Day: January 27, 2014

State Of The Union–2014

Ever have one of those days when you want to write something extraordinary and you stare at the screen with a blank look on your face?  Cool!  I was having one of those spacey mornings……then ….BAM!  I got an inspiration!

I am writing this on the 24th of January and will save it as a draft to be posted on 27Jan14….I like doing something that is not anticipated…….there will be a wealth of people describing the prez’s words after the fact…..chuq will be the first to analyze before the fact….YOU ARE WELCOME!

All eyes and ears will be on our prez tomorrow night…he will give the State of the Union speech…I believe this will be #5…..and following his speech there will a a rebuttal from the GOP and somewhere they will get a Tea Party reaction (this will be an insulting name calling diatribe)…..and your fave old professor will do something  completely different….he will predict what he thinks the prez will talk about and give his analysis….before the fact……avoid the rush…if you will.

The prez will touch on several issues……..Obamacare, minimum wage, income inequality,  Iran nuke deal, immigration and climate change (not sure of this one but it would fit in his speech nicely) and then probably some note of the NSA thing and of course the usual suspects….education and manufacturing……

Our prez will focus on the ACA (Obamacare for those that cannot keep up with the acronyms) is has become a little more successful since the disastrous roll out…..he will list the successes…..since he has so few to draw on……

He should spend some major time on income inequality and a rise in the minimum wage……why?  It is an election year and he wants to set the ground work for the races…..he wants to appeal to the ‘populist’ base……..

Immigration will get some attention but not the amount that is needed to make it a priority…..

NSA will get s speechly nod….the prez will thump his chest about the reforms….the reforms?  Yep, IMO it is a band-aid for a gunshot wound……

Of course he will bring attention to the Iran nuke deal that is moving smoothly…..for now…..

And the small three, as I call them, will get a nod but not much more….those would be education, manufacturing and climate change……….

There you have what I see as the ‘meat’ of this year’s edition of the State of the Union message……..

How did I do?

I also usual give my take on the rebuttals by the GOP and the Tea Party….and I will predict those responses also….GOP–will try to refute everything the prez said and offer NO new ideas on….well ANYTHING!

The Tea Party response will be…..(I’m thinking)…….for lack of a better term….MORONIC!

I will leave the after speech analysis to those that have nothing better to talk about……chuq

Does Bode Well For Ukraine

In case anyone is interested…..the Ukraine is up to its butt in  protests, most of which have turned into violence……Molotov cocktails, rocks, fires, and the usual assortment of tactics used in violent protests….people hurt, people died, and people are angry…..

The Pope in his Sunday address in St.Peter’s Square called for an end to the violence on all sides and to let calmer minds prevail…..and as a token for peace he and 2 children released doves for peace….

And then things went horribly wrong….the doves of peace were attacked……these photos were published in the Daily Mail in the UK…….

Go: Pope Francis is joined by two children who release doves during the Angelus Prayer in St. Peter's Square

Not getting away: A dove which was freed by children flanked by Pope Francis is attacked by a seagull

Watch out: A dove which was freed by children flanked by Pope Francis is chased by a black crow

Crow fought the wings of a dove: While speaking at the window beforehand, Francis had appealed for peace in Ukraine, where anti-government protesters have died

What does this mean for peace?  I mean there are those that see God’s hand everywhere, what does this mean?

Is Ukraine just plain screwed?

Your thoughts, please…….

What Do You Think When I Say ‘Buddhist’?

Does violence come to mind?

For me I think of the monks in their orange robes….I think of the chanting….the temples and the meditative state the monks go into…a non-violent group if there ever was one.  When I was serving in the Far East I ran into the monks almost daily…..they were serene and soft spoken and mostly friendly and accommodating…..is that pretty much your experience of thoughts on Buddhists?

I ask these question because of some things I have been reading in the past year or so…..Myanmar (Burma to the rest of us).  It seems that there is an uptake of violence in the country and it involves Buddhists……

This from AJE…….

More than a dozen people may have been killed after a Buddhist group rampaged through a town in an isolated corner of Myanmar, hacking Muslim women and children with knives, a rights group reported Friday.

Tensions have been building in the region since last month, when monks from a Buddhist extremist movement known as 969 toured the area and gave sermons by loudspeaker advocating the expulsion of all Rohingya, who make up 90 percent of the population in northern Rakhine. It’s the only place where the religious minority is in the majority.

…………sources reported that Rohingya women and children had been hacked to death, but the numbers varied widely. Some put the death toll as low as five or 10, but one source who works for the administration in Maungdaw town said it is widely believed 40 died, mostly women and children.That some of the victims appeared to have been stabbed with knives, not shot or beaten, “would clearly indicate the massacre was committed by (Buddhist) Rakhine villagers, rather than the police or army,”

This story just caught me off guard….never would I consider a Buddhist a threat to human life or for that matter in violent practice.

To me the term “Buddhist violence” is an oxymoron…….

Am I just naive?  Or maybe the world has become more violent than I care to admit.

This needs more thought.