NPR has a terrific and nuanced story on a difficult and challenging topic. One issue to dispose of right away, the story is headlined Two Families Grapple with Sons’ Gender Preferences, which may suggest to some that those boys make a choice about their gender identity.

As their story makes clear, little choice is involved. To people of my sexual identity (I self-identify as gay) using the words gender identity in the title would be more precise. Please forgive the quibble and let’s move on… Why on earth would any child ever choose to go through this:

Bradley had always had a preference for girls’ things. From his earliest days he had chosen girls’ dolls, identified with female characters and gravitated toward female children. But Carol had never thought to care. As far as she was concerned, it wasn’t a loaded gun; it wasn’t a lit cigarette. She says it had really never crossed her mind to say, “I’d really rather you played with a truck.” […]

It was a single event that transformed her vague sense of worry into something more serious. One day, Bradley came home from an outing at the local playground with his baby sitter. He was covered in blood. A gash on his forehead ran deep into his hairline.
Read the rest of this entry »

A small reprise, given Shaun Mullen bringing news of the possibly suspicious suicide of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 52, recently found guilty of racketeering, money laundering and other charges for running an escort service that drew many customers including one well known government official, Louisiana Senator David Vitter (R).

The small piece of real estate at the V of the human body
If I were from Mars, I would wonder why human beings concentrate so hard on what I once heard another human being refer to as the “real estate” of the body… those ‘parts’ without armor that occur at the V: where legs and torso join.

Modern humans seem to often focus on this one tiny area on their bodies to the exclusion of all the rest of the body.
–What about the ears?
–The head?
–The brain?
– The heart?
There must be something about these other ‘parts’ too, that is as vital to humans as food and water?

But… in fact, perhaps it is the death of the life force flowing through the ‘parts,’ at the V of the trunk of the body, rather than loss of brain or heart activity, that causes a real death of another kind in human beings.

From a Martian point of view, it seems so, given how humans who have experienced sexual ‘bed death’ sometimes seem to walk about like a house with all the lights broken out.

Still, the focus humans place on building barriers and boundaries… about how, when and where those ‘parts’ at the V are used … and by whom, seems odd.

Human beings don’t seem to mind
if people see eye to eye.
They don’t mind if people go toe to toe.
They don’t mind if people are cheek to cheek
or elbow to elbow.

They don’t even seem to mind if this little piece of real estate at the V of the body is groomed, plowed, seeded, exchanged… or mostly whatever else… amongst consenting grown ups, as long as it is accomplished free of charge.

On Earth, money for sex causes huge reactions in humans, while selling the soul for money, or losing the soul because of it, goes without comment

To the Martian mind, it is puzzling that only when money is exchanged over these tiny clefts and prongs of the human body, that humans on Earth seem to fly up into the air with huge flapping excitements and horrifications… usually reserved for chickens…

and suddenly many trackers are summoned to hunt for those who have touched this ‘part’ to that ‘part’ over dimes and dollars… or a king’s ransom.

Meanwhile, the humans who have presumably ‘not done this,’ begin generating stacks of papers and scribes to write it all down in detail, about who by name, and how and where, and how much…

but not much of a reasoned ‘why?’ or ‘how far down does this reach to soul and psyche in the culture, that includes more than just details of ‘parts?’ ‘…and the money to purchase time on, in, over, under, with those ‘parts’…

And the same humans pay battalions of uniformed people a thousand times more money, often, than was exchanged in the one original ‘real estate transaction’ …to arrest these horrible ‘real estate developers’ and make them stop.

As a human, I don’t support the idea that adult females … or adult males be involved in detached endeavors, sexual or otherwise.
Read the rest of this entry »

There is a persistent tendency amongst people (all people, not just Americans) to deny their group or nation’s role in oppression or atrocities — something I discovered recently when I observed that the U.S. has, in fact, supported terrorism in Central America (the death squads of the 1980s). Denial is a tempting emotion. But it is also exceedingly dangerous, and lays the ground work for the reiteration of mass atrocity worldwide.

