“Hear ye, hear ye: The court of human judgement is now in session; The People, honorable or not, are presiding.”

“You stand accused of the following charges: That you are a moron; that you are a lifetime victim unworthy of respect or kindness; That you are a waste of life and have never contributed one single thing to this society; That you are a liar and a fake and that you have wrongly accused others of doing things that have caused you harm. How do you plead to these charges?”

Well, I plead NOT guilty, your excelencies. And may I say, just for the record, that this court is full of shit? You want to judge me because I’ve reached such an age as this without having managed to be killed or to kill myself. Present your fucking evidence and be damned.

“We say that you are a fake: Recently you complained to the supervisors of your rehab program that a certain female employee exposed too much skin and that it bothered you. We say that if it took that long to come forward with such a stupid complaint, you must have been enjoying yourself. That makes you a mean and vindictive son of a bitch.”

Well, first of all, anyone who thinks I enjoyed the show has no idea why it seems to take me so long to react, or why I sit and take things that bother me without opening my mouth. You think I’m taking a parting shot at someone who is leaving anyway, making my complaint a lie. Ever been a victim of a sex crime? No? Well how about ten years and more of sex crimes on a weekly basis? By your own parents, no less, who were supposed to love you, protect you and be good to you. I say that without even having such terrible experiences, you don’t know what motivates me, and you don’t know what hurts me. The woman in question here wore low-cut tops and tight jeans and even Spandex to work and you see, the thing is, I have seen more of her in the last year than I would have seen of a hundred women on a beach. She would bend over, and not only did I know what kind of bra she wore most often, I saw way more than the bra wasw supposed to cover. And it wouldn’t have ever bothered me at all if they weren’t nicely shaped, small ones which I happen to find very appealing sexually. The problem is this: I’m not only not supposed to know that she wears thong underwear or what the entire left breast of this woman looks like, and not only does it have no place in a professional environment,, but as she was in a position of supervision and administration, in other words power, I did not enjoy the show. I froze, or I said outlandish things, usually in an effort to be funny, because I felt like a goddamned victim all over again. And even after having said something about it, she’s still doing it. As if I made no difference and did not matter at all. As if I was just a crazy man who said things because of a mood disorder and because I happen to be a dickhead.

Well I am a dickhead. 99 per cent of the human race are dickheads. So what? Does that really have to mean that I don’t matter? I did not lie and I am not a fake. I just fail to see why this is happening with all we know about trauma and victim behavio0r as well as triggers. We have come so far yet now we’re turning on the mentally ill, with benfits threatened and with many of us already out in the streets to be made fun of or feared as killers and stalkers or ignored as bums out on a corner begging. This is the history of the human race; it’s classic and timeless and brutal and evil. Shame on you all.

“Very well. What of the charge that you are a moron, like a monkey with a typewriter spewing out madness in your posts like the demented piece of crap you are?”

Is this a new charge or more of the above one that I’m a waste of life? Can I help it if, on the way to my recovery, I fall down a lot? Look. You people who lead normal lives, if that’s at all what they really are, you have no clue what it is to fight. You think struggling to get and keep a job, you think that’s a real fight? Imagine having your own mind, no, your own soul betray you. Imagine fighting for that. To keep from giving in to the depression and lying down to just die like everyone wishes we would? To you, life is a series of good things mixed with a few bad things. To someone like me, falling down hurts. It’s a big deal. I’ll be going along, not really okay, but not feeling really that bad, and suddenly, triggers pop up. Ever heard of a flashback? To you it’s something a druggie on acid gets after going on a downer, bad trip. To me it’s seeing something…smelling an odor…or being put in a position that just makes my mind go back to something terrible that happened a long time ago. To you, I should be working harder, doing more, contributing… to you, I should be better than I pretend to be.Falling down is normal for people with depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD or any other human condition you would like to name including the physical. But you say I just fake it, that I’m stupid, uneducated and a creep to boot.

“And what about this program, these benefits you get, while you’re supposed to be in this recovery thingy?”

Hey, asswipe; I PAID for that. For 30 years I worked and paid into the system and for 30 years I went through the torture of living without help, without even knowing why I was always hurting and could never hold a relationship or even be a proper father to my own kids. Just because I never abused them does not mean I didn’t fail them miserably. On that charge, and that alone, I stand guilty as accused. In fact I demand to be hed accountable, and I demand the right to declare my responsibility for my own actions. But not for the actions of others, or what they did to me. I spit on you and all over your smugness, your self-assuredness that you are better than I in any way.  You judge me mad, or incompetant, or whatever it is that you fucking want. I don’t care. You can’t change me or stop me from speaking out about the way people see the mentally ill and the way things really are. In fact, it’s because of assholes like you that millions of people diagnosed as clinically depressed often refuse treatment because of the stigma. My fight will continue until the day I draw my last breath, so piss off if you don’t like it. And when I fall down along the way, I know you idiots will always be there to point your fingers and accuse me of being less than humanitsociety finds desirable. And I’ll continue to resist you in every way I can. I DO matter, so long as I breathe and fight. As to the rest of the charges, you can keep them on me as long as you want. Don’t think I don’t know how this will end. I know all too well. I’ll be dust in the wind. But someone else will join the fight when I’m gone. You can’t keep us quiet. That’s the one thing you can never control.

I’m leaving this court room. I guess for the most part I’m guilty as hell. But I’m still better than you.

In the last season of the series on ABC (it would air the 5th and final season on CBS), Max and 99 are to be married, but Max is tricked into drinking a map of the Melnick Uranium Mine. It will take 48 hours, and then he will break out in a rash that forms the map. However, he has to stand straight up and cannot scratch for the 48 hours or the map will be lost. KAOS agents abduct him, hang him by his robe on a coat rack, and declare they will wait right there until the map breaks out. Max says, “It’ll never work!” and one of the KAOS men cocks his pistol, pointing it right at Max, who says, “But it’s certainly worth a try.”

2. Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.- “Gomer Captures A Submarine” (Season 2, episode 8)

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. was a spin-off of the popular series “The Andy Griffith Show,” on which Jim Nabors played Goober’s cousin, Gomer. In one episode Gomer joined the Marine Corps and it was so funny (it was treated as a pilot episode) that it was given its own show, and it aired all the way up to 1969, never once having poor ratings. Today it is available on DVD but difficult to find on TV.

On sea duty, Gomer is supposed to be going ashore on a life raft with a reconnaissance patrol led by Sergeant Carter. All he has to do is climb down the cargo netting and into the boat. But he just can’t seem to manage it; the first one sinks from an accidental discharge from Gomer’s flare pistol, another sinks because of his unsheathed bayonet, and after changing into dry fatigues and putting up with laughter from the ship’s crew, Carter hurries everyone aboard the next raft in an attempt to leave Gomer behind. But just as they are rowing away from the net and as he is still at the top of it, he panics and jumps the rest of the way, plunging right through the raft and sinking it, too. On the next attempt, they are successful at leaving Gomer behind, but despite this and a thick fog, he swims to the raft, catching up to it. Carter has had enough and besides, if the submarine posing as an enemy in the war games spots the raft, they lose. So he orders Gomer to swim back to the ship…

3. The Gong Show-

(comedy-variety) Who knows what the name of the act was, and who cares? Long before “American Idol” or even “Star Search,” for that matter, there was Chuck Barris and his Gong. Contestants who were over the top, which was just about every one of them, were given a ring on a huge gong by a panel of judges, a couple of regulars being Jamie Farr and Jaye P. Morgan; the gong terminated the act. The series is now legendary, but there were several acts which have gone into show-business folklore forever, and the worst one of all was a pair of young men dressed as (according to various accounts) 1. A vagina and an umbilical cord or 2. Plastic-wrapped with a vacuum cleaner hose dangling between them, representing twins in the uterus. Whichever one it was doesn’t matter, and I can’t recall, but the act was, for 1976 and network television, way over the top. The act did not consist of anything except the boys standing there and singing “(You’re) Having My Baby.” And it was hilarious. Sick, to be sure. But I rolled on the floor with cramps in my stomach and tears in my eyes.

4. The Dick Van Dyke Show- ”Uhny Uftz” (Season 5, episode 3)

Rob is overworked but has a script deadline and elects to keep working at night after buddy and Sally go home. That’s when he starts hearing a strange sound: “Uhny Uftz.” He figures out that it’s coming from outside his window, which is eerie because his office is not on the ground floor. He looks through the Venetian blinds and sees a real U.F.O. but can’t convince anyone the next day that he really saw it. Too funny, and a very cool split from the routine of the series, with a kind of creepy first act. Classic!

5. Magnum, P.I.- “Did You See The Sunrise? Part 2 (Season 3, episode 2)

Ivan murdered one of Magnum’s friends as he jumped into a mined car to go watch the sunrise, but has diplomatic immunity. As he leaves in a limousine for the airport, Rick and T.C. help Magnum block the car, and Magnum forces Ivan into the woods to talk. He asks, “Ivan? Did you see the sunrise this morning?” And Ivan says he did. The show ends in a freeze frame of Magnum firing his gun at the unarmed Ivan. This episode shocked many people who would never have believed Tom Selleck’s character would commit murder for revenge.

6. Star Trek- “The Doomsday Machine” (Season 2, series episode no. 35)

This always rates in the top ten best “Trek” episodes ever, but it tops my list and always has. It begins as Enterprise encounters whole destroyed solar systems and then picks up the disaster beacon of another starship, Constellation. From then on it never slows down and features one of the most memorable guest-spots in TV history by William Windom as Constellation’s commander. To see a version tripping with a remastered soundtrack and incredible F/X, go to CBS.com and look for the series. The episode will be listed twice; the one with the longest playing time is the remastered version. TV at its finest.

 7. The Munsters- “If A Martian Answers, Hang Up” (Season 1, episode 18)

Herman believes he’s talked with Martians on his ham radio, but an investigation ends up with hilarious results. The last act has a sick-humored ending, which is one of the funniest gags of the entire series, and still makes me roll.

All of these except for “The Gong Show” can be purchased on DVD or seen online. Any time you get the chance, look these up. It will be worth it.

I will never be able to forget the night of November the second, 2009. I live in a group home as part of a rehabilitation program in which I’m being treated for bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Very early in the evening a housemate returned from a weekend day visit with his family and had been drinking heavily.

I was on Yahoo! Messenger with two friends of mine, Robin and Margaret. The housemate stood outside my door and yelled, “I wish you’d go to bed! Go to bed!” I excused myself from the chat and went to ask him what was wrong. He backed me into a corner and screamed, “You know, you think you own this place. You ain’t shit. You ain’t nobody. You think you’re special. You’re always creeping around and you never sleep. It’s creepy! You’re creepy!”

I considered calling the police, but getting out of that corner wasn’t easy. I know when a man is about to swing, and I was looking into the face of one. Somehow I managed it, went downstairs and dialed the phone for staff, and when they answered he had followed me and was listening, so I hung up, instinctively unwilling to anger him further. Then I went outside to smoke and calm my nerves because I was very afraid. He wasn’t a smoker but followed me out anyway, keeping up his abuse. I got angry and told him to leave me alone,, and when I’m scared and angry, it’s not a good thing. That’s when it’s time to fight or run, and I have always been the running type. So I ran off the porch, and he said, “What’s wrong? Are you afraid of dying?”

