Far East Cynic

More observations on Turkey

Skippy-san — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:18:47 +0000

Istanbul was an intriguing city. On the one hand-you can see just about all the "touristy" stuff in about five days. On the other hand-it had all the marks of a city you could hunker down in and " prowl" for a couple of weeks or more.

In particular-I go this feeling when we were up in the Taksim district-which I found to be a lot like Roppongi, only with wider streets and less bars. But my radar still told me there was some nightlife to be had-I just wasn't in a position to explore it. When you consider that you are in a Muslim country, that alone is something of a surprise.

This is what Taksim looked like at night:

Another thing I was pleasantly surprised at was the relatively modern public transportation system-the trams are still pretty new and they have expanded the number of lines apparently. If one got an Istanbul card and loaded it up with about 30TL, that would get you around pretty well for the weekend:

One thing you can never forget in Turkey though-is that while the people are pretty good-you are in a Muslim country, and that means they don't look at the world the same way as you wish they would. This was driven home to me at the airport when we arrived-when I had to get a visa on arrival and the S,O,-with her Japanese passport-did not. Most Europeans has to get visas too. Somehow I can't help but think that is a jab at the EU for not letting Turkey in after all the years of trying. Given the travails the Euro-maybe they are better off.

Another place that drove it home was on the last day, when we went out to the old city walls of Constantinople out at Topkapi Park. The Turks have built a big modern museum with a 360 degree panorama dome that shows the scene of the battle in very artistic terms.

Here is a 360 degree tour of what it looked like. Panorama 1453 – 3D Virtual Tour. ( Click on the inset square to see it full screen-its pretty cool).I like many others had not realized-most of the fighting happened to the west of the city. The old walls tell the tale to a great degree-so too do the panels in the museum. But be prepared for a cultural shock, the Byzantine are the bad guys in this picture. The Pope doesn't get such rave reviews either. It s definitely told from the Ottoman point of view-and I can't help but wonder if it somehow tied to the rise of Islamic parties in Turkey's democracy ( which I do not regard as a good thing).

P.S. If you want a nice view of the city go here-its a cool 3d full screen view if you click on the inset.

Our last day we went up in that tower-which is known as Galata Tower-built in the 1330's by the Genoans. The view of the Golden Horn (and the rest of the city is spectacular.

One final point-everybody makes such a big deal about the Grand Bazaar. I must be getting old because I think if you have seen one-you have pretty much seen them all-plusI don't have a real taste for literally getting verbally assaulted to go in someone's store. I know the deal is to get you inside and verbally pound you into buying something-but I don't like. I did get a kick out of the merchants who would see the S.O. and immediately say, "Ni hao; Ko-Nichi wa; or Ayaseyo" figuring they at least had a 33 percent chance of being right. I think the S.O. was surprised too that so many correctly guessed she was Japanese. Here in Germany-as in Shopping Mall she got mistaken for a Korean. You can guess how that goes over with her.

So its about the children, eh?

Skippy-san — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:38:40 +0000

Also known as-Why Mark Steyn sucks.

Phib presumes to lecture me on what issues are really about-sadly I missed most of his lecture because I was having a good time over the weekend-sightseeing and practicing not procreative sex with the S.O. In a recent post, he asserted that he was tired of discussing:

This totally contrived non-controversy has almost left me looking to either retreat to my country acreage to wait out the rioting of the unworthy, or join James Cameron in the undying lands to watch to new Dark Age take hold.

The fact that some are trying to bring this non-issue up at this time in our republic makes me feel at times that this nation is not worthy of the generations of sacrifice that brought us here … but that is crazy talk. This nation has gone through worse, and in the end all will be well.

The issue is not putting a sheep's bladder on your John Thomas; it is what legacy we leave to our children. This is an economic crisis we cannot fix with a peace treaty or a post-war boom; no, nothing that simple – but we need to fix it sooner more than later.

Well, jolly good and dandy-it’s for the children is it? Well, on that you are right-but it’s also about telling those same children the correct story-not just the parts that suit your narrative. I’ve got some suggestions about some things you might want to tell your children to warm their hearts as they struggle to keep their heads above water in the multi-polar world you are going to bequeath them, but I’ll do that at the end of this post. One should leave with the things that need to be remembered.

And something that is not worthy of any brain memory space are the silly words of that pompous twit, Mark Steyn. Not the master-as Phib would present him-but just another worthless piece of Fox News paid excrement. Quoting another worthless piece of excrement-Paul Ryan, Mark Steyn has the balls to assert that the discussion about demanding that all employers provde a standard level of preventative care, is somehow a clever ruse to divert public attention away from the President’s recently released budget. ( As a matter of policy here at Far East Cynic HQ-we do not link to idiots, thus you will have to Google what I am about to quote to you).

