politics – Page 12 – Hopeful Romantics

Intelligent Intelligence and the Iranian Presidential Elections

As I write this Iranian citizens have taken to the streets in protest of what appears to be fixed elections. I say appears to be in the same way someone lying dead in the street appears to be dead. Unfortunately, in the West, to paraphrase one of my favorite political pundits, Ayaan Hirisi Ali, we refuse to recognize the obvious. Therefore, the recent Iranian Presidential election, despite all appearances, may not have been fixed at all, only a lapse in our intelligence sector.

To put it another way, often in the West when someone spits in our face we tend to pass it off as rain. It is easier and not confrontational and helps us in a belief we are compensating for our alleged sins of the past, recent or distant. It is part of our propensity for overcompensation. At first we are the tough guy, and then we ease off; the good cop and bad cop all rolled into one. Having come off the somewhat insensible “bring it on” mentality of recent administrations, we are now into diplomacy first and giving peace a chance. That even keeled balance for us, is often difficult if not elusive.

That being noted, with respect to Iran we thought we could best give peace a chance by making nice to the current Iranian regime while hoping the political opposition, the reformers, if you will, would come into power through democratic presidential elections. To better accommodate our new diplomacy, we have even pulled most of our warships from nearby waters, just to be sure they took our olive branch in good form. They moved theirs into the vacancy.

As for the elections, our intelligence community estimated that Mir Hussein Mousavi, had enough support from students and moderates to mount a credible attack against Presidential incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There was a belief that it was possible that he could actually win the election. If he did win, then it was also believed he would be easier to negotiate with than the current nut case.

In my humble opinion, believing Mousavi would prevail over Ahmadinejad is the equivalent of closing your eyes, crossing your fingers, and wishing real, real hard…for a pony. But then you were probably four-years-old and didn’t base the next moves of your foreign policy on the highly improbable. To believe that the elections in Iran would be fair is a flight of fancy accompanied by the kind of drugs that are generally illegal, and accessorized by one too many commercials extolling a Kodak moment.

It is the first and foremost generic version of samples of viagra brand and are used to treat impotence or erectile dysfunction. These development programs help in equipping the individuals with the http://secretworldchronicle.com/tag/soviette/ order levitra online finest outcomes. Sleeping problems- It would be http://secretworldchronicle.com/2014/11/ep-8-02-dont-run-our-hearts-around-part-1/ viagra sans prescription somewhere silly to say that people these days take a sound sleep every single night. As a buy generic levitra discover this link it is a global industry and need 24 hours access to power supply because of the crucial information that they store in their system. Why? Why could fair elections not be possible. Well, for one thing you have a country where happy talk mixed with obstinacy and bravado is considered a viable foreign policy. It is a country hell bent on developing nuclear weapons while in thinly veiled statements claiming they are only for peaceful purposes. When not claiming the peaceful purpose high road, the Iranian President is threatening to use its military might against its more traditional enemies plus whomever irks him at the moment.

Now going back to Hirsi Ali’s original comment that the West will not recognize the obvious, you have Ahmadinejad telling his audience at Columbia University that Iran has no issues with gay people since there are no homosexuals in Iran. This is the same man mind you that the Presidential elections in Iran would be fair and unbiased. The audience at Columbia University had the good sense to snicker skeptically at his comment about the absences of gay people in Iran. The American administration and a good many other political souls lacked the same good sense when it believed the opposition party really stood a chance.

So now the election is over. Ahmadinejad won, oh big surprise. Iranian people, understandably, are rioting in the streets, and the police are rounding them up. Mousavi, the opposition candidate, is reportedly under house arrest. The crackdowns are major, and the Iranian government has claimed the rioting is the result of outside agitators. Okay.

Members of the Western governments have made statements as bland as they wish now the controlling religious faction in Iran will recognize that a large segment of Iranian population wants them to lighten up and will accede to popular demand. They actually wish that. Fingers crossed and eyes closed, I’m sure. But no pony.

