Update no.335

Update from the Heartland
No.335
5.5.08 – 11.5.08
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/

To all,
We enjoyed a gathering of the clan to celebrate Mother’s Day. We had my Mother (the matriarch of the family), my Sister Melissa, my Wife Jeanne, our Daughter Jacy and her partner Tracy along with Aspen Shae & Shalee Lynn (moms to be, a long time from now!), and Taylor with his girlfriend Sherri and her son Jack. Jeanne’s friend and cruise-mate Cindy joined us and brought a yellow rose-bush. The only missing moms were Tyson’s Melissa along with Tyson & Judson James, of course, and Jeanne’s best-friend since childhood, Ginger. Our oldest Son Courtney remains in California. We had a magnificent spring day on the Great Plains to accentuate our enjoyment of the day. I hope all the moms out there had a glorious day as well.

The follow-up news items:
-- On Friday, 2.May.2008, Mildred Delores (Jeter) Loving passed away. The name may not be recognized by most citizens, yet we all owe her an enormous debt of gratitude. Mildred, and her husband Richard (who died in a 1975 car accident), were the reluctant, humble and private plaintiffs in a landmark Supreme Court case – Loving v. Virginia [388 U.S. 1 (1967)], issued nearly 41 years ago [175]. Why were the Lovings before the bar of our highest court? She had dark skin pigmentation and he did not, and the law of that day in Virginia and 15 other states prohibited their marriage. May God rest her immortal soul; we are enormously grateful for her courage.
-- Iraqi special security services reported the capture of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri, AKA Abu Hamza al-Muhajer [236] and successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, during a targeted raid near Mosul – another success however small.
-- An opinion from a columnist whom I respect:
"The messenger who killed the message" [334]
by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
Miami Herald
Posted: Sunday; 4.May.2008
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/story/518864.html

Neo-con talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been espousing his so-called Operation Chaos project during most of this silly season, where he advocates registered Republican voters participate in Democratic primaries in states that permit cross-over voting – a legal but disgustingly cynical activity. I denounce Limbaugh’s advocacy of such conduct as well as all those who succumbed to his Siren’s Song of primary interference. The political selection process is divisive enough without adding such malfeasance to the equation.

I have not said much about the current credit-crisis, sub-prime mortgage fiasco, and general economic malaise gripping this Grand Republic and a goodly portion of the planet. I hold no ill-will toward anyone grappling with mounting debt, upside-down mortgages, and escalading credit payments. I do not want anyone to be homeless or to lose their property. However, the vast majority, if not all, of the mortgage foreclosures are self-inflicted wounds. I do not believe anyone coerced signatures to the loan papers. Now, with all the presidential candidates pandering to those who gambled-and-lost, I must raise my voice in objection. Using public funds to make good, ill-advised risks is nearly as obscene as the largesse of earmarks – more suckling at the public teat. We have heard stories on the news of various hard-luck stories and success going bad. All I care to say is, I’m sorry for your mistakes. Now, to be candid and forthright, years ago we tried an ‘adjustable rate mortgage;’ seemed like a good idea at the time. Long story short, we learned our lesson, paid the price, and will NEVER do that again . . . and, I advise all who will listen to never sign up for more than you can afford no matter how good the conditions may seem. We are experiencing a necessary correction. So, let us stop whining, endure the pain, and get on with life without giving the Federal camel another inch into our tent.

The current administration failed to find the necessary courage to lead the effort in the vastly important arena of stem cell research, and the President has squandered so much of his leadership capability that I hesitate to suggest, yet . . . . I have espoused and continue to advocate for a Manhattan-Project-class, national development program to create a family of renewable energy source technologies to power everything from lawn mowers to giga-watt powerplants and everything in between. The objective would be to eliminate fossil fuel energy demand, and would obviously have to include the necessary infrastructure to deliver the source materials, e.g., local, rapid, electric battery recharging facilities. The Energy Project would also need to develop new synthetic lubricants and such. Private industry would not have been able to develop fission or fusion power; only the Federal government could conduct such a massive project. Further, I would argue that we should hold our petroleum resources in reserve to supply the petro-chemical industries into the extend future, and thus, we would remain at the mercy of the petro-dictators as Thomas Friedman says and more significantly the energy traders who actually manipulate the price we pay for crude oil.

The Patriot Post offered this quote from John Adams:
“The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. . . . How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?”
-- John Adams (Diary, 2 June 1778)
Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 3 (171)
To me, the key words are ‘private families.’ Public morality can, should be, and largely is defined by proper laws created by the Legislative and executed by the Executive. The process goes off the rails when the government attempts to regulate private morality (beyond the proper interests of the State). For the last 15 plus years, some moralists in Congress have relentlessly carried out a campaign to do just that, and more specifically pointed their crooked moral fingers at the military . . . because they can. The latest version of the Military Honor and Decency Act [H.R. 5821] was proposed by Representative Paul C. Broun, Jr., of Georgia, who is apparently unhappy with the extent of moral dicta put into law by the Military Honor and Decency Act of 1996 (MHDA) [10 U.S.C. § 2489a], buried in the massive National Defense Appropriations Act of 1997 [PL 104-201; H.R.3230] [309]. Broun proposes to tighten the language of the law to be more expansive and inclusive within its prohibition, by amending the definitions to read:
“The term ‘sexually explicit material’ means--
“(A) an audio recording, a film or video recording, or a print publication with visual depictions, produced in any medium, the principal theme of which depicts or describes nudity or sexual or excretory activities in a lascivious way; or
“(B) if the print publication is a periodical, it regularly features or gives prominence to nudity or sexual or excretory activities; and
“by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
“(3) The term ‘principal theme’ means a theme that is primary in importance, influence, attraction, or degree but not necessarily dominant relative to other themes in the material.
“(4) The term ‘lascivious’ means lewd or indecent and intended, designed, or given to elicit a sexual response.
“(5) The term ‘nudity’ means human genitals, pubic area, anus, anal cleft, or any part of the female breast below a horizontal line across the top of the areola with less than an opaque covering but does not include the exposure of the cleavage of the female breast exhibited by a dress, blouse, bathing suit, or other apparel.”
Everyone is entitled to their moral values -- attributes of life that are important to them. If Paul Broun is disgusted by the naked human form or by the pleasures of sex, he has every right to reject those facets of life. When he tries to force his opinions, his attitudes, upon other citizens, he crosses the line. I object! He and his moralist colleagues pick upon our brothers-in-arms because they can, which makes it even more objectionable. For those who agree with Paul Broun, support and advocacy comes quite easily. And, for those so inclined, I strongly urge you to step back from the temptation to project your moral values on other citizens who have the same and equal rights as you, to their choices for Life, Liberty, and their pursuit of Happiness. Please, let us stop this silliness, and urge your representative to reject H.R. 5821 and any resultant variant. In fact, the original MHDA should be repealed.

