04-05T18:53:00.001-07:00

A national Study-- the American Religious Identification Survey-- reported this month that 1 million fewer New Englanders claim to be Roman Catholic today than did in 1990. Nationally, 29 states showed a decline in the number of Catholics, while gains in supporters of Rome turned up in Texas (up 9%.,) California (up 8 %,), and Florida (up 4 %.)

Overall, these results agree with another study by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. The trend seems to be a shift of Catholic population in the U.S. from the Northeast to the Southwest. Florida qualifies with its tremendous influx of traditionally Catholic immigrants from Cuba, South and Central America and the Caribbean. Texas and California, as border states, share a similar demographic experience with large numbers of Catholic Mexicans arriving daily.

Mainstream Protestant sects also showed national losses. Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists and United Church of Christ members declined from 18.7 to 12.9 %. Among non-Christian groups, Jews and Muslims slipped from a combined total of 3% of American believers in those religions to only 2%.

Where is god going?

While we may not be becoming a godless nation, we may be altering the way we understand god and the way we worship. “Blind faith,” which for centuries held Catholic believers together, no longer cuts the mustard with American congregations weary of taking orders from a hierarchy unable or unwilling to acknowledge its own scandals, sins and mistakes.

Diocese after Catholic diocese has either approached or fallen into bankruptcy brought on by settlements for sexual abuse scandals involving priests. Additionally, Rome’s continued rigidity regarding female ordination and its refusal to heed the 21st century concerns of its faithful regarding celibacy, birth control, abortion and sexual orientation have only widened the breach of lay distrust and dismay.

What is seldom discussed, on the other hand, is the appeal that Catholic dogma has for evangelical extremists and just-plain-rednecks who love to wallow in inflexibility. For some, what actually attracts is the lack of “gray” areas and the rejection of free will, a basic tenet of Catholic theology despite Rome’s disregard for it.

In New England, cities like Worcester, Manchester, or Woonsocket—once Catholic strongholds— seem unlikely to rise again to strengthen the numbers of what they once called the “one true church.” Boarded up factories, foreclosed homes and a Catholic ministry ill-equipped and disinclined to nurture a decimated flock do not bode well for “blind faith” or “glorious mysteries.”

The real as well as spiritual “loaves and fishes” exhausted bodies and souls seek and require seem nowhere to be found there.

But even as places like Texas and Florida-- where men are men, women are disposable and authority figures like cops, judges and bishops never have to say they’re sorry-- have become the new hotspots for organized religions, it is important to remember that god (as opposed to “churches”) can exist anywhere.

Perhaps the new shift in faith-based demographics tell us less about America going godless than they tell us about god going global.
_______________END_________________

A Sucker Born Every MInute!

2009-02-07T04:49:00.000-08:00

22-year-old Natalie Dylan (not her real name) is auctioning off her virginity allegedly to pay for graduate school for herself and her sister. If her web photograph is authentic, she is a beautiful California woman, complete with tan and bikini figure, so it is no wonder some sex-starved rich guy has offered to deflower her for what is said to be a $3.7 million profit to the coed. At that rate, she and her sister can both become brain surgeons!

Many around the world view this story with amazement and wonder how such advertised prostitution—illegal in most of the U.S.—can go unchallenged by authorities. The answer lies in Natalie’s use of the loophole provided by Nevada’s sanction of prostitution as a lawful activity.

For her part, the student called Natalie says we live in a capitalist society and she sees no reason not to capitalize on what the bordello where her deflowering is scheduled to occur (the Moonlite Bunny Ranch) calls a “priceless and rare commodity.”

At $3.5 million, the definition “priceless” may apply. In today’s America, despite Bush’s failed push for abstinence, most marriages occur between the sexually initiated, not virgins, so a beautiful 22-year-old virgin woman may, indeed, be rare as well.

The ones most likely to feel cheated, however, are those legions of mothers and grandmothers from past generations wherein the idea of a single woman losing her virginity and being paid for it was unthinkable! In their day, a single woman who had intercourse was someone to scorn, treat with shame, punish, not reward. These women did not guard their virginity because they didn’t have the same horny feelings as the women who followed them in the “free love” tradition, but because a women who married and who did not have her virginity to offer on the wedding night risked ruining her marriage and her life.

Now these same women wake up to a world where what they saved so guardedly and gave away so selflessly is actually worth millions of dollars in some quarters. Hell, if they had known that, they might have tried to hawk their maidenheads too!

Natalie Dylan brings new meaning to the old adage from Britain's Thomas Tusser that, “ A fool and his money are soon parted.” Mostly, however, Dylan’s story underscores the accurate observation—often attributed to P.T. Barnum-- that there is a sucker born every minute.
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NOT-SO-SWEET CAROLINE

2008-12-22T16:47:00.000-08:00

Caroline Kennedy is someone many have rightfully admired. She is an accomplished attorney and author, has raised three children with an amazing discretion rare among public figures, and has always behaved in a way that brought honor and dignity to the historic name she carries.

Kennedy has also stayed far from the eye of most political storms, limiting her involvements-- until this presidential year-- to occasional public appearances to help candidates such as her cousin, RI Congressman Patrick Kennedy.

Then Barack Obama came on the scene with his alleged, “Change We Can Believe In.” In a flash, Caroline was on the stage, on the road and-- after the nomination had been secured-- on Obama’s Vice President Selection Committee.

Caroline, along with clan head Uncle Ted and lesser-known kin with varying degrees of political involvement, piled onto the Obama bandwagon and savored victory on election night as only Kennedy’s can—by figuring out what their candidate could now do for them.

Apparently one of the things the president-elect could do was to save Caroline from empty-nest boredom by freeing up the U.S. Senate seat that coincidentally represents her Park Avenue address. (Will she then go on to a challenge for the presidency down the road?)

Within days of Hillary Clinton’s nomination as Secretary of State, global media was reporting the former First Daughter’s interest in running for her senate seat. Shortly after that Caroline Kennedy was frantically lobbying political powers to convince NY governor David Paterson to appoint her to finish the Clinton term.

Like Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Kennedy has dodged the press, avoiding interviews and speaking only through spokespeople. Kennedy, however, does this with impunity while Palin was excoriated for her initial silence. Palin may have been aware of her limitations, thus avoiding the scrutiny that eventually came anyway. Kennedy may also fear being exposed for what many hesitate to say she is—less experienced, though more polished, than Palin.

Rhode Islanders more than most Americans are familiar with the syndrome of electing unqualified people named Kennedy: they keep re-electing Patrick Kennedy to represent them in Congress. They are also familiar with such people buying power and keeping it by outspending all challengers.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo tops a list of 12 more qualified aspirants to the vacated Clinton senate seat. Caroline’s dashing of Cuomo’s hopes must be especially satisfying. He is the ex-husband of her cousin and Kennedy’s always get mad, and always get even.

The Caroline senate seat hunt will tell if the Kennedy name alone is still enough. In a political world where “What can you do for me yesterday?” is all, patriarch Ted Kennedy’s terminal illness changes the chessboard significantly. His last remaining chits may either have been called in (for Obama), or their expiration dates are racing against his metastases.

The perpetuation of political legacies is something America thought it had left behind with the choosing of Obama and the farewell to Bush. If Caroline Kennedy ever was sincere about “Change We Can Believe In” she ought to let such change occur, and continue her apolitical career while she still has the nation’s undying respect and affection.

___END___

MOVING TOWARD THE BLINDNESS WE NEED

2008-11-30T17:14:00.000-08:00

Since Barack Obama’s election the media has been full of congratulatory essays—verbal and written—about the greatness of an America able to elect a person of color to the highest office. A few mention casually that it has taken us more than 2000 years to get to this point: more often the thrust of the commentary is about the greatness of a nation finally gone color-blind.

We aren’t really color-blind. This year, in a sort of national desperation fueled by a sitting president widely viewed as a failure and even a dangerous incompetent at many levels, American voters were able to get a bit more farsighted in their vision of race-- even if they have not gone blind to skin color altogether.

All the orchids being heaped on us in the meantime bring to mind feminist Gloria Steinem thoughts in the 70’s about the women’s movement and men who were coming along on the long road to gender equity. She used to point out how odd it was that men got sanctified for doing simple things like throwing their own underwear in the hamper when they should have been doing that all along anyway.

In that same way, Americans are being congratulated (and are congratulating themselves) that they finally were able to go to the polls to elect a capable man coincidentally of color as president. In this euphoria, not enough is said about how obvious the choice between Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin obviously was to so many, not because Obama is half-black but because he and his running mate are so qualified, so calm and rational, so what America needs right now by stark comparison to their opponents.

One speculates whether Obama privately shakes his head at all the racial fuss. Does our president-elect wonder what took America so long? Does he think about all the men and women of color who came before him, equally and even more brilliant than he is, who were rejected and even destroyed because America’s vision was monochrome?

Certainly the outcome of this election is something to be proud of because we have elected a great man and also because his defeated opponent has graciously stepped aside with sincere praise for the new president and even promises of cooperation.

But America should not be fooled into thinking its fixation on race has disappeared overnight. Sadly, and terrifyingly, those who cannot embrace the color blindness of true equality (and its related gender neutral and faith irrelevant underpinnings) will continue to hate, malign and even try to harm, those they see as unacceptable.

In times like these, racism and the related hatreds of all who are not white, male and Christian in America simply go underground. They get quieter and sometimes more determined in the face of what they see as a defeat. They also necessitate extraordinary precautions like the two-inch thick bullet-proof glass surrounding the First Family on election night in Chicago for Obama’s victory speech. (U.S. press hardly mentioned that glass, though the foreign media showcased it.)

Only when all the bullet-proof measures safely come down can America start patting herself on the back. She may be needing bifocals now, but she’s not color-blind just yet. ______________________END____________________

E PLURIBUS.....PLURIBUS

2008-10-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

While all 50 United States follow, like lemmings, as the same bureaucrats who created the current financial crisis pretend to correct it, in the European Union it’s not so easy.
Over the weekend, Europe’s leaders met and pledged to implement steps to allow EU member countries to recover from their own fiscal woes. But while individual countries vowed to help their own floundering banks, the group stopped short of any “joint effort” to pool aid for any European bank that needed help. Spain, Germany, and Estonia could not, in the end, act as financial equals.

Beyond the obvious economic differences between Malta and Berlin, for example, the EU lacks homogeneity among its members. While Americans claim regional differences—New Englanders vs. Southerners or Midwesterners vs. anybody else, for example—when push comes to shove we put our hands over our hearts and sing the Star Spangled Banner as if we mean it (assuming we can remember the words and carry the obtuse tune, that is.)

Overseas, the Italians have little in common with the Danes, and Athens has a worldview very different from Warsaw, while the French disagree with almost everyone. The EU may be a “union” in theory—Teutonic, Nordic, Baltic and Greco-Roman offshoots joined by a common currency—but it is a mistake to think of the EU as a “United States of Europe.”

Varied as the root backgrounds of Americans may be, and deep as the classic distrust even fourth generation U.S. WASPS and ethnics still have for each other, we coexist as “one people.” We may think of ourselves as “Irish Americans,” “African-Americans,” or “Jewish Americans,” at times, but when terrorists take down two towers in New York City or the stock market crashes on Wall Street, we understand how connected we are and how common our pain really is.

Americans tend to forget their individual differences in times of crisis, becoming more “American” as times get tougher. Europeans, instead, retreat into their distinct cultural caves when life throws them a curve.

Though historically Washington is the cultural “new kid on the block” (compared to, say, Rome or Paris) Americans have been sharing a uniform currency, singular allegiance, common language and free travel between all the states of our union for more than 200 years. In Europe all of these are recent (1992) ideas, which, in some places, haven’t caught on yet.
Since we’ve been “one people” longer than they have been trying to become such a thing our job is more difficult now. Iowa and Maine, Georgia and Nevada may all want Europe’s leaders to stabilize the European markets so Wall Street can benefit, but London, Amsterdam, and Budapest may not be in harmony about how to do it jointly.

The almighty dollar may be less mighty these days, but the world still recognizes it on a price tag. Euro prices, conversely, are still translated into lire, francs or marks—whatever currency locals think of as “real money.”

So as long as our friends overseas count their money differently within their individual borders, they will find it harder to come together to embrace a European economic solution. Until then, their global neighbors can only wait, and pray.
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GET LOST, SARAH !