This is a very curious priority for a dying republic. “Birth control” is accessible, indeed ubiquitous, and, by comparison with anything from a gallon of gas to basic cable,one of the cheapest expenses in the average budget. Not even Rick Santorum, that notorious scourge of the sexually liberated, wishes to restrain the individual right to contraception.

But where is the compelling societal interest in the state prioritizing and subsidizing it? Especially when you’re already the Brokest Nation in History. Elsewhere around the developed world, prudent politicians are advocating natalist policies designed to restock their empty maternity wards. A few years ago, announcing tax incentives for three-child families, Peter Costello, formerly Timmy Geithner’s counterpart Down Under, put it this way: “Have one for Mum, one for Dad, and one for Australia.” But in America an oblivious political class, led by a president who characterizes young motherhood as a “punishment,” prefers to offer solutions to problems that don’t exist rather than the ones that are all too real. I think this is what they call handing out condoms on the Titanic.

Statements like these are why Steyn needs to be held down and have his smirk and beard dry shaved off of him. Besides the fact that the prophylactics are not under discussion here-a clever dodge by many of Phib’s commenters to not discuss the real issue-the standardization of services provided by insurers, something they solved a long time ago here in Europe. The services that Steyn and others say “just pay for it yourself” can actually be rather expensive: contraceptive services and related counseling, a number of related preventive health services such as: patient education and counseling; breast and pelvic examinations; breast and cervical cancer screening according to nationally recognized standards of care; sexually transmitted disease (STD) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevention education, counseling, testing and referral; and pregnancy diagnosis and counseling. Some of those items can run up a fairly healthy bill-more than just the cost of a box of condoms. Not a great deal for a wealthy man like Steyn-but some 800-1800(cost of screenings and prescriptions) a year in prescription costs can be a lot for someone making less than 25K a year. And what’s more –it’s clear that GOP candidates want to expand what the definition of contraceptive services means, if the “testimony” of that well known ~~douchebag~~ Presidential candidate Rick Santorum has any bearing:

Rick Santorum opposes all mandated coverage without co-pays. Rick Santorum is linking mandated coverage to abortion because it’s politically beneficial to him to do so. It doesn’t matter if the mandated coverage without co-pays is screening for gestational diabetes or amniocentesis, so this is (of course) not about abortion because screening for gestational diabetes without a co-pay (for example) has nothing to do with abortion, and Santorum opposes that, too. I know that because that’s what he said.

There’s really no reason to discuss amniocentesis specifically, other than the fact that media swallowed Santorum’s carefully calculated and misleading framing whole and thus discussed only what he wants to discuss. How about this headline: Rick Santorum is protecting large employers and health insurance companies, and he’s using disabled children to do that. The conservative opposition to mandated coverage in insurance policies is about opposing federal regulation of health insurance companies and large employers, not abortion, because conservatives oppose all mandated coverage without co-pays. All of the rest of this over-heated nonsense is misdirection. No one ever asked the religious leaders what other sections of the health care law that apply to large employers they opposed, and that’s a shame, because that would have been a very good question.

But then again-misdirection and avoidance of telling the entire story are Steyn’s trademark. Steyn writes with "a shrill, mocking tone of moral certainty that consigns those who disagree with him to the status of appeasers or even terrorists; and a willingness to distort, misrepresent, and omit facts in order to advance his argument." One should expect nothing more from the man and his column linking the controversy over coverage to the deficit proves it yet again.

Which brings us back to the children. When you sit them down and tell then the story of the decline of a once great nation that failed to live up to its potential-make sure you tell them all the facts. Don’t leave out the important ones like pompous moral zealots like Steyn do. Make sure you tell them about the fact that:

The great majority of the debt that you so love to rail about-was racked up by a combination of spending on wars that we could not afford, and should probably have never gotten involved in, in the first place. And then tell them that –even for ones that were brought upon us, we failed to mobilize all of our potential strength and power to fulfill the first obligation to win quickly and decisively-because a presidential appointee wanted to prove some outdated theories on “transformation”. The other part was hinged on tax cuts that never should have been made.

And then tell ‘em that the President that appointed that same Secretary of Defense, refused to raise the necessary revenue to fund these wars. And decided to double down on not funding those wars when-as many critics had predicted-energy costs rose and impacted growth rates across the world and within the United States.

Tell them that in the end-both countries we went in to “save”-were hopeless basket cases, primarily because of the failings of the citizens of those countries. We, however, refused to pin any of the blame on those same tribally motivated people-even when it was clear that we could stay for 2 or 20 years and nothing would change. But we were able to send their aunts and uncles to die in the dusty corners of the far reaches of the American empire.

