I learned something new today. It's National Masturbation Month, which is celebrated all over the world, according to Dr. Carol Queen, a sexologist for "Good Vibrations", a sex toy shop in San Francisco (where else?). Meat beaters and dildo diddlers of the world, unite, you have nothing to lose but your you-know-what.
Even more interesting, in Brazil a court has declared it legal and acceptable that Ana Catarian Bezerra be allowed to masturbate at her workplace. It seems she suffers from extreme anxiety and finds relief in masturbation, which she has done up to forty-seven times a day. A doctor has put her on tranquilizers and reduced the need for such play to eighteen times a day.
It makes me nervous and tired just to contemplate that much manual action. I don't somehow think this action will become commonplace in the American workplace. Too distracting and detrimental to office efficiency. But I've been wrong before...
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
THE ULTIMATE APHRODISIAC
I was fascinated to read in the papers this morning of the arrest for alleged rape by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund and a contender to replace Nicholas Sarkosy as President of France. The victim was a 32-year old African maid at his posh New York (three grand per night) hotel suite. M. le ministre Strauss-Kahn has a long record of infidelities and, to put it mildly, a prolific and active sex life.
The first thought I had was how difficult it will be for the maid who doubtless will be facing a battery of the highest-paid lawyers big money can buy. The second thought was to remember an adage from Henry Kissinger: "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."
It is quite amazing the number of powerful politicians or power brokers who are frequently caught with their flies open. The obvious Presidential types like John Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Warren Harding (who, in case you didn't know it, was caught IN FLAGRANTE DELICTO in a closet under the stairs in the White House with his secretary who was doing more than taking dictation), Thomas Jefferson and, I’m sure a few others. Joe Kennedy was a master diddler and, among many others, had Gloria Swanson as a mistress. Randolph Hearst for many years “sponsored” the actress Miriam Davis when they lived in his palace, Xanadu, in Big Sur. Congress is filled with tales of lust and many forced out of office by sexual scandals. In any case, power and lust are partners like bread and butter---they just seem to go together.
Power seems to go the head (which one, take your choice---both, to my mind) and makes the instigator think that somehow he is immune and above the law. In the old days, it seemed this was true. For example, the press liked Jack Kennedy. They knew he was playing around constantly but they looked the other way. Watergate and Vietnam changed all the journalistic ground rules, and the doors were flung wide open. But that doesn’t stop the sexual predator who looks on conquests as a game and feels he will always be the victor.
It will be interesting to see how the Strauss-Kahn case turns out. Of course, the French, the Italians and the Greeks are used to these political shenanigans and simply shrug their shoulders. But getting charged in New York and a probable trial might even get their attention..
As Fats Waller used to say, “One never knows, do one?”
The first thought I had was how difficult it will be for the maid who doubtless will be facing a battery of the highest-paid lawyers big money can buy. The second thought was to remember an adage from Henry Kissinger: "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."
It is quite amazing the number of powerful politicians or power brokers who are frequently caught with their flies open. The obvious Presidential types like John Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Warren Harding (who, in case you didn't know it, was caught IN FLAGRANTE DELICTO in a closet under the stairs in the White House with his secretary who was doing more than taking dictation), Thomas Jefferson and, I’m sure a few others. Joe Kennedy was a master diddler and, among many others, had Gloria Swanson as a mistress. Randolph Hearst for many years “sponsored” the actress Miriam Davis when they lived in his palace, Xanadu, in Big Sur. Congress is filled with tales of lust and many forced out of office by sexual scandals. In any case, power and lust are partners like bread and butter---they just seem to go together.
Power seems to go the head (which one, take your choice---both, to my mind) and makes the instigator think that somehow he is immune and above the law. In the old days, it seemed this was true. For example, the press liked Jack Kennedy. They knew he was playing around constantly but they looked the other way. Watergate and Vietnam changed all the journalistic ground rules, and the doors were flung wide open. But that doesn’t stop the sexual predator who looks on conquests as a game and feels he will always be the victor.
It will be interesting to see how the Strauss-Kahn case turns out. Of course, the French, the Italians and the Greeks are used to these political shenanigans and simply shrug their shoulders. But getting charged in New York and a probable trial might even get their attention..
As Fats Waller used to say, “One never knows, do one?”
Friday, May 13, 2011
THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY
This is weird. I wrote a post yesterday under the above title---and it's nowhere to be found, lost in cyberspace. I'll try to reconstruct it.
