The Enemy of My Enemy Is My ...?

What do you know? Ol' Dubya decided that maybe the guys who've been doin' such a good job of killin' us in Iraq might be just who we need to start killin' the other guys who've been pickin' up their end of the killin' lately. The U.S. is now arming the Sunni insurgents in an attempt to make the axiom of old, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," come true. However, what's to prevent these terrorists from using those arms against us as well? Nothing. The so-called 'experts' say that we might experience some blow-back, or, possibly some higher casualty rates from "friendly fire", as it'd be our weapons doing the killing of our troops, if the people we've given these weapons to decide to hightail it for the desert and start picking off our convoys or aircraft with these munitions we've so handily given over to them in such good faith and comradery, hopefully sharing a similar animosity towards those who are taking lives of anyone and everyone in Iraq. Gee, ya think?!

Are the inmates truly running the asylum? Have we gone stark raving mad? Should we even be arming ANYONE over there? The only ones we should be arming is ourselves, and purhaps the Iraqi Army, and we better get some really cheap oil for them. None of that really expensive stuff they've given us so far. You know the kind that has us paying nearly $4 a gallon for. Naw, we want the kind that only costs $1 a gallon. The kind that comes with lots of Thank You cards from a country we've supposedly liberated from tyrrany and placed on the pathway to freedom and democracy. The kind that we paid for up front with lives and limbs. Not to mention national standing and pride.

Lies Our Parents Told Us

Santa; The Easter Bunny; The Tooth Fairy... and "You can be President when you grow up." Ok, then let's see if that statement can hold water. How can the average citizen, Joe Six Pack, or Jane Doe, get the where-with-all to run a modern day campaign, with all the advertising; rallies; and travel involved, the people behind the scenes, the polling and just plain expense money to pay the bills at home, since they won't have the time to work their regular job to pay the mortgage or grocery bills? How is this accomplished? Of course, there are millionaires who use a lot of their own money to get started. And Political Action Committees get behind some people as long as their message is up to the PAC's standards. Then there's the parties themselves, who give lots of money to help certain people oust incumbents who've overstayed their welcome. Well, if the person doesn't fit into any particular hole, and there aren't any PACs looking around for someone to give money to who doesn't particularly agree with anything they're trying to push, and the person isn't rich, where do they go for support? How do they even make a name for themselves without making it into the public eye in the first place?
Local Politics. Ok, I guess. Run for city council or township supervisor or water commissioner. What ever job needs filling. Then make a name for yourself as soon as possible by making some great contribution to government, like not accepting a pay raise. Let's face it. If the money was alright for you to want the job in the first place, you really don't need a raise. Ok, you've made yourself a local hero, so now branch out and try statewide office. Something like state senator or if you don't want to get that high up right away, go for county commission. Then it's just a cake walk to the governor's mansion. Of course, you've got to find other ways to be a hero than constantly turning down pay raises. The public doesn't like a one pony show. But what if you don't want to wait 20 years to make a real change in this country? What if you see that America is running headlong into an abyss, and you can't see any cavalry coming over the horizon? Who do you turn to?
Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... a grass roots movement! Oh, my goodness! How would someone actually get the attention of enough people around the country to get them motivated enough to even open their wallets, let alone get them to vote for you? What kind of public spectacle could you perform to win the hearts and minds of millions of Americans so that they'd support your campaign, at least long enough for you to get some big money behind you? Well, public parades are one arena where you can at least pay to paint your riding mower red, white and blue and put a couple of posters on the front and back stating your candidacy. Or if you don't want to mess up your mower, rent a car and pay the insurance premium so that when you bring it back all painted up and full of dents from beer cans thrown at you, it's covered. Of course, if you're really running as an independent, which ever party is dominant in the area is going to make a point of trying to make you look like a kook, or worse, a member of the opposite party.
True democracy is dead! This is government of the party; by the party, and for the party. The party system, with all the money and power behind it, isn't about democracy, but simply staying in power, no matter what it takes. Mud raking is their business, and they'll look into every closet it takes to find something you're ashamed of. They don't care if all they can dredge up is the fact that you adopted a child of a different ethnic group. They'll use it to make you look less than desirable in parts of the country that don't particularly like people of different ethnic groups, and they don't even care if you're a member of their party. If their favorite is running behind, they'll chop at your heels with a sling blade 'til they cut you down.
Term limitations. That's the key. Not just how many times they can run, but how long they actually stay in office. Every elected official should have a four year term. Two terms. That's it. Congress Members should have their terms doubled because there isn't any way anything can get done in two years, since they're constantly pan handling for campaign contributions. If they can't get anything accomplished in four years, then they shouldn't get a second chance anyway. Senators should have their terms cut to four years because many of them are simply there to sweeten the pot at home when it's time for the government to dole out it's largesse. And, if they're into doing nothing more, we don't have to wait two more years to get them gone.
Kill the lobbyists. 'Nuff said.
Make the Constitution work again. We need to stop letting the parties decide who gets to determine what the constitution really says. Life-long posts for federal judges is ludicrous! If one party stacks the courts, with young people, and everyone knows that the party isn't going to pick someone with a mind of their own, then we'll live under the thumbs of the parties forever! If the people got to pick who sits on the benches, like in the states, the judges would more likely resemble the populace at large, and not the party in power. Judges should be independent, but they should also be held to some kind of accountability. I know that if judges are afraid of being thrown out of office at the next election, they're more likely to rule in favor of local sentiments instead of on the side of justice. But when the parties pick the judge, all we get is the party line, not justice. Even when half the country goes along with the ruling, the other half thinks it stinks and can't wait to get into power so they can revisit the case after they've packed the court with their minions. It's a merry-go-round! If a particular case has been decided, then it's decided and that's that! Why go back and try it all over again under a different name? It's simply sour grapes. Do we allow sports teams to appeal a loss? Do we give lottery winnings to more deserving people than those who won? There needs to be a lot of thinking done on this subject, by people who aren't being paid, who are far from home and can't go back 'til their recommendations are accepted by plebiscite. That way they don't take too long to figure out what needs to be done, and don't simply throw something together in a hurry simply to get back home. Something like a jury. You know, those people who are too stupid to get out of their civic duty.
I want to run for President. Yes, that's right, I'm willing to go through all the crap it takes to get elected. I won't have to bother running in primaries because I'm an independent, and I don't have to get nominated, since I've already nominated myself. The only thing I'll need is a lot of money and people intelligent enough to realize they're being taken by the major parties to hell in a handbasket! If elected, and people don't like what I'm doing, all they have to do is hold a plebiscite and vote me out. Is there anything easier than that? Of course, I'm hoping that if people are willing to support my movement, they'd at least give me time to get things rolling before throwing me out. It's going to be a long, hard battle, but with truth on my side, how can I fail? Yeah, right.

