What does morality have to do with these hard times?

  Our society has practically eliminated the need for morals with a "me first" mentality that disregards what's right or wrong in the world. Like Rome, we are slowly crumbling from within. The 21st century is a story of rampant capitalism and it's destructive nature. Some people are writing about this subject like Chris Hedges of Truthdig in his article titled, "America is need of a moral bailout" 

I have a column coming down the pipe titled, "An Age of Accountability: Are Americans paying for past permissive practices?" I think it's a subject that we all need to examine and consider. When trying to understand what has happened to our nearly rudderless society, we need to go to the root of the problem. Some people may disagree on one single thing that has got us in our moral wasteland, but others are starting to say it may have started at home as we were growing up.

  How did we swap our morality for money? Big corporations certainly led the way, but what led to the rise and power of these giant corporations? It's something to think about this Wednesday morning.

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Are you physically challenged and could use some help? Get a service aardvark

While watching a seeing-eye horse with it’s legally blind rider shopping in a grocery store on CNN the other day I had an epiphany.

Seeing-eye, or service animals, have expanded from dogs, monkeys, and cats, to just about any animal a disabled person feels comfortable with.

I think that’s really cool. Why put limits on what kind of helper a person needs?

I’ve been thinking about getting a part-time service aardvark to eliminate those tiny black ants that show up around the house in Spring. Are you afraid of snakes? Then I suggest a service mongoose. They like to tangle with snakes and you can give them clever names like, Ricki Ticky Taffy.

Physically challenged plumbers could get service anacondas who could clean out clogged drains (no more need for hand-held devices) without the use of toxic chemicals. There’s a lot of people who suffer from short term memory loss that could use service elephants trained to read sign language and to remember whatever is important to the mentally challenged person. They are more expensive than a recording device, but they make a hell of a lot better companion.

Service squirrels could be trained to find acorns and nuts to bring to their new master, who could store them for a rainy day. Speaking of rainy days, service ducks could run your small errands during rainy weather, and in hard times, are tasty if cooked right!
For those disabled people who live near swamps, I would recommend a service alligator to navigate their boat through the murky waters. Beavers can be the perfect service animal, if you have a wood-burning stove and need a constant supply of wood.

To reach those high places in your home and the store, there’s a service giraffe out there for you somewhere. Are you having trouble making your way through large crowds because of limited sight? Then you need a service rhinoceros (who can’t see any better than you) but who easily carves a path through a large crowd.

Just think what a great service animal a parrot would be. I just read a story about a parrot who saved a little girl’s life, by squawking up a storm and alerting her mother who preformed the Heimlich maneuver on the choking child. It’s easy to see that a service parrot could save your life, and also keep you entertained by repeating words you teach it.

Do you have a phobia about insects because you can barely see them, but you know it when they crawl across your toe? A hedgehog could be of service to you, as they enjoy eating just about any kind of insect that you may have in your house. The only thing is, you have to be real careful when you pet them!

As It Stands, there’s a special animal out there just for you, if you need a little help nowadays.

aardvark photo via Google images      

Willie the Parrot is honored for saving a little girl's life!

Here's a good one from the Associated Press this morning....

A parrot whose cries of alarm alerted his owner when a little girl choked on her breakfast has been honored as a hero.

Willie, a Quaker parrot, has been given the local Red Cross chapter's Animal Lifesaver Award.

In November, Willie's owner, Megan Howard, was baby-sitting for a toddler. Howard left the room and the little girl, Hannah, started to choke on her breakfast.

Willie repeatedly yelled "Mama, baby" and flapped his wings, and Howard returned in time to find the girl already turning blue.

Howard saved Hannah by performing the Heimlich maneuver but said Willie "is the real hero."

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Ft. Leonard Wood in 1969: a viewer from my old AIT in Missouri checks in today and I get all nostalgic...

  I was checking out where readers were coming from this morning when I ran across one from Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri who read my post "Liars! Liars! Liars! Sen. Chris Dodd caught lying about AIG bonus backing." Memories came back like ghosts in the night, as I recalled my past association with this old Army fort. Don't get me wrong. Those days don't bring a lot of smiles. I hated the place and thought it's nickname "Fort Lost In The Woods" was appropriate.    