Does a dictatorship that has outlawed freedom of the press have the standing to criticize the ‘journalistic ethics’ of American reporters? That is the question one must grapple with when reading through Beijing’s latest blistering attack against CNN host Jack Cafferty ‘and his ilk’ for referring to the Chinese regime as ‘goons and thugs’ and calling Chinese goods ‘junk.’ Paradoxically, now the Chinese authorities appear to be criticizing Washington Read the rest of this entry »

A year after the massacre at Virginia Tech by the troubled Cho Seung-Hui, what has been done to address the root causes of that event - the worst at any American educational institution? Dietmar Ostermann writes for Germany’s Frankfurter Rundschau, “The debate over gun control erupts loudly and often, yet it’s a discussion without consequences. The way people with psychological problems are handled, however, is a silent scandal. Even after Blacksburg, American society is so uncomfortable with the topic that it was quickly suppressed.”

Ostermann goes on, “Even more than the U.S. mania for weapons, this bloody killing spree represents the often tragic consequences of a system in which mental suffering is not only ignored - it is criminalized.”
Read the rest of this entry »

With its perpetually (and historically) rocky relationship, the Arab and European worlds have seldom met in a peaceful manner (or without suspicion) during the past half a millenium ever since the downfall of the Moorish civilization in Spain. In this context the on-going London Book Fair, with the “Arab World” as guest of honour and Arab writers present in force, provides yet another opportunity to build a bridge between the two worlds.

The Independent writes: “Imperial bureaucrats, soldiers and scholars on one side; radical nationalists, pious militants and oil-rich oligarchs on the other – all have had their various axes to grind, and to wield. Now, perhaps, the writers of the Arab world can begin to find a voice in the West again. It’s always easier to love distant stars when they can shine, plainly and legibly, on the page in front of us.

“The (London) fair will be the culmination of a long-term plan, steered by the British Council, to forge firmer cultural bonds. And, although he comes from far beyond the Arab world (and writes in English), the Afghan author Khaled Hosseini’s double coup in topping the UK charts both with The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns has helped to put a spring in the step of everyone who wants to widen the readership for literature from the Middle East and North Africa.

(The Kite Runner novel was the third best-seller for 2005 in the United States, according to Nielsen BookScan. It’s been published in 38 countries, translated into 42 languages, turned into an Oscar-nominated movie – and sold more than 10 million copies — one of the publishing industry’s greatest success stories. Now the search is on for the next big thing to come from the East. The Kite Runner is a 2007 Academy Award-nominated film directed by Marc Forster based on the novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini (click here for more…)

“In the Gulf, lavishly funded new competitions such as the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the ‘Arab Booker’) and the Sheikh Zayed Awards have signalled the intention of the emirate of Abu Dhabi to build up its name as a global centre of culture. Not to be outdone, and fretting perhaps at its current reputation as the world capital of bling, neighbouring Dubai begins a new literary festival next year. Also in Abu Dhabi, the Kalima translation project has launched an ambitious, state-financed programme to bring, at the rate of 100 per year, classic and contemporary books from around the world into Arabic for the first time and to distribute them across the region. ” More here…

I lived in London during the mid-1970s. I extensively covered there a major “World of Islam Festival” for The Statesman newspaper in India. The festival was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. “As far as anyone can remember, such an attempt had never been made before—and probably could not have been. It is only recently that one civilization has been capable of looking at another civilization objectively, rather than as a potential rival or convert. Read the rest of this entry »

In this TMV blog I keep writing occasionally on subjects that have an important role to play in increasing positivity in discussion and debate on matters related to politics. After all what is politics?…Surely, not just the circus where politicians are the key players. Politics percolates down to, and influences, health, education, art and culture…In fact all spheres of life.

As India dreams of (and works towards) joining the big league of powerful/”developed” nations, there are many individuals/institutions that have raised pertinent points as to whether we are headed towards the “right” direction. The big questions relate to the need to retain the vitality of the social fabric and ensuring social equity in this mad race to reach the high GDP targets.

Recently, I came across two write-ups on these concerns, as also about the role of media, by those who have earned a name for their contribution in the field of education and social welfare in India. The first is by Madhav Chavan of “Pratham”, an NGO that was recently given The Hewlett and Gates Foundations Award $9 Million towards its “Read India Campaign”. To read Chavan’s article please click here…

(The grant supports Pratham’s “Read India” initiative, which is working in conjunction with Indian state governments to help ensure that children between the ages of 6 and 14 achieve basic mastery in these skills by the end of 2009. The grant to Pratham will improve basic learning skills in 100 districts of India, touching 10 million children spread over 10 states for three years.)