Then tell them tell them that the government-their government, pushed a policy of tax cuts for the richest one percent combined with a systematic dismantling of the regulations that were in place to prevent those same one percent from bringing down the house through unbridled greed. Tell them that the lure of easy profits distracted the banking industry from its core mission: providing an efficient payments mechanism and assessing and managing risk. That instead of focusing on lending to small businesses and creating jobs-they concentrated on creating increasingly risky securities all so they could reap huge bonuses and transaction fees. Don’t treat them to tired old explanations about the Community Reinvestment Act and Fannie and Freddie-without first pointing out that these criticisms are sheer nonsense. They had nothing to do with the 200 billion dollar bailout of AIG-which was based solely on derivatives, nor did Fannie or Freddie have anything to do with the massive overinvestment in commercial real estate.

Tell them about the money the banks were supposed to have used to restart credit. But didn’t.

Remind them that the so called “productive class” became so obsessed with short term returns-on which their bonuses and pay were based- that they engaged in repeated and reckless accounting gimmicks-that hid the truth.

Tell your children that because of your devotion to American Exceptionalism-they remain just one major illness or job loss away from bankruptcy and poverty ( assuming they aren’t there already)-that in the first decade of the 21^st century, when faced with a clear moral and economic incentive to reform the healthcare system and in the end drive down the overall cost of a major driver of the government expenditures you love to lecture them about. Tell them that the rest of the advanced world solved this problem during the 80’s and 90’s offering the US some good ideas to pick and choose from-these countries providing equal or better care than the US, but spending less than the US does-your country turned its back on literally millions of its fellow citizens in the name of “freedom”.

When you tell them the story of Greece-make sure you highlight the role the major banks and funds played in 2010 assaulting the Greek economy when they sold Greek bonds short. Be sure and tell them that the austerity doctrine that you and other “conservative” economic theorists pushed on them –simply created a death spiral that never increased aggregate demand. The banks and funds who demanded all this never got hurt-but the average middle class or lower Greek paid a terrible price. Tell them about the inherent Greek laziness-never too early to have them remember American superiority. But when you do-be sure to point out that the “people” who don’t pay taxes in Greece are mostly big corporations and professionals who can afford to hire people to help them evade taxes. ( Kind of like the GOP wants it to be over here). Remind them that banks got away with it and that linkage of the world economy made a default by Greece a nonstarter from the word go.

Tell them too-that companies that could well afford to invest in their companies failed to do so-but instead sold literally thousands of their workers down the river, to make a huge profit for one person. ( Insert well known CEO of a major corporation walking out on pension obligations).

Remind them that the banks pulled off one of the biggest frauds in history-but not one banker went to jail for it. Tell them too of the unbridled commodity speculation in 2008 –that literally starved people to death-but made a lot of people rich.

And then finally, tell them the God’s honest truth, that their country-a once great nation that still has great potential-frittered away the first decade of the 21^st century by failing to recognize the changes that had taken place in the world. And in failing to adapt to those changes-it brought itself to the point where it failed at home and abroad. And in the end it had no one to blame but itself-because it let itself be seduced by an illusion: that things would stay the way they were some 30 years ago, because we were a great power. We could have still been a great power had we made the necessary changes to fix our society and balance our budgets-but we were too easily fooled by our corporate masters, who were more than willing to write off some 90% of the American population to make sure they were comfortable.

Just like the Chinese.

Underway on the Bosporus.

Skippy-san — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:50:27 +0000

Long day today and dog tired. Not sure why since we spent a few hours here:

Partying like it’s 1453.

Skippy-san — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:06:33 +0000

Today was a full day here in Istanbul. We were up early, ate breakfast out-took the bus and the tram to Sultanmahment Station and saw all the usuals: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace. The last item is huge and can consume a whole day in and of itself. Sadly-for some reason the Harem was closed, which was the one thing I really wanted to see there. I guess the concubines heard I was in town.

Two days ago, a new movie premiered here, Fetih 1453. It is a big budget Turkish epic about the fall of Constantinople in 1453. It premiered at 14:53 on 16 February 2012. You can't miss the posters-they are literally everywhere. The trailer is here:

Now depending on your point of view-the fall of Constantinople was something of a disaster for the West-putting a whole bunch of Turks within striking distance of "old Europe". On the other hand-they owned everything but the city by then anyway-such was the state of Byzantium at that time. And there are those who say this event probably helped jump start the Renaissance. That said-I can't help but be just a bit disturbed by some of the imagery in the trailer. The Ottomans are looking like they are having way too much fun killing Christians-and in a Turkey where Islam seems to making a jump from Fridays to the rest of the week, I wonder if that is such a good thing. Attaturk would not be happy about all the Abaya's I saw out and about today. The S.O. thought they might be tourists from Iran-could be, but I don't recall seeing that many when I was last in Turkey in 1995. Then again, I wasn't in Istanbul either.

Where’s Waldo?

Skippy-san — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:57:58 +0000

Friday night-over a US holiday week-which is the first one I have gotten since Christmas.