2008-09-15T16:14:00.000-07:00

MEMO to John NcCain; we may be angry, but we haven’t gone completely mad.

Like many in my demographic, I have been disappointed Hillary Clinton wasn’t the Democratic nominee. Beyond that, I don’t feel it has been a “fair fight.” Having said that, however, I am not prepared to ditch all that Clinton and many of us believe in to vote for someone just because she may have matching genitals. Such behavior, is, in fact, so typically male as to be one of the reasons women have not yet been able to achieve the equity they deserve. So John Mc Cain can try to shove Sarah Palin down our throats all he likes,but most of us won’t find sisterhood in this ticket.

The selection of a stridently anti-choice, environmentally impaired creationist by former Hillary supporters would prove that those voters never really understood what Clinton stood for in the first place.

Palin’s beauty queen to PTA to governorship path to political prominence may be enough to satisfy the right wing fringes, but people who were supporting Sen. Clinton because she was the most qualified candidate, in their view,don’t see in Palin what they are looking for in a leader- of whatever gender.

The notion that women vote with their privates is insulting beyond words. On the contrary, feminists have always found that their toughest opponents were also women—and women just like Palin, by the way. For such women see the appropriate place for the rest of us as tied to our husband’s leashes, subserviently waiting for the next command to leap in the air when any male
says, “Jump!”

A politician of any gender who believes in forced pregnancy, even if caused by rape or incest as Palin does, has no understanding of the basic tenet of women’s ability to be free which is the control of her own fertility. One who would force religious theories of human evolution into the public education system to compete with scientific realities either has never read or cannot comprehend the U.S. Constitution. Any leader who—despite mounting evidence to the contrary—refuses to acknowledge that humankind’s mindless abuse of the environment threatens our lives, our health and the planet is either totally insensitive, grossly unaware or politically bought and paid for by the primary abusers.

The Obama camp need not panic, but must get a grip on the snake oil show being created by the Republicans. Proving that Sarah Palin is not and never can be Hillary Clinton should be child’s play. Real Hillary supporters not only don’t want either McCain or, god forbid,Palin answering that ringing red phone at 3 AM, they don’t even want Palin to be on the Commander-in-Chief’s speed dial.

Let’s leave mindless voting by rote to the fanatical fringes where it has always existed and cannot, apparently, be exorcised. The rest of the voters who, hopefully, believe in a politcal agenda of one kind or another, need to follow that agenda whatever color it may be and whatever genitals it may sport. Period.

______END____

NOT IN YOUR WILDEST, RUSH LIMBAUGH!

2008-08-15T17:33:00.000-07:00

If there were an award for the most asinine remarks about l'Affair Edwards, it would have to go to radio blowhard Rush Limbaugh who blamed Elizabeth Edwards for her husband’s sexcapades commenting, on air:
"...if Elizabeth Edwards is smarter than John Edwards, is it likely that she thinks she knows better than he does what his speeches ought to contain and what kind of things he ought to be doing strategy-wise in the campaign? If she is smarter than he is, could it have been her decision to keep going with the campaign? In other words, could it be that she doesn't shut up? Now, that's as far as I'm going to go...It just seems to me that Edwards might be attracted to a woman whose mouth did something other than talk...my theory that I just explained to you about why — you know, what could have John Edwards’ motivations been to have the affair with Reille Hunter, given his wife is smarter than he is and probably nagging him a lot about doing this, and he found somebody that did something with her mouth other than talk…"

I know a little about talk radio. For 13 years, I had one of the top-rated radio talk shows on Southern New England’s flagship talk station. Rush was also syndicated on that station. I met him, and he was already a jackass then.

Rush enjoys taking potshots at people from the safety of his bunker in Florida. He never engages in debate—even with his callers. Anyone who dares to challenge one of his statements disappears quickly into the silence created by turning off the caller’s sound.

Limbaugh has three failed marriages under his belt. As TV commentator Keith Olbermann pointed out recently, Rush earns a reported $30 million but can’t find a woman to put up with him at any price.

Now, in a monologue more shallow and stupid than his usual lack-of-depth ravings, Limbaugh blames Elizabeth Edwards for he husband’s “straying” because, in the Rush World, intelligent, capable women apparently can’t also have sex appeal.

Such a distorted view may spring from the probability that no intelligent, capable woman would want to have sex with Limbaugh (especially without benefit of all those pain-killing drugs he’s so fond of.)

Rush Limbaugh isn’t a conservative, he’s a failed sportscaster who found a niche in talk radio and he’s milking it for everything he can. He spends most of his time, alone now, in a mansion in Florida, from whence he broadcasts his daily tirades.
For a few hours a day, Rush can beat up on the poor, the halt, the liberal, and even cancer-stricken women like Elizabeth Edwards from the solitude of his studio. Then, the red “On Air” lights go off, he gets into a limousine, and goes home again-- still alone.

No throngs of women scream at curbside or tear at his clothes as they might were he a sex object.

So if Rush, and men like him, want a woman to use her mouth for “something other than talk,” they will simply have to pay for it.
_______END________

FATHERS KILLING DAUGHTERS -- FOR "HONOR"

2008-08-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

New Year’s Day 2008, in Lewisville Texas, teenage sisters Sarah and Amina Said were shot to death in a taxi—allegedly by their Egyptian Muslim father, a taxi driver charged with the murders but still at large.

His motive? They had dated non-Muslim boys.

A month earlier, across the border in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez was strangled to death by her Pakistani father for refusing to wear the hijab or head scarf. She was also “guilty” of changing into Western clothes once she got to school.

On July 6, 2008 twenty-five year old Sandeela Kanwal was strangled to death, allegedly by her father, Chaudhry Rashid, 54 in Atlanta, GA. Two months ago Kamwal had fled her groom in an unhappy arranged marriage and wanted to divorce. Father and daughter had not spoken since.

These four women were victims of so-called “Honor Killings,” not sanctioned by Islam’s holy book, the Koran, but tolerated and criminally overlooked in many Muslim countries. The United Nations Populations Fund estimates 5000 such killings occur annually worldwide, though they are vastly underreported.

The horrific statement such crimes make about women as disposables in extremist Islam exposes a frightening and repulsive subtext of Americans apparently unwilling or unable to leave barbaric practices in the “old country.” While many American Muslims are working to build bridges with non-Muslim neighbors, “honor killings” feed a national distrust of Islam, still raging since 9/11.

Though Islamic religious law does not sanction the killing of women in cases such as these, it does breed a misogyny too extreme to respect logic, reason and compassion. Women cannot drive cars or speak to a male stranger without severe punishment. When such primitive patriarchal dominance subjects intelligent, educated and reasonable women to the whims of sometimes uneducated, unreasonable and fanatical males, the consequences will eventually reach criminal stages.

The women will rebel, at their peril, and the men will react in the extreme. Ironically, in fanatic Islamic circles, the murdered victim is disgraced as the one who brought shame to the family while the male murderer is defended as the injured party.

In all of the above cases, the fathers are said to have had a history of physically and/or sexually abusing the young women before murdering them. And though Mrs. Said did flee to another state with her daughters, her husband’s fixation that “Western culture was corrupting the chastity of his daughters, “ as the Dallas Morning News describes it, gave murder better odds than attempted escape. Generally mothers and siblings do not go to authorities, or file charges at any point.

American justice cannot tolerate misogynistic violence and death in the name of “honor” any more than it can allow parents to leave unwanted female children on a hillside to die, as the ancients did.

The embrace of “hungry masses yearning to breathe free…” is the promise of one famous Lady to all comers—male and female. Those who cannot accept equality under the law here must be prosecuted to the fullest extent.

PTSD and John Mc Cain

2008-07-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

While some worry about the impact of John McCain’s age on his physical health and his longevity in office, others are more concerned about his mental health. The more than 1500 pages detailing McCain’s medical information released to date do not dispel the persistent notion that the candidate’s notorious temper may be related to his more than five years in a Vietnam prison camp where he attempted suicide (as reported in the NY Times August 25, 2007, eleven months after the British Observer-Guardian’s story.)

Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD)-- diagnosed in 1 of 8 veterans returning from the hell that is Iraq-- did not appear in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders until 1980, seven years after McCain’s release from Hanoi.

Anger and depression are two key symptoms of PTSD and much has been said about the government’s failure to provide veterans with the medical help they need. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that only 23-40% of soldiers suffering from PTSD seek help because of the stigma the military attaches to psychiatric treatment.

In “John McCain: An American Odyssey” author Robert Timberg (who McCain says knows, “more about me than I do”) calls McCain’s legendary rages, “out of all proportion to the provocation.” He has also spoken of McCain’s reaction to the sound of keys jangling as a trigger for his Vietnam jail nightmares.

McCain has also been quoted by columnist Sidney Blumenthal as calling colleagues, “asshole” and “fucking jerk,” on the Senate floor. Even if this were considered “normal” behavior, it would be difficult to classify as “presidential.”

His conservative idealism founded on “God, the USN, family and country” coupled with his age and questionable state of mind remind us of the infamous Clinton red-telephone ad. If/when the nuclear phone rings at 3 a.m. voters will prefer that the awakened president not be prone to disproportionate rages or phobias about jangling keys. They might also like allegiances to God, family and country to be weighed against diplomacy and global survival.

McCain’s claim to superior “foreign policy” skills in contrast to Obama is based on his Vietnam War experience. By that standard, approximately 500,000 U.S. soldiers who have served in Iraq would be qualified to become president, though 80,000 of them will be experiencing post-traumatic stress and 5 of those soldiers will try to commit suicide every day according to CNN and USA Today.

In the end, it may not be the Republican nominee’s age, but the very life experience that makes McCain a “war hero”—even to his opponents—that becomes his political undoing.

It is not enough to respond, as some have, that McCain’s mental health is no worse than Richard Nixon’s since no one cares to re-run that presidency. For the nation’s faith to be vested in John McCain, he will have to prove he is not the same man who tried to hang himself in a prison cell near Hanoi. And he shall have to do that without flying into a rage because someone raises a legitimate question about his mental health today.

2008-07-15T17:14:00.001-07:00

test

The REAL Depression

2008-07-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

She looked like many teenage girls-- dewy complexion and Miley Cyrus curls framing a pretty face. She cast her eyes toward the pavement, though, to avoid my smile as I held the door for her and her look-alike Dad rushing to join her from a suburban luxury car. He took the door and held it while thanking me. Her look said, ‘Please don’t notice we’ve come to this.”

I was dropping off clothing after a closet-cleaning spree. The Salvation Army is glad to have wearable donations, plus used books and toys, children’s furniture and anything re-useable. It provides a real service, especially in times like these. Lately, once-more-affluent newcomers have swelled thrift shoppers’ ranks.

The young woman and her Dad separated. He stopped at the collection of books and CD’s and she headed for the racks of women’s clothes. I watched her moving the hangers one by one as she inspected the items arranged by color. She slammed each rejected blouse angrily into the previous unwanted item on the rack, upset that her choices were reduced to this.

Behind her, a baby wailed. His young father comforted him while his mother turned from her inspection of used dishes to set the baby’s pacifier in his mouth. That little family showed none of the teen’s embarrassment. They looked like the usual clientele that enjoys bargain hunting in thrift shops.

The teen finally identified a blouse she could live with. Laundered and starched, it had today’s gypsy fashion look. She marched it over to her Dad who checked the price tag and gave her a cautious nod.

She never smiled. A shirt she could live with as opposed to an item of clothing she loved was a distinction her set jaw made clear. Holding the blouse up for a final inspection, her expression wondered, “Will anyone ever know I got this here?”

By then, Dad was inspecting clothing for young men. He found a Red Sox sweatshirt that looked as if it might fit a son about 10 years old. As he made the decision to take it, his head moved slightly toward one shoulder and he shrugged to himself in resignation.

This tiny drama in the Salvation Army mirrored scenes in supermarkets and other retailers of late. An elderly woman picks up a box of cereal, looks at the price, shakes her head and puts it back on the shelf. A young man in overalls driving a work truck watches the dials spinning at the gas pump and, in the end, replaces the nozzle mumbling curse words to himself. Good friends collecting unemployment make excuses when invited to join us at a local diner. In the drug store, a mother tells a begging child, over and over again, “Mommy can’t pay for that.”

“That” used to be a ten-dollar toy: now it’s a one-dollar bag of candy. Either way, the child is devastated and the Mom saddened.