The second article is by a sensitive young lady concerned at the questionable priorities of the mainstream media. Writes Snigdha Jain:

— Rush-hour murder on Kalkaji street, April 8, 2008
— Tibetan protests burn bright, Olympics torch put out in Paris, April 8, 2008
—Gurgaon pub brawl injured two pilots and their friends, April 7, 2008
— Rape and murder of British teenager, April 6, 2008

“This is all that I get to read in the newspaper and see on the news channels everyday. The news that creates vibes or sells has to be related to crime or political gimmicks. All my mornings begin with reading about incidences of rape, murder, bomb blast, riot, suicide and so on. On the one hand, it instills a certain degree of fear in me but, on the other gives me a sense of comfort that I am not one of the victims. But, is it really so? Don’t we all get affected by things happening around us? Read the rest of this entry »

‘NO SMOKING’

Will it be possible to persuade Western governments and public opinion that China is the victim of Tibetan ‘running dogs’? In this op-ed from Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po, published before the voyage of the Olympic torch began, Hong Kong television commentator Dr. Qiu Zhenhai explains how the Beijing government can turn the public relations battle in its favor. Far more reasonable - even to the point of admitting error on the part of the Chinese government - the key, according to the author, is to understand the flaws and contradictions in Western thinking and to mount a massive new public relations campaign.
Read the rest of this entry »

Is the United States imagining a world in which Russia poses a threat, or is it actually a threat? Mikhail Taratuta, the former host of a Russian television show about America writes for Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, ‘Sociologists, psychologists and psychiatrists make reference to a notion called a “second reality.” This isn’t reality itself, but rather a person’s perception of reality. … When we hear that the real objective of America and the West is to pull Russia down and keep it on its knees, how should we interpret this? Is it a cynical lie put forward for some sinister political purpose - perhaps to mobilize society to create the image of an enemy? Or are these the sincere words of people living in a “second reality,” where we already visited once upon a time?

By Mikhail Taratuta*

Translated By Igor Medvedev

March 24, 2008

Kommersant - Russia - Original Article (Russian)

Sociologists, psychologists and psychiatrists make reference to a notion called a “second reality.” This isn’t reality itself, but rather a person’s perception of reality. Thirty years ago when I first went to America, I was confident that I would find all the signs of a decaying West as detailed in the Soviet press - unemployment, the suffering of working people, and so on. Read the rest of this entry »

In the Indian subcontinent the virtues/benefits of “selfless-giving” is not only woven into the religious/social/spiritual discourse in all religions from time immemorial, but commonly practised even by those whose financial position may be just above the subsistence level. Now a “scientific study” (from the very bastion of self-acquisitive culture) tells us that “money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it on someone else.”

“Spending as little as $5 (about 2.52 pence) a day on someone else could significantly boost happiness, the team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found,” reports Reuters. “Their experiments on more than 630 Americans showed they were measurably happier when they spent money on others — even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier. Indeed, although real incomes have surged dramatically in recent decades, happiness levels have remained largely flat within developed countries across time.”

More here…

“There are many references that support the concept of donation in Hindu scriptures. ‘Daan’ or ‘Daanam’ is the original word in Sanskrit for donation, meaning selfless giving. In the list of the ten ‘Niyamas’ (virtuous acts) Daan comes third. Daan, however, is the process whereby the good things in the universe are made to circulate in the whole community instead of being locked up in the stagnant individual centers, whether it is money, time, knowledge or actions; and daan is thus a means of breaking down the barriers of egoism. Therefore, when actions consisting of yagya, daan and tapas are performed, through such actions, both the individual and the society prosper in a sustainable natural environment. And this, we are told, is the ultimate goal of governance for all the good governments of the world.” More here…

For a somewhat academic piece on this subject please click here…

It is a sad story…typical of incidents that are not uncommon in some Pakistani cities/towns, as well as in some parts of India, especially northern India (and Delhi in particular). To read the first-hand account of sexual harassment narrated by a young woman/writer in the blog the Pakistan Spectator please click here…

Shockingly, many incidents of harassment take place in full public view. Many times the police is are silent spectators and least helpful (something to do with lack of proper sensitization/training on the subject and cultural reasons).

