First and foremost, if Jerry Sandusky is in fact guilty… and he does have a right to a fair and impartial trial and jury… we must hold him up beyond anyone else to the crimes he committed against these young boys… to the trust he destroyed and the heinous violence he perpetrated.  If he is guilty may he rot in jail and be tortured in the same way he tortured these children.  Their lives are forever destroyed, so let the punishment be swift and strong and just.  If the crimes are true I hope this “man” is broken and forced to face everything he did without mercy.

Second, may anyone who knew about this and failed to call the police or take appropriate actions be severely punished as well.  This includes assistant coach Mike McQueary who witnessed Sandusky having anal intercourse with a ten-year-old boy… I want to cry and scream right now… a TEN-YEAR-OLD BOY… He witnessed it and failed to call police…  Yes, he reported it to his superiors, but who the f–k cares???!!!  Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, who not only failed to call police but sickeningly decided to cover up the issue and commit perjury… President Graham Spanier did nothing and is completly accountable and yes, sadly, so is Joe Paterno.

I was at the Big Ten Media Days this summer and watched Joe Pa in awe.  He was an icon, a legend.  I even got a pretty good impression of him down.  Now I am sick.  How could this man, this coach, this teacher, so betray a child… and even more sadly, many, many children.  Had any of them stepped up in 2002, there would be nine less years of victims and crimes.  Let that sit in their brains for the rest of their lives.  Let them look at all the pictures of anyone who was molested and abused, every single day, for the rest of their lives.

Paterno did what he was supposed to do, but in reality he did nothing he was supposed to do.  We are SUPPOSED to help human beings and report crimes.  We are supposed to protect the innoncent… and a teacher, a coach is SUPPOSED to protect his students… the kids he is hired to look out for.  He is SUPPOSED to set THE MOST SHINING EXAMPLE.

Joe Pa and all of these men lapsed both morally and ethically… and perhaps most sadly as human beings.  It is like taking a cup of water and throwing it on a burning house, but failing to stick around and do any more… failing to see if there were any victims who needed or could be rescued.

Maureen Dowd wrote: “Like the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Penn State hierarchy appears to have covered up pedophile crimes to protect its brand.”

I agree with her in part… in 2002, the Roman Catholic Church’s lapse in identifying and punishing wayward priests was at its height… Penn State should have known better anyway, but especially with this massive f–k up right there on the news every day.

Protecting the Brand yes… but the fact remains that Sandusky was not on the team in 2002.  He retired in 1999.  So if you wanted to protect Penn State, why the hell would you not call the cops on this guy?  This guy is damaging the brand.  This monster is causing undue pain and torture for any and all around him.  You want to save the brand for a coach who is no longer on the team?  Are you kidding me???  Sell him down the river and let him pay for his crimes.

This makes me question what else they knew about him… Did they know he had been doing things like this 1994?  What possible excuse can they have?  He was NO LONGER WORKING FOR PENN STATE at this point!

Penn State has forever been tarnished… but perhaps once and for all we must realize that no brand or religion or company comes above the innocence of a victim… a crime… a human being.  You cannot second guess the implications or try to cover up crimes, especially those perpetrated on trusting, innocent children.

Shame on all you for not stepping up and being a human being… for not helping a victim… for not stopping a crime or a monster.  Realizations after the fact and too late do nothing but cause more hurt and more pain.  Your inactions and inappropriate response allowed this monster to carry on for nine more years.  You should all resign and then get out your wallets and pay for your sins with cash for the families and victims and long stays in prison for you.

Forget college football and the hallowed halls of what was always thought of as a fine and wonderful institution of learning… You must now teach your students and the world what being a real human being is about.  It is a lesson we all must learn now and forever.  Silence is not golden… silence is deadly.

It has been a while since I have posted here… Not because I have become unpolitical, but because my music blog has pretty much taken over and become a daily endeavor.

While it is true that I am burnt out on American politics and deeply saddened with our representatives on both sides, that does not mean I do not think about things on a daily basis.  Sometimes I think about them too much, becoming depressed and resigned to being dragged along our seemingly fast path to self-destruction.  I take it to heart, perhaps too much.

