Notes of Concern…
….Jack Blair
FADE TO BLACK
We have come to the end of the “Prom Season”.
Watching all the boys and girls looking forward to the big night, and observing the rite of passage, brought back many memories for me, but also reminded me there was an opportunity to offer some observations on how this age old outing provides a teachable moment.
As these same young people go out into the world they will find a lot of “rites of passage” ahead of them. Interestingly, most of them require a greater deal of sophistication and an understanding of history.
Teenagers who revel in their Prom often get involved in the details in interesting ways. The girls spend a great deal of time picking out just the right dress. Then the couples work on the details. The guy looks for a cummerbund in a color that matches the girl’s color choices. Sometimes he seeks a clip on bow tie in the same color. Occasionally there is an effort to match the boys’ accessories with the color of the corsage the girl will wear. On some of these occasions, a group of boys and girls will rent a limo for the big night. Often the color of choice is white.
What is most interesting in all of this is how wrong these choices are historically, traditionally, and how they can say a lot about one’s understanding of courtship.
Long after the prom is over, making the same decisions becomes a bit more important.
Balls (dances, proms) were historically opportunities to display the beauty of women. From this history comes the idea of the “Belle” of the Ball. The ladies were supposed to capture everyone’s attention. Nothing was to detract from the ladies. Certainly, no male escort was to detract from the attention being paid to the lady on his arm.
So the ladies made or purchased beautiful dresses. They carefully selected the jewelry, usually a lot of what today we call “bling”. Sometimes they wore fur stoles or their dresses had long trains, or their dresses were made with the most beautiful fabrics available.
And the men?
No man wore color.
All men wore black.
Their tuxedo was black. Their tie was black. Their cummerbund was black. Their shoes were black. In other words, the men all faded into the background. The men all looked identical. There was not one ounce of color that could detract from the lady on their arm who was to be the center of attention for the evening.
This plain black backdrop extended even to the limousine. It was black, too. If the escort shouldn’t draw attention away from the “Belle”, certainly the car should not either.
So the Prom offers an opportunity for us to advise the young boys who are becoming young men that the official role of the gentleman in future outings that involve dates and dancing is to fade into the background.
Let your lady be the center of attention. You fade to black and revel in the attention being lavished on your date.
Until you begin seeing presidents, ambassadors, senators and diplomats, not to mention chief executive officers, arriving in white limousines (don’t hold your breath) your role is to fade to black.
This may seem to be seriously unfair. All the attention is paid to the lady on your arm. Well, as in all things, there are hidden rewards. Every man who has faded to black, as tradition suggests is appropriate, has the great pleasure and joy of seeing the lady he has invited, the lady on his arm, competing with all the other ladies to be the “Belle of the Ball”.
This seems to satisfy the male competitiveness, the testosterone fueled need to be seen as the focus of attention. He basks in the reflected glow of the lady on his arm.
So everyone is a winner!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
$18 BILLION for PAKISTAN?
Notes of Concern…
…Jack Blair
$18 BILLION FOR OUR “FRIENDS” IN PAKISTAN
The United States since 2002, according to Wikipedia, has sent Pakistan almost $18 BILLION dollars in aid.
The BBC reports that former Pakistani president Musharaff said:
“ US military aid given to Pakistan during his tenure was used to strengthen defences against India. (The US gave $10bn dollars to Pakistan to fight the Taliban and aQaeda.”)
I guess the Secretary of State or the head of USAID forgot to mention that we needed some assurances the billions were actually being used to fight terrorism.
Every time someone talks about providing medical care in our country to a larger group of our citizenry, or rebuilding our failing infrastructure, or educating more of our children through the university level, I suggest he review the total outlay in foreign aid per year and consider how those billions might better be used at home.
Pakistan is only one example, albeit the most recent, of the outrageous robbery of the U.S. treasury. It is our elected and appointed officials who are GIVING this money away. This is one of the worst investments ever made. No banker in his right mind would make loans, let alone gifts, to people with these kinds of records.
For those of you who look at foreign aid as a charitable hand out to people around the world who are poorer and more needy, I say “get a grip.”
Recently we read how Khadafy (libya) and Mubarak (Egypt) and others had billions stashed away in foreign bank accounts. You can bet much of that money came to them directly from the good old USA
Osama bin Laden builds the biggest house and walled compound in a suburb just miles from Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point.
On top of the compound he places barbed wire.
The city in which the compound sits is the social place for the officers from the military institution. Bin Laden felt so safe and secure he did not even maintain bodyguards.
But not to worry! President Obama has announced we will investigate.
Pakistan has announced they will investigate.
