Displaying 0 To 0 Of 0 Comments Hope you don’t mind if I barge in here to say what a wonderful comment this is, Aquarius. I’m a retired RN as well, and I have the same reaction to politicians who talk the talk but would never dream of walking the walk themselves (and wouldn’t encourage their children to either). Then, to add insult to injury by denying benefits to veterans? Well, they have no right to call themselves patriots, that’s for sure. Hope to hear much more from you! 🙂 » Posted By kesmarn On April 9, 2014 @ 6:51 pm And so is his son. » Posted By kesmarn On March 31, 2014 @ 4:40 pm We’re kinda fond of him around here too, NirekJunior! 🙂 » Posted By kesmarn On March 31, 2014 @ 4:40 pm Your Dad sounds like a wise man, Nirek. I think your son might say the same of you. » Posted By kesmarn On March 31, 2014 @ 3:29 pm Nirek, I’m so glad you followed through on your plan to publish something about your military experiences. This is truly a fascinating and informative read. Amazingly I did not have a close friend or family member who went to Viet Nam. My one cousin who was in the army ended up in Germany. And the other male cousin of draft age had accidentally amputated his right index finger as a little kid in a childhood mishap when it got caught in between the chain and gear of a bicycle. It turned out that there was a silver lining to that childhood tragedy, because that was his trigger finger. It kept him out of the military. You were genuinely right in the thick of things — in truly high-risk situations. (Guess I don’t have to tell you that!) And it seems that it was almost without let-up. I admire your attitude so much. Almost anyone can get through a hair-raising experience on adrenaline — once. But the hard part is going back in there the next day and doing it all over again! Any general who would use a human being as a walking mine-detector is unfit for command as far as I can see. Thank God, you didn’t find any mines the hard way. But no thanks to that general! The story of evacuating those green berets was amazing. The military and this country owes you a debt of gratitude for helping to get those guys out — both the living and the dead. Talk about grace under fire. Literal fire! I do have a question, if you don’t mind. Did the subject ever come up among you and your comrades of the validity of the war itself? Did people openly (or even not so openly) ever question “the mission”? Not only the wisdom of day-in-day-out decisions (like the general with the mines), but the overall wisdom of even being there? It must have been awfully hard to sustain morale in such dreadful conditions when/if there was a basic question as to how these people had become “the enemy.” And yet — there it was. Somebody was shooting at you. It’s pretty hard not to take that personally. Also one thing I’ve noticed is that once a person is put into a situation in which there’s a real probability that he/she will not come out of it alive (but actually does) — that is a life-changing experience. You are never quite the same person again. (Not necessarily in a bad way.) But it seems to make people feel a bit “different” as well — as though they’ve gone to an emotional place that not everyone has been to. Does that make sense? Or sound at all familiar? Thanks again for sharing your thoughts, and like many others, I would love to read anything else that you’d care to write on the subject. Bless you for your service, Nirek! » Posted By kesmarn On March 31, 2014 @ 2:58 pm Welcome to the Planet, NirekJunior! From just these two comments it’s easy to see that a remarkable man has raised a remarkable son. Please stick around! I know we’d all love to hear more from you. 🙂 » Posted By kesmarn On March 31, 2014 @ 2:25 pm Chris Christie Cleared on Bridgegate by Wife Perfect, AdLib. Do those stickers come in XXXL size? » Posted By kesmarn On March 30, 2014 @ 7:13 pm PPO, so sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you! If you find an image you like, you just right click on it to find the URL for it. If you copy that, you can put it in a comment as an image by clicking the “add image” option below the comment box. That will open up a box in which you can paste the URL. Then you just go ahead and enter it as a comment as usual. Hope that helps! » Posted By kesmarn On March 30, 2014 @ 7:10 pm [img]https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1.0-9/10155266_754482824575510_57169406_n.jpg[/img] » Posted By kesmarn On March 29, 2014 @ 4:28 pm 😆 » Posted By kesmarn On March 28, 2014 @ 10:00 am Oh, and I meant to add that the “Super Extra Independent Investigation” that the Christie Kiddies are preparing might not be the hymn of praise that His Majesty Don de la Donnie Chris is anticipating. Rumor has it that the disgruntled offspring have been saving up transcripts and video of Crisco on the Homefront — complete with expletives not deleted and flying crockery. That’ll put the final nail in the Presidential Aspirationish Coffin. They