Finally, after being in the cold air for some time, another housemate flagged down a police officer who basically did nothing and then left. The one who had chased me was even more enraged that the police had faced off and threatened him with arrest. Staff was notified. By the time I was sitting in the office with them, I was crying like a baby.

November 2, 2009… was a night with a full moon.

He was suspended from the house for a week, then came back. Bewildered that management cared nothing for my safety, I could do nothing as he continued to harass me, and of the next ten months, nine times at the full moon he got worse, and he let me know how he felt. He threatened me or engaged in very intimidating behavior again and again. Such consistent behavior, so much anger and obvious hatred, I regarded as reasons to continue to fear for my life. Before a full year had passed he was moved to another place because I finally began to voice my terror of him again, hoping that this time I would be taken seriously. From time to time he asks staff about me, but I feel certain he is not being sincere. He gets paranoid, and I believe he is just putting on an act for staff so he doesn’t get evicted. They have no idea what the man put me through. I forgive him… but that doesn’t mean I believe that he has magically stopped hating me or that if put back in this house, he would not just start right back up again. And who knows what would happen then? History is full of tragedies brought about by people who ignored the signs of others being in danger.

The man is not typical of any of the people I’ve known as far as being prone to the Full Moon Syndrome. I’ve seen plenty of freaky things people do on those nights, but nothing like this guy.

WHAT SCIENCE HAS TO SAY

Psychologists dismiss out-of-hand that there is anything to the “Transylvanian Effect” which is the derisive name applied to the belief that lunar cycles can influence human behavior. They point to, as evidence, piles of statistics and case files of crimes, and hold these up as proof that the “Lunar Theory” is nonsense.

Regarded by most scholars today as a subject to be shunned, it was in the past dealt with in a semi-serious manner, but never with much in the way of favourable printed results save for several centuries in the past. Today “Lunar Theory” is regarded as more myth than even a pseudoscience, consisting of nothing more than superstitions and “wive’s tales.”

To them, it is as ludicrous to think that the moon affects human behavior and even physiology as it is to believe in asking questions about alien abductions to people undergoing regressive hypnosis and expecting a true story.

Crime statistics show no evidence whatever of a lunar influence on crime, especially during the night of the full moon. If anything, studies have shown crime statistics ease up at this time.

But there is a major flaw in this supposition, however fact-based they may believe it to be.

That’s because crime statistics do indeed prove, on the surface, that no connection exists between crime and the full moon. There is no Lunar Effect.

But crime statistics, which come in two varieties, federal and state, (in the United States) which includes all municipalities and other jurisdictions within each, only record major crimes such as felonies or federal crimes. Not included are many misdemeanors as well as even felonies which are reported but never followed up on by police, and those cases which are followed up on but which end in no arrest. Not counting cold case murders, unsolved rapes, arson, serious-injury assaults and robberies which constitute grand Theft, of course.

In other words, while any particular night of the full moon may not see a rampage of rapists and murderers or armed robberies in a given jurisdiction, it has no bearing on the other calls police officers and deputies get on said nights.

Ask a veteran police officer what he or she thinks, and at least 8 of 10 times, the answer will be, “Oh, yeah. It was a full moon just last night, and it was crazy.”

It’s necessary then to just take a few famous felony and other historic cases for study and see what phase the moon was in when they happened:

The Date: 4 August 1892

The Event: Lizzie Borden’s Parents, Andrew and Abby, are killed with a hatchet.

Lizzie Borden was accused of the murders but never convicted, although sadness and the suspicions of others dogged her for the rest of her life.

Phase of Moon on 4 August: Waxing Gibbous. Full Moon occurred on 8 August, 4 days later.

The Date:14 April 1865

The Event: The Assassination of 16th president Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth with a single shot from a Derringer pistol.

Lincoln and his wife were attending “My American Cousin,” a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington when Booth stepped up behind the president in his balcony and shot him in the head. Booth was hunted down and killed.

Phase of Moon on 14 April: Waning Gibbous; the Full Moon had been on 11 April, 3 days earlier.

The Date: 5 September 1901

The Event: 25th president William McKinley is shot by L. Frank Czolgosz and dies eight days later.

While attending an international exposition in Buffalo, New York, assassin Czolgosz tied a rag around the pistol in his hand and waited to meet the president, then fired two shots into McKinley; one bullet was removed but it didn’t matter, the wounds became infected. The assassin was nearly beaten to death by the crowd, but survived long enough to be executed.

Phase of Moon on 5 September: Last Quarter-to-waning crescent. Full Moon had been on 29 August, one week earlier.

The Date: 28 April 1789

The Event: Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny aboard the H.M.S. Bounty and sets Captain William Bligh and others adrift. The mutineers later settled on Pitcairn Island but led a hard life there. The last survivor of the mutineers, John Adams, claimed Christian had been murdered, but then gave other versions of what happened to the leader of the most famous mutiny of all time.

Phase of Moon on 28 April: Waxing Crescent. New Moon had been on 25 April.

The Date: 7 December, 1941

The Event: The Japanese Imperial navy sends six aircraft carriers and their support ships to bomb Pearl harbor and cripple the United States Navy. Over 2,000 are killed and the United States enters World War Two.

Phase of Moon on 7 December: Waning Gibbous to Last Quarter. Full Moon had been on 3 December.

The Date: 21 May 1924

The Event: Leopold and Loeb, as they have been known since, were Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. On this date they kidnapped and murdered Robert “Bobby” Franks, a teen. They were tried and convicted and one survived prison while the other was stabbed and killed over a decade later while still incarcerated.

Phase of Moon on 21 May: Waning Gibbous. Full moon had been on 18 May.

The Date: 11 November 1963

The Event: President John Fitzgerald Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Phase of Moon on 11 November: Waning Crescent. Full Moon had been on 1 November.

