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Guiding: Your Money For Your Christ

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Revenge of the Money Changers

Mt. Vernon

Rain, rain, go away!  So much for fine June days here in the nation’s capital.  We had a couple of storms this week that were absolute snorkers.  Doesn’t the god of weather know this is DC?  We don’t  actually do disasters, we fund them.

But the week ended on a euphoric note with a spectacular Friday: blue sky with scudding white clouds, a brisk wind and the birds a warbling.

I was touring with a group of pleasant and smart eighth-graders on a day that started at Washington’s Mount Vernon and ended at the Washington Cathedral.  The Mansion House was at its best framed by the sky above and the bowling green below.  You can understand why His Excellency always pined for home.

We left Mt. Vernon en route to our cathedral experience aptly enough on a motor coach where the word “angel” figured prominently in the title of the company.  This apparent coincidence became prescient as our bus driver texted away on a smartphone coming northbound on the George Washington Parkway in the left lane of a four lane highway with no middle barrier.  I’d like to see angels one day but Friday did seem a bit soon to me.

Washington National Cathedral

 

 

God was on our side, though, as we arrived safely at DC’s church-of-note and debarked for our tour after parking in a half-empty bus garage.  On the plaza level we were met by a sneaker-wearing sort of walmart/cathedral greeter who implored us to spit out our gum one moment while informing us he was a “foremost authority” on the cathedral in the next one.  I heard nothing from him that proved his assertion though perhaps I am just jealous as I am an authority of the hindmost sort.

 

 

 

The Rose Window

 

 

Groups like mine, arriving by bus, make a $175 “donation” to see the cathedral and you MUST have a reservation.  I wonder if you can get a reservation if you don’t make the “donation”?  (One can park and worship for a mere $50.)  The 300-foot tall tower exterior is festooned in dark scaffolding and the interior is draped with dark netting perhaps to remind us (again) that the cathedral was damaged by the 2011 earthquake.  (And money is required to fix it.)  This reminds me of the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode where Larry David’s mother passes away and he suddenly realizes it is a great excuse for all sorts of things.  I believe the cynical expression is “working it.”

 

 

The docent-led tour progressed through the stunning main level of the church.  This time of year the docents do the nave level and hand the group back to guides who are expected to take them on a tour of the crypt level.  The crypt is found by descending a set of worn steps which pass by a statue of a pious and kneeling Abe Lincoln and which ends at the ubiquitous (and cavernous) gift shop.  (One can now skip the steps as a gift shop has been installed on the nave level thus allowing the hard core shopper to slip away from the communion rail for a wee peek at this week’s specials.)

St. Joseph’s Chapel

 

The crypt level of the cathedral has several beautiful chapels (Bethlehem and St. Joseph’s).  On arrival there I was met by a docent.  I explained that I had a group and would be showing them these two areas.   She quickly informed me I would be doing no such thing.  This time of year, she announced, “It’s one or the other.”  The irony was priceless, (perhaps the only thing so at the Cathedral).  As Bethlehem chapel depicts the birth of Christ and St. Joseph’s his death, I was being forced to choose between the two, a sort of Judas with a guide badge.

 

I chose death.  Let’s be honest, that’s where the drama is and besides, the art is better in that chapel and as if that alone were not enough, it is where the great Helen Keller is interred.  It wasn’t even a close call.

Still, for $175 you would think the kids could view both the birth and death of Christ but I suppose Jesus Christ really is a superstar and can demand top pay.

We skipped the gift shop on the way out.

 

 

Posted by on June 16, 2013 • Filed under: (Almost) Hidden DC, Art, Different, History, Sculpture, Statuary, Outdoor Art, Values and Ethics, Words

The Apparition

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Of Stones and People

Arlington

Here we are, on the cusp of Memorial Day, when we honor and remember those who died serving our country.

And, it’s a busy time for guiding here as schools across the country wind up the year with a DC trip.  Most include a foray to Arlington National Cemetery to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.

The Cemetery is my favorite place to visit.  If that sounds odd, it’s really not.  It can be an exquisite and serene oasis in the city.  When quiet there is the rustle of wind in trees and the chorus of birds punctuated, as always, by the clatter of hooves on asphalt and gunfire in the distance as a final honor is bestowed.  Few words are needed to tell the story of this place.

The Cemetery is immense, some 630 acres, with tens of thousands of headstones, many of the uniform type, but thousands of others of all sizes and shapes.  For me, the stones have blended with the natural setting in a way to become almost one and the same.  They are as periods at the end of sentences we will never read.

A Spectral Sentry

 

Two days ago I was with a group of fifth graders for two days when on the evening of the first day one of them asserted that they had seen a “ghost” at Arlington earlier.  ”Right”, I answered back, to then be told there was a photo of the encounter which I obviously requested to see.

 

Out came the smartphone, and there, sure enough, in the center, was what looked to be a faint image of a long-ago soldier quietly attending–present and accounted for on the field of honor.

Alas, this is no ghost story as I doubt both the possibility and the provenance.  But it need not be about either if it reminds us instead of lives both lived and given in service.

Still, in this age of  ubiquitous “reality” please tell no one that I now wander the fields of Arlington fully enlivened by a fifth grader’s chance gift which now makes it a place of stones and people.

Posted by on May 24, 2013 • Filed under: (Almost) Hidden DC, A Life, Different, History, Religion and Spirituality, Sculpture, Statuary, Outdoor Art, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, Words

The Red Line of Right

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Walking Obama Back

Yesterday’s New York Times had one of those “Washington Insider” stories wherein presidential advisers express dismay of pants-peeing proportion that the guy in charge actually said what he felt about a morally troubling issue.  Time to get him back in the box.

Here’s the President’s quote  from an earlier NYT article:

Syria and Chemical Weapons

“We cannot have a situation in which chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people,” Mr. Obama said in response to questions at an impromptu news conference at the White House. “We have been very clear to the Assad regime but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is, we start seeing a whole bunch of weapons moving around or being utilized.”

Our foreign policy uber wonks would have Obama apparently follow  Bill Clinton’s example (and crushingly poor judgement) in refusing to acknowledge that what was happening in Rawanda was genocide.  Clinton administration officials  declined to even use the word “genocide” as they might have to actually do something if they did.