I know that is why many people shy away from even having the discussion.  It is too easy for friends to avoid the topic, or dismiss certain goings ons, saying it does not affect them… or that there are too many domestic issues to worry about… and while the latter is true, the former is not… and it is a most dangerous stance to take either way.  Sadly we do not get to choose one over the other.  There are things that affect our daily lives and beliefs and actual existence and must be dealt with.  Ignorance is not bliss, it is dangerous.  This is proven on a daily basis, in a scary and very real fashion.

What is happening in the world, and in particular at the United Nations right now, at this very moment, affects all of us.  I speak because I fear that too many do not.  I speak because it is time to set the lies and misdirection aside.  I speak because if I don’t, silence will surely equal death.

People say that when those like Ahmadinejad are given a microphone his words are just words… He is dismissed as a crazy person, an agitator, as someone who is harmless.  Yet Iran is trying to get a nuclear weapon.  This very same leader wants to be armed with the most deadly and destructive weapon of all time.  Hitler spoke with words.  That is how he started.  Hs words went into the ears of a people… and suddenly his words were put into a plan and set into action.  His words, sadly became misguided truths… People heard them so often that they became real, at least in people’s minds…

Words can hurt us… words lead to actions… and actions lead to the flinging of sticks and stones, and shattered bones.  Words lead to the launching of rockets and mortars and at some point, will lead to the launching of a nuclear device.  History proves that.

As a writer I am deeply affected by words… those used and those not.  Anyone writing a speech is deeply aware of the meanings and nuances and weights a specific word can and often does have.  Abbas and the Arab world refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state… Refuse… His words are spoken on the stage of the UN, his audience is global and he speaks about how Israel is home and the birthplace to Muslims and Christians… he most purposefully leaves out words… and thus Jewish identity.  He manipulates history to suit his own arguments, and picks and choses passages from UN Resolutions that fit his plan and his agenda… even if they are resolutions he and the Arabs once rejected wholeheartedly.  Israel is the smallest of nations, surrounded by enemies on every side… the hatred has spread across the globe in the form of blame and anti-Semitism.  Israel is fingered for the woes of the world.  While Israel is not perfect, she has the right to exist, she has the right to be acknowledged, she has the right to be a Jewish State.

Yet the Arabs refuse to even utter these words, refuse to speak them, refuse to believe them.  They use the language of mortars and rockets and suicide attacks.  They use the language of hijacking and crashing jets and human beings into buildings.  They use the language of train bombs, roadside bombs, and human bombs… So what makes you think they will stop and not use a nuclear bomb.

But the world takes Abbas at his words.  Suddenly they take everything he says as being true and accurate.  History and fact be damned.  The hate for Israel and Jews is one thing… using this hate to deny reality and truth is another… a sad, and dangerous and reprehensible other.

The Arabs use words to talk about how they have been waiting for a state for 63 years.  They ignore the words that were spoken by Israel in offering them just that.  They ignore their own words and the wars that they started, causing not only Palestinian refugees, who other Arab states refused, by the way, but Israeli and Jewish refugees, also never mentioned.

We can no longer ignore what they ignore.  We can no longer allow our desires to be even-handed and “fair” to cause us to ignore the truth.  There is right and wrong on both sides, but there is also a history… there are also hard, cold facts, there is also an actual truth.

Today I wrote about John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme.  What that must teach us is that spirituality and love are essential.  Love is what motivates all human beings.  Period.  And while sometimes this can be misguided and manipulated by others, we are all just trying to be loved and find love and give love.  What is equally essential is recognizing individuality and respecting those who are different.  This is what makes us human beings and not machines.

Our differences should be celebrated.  They are what make us.  That is what the Dalai Lama spoke of when I saw him.  Peace must be worked for, but sadly, sometimes it must be fought for.  There is not a hypothetical evil in the world, there is a very real evil in the world.  We must recognize that.  We must understand that.

We must go beyond words to see what people’s true meanings are and we must define them for ourselves, using truth and history  and facts as our guides.