So this morning the S.O. and I boarded a plane-and arrived where?

1) This is city is the largest city in the country-but it is not the capital of the country.

2) In the 1800's there were over 1,400 public toilets all around the city. At the same time, there weren’t any even at palaces in France and the rest of Europe.

3) This city is one of the biggest cities in the world, with over 13 million population.

4) This city has the third oldest subway in the world, built in 1875.

5) The first traffic accident occurred in 1912 at, when the driver of the Italian Embassy hit a pedestrian and tried to run away from the scene.

6) Alexander the Great was a passer by through this city.

7)This city will be one of three European Cities of Culture.

8)Agatha Christie wrote one of her novels here.

9) This city has been important throughout modern history. "Control of this city is the key to controlling Europe". Throughout history-conquerors knew or sensed this. However in the biggest ever war in history-this city sat on the bench.

Where are we?

I love it when I am right………

Skippy-san — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:16:10 +0000

Yesterday I wrote:Don't kid yourself, this is just the opening act in a war that is designed to, at one and the same time, pervert the meaning of the First Amendment-and at the same time empower insurance companies to go right back to fucking people over.

And leave it to Darrell Issa to prove me right:

The Republican pols who so gleefully pounced on the contraception mandate issue, thinking it would simultaneously titillate their conservative evangelical voter base and ObamaCare haters everywhere, while serving as a “wedge” with Catholic voters, have been frantic to frame the issue as one of “religious liberty,” not of access to contraceptives or of women’s health care. As you may have heard, this “framing” effort went horribly wrong this morning for House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) at a hearing on the mandate.

Here’s the background from Igor Volsky:

Ranking committee member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) had asked Issa to include a female witness at the hearing, but the Chairman refused, arguing that “As the hearing is not about reproductive rights and contraception but instead about the Administration’s actions as they relate to freedom of religion and conscience, he believes that Ms. Fluke is not an appropriate witness.”

The proposed witness in question, Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, is a friend of a fellow-student who lost an ovary after being denied contraceptives prescribed as a medical treatment. She is also obviously connected to one of the “religiously-affiliated institutions” that are at the center of the controversy, even according to the opponents of the mandate.

Issa’s imperious exclusion of Fluke, accompanied by comments that she was not “qualified” to testify, helped dramatize the fact that every single witness he called for the hearing’s first panel was a male religious authority opposing the mandate. The two female Democratic Members of the committee subsequently walked out of the hearing in protest.

.

Because while the deranged wing of the GOP is continuing its freak out about a standardized practice-their evil apprentices are on still on the job:

In their latest move in the battle over contraception coverage, top Republicans in Congress are going for broke: They’re now pushing a bill that would allow employers and insurance companies to pick and choose which health benefits to provide based simply on executives’ personal moral beliefs. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the top GOPer in the Senate, has already endorsed the proposal, and it could come to a vote this week. The measure would make the religious exemptions to President Barack Obama’s health care bill so large they’d swallow it whole.

“This is about gutting the Affordable Care Act and the protections it was meant to establish,” says Leila Abolfazli, a lawyer focusing at the National Women’s Law Center who focuses on health and reproductive rights.

Obama’s Affordable Care Act requires all health care plans to offer certain services and benefits, including birth control. Last week, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) offered a “conscience amendment,” to the law, pitching it as a way to allay religious employers’ qualms about providing birth control to their employees.

But Blunt’s proposal doesn’t just apply to religious employers and birth control. Instead, it would allow any insurer or employer, religiously affiliated or otherwise, to opt out of providing any health care services required by federal law—everything from maternity care to screening for diabetes. Employers wouldn’t have to cite religious reasons for their decision; they could just say the treatment goes against their moral convictions. That exception could include almost anything—an employer could theoretically claim a “moral objection” to the cost of providing a given benefit. The bill would also allow employers to sue if state or federal regulators try to make them comply with the law.

Don't think insurance companies won't drive a truck through that loophole. As a commenter noted at John Cole's place: "This is an AMAZINGLY bad idea. It rewards those employers who deny coverage, and sanctions those who don’t.. This is one for the history books in bad ideas, it really is. I think we should all remember that this idea came about because of churches + Republicans, setting public policy."

Not a good mix, apparently.

I am going to beat this horse some more…

Skippy-san — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:26:56 +0000

Because the more I read the stupidity of most so called "conservative" commenters on the subject of having insurance companies do their job-the angrier I get. If you want yet another example of why America is failing-and stupidity is rampant-go here. If you want yet another reason why I am down on American politics, and remain fundamentally disappointed in the land of my birth's inability to rise to it's potential-this stupid and ignorant argument about contraception is it.

Let's go over the basics again, shall we?