The Date: 11 August 1965

The Event: The Watts Riot begins. First violent riot in Los Angeles over equal rights and discrimination began with a drunk driving arrest. People were killed, buildings torched, looting and vandalism were common during the next 6 days.

Phase of Moon on 11 August: Gibbous.

The Date:17 February 1970

The Event: Colette, Kimberly and Kristin MacDonald are horribly murdered in their home at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The mother of the two girls, Colette, was the wife of Jeffrey MacDonald, a Green Beret surgeon. In 1979 he was finally convicted of the murders.

Phase of Moon on 17 February: Waxing Gibbous. First Quarter had been on 13 February.

The Date: 4 may 1970

The Event: Students protesting President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia were fired upon at Kent State University by Ohio National Guard troops, leaving 4 dead and 9 wounded. This was one of the events which turned anyone who was not already against the war in Southeast Asia bitter and helped to pressure Nixon to give up plans of conquering Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Phase of Moon on 4 May: One day before New Moon.

In only one case of the above was there a phase close to being a full moon, and that was the first day of the Watts Riots of 1965. Several fall within days of the full moon, some as little as 3, and of course, pure chance in an even larger survey would dictate that far fewer major events or crimes would be so close; and the more one searched, the more likely also that one or two of the events studied would be found to have occurred with a full moon.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENS?

There are some who say that earthquakes and other natural phenomena can happen more often during full moon days and nights. I cannot say much about the science of earthquakes, and honestly, neither can most geologists, volcanologists (sp. var.), seismologists…

Experts who say they understand a specific area of science better than anyone else are not being very nice. Besides that, they’re arrogant and assume much. Geophysically speaking, nobody on the planet knows all the possibilities, when and where they may or may not happen, or even what will trigger any  particular type of natural event. The massive and horrifying 8.9 temblor Friday in Japan is just hours old, and thousands are missing, over 700 confirmed killed, scores injured… yet the country is well aware of its place in the world; modern Japanese architecture has dramatically “overbuilt” for safety in ‘quakes. Who could have seen this coming, and who could have known it would trigger tsunami that would wash miles inland, breaching seaside barriers, wrecking everything from cargo and other commercial vessels to houses, trains, bridges, highways - and sweeping people away?

Nobody, that’s who. As much as we know, or think we do, about science, we have never found all the answers to the mysteries of the natural world. We likely never will.

If we know that the full moon affects the tidal waters of the planet – and we do – then why assume that nothing else is affected as well? At high tide of a full moon, called a “spring tide,” water levels inshore are higher than usual, and one of our biggest fears is the tidal surge – water pushed ahead of a hurricane as it nears landfall – coinciding with a “spring tide.” The perfect storm, and it would devastate any area at or only slightly above sea level. We could be talking a wall of water higher than 30 feet roaring ashore. A small port town or resort would be laid waste and that’s why, as bad as Katrina was, she could have been worse.

During a full moon, we can imagine looking at the world from space, and seeing the ocean under such a moon bulge upward. It really does, but it would be imperceptible, so we have to settle for our imaginations. But on a corresponding spot, on the opposite side of the world, there would be a matching area like a large dent. That’s the power of the moon’s pull.

Okay, but the argument by today’s lunar theorists point out that humans are mostly water. That’s true, so why would it not be so that we too are affected by the phases of the moon, and not just the full moon, but the new moon as well? Because stories also exist of peculiarities in human behavior at the new moon, and some of them are just as strange.

A FRUITLESS SEARCH

The truth, as much as some would hate to admit it, is that even though many legends surround the moon and people’s behavior, not one of them can be proven fact. A search through newspaper articles, online archives and the attendant headaches has only proven two things to me: People are gifted at lying and other people are incredibly gullible.

I found a site, one for a university, no less, which had an ”archive” of stupid crimes and criminals, and few had links to the real articles. Some I recognized as urban legends I had heard or read about before, and one was a version of a story that really happened, but not where or to whom the archive said.

What I was searching for, after finding that, of the sample of major crimes listed above, not one of which occurred on the full moon, was a possible connection between very stupid crimes and the full moon. Even stories I could trace back to the original articles, which appeared on sites like the AP site, or the UPI site – didn’t always give the dates of the crimes in question, merely their reporting date from the police to the press. That proved not only time-consuming, trying to find stories with dates on them, but also extremely maddening.

But the thing is, in a mass of newspaper or online news reports, one would need to have access to links to police reports or the stories in local newspapers, and a serious study with limited time and resources could take months… which the odds are, would prove nothing conclusive. If the full moon happens once a month, and rarely twice, and stupid crimes and even stupid accidents happen by the hundreds every night of the month, I would end up as scores of others before me, with evidence that disproves the “Transylvanian Theory.”

In the tales of old, reported as fact, even werewolves did not need the full moon to transform. That was a product of relatively recent literature, and who knows where it even originated.

The word “lunatic” derives from the word “lunar.” I say, lack of proof be damned; there was a reason for the coinage. Now more than a half-century old, I’ve seen enough, been through enough, done enough to know that there is truth to the idea of the lunar effect. Usually the night is a quiet one for me, for I often feel horrible. Many nights, I’ve known the moon was full just by how I felt, but at times also by how others around me behaved, and even on overcast or stormy nights, a quick check of the almanac would show I was correct.

Hospital admitting and emergency room visits do not spike at the night of a full moon. Births do not rise.

So what does happen? It’s not to be seen in statistics, records, or news articles. It cannot be found in history books.

But I used to go to school with a girl when I was a kid. I thought the world of her, but years later, she jumped off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, a would-be suicide. She lived, which is remarkable, but then again, it was a full moon.

Do suicides spike when the moon is full? Not really.