Osama’s lifestyle and safety could only have been guaranteed by the government and/or military of Pakistan-those to whom we gave BILLIONS for their friendship, help and consideration.
Lawrence Wright, writing in the New Yorker Magazine, commented recently:
“Pakistan, however, is one of the most anti-American countries in the world, and a covert sponsor of terrorism. Politically and economically, it verges on being a failed state. And, despite Pakistani avowals to the contrary, America's worst enemy, Osama bin Laden, had been hiding there for years-in strikingly comfortable circumstances
Any one who wishes to take the time to study the foreign aid outlay of this country to nations just like Pakistan over a decade will find hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars being regularly sent to a group of unsavory characters with no audit and no double checking. To audit or double check would be bad form. It would suggest a lack of trust.
If Wall Street investment bankers made investments with this kind of return none of them would have jobs.
If you think our aid is helping the poor, the needy or the hungry, smack yourself upside the head, take a cold shower, and revisit the numbers.
If these sorts of shenanigans do not make you angry then like “sheep to the slaughter” you are abetting the foolishness of our federal government.
If you are angry, then you need to join with others and bring this foolishness to an end.
…Jack Blair
$18 BILLION FOR OUR “FRIENDS” IN PAKISTAN
The United States since 2002, according to Wikipedia, has sent Pakistan almost $18 BILLION dollars in aid.
The BBC reports that former Pakistani president Musharaff said:
“ US military aid given to Pakistan during his tenure was used to strengthen defences against India. (The US gave $10bn dollars to Pakistan to fight the Taliban and aQaeda.”)
I guess the Secretary of State or the head of USAID forgot to mention that we needed some assurances the billions were actually being used to fight terrorism.
Every time someone talks about providing medical care in our country to a larger group of our citizenry, or rebuilding our failing infrastructure, or educating more of our children through the university level, I suggest he review the total outlay in foreign aid per year and consider how those billions might better be used at home.
Pakistan is only one example, albeit the most recent, of the outrageous robbery of the U.S. treasury. It is our elected and appointed officials who are GIVING this money away. This is one of the worst investments ever made. No banker in his right mind would make loans, let alone gifts, to people with these kinds of records.
For those of you who look at foreign aid as a charitable hand out to people around the world who are poorer and more needy, I say “get a grip.”
Recently we read how Khadafy (libya) and Mubarak (Egypt) and others had billions stashed away in foreign bank accounts. You can bet much of that money came to them directly from the good old USA
Osama bin Laden builds the biggest house and walled compound in a suburb just miles from Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point.
On top of the compound he places barbed wire.
The city in which the compound sits is the social place for the officers from the military institution. Bin Laden felt so safe and secure he did not even maintain bodyguards.
But not to worry! President Obama has announced we will investigate.
Pakistan has announced they will investigate.
Osama’s lifestyle and safety could only have been guaranteed by the government and/or military of Pakistan-those to whom we gave BILLIONS for their friendship, help and consideration.
Lawrence Wright, writing in the New Yorker Magazine, commented recently:
“Pakistan, however, is one of the most anti-American countries in the world, and a covert sponsor of terrorism. Politically and economically, it verges on being a failed state. And, despite Pakistani avowals to the contrary, America's worst enemy, Osama bin Laden, had been hiding there for years-in strikingly comfortable circumstances
Any one who wishes to take the time to study the foreign aid outlay of this country to nations just like Pakistan over a decade will find hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars being regularly sent to a group of unsavory characters with no audit and no double checking. To audit or double check would be bad form. It would suggest a lack of trust.
If Wall Street investment bankers made investments with this kind of return none of them would have jobs.
If you think our aid is helping the poor, the needy or the hungry, smack yourself upside the head, take a cold shower, and revisit the numbers.
If these sorts of shenanigans do not make you angry then like “sheep to the slaughter” you are abetting the foolishness of our federal government.
If you are angry, then you need to join with others and bring this foolishness to an end.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
OH HAPPY DAY
Notes of Concern…
…JackBlair
Oh Happy Day
It came as a surprise, the feeling of joy and relief, when I heard the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden.
Readers who think it is somehow unseemly to find joy in the death of any human being should turn to the Sport Section of the paper immediately. You are not going to enjoy this column.
I consider myself a man of faith. I am also a student of history.
Most religions contain some sort of horrendous punishment for sinners. The concept of something like “hell” is found in one form or another. An unrepentant sinner has an eternity of burning ahead, for instance.
So if I receive a feeling of joy when learning that an unrepentant sinner, a horrible human being, a person who walked this earth with a smirk on his face after murdering three thousand innocents (and who knows how many more murders committed on days other than “9-11”) ---don’t even try to make me feel a sense of guilt. I feel none.