My grandparents used to talk about “the Depression.” I am only now able to put a face on what they were remembering, and I am terrified for what the heartless, cold and costly winter will bring.
_____________END______________

SACRAMENTAL WEAPONS

2008-06-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

Douglas Kmiec is a 51 year-old legal scholar who has taught at Pepperdine University Law School, Notre Dame, and The Catholic University of America where he was law dean. He is a Catholic firmly opposed to abortion, personally and in public policy.

Kmiec cut his political teeth on Bobby Kennedy’s run for the White House then became a Reagan Republican and social conservative. Now he makes news as an “Obamacon.” While he supports Barack Obama despite—not because of—his position on abortion, Kmiec continues to oppose Roe v Wade.

When Kmiec recently expressed publicly his support for Barack Obama he was refused communion by a local priest, though the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ actual rule on support of pro-choice candidates by Catholics states:
“A Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who takes a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, such as abortion or racism, if the voter's intent is to support that position.”

But Kmiec opposes Obama’s pro-choice stand, and publicly advocates for a consistent “pro-life” position beyond abortion to include opposition to war, for example.

In 1985 after my publicly declared excommunication from the Catholic Church because of my work at Planned Parenthood and its abortion service, the diocese of Providence also attempted to withhold confirmation from my then 14-year-old daughter. Her “offense” was being my child. Pro- and anti-choicers alike expressed public horror, the church backed down, and an innocent child was confirmed after years of preparation.

In the 1980’s, former Sisters of Mercy Arlene Violet and Liz Morancy were forced by the bishop of Providence to choose between their vocations and their elected offices-- RI Attorney General and state legislator respectively. Both chose to continue to serve people through their government work. Both were also pro-choice, upholding the constitution as they had sworn to do in their oaths of office.

Kmiec took no such oath as a professor and he has consistently opposed abortion. The punitive action of one misguided priest, therefore—as well as the arrogance of clergy pretending to know who is worthy or unworthy to receive the sacraments—only resurrects the pelvic fixation of a hypocritical Catholic code.

There is no similar prohibition on communion to others who may kneel at the rail guilty of stealing or “covetting a neighbor’s spouse” for example. A priest on the altar cannot know who is or who is not “pro-choice.” Finally, the recent pedophilia pandemic in the church raises again the question I asked of my pastor in 1985:
“Father, let me get this straight. Because of my work at Planned Parenthood, you don’t want me to take communion from the hands of a man who may sexually abuse children. Is that right?”

Catholic Sen. Ted Kennedy has always been a leading proponent of reproductive rights. He is also battling brain cancer. Does anyone really believe he is going to be (or should be) denied sacramental comfort?

Catholic priests call themselves “vicars of Christ” so those giving communion need only recall Christ’s fogiveness of a thief on an adjacent Calvary cross, and ask, “What would Jesus do?”
______________END_________________

THE SAD STATE OF OUR MARKETPLACE

2008-05-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

“Inflation,” and “recession” are, for most of us, words we hear on a newscast or read in headlines. We understand only that things are not good, and “not good” means different things, depending on whether we earn over six figures or are struggling to survive on a small, fixed income.

So I went to the mall for a lesson in economics. America’s bad times were palpable there, and the national discomfort made itself known with every step.

I had a gift certificate for $250 from Christmas, and the semi-annual women’s sale was just beginning. A criminal lawyer might say I had means, motive, and opportunity to make a killing at the cash registers. Three hours later I had spent only about $10 having found little worth buying. Quality goods marked down were replaced with shabby “special purchases” manufactured in China or countries I can hardly pronounce. The price tags, however, were equal to those on designer goods tailor-made in Paris. The scam was obvious and I was not about to fall victim to blatant profiteering.

The store was also disarmingly empty with none of the usual “Big Sale” crowd buzzing with the excitement of a great item found at a bargain price. Several shoppers sorting through leather goods on a sale table seemed unenthusiastic (as well they should: the offerings were uninspiring.)

The store’s staff, did its best to “meet and greet,” as they were taught in Retail 101. There was something of desperation in their voices, however. My sense is they’ve been doing a lot more meeting and greeting lately, than closing the deal. Like me, shoppers often walked away empty-handed.

Disappointed but not deterred, I headed for the mall exit to spend my money in some other store. The depressing mood of the cavernous walkway-- almost empty except for a handful of shoppers-- chilled me. No pairs of shoppers squealing with delight, no buyer overloaded with shopping bags. The mall music was overwhelming with no consumer din to mask it.

Bored salespeople stared into space or chatted on cell phones. Some busied themselves with rearranging merchandise in the desperate hope of catching a buyer’s eye with a new display.
No shop I entered was busy. I did note that boutiques with big-ticket items seemed busier than department store chains that have been showering consumers with endless mail and newspaper coupons for double-digit discounts. Still, their aisles are sparsely populated.

No less determined, I went to the men’s department thinking I’d buy a new raincoat for my husband, but struck out there as well. No crisp, classic trench coats with zip-out linings, only overpriced “microfiber” numbers made in… you guessed it.

I headed for the garage and, on the way out, bought myself a new lipstick with one of those coupons I mentioned.

Hours after I had left for the mall an enthusiastic shopper, I was self-serving gas at $3.89 a gallon, grounded in brutal reality. I was headed home with only my lipstick and a more graphic understanding of America’s economic woes-- darker and heavier than I realized before my trip to the deserted, dying marketplace.
_____END_____

MY DOG WHO SPOKE TO MY SOUL

2008-05-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

Last week I had a total meltdown, in my car, in the garage, sobbing uncontrollably. I had just returned from doing a few errands when I realized—again—that my faithful companion of the last 16 years was forever gone from the back seat.

Joachim—or more officially, “Joachim the Good Dog” as we liked to clarify—was no ordinary beagle: he was, simply, a very special dog. Sweet and serene, he never growled, bit, or threatened. He loved people of all ages, other dogs, and even cats.

And he also loved me: his adoptive “mother” of the past decade and a half.

That I adored him goes without saying. I rescued him from the SPCA and he became my pet. I took him everywhere with me, nursed him when he was ill, fed him scraps from my dinner, walked him in rain, sleet and snow-- at all hours-- and tried to attend to his every need.

In exchange, he gave me unquestioned devotion and a quiet and comforting companionship too precious to lose.

Now it is lost.

Books are written about dogs and dog-lovers: Hollywood makes movies about dogs, their owners and the special bonds between them. Poems and essays also abound about the loss of faithful pets and the humans left behind to mourn them.

There was a time when I might have pooh-poohed the sadness people described upon the death of their dogs. Sure, I would have thought, they’re sad, but they’ll get over it. After all, in the end, it’s a dog.

I had no idea, before Joachim.

When my rational side kicks in, I focus on the “important things” and on my many “blessings.” I am grateful for my good health, and for my loving family. I live a decent life and have much to be thankful for, in fact.

But I miss my friend.

I miss the sound of his steady breathing as he slept next to my bed, his wagging tail whenever he saw me, and the warmth of his body at my feet as we watched TV or read together in the evening.

I miss his bark from the back seat, signaling me to open his window so he could drive with the breezes blowing back his velvet ears.

I miss his constancy and, yes, the unquestioning love people talk about when they talk about great dogs.

Our vet suggests another dog to fill the void. Despite his good intentions, the suggestion seems a bit like telling a parent who loses a child that, “It’s a good thing you have other children.” No living being can replace another that was loved and lost.

For the moment, the idea feels like investing again in certain heartache.
I don’t want. “another dog:” I want my Joachim back.

And that can never be.
_________________END________________

PRIDE OVERTAKEN BY NEED TO SURVIVE

2008-04-28T05:38:00.000-07:00

Michelle Obama raised eyebrows when she said, “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country,” because, “hope is making a comeback” and the country is “hungry for change.”

Unlike her, I feel disappointed in my country-- more specifically, in its federal and state leaders—and not for the first time.
I am not unpatriotic. I appreciate the liberty the United States promises and the great American (immigrant) spirit that made it a superpower. I cry at the Star Spangled Banner and at Fourth of July parades. I am grateful for the quality of my life here

But I do not agree that the USA is the only place on earth where one can enjoy such life quality. Today, many countries offer the same (or higher) levels of personal freedom, economic advantages, high living standards, affordable (even free) quality health care, free education and exciting employment opportunities.

America has hit a new low in global perception of its once unchallenged “greatness.” Not since Vietnam have we been weighed down by such misguided militaristic blockheadedness. Our leaders seem determined to again airlift the last remaining US diplomat from the roof of a stormed embassy before we have the good sense to come home and bind our domestic wounds.

But the war is not the only reason to be ashamed of what we have become.
We have triggered a global food crisis that threatens the lives of people far outside U.S. borders. We were warned this could happen: even Fidel Castro predicted the famine-for-fuel folly we have created.

Meanwhile, America’s richest 2% enjoys tax relief while working class majorities lose their jobs, homes and aid in record numbers. It will be decades before the internal economic damage of this millennium can be repaired.

China and India—once considered far beneath the USA technologically and economically—are now countries on which we depend. Indeed we are in their debt to the tune of trillions of dollars.

The Executive and Legislative branches, meanwhile, are so politically compromised they do nothing. Laws controlling immigration, regulating monopolies, protecting the environment, and upholding human rights go unenforced. Washington sits idly by while pharmaceutical firms, the ghost of organized labor and other campaign-supporting lobbies hold America hostage.

American children are undereducated: our elders uncared for. Nuclear families have disintegrated and our society cannot fill the void. Our greatest institutions—religion, government, and academia—have served up an endless and spirit-breaking series of scandals, crimes, and hopeless disappointments. Americans have been lied to, taken advantage of, and used by the very people and entities they most need to trust to survive.

If Barack Obama—or anyone running for president this year—really had a cure for all this, it wouldn’t matter. A corrupt and prostituted Congress insures that no remedies that might disrupt the political power and personal fortunes of a few will be enacted.

Obama, Clinton and McCain are part of the problem. You simply cannot get into the US Senate or any high level of federal or state office in America unless you turn a blind eye to corruption, power, and political gain.

McCain can’t tell the Sunnis from the Shiites, and admits economics is not his strong suit. He’s called a war hero, not because he rescued a village or several military colleagues while sustaining injuries, but because he got caught by the enemy who put him in a prison camp.

Barack Obama came out of nowhere—or rather out of the belly of Chicago’s Democratic party-- arguably one of the most corrupt political machines in the nation going back to Mayor Daley the Elder. No one knows who Obama really is, and no one wants to ask because his half-blackness has become his invisible protective shield. Can anyone question his white half without being “racist?”

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, tells us repeatedly she “has baggage” and everyone’s been through it anyway so this makes her the candidate of choice. Not the most uplifting rationale.

Unemployment is moving toward 6%, 4000 military are dead in Iraq and we are almost out of available soldiers to send anywhere. Bank foreclosures are at a historic high, consumer confidence hasn’t been lower in 26 years, and even Republicans gag at the mention of W.

Our global neighbors either hate, distrust, or deride us. The dollar is worth half a British Pound and only two-thirds of a Euro. We depend on Canadian pharmacies for our medicines and anonymous voices from Mumbai and Manila for our “technical support.”

Michelle Obama, professional six-figure administrator and former aide to Chicago’s Mayor Daley, may be “proud.” We’d be “proud” too if millions of people were paving our way to the biggest political payoff in the country (if not the world.)

The rest of us have to focus on “survival,” which may not allow for much “pride.”
___________END________________

WOMEN ARE BETTER SHOPPERS: EVEN FOR SEX!

2008-03-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

Now that former New York governor has resigned amid revelations he was a client of an elite prostitution ring, several lingering questions remain.

Were the thousands of dollars Spitzer paid hookers from taxpayers’ money? Will he be charged for transporting a woman across state lines for sexual purposes? Will his wife leave him?

Then there is the bigger question haunting many women (and a few men, I would guess) since the $2000-$5000 rates per hour of horizontal refreshment first hit the headlines: What exactly DO these women do for that kind of money? (More to the point, what do these hookers do that isn’t being done, can’t be done, hasn’t been tried at home for the bubble?)

There used to be a myth that young men dated “nice” girls but married “good” girls. This not only separated the men from the boys, but it also separated the sexually active from the virginal where girls were concerned.

Then after Woodstock, drugs and free love, the sexual revolution gained momentum, peaked, and finally seemed to stabilize with generally accepted pre-marital sex and a higher tolerance for what used to be called “sexual gymnastics.” By the time the Lewinsky story unfolded with no less than the president of the United States making a distinction between oral sex and “sexual relations with that woman,” the nation shook its head in disapproval, but it did not swoon in puritanical shock.