Obama said what he thought and felt but here is how a “senior official” spins it now, “Mr. Obama was thinking of a chemical attack that would cause mass fatalities, not relatively small-scale episodes like those now being investigated, except the “nuance got completely dropped.”

Now we get it.  The occasional use of nerve gas where a dozen or so are killed and injured:  not a big deal.  By that calculus the Boston bombing was not even front page news. But, of course, we apply a different formula for non-US terror casualties.

It must be admitted that this is all muddled by the memory of George W. Bush engaging in a ground war in Iraq over specious claims of weapons of mass destruction.

But if American strategic interests demand our constant involvement in the Middle East to protect our 51st state (Israel) and our dependence on oil, the President should at least feel free to be morally indignant about the actual use of a chemical weapon without his staff swooning in confusion and fear.

After all, a president being honest is a nice thing–every once in a while.

 

 

Posted by on May 6, 2013 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, History, War and Peace, Words

Tsarnaev and McVeigh: The Price We Pay?

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Doctrine, Disaffection and Violence

The news is full of stories of the FBI and others “scrambling” for clues to understand the motivation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the chief Boston Bomber.  So far we know that he was unsuccessful as a boxer, married, a father, unemployed and a follower of “radical Islam.”

Timothy McVeigh

Patriot Gone Awry

Tsarnaev’s trajectory has been charted before in the form of Timothy McVeigh.  Some details are different but the essentials remain the same.  McVeigh, too, ultimately failed in his goals as a soldier, becoming both unemployed and a wanderer.  He also embraced an ultra radical doctrine of gun rights and the “Patriot Movement” that included a strong anti-federal government component.  McVeigh quit the NRA because it was not sufficiently radical.  He was very intelligent, with an IQ well above average.

Of course, the normal recourse to a professional setback or personal failure is to try again or select another path.  Tsarnaev and McVeigh instead opted for rigid apocalyptic doctrines that oddly channeled failures as mundane as  perceived sexual or relationship inadequacy or employment problems into scenarios involving the federal government.

McVeigh was in Waco during the seige, traveling there to express his outrage and support.  He also went to Area 51 in New Mexico and to Gulfport, Mississippi, to investigate “government conspiracies.”

Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Grounded in Grozny?

Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s earlier path is  both obscured and partially explained by his Chechen origins and his exposure to a terrorist culture grounded there in their “no holds barred” fight with the Russians in Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic.  Chechens were heavily involved in the 2004 Beslan, North Ossetia, hostage taking at a school where 380 people, many of them young children, were killed.

Tsarnaev went to Chechnya and Dagestan last year and it was there that his full embrace of Anti-US and radical Islamic doctrine apparently began.

In the case of both McVeigh and Tsarnaev, personal failures resulted in terminal disaffection and the subsequent decision to cast their fate with violent radicals.  It must have been seductive and empowering to once again have both purpose and a clear path.  In fact, committing to a moral ideology, with or without a religious component, is in part how most people chart their lives.  But, in their case, the operative component was violence.

Personal failure and disaffection are part of the human condition.  And, being a radical is neither negative nor criminal.  It is the descent into violence and terror that sets them apart.

The Role of Foriegn Policy and War

McVeigh and Tsarnaev both refer to wars as at least partial explanations for their violence.  McVeigh to the First Gulf War where he served and Tsarnaev to Iraq and Afghanistan.  Some writers have suggested that Tsarnaev’s war reference is really hatred at the Russians for their Chechen adventures so that anti-Russian sentiment morphs into anti-American sentiment, surely an irony of some proportion.

McVeigh taunted the US in his writings suggesting that they had done much more than he:  ”Remember Dresden? How about Hanoi? Tripoli? Baghdad? What about the big ones — Hiroshima and Nagasaki?”  His characterization of US military actions as essentially state-sponsored terrorism against civilians speaks for itself.

Is American foreign policy and the  wars which result at least the partial pretense for terrorism here?  The answer would seem to be a resounding yes, at least according to the perpetrators  of Oklahoma City, 9/11 and Boston.

Westboro Baptist

Democracy and Terror

What sets McVeigh and Tsarnaev apart from Bin Laden is their grounding in American culture and democratic institutions, as fallible as they can be.  And, youthful disaffection which descends into terror is deeply disconcerting.

Doctrines of violence and hate  (KKK, Westboro, skinheads, etc.) will be with us always but when they serve as a beacon calling the young and disaffected, perhaps it is time to pause and ponder.

 

 

Posted by on April 30, 2013 • Filed under: History, Religion and Spirituality, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, Words

A Vietnam Rememberance

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Hue City, 3 Purple Hearts and a Full Metal Jacket

Springtime

The last several days were certain evidence of a vibrant Spring here in the Nation’s Capital: crystal clear and cool, the trees in bloom, the birds singing and nesting, life all around.  I spent them with a group of Vietnam Veterans and those that love them, touring the city.  Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force, we saw the sights, including the World War II Memorial and the Korean War Memorial.

I got to know them, if just a bit, and was honored to be tagging along.  They are a class act.  Mostly in their sixties and seventies they are living full lives.  Some of them were teenagers or just barely in their twenties when off to war they went.

The Battle of Hue 

The “highlight” or culmination of the trip would be visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the laying of a wreath of flowers there.

We walked up to the Lincoln Memorial first and then it was time.  They gathered before the Wall as other visitors respectfully looked on.

Afterwards, they brought their flowers up to the sculpture, The Soldiers, by Frederick Hart.

I re-joined them at that point as it seemed appropriate.  To be honest, I was a bit nervous, awed even, at the prospect of talking about the Memorial to such a group.  Of course, I needn’t have been.   I decided to tell them what I tell youngsters when I bring them there and then I asked what they thought I should be saying.  I was glad I asked.

Among this group were several women, seemingly unattached.  I stood there with them on that pristine afternoon and heard a reason why. Her husband was 19 and he  enlisted, as she said, “to save the world.”  During his time “in country” he received three Purple Hearts and fought in the grueling, bitter, house-by-house fight for Hue City in 1968.  His platoon would be in the “bush” for up to three weeks straight, sharing a single toothbrush among 30 men.

The Purple Heart

He came home from Vietnam, but not really.  The next forty years were filled with severe depression and crushing pain that neither therapy nor medications could touch.  He constantly searched the “perimeter” of his house.  He refused to eat, his weight falling to 115 pounds.  He would cut himself and then sew the wound up.