Considering the Ayatollah Khamenei, and his religious fundamentalists, the real controlling factor in Iran, were the ones who started the fundamentalist and highly restrictive movement in the first three places, I’d say it is unlikely that they will suddenly see the ill of their ways and join the rioting crowd for a group hug and a fashion makeover. In fact, as the protests continue, you can look to further crackdowns on those with the temerity to try and think for themselves.

As for the West, it should be apparent that Ahmadinejad will be even more obstreperous and far less inclined to relinquish his country’s purusit of nuclear weapons. What the West will do is hard to say. It will once again be confronting the obvious. And that is the problem.

Miss California Makes Hay on the Gay Marraige Issue

Carrie Prejean made her television commentator debut recently on Fox News. Prejean, otherwise known as Miss California, graced the airwaves as a host on the Fox News Show, Fox and Friends. Her two male co-hosts were apparently smitten with her as they heaped so much praise on her as a visionary and in possession of the hearts and minds of the people. I thought I was witnessing a pick up scene in some Upper East Side Watering Hole where the two stiff suits were trying to woo the hot babe from the eighteenth floor.

Carrie Prejean, as we all know thanks to the media overload, stirred up some controversy when she while running for Miss USA that she opposed gay marriage. She talked about family values and the way she was raised. She talked about morality and virtue. She didn’t discuss the racy photos taken earlier in her young life that later appeared all over the Internet. But so what? We are in the age of digital cameras. And blind ambition. What’s going topless in quest of fame?

But being against gay marriage and showing off your much smaller, non-implanted boobs was too much red meat for either side of the issue. The liberal left reflexively hated her guts. The conservative right adopted her as a love child and couldn’t support her enough. Even Sarah Palin stepped forward in support of her fellow Beauty Queen. Talk show pundits rambled on as they are wont to do, getting paid for their scintillating insight into such matters.

As for me, I can’t get all excited, either way. I realize the media is a circus and unlike spectacles like wrestling that openly wink at its play acting and entertainment value, the news media still pretends there are shreds of authenticity left in its tabloid soul. I realize that while I may disagree with Carrie Prejean’s opinion, vehemently, in fact, I will defer to Voltaire in defending to the death her right to it. Well, maybe not to the death, but you get the point.

Besides, what brand of idiots would resort to a contestants in a beauty pageant for insights into the complexities of social and political issues? I mean, to take seriously the geopolitical perceptions of a beauty queen is in and of itself an oxymoron. Other than their traditional desire for world peace, there is little to offer other than a sneak peak at their silicon boob jobs and a few minutes of mediocre talent. I swear if Carrie Prejean or any other aspiring beauty queen came out in favor of inter-bestial sexual relations, I wouldn’t feel anymore upset than her view of love being long walks in the moonlight.

What does interest me is how Carrie Prejean can parlay her controversial position into one of a bonafide celebrity. While she may have done it from the platform of the Miss USA contest, it is still remarkable how she joined the growing list of limited people making the celebrated move from there to here. This in itself, if not an art form, at least qualifies as something worth noting.

I am not claiming that Carrie Prejean is particularly talented or that a brain trust lives in concealment under that lovely blond hair. In fact, it is safe to say she is no rocket scientist and that no missiles will be launched from that brain. But then her two fellow hosts on the show are far from what you would deem an Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite. And yet there they are…commentating. Or whatever.

Besides, Prejean has the Big Mo going in her favor. Her momentum based on the fact that somewhere around half the nation supports her. Americans love a pretty face and a girl that’s both traditional yet spunky. It’s the natural combination for big time appeal. This is, after all, nothing if not a country that for some strange reason usually prefers its leaders be mediocre. Perhaps that way they are less intimidating and more accessible. There are a number of reasons, but that is the subject of a different feature.

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Ironically, or maybe not, it seems to be the conservatives who best repurpose adversity. You can name a few. There was Oliver North who was convicted of violating the Congress and the laws of this land by allegedly engineering the elements of what would be the Iran-Contra Scandal. He became a talk show host who was revered by his followers. Same goes for G. Gordon Liddy who was convicted for his participation in the Watergate Scandal and went on to be a talk show host.