If the Arabs refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish State… refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist… refuse to use words for anything other than hate, how can we possibly move forward.  It is time to see the truth.  It is time to speak the truth.  It is time to use our own words to speak out and speak up and stop the rhetoric and the lies.

If we do not honor our words on paper and those spoken then we have no place to go and the world is condemned to repeat the same mistakes it has made for centuries.  These are my words.  I hope that others will use their own.

First, he got caught and then lies with some lame, but possibly true story.  Dude, you work in the government.  You know people are spying on us ALL THE TIME.  Rule #1… if you get caught, immediately fess up.  You hear that Clemens???  It will be far worse if you lie… Remember that Mr. Clinton?

Second, there are people spying on us ALL THE TIME.  Breitbart monitors the e-mails and Twitter and Facebook feeds of politicians.  That is some f—ed up s–t right there, yo!  People do have a right to privacy.  They do.

Obviously Weiner made the classic “Reply All” blunder, which I am sure a lot of us have done.  Hell, I’ve done it more than once.

But some of you must find it troubling that there are people out there, waiting for nothing more than a public figure to have a human foible or error in judgement or huge mistake and then pounce and maim and kill.

The web is a tricky, tricky place.  A sticky place.  We all have a right to privacy, but need to be cautious and expect that once something is said or posted on the web, it is fair game, it is out there and can never, fully be taken back.  This is why news reporting on the internet has become so frustrating.  It is about speed and no longer about accuracy and thorough reporting.  It is about breaking a story, damn the facts.  News on the web changes constantly.  AAGGHH!

So then, back to the issue at hand… or in the hands of some young college co-eds.  Is what Weiner did worth resigning over?  Are the politicians who are calling for him to step down clean and innocent?  Are they casting stones from their own glass houses?

Look at what happened with Clinton and a lot of his accusers… They were crying foul, while some young intern was under the desk blowing them.

I hate to say it, but a lot of them do things like this.  There is a lot of power in DC, and therefore a lot of sex in DC; and not all of it is in the marital bed.

So let’s stop being hypocritical and puritanical and deal with the real issues.  Violence is a good place to start… the economy… education.  If a politician actually does their job, and does it well and their behavior outside of work does not interfere with work, who cares.  This goes for Dems and Pubs.

If they screw up, they will certainly need to deal with their family.  That is some heavy stuff right there.  Think about the healing Arnold is going to have to do with his kids… Maria, of course… he owes her big time and will have to fight and work so hard even to get back to a place of simple civility… but the kids… A few of them are changing their last names!!!

And if the politicos screw up and it does affect their job or the people’s trust in them, then they will be voted out on the next election.  I don’t like the idea of others on the Hill stepping in so much.  Obviously there are ethics commitees, , but I guess I just don’t trust any of them at this point.  How sad is that???  Nor do I like the idea of a special election.  Way too much work and money.  Maybe we should have a Twitter vote!

Prove that you are in a certain district and Tweet your vote… Should the Weiner stay or get packed back in his shorts and sent home?  Or perhaps a Facebook vote, moderated by Zuckerberg.

Ultimately it’s about being a human being.  We try to do the right thing, we often do not; so we need to work hard to fix what we screw up.  We need to decide how to punish ourselves, and be honest and productive with that.  We need to honor what the people want and ask for… If they voted us in, they can and just might vote us out.

The biggest lesson is this…

Oh the tangled net and world wide web we weave,

When we accidentally reply all and practice to deceive.

So try to do right and admit when you’re wrong.

And for the love of all that’s holy, don’t take pictures of your schlong.

There are many reasons why people cheat… I think that the most basic are boredom, not getting the attention or sex at home, ego and unbridled power, the need for risk and thrill, the need for validation, or sexual addiction (real or blatantly used as an excuse for bad behavior… I’m talking to you Jesse James… and Tiger…) and quite possibly a combination of these.  If I am missing something let me know, but I think this covers a lot of bases.