It is not that the leaders in the two countries are not aware of this shocking state of affairs. But even in their own minds this subject seems to be low down in their list of priorities. Did someone say we recently celebrated “International Year of the Woman”???? The media reports such incidents (one wonders whether only to titillate their audience). Their seems to be no concerted effort to create public awareness on this issue.

There have been incidents in India when the culprits were resoundingly thrashed or even lynched. The public is increasingly taking the law in its hands because the state machinery is not doing enough to check the growing menace.

Another dimension that deserves attention is the fact the before the partition of India into two in 1947, Indian and Pakistani cities (and big towns) had areas informally earmarked where prostitution was socially accepted. The logic was that it was better that the “drain flowed in one known part of the city”. Now with the sweeping ban on prostitution “the drain has begun to flow in different parts of the cities.”

Was there something beyond Eliot Spitzer’s ungoverned libido behind his breathtaking downfall? Andrei Fedyashin writes for Russia’s Novosti news service, ‘Spitzer had his career and family life taken down by the forces of political retribution … Only the naive can doubt that this was a pre-arranged “sex scandal.”‘ Pointing out that most of his Wall Street enemies were Republican, Fedyashin asks, ‘Who better to bring down, if not a Democrat and personal friend of Hillary Clinton, who had formally pledged to support her at the upcoming Democratic convention? As a governor, Spitzer is among one of about 800 so-called super-delegates, who may well decide which candidate will lead the party’s fight for the White House - Clinton or Barack Obama … Perhaps the explanation is that Hillary frightens Republicans far more than her party-comrade, Barack Obama?’

By Political Columnist Andrei Fedyashin

Translated By Igor Medvedev

March 14, 2008

Russia - Novosti - Original Article (Russian)

MOSCOW: Less than a week after a “sex scandal” erupted around the Governor of the State of New York on March 13, Democrat Eliot Spitzer announced his resignation on March 17.

Unofficially, on the day that The New York Times published the spicy details of his phone order for a “short brunette,” it was clear that Spitzer, who two years ago was thought to have a promising future as a likely Democratic candidate for the White House - had destroyed his political career and probably his family. She [the brunette] was “delivered” to the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, where the 48-year-old Spitzer spent the night before testifying to Congress. How badly everything turned out! Bad from a purely moral point of view and doubly bad in a U.S. presidential election year.

It later transpired that Spitzer had used the services of this brunette and other call girls through a certain company called the Emperor’s Club VIP, and over the last ten years had paid it over $80,000. And considering that he allegedly paid $1,000 for this one brunette, one concludes that he must have had 80 of them during this time. This is quite a propensity for variety - even in ten years.

In a nutshell, this is the tale of the downfall of the now-former governor of America’s third-largest state. And now, apart from having to completely quit politics, he stands accused of the “illegal promotion of prostitution,” since the call girl was dispatched from New York to Metropolitan Washington D.C. According to the laws of the United States, transporting someone across state lines to procure sex is an even greater offense than prostitution itself. Moreover, he may also be deprived of his right to practice law. Simply put, when it rains it pours.

If you are unfamiliar with Spitzer’s record and fail to take account of his backround, you might get the impression that these charges of “illegal sex” came like a bolt from the blue. Sex scandals in America, of course, are nothing new: Almost every second U.S. President has committed adultery, with John F. Kennedy - given his record of such transgressions - mastering his White House rivals. That’s to say nothing of Senators, House members and other governors.
But these scandals do differ. Some are more moderate while others hit like a thunder-clap. The Spitzer story is of the latter category. Since this is a presidential year it couldn’t have been otherwise. It’s embarrassing again to speak here of political hypocrisy in the United States. It’s so unfortunate to devalue this meaningful notion through such frequent repetition.

