Not sad but not excited by the death of a terrorist

When something is thrown upwards, there is a point at which the object’s upward momentum and the force of gravity are equal. For some time period — even if it is incredibly small — when the object hangs suspended. That is the emotional space I have occupied since learning about Osama bin Laden’s death. Any relief/closure/positive emotion has been tempered by my normal instinct that death is bad and deaths, even of bad people, are not meant to be celebrated.

Now, I should confess a few things. I grew up on Long Island and live in Washington, DC. My emotional location vis-à-vis 9/11 had been a strange place. It remains one of the worst days of my life and few things would make me happier than seeing the towers built back exactly the way there were and despite knowing New York as well as I know any place on earth, I still get lost in lower Manhattan sometimes because I still look for the WTC when I get out of the subway. Growing up, that was my compass in the city. It may always be. These are the reasons, my liberal friends tell me my opinion of anything 9/11 related is less valid because I am too close to it.

At the same time, I will never think we should do to ourselves what the terrorists could not; destroy out way of life and take away our belief in the ideals that inspired our republic. Racial intolerance cannot be mistaken for vigilance against terrorism. We cannot convince anyone outside of the US  to believe that we believe in the importance of the rule of law if we do not apply it uniformly within the US. And the Bill of Rights is as important today as it was on 9/10/2001. These are the reasons my conservative friends tell me my opinions on this subject are less valid because I “do not understand the impact 9/11 had on America.”

You can see the paradox. One might think these opinions would give me more reason to hate Osama bin Laden but I don’t. I can’t. He doesn’t deserve that. The closest thing I have had to “joy” at seeing him be killed was when I laughed at a photo of President Obama that had the caption “I am sorry it took me so long to get you my birth certificate, I was busy killing Osama bin Laden.”

At the end of the day though, if I were to become the kind of person who celebrates any loss of life — even of someone as reprehensible as this mass killer — I just become more like them and I don’t want that.

Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?

At the end of the day, the scandals that get our attention are not always the most scandalous, they are the ones that hit closest to home.  Sex is easier to get than financial problems (Enron vs. lying about an affair).  When Governor Blagojevich  tried to sell President-elect Obama’s Senate seat, and probably before, he broke the law.  It would have brought front page news regardless of the language he used but the fact that he practically dared law enforcement to listen to his calls and then the fact that he was so over the top in these conversations – does anyone remember Gary Hart’s invitation to the press to follow up and remember how well that worked out? – makes this story really what it is.  He is a jerk.  It doesn’t take much to connect points a to b here.

 

Frank Rich wrote a great piece on this in Sunday’s NY Times (look it up).  This is comedy.  This is not the end of our country.  While ‘impeachment fatigue’ (see same NY Times ‘Week in Review’ section) may have prevented hearings against President George Walker Bush et al but there is no question in my mind that they DEFINITELY committed ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’ The irony of the Bill Clinton legacy may not be that he survived only after his detractors fell but that his successors survived when they should not have. 

 

In the context of war, depression and torture, selling a Senate seat (even on Ebay) is not as bad as it seems right now.

 

PS.  I think Blagojevich should be prosecuted and go to jail AND I think his phone calls were funny.  I always think we all need a little perspective, on everything.

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Some period of time in review

 

 

·         Dick Cheney meets our expectations.  Apparently he admitted to supporting waterboarding.  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cheney16-2008dec16,0,5456856.story  Looks like he may not be the warm and fuzzy VPOTUS we have all grown to know and love.  And just as he leaves office, maybe the indictments won’t come through until after he and Dubya have left town.  Can a POTUS pardon people in advance?

·         Obama fatigue – catch it!  Sorry.  I love the fact that Barak Obama will be our president soon.  He is a great person and will be a fantastic leader.  It was an amazing night here in DC – election night was like Mardi Gras, the Superbowl, all tennis grand slams, every sporting event championship and New Year’s Eve rolled into one.  For weeks people walked around being nice to each other, like the local government had removed the chlorine from our water and replaced it with Prozac or Xanax.  It has been great but the scale has tipped.  No, thank you, I do not need a toilet seat cover with a picture of the new first family on it.  There are more stalls here with Obama memorabilia than Washington Post stands (maybe the newspapers should think about that as they all file for chapter 11.)

