Sin in Cyprus

Here's an interesting title to a news story I just read:

Cyprus will pay dearly for its sins

You hardly see such a word in the press or the media anymore.  But this time the writer (or his editor) has hit the nail on the head:  Sin.

You learn so much every time there's a crisis:  History, geography, economic, social, and political forces, they all show up, playing a role in the current economic crisis gripping a part of the world, which heretofore may hardly have been on your radar screen.

What Paul Krugman terms The Sum of all FUBAR is occurring on a small island.  So for its beleaguered citizens there's currently no way out of there - unless they own a boat or plane or can muster the cash to purchase a ticket.  I feel for these people.  I'd hate to be trapped like that. 

But as for FUBAR, Krugman doesn't detail the half of it.  And it all boils down to that word "Sin" - and I mean sin.  It's a perfect example, and a lesson for us all, of how a society (or a person), blurring moral and ethical boundaries in one area, can find its effects spreading and spreading, till they're mired in the worst sort of muck.  And mired they are in Cyprus!

Based upon simple web searches last night, our household learned some very sad facts about Cyprus.  And it all begins, it would seem, in a business model, which is apparently now dead.  But as the old saying goes:  "When you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas."  So, it would seem that once you decide to cater to folks who want to launder money, avoid taxes, and heaven knows what else, you leave yourself prey to purveyors of human trafficking, prostitution, shady real estate deals (another bubble ready to break), and alliances with thugs, gangsters, and probably drug smugglers galore.  And it all started because a little island nation wanted to make a living off of unethical rich depositors.  Perfect example of a moral/ethical slippery slope...

Yes, as the article states, Cyprus will pay dearly for its sins.  And ironically this tiny island is also awash in religion.  Mosques and Orthodox churches (multiple cathedrals!) abound.  Indeed the country's own Orthodox Church owns a huge portion of its patrimony when it comes to land and wealth and real estate.  Not to speak of the Russian (Orthodox) community there now as well... 

A reckoning has come.  And let us hope that the crisis and its aftermath, which will be extremely, extremely painful for all involved, will somehow force people - even us - to examine the moral/ethical compromises which led a beautiful island, an educated society, to sell its soul.

Let us truly pray that we not be led into temptation....

[Also posted here.]

Employers "in loco parentis"

Long ago there was a debate:  To what extent were colleges in a parental role vis a vis their students?  Seems to me that pretty much got settled.  Grades are no longer sent to parents, but not students.  (Now it's the reverse.)  Smoking is allowed.  Drinking is allowed.  Cutting classes is allowed.  Students are no longer required to live on campus, nor monitored for how late they stay out at night.  Students are considered adults, responsible for their own behavior. 

But here we are again:  Employers in loco parentis!  Employers, indeed, claiming to take over a religious role for employees, claiming... do you believe it? ...  to take over the role of conscience for their employees.

All because some employers cannot abide that employees exercise their own consciences.  Exercise responsibility for their own private lives.  In one area only:  contraception.  (Which means controlling women's behavior, mind you.  For I've heard no uproar over limiting drugs like Viagra.)

Now, colleges, for example, still consider themselves responsible for the safety of students.  They can't just leave patches of ice in the parking lots.  They can't just let gun-toting murderers run rampant on campus.  So, with the exception of some very conservative religious institutions which require students to agree to adhere to a strict code of conduct, most colleges today are able to draw lines between the public and the private.  (They provide safety within the college environment.  And they allow wide latitude with regard to student's private lives, so long as their behavior does not endanger the safety of others.)

But some employers, claiming consciences which speak for all, claiming a kind of infallibility, based (it would appear) on a claim to extreme holiness - now assert a right to a parental role with regard to their employees.  With regard to their female employees.  With regard to their family planning or their medical care.  In effect they want to punish women for private decisions they make with their doctor, decisions which have nothing to do with the workplace.

The mind reels!