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with a startling array of global reaction to the Spitzer scandal

I was a full-time journalist for more than two decades. And have been a teacher for a decade now. I enjoyed the article below, especially as a weekend read…A welcome relief from the almost morbid fixation on thrills/sensationalism related to politics (as if nothing else matters in life!!!)…

“We never forget our best teachers - those who imbued us with a deeper understanding or an enduring passion, the ones we come back to visit years after graduating, the educators who opened doors and altered the course of our lives…” More here…

And while on this subject why not a discussion…please click here.

Yet another point of view…”What Makes A Good Teacher”… click here

Some international views…here…

If one were to put America on the couch and probe into the question of whether the country is ready for a Barack Obama presidency, what would be the results? In this ‘analysis’ by French psychoanalyst Daniel Sibony, the writer delves into some of the more disturbing aspects of what America REALLY thinks …

“Americans - subconsciously, of course - won’t like having a president named Barack Hussein. That is indeed his name, and they know, even if they also know that they shouldn’t mention it, that his origins shouldn’t matter. It’s in bad taste blaming someone for their origins. But ‘Hussein’ isn’t going away.”

By Daniel Sibony, writer and psychoanalyst*

Translated By Kate Davis

February 5, 2008

France - Liberation - Original Article (English)

Can we say that in France, there is a kind of consensus for Obama? Undoubtedly … Just as there was for Al Gore (and for others choices that the United States has not made). Drat, why don’t they listen to “us”?

In discussions here, the choice is unanimous: it’s Obama who wins; he’s clearly the one who’s needed. First of all, he’s Black, which is already very good, both for the Yankees he will lead from the White House and for the Whites here who choose him, Read the rest of this entry »

Whether calculated or not, Hillary Clinton’s comments while appearing to fight away the tears has incited a global debate. According to this editorial from Switzerland’s Le Temps newspaper, ‘for a female politician, it may also prove a persistent difficulty to prove that her expression of emotion is not a measure of her incompetence.’

By Stéphane Bussard

Translated By Kate Davis

January 10, 2008

Switzerland - Le Temps - Original Article (French)

Will the sudden outpouring of emotion from Hillary Clinton be a turning point in the American presidential campaign? Under the bright lights a few hours before the Democratic primary in New Hampshire, the senator from New York expressed her commitment to America with a tremor in her voice and eyes on the verge of tears WATCH . The country’s media has dissected this moment in the battle for the Democratic nomination, since up to that point, Hillary Clinton was perceived as a cold and calculating politician - an attitude that contrasted with those of Barack Obama or John Edwards, who don’t hesitate to talk openly of their family woes. Now Hillary has broken with the image of an American Iron Lady, stoic in the face of her health care reform failure or the scandal of the Lewinsky affair. This radical change in style, whether spontaneous or calculated, played a role in the candidate’s victory, which contradicted very unfavorable polls. But it doesn’t explain everything.

Fascinated by Obama, who in comparison to George Bush most fundamentally reflects a new beginning, we too-hastily brushed aside the aspects related to race and gender. According to Gloria Steinem, America’s leading feminist figure, Hillary Clinton could never have been able to adopt the public style of Obama - or of her husband Bill - without provoking the ire of the Washington establishment. When a woman cries in public, it’s a sign of weakness. For a man, it is a sign of courage.

Hillary’s toughness could perhaps be a result of a pathological thirst for power. All indications are that after her defeat in Iowa, she seems to have cracked. But for a female politician, it may also prove a persistent difficulty to prove that her expression of emotion is not a measure of her incompetence. Her support for the Iraq War is, according to some, is a way to prove her “masculinity.”

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US

We’re led to believe that New Year’s images are about the Old Year going out as a bent over old man…

and the New Year toddling in as a grinning infant.

That’s what the buycandy buywine buybeer folks would have us believe.

But those are degraded images. Long ago, there were far brighter symbols for this ending of one revolution and beginning a new revolution of earth around sun…

Long ago, the child of ‘the new year,’ was named Dionysus; and as an infant he was carried about by the old men Silenus and Hermes.

Back in that day, the child Dionysus, was born at this time of year …when the dark is lifting and the light of day is growing longer… and that child represented bright new life, fresh imagination, sunny impetuosity, joyous spirit without end.

Though in late forms, he was devolved into the God of drunkenness, in earliest understanding he stood for the kind of psychic intoxication that comes from knowing what could be called the et Deus, the God in all things.