Now wives and significant others meet in small groups for the 21st century version of the old Tupperware party. Instead of salad spinners, however, they buy the latest in sex toys for their own bedrooms (or motel rooms.) So today’s average sexually active couple seems to have the same motivation, equipment and capability as Client #9. Her post-partum stretch marks and his emerging beer gut are compensated for by an assumed bond of affection we call a “relationship.”

Perhaps that is the problem for men like Mr. Spitzer (and now, we find, for his gubernatorial successor and the new first lady of New York as well.) Maybe it’s about the boredom of the same-old-same-old that makes a $5000 an hour hooker so desirable.

There was a time when wives who recognized the male need for diversity tried to “become” other partners. Out of this French maid and cheerleader costume fantasies were born.

So while the male quest for diverse sexual experiences has been recognized, little has been said about the female partner’s equal frustration and boredom after years of the same partner with the same moves and too often the same unfulfilling result. So women too have gone on to seek sexual highs elsewhere and now almost match male levels in experience, diversity and unfaithfulness.

My guess is, however, that women have not been willing to buy sex at the $5000 an hour level, and with good reason: they know that the generic brand is usually just as good as the high-priced item. So if women decide to get a little something on the side, for a change of pace or to see how the other half lives, they are usually looking for free samples. And they usually find them!
They’re just better comparison shoppers than men are.
____________END__________

THE (37th) BEST HEALTH CARE IN THE WORLD

2008-03-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

John McCain should stop flashing a spotlight on what he doesn’t know. He’s already pleaded ignorance about the economy, which, in the current recession, is a big problem. More recently he is fond of noting, incorrectly, that we have “the best health care in the world.”

In a globally televised March 4th speech almost as exciting as a Cialis commercial McCain said this again. In a flat, barely audible voice, he read haltingly from a teleprompter high above his head, forcing him to look heavenward as if seeking divine aid. Periodically, McCain winced inexplicably as if speaking were painful for him. His concluding remarks were drowned out by a torrent of falling confetti and balloons. (The words, “ John McCain is too old and feeble for this.” did not flash across the screen, but they might as well have.) Still, his facts are wrong.

The presidential hopeful ought to read the World Health Organization’s rankings of global health systems, which places the U.S. at 37th. France and Italy top that list, and most of Europe, Costa Rica and even Colombia are ranked higher than the U.S.

Cuba, the government American politicians love to hate, is just below the U.S. on the WHO list.

Though Americans have been brainwashed into thinking they have “the best” health care, those who venture abroad and end up in foreign health facilities are often pleasantly surprised at the courtesy, skill and efficiency of the hospital systems. They are especially impressed that it’s all free.

More stunning, countries with government-regulated health care provide decent services for anyone who needs them—even doubting and degrading Americans of the “Show ‘em a buck and they speak English.” variety. Young, old, rich or poor, native, naturalized or visiting, no one is turned away. It’s not perfect, but it is no less perfect than the U.S. system, plus it’s free.

Those who wish to may pay for additional top professionals from their own country or elsewhere, but even wealth does not preclude eligibility for free government health care.

The web site http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html raises amazing questions.

How do they do it? (By avoiding massive defense spending, for one thing.)

Why do they do it? (Because in at least 36 civilized countries in the world, the public health and welfare is more of a priority than it is in the U.S.)

Why can’t the U.S. match the health delivery records of countries like Andorra, Chile and Costa Rica, all ranked above it? (Because the medical and pharmaceutical lobbies that own America’s politicians are more powerful than the voters who allegedly elect lawmakers.)

With Medicaid and Medicare headed for bankruptcy, prescription drugs grossly unaffordable and health insurance widely unavailable for too many Americans, McCain’s military blindness to national faults may be one of the most dangerous-- and least obvious-- flaws in his candidacy.

While the Clinton and Obama national health insurance proposals aren’t perfect, McCain’s “even greater privatization” plan ignores the embarrassing reality that the richest and most-powerful superpower, enslaved by private health insurers, would rather leave citizens ailing, wounded and unattended than care for them.

National security smokescreens only mask America’s growing public health crisis. Better for John McCain to wake up, answer the “red phone” and hear the national cry for real economic and health care solutions, now!

________________END_________________

27 (WHITE) DRESSES

2008-02-18T16:24:00.000-08:00

The front page of the February 15th Projo delivered a one-two punch to Rhode Island Roman Catholics. Below the fold was the report that Father Philip A. Magaldi, a defrocked priest guilty of having sex with and stealing money from his former North Providence flock, was HIV positive in a Texas nursing home. The Texas diocese is publicly alerting those who may be at risk, something unheard of in Rhode Island when priests have AIDS or HIV.

Above the fold, however, was the priest scandal du jour: Christ the King pastor, Fr. Joseph Creedon, once fond of touting his membership in Priests for Justice, is battling parents in his North Kingston parish about what color dresses their daughters might wear to receive “the body and blood of Christ” for the first time. More disturbing, most parents have sheepishly tolerated his control mania, even after the diocese’s Vicar General confirmed canon law mandates only what color the priest must wear, not the communicants.

Joe Creedon—as he liked to be called—was one of those dashing, bright priests who came through the 60’s with a seeming yen for Vatican II reforms and Pope Paul VI’s charge, “If you want peace, work for justice.” Parishioners, especially women, fell under his spell.

When he became pastor of Christ the King, that parish welcomed traditional and disenfranchised Catholics. Traditionalists sat in pews beside the divorced and remarried, the gay and lesbian, defiant birth control users, people fighting for female and married priests, and other renegades called “Catholic” by the skin of their teeth.

Creedon seemed to smile on the global push by the laity to force the church into the 20th century.

Given that myth, I visited Creedon’s rectory one day. I had no appointment, but the gracious housekeeper welcomed me warmly. She recognized me from media coverage after Bishop Gelineau declared me excommunicated because of my work at Planned Parenthood and its abortion services.

She went to call the pastor after showing me to a private office.
Minutes later, Creedon arrived. He sat as far away from me as he could, stunned that a “public sinner” could appear on his doorstep.

I wondered if Christ the King had any room for me on occasion? It was not easy to say that the public excommunication was more painful for me than I publicly admitted, and I longed for the comfort of a church I still loved at that time.

Creedon’s face showed his feared that I was asking him to minister the sacraments to me. He aimlessly alluded to my dilemma, and his own helplessness: it became obvious that I would have to minister to him instead.

So, I offered, “Father, don’t worry, I didn’t come here to ask you for communion.”
I excused myself and left. I had seen the real Joe Creedon; not at all a Priest for Justice.

A quarter century later, Creedon is fixated on controlling what color dresses 7 year-old girls should wear at their First Communions. Worse, he is quoted by the Projo saying the traditional color white cannot denote innocence and worthiness.

“No one is worthy of receiving Communion,” Creedon opines, “Communion is not a reward for being good; Communion is a source of strength to become better.”

If 7 year-olds approaching the altar to accept their savior cannot be innocent and good, then Jesus’ command, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me.” is idle chatter.

If they or “no one” one is worthy of Communion, Joe Creedon may one day find himself excluded as well.
_______________END________________

Changes We HOPE We Will Be Able To Believe In

2008-02-11T05:56:00.000-08:00

As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue in a fight-to-the-finish, the debate over the value of the Electoral College system gathers steam-- again.

Currently, Democratic delegates are won based on voter percentages not ballots cast. More distressing, “super delegates” are free to vote as they please.

Democrats are about to select either the first woman or the first black presidential nominee. Followers of both candidates are deeply committed. Women who remember a lifetime of sexism in lost opportunities and exclusion support Clinton. So does the mainstream mainly white Democratic establishment and Latinos who love the Clintons and dislike blacks they feel too often overshadow them.

Obama, conversely, has tremendous support among African-Americans, archliberals, and young voters, all of whom work tirelessly for his cause. Such a passionate following sparks more energy than Clinton’s traditional gang.

Obama— always mesmerizing—often uses language of entitlement. With every step closer to a convention fight, he invokes a vague “we” whose “time has come.” On Super Tuesday, he finally said, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

“We,” who?

The race card long avoided is now subtly played daily by both sides, though older female and Latino support of Clinton pales before the fired-up black legions for Obama. Such support is in line with America’s political habit of ethnics lining up behind “one of their own.” Though few are willing to articulate this, blacks for Obama are no different than Irish for Kennedy, Italians for Cuomo, or Jews for Lieberman.

When Obama speaks of so many small contributions like the $3 money order mailed in by a Southern elder, he is not talking about masses voting from conviction on national or international issues, he is talking about a black person voting for another black person because, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

In the end, voters will have “chosen” a bunch of political regulars who, between visits to “hospitality suites,” will select the nominee. “Super” delegates who hold the deciding votes this year may favor Clinton who clearly has more political chits to call in than the less-than-one-term senator from Illinois.
How will black America react if Obama is “passed over” and Clinton gets the nod in this politically tainted and obtuse system?

Oprah, Jesse Jackson, and black scholars from Harvard may be angry and vocal, but, in the end, they will surrender to the pecking order that has always defined political reality. They are more comfortable with rhetoric than rioting.

But will those who cheered OJ Simpson’s acquittal because, finally, they beat “the man,” joined by college students always ready for a fight, and, inner city poor weaned on the rioting of Watts be physical or philosophical?

CNN and Washington Post polls show that if Obama is the nominee, Clinton supporters are willing and even happy to rally behind this capable, charismatic black man promising, “Change we can believe in.” The same polls say Obama supporters will get behind the brilliant, hard-working Sen. Clinton if she is chosen.

In the end, the demeanor of the losers, whoever the Democratic nominee will be, will test one “change” that we would all like to believe in.

______________END_______________

Randy Moss: GET A REAL JOB!

2008-01-30T04:50:00.000-08:00

Even people who are not sports fans, like myself, are proud of our New England Patriots’ spectacular season.

Then there's someone called Randy Moss spoiling it.

Moss is the perpetually traded bad boy for whom the Patriots paid more than $3 million when they traded him from the Raiders (who were paying him $8 million.)

As far as I can tell, if Moss hadn't been a talented wide receiver, he'd probably be in a dive somewhere stoned on pot and barely surviving financially.

Football has been 30-year-old Moss's life. His dream was to play for Notre Dame, and after high school he got a scholarship to join that historic football team. Even in those early days, however, Moss couldn't avoid trouble. He lost his Notre Dame scholarship following his arrest on assault charges from a racially inspired school fight.

But Moss lives in today's celebrity world where moral character, civilized behavior and ethical concerns are irrelevant. As long as a guy can toss a ball through a hoop, carry a pigskin to a touchdown, knock his boxing opponent out cold, slide the puck to goal or hit a home run, the money will keep rolling in and the fans will remain adoring.

I have never understood the need for sports teams to be so tolerant of antisocial and even criminal behavior. They want to win, of course, but the playgrounds of New Bedford, Boston, Revere, Providence or wherever are probably full of kids at least as talented as Moss and others like him. The scouts need to spend more time helping talented kids get onto the college teams that have become football's free "farm team" system. If that's the way it's gong to work, professional football needs to have more players in reserve: when the time comes, they'll just pull some kid out of college anyway.

Somebody's time should be coming right now, to replace Randy Moss. It doesn't even really matter if the latest domestic assault charge sticks or not, as far as I'm concerned. He has also driven into a (female) traffic officer who stopped him after he took an illegal turn, squirted water in a referee's face, and walked off the field. Then, of course, there is the infamous "mooning" incident. Randy Moss's rap sheet already includes enough assault charges, marijuana use and parole violations to certify him as wayward.

Moss says the woman who has sought and received a restraining order against him is just looking for money. So let's take away this guy's money; it only seems to get him into trouble. Let's just fire Moss for his own good since he seems to be a threat "to himself and others" when he has access to enough cash.
While talk of recession gets louder and more difficult to avoid, struggling Patriots fans in Bristol County and elsewhere depend on the spiritual lift great local sports teams can provide (as long as we can watch them on TV, since tickets are beyond reach for most of us).

Those struggling with a moribund economy need real heroes to see them through. Moss and others "just here for the beer" don't fit that profile.

