"closed circuit feedback"

Some years ago I encountered the phrase "closed circuit feedback"
which resurfaced in my consciousness. It sounded like data
recirculating without any new input, a metaphor for monotony or
boredom or dead end reasoning when one refuses to intergrate new data;
same info, same result. I went to the computer and Googled it, out of
curiosity and was confronted with a rash of technical jargon, mathematical
formulae and circuit diagram; I quickly hit the cancel button, wondering if I
needed a security clearance to proceed further. Then again, forget it,
beyond my pay grade and competence. Neat phrase though.



Advice to the aged

Do not go down that lonely road
without saying Thank You
to those who helped.
Apoligize to those you hurt,
and I love you to those you love,
take nothing for granted.

There’s No Place like Home

In the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy finds her way home by
clicking her heels (encased in the magic slippers) three times while
repeating “There’s no place like home.”  Easy for Dorothy.

Lately thoughts of home, a place by that name have come to mind,
provoking some introspection. Perhaps for me there is no such place.
For those of us born and raised in the age of the “atomic family,”
Mama, Papa, and the kids, the concept of a home place has become an
abstraction. Robert Frost once observed, home is where they have to
let you in, or something to that effect. On the other hand, Thomas
Wolfe in “You can’t go home again” places the blame on the passage of
time.  But in our century, people constantly on the move, rarely
staying in one town, let alone one house for more than a few years at
a time, there is no longer such a place.

Whether driven by nostalgia, wistfulness, loneliness or just the pull
of remembrances, I have often drifted in my reverie to examine my
memories of places I have lived, to determine if perhaps one of them
might satisfy the need for a home.

With limited mobility I have used Google Maps to examine some of the
places, some of them unrecognizable, some obliterated ,some still standing
but much changed, so much changed that memory cannot find a place
to stand.  Even when they look the same, too many coats of paint have
covered the patina of the past,but still I persist.

 I think that if such a place were to exist, a repository for dreams,
hopes, disappointments and memories it would be a good thing, a place
to visit, to renew feelings. Surely memory itself is such a place, but
it lacks a certain substance, one cannot touch or feel a memory,
examine and relive it to an extent, sure- but in essence its
insubstantiality is part of its allure.

So to paraphrase Dorothy’s Wizard, there is no place to call home; not
any longer, no physical refuge to run to and feel safe, protected from
the emotional onslaught of time and reality, those who take away
dreams of what was and what might have been and substitute a hollow
disappointment.  But for the rest of us, sans magic slippers memory
will have to serve. Like Simon and Garfunkel’s song – “preserve your
memories, they’re all that’s left you.”

Expletive Deleted and other foreclosed terms

With the passing of George Carlin and his list of seven words you’re not allowed to say, there seems to be no advocate in favor of “salty, slang-communications, words tinged with nuance and innuendo to add spice, a linguistic condiment to communications. Well, I might as well volunteer.

Some years ago a judge admonished me for saying “Hell” several times in the context of a closing argument which I had added to my speech for the purpose of emphasis, chiding me that he would not tolerate such language in “his” courtroom. Passing on the issue of whose courtroom it was I was dumbfounded at this response. This judge, who obviously thought him self a prince of virtue for this act was a corrupt, for sale, always favoring the local boys, the “Bubbas” in anything resembling a close call so as to enhance his re-elect ability saw himself as the guardian of the sanctity of the spoken word. Now I had a list of eight words one couldn’t utter. It set me thinking.

I have been coming to terms with the use of a term current, the “N” word; used to substitute a derogatory reference to people of African descent, a reference now only permissible when mouthed by black comics or “rappers.” Just how this exceptional license was developed remains unclear.

Similarly we now have something called the “F” word, a similar codification of a term used to describe an act of fornication as a disparaging term in a variety of contexts. I thought, briefly of designing a special symbol for these terms, not unlike the one devised by “ the artist formerly known as Prince,” his own personal logo. But no, the world is too impatient for such nonsense. Nevertheless terms henceforth proscribed shall include all things scatological, reference to excrement (in any language) references to sexuality, body parts associated with sexuality, elimination, mammilla, racial classification, countries of origin or any references which might tend to suggest or give offense.