This is not a new rule. It was in effect during the entire Bush administration-actually about 12 years now. And most Catholic hospitals have been complying. In December 2000, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that companies that provided prescription drugs to their employees but didn’t provide birth control were in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prevents discrimination on the basis of sex. That opinion, which the George W. Bush administration did nothing to alter or withdraw when it took office the next month, is still in effect today—and because it relies on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, it applies to all employers with 15 or more employees Employers that don’t offer prescription coverage or don’t offer insurance at all are exempt, because they treat men and women equally—but under the EEOC’s interpretation of the law, you can’t offer other preventative care coverage without offering birth control coverage, too.

Instead of re-evaluating its attempt to turn contraception into a wedge issue—after all, Fox News (yes that Fox News) published a poll that found 61% of Americans approve of “requiring employer health plans to cover birth control for women.” —the GOP, led by Missouri Senator Roy Blunt (R-Crazytown) has decided to double-down on the War on Women. Blunt has introduced an amendment to the PPACA which would allow employers to deny any preventive health services (including breast cancer screening, depression screening, and diabetes screening), under the guise of religious freedom and respecting the right of conscience of insurers, plan sponsors and healthcare providers, among others. Apparently, that’s the new meme: Insurance companies are now having their religious freedom infringed. Somebody save them!

And I am the one who gets accused of being a misogynist.

The point here is simple. While birth control costs more than nothing, it costs less than an abortion and much less than having a baby. From a social point of view, unless we're not going to subsidize consumption of health care services at all (which would be a really drastic change from the status quo) then it makes a ton of sense to heavily subsidize contraceptives. Now of course sometimes the economically rational course of action (kill everyone in Alberta and steal their oil) is immoral (killing is wrong) and therefore we don't do it. But just on the dollars and cents subsidizing birth control is a no-brainer. The unfortunate thing is that under the American setup the subsidies tend to be passed through the employer, which has set the stage for this controversy.

Another point worth making is that this is one of these issues where the actual incidence of the costs of a policy and the legislative incidence are going to be quite different. Politicians often like making "employers" pay for things as an alternative to taxing people. But in practice, employers are making a tradeoff between health care spending and wages. If your employer shifts from not subsidizing contraceptives to subsidizing them, what happens is that the workers who don't use contraceptives are providing cross-subsidy to those who do. It's in effect the same as financing a free birth control policy through a tiny increase in the payroll tax, which seems to me like a totally reasonable course of action, but like it or not employers are only bearing the cost in a very formalistic sense.

However the GOP has seized on this issue as one of "religious freedom"-when it is anything but. No one's religious freedom is being impinged upon. No one is forcing anyone to get birth control-much less use it.

But Catholics are being forced to subsidized conduct they consider immoral!

No, they are not. They are being asked to behave like a responsible employer and pay their fair share of the cost of their employee's health insurance-a service through which these same folks have a reasonable expectation of being able to receive preventative services. Contraception is just another preventative service-especially since an ill timed pregnancy is something that really fucks up your life.

Don't kid yourself, this is just the opening act in a war that is designed to, at one and the same time, pervert the meaning of the First Amendment-and at the same time empower insurance companies to go right back to fucking people over. The insurance companies motive will still be the same as it was before-profits over people. Only this time our smug holier than thou betters-will be able to console themselves with the idea that their money will not go towards acts they don't approve of.

Except most Americans don't agree with them-and want this service paid for, along with a lot of others. Sixty-five percent of registered voters said that they supported the Obama administration’s birth control mandate, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll.

Now of course, to the truly ~~deranged~~ converted, this is portrayed as an attempt to impose a religious belief. And of course its also portrayed as a new way to sanction abortion. The effectiveness of conservative talking heads is truly amazing-when you consider that these folks almost always use the same term. abortifacients. The term itself is essentially meaningless-its a perverted way to say " Plan B" also known as the morning after pill-which helps to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex if taken with in 48 hours. Its not abortion by any reasonable use of the word. But still they try.

Let me state it again-this argument about "my money paying for things I object to" is just plain stupid. We all pay taxes and not everything the government or companies do is something I agree with. After all 5000+ Americans have been killed in a stupid war for stupid Arabs, which I find more than a little morally objectionable-but I still paid my taxes.

If you support the Bishops you are condoning hypocrisy of the highest order. I don't support them and will continue to speak out against them. THEY ARE 100 PERCENT WRONG.

P.S. A lot fo the people whining about this are covered by TRICARE. TRICARE covers birth control-so to add to my point, your money is paying for something you don't believe in. Are you ready to tell female Sailors they can't have birth control because of your antiquated morality?

TRICARE covers the following forms of birth control when prescribed by a TRICARE-authorized provider:

Contraceptive diaphragm, including measurement, purchase and replacement;
Intrauterine devices, including surgical insertion, removal and replacement;
Prescription contraceptives, including the Preven Emergency Contraceptive Kit containing special doses of regular birth control pills and a self-administered pregnancy test;
Surgical sterilization, male and female.

