Well crap. OffHisMeds never expected to be forced into the position of agreeing with President Obama on anything, since he's given us literally no reason to ever agree with him on anything. $1.2 Trillion Stimulus program? Insanity or evil, take your pick. Two plus year apology tour to the rest of the world for the USA? Craven. Manifest lies about the cost of Obamacare? Please.
That said, I can't fault his reticence to commit the USA to military action against Libya in the slightest. The hyperventilation of my Right Wing Homeys notwithstanding, committing yet more of America's Blood and Treasure to yet another war front with absolutely no commitment by either our European allies or the sundry Middle Eastern Potentates who will benefit from Muammar Gaddafi's discomfort makes no sense to me.
If Obama had boldly committed to dethroning Colonel Gaddafi without an international consensus, is there any doubt at all that France, Germany, England and all the other European Suspects would have simply sat on their hands and let us haul the load? After all, these are the countries whose GDP exceeds our own, but whom collectively have contributed only 10% of the Treasure and 5% of the Blood to our Middle East military interventions. Meanwhile, they have been the craven yet mute beneficiaries of America's collosal sacrifice.
Amnerica is well into its second century of supporting a Europe that has grown accustomed to letting us pay their bills. Obama is the first American president to require them to step up to the plate, and amazingly, they have. France and England have taken the lead in calling for a No-Fly zone over Libya, and are providing at least some resources to enforce it. Sundry Middle Eastern Potentates have also given their sanction to defeating Gaddafi, and committed planes to the effort.
Is OffHisMeds the only one to appreciate this historic turn? Requiring our allies to carry their own load ought not to be extraordinary. In this case at least, President Obama - with his response - has made that clear.
So, shut your pieholes Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, John Bolton and sundry congressional Republicans. You should have been on Obama's side on this issue, since it speaks to the common-sense constiuency so vital to your own well-being, otherwise known as the Tea Party.
It's time for you to walk this one back, quickly.
One final note: This riff is not to say that Obama does not have blood on his hands. He stood by for two years - as did all of Europe - while the forces of a Muslim dictator in Sudan murdered hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims in Darfur.
Of course, I'd probably be accused of conspiracy was I to point out that Sudan has no oil.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Media Talking Heads Run Shrieking For The Exits
Yikes. So disappointed by Fox News. Shepherd Smith and Greta Van Susteran are so hysterical about the Japanese Nuke crisis, you almost hope they're wearing Depends. The consequences for the people who have to wash their clothes is otherwise too dire to contemplate.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Mercury Not Rising
With the impending arrival of the NASA spacecraft Messenger to assume an orbit around the planet Mercury, the Astronomical Community received a jolt this past week when Mercury was de-certified as a planet. "Mercury is not a planet", stated respected astronomer William H. Peters of the OHM Astronomical Institute. Citing the 2006 decertification of Pluto by "a bunch of silly Frenchmen", Peters asserted that the same criteria used to demote Pluto must certainly apply to Mercury. "Mercury's orbit is far more irregular than Pluto's. And unlike Pluto, Mercury's rotation is highly peculiar, it has no atmosphere and it has no moon. Clearly, it is not a planet". Peter's predicted that Mercury would be delisted by April 14th, the date that famed scientist Galileo allegedly first observed Mercury in the year 1603. "This is all speculation, of course. For the most part, Galileo was a self-promoting fraud, and his antics ought not to be misrepresented as actual scientific achievement".
Professor Peters also stated that the OHM Astronomical Institute was finishing a study that would lay the groundwork for renaming the seven remaining planets. "The naming of our solar system's planets is far too Euro-centric", Peter's claimed. "With the exception of Earth, all other planet names originate from Greek and Latin mythology. Considering the sad state of Greece and Italy today, it's hard to justify the current naming conventions". Peter's went on to compare Greece and Italy to the ancient state of Persia, now known as Iran. "All three were once the center of the civilized world. Now all three are basket cases, but you don't see Iranians claiming any special status based on their past glory".
He noted other similarities between the three countries, including the tiresome regularity with which their citizens took to the streets to protest, and promised to submit his list of alternate planetary names as soon as possible.