  

  I did my Army Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. The photos are via photobucket.com  (also thanks to Veterans of Military Service at rallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums.yuku.com... )

I'd like to point out that this link is about someone (the only name I could find was Gschwertly which I presume is his last name) who was also in Ft. Leonard Wood while I was there in 1969. He was in a different company, and had a different MOS. But, when I read his piece about revisiting that fort and his memories there, it shook some cobwebs loose and I reluctantly went down memory lane too.

As you can see there wasn't much privacy in those days(left). The building on the right is a mess hall.

Our wooden barracks were also leftovers from WW II. They were heated with wood-burning stoves, and being on "Fire Watch" was a serious duty then. I was in Bravo Company, 31 AIT. I went to a two-week leadership course prior to joining B Company (some DI thought I looked big enough at six-foot-two, 200 pounds, to lead the training cycle). The only reason I did it was the promise of eating with the NCO's (food meant a lot to me as I was a growing boy) who got the best food. I wore a blue pull-over arm patch with a Star and Master Sgt.'s rank on it, and was expected to call the company to attention from everything from morning roll call, to the time they were dismissed for the day.

I had to lead the company marching, running, and everything else that was done. My sense of cadence was lousy and pretty soon our training NCO pulled out one of the trainees with a big mouth (and sense of rhythm), and let him call out the cadence. It worked for me because by then I was reduced to croaking.

My worst memories were those days we tromped through the snow in the Big Piney Woods on training exercises, like reading maps and using a compass. We had to slog through the frozen land at night while learning how to read the stars to navigate.

Perhaps the greatest irony (at least to me) was all of this training in the snow when I would be going to a tropical land. Most of us knew we were "Nam bait." During my basic at Ft. Ord, California, I training with the M-14 rifle. By the time I went to AIT all combat troops had to qualify with an M-16. Memories of shooting from the prone, and sitting position, in a pile of frozen snow while trying to pick out white camouflaged targets, leave me cold today!

I went from the snow into the frying pan, to the place our DI's called "The Nam" in 1970. I was a Combat Engineer (31st Eng.Bn) and spent most of my time there sweeping for mines on lonely roads wondering how I could have thought my training was so hard. I would have gladly gone back and tromped through that snow again, if it were possible. But, as usual, reality trumped my dreams.

As It Stands, this little trip down memory lane was good for me, because I realize how lucky I am to be here now.

March Madness: Let's just pay the players and declare college sports a business that can pay taxes, like other corporate businesses in America!

    I was in the March Madness mood until two things happened; UCLA (my favorite college basketball team) got clobbered Saturday in the tournament, and LA Times columnist, Kurt Streeter’s recent assertion that college basketball is a charade “steeped in double-talk about amateurism and academics.”
     Streeter feels the players are pawns in the NCAA system. He reminds us that it’s the school and the coaches who are really cashing in on “amateur sports.” In fact, he comes right out and calls the whole athletic system in colleges a business.
      According to Streeter, the NCAA will get about $6 billion from CBS for the current TV deal, which ends in 2013. If you throw in corporate sponsorships, it gets harder to pass the smell test. How is it that a non-profit, tax-exempt entity claiming “educational mission” makes millions for coaches and the school?
      If the players are pawns in this money-making, tax-dodging scheme, perhaps they should be let in on the gravy train. Oh yeah. There’s that sticky amateur thing. Apparently it only applies to students who have no part in the money-making process, other than to perform like trained chimps under their ringmaster, aka coach.
       Let’s face it. This whole sham is a circus on tour. What some people may not realize is that the players may be pawns in this stinking system, but they have pride in their performance when they go out to play. They’re young men, full of testosterone, and always sure to give their best efforts.
       What a deal for the schools and the coaches. Nothing like a real show of passion to pump TV ratings. Meanwhile, most of these hard-working athletes don’t even graduate.
       That’s a fact that Richard Lapchick, director of University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, confirmed to the press when he admitted “we still have a ways to go,” regarding student-athletes graduation rates.
       Perhaps the most ironic part of Streeter’s column was the part about honest student-athletes having to lean on their families for help. This suggestion that there are some athletes who are not honest, is troubling. I think we all have seen examples of exceptional student-athletes that got a lot of expensive goodies, or “jobs” that involved doing nothing.
        Do you remember Chris Webber? I’m probably dating myself here. He’s one of the poster pro basketball players that was pampered by a college system that demanded wins in order to get better TV ratings.
         My point, after all of this rambling, is why not pay all the players up front and take another look at college’s tax exempt status? Make them pay taxes on this unethically earned money in the name of amateurism. Open capitalism is surely more ethical than “behind the door profits” earned while masquerading as a non-profit educational institute!
         As It Stands, in a time when transparency is called for from corporate America, we need to put colleges on that list.