TRICARE does not cover:

Condoms;
Nonprescription spermicidal foams, jellies or sprays.

The Bishops are wrong

Skippy-san — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:01:08 +0000

And its really sad-because I admire the Catholic Church on so many things. But I won't go with them on this. Especially since the church's teachings on sex are totally screwed up.

The President offered up a rhetorical solution in response to their rhetorical freak-out over language in a new health insurance rule and the fiction that their objection was about religious freedom was exposed as bullshit. They could walk away, but instead they are pumping up the volume to keep the issue alive. It is a political play that has more to do with Republican politics than almost anything else.

The Bishops are demanding an end to any rule that requires any insurance company to cover any contraception or family planning as basic health issues for women. This is just the latest iteration of a centuries old objection to women having control of their bodies, their lives, their happiness and their liberty by the conservative power-focused elites running the Roman Catholic Church. This objection manifests itself in screeds against anything that treats sex as an activity separate from breeding and/or free from the dictates of Church Law.

And yet, I don’t think this latest play is about sex or even the Church trying to control the lives of women—I think it is about power and that sex, women, gay marriage and a host of other culture warrior issues are the pathway that they see as the golden road.

For anybody who has looked at the history of the Catholic Church (and any organized religion for that matter) a key part of their activities over time becomes how to maintain power, privilege and influence—and all the goodies that come with it. Eventually that is all that matters for the institution. The greatest success in this effort always comes when political leaders bow to the dictates of the Holy Roman Church and agree to make State Law subservient to Church Law. Back in the days of Kings and Queens you only had a handful of elites you had to work with and the mutual pursuit of power inspired many of them to treat Church Law as State Law. It worked for a long while and then came the Reformation, Protestantism, King Henry, the Enlightenment, Democracy and eventually a desire by more and more people to make their laws free of religion and the dictates of any Church.

The United States of America was founded on the belief that Church and State are separate and that the Laws of this Nation trump the laws of any religion—including the Roman Catholic Church. As you can imagine, this has made the conservative wing of the Catholic Church quite sad. For over a century they have been on the losing end of many political fights—especially when it comes to women in America. The Church opposed suffrage for women and any effort over the years that might free women from the Church sanctioned role of breeder. The Church has fought every form of contraception and lost most battles. They also have lost the battle of finding any American politician who was willing to embrace the idea that US Law should be subservient to Church Law—until now.

Living here in Europe where they have national health insurance-and thus what is covered or not is none of the church's business-the issue seems even more ludicrous. If the US had a national health insurance program this would be a non-issue. But don't kid yourself, this is just the beginning, the moral lunatics will extend the rules to other venues, end of life care being the one that most readily comes to mind. Fuck that.

I don’t watch Meet the Republicans, This Week with the GOP or any of the other Sunday shows, but reliable sources report that Jack Lew went on Face the Conservatives and State of the Right Wing with Candy Crowley yesterday and told the bishops that clowntime is over:

Mr. Lew said the president put out a solid plan, and when asked whether there is more room for compromising said, “No. This is our plan.”

In an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Mr. Lew said, “We’re going to go ahead and implement it.” He said the White House has “broad consensus – not universal consensus – that this is an approach that’s right.”

Rick Santorum was on next, and his face got red as he cried, bunched up his little fists and pounded the table saying that in his ideal world women would be constantly pregnant, but until he can raise up his new caliphate, he’ll accept that sluts can take their shame to a pharmacy and get the pill, but those roundheels should have to pay for it. Or words to that effect.

And is it just me, or do any of you detect a bit of a post-coital flush coloring Mitch McConnell’s pronouncement on Bob Scheiffer’s Old Man Show that not only Catholics, but any employer, should be able to decide not to pay for contraception as long as they dispense Viagra like a holy sacrament? My guess is that Mitch just renewed his Rx for the little blue pill for free on his Congressional health plan.

Insurance companies are supposed to be bill payers-nothing more. When you empower them to make value judgments on peoples lives-you are doing nothing but giving them yet another excuse to fuck people over. The religious conservatives are advocating a fantastically broad standard – including the "toll on others" who have nothing to do with the Catholic organizations at all but who might just infer that contraception is OK – essentially ending any idea of the law as a neutral means for citizens with radically different moral views to choose for themselves what is good or bad. The law must reflect morality and that morality must be based on Catholic "natural law" . The stupidity and basic immorality of that position should be plainly evident to anyone with a brain.

Of course by that standard-just about all tea party supporters are not included. Since they lost the ability to think cognitively a long time ago-as evidenced by their support for Santorum and this stupid position.

Kind of sad really……

Skippy-san — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:38:12 +0000

That there are people who actually defend Andrew Breitbart.