Last year, days after his 40th wedding anniversary and at age 60, he shot himself in the head.

They took the body away but she and the kids were left to clean up the aftermath and thus the horror of Hue and young men at war came home again.

She wanted me to say to those seeing the Wall how terrible it was, and is, for men and women to come home from war and to be scorned for their service, heroism and bravery. And, she asked that I talk about the lasting and unseen wounds of war.

Her husband’s name belongs on that wall as surely as any other.

 

Posted by on April 23, 2013 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, In the Line of Duty, Safety and Health, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, Words

History and Race: March 18, 1942

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The War Relocation Act

Seventy-one years ago today Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed an executive order requiring 120,000 mostly Japanese-Americans to report for forced relocation.

In the wake of the December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, politicians, leaders and many others concluded that all Americans exhibiting the features of Japanese ancestry were potential spies, soldiers or saboteurs.

Relocation Centers

Round-Up

While Asians and Asian-Americans were no doubt used to a degree of  racism, this detention based solely on physical characteristics was unprecedented.

The mass round-up devastated families and communities as businesses were sold and careers ended.

There were ten re-location centers, mostly in the west.  They were chosen partly because of their remote location and ironically were mostly on Native America Lands.  Native Americans, of course, were similarly “relocated” though more forcibly and permanently.

Arriving at a Center

A Bleak Life

Life at a center was minimalist, spare and institutional.  Living arrangements were barracks style, meals were taken in a common mess hall and space was strictly limited.  At the Topaz Center each person was allocated about 114 square feet.

Some internees were able to obtain jobs, mostly in agriculture.  Others concentrated on education, hobbies and “Americanization.”

 

“Gaman” Art

Gaman

Gaman is “a Japanese word that means to bear the seemingly unbearable with dignity and patience.”  Internees confined in a harsh environment bereft of personal possessions and objects turned to making art out of available materials such as wood, beads, and other found materials.  This art is now known as Gaman art and is amazing for its ingenuity and beauty.

Freedom and Memory

Memorial

As the war drew to a close, July 1945 spelled the end of all of the camps but one.  Internees were expected to move on with their lives though irreparable damage had been done in the cause of a false sense of security based on racial profiling and animus.

In 1992 Congress passed legislation to allow for the construction in Washington, DC, of  the “Memorial to Japanese-American Patriotism in World War II.”

The completed memorial now stands at Louisiana Ave and D St., Northwest.  It recognizes both the hardship of the internees as well as the profound courage and patriotism of the Japanese-Americans who served in the armed forces.  The accomplishments of the 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team are legendary.  Twenty-one members were awarded the Congressional medal of Honor for their heroism and bravery.

Not bad for a bunch of “traitors.”

 

Sources: SI.edu, Wiki

Posted by on March 18, 2013 • Filed under: (Almost) Hidden DC, Administration & Leadership, Art, Command & Leadership, Different, History, Sculpture, Statuary, Outdoor Art, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, What We Call "Race", Words

Words: “She Read Me The Riot Act”

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Origins of an “Ass-Chewing”

Nothing makes the sting go away quicker than sharing it with others.  The term often employed, as short hand for the experience is “being read the riot act.”  It roles off our tongues and fits the occasion perfectly.  But what does it really mean?

While  Riot Act

It turns out that for an awfully long time that one could literally be read the Act.  Roy Porter, writing in, London: A Social History, points out that Londoners were, “used to expressing there loyalties on the streets…to stifle street politics, the Riot Act was passed in 1715.”

While it has its origins in 18th-century England, a similar act was used in America, as well.  Police forces in both countries are 19th-century inventions.  Prior to that, public safety was often the responsibility of parish officials and night watchman who may have been good at giving warning but were totally unequipped to stop a single criminal, much less a mob.

In fact, in London, New York and other cities, mobs ruled.  They may have been lightly under the control of this or that faction, but once they grew to a large enough size, they took on a life of their own.  They pulled down houses, started fires and murdered innocent people.  The Gordon riots in London and the NYC 1863 Draft riots are examples and of course, revolutionary Boston was infamous for its “patriotic” mobs.

With no police force, officials often relied on an elected sheriff and a militia to enforce order.  The Act, passed by Parliament, was literally read to the crowd, demanding they disburse.  They had an hour to do so, lot’s of time to cause mayhem before breaking up.  As was the case with many 18th-century laws, the punishment for defying the order was death, though it was rarely applied.

The last known reading of the Riot Act in England was in the 1920′s.

It has since been repealed though it still has its purpose today.

 

Posted by on March 11, 2013 • Filed under: Different, History, Words

Red Cross Get’s a Make-Over

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Martha at the Helm

As some folks know, I am a DC city guide.  The 2013 guiding season is underway despite the see-saw weather.

The newest memorial, honoring Martin Luther King, Jr,  is proving to be a big hit.  It may be the most well lit memorial for night time viewing in the city.  King’s words are crucial to the space.  The quotes have been superbly lighted from below.  (Since you asked, WWII is the worst lit, with many inscriptions disappearing when the sun sets.)

I had a delightful group of students this past Saturday.  We saw the sights for 11 hours, metro-ing our way around the City.  During the visit to the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial we were at the part honoring women who served. The role of  nurses and war came up.  I asked them who started the American Red Cross and was instrumental in helping soldiers and families during the Civil War.

A hand shot up.

Martha Stewart

“Martha Stewart”, was the firm reply.

This easily makes my list of best Clara Barton stand-ins, bumping the previous reply of Betty Crocker from the number one position.

Of course, no one is immune from the occasional gaffe.  Last year I told 55 adults staying in Crystal City that they could  visit the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial by taking the hotel’s space shuttle over and the metro back.

I heard about that for the rest of the trip.

Houston, we have a problem.

 

 

 

Posted by on March 7, 2013 • Filed under: (Almost) Hidden DC, Different, History, Words

License to Die

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“License and Registration, Please”

First, thanks to everyone who read (and commented) yesterday about the “no-CPR” incident.   This update from the press:  ”Lorraine Bayless had chosen to live in a facility without medical staff and wanted to pass away without life-prolonging intervention, her family said Tuesday.”

Most, but not all,  commenters were somehow related to the health field.  But,  several folks shared their own experiences with a loved one which was quite valuable.