Professor Peters also stated that the OHM Astronomical Institute was finishing a study that would lay the groundwork for renaming the seven remaining planets. "The naming of our solar system's planets is far too Euro-centric", Peter's claimed. "With the exception of Earth, all other planet names originate from Greek and Latin mythology. Considering the sad state of Greece and Italy today, it's hard to justify the current naming conventions". Peter's went on to compare Greece and Italy to the ancient state of Persia, now known as Iran. "All three were once the center of the civilized world. Now all three are basket cases, but you don't see Iranians claiming any special status based on their past glory".
He noted other similarities between the three countries, including the tiresome regularity with which their citizens took to the streets to protest, and promised to submit his list of alternate planetary names as soon as possible.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Cross Border Shame
OffHisMeds has gotten numerous letters to the editor published over the years in the local Editorial section, mostly as a matter of persistence and volume. The math is simple: Write ten letters and you tire them down. Eventually, they publish your crap every tenth time. Got one published yesterday, my 20th - give or take - in 20 years. Here was the text, represented fair by the Houston Chronicle, a rag for which I have no love other than erratic fits of sanity. Here is the text of the letter:
In response to the recent slaying of ICE agent Jaime Zapata, Carl
Pike, assistant special agent in charge of special operations for the
DEA said “We want all the cartels to realize this. It is the
schoolyard mentality — a bully situation. The cartels have pushed — if
you don’t push back, you become the victim. U.S. law enforcement is
not going to become the victim.”
Mike Vigil, retired international operations director for the DEA,
said if the Cartels “are going to engage in this type of violence,
there is going to be hell to pay.”
It's a crying shame that it took losing one of their own to get our
law enforcement establishment to do their jobs. How many tens of
thousands of American civilians might be alive today if we had stopped
the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants that brought them 25 years
ago, when DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was tortured and murdered
by the Cartels?
I agree wth Raul Benitez, the Mexican national security analyst who
was quoted as saying: “These operations are fine, but they should be
happening all the time. What I don’t like is that they only launch
these types of actions when they attack an American agent.”
So sadly true.
In response to the recent slaying of ICE agent Jaime Zapata, Carl
Pike, assistant special agent in charge of special operations for the
DEA said “We want all the cartels to realize this. It is the
schoolyard mentality — a bully situation. The cartels have pushed — if
you don’t push back, you become the victim. U.S. law enforcement is
not going to become the victim.”
Mike Vigil, retired international operations director for the DEA,
said if the Cartels “are going to engage in this type of violence,
there is going to be hell to pay.”
It's a crying shame that it took losing one of their own to get our
law enforcement establishment to do their jobs. How many tens of
thousands of American civilians might be alive today if we had stopped
the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants that brought them 25 years
ago, when DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was tortured and murdered
by the Cartels?
I agree wth Raul Benitez, the Mexican national security analyst who
was quoted as saying: “These operations are fine, but they should be
happening all the time. What I don’t like is that they only launch
these types of actions when they attack an American agent.”
So sadly true.
LTE: Look out when it's personal
Regarding "It's personal and professional" (Page A1, Friday), in response to the recent slaying of ICE agent Jaime Zapata, Carl Pike, assistant special agent in charge of special operations for the Drug Enforcement Agency said: "We want all the cartels to realize this. It is the schoolyard mentality — a bully situation. The cartels have pushed — if you don't push back, you become the victim. U.S. law enforcement is not going to become the victim."
Mike Vigil, retired international operations director for the DEA, said if the cartels "are going to engage in this type of violence, there is going to be hell to pay."
It's a crying shame that it took losing one of their own to get our law enforcement establishment to do their jobs. How many tens of thousands of American civilians might be alive today if we had stopped the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants that brought them 25 years ago, when DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena was tortured and murdered by the cartels?
I agree with Raul Benitez, the Mexican national security analyst who was quoted as saying: "These operations are fine, but they should be happening all the time. What I don't like is that they only launch these types of actions when they attack an American agent." So sadly true.