May is one of my favorite months here in Sanibel Island on the southwest coast of Florida. The weather is usually wonderful, even if this year is a bit warmer and more humid than usual, but still bearable. By this time the tourist season is over. Normally it is over by late April but, due to the late Easter this year, the tourist season extended into the first week in May. We restless "natives" (that is, anyone who calls this home whether here a year or thirty) are catching our collective breaths and enjoying the comparative peace and quiet. On June 1, hurricane season starts, lasting until November 1. We had a bad one in 2004 which severely damaged our condo on the beach, a prime rental property (which we have owned for thirty-four years) reopened for rental in 2005. We also had limited damage to the house: a pool cage knocked down, which in turn damaged our antique fountain---all fine now. The weather in the summer becomes a steam bath with late afternoon showers the usual rule, but by October it is usually great.
Spring is at its best right now. We had a hard rain a few days ago, which was needed, and nature then exploded. We have a Strangler Fig tree in the middle of our front lawn, surrounded by flowering shrubs, in which we have periodically added orchids which are showing a profusion of white blooms. We also have a Hong Kong Orchid tree in the front, the pride of the neighborhood, which normally is covered with pink flowers from November to March; this year, it's still showing lots of pink in May.
Our backyard is right on the second fairway near the green of the Beachview Country Club, so, when we built the house nine years ago, we decided we had enough grass with the fairway and concentrated on native plants and some exotics in our back garden. The bougainvillea were exceptionally fiery this year, especially in March and April though still showing lots of red. Bottlebrush trees, exora, yucca, clumps of native grasses and lots of yellow dune flowers make a bright display and attract birds and butterflies. We also have a swimming pool enclosed in a large and sturdy screen enclosure to keep birds and critters out. In the corner of the pool is our antique fountain which my grandfather purchased in Florence, Italy in 1905, had at his house in Ohio for many years, after which I moved it to my home in Ohio for forty years---and then moved it down here.
As for birds, we have a lot. I've told you about the woodpeckers who made apartments in a dead palm next to our house. They must have got "territorial" and decided that the screech owl should not have an apartment there. So much for my multi-ethnic neighborhood! I'm happy to report, however, we have spied the screech owl who moved over to the Strangler Fig and made a nest there, so he's still in the neighborhood! The only nasty ones are some noisy crows who sometimes come in flocks and make their annoying "uh-uh" sound. We have lots of herons and egrets who travel in flotillas and are prevalent especially after a good rain when they can eat worms and insects. it looks and sounds like a ladies' club meeting when they congregate. You have to be careful driving on the street, because these congregations take their own sweet time crossing.
We love Sanibel anytime---but it's extra-special in the merry month of May.
May is one of my favorite months here in Sanibel Island on the southwest coast of Florida. The weather is usually wonderful, even if this year is a bit warmer and more humid than usual, but still bearable. By this time the tourist season is over. Normally it is over by late April but, due to the late Easter this year, the tourist season extended into the first week in May. We restless "natives" (that is, anyone who calls this home whether here a year or thirty) are catching our collective breaths and enjoying the comparative peace and quiet. On June 1, hurricane season starts, lasting until November 1. We had a bad one in 2004 which severely damaged our condo on the beach, a prime rental property (which we have owned for thirty-four years) reopened for rental in 2005. We also had limited damage to the house: a pool cage knocked down, which in turn damaged our antique fountain---all fine now. The weather in the summer becomes a steam bath with late afternoon showers the usual rule, but by October it is usually great.
Spring is at its best right now. We had a hard rain a few days ago, which was needed, and nature then exploded. We have a Strangler Fig tree in the middle of our front lawn, surrounded by flowering shrubs, in which we have periodically added orchids which are showing a profusion of white blooms. We also have a Hong Kong Orchid tree in the front, the pride of the neighborhood, which normally is covered with pink flowers from November to March; this year, it's still showing lots of pink in May.
Our backyard is right on the second fairway near the green of the Beachview Country Club, so, when we built the house nine years ago, we decided we had enough grass with the fairway and concentrated on native plants and some exotics in our back garden. The bougainvillea were exceptionally fiery this year, especially in March and April though still showing lots of red. Bottlebrush trees, exora, yucca, clumps of native grasses and lots of yellow dune flowers make a bright display and attract birds and butterflies. We also have a swimming pool enclosed in a large and sturdy screen enclosure to keep birds and critters out. In the corner of the pool is our antique fountain which my grandfather purchased in Florence, Italy in 1905, had at his house in Ohio for many years, after which I moved it to my home in Ohio for forty years---and then moved it down here.
