Who's Calling?

Usama Bin Laden is, by the best estimate, hiding in the region of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border known as Waziristan. The best estimate of American intelligence is, as we are all too well aware, not something on which we can bank unconditionally. Waziristan is a cold, rocky, barren region know for lawlessness and tribal rule. It has been inhospitable, both personally and physically, to outsiders for millennia. It is isolated, and Islamic. In other words, it is the perfect place for an Islamic sheik with millions, both on his head and in his pockets to hide. It is here that many believe Bin Laden is holed up in a cave, shaking his fist at the West, apparently reading books by miscreants, and plotting our demise through Islamic Jihad.

Waziristan cannot be taken by military force. Of that there is no disagreement. We cannot then, get at Bin Laden now. We must fight, and kill, his terrorist minions as they go about their murderous master's pursuits. Terrorists do not wear uniforms, and they announce their dissatisfaction with the way of the world via explosives, not government decrees. They alternately inhabit the sunlit expanses of the world, and the seedy, shadowy underbelly of criminal refuge. They are not, usually, as they seem. They walk among us plotting our violent demise. We must be able to eavesdrop on their conversations, casting ever widening nets if we are to catch them before they kill innocents. That is what has, as of late, been called into question by the leftist fringe. Specifically, the recently revealed NSA electronic eavesdropping program. "Intelligence agencies can't spy on citizens," they stammer, self-righteously; forget that we do not even know if citizens are involved. Quoting Ben Franklin they scream, "Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither." A wonderful part of our history, to be sure, but a part that ignores 21st Century concerns. Simply put, if Al-Qaeda is calling someone in the United States it is crucial, inescapable, and obligatory that we know who they are calling, and why.

The same people who are currently decrying the electronic eavesdropping are the same one's who complain we have not found Bin Laden after four years. They ignore the fact that Eric Rudolph, the murderous right-wing fanatic, hid in North Carolina for five years, while every law enforcement agency in the U.S. searched fruitlessly for him. They want us to catch Bin Laden, but do not want us to do anything unseemly. Unseemly is what the NSA program is. Illegal it is not. The law so casually espoused was written in a different age, technologically speaking. That it needs to be addressed by Congress is not in doubt, that the program it seeks to cover should be stopped, is. We simply cannot move forward in this global war without every tool at our disposal.

Let me say that I do not believe the membership of the Democratic Party is unpatriotic. I believe that we, as a nation, are stronger for diversity and legitimate dissent. What we must not do though is allow ideological differences to prevent us from fighting a war against those who would destroy us specifically because of our freedom to dissent. I believe this war can be won, but only if we are united as a people. The Democratic Party must leave the lunatic fringe behind in the fight against the evil of Islamic Fundamentalism. If someone had been listening to overseas calls on 8/11/01, maybe, maybe, we could have prevented the attacks that occurred a month later. Balanced against the lives of 3,000 of our fellow Americans, isn't maybe enough?

Usama Speaks

It is a peculiar condition in the United States that when murderers speak in the media everyone is rapt with attention. No mass murderer conveys that notion better than Usama Bin Laden. After his latest vitriolic speech was released yesterday it seemed that everyone, from the postman to the girl behind the counter at the deli, had an opinion on what it meant. The substance of the speech could have been written by Michael Moore, MoveOn.org and the rest of the far left apologists here in the US, but the spirit was meant, I am sure, to warn us of an impending attack.

It is an historical maxim that Muslim warriors from Mohammed, to Salah-ah Din, to Bin Laden, have always offered these types of statements immediately before attacking. The statement sent to Constantinople right before its fall in 1453 mirrors Bin Laden's language. So, the offer of a truce is more than disingenuous, it is an established tactic of lies and deceit; a practice the Quran specifically allows when dealing with infidels. Funny how Bin Laden fails to mention that when he speaks of being, "a nation to which God has disallowed treachery and lying." Moreover, when Bin laden quotes polls in the US he is, in effect, talking to the far left, "Keep it up. Convince that thick-headed Bush to quit Iraq." This, too, has always been a tactic of the Muslim warrior. They believe in fanning the fires of dissent to tear apart confederations they could not otherwise dominate. That's exactly how they took parts of Europe in the 15th century; by fostering animus between the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