·         The holiday season is upon us but so is the apocalypse.  No, I am not talking about the economy, the auto industry or the Illinois governor.  I went to my second movie of 2008 – yes I need to get out more often – and heard some crazy music playing.  It was the Chipmunks.  It was a cover of an old Journey song.  It was every bit as bad as you can imagine.

·         Speaking of hell, if I am not there now I think I am headed there.  Or at least that’s what every random religious door-to-door congregation in the city thinks because they come to my house five times a week.  I am starting to think there is a big “Satan lives here” sign on my door.  I thought I scared the Mormons away when I gave them a copy of “Under the Banner of Heaven” but they keep coming back.  And if the two overly friendly women with the Watchtower come calling again I am just going to answer the door naked and see if that keeps them away.

·         Christian Bale may be about to jump the shark, he make take the phrase with him.  One of the previews I saw was of a new Terminator movie.  Bale’s big line in the preview was “You tried to kill my mother, you tried to kill me, I am not gonna let you.”  Then let them kill me.  Death sounds better than this.  Didn’t the writers’ strike end last year?

·         Keanu Reeves found his ideal role: disaffected alien.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Keanu.  I loved him as Neo (even despite that line “You can’t die, I love you too damn much.”) and who didn’t love him in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”?  He uttered my favorite line in any movie EVER.  In “River’s Edge” he says, “You just come around here to eat our food and fuck our mother.  You motherfucker.  You food eater.”   If you cannot appreciate that line, well, I can’t help that.

·         And because it’s there:  http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/swear-words

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Wow. Where do you start on a day like today?

The Supreme Court

One of the main reasons it is always important to be careful who you pick to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is that they choose who gets to sit on the Supreme Court.  Justices get to stay there for the rest of their lives.  Many Democrats, liberals and libertarians were concerned about the court’s composition and what would happen if a social conservative took the White House.  This was the one issue that even Ralph Nader said should make people vote for Al Gore over in 2000 (and no, I am not over Nader’s irresponsible actions that year).  So now Dubya’s court has decided that the law banning late term abortions is constitutional.  While social conservatives all over the country are celebrating tonight, this fight is not over (Washington Post).  The abortion fight will never really be over.

 

“For today, we have a significant victory for life and it is to be celebrated," said Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, an influential conservative lobby group with strong evangelical ties. But he told Reuters by telephone that it was too early to speculate when the Holy Grail for social conservatives — a Supreme Court decision reversing the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that women have a basic constitutional right to abortion — would be achieved.”

 

As a very pro-choice woman, I am no longer sure how relevant Roe v. Wade is.  A number of states (15) have banned abortions completely and others have just made is as difficult as possible.  Look here for more info.  For women in a large part of the country access to reproductive health services is limited and abortions are not available.  This is due to different laws and regulations but also the lack of doctors who perform abortions.  Many women have to drive long distances to get abortions.  Worse, in many of these same places laws designed to inspire family unity, do the opposite.  Is it really right to make a girl raped by a family member ask that person to sign off on her aborion?  Do aborion opponents really think it is better to make 11 year old rape victims mothers than to handle that some other way.  Ironically, while most health insurance companies cover Viagra and Cialis, they will not cover birth control.  At the same time, Scientific American reported on a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) study that showed abstinence only programs do not work.

 

"The vast majority of the public does not see abstinence and contraception as an either/or proposition — they want teens to be informed of both," Sarah Brown, Executive Director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, said in a statement.  "We have been promoting ignorance in the era of AIDS, and that's not just bad public health policy, its bad ethics," added James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth.

 

HHS did not release its findings, as they contradict the current administration’s position on this issue but it was leaked by activists in who were backed by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Ca).  One interesting point is that a few years ago a government official from Senagal was asked about his country’s response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa and how different the results were in Senegal where t hey had been able to halt the spread of the disease through the wide distribution of condoms.  The Clintons' position, which they both have always supported is that abortion should be 'safe, legal and rare" should appeal to both sides of this issue and I have never understood why social conservatives refuse to acknowledge this.  No one ‘promotes’ abortion or wants to see someone they care about go through that – whether it be a young woman who got pregnant by mistake or someone who has found their baby has some medical problem that could hurt them or the mother – in most instances this is an intensely personal and difficult decision to make.  Preventing the former should be a top priority for anyone who cares about these young women and should trump their need to push their religion on other people.  Stay tuned, Tony Perkins got one thing right – this battle will continue for a long time.  I have to wonder if all the people who picket Planned Parenthood offices, bomb clinics and engage in similar behavior spent that time and energy on prevention maybe we’d have less pregnancies to worry about.  If only…

