Thursday, October 29, 2009

Dover Air Force Base

Dover is a large Air Force Base, and like many military installations it is located away from a lot of the country. It is on the ocean and smells of salt and the sea, and the wind seems to always blow in like it is so glad to finally reach land. It will embrace you and it can take your breath away.

There is a lot of traffic in and out of Dover. It connects to Germany and England and sometimes surprisingly far into Europe and also has flights to other strange places like California. It is one of several major international airports right around here, but it is not at all like Andrews AFB, or Baltimore-Washington International, both of which are close by and which also handle a lot of aircraft. Those places are mainly to receive VIPs and for real quick turnarounds for everybody else. People who land there run inside, grab a drink, a bite to eat, they race to another plane and are gone in a hurry. Dover handles a lot of heavy equipment that needs repair, worn-out trucks, beat-up helicopters, and big weapons shipped back for repairs. And it has a morgue. Things slow down in Dover. Dover is the place where time finally comes to an end and quits.

If you are flying out of Dover you will need to park your car in the Long Term Lot. You have to drive a little way past the morgue and secure your car and then walk back to the terminal. You get a good look at the Port Mortuary. It doesn’t look too different from the rest of the base in the daytime, but at night it seems aloof, as if preoccupied in its own thoughts, perhaps more like a poker player who is pretending to ignore you but you know you're being watched carefully. You can’t help notice that the left side of the building has roof that appears to be made of glass, it looks like frosted glass. And it glows in the night as if it is cold inside there. Outside, the night is warm, and the breeze off the ocean builds in intensity.

If you are there at 10:00 p.m., something strange happens. Quietly at first comes a sound that flows across the base, slowly building into a bugle call, softly playing the song we all know as “Taps”. “Day is done, gone the sun. From the lakes, from the hills, from the run. All is well, safely rest; God is nigh.”

And then all that is left is the wind.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Why Fox News IS Different

Not all words can be defined. Most of Plato’s Socratic dialogs argue over concepts that were born without benefit of definition. Many other statements we use today may carry meaning for us but still cannot be defined. “Fascism” is such a word. It can either not be defined at all or else defined in so many ways that it has even less meaning than when the enquiry began.

Philosophers live in this type of world. When they examine a word, they begin with its definition. If it has none they can agree on, they begin by listing the most important characteristics that its use conveys. In the case of “fascism” a number of characteristics are readily available. And that’s where Fox News performs a great service for the rest of us.

Perhaps the most important characteristic of a fascist organization is that its entire work reflects and supports the personality of its leader, or the leading faction of the organization. We see the North Korean economy, arts, military, agriculture, education system, and ALL other institutions mimic Kim Jong-il’s beliefs and attitudes. Same for Myanmar and Than Shwe, also for Somalia, Libya, and several other nations. That means that whatever happens in the world will be reported and discussed in those countries through the personality of their leader or the controlling faction. Whether it is even reported or not will be determined by the leading group. If it is discussed it will be colored by the wishes, opinions, prejudices and goals of its leading faction.

The word “fascism” comes from the Italian, “fasces” or “bundle”, and refers to the old demonstration that one arrow can be broken over one’s knee, also two and three, even more perhaps, but eventually the number of arrows (or other items) becomes so great, when they are “bundled together” they cannot be broken. So you have a country, or an organization that is completely united, all aiming in the same direction and each supporting the other. That’s power. It may also be good business when the business is plowing, manufacturing, selling and producing. But it may be counter-productive when the business of the organization is scientific research, medical care, or collecting, reporting and analyzing the news of the day. But a fascist organization will perform its scientific research, medical care and news delivery to affirm the prejudices and justify the goals of its leader.

There are other characteristics of a fascist organization. Most of them try to generate mass movements of public opinion. Don’t most political parties? Yes, but this is where the fascist organizations have a great advantage. The U. S. Democratic Party, for example would NEVER be mistaken for a fascist organization. They may have a huge bundle of arrows but they are all pointing in different directions. Fascist organizations have rock solid discipline and are always united and walking in lock-step. They don't need debate or to ask questions, because the goal has already been determined, all they have to do is what they have been told to do. They also shine with predetermined doctrines and slogans. They almost always exhort reaction to save their country, organization, business from a declining status. They come to rescue their people from humility, and extol purity and patriotism. They need a “great power” that must be resisted to use as their recruiting tool. They have hallowed ground they refer to often, back to their (our) fathers, great historical moments and such.

So Fox News seems to be an organization that is strong and capable of doing work. No one will ever accuse it of shirking its duties. But it is clear that its duties do not include finding, reporting and analyzing the events of daily occurrence in the world. Everything they report comes with a constant, familiar and coordinated spin. Their listeners appear to be a faithful and loyal group. In this world of constant confusion, random events, stress and terror, Fox's followers are never surprised. Especially when the latest happening is explained, as it is presented to them, as having be caused by a great power they must continue to resist to prevent their nation from falling from its glorious historical past into humility, and that theirs is the cause of purity, salvation, glory and honor. And they, the Fox watchers, have important, informed, intelligent and forceful leaders who DO know what to do, even if their elected officials do not know what to do and how to do it, because the Fox reporters demonstrate what we all MUST do by reciting the necessary slogans and defined doctrines to lead our way. These comments are carefully selected and well organized lesson plans.