We have all heard the stories about Arnold for years… groping, flirting and obviously doing a whole lot more.  Not to jump on the bandwagon and be cold, but the maid… she ain’t so attractive and trying to understand why he would carry on with her is an interesting thing.  Especially because we all know how many people out there simply want to be with someone famous.  Celebs can have their choice.  I think it was just easy for him to “keep it in the house.”  He didn’t have to sneak out and risk getting caught.  The rumors now, in fact, are that Arnold believes Maria should take him back precisely because he did just “keep it in the house.”  Okay, the man is out of touch.

Tiger Woods likes to be kinky.  Who cares?  He is a grown man and despite what our hypocritical and puritanical nation tells us, sex is good.  Really good.  The problem is that he got married and had a family, which is clearly what he should not have done if he wanted the previous lifestyle… You either have an open marriage with your wife, or you marry someone who shares your proclivities.  Now, it is possible that marriages, like people, change.  After all, it is a union of two individuals.  It starts off in one place and moves to another.  If both parties are not on board with the changes, there are going to be problems.  End the marriage, then go out and take care of the business.  The pain will be a lot less this way… I think…

With Weiner, who knows.  People in power have amazing egos and think they can do no wrong… or wrong does not affect them.  I am still baffled by the man I may very well have voted into the Presidency… John Edwards.  Talk about a fall from grace.  Here is the thing with that… Hypocrisy sucks.  Do not set yourself up as this great, ethical guy while you are doing wayward things on the side.  If you are in the public eye, fair or unfair, you do have a responsibility to behave in a certain way.  If you are representing people and are an elected official, this is especially true.  They are putting their faith and trust in you and you cannot betray that.

So now the floodgates are thrown open on the debate of a real physical affair versus a virtual one.  Both are damaging, but is one worse than the other?  I think so.  I also think that he and his wife have some issues to work out and resolve.  The fact remains… politicians think that they are above the fray… I cannot imagine the ego it takes to think that you won’t get caught and if you do, people will forgive you because of who you are.  As sick as he is, I do sometimes wish I could have the ego of Charlie Sheen… or perhaps more accurately… the fearlessness he has.  Obviously his addictive, compulsive habits are both dangerous and destructive, so I’ll skip those… I would just love to be able to live with no fear… I think… See!  Damn it!

Check out Part 2 Later!!!

I think it is an important discussion to have.  And having the facts is absolutely key.  I guarantee there are things you do not know and must know in order to have an open and fair debate.

It’s not that I do not believe in peace or a Palestinian homeland.  I do.  But I believe that the truth must be told… I believe that liberals (of which I am one domestically) cannot just support who they perceive is the underdog and do so for only that reason, ignoring history and fact and truth.

I am fine if they wanted to support this song and the idea of a free Palestine… but why not couple it with the idea of an Israel free from suicide bombs and hate and the daily threats of violence.  If they want to support the Palestinian refugees, fine… Also talk about the Jews who were kicked out of Spain, Russia, England and every current Arab nation.

I am sure living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is hell.  I cannot even imagine.  And I know Israel has its hands in some of that suffering.  But if you don’t want to be “walled” in, then stop launching missiles and rockets.  Stop firing on civilians and school buses.  Stop hiding weapons and terrorists in schools and hospitals.  Stop sending teenagers strapped with explosives to blow up bars and bus stops.

Where is the support of this song, Coldplay?  Oh right, there isn’t one… No song… no support.

Why not hoist some of the blame on guys like Arafat who built personal fortunes while his people suffer and continue to suffer.  Why not blame Hamas and Hezbollah who REFUSE to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.  Hello.  How do we free Palestine when it’s leaders do not even acknowledge the country they are asking for land from???

Does anyone else realize that all of the Arab countries just had a holiday… a fricking holiday…. MOURNING Israeli Independence Day.  Yes, this is who you want to open up your borders to and give them free rein and open shots!

Here are a few dates to keep in mind when having the discussion…

From The Washington Times:

1948:  ”In paradoxical fashion, the British, after inviting the Jews to return, sold over 75 percent of Palestine to the Arabs, creating a new country called, Trans-Jordan. This is an extremely important and seldom taught fact. Please catch this:  75 percent of what had been offered to the Jews was sold behind their backs to the Arabs instead! Not only were the Arabs offered a “separate Palestinian state,” long ago, but they have been living in one since the early part of the Twentieth Century. It’s called Jordan, a country three times the size of what remained for the Jews.