 

And in our ‘pro-life’ oriented world…

More information has surfaced regarding Cho Seung-Hui, the student who killed 33 people at Virginia Tech.  He sent a package to NBC News, which included video images taken ‘during the rampage':

 

“April 18 (Bloomberg) — The Virginia Tech University student who shot 32 people to death on campus this week mailed a package of images and video messages to NBC News during his rampage.   After killing two students in a dorm on the , campus on April 16, Cho Seung Hui, 23, sent the package, NBC News said in a statement today. He went on to kill 30 more in a classroom building before taking his own life. One image released by NBC shows Cho wearing a backward black baseball cap and glaring at the camera while extending two pistols in gloved hands. NBC News broadcast a video tonight showing Cho delivering a profanity-laced tirade.  “When the time came I did it. I had to,'' Cho says in the video. He also says, “You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours.''

 

Additionally, multiple news sources say he had been committed in 2005 for being suicidal and students who knew him said he never spoke to anyone, most people who knew him thought he had mental problems but no one did anything.  One of his suitemates told Chris Matthews on tonight’s Hardball that his own suitemates did not even know his name until the RA posted it on his door.  The same person knew him for almost four years and thought he was a business major – he learned of the gunman’s true major when he read it in the paper and was surprised.  He assumed one reason Cho kept to himself was that his English was not very good and that he was shy about it.  My only question remains:  why did no one step in and try to help him before this?  Colleges all over the country will take another look at students who may struggle with their own inner demons but it should not stop there.

 

Depression is a major problem for adolescents.  ABC News reported tonight that the benefits of antidepressants outweigh any risks.  It does not seem hard to see why people at this age are so prone to be depressed.  It is a hard time.

 

“Depression, when it occurs, is potentially lethal. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death in adolescents and is most often preceded by a major depressive episode.  Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to developing suicidal thinking in the context of depression, in part because adolescence is a time of identity formation during the human lifespan.”  (ABC News)

 

The story above gives warning signs people can look for.  Of course, we still have to move beyond the idea I mentioned yesterday that people are to blame for any mental illness they have.  We need to give them the same support we would give someone with cancer.  It would be nice to think something will change because of this horrible act but once the news story dries up the country’s attention will move on to something else.  The people directly affected will never be the same but the nation will go on.

 

Iraq

Much to the dismay of the White House, the new (barely) Democratic Congress is not going to back down on Iraq.  Karl Rove predicted last week that the Democrats would bow to what Dubya wants but it looks like that is not going to happen.  According to the Post:

 

President Bush sparred across the table with Democratic congressional leaders opposed to the war on Wednesday in a prelude to a veto showdown over a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 3,200 troops. During an hourlong meeting at the White House, the president told lawmakers directly he will not sign any bill that includes a timetable for a troop withdrawal, and they made it clear Congress will send him one anyway. "We believe he must search his soul, his conscience and find out what is the right thing for the American people," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of , told reporters after the session. "I believe signing this bill will do that."

 It is hard to envision this president signing any bill that would make it look like he is changing his position on this war, a war that he said when it started would ‘make or break’ his presidency.  He was right.  Back then thousands of people marched against invading Iraq and they continue to do so but this White House does not see or hear any views that differ from theirs.  Part of me has to respect someone who believes in something so much that public opinion will not sway their view.  This does not seem to be the case here.  Here it seems we have a president who sees any change of opinion as a show of weakness.  He believes he is right and we should all fall in line.  That is not what our country is supposed to be about.

 

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

 

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Death and Taxes

"Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society."  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Supreme Court Justice who was nominated by Theodore Roosevelt and served frojm 1902-32.  This quote is on the IRS building in Washington, DC.  Yesterday was April 15th, normally tax day but it was Sunday so most of America has until the 17th — apparently the storm this weekend was so severe that many people will have until April 19th.  They said on the news that the IRS is considering giving people a few extra days to get the tax forms in — if you were impacted by the storm, keep an eye out for news on this.