— Pete Smith, Cypress
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Leave Charlie Sheen Alone
Full disclosure: the title of this Riff notwithstanding, Charlie Sheen is giving OffHisMeds the creeps. The Question is: why? He's not acting a hell of a lot differently than the Charlie Sheen we have all come to know through the TV, however inaccurate a prism that might be. There's clearly something going on in his personal life, and whether it's drugs or just the pressures of dealing with a bunch of cut-throat Hollywood producers, let me share with you some things that are equally creepy about this whole Charlie Sheen affair:
1) The wall-to-wall coverage by the networks, entertainment shows and Talking Heads of Sheen's personal life. Can somebody credibly argue that these folks aren't pimping their ratings at Sheen's expense? Can they credibly argue that they aren't collectively feeding the frenzy that provokes Sheen to respond, obsessively, to their every provocation? Can anybody credibly argue that they aren't all rooting for - and possibly even enabling - a suicide?
For example, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that the Hags on "The View" have been fretting publicly for several days about the Sheen affair, complete with much clucking of tongues, preening moralization and more than a few "Mm, hm, hm's" from Whoopie Goldberg. That's rich coming from four women who - during the run of The View - have either developed or enabled Hate Speech to a high art.
More disclosure: I never watch "The View", and yet I know that these Skanks have been publicly - and hypocritically - rending their loin-clothes over his condition. This realization makes me feel omnipotent; could it be that I too have "Tiger Blood", just like Charlie Sheen?
2) The Reality TV consuming public. Let's face it. If you or I had our entire life thrown under a microscope, with the entire weight of America's Media Machine deployed to make you look bad and otherwise hound and harass you, how many amongst us would not be tempted to eat a gun? This has all been enabled by the distressingly large portion of the populace that lives, eats and breaths Reality TV shows, however phony they may be.
OffHisMeds has no use for Reality TV shows, and increasingly little use for the people who watch them. This is a big problem in that so many of the people I know and consider friends do watch them, obsessively. The Charlie Sheen deal is catnip to this crowd, and I cannot help but conclude that they too are waiting for the Money Shot, when Sheen kills himself. News at Eleven.
3) The Talk Show psychoanalysis of Charlie Sheen offered by dozens of esteemed psychiatrists on The Tube, including detailed explanations of not only his symptoms, but his specific illness AND the underlying causes - and all without the benefit of having once spoken to him personally, much less professionally.
These Humps ought to have their medical licenses revoked. Whether there is anything to their blathering or not, what the Hell ever happened to the concept of professional discretion? A generation ago, doctors would have been horrified at the notion of offering any opinion - public or private - without first having personally examined the patient. Now, these insufferable pricks feel free to verbally disembowel the man, and all for the sake of a tiny scrap of the fame he has achieved.
4) The Hollywood Double Standard. It's hard to imagine why there's such a fuss about Charlie Sheen, considering that his recent rants are no different from those delivered by a variety of demi-celebrities every day. As long as Howard Stern, Rosie O'Donnell, Chris Matthews and Bill Maher are allowed to roam the Earth unmolested, I think Charlie Sheen deserves a break.
And speaking of demi-celebrities, when his own father sees fit to take such a private family matter and make public statements about his son's alleged addiction, it validates the opinion I've had about Martin Sheen for a long time now: He's a piece of crap. I actually reached this conclusion in 1980 after watching Sheen and Marlon Brando chew scenery in epic portions in the box office bomb "Apocalypse Now". Word is Francis Ford Coppola is still paying the Vig on that one, mostly because of his terrible casting choices, and that Martin Sheen cashed his check with a clear conscience.
But I digress.
My point is: what father would have a word to say to the press about his children on such matters? So in addition to being a crappy actor and a poseur, he's apparently a shitty parent too. After all, look how Charlie turned out.
Ironic moment: Howard Stern had Charlie Sheen on his show today, and as Stern is so wont to do, he tried to milk Sheen like a dairy cow. Sheen, by the way, was hilarious, coherent and - how else to put it - "On". That didn't matter to Stern. The King Of All Publicity Whores prodded Sheen constantly, ever-further attempting to draw out of him more and increasingly more outrageous statements. Sheen - to his credit - was circumspect. He even complimented his former wife Denise Richards when Stern was clearly trying to get him to trash her. Stern was disappointed.
