There is a blog titled Gaza Dreaming. The author is a supposed Dr. Mary. I visited it the other day and left a comment. No response. I put the blog in my favorites list. Give it a click and see what they are talking about.

Well Mary,
Since you have posted another blog while failing to respond to my last comment, I’ll assume you have no intentions other than writing your point of view. In America you are free to do so. Isn’t America a great place? Isn’t it a warm fuzzy? You can preach Jihad all day long with no fear that the Christians or Jews or atheists will come to blow you up.

Whenever people discuss, or in your case refuse to discuss, ideology they have plenty of statistics to support their points. That a cease-fire in the Middle East has been broken certainly is not news. How many does that make these past 60 years? Too numerous to count, eh?

On televison around the world we see Hezbollah marching in their uniforms and looking fierce and determined. Flying through the air and doing all sorts of things to instill fear into us all. Then trouble starts (by whom is irrelevant) and where is this army? Why has Hezbollah failed to show up at the battle ground?

Doesn't a Jihad require attendance? Is the Islamic Jihad a holy war or a holy hide-and-seek? I have no idea if Hezbollah uses women and children as shields and it doesn’t matter to me. The point is they run and hide. If they believe in their cause why do they not stand up and be proud? Why do they choose the shadows?

You are incorrect about this being a Christian country. Many residents of the United States do not accept Jesus, many do. Many proud Americans also accept Muhammed. Many proud Americans accept neither. But the vast majority accept God, whether named God or Jehovah or Allah. This country was founded as one nation under God, not Christ.

The God of my Bible wants me to share everlasting happiness with Him in heaven. He asks that accomplish that by being kind to others. The God of the Torah seems to want the same thing. The God of the Koran seems to want the same thing as well. But somewhere along the way the God of the Koran has become perverted and many Mullahs preach and endorse this perversion. Fortunately for all freedom loving people on the planet, most all Mullahs are as disgusted as I at this perversion.

The God of the Koran has upped the ante. The God of the Koran wants blood atonement. And not just killing Jews. Kill anybody, just kill. The God of the Koran says kill each other if you want to, just kill. How else can be explained the Sunni and Shi’ite killing each other? Aren’t they in the same church, different pew, so to speak?

You ask who are the terrorists. That depends on perspective. When the United States dropped their bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Japanese must have seen the US as terrorists. In the American Revolution I would imagine England saw the colonists as terrorists. In the American Civil War both sides saw each other as terrorists.

Within the current conflict in Lebanon both sides also see each other as terrorists. If a woman is raped in Italy isn’t the rapist a terrorist, to her? If a house is burglarized in Hong Kong isn’t the burglar a terrorist in the eyes of the homeowner? If a grocery in Finland is robbed isn't the robber a terrorist in the eyes of the grocery clerk? It doesn’t matter who the terrorists are, what matters is the terror.

You refer to our current president as great and fearless. Not in my mind. He’s insecure and unsure of himself. He frequently puts his finger into the air to see which way the wind is blowing. His decision to allow Israel to keep fighting is not my decision. I would wager you that the decision is against the beliefs of most American citizens. The whole notion goes against their God.

But we are not the President and no one much cares what the majority believes or chooses anymore. That’s a cold hard fact we all face everyday. We feed, clothe, shelter and provide medical care for illegal aliens in this country. We provide better care for illegal aliens than we do for our own countrymen. I don't like it but we do it. It isn't my decision. This country may have been founded on a principal of democracy but it has never come to fruition. As the years go by we drift further from, rather than closer to, it.

You talked about the suffering of innocents in Lebanon. Gosh, Mary, I talk of it too. It is deplorable and inexcusable. Missiles into Lebanon: inexcusable! Missiles into Israel: inexcusable. Don’t you think that Israeli mothers mourn the loss of a child every bit as much as Muslim mothers do?

Is the heartache any less because they are damned Jews? Is the heartache any less because they are damned Muslims. Was the heartache any less because they were damned Japs? Or damned Poles? Or damned Vietnamese? Or damned Bosnians?

