Hello, Dr. E. here. Follows a candid essay by jdledell asking a question that more often arises in masters Ethics classrooms than in media, a question that goes something like this: Does who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter, depend on the politic of the ones who are looking? Or is there some more productive way to understand time-bracketed agressions? I recall the same issue being raised about Golda Meir and about Arafat, both of whom were considered terrorists in earlier years and in...

I am wondering why I can’t get clear confirmation on answers to certain questions: 1. If a ‘no fly zone‘ has been put into place over the hemorrhaging oil line in the Gulf, who ordered that? The US government, or British Petroleum or whom? 2. Have there been people arrested in that area, and how many, and for what reasons? Who exactly has ordered that citizens or reporters/ photographer be arrested if they do their work on site, and why? 3. Who, by name and affiliation, has contributed...

Whether it’s Africa for African-Americans, Mexico, Central and South American for Latino US citizens and naturalized citizens, China for Chinese refugees who fled to the US, or any group, ANY group, we’ve all heard someone say it, or else been the recipient who it was aimed at: Go home, you $^#% immigrant. Go home if you dont like it here. Go home if you cant look like me. Go home if you’re smarter, faster than me. Go home if you think you’re going to tell me what to do/...

I’ve watched the msm and blogosphere erupt over something one of my favorite US citizen crones, Helen Thomas, said, (Barbara Bush being one of my other most favorite plain-speaking, humor filled but serious champs). Over the decades, I’ve also heard other media workers express extremely biased condemnations, unsupportable opinions and polarizing and ugly ideas, including what tortures and deaths people they disagree with should be forced to… but these comments occurred behind...

From teaching in prisons and penitentiaries for many years, I’ve seen psychopathic behavior up close. Some prisoners, one wonders why they are there …for their minds are clear and hearts are good, but they made a terrible mistake somewhere, or a true injustice was created. But one kind of incarcertated person is the epitome of decay. I don’t know if Joran van der Sloot falls into this category. But, here are some of the main characteristics of a psychopathic personality for you...

You’ve likely had a good dog say a blue tick, or a cat who you gladly wore as a nightcap, or any pet you cared for who was either suddenly killed, or spiraled down in old age. If/ when the time came to ‘put the child down’, most all of us pre-grieved and grieved after, even though the spirit of the creature, the furry relative’s spirit, remained nearby somehow for many. What takes us down about innocent people and creatures we know or see up close, or sometimes even from...

Amid reports as yet unverified that Britbitch Petroleum has attempted to keep journalists and photographers from covering its egregious damage to human beings, land, water and creatures –by alledgedly threatening to arrest them if they try to enter or fly over the sticken land… photos are coming out anyway. I memorialized at TMV last week the Deepwater Eleven, the 11 family men who lost their lives in the BP Deepwater well explosion… an explosion that didn’t leave bodies...

If you are a praying person, please join my friends and me in saying a remembrance prayer for the women, nurses, and female soldiers who have served, and for those who are deployed right now. The face of the military has changed dramatically in the last 25 years, and as you know mothers, sisters, daughters are now also in direct harm’s way. For instance, this weekend, in pow wow ceremonies Lori Piestewa whose company was ambushed near Nasiriyah, Iraq, will be remembered again in solemn ceremonial...

As a Commissioner for Special Needs District in Boy Scouts of America and a military wife for 21 years of a partially disabled (USAF, ret.) vet, there’s a lot of behind the scenes others may not know about regarding Memorial Day. I’d like to tell you about this low-key but special action about this Veteran’s Day that you’re unlikely to read in national or local media. You can be proud of many of our very young…. that Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts across the nation have...

This photo is one of a series of a young US soldier in WWII trying to save a badly wounded person with mouth to mouth, trying to breathe for lungs that cannot breathe on their own. He is not able to save the person. In the last photo shown here, the so very young medic closes the eyes of the dead with a grimy and gentle hand. On this day Memorial Day, I see the parades and the well earned honors. But as a post-trauma specialist who has worked with veterans of war in recovery since 1965, I see the...

The photo shows a group of Japanese US Citizens who were living and working in Europe during WWII. They have just been rounded up and brought back by ship from where they lived in Europe, now to be interned in a Japanese Internment Camp in the USA. The newspaper that ran this photo said the 158 “internees” didnt want their pictures taken. The paper also noted that in the front is a white woman holding a child who is married to a Japanese man. Hawaiian and Anglo women and a few men...

THE DEEPWATER ELEVEN… … Aaron Dale Burkeen was turning 38, a landmark for a young man… no longer so young, but not middle aged, that sort of ‘tween’ stage of adulthood. His wife Rhonda, his son Timothy a lively six year old, his teenage daughter Aryn, looked forward to it too. Dad had to work the rig, but that was ok. There would be a special celebration. All his friends and family were planning to feast and have fun. Aaron never saw his 38th birthday. As a crane operator...