But if you hear your neighbors fighting, or playing their music really loud, or spot them naked out in their backyard, I would not be surprised. Just be warned: The people in life we usually get to see in the buff are not the ones we enjoy seeing in the buff.

On an episode of ”Cops” a few seasons back, a cameraman got on board on the night of a full moon with a veteran officer who stated flatly that crazy things really do happen on such nights, and the episode seemed to back it up.

It’s not so much crime, or giving birth, or even suicides that stand out during the full moon…

It’s the really strange stuff, like people having fights over dumb reasons, shirtless he-men getting drunk and yelling at his neighbors, frightening them half to death, prompting a 911 call and an officer telling the man to go sleep it off, followed by the warning : “If I have to come back here, you’re going to jail tonight.”

If officers tried to arrest everyone who was disruptive or acting ignorant or just plain silly, detention centers and even county lockups couldn’t hold them all. For that matter, most of the cases involved with the lunacy effect never end in an arrest. I should have been, one night about 30 years ago, as I went through radar at 110 m.p.h. Full moon, right?

I don’t know why I was doing that. No clue. That drive scared the hell out of me; it’s just too fast for any road on the east coast. The weird part is that the officer never tried to catch me or even turn on his lights. He knew it was a full moon and he just didn’t feel like being involved in a high-speed chase.

 But don’t be easily fooled. Live on this weird planet for enough years, and you can’t help learning that the full moon is to be respected for the hold it can have on people.

It’s so hard for any of us to know if we’ve chosen the right words. Speaking your mind may not always be the best idea, and doing so when emotional is an even worse one.

When I posted yesterday with a piece titled “Don’t Believe Them,” it only took about 24 hours to realize I was in grave error about some of the things I had written. Now, it’s gone to wherever flushed posts go, and good riddance.

See, I didn’t exactly bash the president, but I wasn’t too nice either, and the message I had was that nobody in government can be trusted.

I felt that with the debacle of the war against labor unions going on, the president was being too idle. What happened in both Ohio and in Wisconsin was criminal, and if you didn’t know, I’ll tell you why I say that: In the vote in the Ohio house, a dissenting member was replaced for the vote so it would pass. I’m not kidding, look it up. And you know about the sneaky vote in Wisconsin, where just days ago, the anti-union bill was passed without democratic members present, effectively a declaration that the American way of passing legislation has no meaning there. They just up and did it like it had always been done that way, and the only thing I remember the president saying about it was that it wasn’t right. Well, I don’t hear any republicans protesting, so hey, it’s all groovy, right?

Then someone comes right out and says, “If (we) win this battle (against the unions) and there is no union money to back up Obama in ’12, we’ll (Wisconsin voters) kick his ass.” Well, that’s what the quote is, more or less, not in the exact words…

Is that really what this is all about? Kicking him out of the White House?

That would be proof of what others have told the rest of us for years, and that is that the corporate money which backs republican candidates is more prevalent than on paper; that getting corporation-compromised people in office is a high priority, and that President Obama is detested by the right. So. He hasn’t been playing ball as much as I thought then. That warms my cockles.

In yesterday’s post I said that he seemed bent on going to Libya.

Not true. His latest warning to Gaddafi is along the lines of, “You Sir, need to get out of there. No military options for the United States are off the table.”

That is not aggression. It’s a dire, ice-cold warning,  and historically, the United States hasn’t always been so patient. You would have to go back to the years just prior to America’s entry in World War II to find something similar, and back then, FDR was closely guarding the isolationism built up since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. When he did speak about what was going on in Europe in Britain, his words didn’t sound much like what Obama is saying to Gaddafi, which is just plain, “Leave. Now.”

Two things happened today that have changed my mind completely about yesterday’s post, which, thankfully, not many people read, even though it wasn’t so much wrong as it was harsh.

The first is the earthquake in Japan and the president’s remarks about it. He said heartfelt things I knew were sincere. I don’t think any Wisconsin legislators appreciate his caring about the terrible disaster, because it is times like these that can define a person; how they react to suffering is something we watch others closely for, especially our leaders. In Wisconsin, their elected officials don’t much give a damn about suffering.

The second thing that happened is unrelated completely to my post. A few days ago, someone I know whose name I cannot say was contacted by detectives who were following up a letter he had written to an elected official. I have no idea what was in the letter, only that it caused enough concern that an investigation was started. You know… one with a tan file folder. They spoke to him and left and I thought that was the end of it. But it wasn’t. Who is keeping it an open issue I don’t know, and nobody involved can talk to me about it. All I know is that it has other people involved and concerned now, and my instincts tell me it’s probably justified and a good thing. In the wake of the Tuscon Massacre, I have come to believe, there is every reason to take anything unsettling or out of the ordinary very seriously. This completely contradicts what I said after the event, but I see the need now for every caution. I care about people very much, and I don’t want to see a tragedy that could be averted if we apply what we’ve learned.

It’s just one more reason to watch what I say, to censor myself if I feel the need, and to respect the fears and feelings as well as the vulnerabilities of others.

President Obama has not been having an easy job of his first term. I don’t like many of the things he’s done or said, or that have happened on his watch, but ripping him apart in a post seems pretty stupid to me. I regret having done it. There is no excuse but I do wish to say once more, armed intervention in Libya would be a mistake, would get people killed who need not die, and I hate the idea with all I have. It would also intensify the resentment already heaped upon this country by the Muslim countries, and nobody needs that. Nothing good can come from it. I also wish to state, once more, I believe the president should have intervened in the flagrant disregard for legislative protocols, and that’s my story. I’m sticking with it.

At 06:06 there was another, which could be said to be an aftershock, but this was powerful enough to be considered a bona fide quake if it had happened by itself. The magnitude was 6.4.

