Here in the USA, it is Thanksgiving, a once a year gathering of the clans day, that some say was created when “separatists” who were oppressed in England, sailed across the ocean during storm season in the midst of winter 1620 and landed accidentally farther south on the East coast of North America instead of farther to the north where the Jamestown colony was already established. But, the time of rites of thankfullness in this season of the year, originated far before the 1600′s,...

Hi there, Dr. E. here, Some strongly question further erosion of our rights to privacy without the input or vote of the people by referendum. Many, regardless of political affiliation, libertarian, independent, Democrats, Republicans are enraged, especially those with children who are traveling this holiday. Here is a piece by New York City resident who travels much and minces no words. Disclosure: He is a long time friend who has in the past, during the 9-11 early days, written passionately with...

George W. Bush is asking the impossible of us: to consider his legacy without passion. In Decision Points, a plainly written tale of key moments during Bush’s presidency, we are offered an uncomplicated account of an uncomplicated man devoid of Oedipal issues with his father, a devout Christian who gave up alcohol when he realized it was starting to control his life, a loyal friend who hung on to advisers longer than he probably should have because he didn’t want to hurt their feelings. This...

A Small Fraction of a Man Saturday 13 November 2010 by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed George W. Bush was all over my television this past week, all over the newspapers, and the feelings inspired by his sudden reappearance are almost beyond my capacity to describe. There was the story about his hearty approval of waterboarding. There was the story that had him contemplating dropping Dick Cheney from the administration. There was the story that had him describing himself as a “dissenter”...

Pilots, truck mechanics, provision officers, medics, translators, marksmen, nurses, photographers, many more. For many decades now. Not yet a town square with a woman mounted on a horse with a sword, unless it’s Joan d’Arc. Maybe someday. Parity. Yes, I know. Marksmen instead of markswomen. It’s ok. A real woman knows attention to the craft is more important than the title.

Much is made of the generals. Much is made of those who never were at the front lines. Much is made of those who sent the young directly to their deaths, straight into downhill fire on beaches, straight up over the foxholes into downhill artillery, straight into unmapped jungles filled with cave snipers… all knowingly decimating the front lines of the young. And the young, the so very young, the teenagers being the greatest bulk of soldiers in wars… the young went forward right into...

Much is going to be made in mainstream media that John Hickenlooper did not run one negative ad, while his opponent did the deed dirt at every ad turn. But that’s not a story any more than it is a story for a decent man not to beat his wife even though the man down the street does. What stands out in the race actually, is that there was no true contender in the race for governor in Colorado. Not if you have common sense, not if you know 2+2=4. It was between two undisputable family men, two...

It was a real disappointment … “the witch” masquerading as a ‘market consultant’ (yes, those witches are truly cunning disguising themselves as experts about the produce and fish sections of grocery stores) Christine O’Donnell (R), lost to New Castle County Executive Chris Coons (D). The Witch 44% thereabouts, and “The Castle” way way more. There’s something truly fairytale about this witch-castle tug of war. I mean, it would have been LEGENDARY,...

Down underground, looking like Velsaquez paintings of the workers of their time, the men have waited, no doubt with many stories to tell now. The first fellow’s been brought up. Now two, now three, now four, now five… May all others travel topside safely. Florencio Avalos was the first of 33 trapped miners to reach surface after being trapped half-mile underground for 69 days. His first name and surname could loosely be translated as ‘flowers floating downstream’…...

Yes, and the actual term is kidnapped children, not ‘child soldiers’… it’s kidnapped children forced by gunpoint from their families and forced to serve evil or else die if they try to run away. Hanging, and skinning the children who try to flee, burning them and hanging their remains to terrify human beings, is the favored act. It’s everywhere, Taliban, Somalia, Kenya, anywhere there are children –and people crazed by lust for war– and unarmed families....

I cannot speak for 9-11 survivors for I am not one. I am only a walker. A person who walks with people on the way back from hell. I can only give you my understanding of those whose staggering gait I know deeply. I’ve been a post-trauma specialist and psychoanalyst for forty years. I’ve worked with 9-11 survivor families, individuals and first responders from New York and New Jersey who survived or lost loved ones in the 9-11 Trade Center bombing, as well as working with 9-11 survivor...

I cannot speak for 9-11 survivors for I am not one, but I can give you some windows to look through that most have never seen… Recently, there was much blather on television by various women and men about keeping the ‘sanctity’ of the 9-11 bomb site where so many souls were killed by nineteen murderers. Keeping the sanctity? There’s a reason that all these trout-pout commentators hog the discourse. Those directly afffected by 9-11 who themselves escaped or/and who lost...

ACT GREAT by the Persian poet Muhammad Hafez What is the key To untie the knot of your mind’s suffering? What is the ‘secret’ secret To slay the crazed one whom each of us Did wed And who can ruin Our heart’s and eye’s exquisitely tender Landscape? Hafez has found Two emerald words that Restored Me That I now cling to these two words as I would cling to the sacred tresses of my Beloved’s hair: Act great. My dear, always act great. What is the key To untie the knot of the mind’s...