The Jews accepted this betrayal, only because they had no choice. After, all a sliver of the promise was better than no land at all.

But the Arabs didn’t want the Jews to have even a sliver and fresh controversy broke out over what to do with the remaining 25 percent.

To appease the Arabs, the United Nations voted to divvy up the remaining 25 percent between the Jews and the Arabs. The Jews accepted this partition. The Arabs did not.

After the partition vote from the United Nations, Israel declared its Independence on May 14, 1948. One day later, five Arab armies invaded Israel from Egypt, Tran Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.”

1967:  “In 1967, 9 different nations (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq), declared war on Israel and promised to exterminate every Jew.”

1973:  On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews,  there was a surprise Arab attack on Israel by Egyptian and Syrian military forces, knowing that the military of Israel would be participating in the religious celebrations.

On top of this… just add in a daily attempt at a rocket attack or suicide bombing and you get the idea.

And sleep on this… a lovely little quote from the  Abid Saud King of Saudi Arabia 1947:

“ There are fifty million Arabs.  What does it matter if  we lose ten million people to kill all of the Jews.  The price is worth it.”

As a kid I remember having such respect for the New York Times, especially on Sunday.  I would wait for it to be delivered on our driveway in New Jersey and tear through it… relishing the Arts and Leisure section in particular.

As I got older I would read the Times to be informed and educated.  I trusted its reporting and accuracy.

Sadly, like so many things in the world, I find that places we once looked at as beacons of light and information are now simply sounding boards for vitriol and lies.  The New York Times has stooped to such one-sided lows, that I would place it along with the worst rags and tabloids… although equally sad… most of their reporting eventually proves to be correct.

Surely you must take responsibility for what you print or allow to be printed, especially if you have any regard for the power of the press.  You must realize that once something goes out into the world, it is pretty hard to put it back in the proverbial “genie’s” bottle.  Yet you have basically opened up your Op Ed section to lies and misinformation.  The argument can be made quite easily in fact, that you are happy to have your Op Ed section be a de facto anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic sounding board.

Abbas’ piece is the latest in a long line of incredulous pieces you have allowed to go into print.  The fact that a leader and world figure can so obviously manipulate and distort the truth is not surprising, given what he is trying to do.  His motives are one-sided and clear.

Your paper, even more sadly, is also one-sided, but far from clear.  Where is the history and the truth of what actually happened?  How dare he make up not only his own facts and history but seemingly that of Palestine in 1947 and 1948.  Peace in the Middle East will only be possible when people talk honestly and truthfully… two words the New York Times seems not to know.

Yet the New York Times allows this to be printed as if it is the Gospel Truth!

Your paper has obviously moved away from being unbiased, accurate and informed to the shoot first and ask questions “only if enough people notice and point out mistakes” later type.  To say that this is dangerous, ignorant and inflammatory would be an understatement.

The one thing I will thank you for is a large monetary savings, as I will no longer be patronizing the New York Times in any capacity.  When I want truth in journalism, and a paper with accurate reporting and ethics, the New York Times will not be on that list.

A Sad and Former Reader,

Marc Goldsmith

What we do NOT want is what our own government gave us in the days after the Bin Laden news broke… misinformation, changing stories and an almost brand-new scenario every single day.  What should have been the ideal, made for the big screen story became a convoluted, broken mess.

The main idea should be that this mass murderer is dead.  Period.  It should not matter whether he died armed or unarmed.  I know his followers need a more mythic, martyr-like ending to perpetuate their myth of lies and hate, but really… should our soldiers have said… “Okay, we’ll draw on the count of three, here’s a gun.”  Come on.  I just wish the White House had a better and tighter control of the message.  It is a bit disgraceful.

The bottom line is that when the Hitler or our times is in front of you and you have a loaded weapon, you kill him.  He did not need a gun in his hands… the gallons of blood he already had on them is enough.

