bigcat

It always seems so trite to say we should always be grateful for what we have, but today I have to thank God for home and family and life.

When there are thousands dead from an earthquake in Pakistan, hundreds dead from mudslides in Guatemala (this hits hard because our son is from that country), and so many of the survivors from New Orleans are so far from finding a real home, you have to think about things like this.

After everyone opened their wallets for Katrina I wonder where the money will be for the victims of these new disasters.

Being alive and home and warm and safe feels very good to me today.

It is very difficult to sum up the feelings I have about what has happened in New Orleans, how a whole city in my country, not some struggling nation, can be left essentially to rot and die for days. One must start with George W. Bush, but I am afraid it cannot end there. The adminstration made bad decisions, horrible decisions in some cases, but where was the outcry from the Democrats, my party, when the cuts in emergency planning that put the city at such great risk were made?

I can believe that many people neglected the poor and black victims. But it seems the soaring energy costs will hurt a lot of the business that the GOP always claims to protect. (Although I fear the oil companies will squeeze money out of this in the end, and so will Halliburton).

It just seems to me that something is going horribly wrong in this county that goes beyond the stupidity of “W”. Even if you believe that we had a proper purpose in getting rid of Saddam Hussein, how could anyone allow that war to take so much resources away from our nation to allow thousands of people to die from a storm everyone knew was coming, when experts warned that New Orleans could suffer just such a fate.

Getting rid of the Bush cabal is the first step, but we have to address why America elected him in the first place, and squarely face the issue — are we ready to offer a solid alternative that can bring America behind it?

There’s a lot of work to do here. A lot.

So we read that FBI agents and even Donald Rumsfeld have souveniers from the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

And of course Bush is using clips of the disaster in his ads.

I really don’t think it is too much to ask to want to keep the memory of those who died there out of politics and out of the souvenir shop. Rumsfeld’s people say he regards his piece of the plane that hit the Pentagon as government property. Maybe so, but still it doesn’t sit right with me.

Having worked in New York City (for a while just a few blocks north of the World Trade Center), the idea of FBI agents carrying around pieces of the building and showing them off really turns my stomach.

I usually don’t like to call objects sacred. But these items really were part of the tombs of those who died; they should be treated with more respect. We owe it to their friends and relatives, to the firefighters, police and others who risked their lives, and to all the people of New York.

PS: One of those stupid weblog spammers left their dirty footprints on one of my entries about 9/11. That really pissed me off. It is one thing to leave trash attached to some of my stupid ramblings about Boston weather or cats, but please don’t attach sex URLs to entries like that.

Believe me, I am no fan of smoke. I don’t like to hang out in bars or other places where smoking is allowed.

But I am really starting to wonder if this is really the time to be cracking down on smokers. New York City has banned smoking in bars, and Boston will be doing the same soon. The Globe had a story about the ban’s effects in New York. And another about a pool hall losing business in Woburn.

Eventually, I would like to see a lot more smoke-free bars and clubs. Non-smokers like me often stay home rather than hear music because we or our companions can’t stand the smoke.

But right now, with the economy tanking (especially in New York), fear of SARS and terrorism, war and you name it, maybe we shouldn’t be piling on extra stresses?

What to make of the demonstrations against the U.S. presence in Iraq?

I’m sure there are many views in Iraq towards the United States, ranging from love to hate.

But we need to remember that while most Iraqis are glad to be rid of Saddam, few probably desire a government dictated from many miles away, from a country where most people show relatively little interest in the real needs of other countries.

We need to get out of Iraq as soon as we safely can, and I think quite a bit faster than Bush proposes.

It’s good to see troops, especially the POWs, starting to come home.

I keep thinking I should say something here about the war. But it is hard to really say much except to wish for its swift conclusion, and to think about the troops who go where most of us would not dare, and for the Iraqi people who are so much caught in the middle here.

There’s a report of negotiations between the U.S. and elements in Iraq, attempting to arrange a surrender.

I hope it happens. It would save a lot of lives and help the future of Iraq.

As for the protesters: In many ways I agree with them, but I think the timing does not make sense. The troops cannot stop now; that would put Saddam in the driver’s seat and that would be horrible.

I do not however believe they are “un-American” or any such thing. And there will be many times in the coming months where these voices will gain new importance.

Even a quick and painless victory for us in Iraq will only be the beginning of trying to find the real terrorists (we haven’t, have we) and to heal the split with much of the world.

The world isn’t going to be an easy place to live for a while. And I am not very well supplied with easy answers to any of this.

No matter what you think of the upcoming war, you should read what Salam in Iraq has to say in his blog. (It may load very slowly, obviously he’s getting a lot of hits today).

Somehow, this makes more sense than anything coming from any of the governments (U.S., Iraqi, British, French, you name it).

Why does it seem that the U.S. suddenly gets interested in Iraq again when the current president is facing serious problems at home, only to forget about it a few months later.

We have a very powerful military, and a lot of brave soldiers, but we never seem to figure out how to conduct foreign policy in a way that makes sense.

The truth is that almost no one in the U.S. really cares that much about the people in Iraq, no matter what they say. Most of the anti-war faction doesn’t seem too interested in how Saddam treats his people, and most of the pro-war people seem to feel that “we must destroy the country to save it”.

Tell me, how are things in Afghanistan now? Good, bad, indifferent? To be honest I don’t know and you probably don’t either. We as a nation have the attention span of a carp.

Massachusetts is considering further limiting the drugs doctors can prescribe for Medicaid patients, to save money.

This plan includes psychiatric medications — not only antidepressants but antipsychotic drugs, including requiring special permission for prescribing multiple medications for an ailment in some cases.

Now there may be some doctors out there who are over-prescribing.

But the problem is that for many patients with depression, more than one drug often makes sense. And the newer drugs, in addition to being more expensive, are also often more effective with fewer side-effects.

So for those patients who don’t do as well with limited, older drugs — what happens if they can no longer work, need more frequent doctor visits, or even hospitalization?

Setting aside the question of fairness in providing medical treatment to those in need, it seems like the state is going to end up paying a lot more for some of these patients than it is saving.

And those antipsychotics — I think I’d much rather pay more taxes than wonder if some poor soul wandering the streets isn’t getting the best antipsychotics available. Think about it.

OK, my brain is completely turned off now — we are watching Are You Hot?.

Sex. Kinda basic, I guess. But why do the people who get kicked off have to do those stupid, weepy interviews?

There’s now a lot of talk about “boycotting French wine”:http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/054/metro/Wine_buyers_do_their_part+.shtml in protest of France’s opposition to a U.S.-led war with Iraq.

Now I don’t really think the war is a good idea, but frankly I kind of think boycotting France is just fun, anyway. The French attitude is somehow just annoying, even if correct.

Boycotting French wine also came up during another ill-advised war, in Vietnam. It never really got very far.

Apparently, from looking at Google, boycotting French wine has a long and proud tradition, for reasons ranging from “a tax on beer”:http://www.bodensatz.com/ to “an anti-Semitic ambassador”:http://www.hsje.org/cause_for_boycott_frances_anti.htm to “weapons testing”:http://www-tech.mit.edu/V115/N39/brit.39w.html to “a ban on British beef”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/525963.stm .

I’m not a big wine drinker myself, but I’d say try some Italian wines — the Italians are just more fun.