________________END____________________

THE PRIVATE SECRETS IN THE VOTING BOOTH

2008-01-09T17:10:00.000-08:00

Although it might seem like ancient history for 20-somethings, it wasn’t so long ago when women had little chance of stepping outside the kitchen to make real differences in the public and private sector. Because of this, I was elated when Hillary Clinton, who personifies accomplishment and merit-based opportunity, emerged as a legitimate presidential candidate.

I hoped that the 2000-year bondage of women might end, so I resented Barack Obama’s entry into the race, which threatened that dream. When he won in Iowa, I wanted to be angry.

Obama’s moving speeches however, made it difficult to keep anger and disappointment alive. I recognize his magic: his intelligence, inspiring oratory and his themes of hope and change are what the nation craves. His appeal is intoxicating -- especially to young idealists-- but the dark cloud of questionable electability that faces Hillary also looms large over Obama.

Doubtless brighter and more articulate than George W. Bush, Obama has not used race as a crutch, and the media has not made race an issue (as they have gender). In lily-white Iowa, he transcended race. Then independent blue-collared New Hampshire leveled the playing field between the first-female or first-black potential president
The electability problems of a tough female like Hillary have been extensively debated. Yet if Obama heads the Democratic ticket, his race may also be a negative factor for many voters. For reasons of “political correctness,” people don’t reveal that they would prefer to elect the devil himself rather than someone they consider a “nigger,” but two weeks ago at a dinner party, an otherwise intelligent accomplished man actually said this. It terrifies me, but I believe he represents millions.

When a John McCain supporter referred to Hillary as “that bitch,” McCain never distanced himself from the insult to a Senate colleague and former first lady. If the questioner had used the N-word, would McCain have reacted differently?

While the word “bitch” barely causes a ripple, no one can deny the ongoing presence of a reservoir of racial prejudice, overt and subliminal, in this country. But to paraphrase Churchill, by November Hillary might be a warmer and fuzzier woman, but Obama will still be black.

Iowa Republicans chose folksy extremist Mike Huckabee over Mormon flip-flopper Mitt Romney. Democrats need to ask how many similar voters, along with others, will choose a Republican nominee whom they perceive as a bulwark against a black liberal in the White House.

We don’t know the answer, because no one wants to ask that question -- and because voters will never admit their bigotry to pollsters.

Despite the chorus that Democrats MUST win in 2008, lest the country be doomed, most voting Americans just want a president they can love; one with whom they feel comfortable and who, coincidentally, may guide the country to peace and prosperity. For Iowa caucus-goers that was Obama: in New Hampshire, women led a groundswell for one of their own. Now a black man and a woman—both pioneers- challenge a nation yearning for “change.”

Keeping our eye on the November prize, one blogger says it best. “Please, God,” she writes,” all I want for Christmas is a Democrat president.”
_____________________________________________________

IS AMERICA READY?

2007-12-28T15:04:00.000-08:00

Democrats don’t smell blood the way Republicans do. They don’t keep their eyes on the prize and concentrate on wrestling the White House away from an opposition that thumbs its nose at their beliefs.

Republicans-- by their own admission—have a motley crew running for president, none of whom feels just right. Recently, arch-conservative Mike Huckabee has surfaced as the standard bearer. Romney may spend more and Giuliani may preach more than the former Arkansas governor/evangelist, but Huckabee keeps gaining.

Democrats, meanwhile, spend more time attacking each other than challenging their political foes.

Most voters are sick of the current regime. It would follow, therefore, that this race is the Democrats to lose, and lose it they may as they did four years ago. Are they learning-disabled?

Democrats Clinton and Obama bring a historic opportunity to the nation. The question is whether or not the party of the left-- which pretends to stand for tolerance and equal opportunity-- can get behind one of two qualified people who could become the first female or the first black president.

So why is “electability” getting more play than it deserves? How “electable” any presidential nominee may be is subject to as many variables as there are voters. Perhaps “electability” is code for whether an N-word or an insert-favorite-derogatory-term-for-woman is a greater risk?

Democrats seem too willing to encourage skepticism about whether the country is ready for a woman or a black president. What does “ready” mean, exactly?

It means getting beyond the bigotry Democrats should have abandoned in the 60’s civil rights movement but which, apparently, lurks just below their skin.

“Ready” means that the traditional white, male Democratic power base must finally put its money where its mouth has been for decades because a white woman and a black man have risen to the top of the heap and deserve their party’s support. “Ready” means embracing unity in the same way that Republicans—especially at the extreme edges of that party—understand the need for that term. They stand behind their nominee—sometimes gritting their teeth-- because the other party’s platform is just too unacceptable.

Whether the Republicans choose Huckabee, Romney or Giuliani- the likely contenders to top that party’s ticket—their candidate will not embrace the values, beliefs, and constitutional interpretations basic to the true Democratic tradition. In that sense, they should all be outside the realm of consideration for GOP opponents.

Those who say they stand for “inclusion” have an easy choice in 2008--“inclusion” on one side and “exclusion” on the other. While skin color and gender ought to be only footnotes in this presidential election, with Obama or Clinton likely to top the Democratic ticket, one of two representatives of America’s most victimized classes will test Democrats’ true commitment to equal opportunity.

The choice facing voters next November may bring out the best in America, or it may expose the worst of our fears, ignorance and secret hatreds. The real question should be whether or not the country is “ready” for such a tragic exposé?
_____________END________________

Rudy: Opportunist Numero Uno

2007-12-14T15:43:00.000-08:00

“Campanilismo” is defined as blind attachment to one’s birthplace, traditions and ethic. In that spirit, members of groups like the Sons of Italy and the National Italian-American Foundation (the fifth largest “ethnic” organization in the country) will follow Rudy Giuliani to his last political breath. Others, not blinded by campanilismo see Rudy for what he really is: a duplicitous opportunist who threatens their ethnic pride.

The former NY mayor likes to say, for example, that he had four uncles who were New York policemen. The December 3 edition of Newsweek writes of another uncle, Leo D’Avanzo, described as a “…loan shark and bookie with mob connections who operated out of a bar named after” cop/uncle Vincent D’Avanzo. Vincent “acted as a front man for the bar.”

Giuliani’s dad, Harold, was a bartender there. Newsweek says he kept a baseball bat and a gun under the bar in case things got rowdy, and “[used] the bat and his fists to collect debts” for his brother-in-law. Harold “served more than a year in Sing [sic] prison for mugging the milkman.”

This family tree-- even for ethnic loyalists-- falls short of direct bloodlines to Leonardo da Vinci.

Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run for Vice-President, received little ethnic defense when it was said her father might have run numbers. Giuliani has been given impressive latitude as a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, even while questions continue to be raised-- by Poitico.com and the NY Times, to name just two sources—about city spending irregularities regarding the mayor’s travel to visit his then mistress/now wife Judith Nathan.

The mayor’s circle is strangely silent: Giuliani’s long memory, vindictive nature, and abhorrence for “disloyalty” are well known. Unlike Harold, Rudy doesn’t need a baseball bat to settle scores.

Even detractors of Giuliani and his party are intrigued by how desperate Republicans seems to be that they could entertain the notion of Rudy Giuliani as a pro-family, pro-life, moral majority conservative. He supported abortion rights when it was convenient: now he embraces overturning Roe. He roomed with a gay couple while divorcing Donna Hanover: now he courts the far right with anti-gay-rights rhetoric.

Rudy chose a press conference to tell Hanover, the mother of his now-estranged children, that he wanted a divorce. By comparison, Newt Gingrich’s face-to-face, “it’s over,” to his wife, then in a hospital battling cancer, makes him seem like Prince Valiant. Stereotypical Italian sensitivity and blind respect for wife and children (whatever else may be happening “on the side”) seem to have eluded Giuliani.

Still, some Italian-Americans will support Giuliani because his roots, like theirs, are in Italy’s boot. (These folks may also call Oprah’s support of Obama “clannish.”)

For some of us, however, it’s not about the vowel at the end of his name: it’s about his insincerity, secrecy, vengefulness and opportunism at the end of the day. Americans will have had enough of such things by the time they get to vote for the next president-- and eight years is a bellyful.
__________END_______

TRAPPED IN THE HOMELAND

2007-11-28T19:06:00.000-08:00

After 9/11, many of us went to New York to respond to then-Mayor Giuliani's plea to help the city by spending money there. We visited Ground Zero, museums and restaurants, determined not to let "terrorism" lock us in our homes.

National leaders were also entreating the public to support the stricken airline industry by traveling. If we stayed home, terrified, the enemy won. Afflicted by wanderlust, I took this seriously and continued to travel as much as my schedule and purse allowed.

I am always open to a "last-minute deal" that appears in my e-mail box. Recently British Airways offered great flights to London from Boston plus two free hotel nights.

I logged on to the Web site already dreaming of a London escape. Sure enough, I could book air from Boston to London, round trip, for $225. The kick in the teeth, however, was that taxes and Homeland Security fees, plus airport charges, added a full $347.99 to that ticket. The bottom line is that the total cost became $572.99, more than 150 percent more than the basic airline charge of $225!

Passengers start with this $347.99 charge, since the airport taxes and so-called "security" fees are flat and not based on a percentage of airfare. Add to these realities the plummeting dollar, now worth less than 60 percent of a euro and only half a British pound, and the global unpopularity of America and Americans and the "terror" that keeps us trapped in the homeland has less to do with jihadists than it does with our own misguided bureaucracy and policies.

Domestic air tickets on so-called low-cost carriers also add significant taxes and fees. With gas prices skyrocketing, airfare will only rise, and driving to our destination — when that is geographically possible — will also be unaffordable.
As for the use to which all this money is being put, most U.S. airports are more crowded, less comfortable, dirtier, less efficient and no more secure than they were on 9/10. Weekly we hear about someone smuggling a weapon on board, wandering onto the tarmac or actually working for the airport or its security team, the FBI or CIA while huddling with terrorists. Taxes and fees worth 150 percent more than the ticket itself won't fix that.

Like the song says, "We gotta get outta this place." Problem is, we can't afford to do so.
______END______

Cast your Cake Upon The Waters

2007-11-17T06:06:00.000-08:00

With regular triple digit tumbles of the Dow and foreclosures threatening to outnumber new mortgage loans, it follows Americans might embrace Prosperity Theology. This is the belief—usually associated with evangelical groups-- that financial prosperity, and personal and commercial success and good health, are evidence of God's favor.

This premise suggests that preachers worth listening to should be rolling in dough. On that score, a half-dozen well-known (and well-heeled) ministries recently received a letter from Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) minority leader of the Senate Finance Committee. By December 6, recipients are to answer the committee’s questions about executive compensation, use of private cars and jets, and ministry expenses.

Some might argue that high-rolling senators scrutinizing the spending of men and women of god smacks of the proverbial pot calling the metaphorical kettle black; but those doing “god’s work” are usually held to a higher standard. That standard probably precludes a $23,000 toilet like the one purchased for the headquarters of Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo. Three of the ministers being asked for answers by Grassley’s committee are regents at Oral Roberts University, itself the subject of a spending probe. ORU “first lady” Lindsay Roberts is said to have $800 monthly cell phone bills. Charges include alleged “inappropriate” text messages to “underage young men.” My personal favorite extravagance of Lindsay’s is $39,000 in charges at Chico’s, which sells third world fashions at Fifth Avenue profits.

When biblical scribes spoke of casting one’s “bread upon the waters” to have it returned “a hundred fold,” it seems unlikely they had marble commodes from Carrara and brocaded slacks from Bangladesh in mind. Popular televangelists as well as the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, however, appear to have rejected the vow of poverty.

Pioneer televangelist Pat Robertson lives well and has power. He was in the news recently too, not for his lifestyle but for his endorsement of Rudy Giuliani. How much Robertson spends has become secondary to his controversial pronouncements. Besides embracing the pro-choice, pro-gay-rights, thrice-married and openly philandering Giuliani, Roberts has called for the “taking out” of Venezuela’s Chavez, the rejection of feminism which he claims, “encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians” and the condemnation of Presbyterians as the “spirit of the Antichrist.”

While Robertson’s camp may quietly wink and plead the dementia defense, Giuliani is seriously running for president. Both men are full of contradictions and both fly in private jets.

At a minimum of $100,000 per public speaking engagement plus millions in consulting fees since he left Gracie mansion, Giuliani—a former Catholic seminarian—seems more suited to the Prosperity Theology camp than among the rope-girdled, sandaled Franciscans embracing poverty as basic to their faith.