With Bin Laden’s death we have a great opportunity.  We cannot back down, nor can we negate our resolve, as there are even more vicious animals out there… However, we can take full advantage of the pro-Democracy movement that is sweeping many previously locked down nations, by forming the right kind of partnerships with the right kind of people… those who truly want a better life and are not so blindly filled with a hate of Americans and Jews.

I find this particularly troubling… rebels and protesters taking to the streets, finally realizing (or at least being able to express it) that it is their own leaders who have raped and pillaged and taken advantage of them… but then calling those leaders “Jews” or “American puppets,” as if those are the worst possible things they can think of.  You hope that they have finally seen the light, but instead they continue with their anti-Semitic, Anti-American vitriol.  When will it end?

The idea that Pakistan is so angry with us is a joke.  I mean, I do get it.  This is a country, who like Saudi Arabia, needs and certainly wants to play both sides of the fence… get a ton of cash from the US… show us one face… and show the radicals another.  It is bullshit.  The fact that we give one billion dollars to a country who so obviously harbors terrorists is insane.

Then again… they have nuclear weapons and that fear keeps our policies in one particular line.  World politics is crazy.

At some point we have to take a stance, the right stance, and put human rights and freedom and virtue above and beyond anything else.  This is an ideal, of course, and does not work in a world economy or a world of nations run by oil and cold, hard money.  Greed and the power of money is a sad and harsh reality.

But we must find those nations and those people who do not embrace terrorism, who do not strap bombs on their children, who do not hate for hate’s sake, but want to make their lives and that of the world better.  We must all become more accepting, more enlightened and recognize and cherish the differences we have.  Like the Dalai Lama says, we all have the same human experiences and the same desires for happiness and there is no single religion that can and will fit us all… so go beyond tolerance and find true and respectful acceptance.

Instead of swearing revenge for Bin Laden’s death, avenge it by giving your people food and education, things for their mouths and souls.  Put shoes on their feet, water on their lips and love in their hearts.

Moderates of the world unite.  There are like-minded people all over the universe.  Let our legacy be peace and unity, not destruction.

When it comes to foreign policy, I tend to lean right… So basically, I am a man without a party.  The way things have been going in Washington, my buddy Andre and I decided to start our own party… The Disgusted Bi-Partisans.  We hate what everyone is doing and the gross and negligent party games they play.

But today is all about Bin Laden.  I walked in from a trip to Disneyland with my daughter yesterday (how American can you get?), fired up the laptop and read that Bin Laden was dead.  Shock.

I stared at the screen for a few moments and exclaimed, in a somewhat quiet and questioning way all that I could muster…  “Wow.”

To which my daughter asked, “Wow what?”

The same little girl who I held in my arms as I cried hysterically watching 9/11 unfold was now almost old enough to understand or at least have me explain who Osama Bin Laden was.

I let her watch the President’s speech and hear Obama explain what had happened.  I then turned on the TV to show her the crowd outside of the White House.

Wow… The chants of USA, USA!!!  We both wished we were in DC.  Man, that would have been something.

I became very emotional and fought to contain the tears welling up inside.

I felt so proud to be an American right then.  It was not the same kind of patriotism I witnessed or felt after we beat the Russians in the 1980 Olympics… that was amazing… but in a similar way, it was a relief and a release and something we desperately needed.

We watched for a while and then I tucked my daughter into bed.  I returned to the TV, and when they said a crowd was gathering at Ground Zero, I lost it.

I knew people who perished in the Twin Towers.  My hometown of Glen Rock, NJ was devastated by that tragedy.  My own mother was on a PATH train heading towards the buildings and was the last train to turn around and go back to New Jersey.  I will never forget the stories she told me about passengers being so pissed and angry at the delay; how they were going to be late for work and how this messed up their day.  Needless to say, they had no idea at that point what was happening.  When they did, I can only imagine the silence and thankfulness.  One gentleman sat in shock, telling my mom how a series of things delayed him going to work on time that day and kept him from being in the Towers.