Before Hezbollah blew down the Marine barracks in Beirut did they sit around and consider the husbands, wives and children of their soon to be victims? Do you think they did Mary? Do you believe that six months before 9/11 those 20 hijackers sat around and talked about the fathers and mothers and children they wanted to kill? Of the deplorable carnage?

Are you wanting me to accept the idea that while the planes were in flight the hijackers, even for a minute, thought about the women and children on the planes that had no desire to meet the Maker of the Universe that day? Is that the theology you want me to accept, Mary? Is that the God of the Koran?

You went on to say that you are a mother. Would you support your child if he or she chose the path of a suicide bomber? Would you encourage your child to strap on an explosive laden vest and walk into an open air market and blow themselves up along with as many others as would be unfortunate enough to have been in the area. With not so much as a passing thought as to young or old, rich or poor, Christian or Jew or Muslim? With no more directive than to just go kill?

With no consideration other than gaining eternal salvation for themselves and a few moments notoriety amongst his or her fellow Jihadists? Would you Mary? Your child? You cannot answer yes can you? Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Qaeda are all great and wonderful movements as long as it’s someone else’s child.

You closed your post by saying that revenge will come in it’s time. That’s the motive? This Islamic Jihad is all about revenge? I can’t imagine a more tragic and shallow motive. Nothing has ever been achieved when the only motive was revenge. Absolutely, positively, unequivocably nothing.

The God of the Bible says that “vengeance is mine”. The God of the Torah says “vengeance is mine” What does the God of the Koran say about vengeance, Mary? What does Allah say about revenge?

I love television. I was born before television was a common fixture. I remember evenings listening to the radio but when television came along... .

Over the years I have become a sophisticated and highly selective viewer. The list of programs I have not watched over the past thirty years would make your jaw drop. It all seemed trite and repetitive. From “Hill Street Blues” through “St. Elsewhere” to the current reality (?) shows to “American Idol”; never once have I watched and never once have I missed anything.

When cable came into being I tuned in to A&E a lot. There was always something interesting. No more! As ridiculous as commercial television has become, A&E has risen to even greater heights. They figured they could attract a large viewing audience by putting together an hour program about people getting a tattoo, a genre once reserved for drunken sailors on furlough in Okinawa. Week after week. How interesting and informative can that be? OR, how out of touch can I be?

Next up on A&E was a program about “Growing Up Gotti”. I have only seen the trailers and it looks as if it’s about some undisciplined smart-ass kids and a harangued mother, or would that be Godmother. If you have seen that program perhaps you could enlighten me. Are they talking about the John Gotti I have heard of? The mobster? The guy that finally died in prison after gunning down every person who double-crossed his path? That Gotti? Is the program all about growing up surrounded with all the luxuries and nonchalance blood money can buy? If so, am I the only person to find that disgusting?

Now comes another A&E trailer for more time well spent in the company of Ozzie Osbourne! Does anyone have an idea as to what’s going on at A&E? Do people really want to see such things? Makes me want to tell A&E to KISS off, so to speak. To borrow a phrase made popular by an NFL coach; “What the hell is going on over there”?

But the mind-boggling isn’t the sole property of A&E. Each evening you can tune into MSNBC and spend an hour inside this or that prison! Let’s gather the kids, pop some corn and settle in to an evening of life inside Soledad followed by Pelican Bay followed by Angola. Maybe one day the Prize Puzzle will be an all expenses paid week in San Quentin, hobnobbing with their elite. Geez, how much popcorn do we have?

For a little background information we can watch endless hours of documentaries explaining how the rapists, child molesters, thieves and murderers got there in the first place. Even further information can be gleaned by watching programs about how a bunch of cops nabbed the convicts with only a speck of paint as evidence.

What is this apparent infatuation with the dark side? More importantly, why? How far away are we, as a society, from televising executions? From the way things are going; not far. But television has a way of brining us back from the imagined life of a convict to the real world in which we live. The commercial.

Here’s one I particularly like. American Express shows us this man and his soon-to-be-wife buying an engagement ring. The saleslady has just informed Mr. Right that his credit card is over the limit. Mrs. Right has the solution. Get another credit card!! One with no limit! Mr. Right is already living a champagne life on a beer budget and Mrs. Right suggests spending more. What’s wrong with that picture, or is it just me?