Jessica Hahn, church administrator, was spotlighted for being sexually abused by Televangelist Jim Bakker. She had a radio show, however briefly, made dozens of guest appearances, and posed in Playboy Magazine. Not bad for a conservative girl who was supposedly a virgin at the time of her abuse.

Rush Limbaugh, famous already, after telling his adoring listeners what harsh treatment was levied on drug users was in fact a major drug user who violated the law. His punishment was higher numbers and, arguably, the title of the Republican spokesperson for this era. He was famous already, but after the drug scandal, he was promoted within.

Then there is Dick Morris. Morris worked as a political adviser to President Bill Clinton, but who resigned after it was discovered he sought out prostitutes for mutual toe sucking festivities. He is now a Republican Pundit, appears on countless shows and waxes critically on the behavior of others. It is fair to say Morris is more famous after the hooker told all about the toe sucking than he was as merely a political adviser.

The Democrats have very few who knew how to turn adversity in their favor. There is of course Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky Scandal. But he was already the President and therefore famous. In Clinton’s case, adversity cost him. Influential people distanced themselves. He faced public embarrassment, including a vote to impeach him.

Gary Hart, leading presidential hopeful, got caught doodling Donna Rice, and he had to drop out of a race that surely was his to lose. He lost it. He dwells now in Media Limbo, making appearances here and there but living overall in relative obscurity.

So at the end of the day, it’s fair to say the Republicans do it better. They can sin and ask G-d for forgiveness, and remarkably he seems to do it every time. He even gives them a talk show. So in the end, contrary to the common opinion that that Republicans are dead or dying as a party, I would say they are far from it. They are only on hiatus.

As for Carrie Prejean, should she lose her conservative backing, there is always the Weather Channel.

Boomers’ New Commune for Retirement Post-Recession

Increasingly, I have listened to my Boomer friends tell me that the economic meltdown has caused a serious decline in their pensions funds and portfolios. The standard refrain is, “I’ll never be able to retire.” Some are joking, or trying to put a good face on a rotten time for a Recession, and some are hardly joking at all.

Couple the loss of savings with the potential loss of your job, and Boomers are wondering how they are even going to make it to retirement. It is no secret that the Boomers are generally higher paid and not as willing at this point in life to work the slave hours as their younger counterpart. Then there are the others, who can’t find work and have given up trying. They are taking earlier retirement. Maybe they are getting less income from their Social Security and Retirement funds. But at least they are getting some money. And some money is better than no money at all. I guess.

It is a lousy economy for everybody but especially for a generation that thought it would never grow old, and now it has. It’s a harsh reality, for sure, especially when you feel the first ailments, the aches and pains, that make it harder to get up and harder to get it up. Friends are starting to die around you. It seems too early, but nevertheless life has its way of telling you the time of the season. As Bob Dylan sang in one of his songs, “It ain’t dark yet, but it’s getting there.”

All right, not to be morbid. The fact is for most Boomers there is still a long way to go. We are overall in better shape than any other generation. We are better educated and more or us exercise and eat right. We try to stay vital and relevant, even when looking vital and relevant is a full time job. We have sex on a regular basis. Or at least some of us do. We accept the new realities that our friends and associates in trying to find themselves found sometimes that the boys liked boys and the girls liked girls. Hey considering that our parents at our age looked like Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower, this ain’t too bad.

We look for second careers and go into business for ourselves. We wear funny tee shirts and buy CD’s of our favorite bands. We try to understand our children and maybe we do a better job of it than our parents did with us. Or maybe we have no more of a clue about how and why the younger generation behaves than the old fogies who tried to ruin our youth.