hope. » Posted By kesmarn On March 27, 2014 @ 8:13 pm First off, AdLib, that graphic is perfect. We were so much on the same wave length today. I couldn’t resist tweeting: “After a thoro investigation by Gov. Christie, using lawyers appointed by Gov. Christie, Gov. Christie has been found innocent of Bridgegate.” Folks are going to think we collaborated, but we used nothing but Planetary telepathy — which is, apparently, better than Verizon. My very favorite line is: Chris Christie knew nothing about the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge but knows everything about everything else and would make a great President. Is that 140 characters? Thanks for some major laughs! » Posted By kesmarn On March 27, 2014 @ 8:02 pm Race-Based Research: A History Lesson for Mr. Ryan I got chills watching/listening to this. She has her father’s eyes. And his talent. » Posted By kesmarn On March 30, 2014 @ 10:58 am Thanks so much, J. M., for a fine article. I think it’s difficult for anyone who has not been on the receiving end of racist behavior and attitudes to say: “I know how you must feel.” But as a woman, I believe I can say I have some idea. This is what was written by Gustave Le Bon, a respected anthropologist, about women in 1879: In the most intelligent races, as among the http://faculty.washington.edu/lynnhank/wbgould.pdf No wonder it took so long for us to get the vote. (“Us” being both women and Blacks in America.) Having to cope with and argue against attitudes like this. When I saw video of the recent encounter between Elijah Cummings and Darryl Issa, it seemed pretty obvious to me which of the two of them was more intelligent, more civilized, harder working, more ethical and more evolved. And it wasn’t Darryl Issa. » Posted By kesmarn On March 24, 2014 @ 6:08 pm The Weekend Music Thread-Spring Has Sprung She’s a genuine prodigy, Kalima! Wow! Thanks so much for posting. (And she sits there so demurely. No strutting around, no posing. No tattoos. How’s she gonna be a rock star?) 😆 Terrific talent. » Posted By kesmarn On March 24, 2014 @ 8:06 am Happy St. Patrick’s Day…Unless You’re Gay Well said, AdLib! As I was driving today I heard on NPR that the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin does NOT prohibit gay individuals or groups from participating! Maybe the U.S. should take a clue from the “auld country” and lighten up a bit. After all St. Pat was only rumored to have a reluctance to being around snakes. I don’t think he ever mentioned word one about LGBT folks! 😀 » Posted By kesmarn On March 17, 2014 @ 5:11 pm The Weekend Music Thread-As You Please Frennie, I’m so sorry to hear that your laddie didn’t get to fulfill his dream just yet. But he’s young and there’s still time, no? May 13 will be the one year anniversary of my “grand opening ceremony” and I’m thinking I might have to cook up some sort of major celebration of the fact that I’m still here to annoy the Planet and my dear supportive Planetary amigos. Wanna join me? We can party in buckskins like it’s 1829! » Posted By kesmarn On March 17, 2014 @ 5:25 pm AB, it’s so good to see you here! I love your recollections of being Davy. Now I know where your Texas spunk comes from. ‘Cause you were tough enough to have “kilt you a bear, when you was only three”! » Posted By kesmarn On March 17, 2014 @ 9:19 am Science and Anti-Science – The Greed and Duplicity of Rupert Murdoch c’lady, I thought I recalled reading that this might have been the case! Thanks for verifying it. The question remaining then is the usual one: what did the President know and when did he learn it? My feeling is that it might have been right around the same time that Angela Merkel learned it! » Posted By kesmarn On March 14, 2014 @ 8:36 am I agree, AdLib, it seems totally out of character for him to order the bugging of EU leaders’ phones. I don’t think he did either. (Was that a carry over from way back in Dubya’s day?) On your troubling question: might I add a third possibility? Is there a great deal that has been going on all along that he was completely unaware of? Until the Snowden leaks at least? In which case, is Snowden the villain he’s been portrayed as? Or a hero? » Posted By kesmarn On March 13, 2014 @ 3:52 pm AdLib, I’ve had those same concerns about the possibility of the CIA having gone rogue. When it was revealed that Angela Merkel’s personal cell phone had been hacked, I know that President Obama made a personal phone call to her to try to explain the situation. I’ve always wondered if what he said to her was that he himself had no idea that her phone had been hacked. Could the CIA simply have taken it upon themselves to do that without even consulting him? I wouldn’t be surprised. And of course, if he had said that publicly, it would have looked terrible — as though he didn’t have control over his own government. Nor did it look good for him to say he’d known about it and condoned it. He really was in a terrible position there. And I have to ask whether it might have been the CIA who put him in it. » Posted By kesmarn On March 13, 2014 @ 2:50 pm PPO, that seems to be their style lately. I hear that Glenn Beck is now suggesting that people watch “A Face in the Crowd,” which is a prescient film that exposes the type of flim-flam man that Beck has always been. It seems to be his way of saying: “Look, if I were really a con artist would I be embracing this film?” As the old saying goes: “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” » Posted By kesmarn On March 12, 2014 @ 8:43 am Fiendishly clever, AdLib! One of the few ways to “beat” Murdoch then would be to boycott Neil Degrasse Tyson. That’s quite a dilemma. 