Sunday, March 22: As It Stands shares some interesting results on who Americans respect and who they loath!

   There were some surprises as I read over the results of the latest Gallup Poll on Most and Least respected professions in America today. I think you'll find the results interesting, at the very least. Click here to read As It Stands in today's Times-Standard.

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Good grief Charlie Brown! The Great Pumpkin has gone crazy!

image via www.davesdaily.com

Welwitschia Mirabilis: This plant is really a one-of-a-kind...

  

It's not pretty to look at, but Namibia's plant Welwitschia Mirabilis can truly claim to be one of a kind. There really is nothing like it. Welwitschia plant consists of only two leaves and a sturdy stem with roots. That's all! Two leaves continue to grow until they resemble the shaggy mane of some sci-fi alien. The stem thickens, rather than gains in height , and can grow to be almost 2 meters high and 8 meters wide. Their estimated lifespan is 400 to 1500 years.

(image on left thanks to: via)

(Image on right thanks to: Botanik-Fotos.de, photo by Karlheinz Knoch)

Pat Buchanan says President Obama is 'too familiar' with 'common citizens'

   I took a few minutes and was watching Hardball on MSNBC (around 4:10 p.m.) and wasn't surprised by Buchanan's take on the president's familiarity with the general public.

   He thinks Obama should act more dignified (can you say aloof?) and not do such shocking things as taking his coat off in the White House!

Conservative guru Buchanan, tried running for the presidency twice; in 1992, 1996, and 2000 and lost every time. Now he thinks he's an expert on presidential demeanor. Just look at his hang-dog face and tell me that Pat is an inspiration to anyone!

   I know there are still some desperate conservatives crawling around in the political wasteland of the Republican Party trying to find someone to rally around.

  If GOP adherents plan to get out of their quagmire they better stop listening to elitists like Buchanan who secretly wishes we had a King and not a president for the people.

I suppose I should be questioning MSNBC for having him as a mainstay and calling him the nation's leading conservative voice. Don't MSNBC executives understand that Buchanan is a dinosaur who thinks women's place is in the home (barefoot and pregnant by the only accepted sex position - the missionary position!)?

The idea that we now have a president who doesn't claim to be doing the will of God, but instead that of the people, is unnerving to Republican acolytes. After all, they enjoy wielding power from an ivory tower! Perhaps I shouldn't be concerned that Buchanan is still influencing ideological blank minds.

He can serve as another splinter of the fractured GOP. That, in itself, is probably the best thing I can think about Buchanan being called a "leading conservative." As long as the Elephant heads want to argue among themselves, they won't be a challenge to the Democrats in 2012. So bring on more demigods and liven up the GOP Party!

As It Stands, Obama is doing all the right things, and it's pissing off his detractors (the majority of the Republican Party), but is playing well with the American people.

photo via Wikipedia

Public Outrage: The Latest Revelation about AIG and Some History

Thanks to Talking Points Memo, here are some great links to understand what's happening with this whole AIG scandal.

The Rise and Costly Fall of AIG's Cowboy Division

Is Former AIGFP Chief Cassano Vulnerable To Fraud Charges? ... Cassano's Lawyer Is White Collar Crime Expert ... AIG Gives Names Of Bonus Recipients To Cuomo ... AIG Suing Gov't For Return Of Taxes

Zack Roth (TPM) takes us through a brief history of AIGFP, the financial products division that brought AIG to its knees.

--David Kurtz/  image via TPM - via solo/ozuma Press