I am certain the hand-wringing set of the fringe left will shortly take up the call to negotiate. "You see," they will say, "it's all our fault. He really wants peace." Well, his own words belie that notion in spirit, and deed. He leaves no doubt that he would consider it a win if we were to leave Iraq now. Bin Laden himself calls the war in Iraq, "a point of attraction and recruitment of qualified resources." Are we to believe that a pull-out now of American forces would send those resources back to the bazaars and date farms? He also mentions attacks that are currently in the planning stages here in the US. Would those resources pack up and leave if a truce was offered? If you did not have a reason to back the NSA program which was revealed to be tapping phone calls of foreigners here in the US, you should now. Some citizens may have had their phones tapped too, but only those calling persons of interest in other countries. Of course, reasonable discourse is impossible with those who believe that there is never, ever a reason to go to war. So, convincing them of this fact is not worth the air I would expend trying, but for those who truly understand that there is no way to negotiate with these monsters this speech should be the final piece of the puzzle. We cannot negotiate a truce with monsters. We must kill Bin Laden and his followers. Bin Laden is a murderer who, no matter what Michael Moore tells you, murdered 3,000 of my fellow Americans because they had the temerity to go to work on time one sunny Tuesday morning in September. Not that you should need a reason beyond that why we should not negotiate, but if you do, here it is: murderers do more than kill, they also lie.

the beads

I was planning to start this post by mentioning how difficult it has been lately for me to work up any outrage. The truth though, is that I have been inundated with outrage. The conduct of the honorable men of the US Senate during the Alito hearings nearly caused me to blow a vein. The self serving comments of John Murtha on 60 Minutes all but caused me to stroke out. Mayor Ray Nagin's racist, sanctimonious, rambling, Almighty-invoking statements almost caused the television to leave my apartment via the window. And those were just the highlights of the outrage that has caused me to recognize the general, appalling, illiteracy of the masses, and the propagation of the same by supposedly objective members of the press. Before any of you reading this consider dashing off a vitriolic diatribe know this: I am a Pro-Choice abortion clinic volunteer, US Army Infantry veteran who hails from New Orleans, so save the otherwise crayon written missives you feel are warranted for someone who does not have a vested interest in all the things mentioned.

I could dissect every one of the points I mentioned with calm, reasoned responses that would provoke dispassionate comments from those predisposed to such dialogue, but I know that no such animal exists any longer. 40% of people are wearing republican party jerseys, and anything not espoused by the party leaders is anathema to reason. 40% of people are wearing democrat party 100% hemp t-shirts, and anything not sanctioned by George Soros is, well, the byproduct of a maladjusted mind. That leaves 20% of us who have a foot in either camp, depending upon the issue. Well, dear friends that just does not make for any sort of genteel conduct.

A friend and I were teaching a combined class recently when he said something that perfectly encapsulates my thoughts on this subject. He related how, while watching one of the 345,912 episodes of Law and Order that are broadcast daily, one episode caught his attention in a profound way. The episode revolved around the death of a rather dour, mousy, high school teacher who apparently functioned as a dominatrix in her off hours. When one of the detectives questioned how these two things were even possible, a student of the victim responded candidly, "Hell, people ain't just one thing." That statement fuels my friend's teaching style, and, probably, his off hours too. Unfortunately too many people cannot, or will not, remember this, but prefer to get caught up in the rhetoric of whomever they currently fancy. Al Gore and Ted Kennedy rant about things they are personally complicate in, just not today, and DeLay and his boys circumvent the rules, albeit probably not illegally, to enrich themselves. Scooter Libby is indicted as a "leaker" and the NSA is revealed to be tapping phones by a "whistle-blower." I am personally just sick of it all. I am sick of the rhetoric and sick of the rank and file who popularize the demagoguery of the elected few. All I can say is, when I take over, things are going to change.

Baby's Blood, Sweat and Tears

My 15 month old daughter required a visit to the emergency room last night. She attempted to leap 3 feet from a kitchen chair to the kitchen table. She missed. In the split second my wife and I took our eyes off her, she fell to the floor with a resounding THUMP! This was followed immediately by high-pitched wails of pain and gushing fountains of blood, flowing over her lips, onto her, and me. I live less than three blocks from a hospital which bills itself as "One of the Nation's Best." So, wrapping my daughter in a blanket, with my wife in tow, I sprinted to the emergency room.

