Of Daisies And Couples

A sure sign of autumn: "Montauk" daisies in bloom, This group is located on the South side of the house, the side that gets the most sun, wind and salt spray, so they have to be hardy to survive.

Yesterday I attended a wonderful party thrown by two friends, Matt and John, who are celebrating their 30th anniversary as partners. The guys rented an entire establishment, the Tides bar, and provided guests with an open bar, drag show, and a full buffet dinner. Their families were present and Matt & John introduced them to the approximately 150 Grove friends who attended. It was a heartwarming and affirming celebration and a great way to cap off the season here in Cherry Grove. Congratulations Matt and John!

Jim

I wish more politicians were like this....

Ok, I won't babble about this Youtube video too much. Just take a minute to watch it. Don't you wish more politicians could looks their constituency in the face like this Mayor did and have the guts to do the right thing?



M

Why can't we leave Iraq???

This is a little shot I took in the Catskills a couple of weeks ago. I went into Upstate NY and to Howe Caverns. The Catskills are amazing and so are the caverns. It's like driving back into a much simpler time.
Being here makes me introspective. Just standing out and looking at a vista like this helps me think.

I got to thinking about why we should pull out of Iraq. Actually I was listening to Rush Limbaugh the other day and he actually kicked off the thought process in my head. Here's the exact quote from Limbaugh:

"There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."

I am not a fan of Rush Limbaugh nor do I agree with anything that he says. Oh, scratch that, I do agree with him when he uses pronouns to address people like he or she or their. Other than that, I don't agree with him.

So let me give everyone some reasons to pull out of Iraq:

1) Since I've started writing this blog post we've (the American people) have spent $20,000 in Iraq. The total cost of the American spending in Iraq in the time it takes me to write this blog post should be just under $100k.
2) The total we've spent thus far is $455,468,606,530. It'll be more by the time I finish this post. Are you fiscal Republicans getting this? Maybe this isn't such a good idea? Maybe we should be spending this on our infrastructure or on schools or on healthcare for poor kids that GW wants to cut.
3) My community, my city is on the hook for roughly $245 million so far for the war. I guess those new firetrucks, police cars and school safety belts will have to wait!
4) American deaths and wounded in the war is 27936. I know it's rough but I don't like "rounding down" human beings.
5) We've paid mercenaries like Blackwater millions to fight this war without observing basics like the Geneva Convention. $320 million to Blackwater thus far. I forgot that the State Department does not have to live with and abide by the Constitution. Oh yes, I guess they do!
6) We've essentially walked all over the Geneva Convention Protocols (there are four of them). This means our military could lose these important treaties if they need to actually protect us from a real threat.
7) We've killed and hurt thousands of Iraqis. Does anyone really think they'll be happy about this in the long run? Or are we just creating more people that want to kill Americans?
8) We still haven't caught Osama Bin Laden.
9) We also need to get out of Afghanistan.
10) We do actually need to speak to some neighboring countries like Syria. They probably aren't going anywhere soon.

Those are my top ten or more likely just a few good reasons. The best reason is that we shouldn't be killing people, period. We also don't have a clear military mission (recipe for a disaster) and we don't have an exit strategy. I worry that Republicans are so blind, they actually don't want to deal with the moral reasons or the fiscal one's. I'm also confused by Republicans on this little concept: what kind of metric do they have for success?

It's was time to leave Iraq after the first day of the war.

Marc

Democrats: The Iraq Occupation Will Continue

I share Marc's grave disappointment in the Democratic Party's leading presidential candidates (Clinton, Obama, and Edwards,) who will not pledge to end our occupation of Iraq. This is a national disgrace and a failure of leadership. It also raises the possibility of a third party anti-war candidate garnering substantial support, as Eugene McCarthy did in 1967 when a similar domestic political situation existed in regard to the Vietnam War. In that year, the leading Democratic Party candidate, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, would not distance himself from Lyndon Johnson''s war policies. Richard Nixon was elected president pledging to end the war. It finally ended in defeat for the United States, but not until Nixon's second term. Is history set to repeat itself?

PHOTO: The "Co-ops" in the Fire Island Pines, an example of the poor planning in that community. Beachfront development has taken place seemingly with no regard to preserving the dunes, the only protection that barrier islands have from storms.

Jim

It's not that simple....

I keep hearing this offensive dribble about pulling out of Iraq. The favorite line of the current administration as well as our future executives (Hilary, Barack, etc.) is "It's not that simple. We can't just pull out. We have to honor our committments." "We'll have to be there until at least 2013."

Such as? I missed that press conference when we made a solemn oath to the Iraqi people.