Especially after the unbelievable freak show that was CPAC this year-and we got to see the bearded maniac come completely unglued:

And people show up with torches and pitchforks and accuse me of ignorance-for simply pointing out the Navy is cheap publicity hungry.

Now either Breitbart is really drunk here ( a distinct possibility)-or he is just that stupid. He taunts the crowd to behave themselves-yet it is Breitbart who gets pulled away by the police. And it seems to me-that this particular demonstration was orderly. Until his exalted beardeness pours gasoline on the fire.

The point should be clear-the protestors at CPAC have the same rights as the morons inisde the hotel-or for that matter that the Tea Party ~~douchebags~~ members exercised themselves a couple of years ago. Breitbart knows exactly what he is doing. He will have an editied video on the streets within a few days-and his legions will simply eat it up. .

"Never wrestle with a Breitbart. The Breitbart just loves it and all that happens to you is you get really tired and dirty."

Women who really ought to be in the news……

Skippy-san — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:07:37 +0000

But for some reason-Western feminists pay little or no attention to. Shocked, I tell you-absolutely shocked.

The case of the maids trying to win right of abode in Hong Kong is moving towards its next step:

A spectre is haunting Hong Kong. And it is not communism. It is the sight of undesirable women roaming the streets of this acclaimed world city. First were the Filipino maids. Then came pregnant women from the mainland. Both are making unwanted claims on the good life which Hongkongers seem to feel is their own and look determined to guard jealously.

The demands for residency status by foreign maids who toil day in and day out for this city's rich and middle class alike are held up in court and regulatory tussles. The attacks on pregnant mainland women have just begun. Full-page advertisements can be found in theApple Daily, calling the women "locusts" that must be driven out. The language deployed can only be called hysterical sectarian slurs. Such expressions are hardly acceptable in polite company, let alone when they are printed for Hong Kong's much-touted "civil society".

The government's appeal against the ruling in favor of Evangeline Banao Vallejos will be heard on February 21. The natives are worried:

The issue of granting foreign helpers abode ignited a public outcry over jobs and fears it would further strain the city's medical and public housing systems. A similar furor has erupted in recent weeks over the issue of mainland mothers giving birth in Hong Kong and the behaviour of visitors from the mainland.

Representatives of a maids' group told the forum about being verbally harassed by market vendors after High Court Judge Johnson Lam Man-hon, sitting in the Court of First Instance, ruled in favour of Vallejos in September.

"They yelled at us, saying we were coming to take away their jobs," said Mia, a Nepali helper.

Now if the court rules in favor of the maid and against the government ( which I doubt) that would be a real first. Not some artificial first for women who already have a distinct set of advantages in the system. And will American feminists even bother to notice? Not a chance.

More Fasching Fun

Skippy-san — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:01:24 +0000

The S.O. and I went to a Pferdemarkt today. ( Horse Market). It was up in Leonberg-a very charming old town northwest of Stuttgart. They have a four day festival-part of which is a Pferde Markt or Horse Market. Today there was a horse show-so the S.O and I went:

We also watched the younger girls ride the ponies:

The horse show was about a 1/4 mile from the town-the walk was pretty, in that it went from the town through the pastures and out to the Reit Zentrum. Leonberg is nestled against hills and makes for a pretty scene. We stayed and watched all the acts, which I gathered from the explanations in German, were from a local riding academy.

We also got to see the Smurfs again-or in German-Die Schlumpfe:

After the show-and a stop by the nearby stand for a Rote Wurst, a Waffel, and a Gluhwein-we trudged back into town. Where in the spirit of Faasching Season-the brass bands were playing. As we came back into the Altstadt city square, they were playing the theme from Ghostbusters:

A view of the square:

And of course-the Burgermeister

A long strange trip….

Skippy-san — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:47:24 +0000

This is what you get when a bunch of Hollywood scriptwriters are sitting around with a bag of weed, a bong, several bottles of Scotch and time on their hands. Palin vs Nazi's from the moon!

Space Battleship Yamato without the anime.

Meathead Flag Officers

Skippy-san — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:16:27 +0000

Tom Ricks has a great guest post up about the military's propensity to create a lot of its own problems:

Never have so few been supervised by so many doing so little. For the last ten years, the terms "field grade oversight" and "adult supervision" have been used entirely too often. Whether it be the Rangers blowing up a radar tower in Desert Storm, the rescue of Scott O'Grady in Bosnia, the Ranger parachute assault outside Kandahar in 2001, or the stereotypical deployment of the 82^nd Airborne Division commanding general to accompany even a brigade minus mission, U.S. military commanders increasingly accompany the smallest elements of their command in combat. There are times when a lieutenant colonel or above needs to lead Hal Moore-style, being the first one on the ground. But the overwhelming majority of combat situations do not warrant this senior presence. Field grade officers do not need to be leading fire teams, squads and platoons. They need to do their job, staying away from room clearing. And ensuring subordinates are getting what they need. C'mon man!