And The Vets Pay The Ultimate Price...Again.

When will our Social Security Numbers be secure? I can’t figure out how it is that something that’s supposed to guarantee our future financial security is somehow being used to sabotage our present financial security. When a middle-management employee of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs took his work home with him on a lap top computer a few weeks ago, little did anyone know that in a few hours the financial security of over 26 million veterans who’d served between 1975 and now, would be lost forever. Apparently, this yokel didn’t take into account that his neighborhood had been experiencing a string of burglaries in the previous few weeks, and that something as supposedly innocuous as a lap top sitting unsecured and all alone would offer the thieves a limitless future in financial futures.
Wha Hoppa? Well, it seems that when the yokel discovered his boo-boo, he reported it to his superiors, and then things get a bit fuzzy. Apparently the VA decided that they, with all of their experience in catching malingerers, would be able to find and re-secure the lap top with all the goodies inside of it, and that alerting the real law enforcement people of the government, like the FBI, wasn’t necessary. Besides, if they alerted the FBI, who knows how long it would’ve taken before the news was leaked to the media and the thieves would then know what they had actually stolen, and then use the information to finance their own futures. The VA took over two weeks to decide that maybe catching crooks wasn’t their forte, and alerted the FBI, which then promptly alerted the media, which in turn told the crooks just what they had stolen. Now, of course, the burglars weren’t exactly looking for all those social security numbers when they broke into the yokel’s house. They just wanted some stuff to sell to finance their immediate futures.
So, where does the buck stop here? Who’s going to take the wrap for allowing this screw up to happen? Is the yokel high up enough to take the fall? Very doubtful. Is his immediate boss? Again, doubtful. What about the Secretary? Too high up. Then there’s the FBI, who may have created a bigger boo-boo by letting the world know just what was on that lap top. I know, the vets need to know if their info has been compromised so they can take measures to re-secure it. But that could’ve been done in other ways, like the mass mailing they’re planning. In the meantime, these crooks are probably going back to the guy they sold the lap top to and trying to buy it back or at least find out who has it, if the fence hasn’t already found the buyer and secured it for himself. And that’s not taking into account that probably everyone who’s bought a lap top from a fence in the last few weeks is going over its hard drive with a fine toothed comb.
Happens all the time… This is just another in a string of goof ups that’ve happened lately by big corporations and governmental agencies that supposedly have big security contracts, that are supposedly large and in charge of their information in order to keep it from falling into the hands of their competitors. So why is it that hackers and burglars are able to get their hands on this sacred information? Because, apparently the only people who really care whether or not this info gets into the wrong hands are the ones that info belongs to. Why should some corporate CEO care if the info his company is in charge of lets it get stolen? Is he going to jail? Is he going to lose his job? It’s always the little guy who takes the fall. Whether it be having to constantly check his credit report for fraud, or just being the guy who didn’t know that the info had been stolen at all, and now, after being turned down for a home improvement loan, has to explain to the credit reporting bureaus that he didn’t really go on a 6 month cruise around the world on his Visa card.
An act of Congress. Yeah, now Congress is getting into the act with calls for heads to roll and all that jazz. Is that going to solve the problem? Is there going to be a nationwide manhunt for the thieves? I can see W now, looking into each hole on the golf course trying to find them. I know he’ll do his part. There will have to be a law made! That’s what Congress is good at. It won’t stop this from happening again, but at least when it does, they’ll be able to throw some mid-level management type in jail for a few years, and the world will keep on spinning.