The full irony of this whole deal is that people are making a big deal about Sheen speaking over a matter of weeks the way that Stern speaks every single day. And yet nobody is talking about locking Stern up.
Well, except for me, of course.
1) The wall-to-wall coverage by the networks, entertainment shows and Talking Heads of Sheen's personal life. Can somebody credibly argue that these folks aren't pimping their ratings at Sheen's expense? Can they credibly argue that they aren't collectively feeding the frenzy that provokes Sheen to respond, obsessively, to their every provocation? Can anybody credibly argue that they aren't all rooting for - and possibly even enabling - a suicide?
For example, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that the Hags on "The View" have been fretting publicly for several days about the Sheen affair, complete with much clucking of tongues, preening moralization and more than a few "Mm, hm, hm's" from Whoopie Goldberg. That's rich coming from four women who - during the run of The View - have either developed or enabled Hate Speech to a high art.
More disclosure: I never watch "The View", and yet I know that these Skanks have been publicly - and hypocritically - rending their loin-clothes over his condition. This realization makes me feel omnipotent; could it be that I too have "Tiger Blood", just like Charlie Sheen?
2) The Reality TV consuming public. Let's face it. If you or I had our entire life thrown under a microscope, with the entire weight of America's Media Machine deployed to make you look bad and otherwise hound and harass you, how many amongst us would not be tempted to eat a gun? This has all been enabled by the distressingly large portion of the populace that lives, eats and breaths Reality TV shows, however phony they may be.
OffHisMeds has no use for Reality TV shows, and increasingly little use for the people who watch them. This is a big problem in that so many of the people I know and consider friends do watch them, obsessively. The Charlie Sheen deal is catnip to this crowd, and I cannot help but conclude that they too are waiting for the Money Shot, when Sheen kills himself. News at Eleven.
3) The Talk Show psychoanalysis of Charlie Sheen offered by dozens of esteemed psychiatrists on The Tube, including detailed explanations of not only his symptoms, but his specific illness AND the underlying causes - and all without the benefit of having once spoken to him personally, much less professionally.
These Humps ought to have their medical licenses revoked. Whether there is anything to their blathering or not, what the Hell ever happened to the concept of professional discretion? A generation ago, doctors would have been horrified at the notion of offering any opinion - public or private - without first having personally examined the patient. Now, these insufferable pricks feel free to verbally disembowel the man, and all for the sake of a tiny scrap of the fame he has achieved.
4) The Hollywood Double Standard. It's hard to imagine why there's such a fuss about Charlie Sheen, considering that his recent rants are no different from those delivered by a variety of demi-celebrities every day. As long as Howard Stern, Rosie O'Donnell, Chris Matthews and Bill Maher are allowed to roam the Earth unmolested, I think Charlie Sheen deserves a break.
And speaking of demi-celebrities, when his own father sees fit to take such a private family matter and make public statements about his son's alleged addiction, it validates the opinion I've had about Martin Sheen for a long time now: He's a piece of crap. I actually reached this conclusion in 1980 after watching Sheen and Marlon Brando chew scenery in epic portions in the box office bomb "Apocalypse Now". Word is Francis Ford Coppola is still paying the Vig on that one, mostly because of his terrible casting choices, and that Martin Sheen cashed his check with a clear conscience.
But I digress.
My point is: what father would have a word to say to the press about his children on such matters? So in addition to being a crappy actor and a poseur, he's apparently a shitty parent too. After all, look how Charlie turned out.
Ironic moment: Howard Stern had Charlie Sheen on his show today, and as Stern is so wont to do, he tried to milk Sheen like a dairy cow. Sheen, by the way, was hilarious, coherent and - how else to put it - "On". That didn't matter to Stern. The King Of All Publicity Whores prodded Sheen constantly, ever-further attempting to draw out of him more and increasingly more outrageous statements. Sheen - to his credit - was circumspect. He even complimented his former wife Denise Richards when Stern was clearly trying to get him to trash her. Stern was disappointed.
The full irony of this whole deal is that people are making a big deal about Sheen speaking over a matter of weeks the way that Stern speaks every single day. And yet nobody is talking about locking Stern up.
Well, except for me, of course.
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