Read the rest here.

By request.

Skippy-san — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:07:39 +0000

Commenter Cupajoe wanted a rant against marriage. By amazing coincidence-I'm feeling right down on that subject tonight. Ask, and ye shall receive:

Lovingly stolen from Expat at Large!

I’m still here……

Skippy-san — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:29:14 +0000

You greasy bastards. Still one of the greatest movie lines of all time.

Its also a good theme for my blog birthday-which occurs today. This blog is 7 years old today. A milestone of sorts-and the adventure has definitely not gone as I thought it would back in 2005.

I began this blog out of a sense of frustration responding to a huge personal disappointment in my life; created by nothing but sheer stupidity on the part of other people-who then, as was recently demonstrated here-thought they had some sort of God -given right to interfere with my life. They didn't then-and they most certainly don't today. My disgust with their simplistic trying to slot people into molds, set me off on the path of blogging to begin with. That particular personal disappointment was a “Y” of sorts in my life-and the path taken since then, was definitely the one less traveled by. But it has been, on the whole, pretty interesting. It has made, "all the difference".

They say you are supposed to write about what you know. For me that comes down to my life-which has been a fascinating ride, most definitely not your standard issue, Mark 1, Mod 0 useless life in suburbia-and politics. I had to deal with some of the suburbia during my 3+ year exile in the whining states of America. But even there, I found ways to get out and about-and do a lot of things that many others didn't get the chance to do. Perhaps you may have noticed that I was able to get to Hong Kong and Singapore-for brief stints-slipping the surly bonds that bound me. And my two summers in Romania are indeed a highlight in my life as well. As for the politics-American politics, that is probably the subject area I am most passionate about.

Sure I could take one narrow subjects area and focus on that-but there are far better experts already doing that. I prefer to write about the things that strike me-while maintaining an preference for the American politics. Since those particular politics have become pretty screwed up over the years-there is a lot to talk about. I've tried to also chronicle the travels and travails of my life-leaving more than bread crumbs along the way; in today's society that's probably no longer a smart thing to do. But it is my adventure, my tragedy, my boredom and excitement and to share it with someone has been more than a little therapeutic.

Like all bloggers, I had that fantasy that someone of influence would pick up on my writing and become enraptured with it, enough so to enable a transition to a living based upon it. Sadly, as the years and the hit counter have proven-that’s not going to be the case. Its probably like my oppressors listed above-blogs have a self fulfilling tendency to slot people into types. If you do not fit one of those, it does not matter how well you write-the crowds just are not there. It is especially not helped when as the later years have proven-the sorry state of American politics and the basic average stupidity of my countrymen, has fueled an anger in me. I have a short temper to begin with-and seeing some of the really silly events of the past few years has brought that anger to the surface.

Speaking of hit counters, I looked. I have written 2673 posts and received 6059 comments. Since I have had two blog sites-its hard to estimate my total number of visitors, but if Site Meter is to be believed its about 250,000. In blog terms that's a small number. I am proud of the fact that I have not (yet) had to moderate comments-I think its a bad thing in the long run. Given recent experiences though-I may have to re-think that policy. I hope not.

Several of those 2673 posts have been controversial-and I've had more than a couple people take their anger out in my comments page and via e-mail. Heartening though-if not a tad bit of disturbing commentary on American society, are the e-mail's of support I have also gotten. Folks who wanted to comment-but were afraid to because of fear the thought police would come hunt them down. That's remarkable when you consider that a lot of what I have written has been expressed in similar strident forms elsewhere-and you don't see the folks out with torches and pitchforks there. But I do understand-the fear of intimidation can be real. But I look at it, if you going to go around watching everything you say, you are not going to get anything said. So for the thought police lurking around reading this-go suck my……..

ANYWAY.

I’ve also tried to have fun-acknowledging that my tastes are not those of the typical purebred American boy. Contrary to popular belief, I love women. Oh that I surely do.

I don't like feminism though-about that I have been pretty consistent. I do not like it one little bit. I also think the vociferous defenders of the rising income inequality in the world need to be singled out for a well deserved verbal beating. One reason I envy Matt Taibbi is that he has aggressively taken on this subject-pointing out that Goldman Sachs folks may have been individually just fine-but collectively, they were still evil.

Now that I am back overseas- I will continue to write about the ups and downs of the overseas life. Which-for all its issues-still beats its domestic counterpart by many many miles. The world is big and I still need to see a lot of it.

However American politics-and my fascination to all things military-inevitably draw me back to those topics. And to those loyal readers who have been following the goings on here for a while-there will be little change in this pattern for the future. So like the Friends of Bill keep saying ( as they screw up another generation of the illegally coerced)-keep coming back.

I’ll keep trying to figure out what I’m going to do when I grow up.