Gas Prices - Ass Gripeses

Americans are spoiled rotten! What the hell is the problem with this country? Of course we haven't seen these prices in nearly 8 months, but it's not like we haven't seen them before, and we're not exactly paying what the rest of the world is paying, not by a long shot. Hell, we pay more for bottled WATER than we do for gas, so why aren't we screaming bloody murder over the prices of our beverages? Milk has been higher priced than gas for years, but no one is crying about that. We'll pay more to drink a bottle of beer in a pub than for a gallon of gasoline, and not think twice about leaving a tip!
Sure, we drill for oil too. But what good is it when we basically come up with new and more wasteful ways to use it. The last time we had an oil crisis, we demanded smaller, more fuel efficient cars. Now, we seem to be wondering what ever happened to the CAFE laws and the small cars we used to drive. Well, the government decided that whatever was good for Ford and GM was good for the country, so they let the car companies slide on CAFE. As long as Americans were happy buying SUV's and pick-ups that cost as much as my house did 20 years ago, and drank gas at twice the CAFE levels that are supposed to be in effect today, why should the government bother to enforce it's own laws?
Reality check, please. It's time to pay the bill. Americans have been bitchin' about how much the government has been helping the oil companies with tax breaks, and that the oil companies' record profits are indecent, and that their CEO's are retiring with kingly ransoms for pensions, but no one has stopped to think why these things are happening. One elderly gentleman from New England called in to CSPAN's Washington Today to ask how much of a windfall the government is making on the gas tax. He reasoned that if gas costs more today, then the taxes are garnering more money for the government. Since the tax is per gallon, not per dollar, if anything is happening, the tax revenues are down because sales are down at the pumps. So, what is the government going to do about it?
Let's throw money at the problem. Congress is talking about giving each taxpayer $100 to soothe our qualms over the war and gas prices. That's about 2 tankfuls to shut us up. W is asking the oil companies to use their windfall to boost exploration and build new refineries, a way to limit talk of windfall taxes. It seems the government and the news organizations are more interested in polls than reality. It's not because they're stupid. They just don't care. The government knows that it's an election year, and the news organizations know that Bubba isn't going to watch if he can't see other people suffering as much as he is. Why haven't the news organizations and government given Americans updates on what other industrialized nations pay for their gas, like they do about the terror threat? Because America Good. Europe and Japan Bad. Has anyone discussed canceling NASCAR this year? No. But they're talking about axing AMTRAK. Keep the gas guzzler and axe the gas saver. Why do Europeans use mass transit so much? Because they've been paying through the nose for gas for years. Why are bullet trains running in Japan and not here? Same reason. It's not that we don't know how to build railroads. Hell, they were invented here. If we want to throw some money around, let's do something with the means we have at our disposal right now - namely solar; wind and wave, or current action. We have this huge engine right off the east coast that controls the weather of Northern Europe with it's current. If we place turbines in its path, we'd have such a surplus of electricity we'd be selling it to Canada and Mexico. Windmills have been in use in Europe for a millenia, but we can't seem to find anyplace to put any here that will do any good. How about all those open stretches in the plain states? Solar power is so cheap and clean that we'd have a problem storing the surplus. There's another method I haven't even mentioned yet. Geo-thermal. It seems the only ones who realize how hot it gets down there are the coal minors. We should take a lesson from Iceland. That's right, that little country out in the middle of the North Atlantic. They decided to use their only usable natural resource, geo-thermal steam, and converted their country, what little they have of one, to its use for energy. So, that teensy-weensy country is energy sufficient, and this great big country that put man on the moon, isn't. We've got the natural resources to do it, so why aren't we?
We gotta wanna. That's right. Where there's a will, there's a way, and we just don't have the will right now. We'd rather stand around and scream, bitch, moan and groan about gas prices, but do we really want to change anything? It seems we're more interested in who wins American Idol, or Survivor. Don't get me started! Reality tv gives me gas!

Somebody Needs His Ass Whupped!

Mike Thompson Detroit Free Press March 26, 2006

What ever happened to the Marshal Plan? I guess the world is a lot different since 9/11. How can we expect the Iraqi people to re-build their entire infra-structure while in the midst of a civil war, (yeah, I know, it's only a slight factional disagreement), and pay for it all? Oh, yeah. Oil revenues! You see, they'll be paying for it with their only natural resource we're interested in, while their other natural resource, their youth of both sexes, either blow themselves up in order to kill as many innocents as possible in their factional disagreement, or become statistics in our reports on collateral damage. But the administration isn't interested in that natural resource. In fact, if it dried up tomorrow, I'm sure no one in the White House or Pentagon would lose any sleep over it.