It seems to me that today the root of so many problems in our society relates to a lack of logic, bordering on insanity.  Think about it.  How of many of our problems relate to a desire (by some) to control the private lives of others?  Or a desire to punish others for private behavior?  Or a desire to relieve themselves of any responsibility for the welfare of others?

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, disability, food stamps - no one forces us to use them.  But they certainly should be available for those of us who need them or who qualify for them.  As should contraception - as a covered medical option.  With fairness and equity for all.

We don't exempt some employers from paying taxes to social welfare programs.  We don't exempt some from laws requiring worker safety, hours worked, or the minimum wage.  So why is medical care different?

So why meddle in the medical?

Employers, is it so difficult for the professedly holy among you to understand?  Is it so difficult to accept that free will is a gift from God?

Honestly, I'm tired of the insanity!

Republican Inquisitors

The Hegel hearing – on the republican side – was little more than an inquisition. Watch John McCain again. Note how well he must have learned from his North Vietnamese interrogators. What a bully!

Now the question is: How exactly does the GOP expect to get across to the nation its new warm and fuzzy (immigrant-loving) PR image? When its own sales-people come off as mean and nasty interrogators? Gun-loving, mean and nasty interrogators.

If I were a person fleeing tyranny or poverty for freedom, would I instinctively prefer mean and nasty? 

Yes, the GOP sure does have a demographic problem. Also a personality problem.

Violence Against Women - Knows no Borders

RIP:  Two innocent women, tragically dying this week.

I.

Christmas Eve, our town

Lost a cop, shot on duty

By her war vet spouse.

II.

Lingering two weeks,

After gang rape unspeakable,

India riots – too late.

Tragedies like these. Too many of them!

An Easy PR Campaign Against Guns

GAG:  Grannies Against Guns!

Already some coaches are speaking out about banning weapons.   One more sign that gun-toting is no longer considered mainstream.  The polls are saying the same thing.

If these coaches get their colleagues to step up to the plate, saying things like "Gun toting is not macho!  If you want macho, come to one of our daily work-outs for the team!"  If prominent sports figures contest the assertion that military style rifles are sporting rifles, and make it clear that only a coward seeks to mow down civilians (or buy a gun that can do that)....  If creative public service ads are made and shown during football games or basketball games, showing prominent sports heroes shunning guns or turning them in...

We could easily build upon the swelling grass-roots outrage and calls to ban assault weapons and large ammunition clips, to get people to turn in their guns.

You could even station law enforcement officials at tail-gate events, where unloaded guns are turned in by citizens.  With bounties paid for doing that.  Or free or low-price tickets to future events.

There are so many ways we could easily make this happen.  People who make ads could volunteer their time and creativity.  IT folks could make web cartoons.  Ordinary people could get in the act and post home-made videos.

A single grain of wheat, if planted, yields many seeds.  Or that grain, along with others, can make a substance we call bread.  We need grain planters.  We need bread bakers.  We need folks willing to be that single seed - in whatever form they can manage.

The rude pundit has stepped up to the plate!  With a series.  There's profanity, but such is called for.  In America.  Today.  Welcome, fellow grain of wheat!

Disentangling Guns and Mental Health

Where to begin?

#1. Violence cannot be predicted. Even a “mental health evaluation” prior to buying, using, acquiring, even borrowing a gun could not assure. Unless such a person indicates in a clear and convincing way that they intend immanently to harm a person or persons or an identifiable property, there is no way to predict violence other than self-report. That would include violence against themselves, of course. Don't believe me? Go and read the extensive literature on the prediction of violence: In the absence of a specific threat, there is no way that violence can be predicted. No matter how mentally ill, deranged, or criminally inclined the person may be. (Mental illness is no predictor!)

#2. Mental health professionals, in the course of their normal work, are legally obligated to protect confidentiality. Why? Well, in addition to the right to privacy guaranteed patients by the Constitution, psychotherapy simply cannot be conducted except under the most confidential circumstances. Trust is vital for a psychotherapy relationship. If you imagine, as gun adherents would like you to believe, that the mental health system should function like a system of parole officers, complete with surveillance capability, then you have swallowed a “red herring” argument. Don't be fooled!

