SAM 324

Found this touching contribution to Short Final on AVWeb:

The fallen Betty Ford was returning to Grand Rapids for the last time. Her remains were abord a beautiful United States Presidential airplane painted blue and white. The airport was closed to all other traffic for 30 minutes. Airliners waited patientally on the ground and some in a hold over the GRR VOR. As Ms. Ford's plane, SAM 324, landed, they were cleared to taxi all the way to the end, in front of a thousand people. The tower frequency was absolutely silent.

One unknown airline pilot, in a low, respectful voice, said, "Rest in peace, Mrs. Ford."

After a short pause and in a slow, measured response, the Presidential plane's pilot identified himself:
 

"SAM 324."

This really choked me up and had to share.

The Debt Ceiling

We live in scary times where the dumbest of the dumb appear to be the ones in control and the intelligent and informed are shouted down. Made up history, made up facts, made up laws, made up constitutional wording, have all become facts to the lemmings who are too stupid or too young or both to recall history as it really happened.

The profoundly stupid things being said by the Republicans about the debt ceiling is extremely scary so I'd like to remind them of what their hero said about the debt ceiling:

Congress consistently brings the Government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinkmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits. Interest rates would skyrocket, instability would occur in financial markets, and the Federal deficit would soar. The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations. It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility – two things that set us apart from much of the world.

If they allow the United States to fail to pay its bills by not raising the debt ceiling our economy will make will look so bad the Great Depression will be viewed as good times.

What a Solemn Day

Last night I lost my Aunt Lu.

She was always a joy to be around. A warm, funny, quick witted, light up a room sort of woman. She and her husband, my Uncle Syl, are always in the happiest of my memories. (Even if ya did burn me with a cigar Uncle Syl. LOL. OK, I kinda walked into it.) This is when it sucks being 3,000 miles away from family. Family I would love to be with right now to share and listen to stories of the life and the lives this amazing person touched.

I love you Aunt Lu. I'll miss you.
Rest in Peace Lucille Helen Zabrouski-Sammartine

Let America Be America Again

Anyone that argues LGBT Equal Rights and the Civil Rights movements are not the same thing need only read this poem by a gay black man.

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!


O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

~ Langston Hughes

Continual War

What a grim day.

Today marks the 8th Anniversary of the Iraq War. An illegal war. A war against a country that never threatened us. A war against a country that never attacked us. A war that destroyed thousands of American lives and millions of Iraq lives. And for what? What purpose did it serve and why are we still there?

As if this anniversary wasn't depressing enough now we are bombing yet another country. Today we began bombing Libya. Why? Again, what purpose does it serve.

We have no money for infrastructure.
We have no money for the arts.
We have no money for education.
We have no money for healthcare.
Yet, if we took the money we spent just today on bombing three innocent countries around the globe we could fund all the above items for years.

All I can do is sit here and cry.

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The Founding Fathers on War.

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
- John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, 1780

Finally, there seem to be but three Ways for a Nation to acquire Wealth. The first is by War as the Romans did in plundering their conquered Neighbours. This is Robbery.
- Benjamin Franklin, Positions to be Examined, April 4, 1769

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
— James Madison, Political Observations, 1795

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Don't get me wrong. War serves a purpose and I am so happy to live in a country that, for all intents and purpose, simply cannot be effectively attacked. To quote President George Washington:

If we desire to insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.
- George Washington, Annual Message, December 1793

However, at what point do we go from defender of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness to Tyrant?

The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation.
- George Orwell

Bottled Water

Something I will never ever ever understand.

People who complain that Gas is $4/gallon but have no problem buying bottled water, which is nothing more than municipal tap water, sold back to them at a 1900% profit after their taxes already paid to pump and filter it.

P.T. Barnum was so right. A sucker truly is born every minute.

Budget Musings

Congress continues to fight over the United States Budget and all the talk seems to be about cutting social services in the name of debt reduction. On the chopping block is funding for critically important things such as Planned Parenthood and NPR.

I love math. Remember, it was my high math score that got me into computers in the first place, so let's do the math for the budget.

The Federal Budget is $1.3 Trillion. Of that Planned Parenthood gets about $300 Million and NPR gets about $428 Million. That equates to an itty bitty teeny weeny percentage of the total budget.

Planned Parenthood gets about 0.02% of the budget and NPR gets about 0.03% of the budget.

Now let's look at the War Budget (sorry, I can't call it the Defense Budget because it has nothing to do with defense). The United States of America is spending about $719 Billion to make war.

That translates into 55.3% of the budget. 55%!!! We are the only Super Power on Planet Earth. We are the biggest baddest most awesome military in the history of the world. However, we really don't need to be spending that kind of money on our military. It is completely unnecessary.

Imagine the utopia this country could be if we cut war spending by a few hundred billion. Let's bring it down to a level where we can blow up the earth 5 times over instead of 10 times over. We'd still be the biggest baddest bully on the block, but we'd also be able to care for our citizens.

Stop funding Planned Parenthood. Really? A much needed and depended upon service for women's healthcare. Do Republicans hate women that much? How do they view their wives and daughters?

Stop funding NPR. Really? Are the Republicans that terrified of an informed electorate?

As per the United States Constitution, only Congress can declare war. The last time congress declared war was 70 years ago in 1941. So why are we stomping all over earth blowing up people? Oh right, they have the audacity to put a country where our resources are.

Stop spending more than half of every tax dollar blowing up people and we can provide health care for all Americans. We can provide an education for all our children. People can afford to go to college and oh so much more.

Math doesn't lie. Politicians do. Look at the math and don't let people trick you into believing that cutting funding for important services for people has anything to do with reducing debt. It doesn't.

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
— James Madison, Political Observations, 1795