Common words were legality, professional, Do Not Resuscitate(DNR), duty, and licensing.  Even writers that were quite concerned about the ramifications of not acting expressed the need for people to die with dignity and freedom.

It’s hard not to conclude that in our litigious and buttoned-down society that the DNR order has become a license to die.  Without it, you risk ignominy or worse.  According to the Pasadena News, “City fire officials say Bayless did not have a “do not resuscitate” order on file at the home.”  Conservatives worth their salt and any libertarian should be aghast to know that you now need the city’s permission to die.

A Pioneer Death

She’s in the Parlor

Many of us are fortunate to have people in our lives who can recall a death at home where the corpse never left the house until the burial.  They were washed and dressed and placed in the parlor for folks to come and pay their respects.

Such a thing is probably illegal now but it illustrates how the process of death these days routinely includes transfer to a hospital, which should seem a little odd.

In one sense, this “we die at the hospital” mentality has now been walked back to the point that you are not allowed to die outside the hospital unless you have your DNR passport.

The emergency response system, including EMS, fire and 911 call takers are now part of the “you must die at the hospital” culture we live in.  In fact, Bakersfield became a story over a call taker’s “heroic” efforts to recruit a CPR provider.

The Last Trip

As a society we have created an environment where the universal last, great trip is being robbed of its ambiguity, grace and freedom.  In fact, the current system, especially for those content to go, argues in favor of a solitary death where the risk of interference is minimized.  We are all ultimately alone at the end, but that is a high price to pay.

I have several people in my life who “are ready.”  And, I have known others.  I hope that when their time comes that they make their transition free of pain, but with grace and dignity.

Thanks, again.

 

Posted by on March 6, 2013 • Filed under: Different, History, Religion and Spirituality, Values and Ethics, Words

Joan, the Holocaust and Hot Heidi

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Can Tragedy Be Funny For a Reason?

Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers, the nearly octogenarian, outrageous comedian, recently observed regarding Heidi Klum that, “The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens.”

The response has been predictable, including from the (Jewish) Anti-Defamation League, who said, “This remark is so vulgar and offensive to Jews and Holocaust survivors, and indeed to all Americans, that we cannot believe it made it to the airwaves…”

Rivers is Jewish and is refusing to apologize for the comment.   Does her tribal heritage provide a license to shock?  Rivers has said in part, “I can assure you that I have always made it a point to remind people of the Holocaust through humor.”

Indeed, when I read what she said I 1) laughed out loud, 2) felt guilty for doing so and then 3) thought about the Holocaust.

In the very near future holocaust survivors will be a thing of the past.  The power of a living connection with such a horrible event will be gone forever.   Anyone who has ever met and spoken to a Holocaust survivor can attest to the power of being in the presence of such a person.

The Holocaust will no longer exist as a memory but only as a historical fact.  The problem with these facts is that they seldom elicit an emotional response.  Something more is needed.

Rivers with her irreverence creates an emotional chain reaction that can result in some people connecting with the Holocaust  in a manner that is both unconventional and personal.  My own started with a laugh and resulted in a reflection.

Don’t forget, as Mrs. Lincoln once said, “Other than that, the play was great.”

 

 

Posted by on March 3, 2013 • Filed under: Different, History, Religion and Spirituality, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, What We Call "Race", Words

Who We Are: Pickles, NO Dark Chocolate and that 3/5 Thing

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Pass the Midgets

Pickles, Small

A mother from the “midget” state, literally, has taken taken great offense at the calling of pickles “midgets”.  Rhode Island’s Chelley Martinka has a no doubt lovely daughter Adelaide, born with dwarfism.  This fact apparently underlies her crusade to stop purveyors of small pickles from referring to them as, well, you know.

It seems that Ms Martinka has here-to-for led a life of cucumborial bliss ignorant of the crushing degradation meted out to innocent gherkins and dills.  Her new found situation affords her the platform from which to make war on words she finds offensive.  She actually caused one weak-kneed vendor to drop the word “midget” which, the last time I checked, meant something “much smaller than usual.”

Next up in this linguistic campaign of fascist terror: “half-pint”, “itsy-bitsy” and “teeny-weeny”.

 

 

Will that be black or white?

Hitler’s Health Care

Meanwhile, over in Flint, Michigan, Hurley Medical Center seems to have “honored the wishes” of a “swastika-tattooed” man to not have black nurses care for his child.  Hospital staff posted a note in the chart saying,’No African American nurse to take care of baby.’

In Flint, the hospital operates much like a confectionery where you pick your chocolate from the many varieties available.  We hear that where chocolate is concerned, some whites pass for black and vice-versa.

Who can seriously claim that we live in a post-racial environment when an admirer of Herr Hitler dictates the color of his nurse, and gets away with it?

 

Scene at the Signing
Howard Chandler Christy

Emory’s Wagner Invokes the 3/5 Clause

Emory University’s President James Wagner wrote a column last week lauding the constitutional clause counting 3/5 of the slave population for purposes of apportioning congressional representation.  He was using it as an example of compromise.

Wagner has spent the rest of the week at a Georgia “wood shed” as he wrestles with being defined as a racist.  He has referred to his writing as, “a clumsy and regrettable mistake.”

Wagner, to the best of my knowledge, does not advocate slavery.  According to the New York Times, students and faculty have labeled the article as “insensitive.”  (They should hang out at the Hurley Medical Center for awhile.)

The truth is that Wagner cited the kind of “hold your nose” compromise necessary to create America.  Being called out on it makes about as much sense as dropping “midgets” from that jar of gherkins.

Forest for the Trees

Sensitivity around human dignity seems to be about as sloppy as making our Constitution.  The “midgets” and “Wagner” stories give rise to the thought that correctness, in its many idiotic shades, will win out over the once adult requirement to view and think about things in context.  It is not a political correctness because it lacks a clear political definition.

Do we now live in a society where anyone, courtesy of technology, can cry foul at a word or a thought and demand change or retraction?  It seems so.

“You Tube Culture”, Facebook, and the “Walk and Text” world now facilitate information at the expense of wisdom as the actual evils of racism, discrimination and hate march steadily along.