And so we must be proud of our troops for killing a monster… a monster who absolutely and mercilessly killed thousands of people around the world… This is who Bin Laden was… Not a hero nor a martyr, but a bullshit, power hungry, misguided, cowardly monster…

We always say that this not a war on Islam, but IT IS a war on all who evoke the name of Allah or G-d to justify barbarism and murder and rape and torture.  Sadly many people abuse and misuse religion for their own gains and I always ask myself why they praise their G-d for allowing them to do this.  No G-d I know would ever allow or justify this or want their name associated with such despicable acts.  To hear someone say Praise Allah after describing the most heinous attack on American soil makes it hard not to see things in a certain way.  And no, I do not think our jubilation comes close to those who danced in the streets when the Twin Towers came down.  That made me sick and are images I will never forget.

The issue is this… There is good and there is evil… and as I heard on the radio today… the evil is real.  It is not imagined nor manufactured… it is not fodder for conspiracy theorists… There are, sadly, very cold, evil people in this world.

Most of the time, this evil must be stopped with war and violence and bloodshed.  There is no way around this… and this is where most liberals and I tend to part ways.  One must try to be open-minded and fair and balanced… No, not you Fox… Of course… But that does not and cannot mean we sacrifice intelligent thought and truth.

I am fiercely pro-Israeli… I do not hide this… Nor do I think Israel is perfect.  Being an Arab Israeli is often not easy… but for the record, they live in a democracy… and there are NO JEWS in Syria nor Lebanon nor Iran… No one says a word about that… They kicked them all out, expelled every last one.

The world did not stand on a mountain and shout disdain and horror over Hamas attacking an Israeli school bus… The UN did not lift a pen to draft and official condemnation… like they do each and every time Israel defends herself against a daily barrage of attacks or attempted attacks.  Israel is not an Apartheid state… Israelis are not Nazis… Israel wants peace and safety more than anyone.  So the next time you decide to be neutral or say, well… maybe Hamas has a point, or maybe Hezbollah should be considered, STOP!

Really???  You want to give even the smallest amount of thought to groups like this???  Being liberal cannot mean being blind… There is no such thing as blind justice… only thoughtful, intelligent, balanced and deliberated justice.  Think about what those organizations would gladly do to you if given the chance.  Really.  You cannot step down or away from evil.  We CANNOT do it.  This country and almost all democracies have survived because our leaders and those men and women in the armed forced did not step down or back away.  Thank you… thank you to those who came before us and gave up so much.  This is why we get to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  It is.  Go to DC and look at each and every memorial.  It will move you beyond words.  Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Lincoln… absolute courage and genius.  Reading our founding documents is a lesson in history and life and thought.  Absolutely amazing.

But there is still evil and we must acknowledge that this evil that sadly did not and does not die with Bin Laden.  We must admit that there are people in this world who have no regard for life… not for ours nor even for their own brothers and sisters and children.  There are people in this world who will use women and children as shields and strap belts full of bombs onto their innocent bodies.

There are people who will blow up planes and buses filled with innocent civilians.  There are people who will behead other human beings.  Think about what that takes… what you must have (or not have) in your soul to kill someone like that.

We must celebrate Bin Laden’s death, like we did with Hitler and Stalin and any number of butchers who have walked this earth in Africa or Serbia or anywhere.

We must celebrate and we must also remain strong and vigilant and dedicated to bringing back justice and peace.

In an open-ended war, strangely this brings a bit of closure.  But justice and peace for all, are still a long ways off.

So celebrate, be jubilant and stand strong and united… and tell our damn politicians that we are the UNITED States of America.

Without seeing faces, you know there are human beings who are alive one second and then suddenly gone the next.  They have no idea what is about to hit them… and those that do have nowhere to go.

That may have freaked me out more than anything.  You know there are people in those houses… maybe… but for the cars that are moving, there is no doubt.  Someone is alive and driving that vehicle and in a matter of seconds they will be gone.

There is black water rushing over everything… waves of debris and broken dreams.  Refineries are exploding into huge balls of fire.