I would like to say that Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, PA lives up to it's motto, but nothing could be further from the truth. As I entered the emergency room, bloody, with a bloody, swaddled baby in my arms I had to interrupt the person tasked with patient registration. A nurse directed me to the triage area, while my wife began the paperwork process. The triage nurse then took my daughter's pulse, while telling me, "She probably just bit her tongue. They tend to bleed a lot." I seethed. "Obviously she has a pulse. Check her out." After collecting the most perfunctory of information on her he sent me back to the waiting room. Ten to twelve agonizing, angst filled minutes later I approached the check-in desk. My bloody daughter and I once again interrupted a 'patient registration specialist,' this one reading a book, to question when my daughter would be seen. She visibly started at our appearance, and hastily retreated to find out her status. At this point I directed my attention to the other registration window where a uniformed security officer was surfing the web. Before I could utter a word he soundlessly slid the glass separating us closed, without once taking his eyes from the computer screen. Mercifully, for all involved, the door to the inner snactum opened and we were taken back to an exam room. You know the ones, hospital white walls, gurney, steel cabinet with medical supplies and the required "Biohazard" bin.

After some forty minutes of attempting to console a quietly sobbing, anxious baby, a nurse wandered by with two stickers, which she offered my daughter. At this point, nearly losing any semblance of composure, and with blood staining my shirt and hands, as well as boiling in my ears, I said, "I want a doctor in here now." She replied, "There aren't any available right now." Well, as I had just seen three MD emblazoned lab coats saunter by, I checked my Irish rage and said, "What about the three who just went to check their portfolios?" "Them. They're just interns." "Well Get One Of Them In Here To Do The Preliminary Exam. NOW." Seconds later a second nurse was plying my daughter with toys, and then, magically, an MD emblazoned lab coat materialized. She apologized for the absence of a "doctor" explaining that she was just a med student. She did, however, begin the first physical exam of my daughter some 80-90 minutes after I entered the hospital. Gritting my teeth I said, "Doc, I'm not upset with you per se, but this is unacceptable. I am furious that you would all leave a BABY to suffer. Unless there's a gunshot wound, or a heart attack there's no excuse for this delay, and there's no gunshot wound or heart attack. Since you are all educated people I know you can read. So my now bloody shirt probably hasn't escaped your notice." The shirt I was wearing was a, you guessed it, PENN medical tee. You see I am employed by the hospital system at another site.

Eventually, this well meaning intern, or med student, I do not remember which she identified herself as, got my daughter to suck on an ice-filled glove,while apologizing for the under staffing. Eventually, the attending did arrive, and after a slightly more than perfunctory exam she pronounced my daughter fit, albeit with a split tongue. Then, with no attempt to clean her off, we were told we could leave. A stop at the counter on the way out to ascertain the name of the offending security guard provided, no big surprise, responses of, "I don't know his name."

I should say that my calls to the hospital the next day were not all unpleasant. Three people, none of them doctors, were compassionate, empathetic and sincere in their apologies. From the medical staff I contacted, it was more of the same. Apathy and disdain apparently rule the day once you have gone to medical school. The mission statement of the executive director of the hospital, who was too busy to speak to me, states, "Another key area of focus is to ensure that all of our patients have a positive experience at our hospital." Well, those certainly are nice sentiments, but they are not backed up by practice. The next time I need a hospital, even though I work for the system, I will simply use the competition. After all, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is only three blocks away.

Gay Cowboys

Brokeback Mountain is truly worth seeing. The hype is that the movie is about gay cowboys. While that may be technically true, it does not accurately define what the movie is about. The message of the movie is the oldest of messages, namely man's inhumanity to man; no pun intended. Ang Lee presents us with stunning visuals of endlessly blue skies and sweeping mountain vistas. He frames a nearly twenty year relationship within the confines of a small western town, and even smaller morals and values. It is an important movie specifically because it adds another dimension to everyday dialogue. It is important because it forces us to confront inhumanity, and decide exactly where we stand.

Unfortunately, the story is too thin to carry the assigned load. Otherwise poignant moments become, "ahh isn't that sad," as opposed to actual tear-jerkers. Mainly the problem seems to be a superficial approach to character development, which leads to an almost apathetic response to the character's plight. Better than average acting and dialogue, coupled with truly awe-inspiring visuals, isn't enough to move this movie from the good to great category. Sadly, it just falls short.

I am unabashedly liberal when it comes to gay matters. I have many gay friends, support gay marriage and gay rights, and hold a visceral hatred for gay bashing. None of which explains why it is important to see this movie. It is important because as a gay friend recently told me over dinner, "I don't feel safe holding *******'s hand walking down the street. I'm just afraid some thugs will pummel us for it." That anyone needs to have that particular worry in the U.S., in 2006, is just incomprehensible to me. That is why it is important to see this movie, and urge others to do likewise. Not because it furthers anybody's agenda, but because everybody deserves the right to hold hands in the sun.