So now hear we are, at least eyeballing retirement. But in this economy we are increasingly aware, despite the assurances to the contrary, we may be faced with some serious downsizing. Social services and entitlement may not be there like we thought. We sure can’t take it for granted. Instead of the government and our nest eggs providing us with economic and psychological sanctuary, we may be left to our own devices. There are cracks in the system, the same system we once deplored and then finally embraced. We were victimized by stupid wars, again, and watched a bunch of white collar thieves run off with our money. Some of us are those white collar thieves, but I digress.

We have handled it well. So far. Rather than man the barricades and storm the government institutions, we just grouse about it. Maybe. Or we take mood elevators and try not to notice. Perhaps the storming part is best left to younger people as all that climbing and running would causes pains in the places we would rather ignore. Who wants tear gas all over our brand new designer jeans?

As for the younger people, they accept their fates with a mix of apathy and lethargy. It’s that or they are remarkable stoic. The thing is if they are this apathetic about their own fates, then for sure as hell they are not about to care too much about us. Even if we are their parents.

So I started thinking of solutions to our possible future challenges. I realized we are liable to end up living on communes. Talk about karma with a capital “K.” We are going to chip in or in some other way cluster into workable communities where we can put food on the table and take care of each other. Maybe it’s nuts to think this way, but it is no crazier than believing all those years of working fourteen hours a day would guarantee our economic security. That is starting to look like it was really insane, wasting our lives, most of us, in jobs we hated. For trinkets and beads.
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I write this never being a big fan of the communes of old. I had visited a few in those times and it always seemed oddly humorous that the commune dwellers in search of democracy voted on just about everything from cooking the ubiquitous brown rice to sexual sleeping arrangements. all that deliberation was just too overwhelming. I realized there need to be certain arrangements in order for these communes to survive, but some of the rules were more draconian than the rules of straight society. In straight society you just needed money, and people would tend to leave you alone, if you wanted. Not at the communes. It seemed everyone was into everybody else’s business.

I remember living in Santa Fe, New Mexico and sitting in my favorite restaurant as a gaggle of hippies and their gaggle of kids partook in their weekly restaurant experience. they may have been rich kids looking poor for all I knew. The men and women were often dressed in muslin. Dirty muslin. Dresses, skirts, mens’ shirts. Their kids, too, were adorned in muslin. Set off, as they say in the fashion world, by dirty faces.

I forget the name of that particular commune where this group made their home. It was up in the mountains and over the years was transformed by new owners into Ten Thousand Waves, the Japanese health spa. Talk about changes and things. The commune did enjoy the rare distinction of surviving longer than most.

So now here we are, perhaps about to reexamine the commune experience of our youth. While most Boomers never set foot inside a commune, maybe a good thing, now it may loom as one of the principle means of our survival. Of course the new communes would hardly resemble the old communes. For one thing the sex acts would be far more limited. Even with Viagra.

The good news would be that the residents would be far more accomplished than those who lived in the communes of our youth. Despite all assertions to the contrary, we we largely young and inexperienced, lacking skill sets we have developed over time. We may actually have a clue and know what we are doing, which back then was often not the case.

Things have changed. We live in a digital world with the Internet. Survival and setting up a business or series of business that may bring in income is a lot more realistic than the axiom of merely growing one’s own food and inseminating the barnyard animals. Power lines reach into even the more rural areas, so running computer and appliances is not that much an issue. Besides, some of these communes may be in urban areas, even blighted urban areas that can be reclaimed on the cheap. Or perhaps they will exist in suburbia, in communities that have fallen apart. Old factories. Who knows.

Needs will be different from those in our youth. Once upon a time it seemed like every third hippie woman took up midwifery. Noble enough but hardly necessary with a group facing its own mortality. People will need nursing and hospice skills instead. Some people will need retraining. People will need entertainment. Some will come over the Internet and through satellite and cable, but if there is leisure time it cannot all be spent in the pursuit of metaphysical enlightenment or listening to a poorly played guitar.