Laying down to catch the sun… These children from age infant to 13 years old were killed during a holiday party, which was held during a bitter labor strike by their parents who were copper miners in Michigan. The miners had been on strike for five months to gain more than $3.50 per day wages, lowering of 10 hours a day required work in a crouch, and to gain more safety inside the mines for the workers. The mine owners refused to recognize them, refused to bargain, and the Calumet Michigan...

Dear Readers: Dr. E., here. This is a tag team article by myself and Shaun Mullen. Below, his article re rubble of higher education I’d preface his good writing by commenting ON MONEY how noticeable it has become: the cost of a university education is out of reach of the average middle class citizen… without encumbering oneself or one’s family for many decades after graduation. A person ought not have to pay the price of a new hou$e in order to get an education and yet once graduated...

The Koch brothers are all the news, David and Charles… along with what some call their ‘libertarian’ based outpouring of money so much of which is ‘heavily weighted giving’ to protect their own business interests: oil, lumber, formaldehyde. Well, they earned it. They can give it to whom they wish. Within the law. But some choices seem puzzling. And I dont mean the amounts of sugar poured into tea party-like groups such as one David Koch helped to found: Americans for...

Hello there, Dr. E. here. We no longer call people ‘crip’ unless a person nicknamed themselves that… we no longer call people ‘that poor crippled person’ … and until we find a better phrase, we say people who need accommodations to have full access to life, ‘people with special needs.’ I’m one of the Commissioners for the first Special Needs District of Boy Scouts of America. We have vibrant boys with cerebral palsy, head injuries, autism, and...

Jack Horkheimer, the little guy with the bad toupeé, Chaplinesque voice and strange name… who stood against a green screen while making it look to TV viewers at home that he was standing and broadcasting from outer space…. well Mr Horkheimer, the earthling beloved by many, has died at age 72 from a respiratory illness. He was the creator and host of the PBS show “Star Gazer” and popularized naked-eye astronomy. He was also director emeritus at The Miami Museum of Science...

The above photograph of Aisha is by South African photographer Jodi Bieber for Time. Unusual Choice for Magazine Cover: A Reality Hard to Face/ Speaking to Children About The Cover This week, Time magazine’s managing editor Richard Stengel, blew out all stops for usual old school magazine propriety, and published a magazine cover that, when I saw it at the grocery store last night, I also saw a mother cover her child’s eyes as they passed the magazine rack. I understood. The cover shows...

He was born in 1944 near end of WWII right before men and women coming home from one of the most brutal wars that ever was. A ‘tween’ during Korean War. Twelve years old when Hungarian Uprising was broadcast on television for weeks on end in 1956. A teenager during Selma and slaying of civil rights workers, a young man eligible for VietNam War, which was also the first time a war had been broadcast so broadly and deeply on television. Judge Walker was a Midwesterner, small town, Watseka,...

Mr. Stone: Perhaps you’ll read about the Yalta and Pottsdam meetings and agreements and put them in with no spin, into perspective in your film. In our family, who were survivors of both Hitler’s and Joe Stalin’s armies: we know the story already, lived it in full, but please do not distort it as though there ought be sympathy for Hitler and Stalin or anyone else colluding in slaughter. That would be wrong. And dishonoring of the memory of the Blessed who died so easily and yet...

I am the queen of the world, and I alone influence all media daily. Mr Gandelman is but one of my trusted subjects. I am the one who gives marching orders to him to distribute to all media everywhere in the world to do MY bidding. Surely this is women’s work to butt into everyone’s lives at the highest levels. Mr. Gandelman just said he was the one controlling all media in order to protect me. Though he is a Jew, I am a Catholic, and Catholics are first century Jews who believe a little...

In response to Jerry Remmers article by same name… He recommends, in a comment, another perspective besides instant condemnation of unknown people on this ‘list’ of alleged ‘violators on immigration laws.’ Remmers recommends that others ought consider walking in the shoes of those on “the list”: In response to commenters supporting the publishing of a private list, really across the blogosphere, “Fine.” says Remmers, [then] Give us your full...

The following was written by a friend who was there in war. And there. And there. Long time military man, a Colonel, USAF. Now a grand elder. More about who he is really is, at bottom of page. “The Fourth does bring back some pretty strong memories as I’m sure it does for all of us. Flying a Four Ship, Missing Man Formation over the Clark AB Parade Field in F-4s on POW/MIA Recognition Day, arriving at the correct moment to fly over the parade right on time and see Ship #3 pull up...

Hi there, Dr. E here. In circles where Richard Lamm, former Governor of Colorado, suddenly calls himself an ‘environmentalist’ as one who seemingly believes that certain humans are pollutants to the environment, and thus runs for (and is defeated soundly) for a seat on the Board of the Sierra Club… and also in our times, suddenly, conservative Christians claim it’s God’s command to them to ‘take care’ of the environment from the Biblical viewpoint, meaning...