Did we re-build Hanoi? Nah! We were the losers! How could the communists hold their heads up during party functions if they'd demanded war reparations? Besides, it allowed them to appeal for sympathy from the rest of the world while we licked our wounds and faced high inflation without having to pay war reparations. What the hell happened?!

What's gonna happen? I dunno. All I can see is the Dems are going to win big because of the war and the economy and the environment. They're going to take their mandate and run with it, like a pair of scissors, and trip over their own egos, stabbing themselves in the heads. Of course, I could be wrong. It all depends on who gets elected, and the advisors they get. However, when 2008 comes around, watch out. There is going to be some definate backlash from the immediate turn of direction the country will take when that happens, so whom-ever does the best job of seeming Presidential in the next two years will have to be careful to only align them-selves with the changes that do the most good for the most VOTERS, and not just the most democrats. Let's face it. Had the rank and file dems gotten off their asses when it mattered, W'd be gone now. But then, we'd be stuck with Kerry, and he was simply the wrong man for the job. Not to say he's a bad man, just not the right man. But, that's another story altogether.

So who will re-build Iraq? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to choose where your tax dollars go? I know I'd like to be able to decide whether they go for bombs or feeding kids, but let's be realistic. I mean, this blog does have REALITY in the title. It's beginning to look like W is just now being told by somebody in his usually screwed up administration that there's something wrong with the treasury. That somehow or other, someone's going to have to come up with a whole lotta money, and he's starting to feel like his Daddy did after mouthing off about reading his lips, and then having to eat his words. There may not be any NEW TAXES, but there'll most certainly have to be NO NEW TAX CUTS. Well, that's just positively UNAMERICAN! Can you imagine all those Mom & Pop conglomerates out there that'll have to pony up their fair share of the load, and pass on the cost to their employees? Oh, let's not forget their customers too, unless sales begin to take a nose-dive and they have to lay people off in order to lower them again. Heaven forbid passing the cost on to the stock holders. At least not the ones with preferred stock.

Now would be a good time to sell out to Haliburton. Globalization is a fact! All those people who've been screaming about how the ONE WORLDERS were ruining this country didn't bother to look past the tie-dyed t-shirts and muu-muus to the boardrooms where the huge multi-nationals were deciding that for everyone already. It's the multi-nationals that will inherit the Earth, not the meek. Sure, nationalism is still going strong at the moment, but when these companies become truly huge, we'll see people start to cheer on their employers first, and their neighborhoods last.

Big Brother, Where Art Thou? Have you noticed lately how surveilance is ever-present? Phone calls; e-mails; libraries; GOOGLE! are all up for grabs now. Well, it's only 20 years late, but we've been expecting it, and now that it's here, we should be thankful, because once we take care of our perceived enemies, and we're all under one roof, so-to-speak, we people who live in the geographical area once known as the U.S; won't be stuck with the full bill all the time. But then, what price freedom?

U.S. Navy Attacked By Pirates?!