Here’s another one. Eharmony flashes pictures of all these happy couples that met on their pay-for-play website. Their founder comes on and tells us how they explore the deepest realms of personalities. That’s followed by this guy who says that as soon as he and the woman standing next to him got into the cab she planted a big sloppy one on him. Is that romantic or what? He goes on to ask if he should limit his commercial time to talking about the sloppy kiss giver or about all the women he’s met on Eharmony. As a matter of fact, he is so taken with sloppy kiss giver that he forgot what he was searching for when he first signed up.

Next up a man who says that thanks to Eharmony he met a woman that will let him watch Monday night football. Damn that Eharmony goes deep. Pretty soon Eharmony will be sporting a man who found the woman of his dreams, i.e. one who will let him watch prison shows.

All of this rubbish on television gives me one major headache. It makes me want to take a giant glue stick and apply it directly to my forehead. As they say in cyberspace: ROFLMAO.

I’ve been in a deep funk these past few months. Maybe this has happened to you. I have had absolutely no desire to go near the computer. I think a lot about stuff to write about on this blog but never seem to muster enough desire to actually do it.

When I started I wrote about the inconsistencies of the patriarch of Faux News, comedian Bill O’Reilly. I tried my best to keep up but the absurdity became overwhelming. I found myself asking some deep philosophical questions. Does anyone really buy into that crap? Are there people who actually form their opinions based on what he opines? Are there people who actually wear a no-spin T-shirt? In public? Are there people that believe no-spin means no-spin?

I read a blog post today that touched on global warming and it opened up another can of worms for me. It was the blood-curdling notion that there may be those who form their entire view of the world based solely upon what they hear and see on Faux News. How scary is that? The last thing you will ever hear on Faux news is anything about global warming.

The person who wrote the blog will, in all likelihood, read this posting as well. Let me make it clear that the person is not in lockstep with Faux News. The writer gets his points of view from many sources. It just happens that his post got me to thinking.

So who are the players in that conservative Stinktank? Well there’s their leader, Billy, followed by an endless parade all marching trunk-to-tail and chanting mantras to the likes of Rupert Murdoch. There’s Neil Cavuto, a shameless money grabber who spends most of his time as an apologist for the administration and their oily robber barons. The peanut parade continues with illuminaries such as Ollie North, Robert Novak and Newt Gingrich. All of these notorious for playing loose and easy with the truth.

Faux loves Ollie so much they gave him his own show, War Stories. Hey, Ollie, how about doing an hour on the Iran-Contra business? The title could be “Gunrunners: The astonishing coincidence of the hostages being released at the very moment Ronald Reagan was sworn in. Geez, we had no idea they hated Jimmy Carter so much”

How about an hour on the comings and goings of Mr. Novak? Let’s see...hmmm...how about this for a title: “Robert Novak: When I said that what I meant was that this is what I meant to say because if I said that it would have been construed as saying this which isn’t what I said when I was talking about this, or that, or whatever. Just buy my book.”

Follow that with an hour on Newt. That’s an easy title. “Mr. Speaker: Sweaty palms to greasy palms. What a long, strange trip it’s been.”

You people that ingest Faux consider this. Bill O’Reilly talks like he hates sex offenders but settled out of court in a sexual harassment suit of his own. Bill O’Reilly accuses others of hiding under their desks while, during the conscription years, he hid under his. Bill sings the praises of the troops and their being heros but when it was his time he didn’t want to BE a troop. He didn’t want to BE a hero. How hypocritical is that?

Back in the day there was a Woody Guthrie song about phonies like O’Reilly and here’s how it went. (CORRECTION: A fellow blogger "Fuzzy" has been kind enough to point out the name of the tune below. It is "Draft Dodger Rag" by Phil Ochs. I appreciate the accuracy)

“I’m just a regular American guy from a regular American town.
I believe in God and Senator Dodd and putting ol’ Castro down.
But when it came my time to serve I thought better red than dead.
So when I got down to the draft board, here’s what I said.