Then there is a matter of benefiting the surrounding communities. When you have this many skilled Boomers clustered into one area then it is only fitting devote some time to going out into the community. It wouldn’t hurt to teach the kids to read and write. Teach classes on real issues, things that we have learned along the way. Be the mentors we as kids thought others should be. Maybe put a little something back in the world, even if our experience in it was less than satisfactory.

It can’t hurt. And after all, it beats working.

Will the Anger Over AIG Turn Into the Boston Tea Party?

Everyone you know is upset over the $165 Million in bonuses that are to be awarded to the executives at AIG. That is, of course, after the Federal Government just laid out some $170 Billion in tax payer’s money to keep the company afloat. People are really pissed off. In fact, even some of our fair legislators are outraged, despite the fact that they did take tax deductible campaign contributions from AIG and floundering companies just like it.

Of course, there are those who believe they deserve the bonuses. Mostly these are AIG executives who want their reward for the once venerable company into the ground. After all, in the American vernacular of the modern age,they did their best. There are also those from other distressed companies who may perceive the public outrage over the AIG bonuses as an ominous sign that their unfair share of the nation’s wealth may also be in jeopardy. No dessert for you, this day.

There are also the conservative pundits who believe this is an encroachment on private enterprise and the free market. This is the government in coercion, forcing socialism and worse on the American worker and, consequently, the American spirit. This is the misuse of the law and a rotten precedent. This is excellent fodder for self righteous blowhards of every stripe to vent their ire on radio, television and publications throughout the nation. It’s a cottage industry. Corruption is in season. Get your say while you can.

I would be just one more of them. That is, unless I was concerned with a more universal aspect to this scenario. Something historical. I go back to my earlier notation that the public is really pissed off. In fact, they haven’t been this angry since O.J. Simpson was acquitted of killing his former wife. They haven’t been so miffed since the retailers ran out of Cabbage Patch Dolls at the height of the holiday season. I mean, this is big anger.

So what becomes of this anger? Does it grow being this issue, or does it fade away and we go back to watching American Idol? Does that good old American lynch mob mentality start to manifest, or do we end up suffering from ennui? Is our collective attention span still strong enough to allow this anger to galvanize behind the larger issues of corruption and irresponsibility among our fearless leaders?

Does someone finally channel this anger, so their is a voice behind it? Is it diffused by the multiple, myriad viewpoint talking heads that occupy our eyeballs and airwaves? These are are lot of questions, I know. But one night friends and I were chatting about this very thing. What does it take anymore to generate a Boston Tea Party? And the thing is about the Boston Tea Party, does it lead to revolution in one form or another. Probably not, but who knows.
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The conversation among friends, recalled the other revolutions turned catastrophic The American Revolution was fairly ethical and prudent, restrained overall. It was a revolution with established goals and once those goals were achieved, the rancor for the most part settled in to debate and some shouting until compromise was reached. We didn’t have a counterrevolution, and after the war was won and the exhausted British Army picked up its catcher’s mitt and went home, we didn’t lop heads. We set about to making a country. Most of us fail to realize how marvelous that is. How lucky we are. And despite aging into debt to buy cheap clothes from China and our scarfing down the Grand Slam Breakfast, how smart we have been.

Not the same with other countries. France had its revolution then a few counterrevolutions. Russia did the same thing. There were others. Castro’s Cuba was hardly gentle in its making. One wonders what is that about. Certain their is a different of opinion, which in turn leads to power plays and spurious opinions about how the ends justify the means.

But then maybe the slow rise of anger and the eventual mob mentality created instead a blood lust. Simply put, people liked watching heads roll out of the guillotine. Maybe the lynch mob mentality and the blood lust overtook the more civil side, the passivity that the motley masses, especially, tend to experience. Maybe once the anger rises, things can and do get out of hand. Then perhaps there is no way to stop it.

The American Revolution is the exception, in fact the anomaly. More commonplace is the satisfaction of blood lust and the desire to get even. After awhile, getting even is not perceived in just political terms but as a means of exorcising the personal demons. And then everyone becomes suspect. Minorities, gays, oddities, artists, all become fodder for the erratic and destructive sensibility. The innocent are sacrificed with and tossed on the pyre to accommodate the blood lusts.