What is lost in all of this sanitizing of speech is that coloration, nuance, spice is deleted from communication, we might as well be texting and with a reduced alphabet at that.

Flower and the garage door closer

Recently our super cat, Flower, discovered that if she ran into the garage while the door was descending it would stop and the overhead light would begin to flash. Rather than puzzle over the source of this new found magic, Flower began to check, to see if this result was constant, whether it could be included in her mojo, the mystique of Flower-power. Accordingly, she took every opportunity to run into the garage after someone started the door descending, compiling a body of data to reinforce her belief that a new power had been added t her mojo, the ability to stop the garage door from closing by merely introducing her magical presence. Now, however we have to wait until the door has fully closed to be sure that Flower is not lurking in the shadows, waiting to exercise her newly discovered magic.

Biography of a Blowhard

After reading Eric Veltri’s piece on Pat Buchanan, I felt compelled to
add a few, not so gentle comments about that good gentleman.
Currently Buchanan is the poster boy for the quiet conservatives, the
person posing as the pundit who always come down on the side of the
political right. My dictionary describes a pundit as a person of great
learning, yet nowadays anyone with a megaphone or a column seems to
qualify. As to a megaphone (read loudmouth,) his is built in, the
column a frequent, painful, misguided diatribe with distorted history
and unsubstantiated opinions.

Buchanan started his career as president of a group of right wing
students, calling themselves Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) an
early forerunner of the current group of sophomores of a similar
name now worshiping at the feet of Ann Coulter.

Although Pat’s only schooling was in journalism he advanced himself as
a self-proclaimed expert on things political as early as his first
shave. Never one to hang back from shooting his mouth off was spotted
by the Nixon gang as potentially useful with the young republicans.
Youthful stalking horse who now remembers his role as “senior
advisor to the candidate.” Thereafter as a speechwriter he produced in house
“red meat” to satisfy the “base.” He remained a Nixon apologist after the
Watergate and Nixon’s resignation, unwilling to face the fact that his hero’s
corrupt administration damaged the country. From speech writer to pundit in
one easy step. From an overweening ego
this blowhard had the arrogance to offer himself as a presidential
candidate, and now an expert on anything you may wish to name, be it
military tactics, foreign affairs, politics or the human
experience, despite the fact that he has never seen military service,
held elected office nor served in any significant capacity save dispenser
of propaganda, a legal expert without any legal training.

Our history is replete with such “pied pipers” the blind leading the
blind, refusing to admit that the emperor’s new clothes are bogus. My
own distress is that Buchanan enjoys a syndicated column, a
vehicle for spewing his half baked opinions as if he is knowledgeable,
not merely one who has hung around for so long we have forgotten how
little he knows. An original dunderhead. Small wonder the populous
is so ill informed.

Most recently, Buchanan participated in a debate , “Intelligence Squared” in
London on Sept. 9, arguing that Winston Churchill caused W.W.II by resisting
a deal with HIlter, instead supprting a declaration of war after the invasion of
Poland. Battered by better informed English historians, he persisted; as long as
Buchanan can peddle his book, Buchanan the latest Hilter apologist. One wonders how
long it will be before he moves from MSNBC to FOX news ?

Winning in Afghanistan

In the last few days the dialogue concerning Afghanistan has ranged
from more troops and doubling down to its time to pull out completely.
General   McChrystal, U.S. Commander on the ground talks of more
troops and modifying the strategy, his subordinates describe the enemy
alternately as Taliban, Al Qaeda and even “insurgents”.  Secretary of Defense
Gates and joint chief Adm. Mullen talk vaguely of “winning” as still being possible
but acknowledge changes are needed as well as more troops. Washington has
yet to develop a new strategy and define our objectives in the country while the
generals talk of more troops and some vague concept of “winning.”Precisely
what it is we will “win” remains ill-defined and elusive?


All of this points to the fact that at the time of our initial incursion into
Afghanistan our planning, such as it was, consisted of getting Osama bin Laden,
and  those  responsible  for 9-11, ie; Al Qaeda. Little or no consideration was
given to the complications of Afghan history, the tribal structure of the culture, the fact
that the Pashtuns , the dominant tribe claimed kinship to Pashtuns in the north
of Pakistan, from whom they were divided from by the “Durand Line,”
arbitrary division of India and Afghanistan imposed by the British in
1893 without regard or concern of its impact on the Pashtun people.
Early on our campaign bogged down, reduced to patrolling the border
and fire fights with small elements of locals be they Al Qaeda or Taliban.