For reasons that are probably irrelevant, I had cause to read a particular 1st Amendment case -- Bridges v. California [314 U.S. 252 (1941); nos. 1, 3]. The ‘Bridges’ in this case was none of other than notorious and infamous union activist and avowed Marxist Alfred Renton “Harry” Bridges – long term president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) founded in 1937. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the name 'Harry Bridges' featured prominently in a variety of news stories of my youth. I remember my father used to practically froth at the mouth at the mention of his name. Bridges organized the ILWU to control the West Coast seaports and took exceptional advantage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 [PL 74-198] to extend his influence over the waterfront union movement. During those tumultuous years, two union goons assaulted a non-union truck driver in 1937. They were tried and convicted of their crimes. As the sentencing phase approached its conclusion and Judge Schmidt’s decision, Bridges wrote a telegram to the Secretary of Labor, saying in part, “Attempted enforcement of Schmidt decision will tie up port of Los Angeles and involve entire Pacific Coast. The ILWU . . . does not intend to allow state courts to override the majority vote of members in choosing its officers and representatives and to override the National Labor Relations Board.” The telegram was released to the Press by an anonymous source. The state tried and convicted Bridges for contempt in what the judge said amounted to interference with a judicial proceeding. The case is notable in constitutional law as the first break with English common law regarding the tension between freedom of speech and contempt of court, and favored individual freedom over the traditional expanse of contempt law. Interestingly, the Court issued its Bridges opinion the day after the Pearl Harbor attack.

We received no comments and contributions from Update no.334, however, I did find this over-looked contribution from Update no.333:
“I do not know----cannot figure out, JUST how all this "stuff" (going Far beyond This particular thing of hunger) has happened----the progression and spreading out of it---- the wars/fighting, etc, but I DO know that when the American Dollar fluctuates in value around the world, ALL things are affected.
“Is it All driven by oil and the price of oil? I doubt it, though I'm sure the price of oil has a lot to do with it. Oil fuels all the world's country's economies in a very significant way.
“Some way to fuel the world's economies, OTHER than oil, HAS to be put in the forefront of Every country's primary goals.
“I believe it is a ‘figure it out and do it’ situation-----or die. Period!
“The solution, in My opinion, is Not drilling for oil in some other place, like further out in the oceans or in the Arctic or Antarctic, or Russia or ANYWHERE. We all Need an Alternative source/sources of ‘power.’ Some very bright minds back at least into the 1950's, TOLD us we needed to do this because oil was a limited resource. But back then No One listened. Because Oil was cheap then and there seemed to be a lot of it. Those days are gone and are going faster every year.
“Is the answer in Coal? Or maybe in Wind machines, or running Water, to give us POWER? Is it Nuclear? Something not yet thought of? There IS a way I believe, though I do not know it myself.
“Maybe all those or a combination of them could work. Or some totally NEW thing. Then we could perhaps figure out a Major/Main fuel source to run all our countries. One better suited to our times, and better/more reliably replaceable. As Oil NOW drives and affects virtually Everything, we need to find another source.
“Maybe a new and more everlasting source for protecting ‘Life’ can be found. I believe it MUST be found. I believe it CAN be found. That will take many human minds focusing on and thinking about ‘The Problem.’
“Which will take many $$$ to fund that research. Funds hopefully diverted from war to research. And those $$$ contributed to by ALL countries.
“Because we are not going to go back to earlier times. That Can't happen and Won't happen.
“Technology in all corners of the world CAN figure this out. And MANY individuals have shown how maybe this or that new ‘thing’ could work. But normally, so far, no one listens. Big guys anyway. For many reasons I suppose---including not wanting to lose the $$$ they are making now in order to shift to something new on the HOPE of making $$$ in the future.
“Given that we put aside our differences, stop trying to kill each other for this reason or that, Private Enterprise, (seeing the opportunities to make $$$) Will make what we have to have happen. I totally believe that. That has been the way everything has gone in the last few hundred years of human evolution anyway. And actually MUCH farther back than that.
“All That above maybe makes me sound much like a Democrat in my view of looking at things, (speaking politically for a moment), but it is Not. It is a very practical and totally non-political way of looking at what is happening, and suggesting a few things to maybe help the situation. Maybe none would work in the long run. But maybe some would. Take a look at it is all I really say.
“Whatever goes down in/on our planet will determine the length of time we are a viable global society. And THAT has nothing to do with our disputes between our many peoples. It does have to do with the survival of our species.
“That survival is something which will ‘Someday’ be lost---but we can forestall, though not prevent that time, I believe.”

My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)