Fact is, we didn't. We don't belong there. We should be out tomorrow morning. Not 2 years from now, not 10 years from now. Now. For humanitarian reasons, for fiscal reasons and for common sense. I don't give a shit about a general's opinion; they are in the business of winning wars. They are not policy makers.

We need to shut this off, asap. I don't care about advertisements by political PACs, I care alot about why my tax dollars continue to fund mercenary armies against the will of the very people they are trying to subdue.

What really bothers me is that we have become a "gray America". There's no more right and wrong, black and white, just shades of gray. Gray isn't a bad thing when it means old age and maturity, unfortunately in the case of the United States it means a color between black and white.

Killing people is wrong, it is one of the few things clearly black and white and has been heavily documented by all faiths and societies as such. But in the new Gray America, it's ok to wage war based on a highly tenuous premise to actually protect the cash flow of another country (Saudi Arabia perhaps). We are in Iraq for oil. Sorry, hurting and killing other human beings is still wrong. Always has been and always will be.

Is it wrong to bring order to an area in chaos? Isn't that clearly a good thing? Well, no. First of all because the United States seems to be cherry picking the order and who it delivers from chaos based on strategic importance. If you saw 60 Minutes on 9/23/07 you saw a wonderful new base set up right near Iran. How is that going to deliver order from chaos?

So the Democrats have jumped on the gray bandwagon. Hilary and Barack and John are calling for the gray stuff to be poured all over their first term in office. They may need it to clean up the mess left by 8 years of Republican rule. However I think the gray thinking, the middle of the road thinking, the no right or wrong thinking creates a mess of it's own.

And the neat thing about gray is that it is a mix of black and white which is never "that simple". But voting is and the person that gets us out of Iraq and starts focusing on problems in our country with no alternate corporate agenda will most likely get my vote. Don't vote gray.

Marc

Fall On The Island

It's a beautiful time to be out here at he beach. The weather has been great with mild temperatures and little rain. Most days I take a couple of long walks and I can still swim in the ocean. The water remains warm, around 70 degrees. There's a cold front due in soon so maybe that will make it feel a little more like Fall than the end of summer.

Halloween comes a bit early out here in Cherry Grove. Since most of us close our houses for the season sometime in October, the pumpkins and other Fall decorations usually appear right after Labor day. This is a photo of our front window.

Jim

At The East End Of The Fire Island Pines

These three houses are situated on the ocean front at the far East end of the Fire Island Pines. It takes about 45 minutes to walk from our location in Cherry Grove to get to this point. The walkway is Sail Walk.

When we were renters in the Pines in the 1990s, we watched as the houses that existed on the two lots at the right were completely washed away by high surf. The owners struggled to save them, enlisting their friends and neighbors to place sandbags around the houses to no avail. Of course, the houses were completely rebuilt subsequently. The house on the left in the picture above was damaged but survived.

Jim

Catching Dinner

This is our neighbor, Mark Atten, out early in the morning yesterday attempting to catch something for dinner. This is a good time of year for fishing. Mark is a year round resident of Cherry Grove who earns his living as a builder.

Jim

"We Don't Have Gays In Iran" - Ahmadinejad

From the New York Times:

In response to a question about homosexuality, Mr. Ahmadinejad was
initially evasive, instead talking about the death penalty, which, he pointed
out, exists in the United States: “People who violate the laws by using guns,
creating insecurity selling guns, distributing guns at a high level are
sentenced to execution in Iran. Very few of these punishments are carried out in
the public eye.”
Pressed by Dean Coatsworth on the original question about
homosexuality, Mr. Ahmadinejad said: “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in
your country. We don’t have that in our country.”
The audience booed and
hissed loudly.
“In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon,” Mr. Ahmadinejad
continued, undeterred. “I do not know who has told you that we have it.

Nice guest. When they find Iranian gays they execute them, so of course, they don't have this phenomenon in Iran.

Jim

More On Columbia And Ahmadinejad

Thanks to all who sent me private email comments.

It occurs to me that the University as an institution has core values, one of them being to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas. However, I question whether this value trumps other fundamental institutional values of the University, such as dedication to humanity, a value harmed, it seems to me, by the presence of such an individual on campus.

Also, the free exchange of ideas can still take place without the institution having to provide a forum to a particular individual. Someone else can make the same arguments thus saving the institution from having to provide a forum for a murderous or genocidal dictator, whether he be Hitler or Ahmadinejad.

John Stuart Mill not withstanding, as Stanley Fish pointed out, there can be no absolutes when it comes to speech.

Jim