As for birds, we have a lot. I've told you about the woodpeckers who made apartments in a dead palm next to our house. They must have got "territorial" and decided that the screech owl should not have an apartment there. So much for my multi-ethnic neighborhood! I'm happy to report, however, we have spied the screech owl who moved over to the Strangler Fig and made a nest there, so he's still in the neighborhood! The only nasty ones are some noisy crows who sometimes come in flocks and make their annoying "uh-uh" sound. We have lots of herons and egrets who travel in flotillas and are prevalent especially after a good rain when they can eat worms and insects. it looks and sounds like a ladies' club meeting when they congregate. You have to be careful driving on the street, because these congregations take their own sweet time crossing.
We love Sanibel anytime---but it's extra-special in the merry month of May.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
MORE MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING
As one would expect, the contrarians are weighing in on the assassination of Osama bin Laden. As expected, Fidel Castro thinks it wrong and an unauthorized invasion of national sovereignty. Angela Merkel, the German prime minister, caught hell for saying it was a good thing from national newspaper, "Die Welt" and the German foreign minister, Guido Westewelle said we must be careful lest it send the wrong message to extremists to incite them. As if they needed further inciting! The prime minister of Spain, Juan Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, decried the killing and not bringing bin Laden to trial. Human rights lawyers all over the world are adding their fuel to the fire.
I am not one under normal circumstances to advocate violation of national sovereignty or assassinations. But would you consider "normal circumstances" the war on terror? Yes, note the word "war". Whether you like it or not we have been engaged for ten years in a war on terror. I am not saying we always did it the right way, for I have consistently thought, since the beginning, that Iraq was a mistake, that we could have undermined and forced Saddam Hussein out another way---but that's another story. In wartime civil rights and many democratic prerogatives are temporarily suspended.
Remember the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln, the epitome of the soul of democracy, suspended habeas corpus? The ground rules often change in wartime, and we are forced to do things we normally might find repellent. Harry Truman caught a lot of hell for dropping the atomic bomb, but, personally, I think he did the right thing. If you had been told by your trusted military advisers that the invasion of Japan would mean a million casualties, wouldn't you have considered the bomb?
We might also remember that Congress on September 18, 2001 passed the Authorization to Use Military Force, a broad measure giving sweeping power to the President to act with wartime powers against the extremist terrorists, especially bin Laden.
It's not a lovely abstract game played on a board or on paper, world politics and war. Do you think the Nazis or the Japanese in WW II played by the rules? The idea in a war is to win.
Osama bin Laden was another Hitler or Stalin; he was Public Enemy Number One and a threat to all democracies. He had to be taken out, and it took a helluva long time to do so. When we had the chance to do it---and it was a risky chance our President took, to his credit---, we had to strike. and that is how war works.
So, drop the Monday morning quarterbacking, and just appreciate an awful but necessary job that had to be done.
I am not one under normal circumstances to advocate violation of national sovereignty or assassinations. But would you consider "normal circumstances" the war on terror? Yes, note the word "war". Whether you like it or not we have been engaged for ten years in a war on terror. I am not saying we always did it the right way, for I have consistently thought, since the beginning, that Iraq was a mistake, that we could have undermined and forced Saddam Hussein out another way---but that's another story. In wartime civil rights and many democratic prerogatives are temporarily suspended.
Remember the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln, the epitome of the soul of democracy, suspended habeas corpus? The ground rules often change in wartime, and we are forced to do things we normally might find repellent. Harry Truman caught a lot of hell for dropping the atomic bomb, but, personally, I think he did the right thing. If you had been told by your trusted military advisers that the invasion of Japan would mean a million casualties, wouldn't you have considered the bomb?
We might also remember that Congress on September 18, 2001 passed the Authorization to Use Military Force, a broad measure giving sweeping power to the President to act with wartime powers against the extremist terrorists, especially bin Laden.
It's not a lovely abstract game played on a board or on paper, world politics and war. Do you think the Nazis or the Japanese in WW II played by the rules? The idea in a war is to win.
Osama bin Laden was another Hitler or Stalin; he was Public Enemy Number One and a threat to all democracies. He had to be taken out, and it took a helluva long time to do so. When we had the chance to do it---and it was a risky chance our President took, to his credit---, we had to strike. and that is how war works.
So, drop the Monday morning quarterbacking, and just appreciate an awful but necessary job that had to be done.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
MUSIC TO MY EARS
"I'd rather have the committee working with the Senate and the president, focusing on savings and reforms that can be signed into law."