 

 

 

 

Posted by on February 24, 2013 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, History, Values and Ethics, What We Call "Race", Words

FF Politics: Governor Andrew “Hitler” Cuomo

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Political Correctness Strikes Albany

Gov. Cuomo

My gun frenzied friends no doubt know that New York recently passed a measure designed to inhibit the use of fire arms to commit crimes.  Its effectiveness will be long debated.

The measure passed in the middle of the night, Albany style, because Governor Cuomo wanted his law, now.

Yesterday, Republican state assemblyman Steven F. McLaughlin, said of the “jam job” vote, “Hitler would be proud.  Mussolini would be proud of what we did here…”

Then, the feathers flew.

By Tuesday afternoon, Mr. McLaughlin had issued a video apology and had called the Guv to apologize.

The question is, for what?

The last time I checked Hitler, and Mussolini, too, were dictators of the first magnitude.  Many of their actions were successful as a result of either threatening or simply ignoring legislative institutions.  Stalin (and Pinochet) could, of course, be added to the list.

Declaring Hitler and Mussolini out-of-bounds as comparisons for dictatorial actions is both wrong-headed and absurd censorship.  McLaughlin properly steered clear of the Holocaust, atrocities and Hitler’s hate for various groups.   He was, rather, referring to the manner in which these leaders interacted (or ignored) citizen representatives.

Reporters, democrats and even his fellow republicans deserted the concept of free and robust speech over fake and ultra sensitive political correctness.

If Governor Cuomo is channeling Adolph or the Duce, he won an important round yesterday.

Long live Caesar.

Posted by on February 6, 2013 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Firefighter Politics, History, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, Words

Remembering: Free At Last? January 31, 1865

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The 13th Amendment Passes Congress 148 Years Ago Today

Lincoln
(Gardner)

The current box office success Lincoln explores how the 16th President navigated the US Congress and his own Cabinet towards an enduring measure that would abolish slavery in America.

In Daniel Day Lewis’s portrayal of  Abraham Lincoln we see a side of the rail-splitter previously in the shadows.  In the film at least, Lincoln descends from his memorial throne chair and is portrayed as profane, direct and purposeful.

He is also depicted as a “great White savior”.

It is wonderful to see Lewis as Lincoln spinning one of his famous yarns as War Secretary Edwin Stanton looks on, obviously exasperated.  Lincoln employed jokes and stories to sometimes make a point but just as often as a tactic to change the subject and to avoid making a decision.  He curses and laughs and because of it comes alive as a real person.  The Kunhardt’s, chroniclers of Lincoln, once said, in part, that Lincoln “sounded like a backwoodsman, even in high hat.”

Eric Foner, in his Pulitizer prize winning book The Fiery Trail points out that Lincoln’s position on slavery as he reentered politics in the late 1850′s was one even a racist could love.  Lincoln wished only to keep slavery out of new territories.  For Lincoln, it was OK where it existed; keeping it from new territories would mean that Blacks would effectively be corralled in the east and south away from whites pushing westward.

For a long time Lincoln was committed to the “colony” movement where freed Blacks would be exiled to Central or South America or back to Africa.  He could envisage Blacks as free but not as US citizens enjoying the rights of man.

To the extent that the film further morphs Lincoln into even a pseudo-abolitionist, it is an error.  It has been fashionable to trash his Secretaries William Seward and Salmon Chase as being presidential wannabees, too big for their britches and scheming to weaken him.  Whatever that truth may be, Seward and Chase were dedicated abolitionists who represented fugitive slaves for free and in Seward’s case, he and his wife Francis gave them money and safe haven in their home.  Lincoln as Illinois lawyer represented a slave-owner to help him get his “property” back.

Still, on this day, the greatness of Lincoln endures perhaps because of the consistent scholarly view that despite his sometimes tepid actions he was inwardly moving ever forward, willing to question–ponder–learn–change.  We seem to wish to “over credit” Lincoln perhaps because of his undisputed compassion and kindness.  Worse things could happen.

Douglass

Where greatness is concerned, Lincoln had a contemporary partner and it is fitting that he should have the last word.  Frederick Douglass, slave, writer, intellectual, leader, and abolitionist had a complicated relationship with Lincoln as he pushed him to do more sooner.  Douglass may linger in the shadows but his moral legacy now resides in the very house that Lincoln also occupied.

 

“Mr. Lincoln”, said Mr. Douglas, “was not only a great president, but a great man.”

 

Posted by on January 31, 2013 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, History, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, What We Call "Race", Words

Words: Censored

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I wrote a post Friday which caused quite a stir in my home IAFF local, 2068.  On the Local’s Facebook page it generated copious comments and was eventually removed by a local union official.  (The post can be found to the right, here,  in a box entitled, “Recent Posts.”)

The reason for the removal had nothing to do with the message, indeed the message was ignored.  It had to do with words in the title.  Those words were from a soldier’s quote in Stars and Stripes.  They were considered offensive, inflammatory, unprofessional and “National Enquirer like” by at least one local member. (Someone citing a newspaper as a reason to censor is especially ironic.)

I was informed by Joel Kobersteen, the union official who removed the piece, that if one person found something offensive, it would be removed.  To add an element of farce, he then proceeded to post the Stars and Stripes link in which the cataclysmic words were spoken.

It would probably be fair to characterize my post as being anti-sexual harassment and pro-woman in the sense that it detailed how women in the military are treated, especially in a training environment.  It compared the similarity of the fire service drill environment with that of the military.

A recurrent theme in the Facebook comment thread was the applicability of the post to the fire department.  I pointed out that firefighters and paramedics love to “support the troops” and to be publicly patriotic.  Don’t we care that female troops face an atmosphere of constant sexual assault and harassment?  Or does that fall outside the firefighter patriotism rubric?

Those three words (I feel a little like George Carlin here, though not nearly as funny) were not used to characterize an individual but were cited as an example of what women put up with.  They were part of  a discussion, not an attack.  Nevertheless, some apparently felt attacked or somehow diminished by reading three words.

The free speech and First Amendment issues are clear enough and hardly need to be repeated here.  What is really at stake is whether or not the 2068 Facebook page, unarguably our common and central choice of communication, will be rendered effectively impotent as the result of intellectual and emotional fragility borne from a lack of critical thinking and maturity.

The Facebook page should serve as an unfettered platform for the free exchange of ideas as long as they do not recklessly attack others.  Indeed, the entire Labor Movement is based on the fundamental ideal that workers have inalienable rights, chief among them the freedom of expression.  We could hardly now quibble with management taking away that right since we decided to do it to ourselves, first.