Mission creep followed, largely in response to Taliban abuse of the
Afghanis, although they were not part of any international threat to
the security of the U.S., their sole objective seeming to be domination in
the area.

During the height of the Iraq war Afghanistan festered on the “back
burner,” under supplied and largely ignored. As the action in Iraq
wound down, Afghanistan once again surfaced in U.S. concerns; General
Petraus’ command expanded to include Afghanistan and Richard Holbrooke
was appointed as Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan with an
inter agency team focusing on economic development, road building,
agricultural assistance, banking advisors, counter propaganda,
strategic communication, et cetera. In other words, a full court press
for nation building in the U.S. format, all focused on a
“non-military” solution.

All of this apparently oblivious to the fact that after some 200 years
of being mucked about by foreigners, Afghans have developed both a
distrust and hated for all foreigners, regardless of their  announced
intentions. They would clearly be happier left to their own devices,
however backward, barbaric and primitive these may seem to the west.
Meanwhile we talk of elections as if this will be the gateway to peace
and panacea if we help the central government develop an army, police
force sufficient to provide nation-wide security. Some talk of a
commitment of ten to fifteen years. Someone needs to remind Washington,
the White House and the Pentagon that the term “end game” is not merely
a figure of speech.

Health Care and the Pushmi-Pullyu

In it’s simplest form the healthcare problem is finding a funding source to pay doctor and hospital bills. Complications arise when trying to reconcile employer furnished benefits, tax funded benefits and the insurance policies as the funding sources. Doctrines, philosophies, and former practices also collide to compound the issues, advancing conflicting theories. So-called “stake holders,” persons or institutions with vested interest in the current practices compete to promote their interests in opposition to proposals which may impinge on their positions regardless of the potential economy achieved. Contentious advocates pull us in all directions.

Somehow this brings to mind the pushmi pullyu, the two-headed animal which Dr. Doolittle encountered on his travels. When it tried to move both heads tried to go in opposite directions. Yet on closer examination, employer furnished benefits are really part of an employee’s compensation, tax-funded benefits are paid with taxes paid by the same employee and insurance policy payments are funded by the premiums paid by the insured employees ; again the same taxpaying benefit receiving employee. The reality is therefore that all of the funding which goes to pay for medical costs are in effect paid by the taxpaying, premium paying, employee benefit-compensated patient. Yup, the same guy- not a pushmi-pullyu but a citizen who is paying his own bills but out of several pockets.

If some of these so-called “stake holders” would get their hands out of the employee-taxpayer-premium payer’s pockets the problem might be reduced to a manageable size.

Let’s teach Civics again

Civics, a course in how our governments are organized, and the rights and duties of citizens was once an all but universal subject in the curriculum of American high schools. Although the presentation of the subject was less than exciting it did give students a bare bones understanding of the interrelationship of the several branches of government, the privileges and prohibitions provided for in the constitution, the organization of the branches of the federal government and how responsibilities were divided among them.  State and local government organizations were not neglected.

Unfortunately this subject has largely been eliminated, making room for other subjects, substantially less important to the education of a citizen.

After witnessing some of the ill informed opinions being advanced  at the town hall meetings around the country it is  clear that many, many of our citizens are grossly misinformed as the how their government is structured, what power they are authorized to exercise and what protections have been built into our democracy over the last 200 years. They are being stampeded by false fears.

Our school boards should immediately address this problem and   design and establish a curriculum for teaching civics together with a history of those governmental developments so as to provide our students with a sound basis for understanding how government works and how it got there, the history needed is not one of battles and dates but of movements and developments in our society, the growth of our technology and how these forces coincide to influence governmental institutions.

We can place our trust in a well informed citizenry, but not a misinformed, manipulated mob.  Today when calculated campaigns are implemented to mislead our citizens and instill fear where there should be reason, there is a desperate need for facts, not misinformation.