These were the words of Dave Camp (R-Mich), Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, referring to the failure of the House to repeal the Health Care Law and the need to work on modifying the existing law.
Thank God. How much time has been wasted on this repeal effort, which was doomed from the beginning, Now they can get down to the serious business of analyzing the law, fixing its weak points, perhaps stripping away some of the earmarks and irrelevancies attached to the old bill and just plain repairing it. We need a worable health plan. Maybe, just maybe, some bipartisanship might appear? MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, SOME THINKING OF THE NATIONAL INTEREST?
These were the words of Dave Camp (R-Mich), Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, referring to the failure of the House to repeal the Health Care Law and the need to work on modifying the existing law.
Thank God. How much time has been wasted on this repeal effort, which was doomed from the beginning, Now they can get down to the serious business of analyzing the law, fixing its weak points, perhaps stripping away some of the earmarks and irrelevancies attached to the old bill and just plain repairing it. We need a worable health plan. Maybe, just maybe, some bipartisanship might appear? MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, SOME THINKING OF THE NATIONAL INTEREST?
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
LEST WE FORGET
My son-in-law just forwarded the op-ed listed below. Mind you, I believe the killing of that monster, bin Laden, totally justifiable, but Mr. Black raises some pertinent factors that we should note and apply and some challenges we need to consider. it is like I often say: simple answers are easy but not always right.
Sovereign Man
Notes from the Field
Date: May 2, 2011
Reporting From: Montevideo, Uruguay
Despite being one of the most cerebral societies in the history of the world, the Ancient Greeks condemned one of their greatest philosophers to death for asking too many inconvenient questions and pestering the status quo.
Certain things, as it turns out, are sacrosanct and beyond debate.
Good citizens, whether in Ancient Greece or today, are expected to fall in line with what they're told, and any measure of dissent or intellectual discourse is met with derision and public ridicule. Anyone who questions the nation's hallowed truths is labeled as an enemy... or at least, accused of supporting the enemy.
If Socrates were alive today, though, he would be busier than ever. As uncomfortable as it may be for many people, there are difficult questions that need to be asked.
Is it the nature of justice in America to order the assassination of someone located in another sovereign nation who has not been put on trial, no matter how evil he has been made out to be?
When a country spends 10-years and billions of dollars to chase a man around the world, only to find him 'hiding in plain sight' right next door to a country it has invaded, what does it say about its capability to keep the citizens safe?
As the mainstream media is presenting all the information passed along by the US government without questioning any of it, could there be another side to the story that is not being discussed?
In light of such an apparent 'victory', when will the civil liberties and financial privacies that have been taken so rapidly since 9/11 be reinstated?
Regardless of any short-term euphoria, is the country headed in the overall right direction? Moreover, has there been any change in the ability of the nation's leaders to forge real solutions?
Understandably, it's an easier course of action to celebrate in the streets right now than to ask questions. People are weary of war, and as they have now been told that a grotesque symbol of evil has been put down like a mangy dog, it is no doubt a cathartic moment for those who are emotionally invested.
Yet seeking the truth is not an act of sedition, but one of patriotism. When a society slanders independent thinkers and dismisses those who do not fall in line like chanting Zombies, they're simply borrowing from the same playbook that the Soviet Union used.
In time, the exuberance will fade, and western nations will once again find themselves facing indelible challenges. Most of them are already past the point of no return.
The dollar remains fundamentally weak. Commodities and precious metals did fall immediately following last night's announcement (giving our partner Tim a tidy profit on the short silver position he wrote about last week), though the long-term trend on all tangibles remains bullish over fiat.
Even against other fiat currencies like the euro, yen, and Swiss franc, the dollar is weakening. Debt problems remain unaddressed. The Fed's balance sheet remains inflated. And a tiny handful of men still controls the money system that has been wrecking the lives of ordinary people around the world.
Roughly 3,000 people died in the September 11th attacks. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians around the world have died in retaliatory conflicts since then. Millions of people have seen their lives change for the worse as a result of the consequent erosion in civil liberties. Billions of people are facing a critical pinch from rising food and fuel prices.
Yes, the boogeyman we have been told to hate for the last decade has been put to rest. But if we choose to ignore the real evils that remain in the world for the sake of short-term euphoria, we're simply dancing in the streets while Rome burns.