I look forward to the “Prosperity Theologians’” responses to the senate investigators. Whatever the outcome of the government probe, however, it seems hard to believe the moneychangers were thrown out of the temple for nothing.

__________END______________

DEMOCRATS' VAGINA ENVY: GET OVER IT!

2007-11-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

The pathetic assault by Democrat presidential hopefuls on frontrunner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in a recent MSNBC debate probably will (and should) come back to bite them where they sit. To her credit, the former First Lady, current senator from New York, brilliant attorney and good mother stood her ground with distinction. It will apparently take more than 8 political flunkies (counting co-hosts Russert and Williams) to bring down such a woman of substance.

It’s time to clarify: HILLARY CLINTON IS NO WORSE—AND, ACTUALLY, MUCH BETTER—THAN MOST MEN WHO HAVE EVER RUN FOR PRESIDENT! She brings far-superior credentials, talents, intelligence and integrity that W brought to the job. While accusing her of deflecting questions, the fellas onstage dodged a few of their own. Obama—after berating Clinton on immigration policy—didn’t answer himself when asked pointedly if he supports changes in current policy. Edwards, eyes aflutter, launched whiny attacks on his female competitor. He tried to temper his bullying with, “nobody’s perfect…not even me.”

Thank’s for that insight, Jack.

Sen. Joseph Biden and Gov. Bill Richardson attempted to distance themselves from the frontal attack on Hillary. Candidate Kucinich, true to form, threw a pebble at the front-runner, then retreated to muse about his UFO sightings. Not enough credibility there to merit additional analysis.

Most annoying was the speech by Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd who attacked Hillary’s electability numbers. He said a majority of those polled say they would never vote for Clinton for president. He did NOT clarify that of those polled, some are Republicans who aren’t ever voting for ANY Democrat, and others are large numbers of those unlikely to vote at all – for anybody—given this nation’s terrible track record on voting.

(Doesn’t Chris Dodd think that a person as smart as Hillary figured this out already? Doesn’t he realize that—come primary days and election day—Clinton’s camp will be driving, busing, and even carrying eligible and supportive voters to the polls and making sure shut-ins absentee vote for Hillary? Where was this guy when they said Bill Clinton would never get elected—twice?)

Most frustrating, however, is the refusal of these men to admit that if half the nation is skeptical of Hillary, even larger numbers never heard of the rest of these guys, and/or have rejected their candidacies-- while embracing hers- by double-digit margins!

Women vote in large numbers. My guess is this very public bullying-- by fellow Democrats-- of a qualified, capable, and unflappable candidate will send more women—and a lot of men—into the Clinton camp. Decent people in America, whatever their politics, still hate to see men beating up on a woman.

Democrats need to be united in their support of the nominee, even if it’s Hillary Clinton. They’ve suffered from disunity in the past and they ought to be asking themselves what good it did them-- or their party?
_______End_________

GRACIAS, PERU'

2007-10-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

Leaving the village of Ollantaytambo, our bus driver was negotiating a narrow street that allowed him about two feet of wiggle room. Still, he suddenly stopped and slowly backed up to give passage to a small boy and his parents trying to get their overloaded rickety cart to market to sell their wares. Their need to survive rightfully outweighed our bus’s need to get to the next tourist stop. Still, I tried to imagine (unsuccessfully) a New York bus driver giving poor pedestrians a similar edge.

In Lima, Peru’s capital, streets have no litter-- amazing for a major city with overwhelming fiscal woes. When I asked a cab driver how this cleanliness was accomplished he said, simply, people had been, “educated not to dirty the streets!” I wondered what it would take to get Americans to accept similar responsibility as I recalled our own local roads and highways where discarded plastic bags, fast-food containers, beer cans and other “infinite shelf life” garbage are an assumed part of America’s landscape.

Our guide spoke passionately of his Inca roots, his eyes wet with tears when he told stories of Spanish domination and enslavement. In the hill towns, where children seldom have a chance for education since there are no schools, I met youngsters who taught themselves enough English to converse with tourists and sell trinkets, lest they fail to contribute to the family’s meager budget. The children were clean, polite and hopeful: they stole our hearts.

Peruvians demonstrate their love for their country—with all its pimples and wrinkles— in substantive ways. Their humanity to each other and to visitors is moving and rare. Reluctant as Americans might be to acknowledge it, there is much we can learn from the so-called “second” and “third” worlds, and, if there can be any such thing as a national personality, the people of Peru have much to teach us about grace. From the breathtaking and imposing Andes Mountains, to the serene, sunny valleys below, Peru’s people show us what real patriotism is.

They truly strive to represent their country and they understand that visitors contribute a great deal to its survival, and theirs. Unlike many Europeans, they do not put on a false face for dollars: in Peru the USA is still truly revered, and even the falling dollar remains their measure for success.

They approach each visitor with genuine caring, helpfulness and gratitude for even the smallest recognition in return. As they go about their daily lives, they respect their humble but well-maintained surroundings, their fellow men and women, their proud heritage while always aiming for a brighter future, unhampered by either the glories or the failures of their history.

Too often American “patriotism” is measured by flags on lapels and on every pick-up coast to coast. Until and unless we can honestly experience the Peruvian heartfelt “love of country” and truly believe in a better tomorrow, we are only going through motions.

Gracias, Peru, for such a valuable—and beautiful-- lesson.
_________________END________________

Columnist Mary Ann Sorrentino can be contacted at http://maryannsorrentino.com

Pharmaceuticals: UPsides/DOWNsides

2007-09-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

The Avodart you see advertised on TV claims to help men suffering from frequent urination by shrinking their enlarged prostates. It also threatens the women in their lives with giving birth to babies having severely deformed sex organs. The women don’t have to actually take the pill: they simply have to handle it to be in danger.

Propecia will grow hair on men’s balding heads but carries similar birth defects risks for women who may handle these pills. Propecia can also destroy male libido or, worse, leave the sprit willing and the flesh weak through drug-related impotence.

On that score, erectile dysfunction-- which presidential wannabe Senator Bob Dole parlayed into a household word—is treated with Viagra or Cialis. These drugs not only threaten to kill men with cardiovascular issues, they also promise some takers with priapism-- painful and dangerous erections lasting six hours or more.

Thousands of “miracle” drugs on which we depend have created a lexicon of contraindications and dangerous side effects we ought to take more seriously. Those intimidating (and boring looking) inserts stapled to each prescription package go unread in too many cases, but they could save lives. Pharmacists stand ready to answer questions but too many patients ignore or are unaware of drug warnings.

Physicians, on the other hand, are overly willing to dispense drugs without taking the time to discuss risks and side effects with patients. Telephoning in a prescription or jotting one down on a prescription pad are easier options, and both take less time than dialogue or patient education. As a consequence we have an overmedicated society and one that may be unknowingly in danger.

On another front, Barbara K. Hecht, PhD and Frederick Hecht, MD, Medical Editors for MedicineNet.com are concerned about drug marketing trends. They wrote about Zelnorm, an irritable bowel syndrome remedy for women:

"We have been bothered by some of the current Zelnorm advertising, For example, ads on television present a group of very attractive women, all smiling and showing off their trim, tanned, well-toned midsections. One gets the immediate impression that Zelnorm has something to do with being young, pretty and in great shape. It would not be very glamorous to state on prime-time TV that Zelnorm is actually intended to 'increase the movement of stools (fecal matter) through the bowels' but that is, in fact, what this drug is intended to do."

In other words, “It’s a laxative, and you’ll still be fat after you take it.”

It’s time we evaluated whether having a full head of hair or being able to engage in sex marathons in our golden years are worth the risks. The downsides of Avodart and Propecia for women and their progeny seem at least as serious as second hand smoke, yet they remain unknown. Where medications are concerned, the question should be, “What’s the tradeoff?”

Producer Novartis took Zelnorm off the market in March 2007. Seems it not only moved “fecal matter” but also caused heart attacks and strokes. Makes you wonder how many other prescriptions America could live (better) without?
_______END_____________

LET WOMEN SPEAK THE TRUTH!

2007-09-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

22 year-old Marine Jared Hubbard was killed in Iraq in 2004. His brother Nathan, an Army officer, died there this week when the Black Hawk he was in crashed ending the lives of Hubbard and 13 more soldiers. He was 21.

A third brother, Jason, 33, went to Iraq in 2005. His mother told the Fresno Bee at that time that the elder brother wanted to protect Nathan from Jared’s fate. Now the Hubbard’s third son is on his way home to Clovis, California to bury his second sibling.

Clovis Police spokeswoman Janet Stoll-Lee said the family is taking this “very, very hard.” The parents, Jeff Hubbard, a retired 30-year police force veteran, and his wife, Peggy have been in seclusion.

Yet, as a mother, it is Peg I would most like to hear from. America needs to know-- if only she would tell us-- what she is feeling in the depths of her broken heart.

Losing a child changes a parent forever. It is impossible to fathom what losing two children in the space of three years would do; but sacrificing one’s children for a useless, wasteful, ridiculous war that even generals now admit cannot be won must inflict incalculable damage.

The Hubbard sons’ deaths make us realize that we haven’t heard from enough mothers on the war in Iraq. I’d like more women to come forward—mothers, wives and lovers of the men who have been sacrificed for nothing in the so-called “war on terror” where imaginary “weapons of mass destruction” killed our best and brightest, sent to Iraq by a Commander-in-Chief too cowardly to go a war himself when it was his turn.

I want to hear the rage of women who have lost the men they love for no good reason. I want their wails and sobs to fill America’s streets, its airwaves, every chapel, cathedral, temple and mosque. I’d like campuses, state houses, town halls and chambers of Congress to be overrun with their outrage and despair.

I long for their sobs and their anger to drown out the cowardly silence of political whores who have allowed this war to go on and on uselessly, trading the blood of our sons and lovers for personal gain and wider re-election chances.

I want Peg Hubbard to tell us how it feels to send a third son back to war after lowering two others into the ground. I’d like to hear what thoughts fill her sleepless nights and hopeless days. I want her and women like her to break their silence and unfurl their devastation tightly-wrapped in tri-folded flags removed from caskets and presented to them at gravesides.

It’s hard to love a country that doesn’t love you back. It’s folly to respect a government that has no respect for your children

If men don’t have the courage to say so, maybe the women who gave birth to the men will speak out, so the Hubbard brothers’ deaths will, finally, have meaning.
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( DON'T ) SAY IT WITH FLOWERS

2007-08-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

Leroy Greer’s lawyer, Kennitra Foote, says that her client’s attempt to “say it with flowers” is going to cost him $300,000. Greer asked 1.800.Flowers to send some posies to his girlfriend, with a note that said, "Just wanted to say that I love you and you mean the world to me!" Now his outraged wife is asking that $300,000 be added to her divorce settlement which was already in the works when she found out about the honey on the side.

The florist sent his bill to his former home. The wife got it. (Why is she opening his mail?) She called them and asked that the details of the bill be sent to her. (Why did they?) The rest is all rage and greed.

Greer is suing 1.800.Flowers for $1 million for breach of contract and deceptive trade practices (thereby alerting a few million more people around the globe who may have missed the news he was screwing around.) The escalation of jackpots in this tale is staggering and absurd, at every level.

The Greers were already in the throes of a divorce, so I assume they had agreed the marriage was over. So what’s going on?
Does Mrs. Greer feel if a busted marriage is worth $x, adding in the fact her husband may have a lover makes it worth $x plus $300,000?

If she had found out he was sending the flowers to a gay lover, would the price go to $x plus $500,000?

What if Greer had had an unnatural fondness for goats? My guess is the sky would have been the limit!

Earth to Mrs. Greer: It’s over. For whatever reasons known best (or unknown best) to you and your husband, the marriage expired and you were both on your way to moving on.
So move, already!

How much Greer finally pays in the divorce settlement won’t be decided by Mrs. Greer, or even by Ms. Foote ( who still gets her legal fees for the divorce work PLUS her piece of the $1 million from 1.800.Flowers should Greer prevail, AND more legal fees for that representation.) A judge—hopefully a voice of reason in this chorus of irrationals-- will decide who gets what in the end.

1.800.Flowers told Greer’s wife he sent flowers to someone. His note said he loved that person, but this is hardly the same kind of flagrante delicto as finding one’s husband bedding down a topless young thing on the matrimonial bed one Sunday after he said he was singing in the church choir.

