Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Breeze meeting was long and drawn out, but we got through it. After, I ran up to B.J.'s and a few other places for errands. Didn't get home until after 3:00 and found a message from son Mike on the machine. He was calling from London (does he ever stay home?) and said he'd try later, but didn't. Later, when I checked on the World Clock, it was midnight there, so I didn't call him. Hope he'll get back to me today. Had to take a Percoset (I don't know how to spell it, but neither does Spellcheck) in the evening, as my mouth was a little sore.
Will interview the H.'s tomorrow for the July issue of the newsletter.
WIDER: From Rep. Ron Paul's essay ("More Blank Checks For the Military Industrial Complex") in AntiWar.com deploring allowing the ruinous expense of our wars of aggression:
"We spend more on defense than the rest of the world combined, and far more than we spent during the Cold War. These expenditures in many cases foment resentment that does not make us safer, but instead makes us a target. We referee and arm conflicts the world over, and have troops in some 140 countries with over 700 military bases.
With this enormous amount of money and energy spent on efforts that have nothing to do with the security of the United States, when the time comes to defend American soil, we will be too involved in other adventures to do so.
There is nothing conservative about spending money we don’t have simply because that spending is for defense. No enemy can harm us in the way we are harming ourselves, namely, bankrupting the nation and destroying our own currency. The former Soviet Union did not implode because it was attacked; it imploded because it was broke. We cannot improve our economy if we refuse to examine all major outlays, including so-called defense spending."
There it is, in stark terms. Okay, most of the public seems unmoved by the slaughter we're inflicting on people of other countries. Now, I wonder if consciousness of this ruinous expense--and that's exactly the term for it, "ruinous expense"--that goes with it and under which we're burdening ourselves (and our children, and their children, and theirs...) will penetrate their bleary-eyed somnolence.
Fat chance.

2 comments:

iloveac said...

I totally agree. It is overwhelming and depressing and I'm clueless as to what an individual can do other than stay aware.
I'm very disappointed in Obama (for whom I voted), and have been since he said we were going to Afghanistan...why???
Is there no one we can trust? It is scary, pitiful and amoral for us to continue our need for dominance.

Mimi said...

Yes, Pat, but I'm very much afraid there isn't a lot we can do about it. Those in the two parties are thoroughly corrupt and throughly committed to endless war, it seems.
You might want to check out Gleen Greenwald's essay on CommonDreams.org about the fact that there is NO DEBATE about our wars. It's horrifyingly true, but his words are so powerful, it brought home that fact to me more clearly than I had ever realized it before:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/24-9

SATURDAY

 Nothing much going on in the morning. Later, I walked to the P.O. to send some of the overseas Thanksgiving cards and check the weight of a...