When does it stop?  An earthquake of that magnitude is bad enough.  Then a tsunami and entire villages being washed away… then flames and unconquerable fire balls… Then possible nuclear reactor leaks… This is biblical.

These are the moments when you think wrath of G-d… or knowing the innocent lives lost and the utter destruction and devastation… you question whether or not there is a G-d.  The images are apocalyptic, so if G-d exists, where is he or she right now?

It’s all beyond my comprehension… all of it.  Who am I to question?  And if these doubts creep in after each and every natural disaster, perhaps my faith is not strong enough.

I don’t know.  I truly do not know.

Over 90 aftershocks at magnitudes of 5.0 or greater… Nuclear reactors possibly spewing radiation into the air and ground… The damage from the earthquake, which is significant, is barely being discussed as this tsunami is all over the TV.  The images are amongst the worst things I have ever seen… the kind of visual that will stay with me forever.

There is not the personal connection that I had as I watched the Twin Towers go down, but the feeling is the same: a numbness and near nausea… tears welling… head hazy and pounding at the same time… utter incomprehension.

Humanity is so frail… material objects and even things as stable and solid as homes and giant buildings are suddenly fleeting… meaningless in the face of nature.

Thoughts and prayers go out to all of Japan.  The next few hours and days will be filled with shock and pain, anger and frustration… and then the long, slow process of trying to rebuild what can be recovered.  Healing will take time and fears and paranoia will run deep.  People will be on edge for a long time to come.

But human loss is forever.  There is no recovery for that.  We are left with only memories of what was.

Obviously nature is nature, and we have little or no control over what we get.  We can do our best to prepare and protect, but it will be what it will be.

I guess the key is to take this disaster to heart… truly to heart… and live each and every day with love and peace and dignity.  We cannot allow ourselves to go back to the daily grind without being changed for the better.  It takes tragedies like this to recognize our own mortality, and the ephemeral nature of life.

So whatever it is that we believe in or choose to believe in, we should live each and everyday with passion and bliss.  I so wish I can stick to that mantra.   I’m sure as hell gonna try.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This is a wonderful idea, a groundbreaking idea… an idea that makes this country what it is… and despite a very good-looking UK or Australia, I will go on a limb and say that it is things like this… in our Constitution and Amendments and Declaration… that make us the best country in the world.  Sorry.  We really are.

The freedom of speech and the press allows and encourages citizens and journalists and anyone to openly debate and question their government and laws and anything else they seem fit to take issue with.

There is no comparison of course, but look what happens in countries like Pakistan when someone expresses a contrarian point!  Barbarians for sure, but so many places in the world have so few freedoms.

The right to protest and assemble and rally is all part of this… and as much as we all hate the Neo-Nazi rallies in Skokie, and the unbelievable hate mongers from the Westboro Baptist Church,  we have to accept that they have the right to talk and speak and march.

However, and this is a big however, there are times when they use their freedoms to encroach on someone else’s, and as far as I know, this is what was being debated in the Supreme Court.  And I have to say… they got it wrong!

Freedom of Speech is NOT freedom to cause pain and hurt or take away someone else’s privacy and dignity. And it is certainly NOT the freedom to take away someone else’s freedom. This goes way beyond not liking what someone else has to say. Today we awarded evil, hatred and ignorance not only a voice, but a mouthful of bile to incite violence and perpetuate prejudice.

I am baffled.  Hate speech like the vitriol that drools out of the Westboro witches incites violence, it supports prejudice against many groups, and it intimidates and  prevents those it attacks from fulfilling their own personal freedoms.  I know it is a slippery slope, but I thought that this kind of speech was against many laws… and I certainly thought that the injured individual was allowed to pursue both criminal and civil charges.

Today’s ruling seems to say that they can continue to disrupt incredible times of sadness, loss and mourning, incite hate and potential violence and injure others, and those injured parties can do nothing about it.  How is THAT freedom???

I love me some freedom of speech… Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are a triumvirate of morons.  I said it… and nope, nothing… No one took me away, I’m still here… But I am saddened and confused with today’s ruling and am having trouble with the lopsided 8-1 score.  Someone help me out here!