We've all heard the quote, "Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes," attributed to Benjamin Franklin, which was news to me.

Where do our taxes go?  There are a number of places you can go to see how your federal taxes are spent. I found this site, "Death and taxes: a visual guide to your federal taxes."   From the site:

“Death and Taxes” is a representational poster of the federal discretionary budget; the amount of money that is spent at the discretion of your elected representatives in Congress. Basically, your federal income taxes. The data is from the President's budget request for 2008. It will be debated, amended, and approved by Congress by October 1st to begin the fiscal year.  The poster provide a uniquely revelaing look at our national priorities, that fluctuate yearly, according to the wishes of the President, the power of Congres, and the will of the people. If you pay taxes, then you have paid for a small part of everything in the poster.

The author wrote this about himself:

"Jess Bachman, that’s me. I am a resident of Burlington, Vermont and freelance graphic designer. In addition to combing through federal budget documents I can be found DJing, drinking tea, making concert posters, blogging, and dressing like Robert Redford from Three Days of the Condor. I am 26 years old."

I do not know anything about this person but thought it was an interesting site and idea but I don't know what his ideology is or what his background or party affiliation, or even how accurate this.  As someone interested in politics, the budget itself bores me to tears so I appreciate anyone who can wade through it and come up with something so interesting.

You can see the actual budget in several places:

1. The White House version can be found at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) site.
2. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has a version.
3. And Wikipedia has an entry.

 

As a godless, tax-loving liberal, I know we need them to keep our society the way we like it.  They make sure we have military, roads, a good education system and the list goes on.  It is easy to forget how important our infrastructure is because when it is doing its job well, it is invisible. The best way I have found to describe it as being similar to a fish tank or well maintained eco-system, it provides everything needed to keep everything in there alive and healthy.  We have a stable government, except for the last six years where my cat could have done a better job and my cat thinks rocks are food, that allows us to have a stable economy and the rest.

One of my favorite people once told me that he votes for Republicans because he wants to pay fewer taxes.  The irony of that statement, which seems to have been lost on him unless that was just his dry humor and I do not know him enough to tell the difference but given his tax bracket, he benefits far more from the taxes he pays than many.  If anarchy broke out tomorrow, my house is not going to be looted.  Again, my cat is one my most valuable possessions and he was born in an alley and still thinks rocks are food.  He is not alone in this view.  Taxes and tax day are things people dread.  A Congressperson told the New Yorker sometime during the administration that President Clinton had “ruined democracy because he showed people that they can get something in return for their taxes.”

While democracy remains intact, well aside from the Bush v. Gore debacle but that’s for another post, there is evidence that many people around the world pay much higher taxed and don’t mind.  This is because they get things like health care.  The countries with the highest standard of living tend to be in Scandinavia.  They also pay the highest taxes in the world but they receive great services for them.  My roommate in (spent my senior year in ) was from .  She had no concept of charitable organizations and did not understand why we need them, why the richest country on the planet could not provide basic services to its people.  In , she told me, the government takes care of such things.  We could learn a lot from her.

So when you send off your returns, whether you will get a check or send one in, remember that you pay less taxes than the rest of the civilized world but that you get far fewer services.  Having said that, the next time you call 911 (ok, that’s a local tax), drive on an interstate highway, go to a public park or do some mundane thing like work in a safe place, drink decent water (exception: Washington, DC – full of lead) and send your child off to school rather than some horrific job remember your taxes make all that possible.

Oh, and if you voted for Dubya (and other GOP candidates), you get the added bonus of knowing you have turned governing into campaigning by politicizing what were supposed to be neutral jobs, started an illegal war (really wish that ‘you broke it, you bought it’ rule applied ONLY to the people to actually broke Iraq and wanted us in there), dang, there are just too many bad things your decision has caused us to do.  We are hated by most of the planet.  All the White House scandals hurt politicians of all stripes – does anyone believe Karl Rove lost email or that Dick Cheney didn’t know what he was doing when he told Scooter Libby to out a covert CIA agent?   Most of you have some money so I know you are not stupid, did you really think Saddam Hussein planned 9/11?  Your tax dollars and vote did all of that.

Sorry I went off the deep end a little.  I do that a lot. 

 

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