Trained United States citizens in a “black ops” situation tapped old Osama twice, once in the head and once in the body, when they surprised him in his lair.
Standard operating procedure.
They did exactly what they were trained to do.
It appears it was quick, efficient and clean. He did not suffer. For me, a little suffering would have been OK , but it is what it is.
Compare that scenario with the one that had people frantically making their last calls to loved ones as nut cases flew their plane into the World Trade Tower, or the Pentagon, or a field in Pennsylvania.
How about the feelings of the folks above the “hit mark” on the World Trade Towers who were burning, inhaling smoke, and choosing between jumping many stories to their death or just sitting by waiting for the fire.
Oh, I should also make mention of the fact that none of these thousands of people was armed. They were not offered the opportunity to surrender.
None of these thousands went to work planning on committing murder. None of these thousands expected 72 virgins awaiting them when they got to heaven. Nope. They just expected to take a long commute home, reunite with their wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, children and other loved ones, and turn around the next day and do it all over again.
There were no “next days” for them!
A decade ago our president said we would answer the horrific acts of “9-11” at a time and place of our choosing.
A decade later another of our presidents had the great honor of actually selecting that time and place and delivering that response.
During the intervening decade both those presidents and countless other officials worked every day to bring that madman the verdict of the American people.
We have no allies really in this war on terror.
We stand alone my friends.
International law and custom suggest we should have advised the Pakistani government that we wished to overfly their country. Osama bin Laden, unarmed and essentially unguarded, expected we would do just that.
And if we had, our friends in Pakistan would have let him know and he would have been quickly off to a new hideaway.
And we gave the government of Pakistan billions of American dollars in the last years.
“Everyone is looking out for himself.”
True. Sad but true.
“Every dog has his day.”
True. And pleasantly so.
Fellow Americans, revenge is best served up cold.
And today Osama is not cavorting with 72 virgins.
He is swimming with the fishes.
…JackBlair
Oh Happy Day
It came as a surprise, the feeling of joy and relief, when I heard the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden.
Readers who think it is somehow unseemly to find joy in the death of any human being should turn to the Sport Section of the paper immediately. You are not going to enjoy this column.
I consider myself a man of faith. I am also a student of history.
Most religions contain some sort of horrendous punishment for sinners. The concept of something like “hell” is found in one form or another. An unrepentant sinner has an eternity of burning ahead, for instance.
So if I receive a feeling of joy when learning that an unrepentant sinner, a horrible human being, a person who walked this earth with a smirk on his face after murdering three thousand innocents (and who knows how many more murders committed on days other than “9-11”) ---don’t even try to make me feel a sense of guilt. I feel none.
Trained United States citizens in a “black ops” situation tapped old Osama twice, once in the head and once in the body, when they surprised him in his lair.
Standard operating procedure.
They did exactly what they were trained to do.
It appears it was quick, efficient and clean. He did not suffer. For me, a little suffering would have been OK , but it is what it is.
Compare that scenario with the one that had people frantically making their last calls to loved ones as nut cases flew their plane into the World Trade Tower, or the Pentagon, or a field in Pennsylvania.
How about the feelings of the folks above the “hit mark” on the World Trade Towers who were burning, inhaling smoke, and choosing between jumping many stories to their death or just sitting by waiting for the fire.
Oh, I should also make mention of the fact that none of these thousands of people was armed. They were not offered the opportunity to surrender.
None of these thousands went to work planning on committing murder. None of these thousands expected 72 virgins awaiting them when they got to heaven. Nope. They just expected to take a long commute home, reunite with their wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, children and other loved ones, and turn around the next day and do it all over again.
There were no “next days” for them!
A decade ago our president said we would answer the horrific acts of “9-11” at a time and place of our choosing.
A decade later another of our presidents had the great honor of actually selecting that time and place and delivering that response.
During the intervening decade both those presidents and countless other officials worked every day to bring that madman the verdict of the American people.
We have no allies really in this war on terror.
We stand alone my friends.
International law and custom suggest we should have advised the Pakistani government that we wished to overfly their country. Osama bin Laden, unarmed and essentially unguarded, expected we would do just that.
And if we had, our friends in Pakistan would have let him know and he would have been quickly off to a new hideaway.
And we gave the government of Pakistan billions of American dollars in the last years.
“Everyone is looking out for himself.”
True. Sad but true.
“Every dog has his day.”
True. And pleasantly so.
Fellow Americans, revenge is best served up cold.
And today Osama is not cavorting with 72 virgins.
He is swimming with the fishes.
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