Friday's Odds and Ends

Shame on President Obama for doing the photo op at the Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day and double shame on him if it was his idea. I'm hoping it wasn't. Even though I don't always agree with him, I saw him as a man with more sensibilities and compassion. But maybe that was before he got caught up in the political system and started listening to political advisers.

In addition to all the veterans and families of veterans who came to Washington that weekend to visit the Wall, about 140,000 members of the organization, Rolling Thunder, had ridden motorcycles from across the country to meet up and honor the fallen who are memorialized. It was the official Rolling Thunder XXV "Ride for Freedom", and one of my friends had made the trip from Omaha, NE. To say he was disappointed is an understatement.

Since the beginning of recorded history there have been incidents of genocide that are so horrible one can hardly get his or her mind around it. Ben Kiernan, a Yale scholar, has labelled the destruction of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War (149–146 BC) "The First Genocide", and more recent history includes the 1890 massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee by the United States military, the killing of millions during the Holocaust and the ongoing genocide in the countries of Africa.

In this day of enlightenment, one would hope we could get past these barbaric acts, but it appears we never will. The genocide continues across Africa and now there has been more mass killings in Syria that some consider genocide.

Every time I read about the horrors we inflict on each other, I wonder why. I found one answer when I was researching one of my nonfiction books on bigotry and found this book by Adam Jones, Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. In it he states that people throughout history have always had the ability to see other groups as alien. "People have always had a name for themselves. In a great many cases, that name meant 'the people' to set the owners of that name off against all other people who were considered of lesser quality. If the differences between the people and some other society were particularly large in terms of religion, language, manners, or  customs, then those others were seen as less than fully human. If they are considered less than human, then they could be a threat and should be eliminated"

That thinking has created the Them or Us mentality that fuels bigotry and the atrocious acts that come out of bigotry. Do you think we will ever grow out of this?

On a much more pleasant note,I read an article in The Dallas Morning News about a teen in Arlington who spearheaded a wonderful act of kindness following the tornado that tore through the town in April. Kate Atwood and her mother drove around after the storm and noted how many people were digging through wreckage to try to find pictures and mementos that may have survived the devastation. Kate got the idea of trying to help, and she enlisted the aid of librarians at Lake Arlington Branch Library. About 40 people have joined the effort to bring pictures and other items to the library where residents can come and claim them. According to the news article, about three-quarters of the items have been claimed.

Kudos to Kate and all the others who are helping to bring these treasured pictures and mementos home.

Friday's Odds and Ends

Rick Perry dropped his campaign for the Republican nomination for president. I couldn't help but wonder at the timing of the announcement. It was just before the debate yesterday. Had he forgotten to prepare?

And what did you think of Newt's rant against the press? In last night's debate, CNN moderator John King directed the first question to Gingrich, asking him if it was true — as Gingrich’s former wife alleged in an interview with ABC News — that he asked for an open marriage in the late 1990s.

 “I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that,” Gingrich said. “Every person in here knows personal pain. Every person in here has had someone close to them go through painful things. To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question for a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine.”

I'm not a fan of Gingrich, but I do agree that the media has crossed so many lines they have virtually been erased. Shame on the reporters and broadcasters who just keep filling the airwaves with junk and sensationalist.  A full story about the debate is online at Poltico.com

Some interesting predictions from Gopher Central:

In a story from the BBC two prominent futurologists take some shots at what the world will be like in 100 years. Following are their 10 most likely predictions.

1. Oceans will be extensively farmed and not just for fish.

We will need to feed 10 billion people and nature can't keep up with demand, so we will need much more ocean farming for fish. But algae farming is also on the way for renewable energy.

2. We will have the ability to communicate through thought transmission.

Transmission will be just as easy as other forms of brain augmentation. Picking up thoughts and relaying them to another brain will not be much harder than storing them on the net.

I found this second one most interesting. When my twins were young, I think they communicated telepathically.  Maybe they still do.

One of the things I decided to do this year is read books that have sat on my bookshelf forever. Well, not really forever since books haven't been around since the beginning of time. But you get my drift. Those of us who love to read have books tumbling out of shelves and falling off of tables or sitting in boxes, just waiting for us to get to them.

Yesterday, I started reading Spartina by John Casey. I don't even know how long I have had this book, but I bought it because it won the National Book Award in 1989. The edition I have was published in 1998. I almost donated the book to a local garage sale, but stopped. I bought the book for a reason, I might as well read it before I give it away.

I'm so glad I did. I am only a few chapters into the story, but I can already see why it won the award. It has wonderful descriptions, characterizations, and lines such as:  ...they waded through the clear water, stirring the bright sand, a little school of nice-looking people in bright clothes and bare legs... smiles and words as quick and simultaneous as a school of minnows."

Casey was describing a group of rich vacationers who had come for a clambake and weren't really connecting as people. They were too busy with the patter and chatter of people intent on being part of the group and making sure they said all the right things.

Monday Morning Musings

Watching Sixty Minutes last night, I was dismayed when viewing Steve Kroft's report on how members of Congress have used insider information to make huge profits on the stock market. For the report, Kroft interviewed Peter Schweizer, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, who wrote a book about soft corruption in Washington with a team of eight student researchers. In doing the research for "Throw Them All Out"  the team reviewed financial disclosure records and discovered that members of Congress were using information they gained in committees to buy and sell stock.

As an example Schweizer said, "If you are a member of Congress and you sit on the defense committee, you are free to trade defense stock as much as you want to if you're on the Senate banking committee you can trade bank stock as much as you want and that regularly goes on-- in-- in all these committees."

As we well know, anyone else who uses insider information for personal gain is subject to prosecution under SEC regulations, but the SEC apparently does not have the authority to investigate the reports of insider trading among members of Congress.

In the interview, Kroft asked Schweizer why the SEC can't look into it, and Schweizer answered, "It's really the way the rules have been defined. And the people who make the rules are the political class in Washington. And they've conveniently written them in such a way that they don't apply to themselves."
 
According to the report, the practice is perfectly legal, but it is time for the law to change. The problem is the change has to come from within Congress, since law begins there. Attempts to introduce legislation to stop this practice has hit brick walls.

Brian Baird, a former congressman from Washington state who served six terms in the house before retiring last year, spent a great deal of time trying to affect a change and establish rules governing insider trading among members of Congress. In 2004, Baird and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter introduced the Stock Act which would make it illegal for members of Congress to trade stocks on non-public information and require them to report their stock trades every 90 days instead of once a year.

The bill got very little support. Only six other members came on board to co-sponsor the bill, and when there was a congressional hearing on the Stock Act, almost no one showed up. And why is that not a huge surprise? The majority in Congress is more focused on what is good for them, or for the party, than what is good for the country at large.

I agree with Schweizer, throw them all out.