#3. Mental health services, especially services for the severely mentally ill, are sorely in need of expansion and improvement in this country. But that is a separate issue, totally apart from the crying need to regulate and decrease gun purchases, ownership, and use in this country – which is a job for law enforcement and legislators, not mental health professionals.

#4. Any proposed evaluation of persons for the use or possession of firearms should be conducted ONLY by trained law enforcement individuals, for example police psychologists or other trained law enforcement investigators. This would shield mental health professionals from being put in the position of signing affidavits or applications related to firearms. (This is not their job!) It would also put gun owners, purchasers, or users on notice that the police will have their name on file, that the desire to exercise second amendment rights, at the very least, has some connection with a well regulated militia (as stated in the Constitution).

Pie in the sky? Frankly, I don't care. For it's high time the real issues were addressed. Frankly. And goodness, if the military can account for every rifle issued, and can revoke that rifle if a service person shows signs of misusing it, then we as a society have the right to know that our local police department, sheriff's office, local FBI (you name it) knows the whereabouts of every firearm in the vicinity and has a record of everyone who proposes to use a gun in that vicinity or elsewhere. This is only common sense!

#5. You want to get some revenue? Then include a cost for all this. It costs $465 to file for a green card now or to make use of the new presidential order allowing young residential aliens to have an immunity period. Assess a similar cost and use a similar lengthy process when it comes to firearms. Yearly renewal license fees would yield additional revenue. And very high penalties, monetary and legal,should accompany falsification of documents or illegal retention (or use) of firearms, etc. With strong enforcement of those penalties.  Oh, and let's not forget the limitation of ammunition and the fee to purchase that as well.

It goes without saying that any type of assault weapon, any type of large magazine, would be banned across the board.

Make this process costly. Make it onerous. Provide monetary incentives for those who turn in weapons rather than pay the costly fees every year. I suspect it would ultimately decrease weapons in circulation.  (In our state it now costs $75 for yearly car registration.  How many folks could afford to spend that on multiple weapons?  That alone should reduce the number of unnecessary arsenals.)

Maybe another time I'll design a good mental health system...

SPORTS rifles! And the WAR on Logic

It was during the previous president's administration that I first took notice of the war on logic.  I didn't have a blog then.  But I wrote about it.  I'm talking, of course, of the Orwellian language the right uses so often.  (They must have whole teams of people sitting around developing new terms, as the need arises!)  To confuse the populace...

A tiny divergence:  As a young child I read and reread Animal Farm many times.  Among other influences I think it turned me into a leftist in righty household.  It fitted so perfectly with the parochial school teaching as well!  Ah.... the insidious nature of religious training - which outwits even the hierarchs sitting in Rome.  (I think the book was included in a set of children's literature that came along with the Encylopedia:  Subversive influences, unbeknownst to them - Robin Hood and A Tale of Two Cities and others like The Prince and the Pauper and Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn. Also Uncle Tom's Cabin?)  Boy, did I get an education from those surreptitiously "smuggled-in" books.

But I digress...

I learned this morning that killing-machines - assault weapons - are actually "sold" as Sports rifles.  Together with the tactical reality "world" which these freedom-loving "folks" are encouraged to imagine they live in.  It's important, apparently, for us now to "get to know" this alternate reality - a world of Paranoia in which killing is sport.  Well... they wouldn't agree with that conclusion, but indeed, when you translate the language:  sports = assault = killing.  There's no getting around it!

The sad deaths of so many tiny children... taking us to so many unexpected dark alleys.  This is becoming like a Hydra - where hideous heads blossom each time we think we've nailed a new and horrible fact that's come to light.  And it's worth returning to Greek mythology, given that Cerberus Capitol (owner/maker of the so aptly named Bushmaster, apocalyptic killing machine - sold for "sport") has now concluded that being the Top Gun maker has some liabilities attached to it...