Sarge, I’m only 18, I got a ruptured spleen and I always carry a purse.
I got eyes like a bat and my feet are flat and my asthma's getting worse.
Think of my career and my sweetheart dear and my poor old invalid aunt.
Besides I ain’t no fool, I’m going to school and I’m working in a defense plant.

I hate Chow En Lai, I think he ought to die but Sarge you got to see.
Someone’s got to go over there and that someone sure ain’t me.
So I wish you well, Sarge, give ‘em hell, kill me a thousand or so.
And if you ever get a war without blood and gore, well I’ll be the first to go.”

Time now for the most ridiculous item of the day: the above sentiments also apply to Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, the majority of Congress and 95% of the saber rattling talking heads Faux selects to spoon feed you.

On the afternoon of April Fool’s Day our telephone rang. On the other end was a physician in Michigan who told me that my mother-in-law was hospitalized and in not too good a shape. Through Orbitz we were able to secure passage (at a profane cost) and a rental car. Next morning we flew from Portland to Detroit then drove to the little town some 200 miles to the north.

The doctor told us that a cancer near her gall bladder had spread to, and invaded, her liver. There was little could be done and at 89 years old she really didn’t want much done. Mom was awake, alert and oriented. She was well aware of her predicament and wished only to go home to die. Home was a small farmhouse some 15 miles outside of the little town.

Before she was discharged the Home Health folks came by and wanted to set up a schedule whereby they would come around her house every other day and tend to her needs. She assured them and us that two years ago she had enrolled in an insurance policy that would take care of those sorts of things. Home Health would not be necessary. We bundled her into the rental car and headed for home.

She wanted to ride shotgun and asked me to drive slowly. She held her arm out of the window all the way, the crisp Michigan air nipping at her hand and arm, her face filled with happiness, resignation and solace. Her eyes darted from side to side as she took in every view of landscape and building. It was her last look. She knew it and we knew it, but it was never mentioned.

Settled in the unkempt house, we went about the business of contacting the insurance company. Undoubtedly mom never once read the fine print and undoubtedly she was never told that her $32.00/month policy didn’t kick in until she had been bedridden for 90 days. That another elderly person had been taken advantage of kept us fuming most of the evening. The next morning we contacted Home Health and set up a visiting schedule of Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Over the next few days mom, enthroned in her death bed, directed her daughter to this picture or that doily. In time the day of our return flight arrived. The evening before we had decided that I would stay with mom in Michigan and my wife would come back to Oregon. We were both RNs but we played our lives a little differently. I had done my twenty years and retired from the State. She had a couple years to go. I was working part-time for a friend of ours and in a telephone conversation he encouraged me to stay in Michigan as long as needed.

I’ve always loved my mother-in-law. After her husband died we took her along on cruises to the Carribean and Alaska. She came to visit in Oregon every year until health issues got in the way. That morning my wife and her mother spent their last hour together. She drove the rental car back to Detroit, stopping in Ann Arbor to ship the two boxes of pictures, doilies and whatnot, and flew home. The airline would not refund any portion of my ticket in spite of the circumstances.

Mom’s only fear was pain. She had kept it under control with Ibuprofen but within a few days the pain became unmanageable. I talked to her doctor and he sent out the folks from Hospice. They initiated a morphine clysis and a few hours later she was comfortable.

I spent my days preparing meals she never ate and fooling around with the rabbit ears on her old television. She only received two channels, NBC and CBS. The reception drifted between snow and flurries. There was no cable in her house and no computer. She had one of those old 60's style credenza stereos which picked up a couple of country stations but the turntable still worked. Her small collection of records included Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Edith Piaf, Rosemary Clooney and Tommy Dorsey. Her newest album was The Kingston Trio Live at the Hungry I.

During the hour when the Home Health nurses aides were there I would drive moms’ car to town and pick up a few provisions. I stopped by the library and asked about using their internet connections. I was unable to without proper identification which included a Michigan driver’s license. So much for that. My wife called daily and I thought about asking her to put some sort of note on Blogstream but her computer literacy begins with Start and ends with spider solitaire. So much for that.