And it continued. Same area:

06:07-another 6.4 aftershock.

06:15-magnitude 6.8

Then off the coast of the same area,

06:25-magnitude 7.1

06:48-magnitude 6.3

These are the ones likely responsible, in that they were off the coast, of causing the tsunamis which spread radially but hit the closest target first, that being the coast of Japan. Large commercial vessels were moored but were thrown to their sides inshore. Smaller boats were tossed like toys in a bathtub. Some estimate a wall of water over 13 feet in height washed in over the almost sea level coast and kept on going, gathering mud and debris which show up in videotaped footage looking like something from an old Irwin Allen movie, as if realistic but unbelievable. Buildings and homes in the way were either swept up with it, crushed or so damaged they caught fire and burned. An oil refinery nearby had a massive fire at last report, and all the nuclear power plants for surrounding areas were “safely shut down,” including the one which was reportedly heavily damaged.

Across the ocean, people in Hawaii were evacuated from the beaches, and hotel guests were sent to the upper floors of the buildings for safety.

Back in Japan, the aftershocks continued:

06:57-magnitude 6.3 near the original quake zone

07:11-magnitude 5.8 off the coast

07:13-magnitude 5.9 off the coast

07:14-magnitude 6.3 near original quake zone

07:25-magnitude 6.1 off the coast

07:28-magnitude 6.1 near original quake zone

07:38-magnitude 5.9 near original quake zone

These aftershocks will likely continue for a day or more, and each one has the potential to make things so much worse. Anything above a magnitude 5.5 is nothing to take lightly, and in buildings or with infrastructure already weakened, more death could occur, and certainly much more damage. At last report, the Japanese government knew of 200-300 bodies already found. That count will rise within hours, and so will those reported as missing. It is now being considered the most expensive natural disaster in Japan’s history, and perhaps of all time as the destruction is just impossible to fathom; yet there is no denying what the eyes see. At 8.9 this quake is one of the largest ever recorded. It dwarfs the great San Francisco ‘quake of the last century. The photographs and the many videotapes of the epic disaster are already mind-numbing even for people who are just seeing them for the first time.

The United States was reported to already be mobilizing resources and people to give aid, and the nearby carrier U.S.S. Ronald Reagan and the rest of its group are preparing to make all efforts to join rescue and relief, and the massive vessel boasts the capacity to even work as a floating hospital.

UPDATE 13 March 15:56 (local)

The original temblor has been redesignated a 9.0 magnitude.

Destruction is so widespread that in many areas hit by the tsunami no infrastructure remains at all. Aerial photography reveals miles of flat ground where once stood buildings, offices, markets and homes. The tsunami has become apparent in its destruction with new footage taken during the event being shown on MSNBC.

One man survived since the event on his rooftop after being swept out to sea.

States of emergency have been declared at a half-dozen nuclear reactors, and one has had an explosion after vented hydrogen was ignited. Two plants have had pumps for cooling water fail, and the backup systems or procedures, or “failsafes,” have failed, and workers are pumping seawater into the cooling chambers in trying to cool the reaction chamber. Reaction chambers are vessels of steel half a foot thick built to contain radiation and possible explosions, but they must be vented of pressure over safety standards, and the fears of another explosion are being voiced by officials. At one reactor, there was an announcement that a partial meltdown would occur. Differing statements by people at the same place are not helping the confusion, but one man has said the partial meltdown would likely occur.

In April 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union, the vessel described above actually did rupture due to uncertain factors usually said to be power surges. Emergency procedures were unable to stop the explosion, which blew apart the reaction vessel and exposed the core to the air, venting it and starting a fire. Casualty counts are still, decades later, far too low for such a catastrophe. In Japan, at the reactors being cooled by saltwater and boron, it is clear that just such a reaction chamber vessel failure is feared.

What isn’t clear is what types of reactors are involved, and exactly why carbon rods are part of the core mechanics. I was under the impression none of this type of reactor was operating outside of the Russian and old Soviet territories; it is a testament to the intensity of the crisis and suffering in the country that such fragmented information is coming from the scene.

As aftershocks continue, each one essentially another earthquake in every sense but name, and power is out to much of the country, over 100,000 people have been evacuated from areas near the damaged reactors, and while some government officials report no significant exposures to radiation, at least a dozen people have been tested positive for high doses.

The total casualty count sits at around one thousand dead, scores more missing and feared dead, and estimates have the final death toll at a staggering 10,000. Damages are also epic, with no reliable estimates possible yet, since many areas have not even been seen by officials. The streets in several cities are still underwater. 

People in the affected areas are without power, water or waste facilities or even much in the way of shelter. They have no access to food or medicine and Japan has asked for international aid.

This is a staggering disaster and loss. It isn’t over, but already I can remember very few disasters like this. The 2004 tsunami of course killed many more people, and Hurricane Katrina is familiar to most Americans. This is one of those events nobody will ever be able to forget.

Japan needs our prayers right now, and we need to be with them in spirit. This is a very heartbreaking event, and my heart goes out to the Japanese people.

Sadly, there are so many different variants of these attacks that reading up on them may be confusing; some can include links, pings, trojans and other MALWARE aimed right at YOUR computer and you would never know it.
Aside from the steps WordPress is continuing to take, there is little you can do except keep MALWARE protection as up-to-date as possible. That, and, if you get low traffic, but notice that suddenly one or two posts are driving your views up, it could be a sign that someone knows your particular site is weak and are attempting to dog it down by increased traffic. This will be accompanied by a link, which, if you were to click on it, would lead you to a false or mined site that will hit you with MALWARE, a trojan or will otherwise harm your computer, perhaps making it crash completely, requiring the hard drive to be repaired or reloaded with the WINDOWS discs–starting over. In this event you may see The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) or not.
NEVER click on links people have to your posts. Even if it contains a name you may know, it may be false, and any number of things can happen. Some sites have a “No Way Out” feature which prevents you from leaving; attempting to close the window or hitting “Page back” will not get you out. In that event you have to do a hard shut-down, a restart or log off, and a restart may not be possible.