Yes, that's right, pirates. I guess there are some places where the world isn't safe for civilized people. This happened off the coast of Somalia, where pirates are picking apart the U.N. effort to feed the people there, by stealing the food and then selling it on the black market, and they tried to hightail it out of sight before sunrise while a group of war ships that were on a Dutch-run maneuver were cruising nearby. Unfortunately, there are things at the U.S. Navy's disposal that pirates could only dream of having, like satalite surveilance and night vision, not to mention radar, which I'm sure the pirates do have, since it's readily available off the shelf, or some poor unfortunate's yacht or fishing boat that's been requisitioned, and the U.S. ships pursued the smaller fishing boat that was towing a bunch of smaller skiffs behind it. One of the alert American sailors noticed that some of the pirates were carrying RPGs, and when the pirates were ordered to heave to, they truly fucked up by opening fire. Needless to say, the Americans made short work of the pirates, killing one and wounding three, igniting a fire on the boat with fire from their ship-mounted machine guns.
Why are pirates still active today? I can understand how pirates were able to operate in those waters, since Somalia doesn't really have a government, so no navy, but with all the other nations in the region, which do have navies, why aren't they doing something to asuage the situation? Hell, if Liberia just sent a tenth of the ships flying its flag to patrol those waters, there wouldn't be room left for pirates. I can only imagine it's the old "NOT MY PROBLEM" that kind of invades the minds of people who aren't suffering themselves, or who might have a few too many other problems on their plates to handle one more.
Why aren't there any pop stars writing songs about piracy? Oh, yeah. They have enough problems with piracy at the moment to concern themselves with the violent type. The big problem is that when you see these people on TV wearing their designer clothes, (if you can call some of it being clothed), and their jewels, pimping out their mansions and Hummer limos, the COMMON people have no sympathy for them when they hear about people pirating their so-called intellectual property, but they do have sympathy for starving people who are being kept hungry by warring warlords.
Governments need to make a difference, not Bono. Nothing against Bono, but, let's face it, why's he meeting with world leaders begging for debt relief for poor nations? Why's it take a meeting with him before W realizes that there's a whole bunch of really poor people in the world? Talk about Out of Touch! Is it that most of these poor people are darker in skin color than the majority of people living in the creditor nations? I can't help but think that it might have something to do with it. After all, how do you attract really cheap labor if there aren't a whole lot of really poor people willing to work for a pittance?
Would someone please discover oil in Somalia, or Ethiopia, or Sudan? I'm serious! It's the only way anybody's going to notice the place exists! If there were oil there, the U.S. would become the chief benefactor to the people and there'd be hell to pay for anyone trying to slaughter them, (well, at least while we were watching). When Rwanda exploded into tribal genocide, the world sat back and sipped our lemon aides, trying to figure out how to pronounce the country's name. When the White House became engaged in a battle of semantics with the press corps over whether or not genocide, or simply acts of genocide were occuring, it became plain to anyone with half a brain, (W still hasn't figured it out), that it was because they were simply blacks, (I won't even dignify them by calling them niggers, because we didn't even care for them that much), killing each other off, thus making fewer of them to think about, as if we ever really did. Because we lost a couple of Black Hawk helecopters and some troops in Somalia, we basically pulled out of Africa like dogs that had been singed on the behind with a flaming newspaper. Oh, but let some white people start some genocidal war in the Balkins, and Whooooooaaa Nellieeeee! Can't have that! Let's bomb the crap out of them and have round the clock sorties flying over to keep the fighting down. There's a heck of a lot of people of eastern European background in the U.S., people who actually vote! We gotta keep them quiet and appeased. Of course, we did let the Christians rape and murder as much as they could before it got really loud, so there was some collusion on the part of the west.
We spend more on war than all the rest of the world combined! Yep. We're just so much better equiped and trained that there isn't another army in the world that can stand up to us, unless we're already hung up on the ropes and our legs are starting to give. That's what's going to happen soon if we don't start pulling back in Iraq. Our troops are stretched to the limit, our material is top heavy with crap we don't need. Excuse me, but $15,000 sixty inch plasma screen tv's in rec rooms! When I was serving in West Germany in the mid seventies, we were lucky to have a 19 inch color tv in our rec room. Hell, they could've spent that money on Two toilet seats! Or ten hammers, or some screws. Now I know why our troops didn't have adequate body armor. Couldn't we find better uses for our military budget? I'm not saying cut it in half or even by a third, but that money needs better stewardship over it, and somewhere in this bloated federal bureaucracy there's someone who's job it is to make sure that the supply sergeants aren't padding their requests. I know that there have been reports about misspending on the part of the military, but nothing gets done about it. When the troops have to buy their own armor and wear it while watching a government supplied plasma screen tv, there's something wrong.

Turn Of The Century

adapted from a song by
Jon Anderson/Steve Howe/Alan White
(copyright)