Balanced? No. Fair? No. News? No. Fox? Yes.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Depends on Whose Ox is Being Stimulated

Concerning complaints from republicans about the stimulus spending, I commented already on the Washington Post ". . . we have fought several wars without tax increases - there has to be some 'consequenches' to that . . ." We are now fighting 2 unfunded wars to nowhere that have already given $3,000,000,000,000 largely to Boeing, Halliburton, KBR and others who are now using our money to buy our congressmen - and though many of the congressmen have been removed, in my part of the country the congressmen are still there . . . and oh yes, the wars still go on too. Still unfunded. Still open spigotted.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

You Can Call Me Joe.

At least I got noticed. Page 2B CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, Sunday October 18, 2009. They mentioned that "Joe" Womack, a hickory-based blogger had been de-friended on Facebook by McHenry after comments Womack made on his "Pretty Penny" blog about why even have any health-insurance companies and how McHenry had told Womack that he had a page for friends and another for "other people".

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Patrick McHenry and Health Care

Received email from Patrick McHenry about how America has the best health care system in the entire world, and there are some minor areas that need attention. He apparently sees our system as being not-quite perfect but well on the way. My response:

Mr. McHenry, America does NOT have the best health care system in the world, but falls far short of ALL other developed nations in the world, with over 45 million Americans totally uninsured, and perhaps another 45 million under-insured. Additionally, many American businesses find themselves carrying the cost of providing insurance of their workers as they compete in the new global economy - and they are the only ones who have this cost.

Here's what to do. 1) Provide Medicare for All. All Americans would be insured and the waste and additional costs (profits) of the insurance companies could be used for American health-care. The medical profession would no longer have 100+ insurance firms to deal with, but with only one single payer. 2) Failing that, devise ANY system you want BUT provide a public option in that system. Then let the American people make the decision themselves.

John Womack

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Disappearing Constituent of Patrick McHenry

Patrick McHenry is my congressman. He represents me in the United States House of Representatives. He is also on Facebook where he seeks "friends" to advise him on matters of our state and nation. I became his "friend" and enjoyed making suggestions to him and asking him questions. Some of his other "friends" apparently did not care for my suggestions or questions, Both my intelligence and my integrity were called into question, then covered with contemptuous comments Finally, I began to notice that no more comments were forthcoming from Mr. McHenry, and slowly it dawned on me that I had been "de-friended". All for asking the one questions of why we even need health insurance companies at all. We have the supply-demand equation between the medical profession and the American people. All we need to add to that is for the federal government to regulate the industry and provide its own insurance to the people, since the nation itself is the real beneficiary of having healthy workers who can be efficient, effective and productive.

After I realized what had happened, I wrote an "Open Comment" to Mr. McHenry asking why I had become de-friended since I was only trying to help him as one of his constituents.

A week and a half later, Mr. McHenry answered saying that "that" Facebook page was for his "Friends", that "others" could contact him on another Facebook page. So I went there and found I still had to become a "Fan" of Mr. McHenry, and I did. Then I wrote that same question from before and sent it. I watched it after it was sent and was rereading it to make sure there were no errors when it disappeared! Wow. So I wrote another question asking Mr. McHenry I can't ask him any questions, sent it and was looking at it when it disappeared too. At least I taped the second question attempt.


Mr. McHenry wrote me again today and said "you can ask me any questions you want." Yeah, sure.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Get Rid of Health Insurance Companies

Why do we even HAVE health-insurance companies? Health care is basically a supply-demand equation and we Americans know how to handle that. We buy groceries, houses, computers, automobiles, clothing, education and so on without any insurance “gatekeepers” to tell us “OK, you can have a Ford but not a Pontiac” or “no, you can’t buy a coat this winter, you bought one last year.” Or "you can't have anymore generic DVDs, you will have to buy these which cost ten times as much." And it’s not like we don’t all use health-care. Americans use health-care to get born, we use a lot of it when we die, and we all need teeth repaired and glasses. From time to time, we all have accidents and get sick and we all need health care. We "demand" medical services and we have a top-notch medical industry of doctors, nurses, hospitals, and organizations who can "supply" those services. Why do we think we need a gate-keeper to tell us we can have this but not that, or a certain procedure will cost more than we can afford so we can't have it, or that pills the doctor has prescribed will cost $600 a month?

We can take care of ourselves together as a nation like we used to do on the frontier, and supply-demand will work in this industry like it does elsewhere. All of the money these insurance companies get is money we pay to them, then they give a little bit of it back to us in the form of permission to get some medical service, and the rest goes for their own profit, to their rich CEOs and to buy off our senators and representatives. Let's get rid of ALL health insurance companies and let the citizens of the United States collectively provide for our own general welfare.