And the old man who carried the child in his arms, represented the senex, the old wise man; the one who had lived long, who knew the preciousness of new life, the locations of the trip and fall places, the detours and long-cuts, the underground pathways through… and he was the child’s protector.

Long ago, the child and the old man were not separate ideas, but one. The older one did not die in order to be replaced by the younger. Instead, they represented a hieros gamos of sorts, a sacred union… two critical aspects of inner nature, that when melded, created a third: a conscious and awakened psyche.

And, only if one were severed from the other, disorder would follow. Each would falter, eventually go awry, then sicken and die… for lack of their life’s work with their balancing opposite.

In our time, in reality, many older persons remain in high spirit by creating deep friendships with the very young, and/or with ideas and attitudes that carry fresh vitality.

In our time too, many of the young feel they are living in the shelter of a mountain, because they are near the heart of an elder who is reasonably aged in love, loyalty, praise and prescience.

And, in each person’s psyche, regardless of spare number of years lived, there is a senex function too. Even in the very young, there is a source of wisdom, uncanny and reliable, if it is sought out.

In the psyche too, despite a person’s gathering decades, there is also an eternally young spirit, one that never, ever, grows old. Thus, even in the frail old, there is a source of leaping in spirit, of laughing, of creating anew daily.

New Year’s was once that time when people turned to consciously ‘remember’ themselves once again. They strove to rejoin this duality of the senex and the puer in themselves… after a long year of being worn down and away from center… having been in some ways ‘parted out’ from true self… But now, they would seek to join one valuable aspect of the core self, to another venerable aspect of human dignity…

rejoining the steady to the spontaneous;
the arid to the empathic;
the thoughtful to the impetuous;
the longing for life, to the life spark itself…

Where I grew up, in just a very few weeks from now, you’d tramp way out into the fields in preparation for disking new ground. You’d clean and then open the sluice gates on the creek, letting the new water join the old water

… and you’d see how this made the old water leap
…and you’d see how it let the new water learn to follow good currents never before known …

So may it be for you.
So may it be for me.
So may it be for all of us.

Blessed New Year dear readers.

(photos on next page)

There was a fight on the Q train. The last car was filled with people rolling toward Brooklyn.

A young man, accompanied by his girlfriend, had just been wished Merry Christmas by another group on the train.

The young man happily answered back with, “Happy Chanukah.”

That’s when all hell broke loose.

One of a group of other young people on the train immediately hiked up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo of Christ. Fourteen men and women jumped the “Happy Chanukah” man, yelling, “He said, ‘Happy Hanukkah, that’s when the Jews killed Jesus…’ dirty Jews and Jew bitches.”

Much screaming, bellowing, blood loss and broken bones later…

The man who said “Happy Chanukah” is Walter Adler, 23, an honors student at Hunter College, who now has a broken nose and a split lip.

He had managed to pull the emergency brake as the train was hurtling toward DeKalb Ave. station

A horde of police came aboard. They arrested 10 people, charging six with assault and four with unlawful assembly.

Two of the men arrested that night have been arrested for race crimes before.

There’s a back-story: In the midst of the melee, Adler thought, “I’m bleeding all over the place, there’s lots of people, why isn’t anyone else doing anything?”

But one stranger on the train had risen to help. And he flailed away for all he was worth to help protect Adler as best he could. A bantam-weight man from Bangladesh. A young soul studying to be an accountant. His name is Hassan Askari. He is 20 years old.

Hassan Askari has two black eyes from the fight. But he also has a new friend. Adler.

Adler says Hassan is a hero. Hassan says his parents taught him to help those in need.

Like many a persons who, when faced with sudden threat, and through whom fierce angels suddenly surge , whatever one would call that Force of those moments of tension, that Force retreats when the threat is past….

leaving just the humble human form standing there, mumbling things like Hassan is saying now, “I just did what I had to do.”

And the ones who assaulted the travelers? Thus far, six were charged with assault, four with unlawful assembly. There may be additional charges.

from the NYPost by Jennifer Fermino, Erika Martinez and Peter Cox

One of those collared straphangers yesterday denied making anti-Semitic taunts and said his mother is Jewish.

