War Is So 2014 !

I read a lot of stuff on the topic of War last night in Washington’s blog, and in the rather lengthly article in the Atlantic Magazine.  First of all back when I was a kid, three quarters of the children had an immediate relative who had served in the military.  Both my Dad and an uncle had served in the military during WW II.  The military was not held in such lofty- - almost ethereal, esoteric terms back then.  Today we elevate them something into something not quite human- - - this never ending supply of young bodies to be fed into the meat grinder of war.  We have completely lost our sense of humor when it comes to the military.  We used to make fun of certain military type situations like on “Mc Hale’s Navy” or “Phil Silvers” or “Gomer Pyle”.  But there is nothing about today’s military that evokes the slightest sort of good natured humor.  It’s all as serious as a heart attack.  (so to speak)   We don’t even show the war.  If anything we show some flashing areal display and told “that’s the war”.   There are no real reporters in a war setting any more.  I regard this as unfortunate.  Washington’s blog reminds us we used to have a draft, which may account for some of the “good natured criticism” of the past.  But even if we had a draft, rather than have the effect we want of “making the average American citizen aware of the cost of War”, it would be more like an alcoholic or drug addict now told he had an unlimited expense account.  He would very soon drink himself to death.  We as a nation have absolutely no “control” any more when it comes to war spending.  It’s some kind of an edrenelin high for the leaders, and the rest of us learn to just find a way to put the whole international situation out of our minds.  Usually people who are good at something and win at it, like to do it.  But in this case it’s more of a compulsive gambeler.  The idea of NOT having that constant edreneline fix - - is just too much to contemplate.  We have superior weapon power and fighting morale and training, yet always managed to find ourselves on the losing end of any war we fight.  We’re good at breaking up and destroying - - things, but the trouble is we treat people like things and kill and destroy the native populations of the countries we perport to be “saving” and the population turns against us.  Bush says to hold an election in Iraq and we ended up not liking the government they elected, so we take steps to turn them out of power.  You could make arguments for not going to war, or being chronically in a state of war for the past thirteen going on fourteen years now.  You could make a new argument every day of the week and run out of days before you can out of arguments.  These weapons are horribly inefficient.  This latest fighter jet we have now that’s supposed to be “all purpose” but in the end does NOTHING well.  But we have to keep inventing new craft as part of this drive tword built in obselence to keep the military contractors happy.  There are any number of constructive things we could do with that money if we weren’t blowing it on new hardware that doesn’t work.  The cost in destroyed human lives is horrendous.  The cost in terms of lost credibility around the world is also horrific.  We’re supposed to be invincible yet let this upstart outfit called ISIS defeat us.  And of course it seems not to matter in the least who is president at the time because it’s all one seamless military policy.  In addition to the necessity of having a candidate who is serious about making sure systematic torture never occurs again, and who does not increase our spying on our own people, we need a President who honestly believes that war per se is an ABNORMAL state of affairs, and not the other way around.   Washington lives in this state of chronically distorted perception.

This has been the year of the failed New Year’s resolution, and it’s only the fourth.  I haven’t quit smoking.  I’ve already gone political and gotten negative about it.  I had hoped maybe I could delude and distract myself with pleasant thoughts and just maybe something positive might come along for me to latch on to.  All of the usual talk show hosts will be coming back to work tomorrow, and congress hasn’t been to work so long, I hope they can remember how to find the building.  I keep hearing endless talk about how everyone is hopeful that the Republicans in congress will pass needed legislation, and President Obama will sign them.  It seems to me increasingly inevitable that President Obama will sign the Keystone XL pipeline, a whole lot sooner than anyone of us on the left dares imagine.  Last night on the Mc Laughlin group there were repeated references to how all of this hydraulic fracturing and turned around our whole energy situation with plentiful natural gas and oil.   Even Mort Zuckerman, ever the pessimist, now grudgingly admits we’ll have a 2.5% economic growth.   It was generally the traditional four on one pile-on with Eleanor Clift as the lone liberal.  There was the selection for “Best spun issue” being the slogan “Hands up; don’t shoot”.   This isn’t “spin” but reality.  There was an extended amount of Putin bashing, which is the one thing I agree with the right on.

