There is so many awful newsworthy things happening throughout the world that this Tuesday’s Harper’s Weekly digest contains very few oddities to report:
“New research confirmed that smoking and obesity increase the risk of erectile dysfunction.[New York Times][Reuters] U.S. tax revenue was up.
“It was reported that Melinda Gates is more comfortable than her husband Bill when it comes to holding AIDS babies in Africa or talking to male prostitutes in India.[New York Times] The world’s oldest crow died in Bearsville, New York,[Associated Press] and astronomers observed what they said might be a strange glowing blob of dark matter sucking in gas.[New Scientist] …. .[Bloomberg] President Vladimir Putin of Russia explained that he had recently kissed a young boy on the stomach because he “wanted to stroke him like a cat.”.
The depressing news is that, according to the NY Times
“A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed “large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists” to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands, citing interviews with Defense Department investigators and reports and postings on racist Web sites and magazines.
“We’ve got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad,” the group quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying in a report to be posted today on its Web site, www.splcenter.org. “That’s a problem.”.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands, citing interviews with Defense Department investigators and reports and postings on racist Web sites and magazines.
“We’ve got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad,” the group quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying in a report to be posted today on its Web site, www.splcenter.org. “That’s a problem.”.
‘YA THINK??!!
Read the reports from the Southern Poverty Law Center here and here.
On this mountain home front, life is just as surreal, as mom wanders, babbling something that has the word “potato” in it. During lucid moments, she wants to help — cook, clean, all the things she knows how to do to keep busy. I can’t let her do anything because she’s a danger at the stove or with a knife, and she’s not supposed to bend down and everything she touches seems to wind up someplace else and then we can’t find it. She gets really mad at me, shouting that she hopes someone does to me someday what I’m doing to her. “I hope that someday my daughter will try to keep me safe and take care of me if I’m like you,” I say. “You don’t have a daughter,” she throws back at me as she stomps away.
I spent all day today making homemade chicken soup and trying to keep her calm. She just wouldn’t sit for more than five minutes; she paced and panted and cried and refused to lie down and rest. On top of that, I got up early today and colored my hair, which didn’t come out the color it should have. Feh. I’ll bet it’s the stupid minerals in the well water, which my sib says he runs through a softener. I think he needs a new one. FEH! (as my old Polish grandmother used to say.)
Am finding your blog to be most enlightening with news items I haven’t seen. Am especially appreciative of the post today, since clearly there are some pretty serious concerns about which I was not aware relative to military enlistments.
I knew standards had been lowered, but I hadn’t realized they had sunk to the level which they have. I’m sure the many honorable military men and women must be just as distressed as are we that this is happening to their profession lest they be tarred with the same brush.
We should all not only be very concerned, to put it mildly, we should all be seriously considering what we as individuals, and voters, can do to see that our government officials, military leaders correct this major danger to our military and us.
I haven’t paid much attention to the news for the past couple of months for personal reasons, but obviously need to begin to do more so now.
BTW have been reading you awhile, had some difficulty (my problem) getting signed up to comment here. Too bad that a few complicate matters requiring extra effort for those of us who are sincerely motivated to engage in legitimate friendly dialogue with bloggers and each other. All those who complicate matters do is make me more determined my voice will be heard.
Well, I’m glad you finally got registered and left a comment. I hated to have to make it so difficult, but the comment spam (mostly porn and drugs) was overwhelming.
Thanks for taking the time to make contact.
It’s truly amazing what the mainstream press either buries in the back pages or never reports on at all. I don’t pick up even a small fraction of it.