People say our society is too litigious. Worse, it is immature, stupid and excessive.
The Greer case points out the absurdity of trying to put a price on a broken marriage. Stuff happens, and grownups need to cope.
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A DEMOCRAT ON DEMOCRATS

2007-08-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

Who needs terrorists? Americans are doing a good enough job of wrecking this country all by themselves by keeping self-serving patsies in office instead of removing them for activities often unconstitutional and sometimes illegal.

I’ve been a registered Democrat most of my life (though in the last decade I’ve refused to name my party when registering to vote because I’ve had enough of my privacy invaded.) Like a lot of liberals, I’m fed up with the inertia and pragmatism of most Democrats who would rather stand by and let the country go to hell than risk voters’ ire and possibly lose in their election bids.

Recently we found out that thousands of our own weapons for Iraq are unaccounted for and have probably fallen into the hands of our enemies. This on the heels of a final reports that the military did, in fact, lie about NFL hero Pat Tillman’s death (now known to have been caused by friendly fire) for fear of incurring national anger and embarrassment.

I don’t know what they were afraid of. The country seems incapable of good old-fashioned outrage, the kind that publicly exposes incompetence and deception, refuses to tolerate graft and corruption and throws the bums out. What this country needs is a good shot of people taking to the streets by the millions screaming, “Enough!” Nothing gets government’s attention like a livid citizenry smelling of revolution (the kind that gets idiots thrown out of office.)

Democratic pols have been playing to the far right because their own left and the center have become lap dogs. Democrats continue to help empower the fanatical fascists and America’s becoming Iran!

I’m angry that Democrats voted for a prescription drug bill that forbids government from negotiating reasonable prices with the already-too-powerful pharmaceutical lobby.

I’m sick of Democrats saying they support personal liberties while repeatedly extending Bush’s power to spy on private citizens.

I’m provoked that Democrats voted for a higher farm subsidy than W wanted, (prompting at least one Republican congressman to be amazed that the Dems are a better friend to rich farmers than the president.)

Mostly, I’m outraged that Democrats sit by, day after day, paralyzed by their addiction to power, allowing an obviously incompetent and dangerous administration to lie, cheat and steal without fear of contradiction.

The Democratic party lost the last two elections in which the odds were overwhelmingly in its favor because it hasn’t the testicular fortitude to spirit more than 20% of voters to get off their butts and go to the polls.

Have we given up on America?

We can fly all the flags we want, attach ribbons to the backs of our cars by the dozens, but it all means nothing because we are handing the country over to the enemy by our own inertia. Democrats should lead the charge for change by cleaning up their own act, and NOW!
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Umbria Is Dragged Into Our 21st Century Nightmare

2007-08-13T15:29:00.000-07:00

I attended the University for Foreigners many years ago, when Perugia, Italy was a bucolic Umbrian city with a motley student population from around the world. The visitors did not impose on Perugia’s Etruscan dignity. Instead, that city’s serenity flowed into our veins and the international visitors soon adopted the gentility of the locals.

I have returned to Perugia often over the years. In the fall of 2005 I found the streets jammed with students from Asia, Africa and Europe and the cosmopolitan feel of the new Perugia was full of jazz festivals, Louis Vuitton knockoffs for sale on the streets, cellular phones galore and even fast food.

Yet, sitting on the terrace of the old Brufani Palace Hotel with the tranquil Umbrian patchwork below, one could still imagine that the cares of the outside world stopped at the shores of nearby Lake Trasimeno.

In Perugia’s medieval piazza where a signature griffon keeps watch, one could still hope never to be swallowed up in today’s antagonisms. Here, it seemed, Sikhs and Sunnis, Asians and Europeans, blacks and whites, even Jews and Palestinians still studied, lived and played in harmony.

All of that changed recently when Italian authorities arrested three Moroccans, part of the 10,000 strong Muslim community within the city’s 150,000 residents. An imam and two followers, organizers of an Al Qaeda training school in a mosque outside Perugia’s city walls, were taken into custody. Also seized were maps of Rome’s Da Vinci airport and the city of Bologna, poisons and training films on how to fly a Boeing 747. Later, 20 more students from the mosque were also arrested, according to the BBC.

These reports devastate me as an alumna of the same university some of these terrorists doubtless attended to learn the Italian language. My Italian roots also recoil at the horrific thought of a suicide bomber striking some of Italy’s ancient and irreplaceable historic sites. Imagine a 9/11 equivalent leveling the Colosseum or the painstakingly reconstructed city of Pompeii. Picture the horror of Florence on fire or The Roman Forum and ancient Ostia decimated by bombings.

Friends in Umbria say their lives are changed permanently now. Though they follow international news events daily on CNN, the BBC and other global news stations, until the recent arrests they felt they would be safe in their hilltop homes surrounding Perugia’s center. They believed the myth of international harmony and neighborly respect the Universita’ Per Stranieri (the foreigner’s language school) had always projected.

Now even Umbria braces herself. From the once peaceful Assisi of everyone’s St. Francis to the lyrical Spoleto where ancient warriors spilled hot oil from hilltop palace walls to stop attacking enemies, to Gualdo where farmers still look forward to their annual, and ancient, wheat thrashing feasts there is silence.

The next sound we hear from Umbria, I’m afraid, may well be the hopeless moan of 21st century resignation.
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What Language Is This?

2007-08-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

Î.Â. ßçûêîâ óËÕÔÅÒ × ÎÁÌÉÞÉÉ as well as Ëå÷åíèå çóáîâ and íÏÖÎÏ ÎÁ ÚÁËÁÚ

I have no idea if, in sharing these phrases from a Spam email I received, with you the readers, I am asking my editors to print something obscene, threatening to the national security, or detrimental to my own reputation.

But I have decided to bite this bullet and write about how insane (and inane) it is that I (and all of you with email) continue to get several Spam messages a day written in the proverbial “Greek to me.” I don’t even know what language most of these messages are in.

I realize that bloggers, hacks and web perverts trying to seduce us to websites selling all manner of garbage to view and/or buy are emailing to a global audience. But doesn’t it occur to these idiots that people who can’t read their message are not going to play their game?

If it is a matter of using a language that is recognizable to the largest possible audience I would expect to see more messages in languages that use the Roman alphabet, or Japanese, Chinese and other script used by huge numbers of literate peoples. Instead, we get this mystery alphabet—maybe Greek, maybe Coptic—who knows?

More insulting are the mass mailings from those con men and women who write to us in broken English. Barnum was right when he said there was a sucker born every minute, but how many suckers are going to invest money to help an alleged widow of a diplomat or supposed African businessman who can’t communicate with them for openers?

If I were really the winner of all the lotteries and free prizes I am told I won every day (in emails unopened and reported by me as Spam) I would be the luckiest person ever. With that kind of good fortune I would spend less time checking my emails (or writing columns) and more time at the nearest racetrack or casino. I would also own about 22 BlackBerries, 35 Razr phones and even e few new iPhones.

I would never have to cook again were I willing to believe that every meal at Applebee’s, Red Lobster and other chain eateries I wouldn’t subject my dog to were really available gratis to me and my family. If these e-hucksters really expect most of us to turn over our most personal information so we can have our bank accounts pirated and our credit ratings ruined, don’t they realize they are going to have to offer more than a free cup of chowder or a bowl of chili?

So let’s challenge those who think we are all dumb enough to fall for their snake oil emails.
Write to us in a language we can understand, with an offer we can’t refuse. Better yet, take us off ALL your lists.

Or, as they say in Bosnia, Siberia, or wherever many of you come from, “ Î.Â. ßçûêîâ óËÕÔÅÒ × ÎÁÌÉÞÉÉ .” and also,” Ëå÷åíèå çóáîâ …” and, “ íÏÖÎÏ ÎÁ ÚÁËÁÚ !”
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POLITICS: Even in Tragedy, One Hand Washes the Other

2007-08-03T03:40:00.000-07:00

As the stunning misery of the bridge collapse in Minnesota unfolded endlessly across my TV screen this week, I was taken with the unflagging ability of politicians to be political even when the world is -- literally-- crashing around their ears.

Each official who took the microphone (to grab another moment of national exposure)remembered to thank the appropriate big-wigs in the audience. Department heads thanked their underlings, lawmakers thanked police and fire personnel and, of course, everyone thanked voters (now referred to as the "great and brave people of this city....blah,blah,blah...")

Why do I feel that as soon as the last body is recovered and the dead are buried these spokespeople will return to their desks to get to work on the next "back room deal?" As I think about that, I can almost hear the shuffle of campaign contributors from the construction trades rushing to line up at the politicians' doors, looking for the next pork-barrel contracts to rebuild the bridge.

Am I too cynical, or have I just lived long enough to know better?

_____________END____________

Cleavage vs. "Can Do"

2007-07-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

It seems absurd that a newspaper like the Washington Post would bother to print an article discussing the fact that Hillary Clinton has cleavage! Of course she has cleavage - she's a middle-aged woman! Why is this worthy of comment? I don't read any articles about what side the male candidates "dress" on, or how well they may be endowed.

But recently, when Senator Clinton spoke on the Senate floor, wearing a pink jacket and slacks with a white V-neck blouse underneath, Post fashion editor Robin Givhan saw cleavage on C-Span, according to her column. Givhan went on to describe her discomfort with this (though the photograph attached to the Washington Post's online article doesn't show a hell of a lot of cleavage that I can see.) Apparently this woman-- a yuppee African-American journalist who ought to know something about bias-- has never been in the try-on room at the nearest Loehmann's. If she had, she would long ago have gotten used to the sight of women in various stages of undress.

It's a good thing Hillary isn't a young breast-feeding mother. If Givhan had happened to walk into a Ladies Lounge in Nordstrom’s and seen her suckling a child, God only knows what kind of a column that would have generated.

I am just sick and tired of the absurd standards being set for Hillary Rodham Clinton as a Senator and a presidential candidate. She's a bright, capable and determined woman, and yes, Robin, she even has breasts. Get over it. Her breasts aren't running for president, SHE is!

Givhan goes as far as to say that a woman who shows cleavage anywhere where neither cocktails nor hors d'oeuvres are being served is being "provocative." Next time Givhan is in a house of worship and a strapless-gowned bride walks down the aisle to the altar, I hope someone throws the bride a stiff drink and a hunk of Swiss cheese. If not, Robin is bound to declare the wedding to be X-rated.

Givhan may be one of the first people to go on at length about Hillary as a sex symbol-- not something the wife-of-Bill is usually accused of being. America's voters, however, will be voting for the candidate whose brain and whose heart they believe will be best for America. Hopefully their external anatomical appendages will not be a factor in the way voters' ballots are cast.

Now if Ms. Givhan can just get out more, maybe she can actually come up with something sensible to write about.
_______________________________END______________________

Giulani, Morality, Hypocrisy and Rome

2007-07-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

The day after a New Hampshire lightening bolt dramatically punctuated R.I. Bishop Thomas J. Tobin’s condemnation of Rudy Giuliani’s position on abortion, Giuliani came to Rhode Island for a campaign handout. Tobin’s remarks had, by then, received national media attention.

Dodging queries about the bishop, Giuliani embraced his supporters who flocked, checkbooks ready, to subsidize his presidential bid.

Will Tobin tighten the net and try to force campaign volunteers to divorce themselves from Rudy? Will he argue that supporters cannot remain Catholics if they work for Giuliani’s election? Will he banish them from the communion rail for ignoring his dicta on abortion?

The overwhelmingly anti-choice Host Committee for the Giuliani fete seemed oblivious to the bishop’s warnings. Perhaps strident pro-lifer and unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate Steve Laffey should have practiced obedience, capitulated to his bishop and encouraged other Catholic Giuliani cheerleaders to follow.

Tobin ought to worry about what’s morally wrong in his own office. Since his consecration as bishop, lawyers representing clients alleging sexual abuse by priests have been ignored when they come forward under the so-called Pastoral Program initiated in 2005 by former Bishop Robert E. Mulvey. About 50 cases were processed under Mulvey’s Pastoral Program providing counseling for the victims and cash settlements costing around $2 million. (The original Rhode Island settlements of at least another 38 victims from one legal group alone cost the diocese $14.25 million, and other attorneys had even more settlements after that. Calls to the diocese for an update on the program went unanswered.)

Why does a bishop so fixated on what is morally and dogmatically acceptable when it comes to a woman’s pregnancy options ignore what is moral and dogmatically acceptable on the question of sexual abuse of children by priests?

