Nobody 659

Nobody Asked Me But:

“I laugh and cry with the same eyes.” Poet James Kavanaugh

“I laugh because I must not cry.” Abraham Lincoln

PART I

“If this be treason, then make the most of it.” Patrick Henry

“Marine Cpl. Christopher Leon, 20, Lancaster; Killed by a Sniper.”

“Spc. Christopher D. Rose, 21, San Francisco; Killed by a Roadside Bomb.”

These two Californians, killed this past week, join the list of Americans who have died in vain in Iraq. I wanted to follow their names with a scream, as I did last week, AMERICA COME HOME!, but I can’t. There is too much evidence that our fanatical enemies claim victory and gain strength whenever their target withdraws. It happened following Russia’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, America from Lebanon and Israel from Lebanon and now Gaza.

So we are left with empty curses and dead Americans in a place to which they should never have been sent. Saddam Hussein's regime, loathsome as it was, provided a strategic balance in the region to the power of a greater enemy to world peace - a radicalized Iran. (And isn’t it ironic that our most dangerous enemy state is not even Arab?)

So, damn you George Bush! Dam you Dick Cheney. Damn you Don Rumsfeld! Dam you all for your criminal stupidity. God Damn you for putting our men, our women and our country in a lose/lose situation!

Dam you because you lied. Your Axis of Evil was never Syria, Iran and North Korea. It was always Iraq, Iraq and Iraq. You have done NOTHING about those countries who were always the real threat.

You have weakened our country and are now anxiously awaiting 2009 when you can run back home and leave your mistake for someone else to clean up.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

PART II

California Assembly Bill 1147 is not this year’s most important, but it has attracted some attention. Its purpose is to legalize hemp for use in car door panels, food - energy bars, granola, smoothies and body care – shampoos and soaps.

What’s very interesting about legalizing this cousin of marijuana — both members of the notorious cannabis family – is that it has joint sponsors - Democratic Assemblyman Mark Leno and Republican, Chuck DeVore.

However, if the bill does pass, and it looks to have an excellent chance, people, who want to get high legally will have to smoke a lot of car door panels or drink several quarts of shampoo. Hemp has 3/10 of 1 % dope as opposed to marijuana’s 3% to 15%<<<

How quaint: In 1867, Henry Ward Beecher, the great preacher, abolitionist and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, was sued by his longtime friend, Theodore Tilton, for committing adultery with Tilton’s wife. The official charge was "criminal conversation." One wonders whether this charming Victorian euphemism covered only the act itself or did the naughty pair whisper “dirty” words in one another’s ear.<<<

Mickey Spillane died last Monday. He was my sex education teacher. I was half like his famous private eye, Mike Hammer. Hammer liked violence and women. I liked women.

In writing ability he was a C or maybe a C+, but he finished “I, The Jury,” his first book, with a three-line ending that is among the most famous in crime fiction.

After discovering that the killer is the seductively beautiful woman he has fallen for, Hammer shoots her with a .45 slug to her naked belly. The book's final three lines:

"How c-could you?" she gasped.

I only had a moment before talking to a corpse, but I got it in.

"It was easy," I said.

Thanks, Mickey, you gave this teen some cheap thrills – and I mean that in the best of ways.<<<

LA Times story lead: In Iraq, Civil War All but Declared

Since more than 6,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since May 1st, isn’t it is past time to remove the “all but?”<<<

LA Times story lead: In Claremont, Civil War All but Declared

Don’t burn the flag, use it as an advertising tool. That’s what real estate agent Nancy Telford and her husband did – planted flags on sticks with her card on them. "We did it to beautify the hill," Telford said. We're just being patriotic for the Fourth of July."

But Steven Llanusa, the board president of the Claraboya Homeowners Association, believed that the flags were just dressed-up advertising that violated the association's codes, covenants and restrictions, so, when the Telfords refused to remove them, he walked the neighborhood plucked then out of the ground and threw them into his trash can.

Now the community is at war. Some support Llanusa. Others want him persecuted and prosecuted for grand theft flag and desecration thereof. Condoleezza Rice is expected in Claremont momentarily to test her mediation skills before going to Lebanon.

In the meantime you and I are going to have to figure out why using Old Glory on a stick as an advertising tool is all right but dropping it in the trash is not.<<<

NY Times: Taliban militants seized two towns in tumultuous southern Afghanistan, forcing police and government officials to flee, officials said Monday.

Comment: Looks like even our declaration of victory in Afghanistan was premature.<<<

George Will agrees, as his criticism of the administration and the neocons shows:

“America responded to two hours of terrorism one September morning by toppling two regimes halfway around the world with wars that show no signs of ending.”<<<

And Will, in turn, continues to be verbally assaulted by his more radical conservative brothers -

From Slate: “Eric Johnson, a blogger at Catholic Light, continues the counter-attack on traditional conservative George Will’s criticism of “neos” for substituting eagerness for reason in pushing regime changes in the Middle East: ‘Will doesn't bother to refute the (Weekly) Standard's premise that Iran is driving much of the murder and mayhem throughout the Middle East.’”

My reaction: Since Iran is our greatest enemy, why are we fighting in Iraq?

The question stands alone but to take it a step farther, why are we fighting in Iraq, which was Iran’s greatest local enemy?<<<

This week’s quote comes from Maureen Dowd:

“In a twist that illustrated the growing power of Shiites and Iranians, even the Shiite Iraqi prime minister broke with the Bush stance and denounced Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Is there no honor among puppets?”

Baseball – the home of grand traditions and obscure records:

Tony Gwynn Jr. had a double for Milwaukee. His first hit. His father, an all-time great, had his first hit, also a double exactly 24 years earlier to the day.

Oakland’s Mark Ellis hit his 33rd home run Tuesday breaking a tie with Dave Collins for the most career home runs by a major leaguer born in South Dakota.<<<

A HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US! Last Thursday we celebrated 17 great years and are now heading for 17 more. I am a lucky man!<<<