The chips fell from the chisel, making a mound of marble bits at his feet. The sweat mixed with tears in his eyes, so as to make him blink hard and wipe away the pain.
"Now, Roan, no more tears. Set to work." He said aloud as he moved back to the stone figure he had labored long and hard on for the last weeks. His mallet swung again, striking the chisel just so, causing another rain of dust and bits to fall onto the pile beneath. He worked on a statue, a figure of great importance. This would be his most beautiful, for there could be no other more beautiful than his model, his late wife. She was his one true love, the only being so perfect in his eyes that even religion had become less important to him. If there were a God, why would he deem it necessary to take her from him so early in their lives? He stepped back once more to survey his latest changes. His gaze rested on her face, the features so exact, so perfect. Could She see him? He wondered. He looked into the marble eyes that seemed to look right into him. They were Her eyes. Able to see just what he needed to make him happy. Able to soothe his angers, calm his worries, ignite his passion. Could She see him? His gaze went lower, to her torso, to her arms, the left one already done, swept up, arcing over her head, as she so often did while dancing. This took him back...
...The New Year's Eve gala was in full swing. He was in great demand by most of the guests, as his work was becoming more well known. His latest had only just been placed in a prominent square off the Champs-Elysees. His commissions were growing by leaps and bounds. This made things easier financially. Still, he tried not to put on aires, as he knew himself better than that. From meager stock he had sprung, and it was only his talent that brought him to where he was now. Talent was superficial at times, as it was always in the eye of the beholder. Eyesight goes bad with the changing of the times. While he had been mingling among the other guests, he had noticed her dancing with several different partners at several differing places during the evening. There she was again. So beautiful! Her gown was a silken-lace in a shade that defied definition. The way the lights played on it, with each new twist of her body, the hue shifted in its intensity, causing it to either grow darker, lighter, or change a shade altogether. At this moment it was a lavenderish-blue. No, a light rose. No, there, it changed again. Reddish now.
Her hair was so blonde it was nearly white. Lips so red they perfectly framed her smile, which was so sincere he knew she was totally enjoying herself. He found he couldn't keep his eyes off of her. The way she pirouetted with her left arm over her head, her fingers in perfect plumb with her nose. The music stopped as he politely excused himself from the group of well wishers who had steadily grown and changed with each passing minute. He wanted to get closer to her. He lost her! Where had she gone! The crowd had shifted to allow him passage, and he suddenly lost sight of her. He circled about, scanning the room for her blonde hair. There! In the midst of a group of young men, she sat with a glass of champagne, looking up at each as he spoke to her. Charming was an understatement. She truly seemed to enjoy each encounter. He walked over to the little gathering, his eyes firmly fixed on her, so as not to lose her again. Just then, their host began to call for everyone's attention.
Roan noticed her stand to see what was happening, and followed her gaze to the bandstand in the corner of the room. There, the host held his pocket watch just below his face, a half-drunken smile affixed thereon. "One minute 'til the 20th Century!"
Roan turned to find her again. He moved closer, not knowing if he should eavesdrop or not, but wanting very much to learn what the conversation was about. He was within earshot as he slowly turned, not wanting to look too eager to overhear.
"...not alone. I'm here with someone." It had to be her voice. How much like an angel's it was. How it captivated him.
"I've seen you with several gentlemen, but not one in particular, my lady," one young man said.
"I'm sorry if you've been misled by my apparent lack of a constant escort, Messieurs. I assure you it was not intentional. My escort has been busy with business talk, and I dislike those conversations. I do, however, love to dance. If you'll excuse me." She turned away from them with a smile. He looked over at her as she made her way in his direction.
"Ten seconds!" The host was nearly beside himself as he watched the second hand on his chronometer tick down to the last seconds of the century. Suddenly he threw his hands in the air, "We have turned the century!"
Just then, the band struck up La Marseillaise, and she was next to him. Smiling, he turned to her, "Happy New Year, Soleil!"
"Happy New Year, Roan!" she said as she kissed him. It was a warm, soft kiss, only a second in duration, but a lifetime in his heart.
"Would you care to dance?"
She looked at him again, causing his eyes to blink uncontrollably, as if he were staring into the sun. He gained control of them as she answered him. "I would gladly accompany you at the next dance."She smiled. "They've seen your sculpture, Roan," she said as she looked about the room. "The work is magnificent. I wish I had talent, to be able to make a thing of beauty for the world to marvel at."
He couldn't believe his ears. Here this woman of infinite beauty and grace wished she had talent. "I may shape stone, Soleil, but it's still stone. My wish is to someday create something as beautiful and alive as yourself. However, I'm afraid my talent is far too minuscule for that." She only smiled as they waltzed across the floor...
...He had to wipe his eyes again. The memories had flooded back into him, making his work seem distant.
He stepped back again, looking over his creation. He traced the line of the statue's garment with his finger. This part had already been polished. He wanted to make it as perfect as Soleil. After each section was finished, he polished it, leaving only the unfinished sections rough. Soon he would be polishing the right arm and hand. Just a few more touches here and there. He took the hand in his, how rough it felt, but how he longed to hold it. He remembered how they had held hands on the bank of the Seine, so long ago, so far away...
...They walked among the artists hawking their wares. Paintings; jewelry; pottery; sculpture. Several of the artists acknowledged him, acting glad to see him, but jealous of his fame. He had been there with them not so long before.
Her hair had a touch of yellow from the sun, and the parasol spun on her shoulder, not really shading her.
He walked beside her, and taking her hand in his, stopped. "Soleil, are you happy?"
She seemed a bit taken aback at this question, but smiled back. "Of course, Roan. I'm always happy when with you. Why do you ask?"
"I know that since meeting you, I, too, have been happier than I can ever remember. I want to ask for your hand, and will approach your father, but only with your permission." He was aware that she loved him, but wanted her to say it again and again. He loved her beyond words.
She blushed, but the smile never faded. "Oh, yes, Roan. I'm happy!" She kissed him sweetly. This was his defining moment in life. An angel was going to marry him! He squeezed her hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing her fingers...
