Happy Holidays

Hello from the other side of Christmas. In my last post, the kids were driving me to drink (not that it takes much, who doesn't like a tasty beverage?) But today I'm happy to report that things have been running much smoother. I think the parents really instilled the holiday spirit in their kids, and that along with a good dose of fear and guilt from the stage manager has improved behavior mightily recently. I even made out with all sorts of goodies - a nice stationary set, a candy apple, a Target gift card, and chocolate. I've decided to make cookies for the kids on Friday when I have a whole day to prepare - it doesn't cost much, but it requires effort and therefore qualifies and a nice gift.

Yesterday David and I spent a lovely day with my parents opening presents, playing Scrabble and eating. This was definitely the best year yet, I was smart and told my parents exactly what I wanted so I didn't get any weird gadgets or items that I don't know what to do with. The one thing missing, of course, was my brother.

For those who don't know, my brother is currently in Iraq with the Tenth Mountain Division. He was going to try and call yesterday but wasn't able to for some reason. I never imagined I would be one of those people who have to experience a holiday without a loved one because of a war - but here I am. I have to say it is weird. My fiercely liberal, peace-loving family with a solider in the family. On other hand, I feel like it gives me more credibility as an opponent of the war since it directly affects me. This is not something I would ever have asked for, but here it is.

My dad brought out the old video camera and hooked it up to the TV so we could watch old home movies. My mom almost lost it a couple times seeing images of my brother as a 7-year-0ld, not to mention the footage of her older brother and father, both passed away now. Thank goodness for home movies! While it was sad to see these people, I personally am grateful to have these images of them. My favorite footage was of the family reunion we had when I was I don't know, around 8, in Iowa for my great-grandmother's 90th birthday. She has also since passed away. And one of my uncles in the video is now embroiled in a nasty divorce from my mom's sister. But the video is a nice little time capsule of a time when we were all alive, all together and all (mostly) happy.

Happy Holidays to you and yours, and a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

Yet another blogger against the war

I've been meaning to start a new blog, but I've also been resisting it.  Resisting because who wants to read my soapbox rantings when they hear enough in person?  But I've been frustrated, on an almost daily basis, by what is going on in the world and feel I need a healthy outlet instead of screaming at the radio.  Or the cat.  Or worst, my partner.

So yeah, this one is for me.  I hope  you read it and I hope you get something out of it, but it's for me more than anything else.

What's got my ire today is the whole Barry Bonds thing.  No, I don't particularly like the guy, and if he did commit perjury he should be punished.  But once again, where was the grand jury when it became apparent that we had been lied to by our president?  When it came to light that there were no WMD's and that intelligence had been doctored to go to war?

Well, I'll attempt to tell you.  Probably paid off.  

Not directly paid off, paid off in the sense that war is generally profitable, and gathering enough evidence to prosecute the leader of the free world is probably expensive.

I recently watched the documentary "Why We Fight," and man was that an eye-opener.  I highly recommend it to everyone.  The movie basically says, follow the money.  Our rationale for going to war has a lot to do with how profitable it is.  Profitable?  Isn't this war costing a couple billion dollars a day?  The question is, profitable to whom?

Basically, the companies who lobby for the big defense contracts have gotten the politicians wrapped around their gold-laden fingers.  They make billions of dollars making bombs, airplanes, tanks, boots, armor, etc., and they give a lot of that money to both political parties and to individual politicians running for office.  Should these defense contractors stop making money, they would stop contributing. And because of the lack of restrictions on campaign financing, the withdrawal of these funds would be seen as devastating to both political parties and is to be avoided at all costs.  Therefore, it would appear, prosecuting someone for going to war would not be good business.

Where's the impartial jury, you may ask?  Doesn't exist, not at the grand jury level.  I checked out information about Grand Juries on the ABA's website, and it turns out volunteers who serve on grand juries are not screened for bias.  It would appear that you could hate Jews, blacks, lawyers, artists, whites, republicans, democrats or Barry Bonds and still be allowed to serve on a grand jury.

In that case, where are all the volunteers who want to prosecute President Bush?  Well, they don't get to choose the cases.  The case must be brought by a federal prosecutor.  And all the federal prosecutors who may have been willing to put together a case against the administration were purged by the former Attorney General, because the in-bed-with-big-business administration has been very careful to put its friends in high places.  Therefore, we have a witch hunt - rightfully or no - against Barry Bonds but not President Bush or Vice-President Cheney.

Democracy Inaction indeed.