Hello there, Dr. E here: At a time when what the GOP actually stands for and who is truly invited to be deep in their tent besides those who can give money for various campaigns, and what the Democrats stand for and who is invited to be in the front row in their tent besides being solicited for dollars for their various campaigns (seven solicitations in today’s snail mail alone, some from each side, enough to make voters’ heads spin like Linda Blair’s)… I asked Rachel Hawkridge...

1. Goldman Sachs; in her wiki bio, it’s reported by USA Today she took a 10k honorarium in 2008. However, she was on an advisory panel which met once a year to discuss public policy issues and was not involved in any investment decisions, according to a DOJ spokesperson. 2. Personal life. As usual, some will look for anomaly a/k/a ‘enough sticky mud’ to outrage one constituency or another into giving money to defeat Kagan and all those perceived as Kagan-like… as a matter...

TECH BLESS: If you were a raptor and flew over the earth, you would see with your specialized eyes– many of the same amazements gigantic glass eyes of satellites see, they who fly on wings of steel. Sometimes humans are weak– but their technology is strong. Bless the tech that truly blesses us back. dr.cpe. See here, to view the many aerial views of your Mother in all her beauty and travails. http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/ NASA shows us the fires in Northern Washington, the vast bald terrain...

Izzy Rosen, whose profession has enabled him to learn a great deal about mob lore over the last 30 years…. “The bad guys’ had their ‘old Mafiosi on the East Coast, time, long ago. Below Rosen writes about the arrest yesterday of 14 members alleged to be part of the “Gambino crime family,” an old mob from New York. The U.S. Attorney and Federal Bureau of Investigation charged the fourteen with a rack of crimes over the last ten years, including these stated in...

There is an old tale told about The Soul-less Ones who live in a conclave under the foolsgold mountain. They are fallen angels and have turned to a life of thievery out of despicable lust for gold… so much so they would pry the gold teeth from the mouths of the dead, melt the golden rings of the bride and grooms waylaid on their ways to their first love-night after the wedding, strip the interiors of humble temples and churches of their meagre gold ornaments… and chisel all these into...

In our family, the old tales were told about “The Wise Men of Chelm.” It seemed that when the Creator was creating the world, the animals and plants and human beings, Creator also made villages surrounded by forests and mountains. Into each village, Creator placed a wise man and a wise woman and also one fool. However, by the end of creation, Creator had quite a few fools left over, and thus put all the leftover fools into one village, called Chelm. And thus the stories unfold about the...

A HEALTHY ROOSTER WITH COMB AND WATTLE INTACT Like many of you, I grew up in a small town (population 600). I like reading hometown news and sharing it with you, and that includes the most recent squall from Elkhart, Indiana. At first it seemed like another quaint “How naïve can you get?” article. But then it merges into a considerably more jolting issue that is behind police raids in states as disparate as California, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee, among others, and those...

HI there, Dr. E here. Immigration: Many of us hear not so distant thunder indicating that there will soon arise in full sight another engagement of over the bow broadsides between the tall ships regarding the issues of immigration. Though some think the issue is illegal immigration for it shows above ground so often; that is only a speck of poppy seed in the dirt pile. There are also grave issues of –the legal but unemployed, and – not well publicized ‘quotas’/ discriminations,...

To those who seek a pathway nearly occluded. To any who wake up… like an exultation of larks, seeing beauty most everywhere. To those who walk without skin. To those who walk wise-awake. Those who have kept a place for the sacrament of imagination. To those irked but who remember this planet is very young… and the soul is very old… in the next few days, I’ll post some pictures for respite, medicine for remembering. Til then, only this, one of my favorite assignments to give...

For months, we’ve heard almost more about who hates whom, who is or isnt an idiot, who is a racist, who isn’t, who is ‘pure’, who isnt, and it all appears far too often to have deteriorated into an ‘I am right and you are wrong, and epithet you.’ For months, we hear very little about and from those who love and care for others; ‘the Quiet People’; the people who aren’t interested in who showed up at the latest press-released rally; or what rock...

Hello there, and thanks CStanley for holding the fort by yourself and with good will regarding a debate elsewhere about Catholic Bishops meeting with Stupak. (see one of CStanley’s comments about this matter below in CODA) I teach on occasion at a Catholic hospital and am an oblate/ associate with the Sisters of Charity, Leavenworth, who run many hospitals nationwide. The more realistic characterization of the bishops and their meetings with whomever in government are far closer to CStanley’s...

There’s this secret that most published writers know, but dont often tell: That it is far harder to complete a book than it may be to publish a book. Seriously. How many people do you know who have elevendy-gillion unfinished book starts languishing in metal file drawers somewhere. Or just one book, started elevendy jillion times, but then set aside after page fifteen or page fifty, as life and other matters demand sustained attentions to family, work, health. There’s another secret...

THE GORGON AUNTIE, A Lost Story She has a midget husband. They lived in a clone trailer. She notices things. Like, she thinks every person has a different color mouth, and her words come out accordingly. She acts like she is bestowing highnesses and knighthoods as she shuffles to and from every silver shovel event, to fourth-rate art show, in her very pointy high heels, with her penciled on clown brows, her dusty white face powder over her skin five times darker, and her uneven lips, sometimes...