Joseph Jirovec, 19 - the son of a city firefighter who is currently serving in Iraq - has pleaded guilty to a 2005 bias crime against blacks.

“We are not racist against Jewish people. That whole hate-crime thing is ridiculous,” Jirovec said.

He claims Adler’s group was drunk and taunted his group, and one yelled, “We killed Jesus.”

Jirovec will soon begin serving six months for his role in the attack against four men in Gerritsen Beach.

“I’m trying to stay out of trouble,” he said. “When I get out, I want to go into the military.”

(I sense what some readers might be thinking. Me too.)

Below are some of the pictures of the alleged attackers:

But, before we go there, just this. As you may have deduced, Hassan the brave Bangladeshi is a Muslim. And of course, Walter Adler is a Jew. And in that effusiveness that is beautiful, and for which many a Semitic person is known, Adler said… “A random Muslim guy jumped in and helped a Jewish guy on Hanukkah - that’s a miracle…”

Let us all who wish to, hold the thought that someday, in our lifetimes, such a matter will NOT be a miracle, that it will instead, be only USUAL and ordinary. And blessed, as always.

Here is a video of Walter Adler (who is no weakling), his heartfelt lady friend, and a gentle Hassan Askari speaking about what happened. Many will like what Askari says about his way of seeing others through his Muslim faith. Many will like what Walter says at the end about transcending all the religious arguments that keep people on ’sides’ rather than in harmony.

Read the rest of this entry »

News today that members of Congress, including Nancy Pelosi, failed to protest when they were briefed about waterboarding and other harsh techniques of interrogation five years ago recalls the disturbing Milgram experiments of the 1960s.

A Yale professor wanted to find out how much pain people would inflict on others for what they believed to be a good cause.

“Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ strongest moral imperatives against hurting others,” Prof. Stanley Milgram reported, “and, with the subjects’ ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.”

We still don’t know the answer to that question, which was originally raised in an effort to see behind the Eichmann defense for Nazi atrocities during World War War II, “I was only following orders.” But we should keep trying to find out.

Today’s revelation about waterboarding further underscores how dicey individual morality can become under social pressure. According to the Washington Post, “officials present during the meetings described the reaction as mostly quiet acquiescence, if not outright support.

“‘Among those being briefed, there was a pretty full understanding of what the CIA was doing,’ said [Porter] Goss, who chaired the House intelligence committee from 1997 to 2004 and then served as CIA director from 2004 to 2006. ‘And the reaction in the room was not just approval, but encouragement.’”

Read more on my blog.

That the Justice Department and the CIA announced today, three days after it was first noted that ‘interrogations’ video tapes were missing, that they will probe destruction of taped interrogations… that may be less important to many of us, than this other issue….

There’s another critical reason why many of us who are shrinks want to retrieve and view, not just the two missing videotapes of CIA interrogations of two al Qaeda suspects, but many more of the tapes of so-called interrogations

Why? It’s our opinion that we think we will find sickening evidence that people of our own profession will be on those tapes, egregiously misguided or demented members of our own profession for whom the gloss of ‘being important’ to a government, has overwhelmed their decency utterly.

We think those tapes hold stomach-turning evidence that some in our profession have helped to ‘supervise, and predict and prophesy’ to those who are doing the direct torture –— the psychological breaking points of those being tortured.

The prestigious American Psychological Association has had so many important social justice outreaches over the decades, and so many good souls as members, (including those vociferously speaking out about what they see as APA’s ‘if/but’ defense and acceptance of torture under certain conditions)…. But, the APA may never recover from its public ambivalence about torture of human beings under President Bush’s administration.

That an organization of healers and helpers could not unequivocally step up and say, ‘We refuse to participate in any way to torture others,’ is surely the darkest moment in the profession worldwide since April of 1945.

Only the heart that is not stone, cries out. Only the mind that flows for life, cries out.

There is an old story my father used to tell about a war that came across the land. As the marauding tribe came across the mountains, the stones who loved the village people cried out that the enemy was on the way. Thus alerted by the cries of the stones, many villages were saved.

And this is why people have such love of mountains and magnitude, for they learned to be in each others’ protection.