Until tomorrow,
Simon Black
Senior Editor, SovereignMan.com
Sovereign Man
Notes from the Field
Date: May 2, 2011
Reporting From: Montevideo, Uruguay
Despite being one of the most cerebral societies in the history of the world, the Ancient Greeks condemned one of their greatest philosophers to death for asking too many inconvenient questions and pestering the status quo.
Certain things, as it turns out, are sacrosanct and beyond debate.
Good citizens, whether in Ancient Greece or today, are expected to fall in line with what they're told, and any measure of dissent or intellectual discourse is met with derision and public ridicule. Anyone who questions the nation's hallowed truths is labeled as an enemy... or at least, accused of supporting the enemy.
If Socrates were alive today, though, he would be busier than ever. As uncomfortable as it may be for many people, there are difficult questions that need to be asked.
Is it the nature of justice in America to order the assassination of someone located in another sovereign nation who has not been put on trial, no matter how evil he has been made out to be?
When a country spends 10-years and billions of dollars to chase a man around the world, only to find him 'hiding in plain sight' right next door to a country it has invaded, what does it say about its capability to keep the citizens safe?
As the mainstream media is presenting all the information passed along by the US government without questioning any of it, could there be another side to the story that is not being discussed?
In light of such an apparent 'victory', when will the civil liberties and financial privacies that have been taken so rapidly since 9/11 be reinstated?
Regardless of any short-term euphoria, is the country headed in the overall right direction? Moreover, has there been any change in the ability of the nation's leaders to forge real solutions?
Understandably, it's an easier course of action to celebrate in the streets right now than to ask questions. People are weary of war, and as they have now been told that a grotesque symbol of evil has been put down like a mangy dog, it is no doubt a cathartic moment for those who are emotionally invested.
Yet seeking the truth is not an act of sedition, but one of patriotism. When a society slanders independent thinkers and dismisses those who do not fall in line like chanting Zombies, they're simply borrowing from the same playbook that the Soviet Union used.
In time, the exuberance will fade, and western nations will once again find themselves facing indelible challenges. Most of them are already past the point of no return.
The dollar remains fundamentally weak. Commodities and precious metals did fall immediately following last night's announcement (giving our partner Tim a tidy profit on the short silver position he wrote about last week), though the long-term trend on all tangibles remains bullish over fiat.
Even against other fiat currencies like the euro, yen, and Swiss franc, the dollar is weakening. Debt problems remain unaddressed. The Fed's balance sheet remains inflated. And a tiny handful of men still controls the money system that has been wrecking the lives of ordinary people around the world.
Roughly 3,000 people died in the September 11th attacks. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians around the world have died in retaliatory conflicts since then. Millions of people have seen their lives change for the worse as a result of the consequent erosion in civil liberties. Billions of people are facing a critical pinch from rising food and fuel prices.
Yes, the boogeyman we have been told to hate for the last decade has been put to rest. But if we choose to ignore the real evils that remain in the world for the sake of short-term euphoria, we're simply dancing in the streets while Rome burns.
Until tomorrow,
Simon Black
Senior Editor, SovereignMan.com
Monday, May 2, 2011
JUSTICE IS DONE---BUT...
OSAMA BIN LADEN: 1957-2011
It took awhile, but we finally got the bastard. I am delighted the administration let actions speak louder than words, unlike George W. who frequently talked about the chase and vowed numerous times to get Bin Laden. This is the way a covert operation should work: no fanfare, just stealth, meticulous attention to detail and reliable information.
We are kidding ourselves if anyone thinks this will be the end of Al-Qaeda. Bin Laden has assumed mythic heroic proportions in the minds of many zealous Muslims, and his “martyrdom” will spur the crazies on, and those who hate America will continue to do so. His killing, nevertheless, demonstrates our sense of purpose and determination to the world not to bend to the will of the Muslim extremist.
More than ever, we will have to stay alert.
It took awhile, but we finally got the bastard. I am delighted the administration let actions speak louder than words, unlike George W. who frequently talked about the chase and vowed numerous times to get Bin Laden. This is the way a covert operation should work: no fanfare, just stealth, meticulous attention to detail and reliable information.
We are kidding ourselves if anyone thinks this will be the end of Al-Qaeda. Bin Laden has assumed mythic heroic proportions in the minds of many zealous Muslims, and his “martyrdom” will spur the crazies on, and those who hate America will continue to do so. His killing, nevertheless, demonstrates our sense of purpose and determination to the world not to bend to the will of the Muslim extremist.
More than ever, we will have to stay alert.
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