I"d like to call out "Bones" on one of her rare logical, or at least linguist errors.  Bones made the remark that "Characters in novels or articles cannot be one dimensional because one dimensional objects occur only in scientific theory.  She's completely missing the point.  Clearly the metaphor isn't geographic here but rather the idea of personal "dynamic", which even I have stated, is a word that often can be substituted for the word "dimension".  So I see nothing wrong with speaking of characters as either one or two dimensional - - or multi or even poly-dimensional, even though all physical matter is limited to three dimensions.  A character is an abstraction - - a concept in literature - - without materiality.  I would submit that in the real world- - if you read my writings- - you really need eleven dimensions- - or at least ten (we'll leave off the feng chue strings for a moment - which is the concept of whole "events" being released or triggered from a realm that exists in a zero dimension that scientists haven't discovered yet)  This is the difference between the real world and characters in either a novel or article.  Bones was criticized because "The cops in your book come off as one dimensional".  I knew exactly what that criticism was referring to, and so did everybody else whose name wasn't Temperance Brennon.   It's kind of oxy moronic, if you think about to have a one dimensional stereobype.  But actually I've had it explained to me that traditional Stereo sound IS "one dimensional" as opposed to Mono, which is zero dimensional, meaning that it originates from a single point.  But like I say in the "Real World" you pretty much NEED all the others one way or another.  You need something, for instance, to posess the thing we've been talking about - - Materiality - - mass and physicality.  Any object you can think of has FORM in one sense or another.  Everything serves a Function.  You may think it's a trivial function- - but everything that exists serves SOME function.   Everything in yours and my world- - - pretty much is the object of our Perception of it.  We all live in a world of Time.  Granted, it's usually Forward time rather than Lateral time.  But if you experianced Lateral time in your life- - you probably wouldn't even know it anyhow.  And as we've told you- - one of our dimensions or "Dynamics" is the concept of the Dynamic.  Most everything in life is modulated and modified.  It isn't either all this or all that.  You have to be able to contrast something to distinguish it from Something Else.  (Selah)

Breakfast with the Beatles featured “Famous Beatle firsts”.   Some of the identification of the “first” was lost because in the middle of “Another Day” (Paul’s first solo single) Judy called to talk about their trip to see Mom at the Regency yesterday.  I wish now I had gone.   With no afternoon game I had to devise ways to keep myself entertained.   The trouble is that Judy is not an entirely objective person as I know from personal experience.  All the friends Judy sought out for feedback as to what to do advised her not to intervene in a family matter.  Now she wishes she had.  Because of the fact that Pat obtained Mom’s password- - and took the money out himself of her account, seemingly without her permission.  Either Mom was lying when she said “I have no interest in either Pat, or in buying any more stocks” or else Pat was lying to her saying he’d respect Mom’s decision.  It would seem to me that Pat is guilty of criminal activity for which he could be prosecuted if Mom pressed charges.   As to the bit about Pat and Mom spending a lot of time in each other’s rooms- - this is not the Victorian era.  Men and women spend a lot of time together “unsupervised”.  They’re both pushing ninety, for crying out loud!   They’re both adults.  My only worry is that Judy planted in my mind the idea that Mom was being either deceptive or not entirely honest- - or worse yet, that she’s just plain having memory lapses and blanking out events.  But I agree that remark about Pat telling Mom “Oh just lie to the bank and tell them your computer isn’t working and they’ll do it for you” seems too shady for me.  It has the vague inference that Pat would not get on computer Himself- - and start playing with accounts.  And personally I don’t like lying- - even so called “innocent lying”, and Judy certainly doesn’t.   I missed the morning coffee break.  Some of the “firsts” I can’t figure out, such as the Ballad of John and Yoco, or Give Peace a Chance.  “My Sweet Lord” was the first number one hit of a solo Beatle.  “Day Tripper” and ‘We can Work it Out” is kind of a Beatle “last” because it’s the last big hit single where both Beatles (John and Paul) worked on both songs.  The true art of the “Lennon – Mc Cartney” was pretty much lost after this and the only exception that come to mind are “Getting Better” and “You Know My Name - - - “.    I thought perhaps that “Eleanor Rigbee” was the first song where NO Beatle played any instrument on that number.  “Norwegian Wood” was the first song, of course, using a sitar.