Years of peace ensued. Then, one day another marauding tribe swept down out of the Urals with intent to find and pillage the peaceful farm families. The wicked riders stopped by a great lake to water their horses, clean their bloody swords in the water, and bath their blood soaked armor. But, the water cried out. “I am being defiled! Defiled, not by the sons of man, but by the sons of hell!”

And the villagers heard the water cry out and thus were able to save themselves.

This is why the people love to be near water, This is why they guard the water from harm, because of the troth that was made with water eons before… when water cried out to save the people, and thus the people and the water came into the protection of each other.

……..The misuse of water to misuse and harm humans: Defilement of all concerned, is just the right phrase.

Even when you think you have seen it all

Those of you who know me, know I’ve been a practicing psychoanalyst for decades. I’ve also served as Chair of the Colorado State Grievance board and as a member for more than 13 years… a board which, with the District Attorney’s office, hears monthly cases of mental health professionals who have been grieved against for allegedly violating standard practice, state law.

While 90% of shrinks are well trained and ethical, the 10% who aren’t, well, over those years on the Grievance Board, I thought I had seen it all.

Sexual intrusions on vulnerable patients by so-called professionals, sexual acts on children; crazy therapeutic techniques that have no treatment value in reality, one of them resulting in the death of a child at therapists’ hands, frauds of many kinds, bleeding patients for money, addicted psychology professionals, pushing suicidal patients into suicide, health insurance frauds, practicing outside one’s area of training and expertise, holding oneself out as a this, when in fact they were something else entirely.

But, I hadn’t see it all.

This past many years have been the saddest of times for those of us who are healers.

Never in our wildest dreams would we ever have imagined that the issue of torture would be put to us and that we would not as a group rise up en-masse to utterly and unequivocally condemn torture, no rationalizations or ifs, ands, or buts.

But, astonishing to anyone with a room temperature IQ and a sense of decency, that’s not what happened.

My colleagues and I had to definitively separate ourselves from ANY professional organization that holds itself out as a helper and healer of human beings, if that organization will NOT make a definitive statement condemning not only torture, including water boarding, but also far more shockingly, that publicly and privately allows their members the hideous option to, if they choose, PARTICIPATE in torture with the government.

Yes, you read that right.

There isn’t a set of words dark enough to describe this shame to our profession of healing and helping.

I don’t know a single shrink of conscience who supports any other psychologist, psychiatrist or psychoanalyst, for any reason whatsoever, to twist their and our professional/human promise “to help, and if they cannot help, to do no harm”…. into a poisonous brew of misguided faux-patriotism, financial gain from pulling down a government contract, and all that participating willingly in such nefarious and inhumane matters, points to.

Forgive me,

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Look, she’s on CNN tonight in the debates.

What do you call it when a person talks about how strongly they’ve made things work legislatively, despite obstacles that men have put in their way? Wouldn’t that be the Gender card?

What do you call it, when a person complains when media comments on their age, face, hairdo, manner of dress? Gender card, no?

What do you call it when a person gives extra thought to dressing in a way that is careful and thought out, sort of in the Goldilocks mode, not too soft, not too cold, but somehow ‘just right’ according to some formula kept in a safety deposit box at Fort Knox? This seems like Gender card being played.

What do you call it when a person carefully crosses their legs when seated and makes much of rearranging the folds of their clothes so nothing that shouldn’t be seen, isn’t? Seems like Gender card, doesn’t it?

What do you call it when a person puts their fingers delicately to their lips while they’re listening to other debaters? Gender card, right?

What do you call it when a person bats their eyes? Gender card?

What do you call it when a person is interrupted in the debate and smiling sweetly, they say some version of, ‘Come on you guys, I’m speaking.’ Definitely Gender card.

If these are playing the Gender card, then someone ought to tell all the male candidates to just quit it already. We’ve had enough of men playing the Gender card. Honestly. 200 years of men playing the Gender card. Geez. It’s SO over.

CODA
I know, I know, my try at comedy might not be ready for prime time? In my other life I just wanted to make people laugh. I hope you are. At least a little. And if you watch the debates, the batting of eyelids by all candidates goes on fairly consistently. It’s one of the body’s cues, actually, that a person is thinking and formulating. So, batting those baby blues, browns or greens, is actually a sign of lights on, yes, someone really is home in there.