Mind you, I don’t see that happening. Just yet. Or not at all. But that kind or outrage, if not addressed and quenched in its early stages, like a locomotive, is slow to get rolling and is awfully tough to stop. Nations have torn themselves apart over it. Enlightened nations.

So I guess that despite the media frenzy and the obvious statements of the obvious issues about corruption and greed, we should examine the larger picture. Before we get worked up, are we channeling that anger in the right direction. Are we looking for justice or in the mood for the Boston Tea Party? Or will we not be satisfied until we see the Reign of Terror supplant Mixed Martial Arts on pay-per-view? Now that’s what some might call a bonus.

English Language Only–But Whose English Language Are We Speaking?

I love the English language. As a writer, I have worked with it for more decades than I care to mention. I have molded it, sculpted it, admired it and, at times, abused it. I love its versatility and its application. I enjoy hearing the people who speak it so well, reading those who have applied it to the written word. I love it in drama and comedy, and even to convey information.

There is no doubt it is our native tongue. But others have come here who speak in other native tongues and are slow to utilize English as their primary language. The should, and most will over time, much like our ancestors picked it up. Over time. Their kids will surely use it.

I have friends who depending on desire and education speak English with either a thick accent or new accent at all. I hear most of their kids speak, and the majority sound like any other American kid, generational jargon, bad grammar and all. I dare say most of my friends of fairly well educated, and if they are not educated their ambitions have elevated them so they are successful in their adopted land. They want to assimilate, and their kids definitely want to assimilate, so that may be part of it.

But then there are those who insist everyone speak English. Nothing but English. Not a bad idea, really, but not all that practical. According to an article in the New York Times, a Nashville, Tennessee City Councislman wants to put forth a measure where all government workers speak only English. His measure has met with considerable resistance among Nashviille’s citizens. Whether it passes or not remains to be seen.

I am reminded of other instances where either private entrepreneurs or city officials, all puffed up on whatever righteousness they believe in have posted signs in their establishments or otherwise made clear they wish us to be an English only nation. Frankly, I can see their point. English, aside from the principle of it all, is our native language, and it does tend to expedite things if we all can speak it.
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However, I am also reminded of the wide variety of the way English is spoken. How the pronunciation of the language and specific words can vary from region to region. We have a variety of accents in this country, and often one person’s accent while a comfort zone in his region is offputting in other places. Northerners think of Southerners as dumb because of the way they speak, and Southerners think of Northerners as abrasive. In the Midwest, people in the Northeast are viewed as abrasive because of how they speak, while more than a few regions revel in mocking the California Dude.

We from some places viewed those form other places as slurrring their words or allowing them running together. We take umbrage, at least some of us do when a supposedly intelligent Vice Presidential candidate can’t articulate her “ing’s.” We don’t like it when a President can’t pronounce nuclear, and it’s a tough day in Dixie when its citizens try to make the distinction between “oil” and “all.”

Then in places like Philadelphia, some people can speak distinctly and articulately while some of the neighborhood folk talk with the “d’ese and “d’ose,” and “you’se” or “yizz,” which always sounds so poetic. New York Cabbies used to mocked, when they weren’t all recent immigrants, and the famouse “turdy turd and turd,” pronounciation of an intersection is not exactly the King’s English. Speaking of the King’s English few can understand the Brits, who pretty much invented the language, and then there are variations that can make it even less comprehensible. Cockney, for example.

Then there is the Irish English and the Scottish English. The English of the West Indies, and so it goes. A whole lot of English with a whole lot of variation. I’m not complaining, mind you. I find it all pretty fascinating. Interesting.

I just find it ironic that when certain citizens demand that we all speak English, I have to wonder, ” which brand of English would you prefer?” Perhaps we should amplify and extend the near forgotten phrase of Gertude Stein. “A rose isstill a rose in any language.” Just don’t throw me out of your restaurant for not pronouncing it correctly.