Days became weeks and April became May. Mom slept at long intervals and became increasingly irritated that she kept waking up. She reduced her already limited intake to ice chips and prayed aloud for an end to it all. I kept lotion on her arms and legs and kept her bottom clean and dry. By the middle of the month she gave up the ghost and lapsed into a coma. I missed the middle-of-the-night talks we had and the family secrets she shared. I still talked to her as I turned her side to side and maybe she heard. The day before Memorial Day her body finally quit.

On July 24, 1974, a drifting serial killer crossed my widowed mother’s path in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The taking of her life denied me the opportunity to love and care for her in her final days. For 32 years I carried that pain, that resentment, that anger, that hatred. I hope my mother knows how much I loved her. I was too young and too busy and too self-consumed to tell her as often as I should have. I hope my mother-in-law knows of the major contribution she had in my life at the end of hers. I have been blessed and such is the poetry of life.
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may I take this opportunity to thank you all for the many private messages I received during my unexpected absence. I was truly overwhelmed and humbled.

Americans. It’s happened again. A woman has misbehaved and admitted to the misbehavior. At the risk of sounding apocalyptic I must say there seems to be a lot of that going around. There’s also a lot of mystery going around about just why she would have done such a thing. The cops know but they ain’t sayin’. One thing for certain is that a dead man cannot defend himself and a living person could say almost anything, especially with their gentle, soft, supple, tear streaked neck on the line.

Televisions’ talking heads are anxious to know the motive so as to get about the business of adjudication. They’ve already started. I was watching FOX and talkinghead Martha was taking us through the preliminary hearing. In a somber, sympathetic tone, talkinghead Martha described the unfortunate soul as “having to shuffle because her ankles were shackled”. The misunderstood desperate housewife appeared with “...the innocence of a 14 year old”. Later that day other talkingheads referred to the defendant as “seeming to stare 1000 yards away”. Oh they’re at it again alright. By this evening the talkingheads will likely go about presenting their defense of the minister’s wife. A man has been shot twice in the back. Shot dead, in the back. In his own home, in the back. Motive shmotive. What could the defense be?

Well for openers that admission of guilt to the police in Alabama was just kidding. Defense lawyers don’t get rich off clients admitting their guilt so toss that out. The victim pleaded not guilty to the crime of shooting a person dead, in the back. They had it coming and, given a few days to consider and reconsider, any defense lawyer worth his or her $alt will prove the bastard needed killing.

The bad guy in all this lay dead, defenseless and speechless. He was a fourth generation minister leading a congregation of rigid fundamentalists. Perhaps the stressors of having to live up to his expectations were too much for the Mrs. and she simply snapped in some momentary lapse of reason. The 'just snapped' continuum let go it’s hold 400 miles later. Reminds me of another lady that snapped in a momentary lapse of reason that lasted much longer. The ‘runaway bride’ is the poster child for the “it’s all about me” crowd and that defense worked great for her. What was it now, five hours of community service?

Living in a parsonage, perhaps God showed up and told her to do it. Well that coupled with a few too many television shows. That defense has held up well for Andrea Yates and appears to be working still. Moreover, Andrea could take advantage of a new syndrome affecting women nationwide, post partal disorder. She had these children and as a result was liable to do most anything with complete justification, sympathy, understanding and forgiveness. She didn’t need a trial, all she needed was a good old group hug.

Many people in this country believe that sweet Andrea would not have done what she did except her husband was such an ass. Remember? There was a full fledged campaign to show how nasty he was and that it was he at the root of the killings. The kids are all dead but her prognosis is brightens day by day. In a state as execution happy as Texas what do you suppose would have been the fate of Mr. Yates had he done the killing?

As a contrast, consider this Entwistle guy up in Massachusetts. You know, the guy that killed his wife and child then fled to England. Have any of you heard a good word about him. Anybody? Anything? Has anyone heard what an ass his wife was? Has anybody even suggested that she needed killing?

Even as we speak defense lawyers are combing through every inch of the dead minister’s life. They are determined to find some shred that will support his deserving to be killed, shot twice, in the back.