...The tears made steady streams down his face. Looking up into her eyes, he asked aloud, "Was the sign with a touch as I kissed your fingers?" Memories when we're young, he told himself, love lingers so. Could She hear him?
Just then, a clap of thunder sounded, startling him. He turned to the windows, tall and undraped. A flash of lightning shown through, and another clap of thunder shook him. Another autumn storm. The leaves blew about outside the windows. He turned back to the statue. Winter called. He had not left the studio in days, sleeping little, and with no appetite. He would starve all but to see the stone become life.
He felt the rough stone arm, all the way up to the shoulder, and then to the polished breasts. They showed their silkiness. The shape of his heart was there, in her bosoms. He could almost see them rising and falling, as if she were breathing. Oh, how they used to shake as she laughed. She laughed so easily. Life was her joy. But he could remember times when joy escaped her for the moment...
...He melted when she wept. "Soleil, what is the matter?" She had been to see the doctor. Their marriage was two years old, and no children. She had gone seeking advice. Her mother had passed away years before, and no other close female relatives were available to consult about such a topic. Her tears told him more than he wanted to know. "No children, Roan. I'm barren." She collapsed against him, crying uncontrollably.
They sat in the sitting room of the doctor's house. He was a kindly middle aged man with a heavy mustache. He too wiped a tear from his eye. "Here, Monsieur, give her two pills to calm her until this passes. If she is still despondent in the morning, give her two more. No more." He patted Roan on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, Monsieur."
Roan helped Soleil to her feet. "Come, darling."
They returned to their apartment, where he put the little bottle of pills on the bedside table. "I don't need them, Roan. I'm just sad. I'm so sorry," she sobbed.
He bent to her, taking her chin in his hand, making her look into his eyes. "Soleil, I love you as much as I ever did."
"I'm afraid you won't look at me in the same light, now that I'm unable to provide you with children like other women could." She stifled another sobbing attack.
"My love, if children are what you want, we can always adopt. There are many waifs to choose from in Paris and beyond. I love you, barren or not. You will always shine in my eyes, Soleil." She wiped her eyes and nose with a kerchief.
"I love you, Roan."
He bent and kissed her mouth, the taste of her tears on her lips. The two embraced and fell together on the bed.
The next day, as he was getting ready to open his studio, the doctor appeared. "If I may have a moment of your time, Monsieur Trouffe`. I have news of your wife. I didn't want to tell her, for it would only make her more despondent."
"Doctor, she is aware of her barrenness. She has already recovered from her depression. We are thinking of adopting a child. Thank you for your attention."
"Monsieur, her barrenness is only a symptom of what is really wrong with her." The doctor was nervous.
"What are you talking about? She's in perfect health other than being barren." He was getting scared.
"Is there some place where we can sit down and talk, Monsieur?"
"Come in, Doctor," he said, opening the door, and leading the way into the studio strewn with clay and marble. It was a mess, but he knew where everything was. He led the doctor to a small chair he kept for his models. "Have a seat."
"I think you should be the one to sit, Monsieur," the doctor said gravely.
"I wish you'd get on with it, doctor. My wife is fine, I tell you!" He was getting angry with the little man. Soleil was the picture of health, and for this quack to come and say anything different was ridiculous.
"Fine, Monsieur. Your wife is barren because she has a consumptive disease. She is unable to sustain a pregnancy because of this, and I fear she has not long. Maybe a year, not more. I'm sorry."
Roan slumped down into the chair. "How...?"
"No one knows, Monsieur. But I do know that she suffers from it, and will die. I wanted to tell you privately to prepare you. I don't like to tell my patients they are going to die to their faces. I know it is a hard blow to take, so I merely told her she couldn't have babies. She will remain outwardly well for a while longer, but will deteriorate slowly until she dies of the disease. There is little else I can do for her except sedatives at this time. Come see me when her pain becomes apparent. I am sorry, Monsieur."
At that, the doctor let himself out, leaving Roan holding his head in his hands.
After sitting for hours in the studio, weeping, he walked home. He wiped his eyes before entering the apartment. There she was, his angel.
She rushed to him, "Roan, I talked to Father Jacob today about adoption, and he said..." Turning away, he took out his kerchief and wiped his eyes and nose.
"Have you caught cold, darling?" She asked, taking his shoulders. "You must have worked hard today. Your shoulders are so tight. Let me rub them."
Be brave for her, Roan, he told himself. Let her be happy...
...He shook the tears from his face, his hands busy with polishing the right arm. The dust fell from the arm, joining the rest at the bottom of the pedestal.
The work kept him warm. The fire in the stove was low, and the wind outside was whipping the leaves. He looked up at her face. "Like leaves, we touch. We learn." He once knew the story. He finished polishing and looked at his hands. Helpless hands, soul revealing...
...Soleil lay in the bed for weeks now. Her pain was great, but she tried to keep a smile handy for him. The doctor had left to get Father Jacob. The Last Rites would be needed soon. He sat beside her, stroking her hand and arm. She felt cold already. It was the dark of winter. He had a warm fire in the stove, but it didn't matter how much coal he piled in there, his Soleil was dying.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she half turned to him. "Roan, I love you. I'm so sorry for having to leave so soon. I know we'll meet again, Roan, in heaven."
He didn't want to speak of heaven or a God who could take her away from him. She was HIS angel. "I know you believe it." He didn't want her to know his feelings.
In the still light of dawn, she died...
...He lay on a cot he had put in so he wouldn't have to the leave his work to sleep. The room was as cold as it was outside, the fire long gone out of the stove.
He had finished the statue. It stood at the foot of the cot, polished and reflecting the slight glow from the street lights outside the windows. He was too weak to rise, having eaten not much more than a bit of bread and cheese in the last ten days. Realizing a form out of stone, his work, so absorbed him.
He looked up into Her eyes, pearl deep. Could She see him?
He kept drifting into a sleep, only to wake now and again, but now only infrequently. His eyes were as heavy as stones. Somehow, though, he could see through them now. A bright light shown through.
Was it the sun through the haze that made all her looks as warm as moonlight? All aglow was his room, dazed in this light.
In his room, his lady danced, she sang so completely. He would touch her. He would hold her. Laughing as they danced, highest colors touching others. Like leaves they touched, they see. They knew the story. As winter called, they both remembered all those many years ago.