🙁 » Posted By kesmarn On March 12, 2014 @ 8:28 am AdLib, it is weird isn’t it, how sometimes things done with a sleazy motive turn out — almost inadvertently — to result in some sort of common good? Like McDonald’s use of pink slime types of products resulting in a (justified) drop in business and a (coincidental?) drop in childhood obesity? I’ve often thought of this in terms of shows like The Simpsons, too. It has that irreverent lefty humor — just think of Mr. Burns and Ned Flanders when it comes to capitalist businessmen and religious fundamentalists. Do folks who watch both faces of Fox ever feel schizophrenic? (How could they not?) You can only hope that kids who grow up listening to Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Lisa Simpson will one day take a look at Bad Fox and ask the inevitable question: WTF?? » Posted By kesmarn On March 11, 2014 @ 5:20 pm Republicans Use Time Machine to Go Back and Blame FDR for Pearl Harbor They would have applauded the “strength” of the 9/11 terrorists, AdLib, at the same time that they would have blamed the President for allowing/provoking the attack. While also at the same time being “weak”… They present him as that most complex of characters: a tyrant who’s simultaneously a weakling. » Posted By kesmarn On March 7, 2014 @ 12:00 pm I had some reservations about that part of Kristof’s article too, c’lady. For starters — exactly how was the President supposed to arm the moderate opposition in Syria while making sure none of those arms would end up in the hands of Al-Qaeda? And without putting any “boots on the ground”? I don’t think he had any realistic options to the course that he took. Granted there’s been an absurd amount of foot-dragging on turning over the chemical weapons, but sooner or later I believe the job will be done. » Posted By kesmarn On March 7, 2014 @ 11:53 am This is just wonderful, AdLib. You and Nicholas Kristoff were really on the same page today. Here’s a paragraph from his latest column: “The Soviet Union didn’t invade Hungary because of President Eisenhower’s weakness, nor Czechoslovakia because of President Johnson’s weakness. Russia didn’t help dismember Moldova because of George H.W. Bush’s weakness or invade Georgia because of George W. Bush’s.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/06/opinion/kristof-whos-the-villain-here.html?smid=fb-share The worst BAD consequence of the GOP’s adventure in time-travelling, though, was that when they managed to get back to the 21st century, they brought Joe McCarthy back with them. He goes by the name Teddy Cruz these days. » Posted By kesmarn On March 6, 2014 @ 4:57 pm And to think she has a son in the military, KT! How many moms of service people would be beating the war drums the way she is? Most people with kids in the military are praying for peace. But then, her brand of “Christianity” doesn’t seem to be about peace. And her brand of “motherhood”? Well, I think there must be chipmunks who have more maternal instinct than she does. » Posted By kesmarn On March 4, 2014 @ 6:05 pm Sally, “Sarah Kreskin Palin” is great! And you’re right. Putin would rather wrestle a bear than invade Palin’s front porch. Having looked in the mirror all these years, he knows crazy when he sees it. (Loved your McCain “MRI” comment, too.) 🙂 » Posted By kesmarn On March 4, 2014 @ 3:45 pm Awesome, funk! » Posted By kesmarn On March 4, 2014 @ 3:40 pmComments Posted By kesmarn
Parisians, there are a large number of women
whose brains are closer in size to those of
gorillas than to the most developed male brains.
This inferiority is so obvious that no one can
contest it for a moment; only its degree is worth
discussion. All psychologists who have studied
the intelligence of women, as well as poets and
novelists, recognize today that they represent the
most inferior forms of human evolution and that
they are closer to children and savages than to an
adult, civilized man. They excel in fickleness,
inconstancy, absence of thought and logic, and
incapacity to reason. Without doubt there exist
some distinguished women, very superior to the
average man, but they are as exceptional as the
birth of any monstrosity, as, for example, of a
gorilla with two heads; consequently, we may
neglect them entirely.
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