The Catholic Church and the Diocese of Providence have always been arbitrary in defining who is moral and Catholic and who is not. Heavy donors to Catholic Charities are divorced and remarried with ease while their blue-collar equivalents are banished from the pews. Mafia kingpin Raymond Patriarca was given full burial privileges in a Catholic RI cemetery while a beloved Catholic priest who chose suicide was stripped in his obituary of the title, “Reverend.” Loving relatives were denied the chance to be witnesses at their loved ones weddings, baptisms or confirmations because of one priest’s judgment that they were not worthy. Later that same priest was defrocked for sexual abuse of young people.

Giuliani is a former seminarian, twice divorced and remarried, a public philanderer and proven political slut (Giuliani nominated-- then withdrew -- friend and unscrupulous libertine Bernie Kerik for the nation’s top security job, despite Giuliani’s firsthand knowledge of and alleged commitment to preventing another “9/11.”) Why anyone even considers him a Catholic at this point may be the eighth glorious mystery.

The Catholic Church, which often adopts the Christian symbol of the fish, may, in fact, be deteriorating morally. But even Mr. Patriarca could have told Tobin that the fish still rots from the top down.
______________END______________

Baa Baa Converted Sheep

2007-07-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Dr. Charles Roselli at Oregon State University caused quite a stir recently when his studies of gay sheep were reported in the NY Times as having broad, “...implications for understanding the development and control of sexual motivation and mate selection across mammalian species including humans.” In short, Roselli says he can spot a gay sheep in the herd and is wondering if, down the road, the sheep might be taught to become heterosexual.

Maybe Roselli ought to get in touch with Rev. Ted Haggard to see if they can collaborate. Haggard, you may recall, was expelled from the 14,000-member New Life Church he founded after he confessed to trysts with a gay hooker, perhaps with illegal drug involvement as well.

A few months ago, however, Haggard met with former church elders who gleefully announced they are convinced Haggard is “completely heterosexual” after only three weeks of counseling. .

I’m no geneticist, so I shall have to take the fifth on whether or not Mary’s little lamb with the pink bow and bell around his neck is just sweet or truly swish. I have no idea whether that sweet lamb will grow up to be a full-blown queen and, if/when that were to happen, whether Roselli and company might be able to scientifically change the sheep’s orientation. I do know that evangelicals have, for decades, told about “praying over” gay men and women and turning them around, so to speak.

Like most of you, I have plenty of gay and lesbian friends and acquaintances, but I have yet to meet a “former” or “ex” queer person. I have, however, met some allegedly “straight” people who, years later, turned out to be queerer than they thought. Like Haggard, however, these people may have been fighting the gay thing all along, being reluctant to admit to it for fear of being labeled a sinner, pervert, or worse in their circle. Being “out” is still no picnic in many parts of our society.

If Haggard were truly to have been “cured” in three weeks, this would be a scientific phenomenon with international implications. So far, I haven’t heard that Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine or any of the other prestigious scientific journals are reporting on this miracle. In fairness, I’m not sure Haggard’s “cure” is even getting any ink in secular magazines like Men’s Health, TIME or National Geographic.

Haggard’s religious elders stood behind his “complete” recovery from gayness and his “fully” heterosexual orientation du jour. My question for them is the same one I’ve asked of those who claim they have seen gay then later turned straight by the power of prayer.

Would they-- or you-- be happy to send your beloved child or grandchild down the aisle with such a person?
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Praying Your Neighbor's Prayer

2007-07-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

Army Chaplain Carlos C. Huerta’s picture ought to be hanging right up there next to any of your other heroes. If you have an image of JFK or one of Pope John XXIII or India’s Gandhi or one of Anne Frank to remind you of the best that we can be, maybe you ought to consider learning more about this army chaplain.

Huerta has been a rabbi for 20 years, but he has supplemented his knowledge of his own Jewish prayers with memorizing chapters from the Qur’an. He says, “To do this job right I learned to say the Lord’s Prayer, I learned to say Hail Mary’s…” The good rabbi knows that, “…soldiers who are dying deserve to get their last comfort.” When he holds a dying soldier’s hand, Huerta says whatever holy words that soldier cherishes.

Carlos Huerta grew up in the diverse ethnicity of Brooklyn, New York. He studied mathematics before choosing the life of a rabbi. Most U.S. military chaplains are Christian, but there are about 30 rabbis and 10 Muslim chaplains.

Huerta’s story was featured recently in Newsweek (May 7, 2007) in an issue focusing on “God & War.” Chaplain at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point when not deployed to Iraq, Huerta is obviously a man of extraordinary sensitivity and ecumenical spirit. When a Native American soldier in his company was killed in a helicopter crash, Huerta carried a personal item belonging to the dead soldier to his mourning family in South Dakota-- an eagle feather, considered sacred by the tribe.

One wonders why men like Huerta aren’t more involved in making the decisions about war and peace. It might make more sense to have someone like him overseeing our withdrawal from Iraq than a bunch of stateside politicians who have no idea how complicated all the emotional, cultural and human considerations are.

At its core, however, Carlos Huerta’s pure and compassionate respect for every person’s personal definition of faith is the embodiment of what this nation was founded to protect. It is not only about religious differences, but also about all the ways in which we differ—one American from another—and most Americans from their global neighbors in the Middle East and beyond. It is about acknowledging that those differences exist, respecting them wherever we can, and resisting the temptation W and too many others have to force the whole world to be more like Topeka, Kansas.

If our children are learning about their country, what it stands for and how its citizens are supposed to behave, I hope their teachers and parents will take the time to tell them more about men like Rabbi Carlos C. Huerta, and even learn to imitate his habit of saying someone else’s prayers once in a while…or just being silent, if silence is what your neighbor reveres.
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Send Me No Flowers

2007-07-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

One of the most thoughtful gifts I received from my mother was freedom from guilt about avoiding her and my father’s gravesite. I seldom visit the cemetery. I am just following her instructions not to.

“Don’t bring flowers to the grave…” she would admonish. “…Buy shoes for a child who needs shoes!”

So I do, convinced that my mother and father are much better honored and remembered by a good deed done in their memory than by flowers brought to a stone to die or be thrown away long after the good deal continues to comfort.

Not everyone agrees with this. I have friends enslaved by their need to visit the graves of their dead regularly. Some people spend hundreds of dollars on holidays, birthdays and death anniversaries buying space in the local papers to insert old photographs of their dead above a Hallmark-wannabe verse of loss and melancholy. Worse, they write their own messages to the dead.

“We will always remember you and miss you. Cape Cod will never be the same.
Love, Jack, Jill and your loving dog Sparky.” When the dog dies, his photograph will get added to the memorial ad: same newspaper he got house trained on-- life coming full circle.

My mother was a practical but compassionate woman. She knew the difference between what people really needed and an empty gesture. She would rather buy a coat for a homeless person in winter than offer him a box of taffy his toothless mouth couldn’t handle anyway. Long before it was fashionable to do so, she would bring sandwiches to street bums knowing that a gift of cash might just go for the booze they best avoided.

My 50-year-old Dad died when I was nine. I remember going to the cemetery with my devastated mother, a widow at 49 with a child to raise alone. She wept uncontrollably. I felt helpless and useless. I also remember feeling worthless. Nothing I could be, do or say could fill the void my father’s death had created for her.

I told her this. She was stunned by the possibility that her grief would permanently wound, even damage, her child. Her practicality kicked in, and from that point forward we were buying shoes, bringing clothing, carting meals, driving people to the doctor’s, making a difference.

At her wake, there were few flowers, but there was an endless procession of mourners, some we did not recognize.

“You don’t know me…” they would offer with their hand outstretched in greeting, “…but your mother brought us a meal when my husband was out of work.” Or, “once your Mom bought my kid a snowsuit so he could slide with the other kids…” Or, “Your mother bought my mother a train ticket to New York so my Mom could visit her dying sister there.”

What tributes-- not floral, and not a newsprint advertisement of grief, but so sweet and so lasting.
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Bats and Balls

2007-07-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

An article in the British magazine The Economist tells us about a scientific study done at Syracuse University in New York by Professor Scott Pitnick. Interestingly, researcher Pitnick was studying bats and the biological relationship between their testicles and their brains. ( Some readers are now asking, “Why?”)

Since many women have maintained for generations that men actually think with their, uhhh, testicles, the article had my attention. The premise of the research team is that a bat’s testicles would be larger in species where the females of that group were more promiscuous, and smaller when the females tended to limit their couplings.

The article went on to mention casually, as if we all knew a lot about such things, that:
“Greater promiscuity does, indeed, lead to bigger testes presumably because a male needs to make more sperm to have a fighting chance of fathering offspring, if those sperm are competing with a lot of other males.” This is fascinating since women are so often accused of ripping off those particular body parts, or “busting” them, as they say. Now we find out there is a legitimate scientific study that shows that we actually give men those things they love! More interesting, the naughtier we are, the bigger theirs get! It is only if we are prudish that they “shrink” to embarrassing miniatures.

Again from the article:
“Gorillas which discourage dalliances between other males and the females of their harems, have small testes. Chimpanzees, among whom females mate widely, have large ones.”

Then the addenda our curiosity has been waiting for:
“Human testes lie between these two extremes.”

This conjures a spectrum with King Kong on one end, J. Fred Muggs on the other, and your husband or boyfriend(s) -or both- somewhere in the middle.

The smallest bat testes were found among those whose females were monogamous.

Finally, the kicker:
“Brain size, by contrast…varied in the opposite direction.”

This means the bigger the testes, the smaller the brains. (Many women reading this column are now resting their case.)

This study is not likely to be nominated for a Nobel Prize, but it does give us something to ponder. The conclusion of the article said much more that anything I might add in summarizing the results of all this research referred to in the title as, “Bats and Balls”.

As the article ended, simply:
“…it is better to be virile and dim, than impotent and smart.”

But then again, a lot of us already knew that. Sleep tight King Kong: we now know you are much smarter than you look in those frontal nudity shots.
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European Remedies...Why Not?

2007-07-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

I was in Rome recently, vacationing and reveling in the wonderful lifestyle Italy offers. I was also battling the remnants of a persistent cough (shared by many of my fellow New Englanders) born of a spring cold exacerbated by a higher-than-usual pollen count during some unseasonably hot days and excessive mold spores following heavy spring rains.

Discouraged at the amount of energy my cough was consuming, I visited a pharmacy in Rome and sought the pharmacist’s advice. He asked me what I had already taken and noted the medications I was normally prescribed, then suggested an over-the-counter item which I optimistically took that afternoon and for the next few days. Within three days my cough was subsiding: in a few more days it was gone. I even managed to fly home in the plane’s dry air without hacking. I called my local pharmacist on my return and brought in the package of the Italian cough remedy. It seems it is a simple formula that could easily be replicated here in the U.S.A. and even be sold without prescription,

But it isn’t, and the tragedy is it probably never will be. This is not my first such experience with effective European pharmaceutical products that really work and don’t cost a mortgage payment to buy. My frequent visits there and my fortunate language skills make me less hesitant than others might be to give Europe’s remedies a try. I have never been disappointed.

My experiences do make me wonder, however, why Congress doesn’t deal with the overbearing pharmaceutical lobby that holds Americans hostage to outrageous drug prices by allowing more European competitors into our market? If a drug hasn’t killed or harmed all the Swiss, French or Italians over the last decade it’s probably safe enough for Americans as well. Our own FDA certainly does not have a flawless safety record when it comes to approving U.S. drugs for American consumption.

Why not bring in what’s tried and true in Berlin, Madrid, or London? Despite the American myth that we live in “the greatest country on earth,” our bodies function in the same ways as the bodies of our European neighbors. If a pill doesn’t do damage to the European Union’s gastrointestinal tract or respiratory system, it won’t hurt the stomach or lungs of a guy in Dayton, Ohio either. Besides, the federal government has depended on bringing in foreign flu vaccines, bird flu preventatives, and even West Nile remedies when the U.S. could not or would not develop enough on its own. I suppose they cannot have it both ways, eschewing foreign drugs when it interferes with U.S. drug company profits (and therefore campaign contributions) and, on the other hand, buying such drugs to avoid U.S. government embarrassment and public health crises.

My guess is that reasonable Americans agree it is time to get serious about lowering prescription and non-prescription drug costs in the United States. Opening our pharmacies to legitimate European drugs with excellent safety records might be a good beginning.

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