Sometimes your hardware can be taken over, and even external units can be used to attack your computer, such as your printer or router. Your IP can also be used any time in a BOTNET, and again, you would never know.

You’ve probably noticed that the ride has been a bit bumpy on WP.com the past week with a widely covered DDoS attack last week and then another interruption a few hours ago from an unrelated network maintenance issue. Our core mission is enabling the world to publish, and anything that affects the availability of your site or dashboard impedes that. Anything less than 100% availability drives us to work harder. Rest assured that behind-the-scenes … Read More

via WordPress.com News

Hey, look… we all say unkind things, you, me, everyone. Personally, I can say that if I wanted to make sure I never said an unkind thing again in my life, I would have to cut my tongue out and chop off my fingers.

Wouldn’t stop me from thinking unkind things, though.

There was a pastor our church had when I was growing up, and I used to think the world of him until he sat at our table and told a very evil joke.

I’m the first one always to pick on people for not being perfect when they stand on a stage in a pulpit. And I know that there are things worse than telling a dirty joke. A while back I wrote about televangelists who bilked billions, collectively, from the people who trusted them. Can’t get much lower than that; there were people who emptied their life savings because of these men and women. Not cool.

As far as saying unkind things, you’re not going to stop anyone from doing it, and you wouldn’t be able to stop either, so why sweat it? We’ve all been very hurt by words, and those hurts can go terribly deep. Nothing is more painful than getting kicked in the teeth by a person you never expected it from. I sympathize, but I don’t have the answer to what you can or should do about it. Christ said, when slapped on the cheek, turn to the offender the other as well.

But is that human nature?

I can’t say, but often it’s not what we do. Some of us turn and run, some try to negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict, and some strike back. Some go a lot further than that. Words can definitely kill. Someone who is depressed and threatens suicide can be driven to it by the wrong words, or they can be kept from it by the right ones. As to which one is most often true, nobody can answer that.

When I was a kid, going back as long as I remember, my father heaped verbal abuse on me and drilled it into my head that I would always be stupid, a loser; he said I would wind up “in the gutter, scraping for wine bottles” and told me that I was retarded… all kinds of things. I’m just like what he said I would be… a loser.

Our words… they can enlighten and soothe, or degrade and kill…

I am very sorry to whoever wrote the question in my search box. I can’t give you any definitive answer except for what I’ve offered, but I encourage you to take heart, be strong, and always consider that unkind things are said by people, not God, and it’s what God will say to you when he sees you that counts. Maybe that doesn’t make you feel any better, and maybe you don’t believe in God. I understand; with so much cruelty going on, with wars, murders, rapes… suffering everywhere… kind of hard to believe that there’s a God, you know?

I know this for sure, people will always let you down. Always. Depending on them for kindness is not what we should be doing. Me, I hear or read even one thing I think is unkind, and I’ll run like hell. Always did, probably always will. Only one I’m going to count on is God. I know I’ll let him down, but I also know I will be forgiven. And he will never kick me in the teeth.

I pray you’ll find your answer…

I can’t think of a thing to add.

If James Davis was beaten before he was even convicted, then imagine what life will be like for him now, with a ten-year hitch in one of the nastiest states in the union where one can serve time.

Some say that’s just; it’s the way things ought to be. Prison life isn’t supposed to be pleasant, and for child molesters, even a ten-year sentence may be the equivalent in the deep south of capital punishment.

Last year the couple was arrested on the charges because they bought a 1998 Dodge Caravan from Shorty’s Used Cars in Eastman, Georgia. Knowing they could not make the payments except on paper, and that it would really put them in a bind, they entered into a deal with the devil to make life easier.

However it happened, whether they approached manager Wayne Bearden, who was 65 when the deal was struck, or whether he made the proposal is not listed among Internet and state sources.

It hardly matters. What does matter is that the arrangement allowed them to never make a single payment on the old vehicle. Instead, Bearden would have free and unlimited sexual “favors” from the couple’s daughter, who at the time was around 12-years-old and likely already being sexually abused by her father. 

There’s more: This arrangement apparently continued for two years, and included free drugs for the Davis’ and other things in return for the daughter’s services. And it gets worse; both parents were convicted of abusing the girl as well, even though Sandra Davis denied that she ever physically abused her. She says she did encourage her daughter to do what Bearden wanted but nothing more. A conviction of child molestation tells me otherwise. She knew that her daughter was being abused by her father, and probably encouraged it and participated as well.

How the crimes were discovered has not been revealed but police or the deputy somehow found out in the course of another investigation.

The odds are very good that the investigation involved Wayne Bearden, because he was well known to police and sheriffs in the state and had served time for drugs, murder and conspiracy. Here is a man whose evil knows no restraint; even prison didn’t scare him. Only God and the people involved know what happened to that poor child, but with a monster like Bearden, assume it’s all worse than anything you’re imagining.

Bearden drew the same charge and the same sentence as James Davis: Ten years, with ten years’ probation on the end of it. The parents have also been forbidden any contact with their daughter for twenty years.

The sentences are, of course, inadequate and do not serve justice in any form of the concept most people have of it. Ten years for sexually abusing a little kid, your own daughter, and inviting a stranger into the home to also abuse her? That’s worth a life sentence to me. No parole, either.