Nine Trillion?! Is That Right?!

We are living in interesting times. As the old Chinese curse says, interesting times are not the best of times. Why should interesting times be worse? Well, can you honestly remember a time when the country was divided into red and blue? I think the last time was after the southern states seceded from the union. It's a topsy-turvy world we live in when the so-called Conservatives run up higher debts than the Liberals! The Senate voted today to raise the debt ceiling nearly half a trillion to $9 trillion! Are we to now come up with $30,000 from each man, woman and child in this country in order to satisfy this debt? Or are the Republicans going to hand this problem off to the Dems who are obviously going to win the next cycle of elections? The vote was close, 52 - 48, and the Dems know that this is going to be their baby to have to care for, that's why they were steaming mad about it. This administration inherited a surplus of nearly $5 trillion, and through it's tax cuts for the super-wealthy, disasters both natural and pre-emptive, have left us with a debt that will still be staggering 10 years from now.
So where is the money going? Well, some might think the troops are benefiting from this by having their material needs met, but when soldiers need to ask their families to hold raffles and bake sales to furnish them with body armor, and units have to salvage armor from junk yards to weld onto their humvees so they'll at least stand somewhat of a chance when hit by a road-side bomb or a missile, we have to ask ourselves that question. When the troops get to watch their morning briefings from Qatar on 60 inch plasma screen TV's that cost $15,000 each, (one unit has gone through 9 of them so far because the ever-present dust in Iraq gets into them and they don't work any more), and Haliburton gets $40 to ship a case of Coke to Iraq, when it could be purchased locally, and another Haliburton subsidiary gets paid $2.1 billion for shoddy work on the levees in New Orleans, (the government did contest $50 million of the bill, but wound up paying all but a small fraction of it because the rules say that a contractor still has to be paid even if their work doesn't measure up to the government's standards), and the Marines, who've borne the brunt of the war in Iraq, and are traditionally the least funded branch of the military, have to fly missions in Vietnam era helicopters because the funding for their replacement helicopter has been cut off, we still have to ask ourselves this question.
Isn't fiduciary malfeasance a crime? I know that if I were intrusted with someone else's money, and spent it on silly things, or passed it around to all my friends instead of taking care of it, investing it wisely, spending it on the things that the someone else needed, I'd be hauled into court and thrown into jail! Why hasn't anyone in Congress, (that's both the House and Senate), issued a call for impeachment?! I know that there's been a call for W's censure, but that's a slap on the wrist! Are we supposed to go through another 3 years of this?!
Time for the 3rd American Revolution. That's right. It would be the third. The southern states called their effort to remain the CSA, the 2nd American Revolution. The fact of the matter is that NOBODY in Washington D.C. is going to be able to take the reigns of power if the entire executive branch were thrown out. The whole place is thick with losers, wing-nuts who worry more about whether or not some billionaire has to pay taxes, or a gay or lesbian couple gets to have a ceremony and a piece of paper from the government saying that they can sleep together, or a woman gets to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, than how to carry out the true functions of government. It's not to force others to conform to YOUR will, but to protect them from the vagaries of life. We need to throw the entire government out, including the Supreme Court. There needs to be complete reformation of our republic. Thomas Jefferson himself said that a healthy democracy needs to have a revolution every 20 years or so to get rid of the bad blood. I'm not endorsing violence, or anarchy, but that we merely exercise our rights under the current government's rules, to vote them out.
Grass Roots. Honestly, it seems that Americans care more about their lawns than their government! We need to stop watching Reality TV and start watching CSPAN! We need to see what's really going on. Because Bill O'Reilly says that he's giving America a Fair & Balanced look at what's going on doesn't mean that he's telling the truth! The common people need to take charge of their political parties again, invent new ones if the current choices aren't what they want, and take back control of their future. Our posterity rests on what we do today. We need to stop putting off 'til tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes! It's always today. We can plan for tomorrow, but we can't implement the plan until today. As I see it, Today's Hope is being crucified between two thieves - Fear of Tomorrow and Regret over Yesterday. Would anyone in their right mind burden their children with a debt so large that they'll never get out of its shadow?
Operation American Freedom. Vote the idiots out! Take back control of the Congress and then impeach the entire Executive branch, install an interim Executive branch and call for special elections. Just like we do in other countries. Why should we be the only ones living under a dictatorship?