Yesterday I wrote a post on the Holocaust that apparently passed the censor’s red pen, at least for now.  It contained the inflammatory word “Nazi”,  had photos of  corpses and discussed an event that even today some find offensive, choosing to believe that it did not occur.  We call them “Holocaust Deniers.”  What if a Holocaust Denier, operating apparently within their right to be offended, notified Joel Kobersteen?  Would he be compelled to take down the post?  If not, why not?

In our society even enshrined rights are ephemeral unless they are constantly renewed.  The road to renewal is seeing the value of unfettered and robust debate and defending it short of a vicious personal attack on an individual.  Many of the things I read I don’t like and may even find offensive.  I try to read anyway in the hope of learning a thing or two.  I would never think of calling for their removal.

Adolph
Sweet Lad

 

 

 

 

In a censored world it is the tyrant and the bully who win.   Der Furher proves the point nicely.

 

 

 

Posted by on January 28, 2013 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, History, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, Words

Remembering: Holocaust Memorial Day

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Now is the Time

Sixty eight years ago today allied troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the death camps operated by the Nazis.

The Arrival

Hitler was obsessed with the notion of gaining Lebensraum or living space in Europe for his chosen race.  As the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland, tens of thousands were arrested, detained and shot.

On January 20, 1942, Nazi leaders met at Wannsee, outside of Berlin to discuss the plan whereby European Jewry would be systematically detained and then exterminated. Reinhard Heydrich, the chief of the security police gave the briefing and the minutes were taken by none other than Adolf Eichmann who would later be caught in Argentina.

The West, including the US, was slow to understand what was occurring.  Indeed, the US did little to intervene and even refused safe haven to fleeing Jews, most famously aboard the MS St. Louis, a German ocean liner with 937 German Jewish refugees.  The ship was forced to return to Europe where as many as 25% of the passengers died in death camps.

Jews were a primary target but millions of others were murdered, as well.  They included Gypsies, gays and lesbians, Catholics and Jehovah Witnesses.

 

 

Stacked Corpses at Ohrdruf

On April 4, 1945, the US 4th Armored Division and the 89th Infantry Division liberated the death camp at Ohrdruf.  They were the first Americans to do so.  Soldiers found piles of bodies covered in lime while others were partially burned in makeshift pyres.  The fleeing Nazis were attempting to cover their tracks by destroying evidence but their mayhem was of such a magnitude that discovery was inevitable.

 

 

 

The “Big Guns” at Ohrdruf

Word quickly spread up the chain and Generals Eisenhower, Patton and Bradley made an immediate trip to witness the slaughter and the conditions.”Tough as Nails” Patton would not view some of the atrocities as he said he would vomit were he to do so.

Eisenhower went specifically in order to be a personal witness and to give testimony on what he had seen.  To General George C. Marshall, head of the US Armed Forces Joint Chiefs, he wrote:

“I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to propaganda.”

 

Posted by on January 27, 2013 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, History, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, Words

Across the Pond: “You F@#*^%G Pleb, Part Two

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Massive Police Conspiracy?

Metropolitan Police Commissioner
Bernard Hogan-Howe

Some will recall a recent post here detailing  how Andrew Mitchell, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s former Chief Whip, was prevented from leaving Downing Street’s  Number 10 via the main gate on his Bicycle by a police officer who explained that bicycles were to use the pedestrian gate.

According to the Telegraph, the Whip was most unhappy,”Best you learn your f—— place . . . you don’t run this f—— government . . . you’re f—— plebs”, he said, to the startled officer.

A “pleb” is a member of the middling class, perhaps nurses, police officers or firefighters, who should know their place and stay in it, apparently.

Months later a House of Commons Select Committee is set to criticize the man who conducted the investigation, Sir Jeremy Heywood, because he failed to follow-up on the possibility that police had set up Mitchell.  It turns out that one of the witnesses to the incident was himself a police officer who posed as a tourist in leaking the details.

Mitchell has admitted swearing at the cops but denies calling them “plebs.”

If the Metropolitan Police Diplomatic Protection Group really has time on its hands to engage in such adolescent skulduggery it would raise the question of whether or not they are actually needed at all.  It would also seem that cops posing as tourists to pump up the story is both foolish and silly.

Still, its entertaining to see Cameron’s law and order conservatives attacking the police solely over the word ‘pleb’ as Mitchell has admitted to swearing at the cops.

The odd f–k you must be OK, just stay away from socially defining adjectives.

Carry on.

Posted by on January 20, 2013 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Values and Ethics, Words

A Fetus, a Nurse and Two DJs

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A Crisis of the Womb

Kate Middleton

Her Majesty’s minions simultaneously celebrated and cringed at the recent news that the Duchess of Cambridge, AKA Kate Middleton, was both pregnant and very ill with morning sickness.  So sick, in fact, that she was hospitalized.  (At a private hospital, of course.)

Enter Mel Greig and Michael Christian, two tactless Aussies. (But, aren’t they all?  That’s why we love them.)  Mel and Michael (Michael’s a she) pranked the hospital staff, posing as the Queen and frumpy Prince Charles.  They were good enough to get some yummy stuff to air to their fellow melanoma-afflicted lineal inmates down under.

A bit of juvenile fun–but wait, there’s more.

The nurse who was involved in handling the call, Jacintha Saldanha, subsequently committed suicide over her role in–what?  Passing a call through?  Innocently aiding witless shock jocks?  Helping to give the world a chuckle over British obsessive gazing at Kate’s growing navel?

Meanwhile, down under, Grieg and Christian, grieve and atone for their apparent outrageous conduct, but not enough to keep from getting fired.  But will they stay fired?  Or, better yet, should they stay fired?

What are the prevailing societal norms when Jacintha Saldanha is compelled to commit suicide in such a circumstance?  The world is chock full of tactless nitwits willing to go to any length in order to gain notoriety.  If being swept up in their cesspool is a cause for suicide, it may be time for a well targeted asteroid in our blind spot.

But, let’s be honest, committing suicide is evidence of significant mental instability and focusing on a precipitating event, even one as silly as this, dismisses a reality that was there for all to see.