Anyone who thinks that the horrors are over for the daughter is not familiar with what comes after it’s all done, which is when one is left to remember every minute, every second of it all, when life becomes a filmed loop of events endlessly being played, when nightmares come in the dead of night, dreams of being chased, of being raped, of being trapped. Dreams that surprise the dreamer when they awake, because it all seemed so real.

And they don’t know about trauma, and post-traumatic stress, which essentially suspend normal development completely, which strip a person of self-worth, even self-love, which robs them of all traces of normality.

For the sufferer of PTSD, life is not about the things others consider necessary or even basic to living. All victims respond to the horrors differently, but eventually can all be fit into categories of personalities and symptoms, and sadly, few do well in life with the illness, and many end as suicides.

In the case of the daughter of James and Sandra Davis, she is now 16 and in foster care. With going to school and other things a girl of that age must deal with, and in addition to normal pressures and pains of growing, she has to live with the memories of what’s been done to her, the guilt she feels unjustly for not being able to stop it, and the knowledge that her parents traded her body and heart and soul for some piece-of-crap minivan. And it would make no difference had it been a Ferrari, a house or anything else. I grieve for her, and for all the things her life could have been and will not be, and I pray to God that what is to come will at least be tolerable because it will certainly not be easy. She’s going to know pain that others never will, and it isn’t fair, and it’s a horror…

folk song

While everyone was sleeping, Ohio’s senate has passed a bill which virtually shuts unions down.

Even though a handful of Republicans balked and took the side of Democrats, the traditional party which protects unions as well as the rights of other workers in the United States, it passed. It blows one’s mind to read what’s in the bill. Say goodbye, Ohio union members, to negotiating for pension and health benefits. That’s now against the law. And say goodby to strike votes. Strikes by labor unions are going to be illegal the minute this bill goes into effect.

For now the bill still has to clear the house and the governor, but in the house, the GOP have a huge majority. The governor is, of course, going to sign it.

In the senate, something shady went on in order to insure the bill passed. A member who would have possibly held up the bill with his vote of “no” was replaced for the vote.

As sickening as it already sounds, there’s more. If the firefighters were to reject a contract, they couldn’t strike right away if they used binding arbitration. This allowed them to work and have more time for negotiations but it wasn’t perfect. Now that’s gone; not even a shadow of it will be allowed.

This is being hailed as cost-saving for the state.

One of the people responsible swore it was not an attack on the middle class.

That part is true.

Actually it’s a lot more than that.

It’s an attack on the family unit, the work ethic, job security and the rights of workers. All unions are involved, none have been singled out. It covers police officers and coal miners, meat packers and chemical workers, nurses and plumbers. They can never again do any kind of negotiating save for pay rate and work hours. And if management decides they want to cut pay and increase or decrease hours, and the union does not like it, there is nothing whatsoever they can do about it. No strikes, no arbitration. No rights. The ability to negotiate is therefore useless.

In Wisconsin, the utterly inexplicable actions of governor Scott Lawrence indicated that he entered office under the wrong impression of what a state governor’s duties and limitations were. He has been redefining the capacity of the office into one which reminds me of colonial British rule in the American territories and the very reason our government was formed in the first place. He’s also been trying to outlaw labor unions, cutting them off at the legs. The attempt has not gone well, as Democratic senators refusing to vote on the bill have vanished, fleeing the state. Lawrence has put pressure on the senate to the point that it issued orders to the police to find and bring in the senators to force a vote. That’s become a challenge to the laws of the state, and constitutional provisions, with nobody seeming to know what to do about it. Lawrence will not back down. His message is that the unions are evil, allowing people to suck money from the state that they don’t deserve. He wishes to make people think that their tax dollars, sorely needed to even the state budget, are being drained unfairly by teachers, police officers, firefighters, chemicals workers, truckers, dock workers and everyone else pulling down a union wage, which, by the way, is not as big a deal as it once was. They’ve been making concessions while some union workers in other states have been getting increases, although they are nothing to brag about.

Both Lawrence and the Ohio state legislators have turned on our own. They are betraying the people who make this country run, betraying the people who made this country great, who literally sacrificed their lives in the many battles to make this land safe and profitable to work in. Keep this up, allow these things to gain momentum, and who will want to be a police officer? The job is hard enough as it is, deadly and often tedious, and removing the union rights will attract the wrong people to the job. If corruption is already a part of some officers’ lives, then imagine how questionable men and women will need to supplement their incomes in the future. And if we wish to keep this country in a position of greatness, a world leader and superpower, then what about our teachers, who form the important base of knowledge for our future workers? The best of them will slowly retire, and the best students of today will look for other lines of work, knowing that teaching is too tough a job to do for peanuts and no benefits.

This is not about balancing state budgets. Conservatives as a rule have been working on the union “problem” since before Ronald Reagan betrayed the rights of striking air traffic controllers while he was president, firing them outright. When that happened, he used presidential authority, which I have always questioned, to just cast the law aside as he pleased because the strike, by all definitions a major one, did not fit into his plan of Reaganomics; he simply did not know what to do about it, and rather than allow the process to be played out, he decapitated the union, setting a precedent Scott Lawrence is in some way trying to use in his twisted way.

Joe Hill, an immigrant to the United States around 1902 who traveled around trying to find work settled for a few years in, ironically, Ohio. Later he would be found guilty of murder in a weak frame-up and executed. His death only strengthened union resolve and he was a part of the expanding variety of unions and inspired workplace reform. In the last century he went on to become a folk legend, celebrated in many songs like the one above. The song declares that wherever workers strike or organize, he can be seen there.

Joe Hill is dead, and his spirit seems to be fading. Ohio’s bill was done suddenly while nobody was looking. It did not even make the big headlines until the senate had passed it. From here it’s nothing but a snowball rolling down hill. It will gain momentum and it will get bigger. 

Goodbye, Joe. You’ll be sorely missed.