Tiny liabilities, whose names, tolled one by one... in funerals and on black-bannered TV screens will never leave us.  Ever.

Watch out for the WAR on logic!  You can see it in the fights over taxes.  The fights over a so-called fiscal cliff.   And now, of course, particularly in this "joined battle" over killing-guns... ugh ... sports rifles.

Watch out for alternate realities!  Where global weirding never comes.  Where guns (not people!) do the killing.  Or if people do it, they're deranged ... so it's simply a mental health problem, not a gun problem. 

Watch out for the word "Freedom"!  Cerberus Capital calls its gun division "Freedom."  Supposedly more and more guns - even in the hands of teachers - would guarantee children their freedom.  Or else the little ones can be trained to defend their freedom via rushing a sportsman taking target practice - using them.

My Heart is Walking Around

President Obama gave the address of his life last night. Part speech, part sermon, part call to arms – if by arms we mean reaching out with love.

As he spoke I could see the “case” he was building. Slowly... Gently... A trail of love from one's own children to all the children. From one's own personal love for a baby to care and responsibility for one another. For the children's sake. Those who are now lost but whose tragic deaths must remain a beacon of light – showing the way. Those alive and growing. Those yet to be born. And the child in all of us.

It seems to me the president has not only found his voice but has sketched out a unifying theme for his second term. A theme which touches on every piece of important legislation facing us as a nation.

It is time to put away tools of violence. Be they metal or verbal. Time to turn our hearts to healing. Time to care for all God's children. Here. There. Everywhere.

In old age – I think I'm now qualified to know – it's so easy to resume the timelessness of childhood. Spending a day with a two year old, for example. Living in the now. A state you could call enlightenment having been granted along with increasing years.

So engrossed in the “now” was I on Friday that I knew nothing of the tragedy. Until my beloved little one had been collected by his mother. Wearing his new socks and shoes that had just been delivered to my door that day. Oh, yes, he is not mine – but my heart is walking around in him. My heart will be warm - in the snowsuit and mittens that came the day before.

Somewhere I read that “clothing” someone – in biblical terms – means “encircling with love.”

That's what Obama is talking about:  As a society we must reach out and encircle with love.

More Magic Monster Mitt ~ Verses

Here are some more verse starters.  Tune of Puff the Magic Dragon:

Mitt the Snake Oil Salesman lives by the sea
An elevator for his cars, false promises for thee.
Mitt the craven card shark, woe to those he plays
He's out to hoodwink everyone, beware his sleazy ways.

Mitt the slick tongued gov'ner wants the presidency
He'll do and say whatever works, he thinks he's free to be
A shape-shifter, a charlatan, a Willard Weasel he...
Show him the door or you'll be poor, so listen close to me.

Mitt the Bain of Monsters lives by thievery
He's stealing from the IRS and that means you and me!
He won't reveal his taxes ~ although he wants your vote.
His IRA and hidden wealth are more than he will quote!

Mitt the Carney Barker lives by the sea
The closer to his offshore funds
And offshore jobs to see.

Take care, beware, or lest you dare...
He'll rob your vote
And then devote
To the 1%, trust me!

Mitt the phony prophet abides by the sea
He's preached a gospel of let's share ~ while lying through his teeth.
He doesn't walk on water.  Let's sink him like a rock.
When he says trust, think trust-fund stock...

Or he'll take all our money ~ to give it to his sons.
Beware his sneaky words and deeds
He's more than poking funs!

Mitt the Magic Monster: A trial verse

Sung to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon" - See post below for more ideas.

Mitt the Magic Monster lived by the sea.
He fleeced old ladies Medicare till they lived in misery!
He told them he'd take care of them.  He promised cake and tea.
But when they opened up their plan, it had nothing there, you see!  

Mitt the Magic Monster, craven, weaselly...
Lying, thieving and deceiving
Nothing more is he!