No one’s womb is so famous or special that cracking a few jokes about it or its contents should be cause for a suicide.  And the idea that breaching the fantasy confidentiality of the world’s most famous pregnant lady would lead to a death is cause enough for serious introspection about fame, blame, and “royalty.”

My British friends, may ye be looking inward this season.

Photo credit:  AP

 

Posted by on December 12, 2012 • Filed under: Values and Ethics, Words

Bloody Irish: Religion, Freedom and Democracy

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A Search for the Truth:  When Government Loses Control

County Down Memorial Plaque

Religion is taking a central place in the US presidential election as evangelicals continue to cast aspersions on Obama’s Christianity, preferring to see him as a Muslim in disguise, while others see Romney caught in the “cult” called Mormonism.  A society over indulging in religious pre-occupation is edging toward big trouble.  George Washington and Thomas Jefferson taught us the national value of eschewing overt religious dogma.  In a democracy, it’s tolerance that matters.

Ireland, the North and the South of it, continues to provide a potent lesson of what can happen to a democracy when religion becomes a surrogate or stand-in for the secular guarantees of a civil society.  Beginning most recently in the 1960′s, a war raged in Northern Ireland that killed thousands.  If the same percentage were killed in a similar war here, the number would be about 320,000 Americans dead, nearly half the casualties of  the American Civil War.

The governmental control of the six counties of the North, whether by the Republic of Ireland or by the UK, became the reason for a vicious terrorist war where white Christians, (Catholics- Ireland and Protestants- UK) murdered and maimed each other for decades.

Both Dublin and London “ramped up” to meet the tit-for-tat murders and bombings by creating intelligence networks and moles to infiltrate the terror groups.  The North and the South had their own police forces and the military and intelligence services were also engaged in planting spies and gathering information.  It turns out that in this vortex of violence, law enforcement, on both sides, played a role in abetting the mayhem instead of preventing it.

Armagh Murder Scene

Two sets of killings, one in 1989 in Armagh and one in 1994 in Loughinisland, are the subjects of inquiries focusing on the “collusion” of the police and army.  The forces, in Ireland and the UK, are under fire for helping both the IRA and the Ulster Defense Forces (UDF) to commit murder. The Smithwick tribunal is examining whether or not the Irish Garda was involved in the killings of two high ranking Northern Ireland Police Officers ambushed after a meeting.  The Stevens/Cory reports examine a mountain of evidence suggesting that police authorities turned a blind eye to information about planned UDF killings of Catholics.

Only a very enthusiastic optimist would conclude that either inquiry is likely to ever learn the full truth about how the other government used its resources to ultimately collude in the deaths of citizens by their terrorist neighbors.  The Northern Ireland Troubles and their persistent legacy form such a potent warning because it was white Christians killing white Christians using their god as both shield and sceptre.

Washington and Jefferson, however we decorously plume their religious feathers today, saw piety as informing their inner selves and not as fodder for public preening.  Jefferson famously quoted Dr. Benjamin Rush, another founding father, as Rush observed that Washington (who he referred to as “the Old Fox”) had once again avoided talking about god in public.

Northern Ireland (and our Founding Fathers) prove that democracy and overt religiosity are a deadly mix.

Posted by on October 19, 2012 • Filed under: Firefighter Politics, History, Values and Ethics, Words

Here Come Da Judge: FDNY’s Garaufis Does Some (White) Handholding

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Tell Me What You Really Think.

Ladder 16
157 East 67th St.

Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis, showing his kinder and gentler side, has cleared his judicial calendar for much of the week in order to hear from those who may be affected by his efforts to open up FDNY to minority applicants.

Curiously, the NYT reports that of the 180 who signed up for Monday, only 36 testified.  Perhaps rage, like beauty and color, is only skin deep.

Garaufis has cut a wide swath, throwing out exams, creating new ones and mandating back pay and retroactive seniority.  The seniority provision, which is tantamount to the awarding of punitive damages, is a stinker since you can’t create experience retroactively.

One applicant reported that he had scored 94% on the 2002 exam yet never heard back from FDNY, surely a missed opportunity if broadening the department is a serious leadership goal.

Most firefighters can keep two ideas in their heads simultaneously: advance on the fire while being alert for victims.  Two similar ones would be to create a diverse and professional FDNY.  Why is FDNY so good at the first set of  ideas and so bad at the second?

The answer, of course, is failed leadership at all levels.  In New York, the “leaders” don’t.

Thus, the way was paved for a Federal Judge, one Nicholas Garaufis, to lead from the bench.

Time for FDNY members to be REALLY pissed, at themselves, for their communal lack of leadership.

Sources:  NYT, NYDN, Gothamist

 

 

Posted by on October 2, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Politics, Values and Ethics, Words

Politics Across the Pond: a Stiff (and Salty) Breeze

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“You F—–g Pleb”

A Pleb Before the Throne

With weeks to go before our election day and as sick as we all are of politics both presidential and otherwise, here comes  doughty old Mother England to remind us how the game is really played.

Seems Andrew Mitchell, Prime Minister David Cameron’s Chief Whip, was prevented from leaving Downing Street’s  Number 10 via the main gate on his Bicycle by a police officer who explained that bicycles were to use the pedestrian gate.   A pedaling pol?

According to the Telegraph, the Whip was most unhappy:”Best you learn your f—— place . . . you don’t run this f—— government . . . you’re f—— plebs”, he said, to the startled officer.

A “pleb”, of course, is a member of the lower, or at best, middling class, perhaps nurses, police officers or firefighters, who should know their place and stay in it.  A “pleb” can also be a member of our 47% who are likely as not to be sponging victims looking for a handout, as we have so recently learned.

Over here politicians trash the “plebs” only in private and usually to the better sort, hopefully out of earshot of the hired help.  Over there, the conservatives keep’em in their place and let them have it wherever they find them.

A little candor is so refreshing.  Who says we can’t learn from the Brits?

Posted by on September 25, 2012 • Filed under: Firefighter Politics, History, Values and Ethics, Words

Politics: Some S.E.A.L.S. Bark at Bam

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A Seal on a Box

In their undoing of Osama Bin Laden (OBL), Navy S.E.A.L.S. have secured their place in the Pantheon of American heroes. Though we knew them as nearly super-human before, now their chiseled stature has acquired added luster as the avengers of America’s 9/11 attacker.

Their arrival as serious cult heroes in our fame obsessed society is evidenced by street vendors selling “S.E.A.L. Team Six” paraphernalia that both celebrates their achievement and allows the presumed wearer of the baseball caps and tee shirts to be a hanger-on in a very elite club. Hollywood has followed with movies and documentaries that relive the moment or mythologize the S.E.A.L mystique.

We Americans love to idolize our warriors and more than a few have ridden our happy feelings into public office or at least into the public eye with varying degrees of success. Perhaps it should not come as much of a surprise that some of these modern day gladiators are taking to the electronic hustings to educate us on their special view of national security, the OBL operation and mostly, the presidential election.

They and their “Special Operations” teammates have created several “swift boat” type organizations which use their exalted perch to attack the President as commander-in-chief over “intelligence leaks” and credit for killing OBL. One of these groups is proudly led by a “birther” which should give you some idea of their intellectual acumen and overall credibility.

Their acknowledged bravery and courage in the field is supposed to automatically translate into heightened wisdom and moral indignation that allows them to become spokespersons for us all, as when they say, “Mr. President, you didn’t kill Bin Laden, America did.”

No, we didn’t. OBL was killed by United States military forces acting under the direction and authority of the President of the United States. The President gave ample  credit to those who made it happen and frankly, it’s a cheap political lie to make it sound as if he has or wants to usurp the importance of their accomplishment.

It also plays to the right’s false accusation that Obama is weak and needs to associate himself with the warrior ethos. If they haven’t noticed, America is tired of war, especially ones where our allies regularly ambush our troops, even at dinner, and usually with weapons  we gave them. The kind of courage we need is the kind that will get us out of the war in Afghanistan ASAP.

If Obama and his team leaked information after the fact about operational aspects they should suffer the consequences but tea-bagging Republican S.E.A.L.S. and their pasty white-collar intel analyst  lackeys are reaching to make a presidential issue out of pretty thin gruel. Their timing proves they are really after the President.

The S.E.A.L.S. are barking out of tune and are even in the wrong ring of the circus. They are diminishing their accomplishments as they fail to morph battlefield bravery into political pronouncements. They come across as venal and thin-skinned.

It’s sad, but fame, even of the S.E.A.L. type, is a seductive, fleeting (and fickle) mistress.

 

Posted by on August 21, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Firefighter Politics, History, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, Words

Words: 7 Minutes of Bullshit

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NASA’s “7 Minutes of Terror” Joins the Hype

Nearly 2 million people have viewed NASA’s YouTube video trumpeting the Mars Curiosity Rover’s descent and landing on the Red Planet.

NASA, said by some to be impotent in the field of social media, has hit the sensationalist gold mine while simultaneously managing to degrade a word and their own history.

Terror can be defined as an “intense state of fear.”  Let’s be honest–exactly who at NASA, or anywhere else  for that matter, felt “terror” in that seven minutes or any seven minutes during the launch, flight and landing?  The answer of course, is no one.  Anxiety, certainly.  But terror?

NASA knows something about feelings of terror and those that would have experienced them:

Apollo One (AS-204)

Virgil Grissom

Edward  White

Roger Chaffee

Challenger (STS-51-L)

Francis Scobee

Michael Smith

Judith Resnick

Ronald McNair

Ellison Onizuka

Gregory Jarvis

Christa McAuliffe

Columbia (STS-107)

Rick Husband

William McCool

Michael Anderson

IIan Ramon

Kalpana Chawla

David Brown

Laurel Blair Salton Clark

Describing Curiosity’s landing as terror-inducing both cheapens the risks of manned space fight and their final minutes.

 

Posted by on August 7, 2012 • Filed under: History, Values and Ethics, Words • Tagged: , , , ,

English (ONLY) Spoken Here

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WASHINGTON — Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Thursday that diversity has never been America’s strong suit, so lawmakers should pass his bill to make English the official U.S. language in the name of unifying the nation.

Steve King

So much for the long view.  Congressman King has apparently forgotten that before the white man stole their lands through violence, skulduggery and intimidation that Native Americans spoke hundreds of non-English languages.  The current count is 269.

And, in the 19th and early 20th centuries America was a virtual “Babal” as non-English speaking Europeans flooded the country speaking Irish Gaelic, German, Italian, Hebrew, Polish and others.  Then as now, they faced rampant discrimination by settled white English speakers in housing, employment and religion.

The notion that diversity is not an American strong suit, linguistically or otherwise is dis-proven by our history even before we were a nation.

We have fostered creative cultural assimilation over time while respecting (and tolerating) other languages.  In fact, our language is littered with adopted words and phrases that make it more effective and interesting. Capiche?

King’s ignorant stance plays to people’s innate fear of a loss of power and control.  It is also proof that rational thought and intelligence is not a strong suit in the US Congress.

Posted by on August 4, 2012 • Filed under: History, Words • Tagged: , , ,

“No Balls”: It’s a Crime

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Only in Italy

Balls

The Supreme Court of Italy, apparently with a very light docket, has ruled on a case where Vittorio told Alberto “he had no balls.”

According to the Court, being told one is without balls, “refers not only to the target’s lack of virility, but also to his weakness of character, lack of determination, competence and coherence — virtues that, rightly or wrongly, are still identified as pertaining to the male gender.”

Worse yet, a fine must be paid.

The judges seemed not to take up the prickly issue of whether or not Alberto did in fact, have balls, either literally or figuratively.

Boris Johnson, the current Mayor of London and bon vivant of the 2012 Olympics, once famously said that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher “had balls.”

Surely he was speaking of the figurative type which would indicate that true gravitas is hardly associated with what is, or is not, below one’s belt.

In our overly litigious world, perhaps Vittorio should have held short with the less onerous admonition:

“That wasn’t very ballsy.”

 

Sources:  Telegraph and Daily Mail

Posted by on August 2, 2012 • Filed under: Words • Tagged:

Headline of the Month

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Traffic signs in New Zealand destroyed by prostitutes performing stunts

New Zealand?  Go, Kiwis.

The Telegraph reports that neighbors in a South Auckland neighborhood have had it with sex workers using street signs as impromptu poles to advertise their trade.

One elected official reported that some forty signs have been bent or broken, saying, “Some of the prostitutes are big strong people.”  Indeed.

Perhaps “Merge Here” is the most popular.

 

Posted by on July 17, 2012 • Filed under: Words