Insane Tony Katz hits Joe Redner with chair

I received this update in my email yesterday. I wholeheartedly support Joe Redner for Hillsborough County Commissioner. Local internet talk show idiot Tony Katz disagrees - violently (the debate will be replayed on TBCN on Wed, 09 Aug 2006, at 6pm).

Local Republican buffoon Tony Katz goes nuts and hits Democrat Joe Redner in the head
with a chair on live television. Joe refuses to press charges but
challenges Mr. Katz to boxing match for charity to even the score.

watch the whole thing here...
http://www.bleepintruth.com/joe-tony.html

Seems like a microcosm of the neocon reaction to anything.

Israel has no right, even under attack . . .

I received an email from an overseas friend last week - decrying the horrific terror that Israel is raining down on Lebanese civilians with reckless abandon and the blessing of the US. Having just lost my father, I feel especially tuned to the feeling of loss that so many in Lebanon (and Israel and Afghanistan and Iraq and Congo and so many other violent places in the world) are suffering with now. This letter is reprinted, unedited and with permission:

I'm angry again. They say that you should never write a letter when you're angry, but too bad. I can't vent in any "letters to the editor" sections and I don't have a blog, so I'll leave it to you to carry the torch.

I consider myself a friend of Israel. I believe that it has a right to exist and to defend itself. I cringe every time a suicide bomber kills innocent civilians in Israeli cities, or when blindly aimed rockets land in populated areas. Think of the terror.

Even so --and, yes, I dare to say even with all the moral credibility behind Israel due to the  Holocaust,--  Israel has absolutely no right to to go on a civilian killing spree to answer the current attacks against their population. Even many Israeli's --under  attack-- are saying the same thing. Bush nicely suggests that Israel give a "measured response" and they have instead been killing a fly with a sledge hammer ... and too bad for any "collateral" damage. Those are KIDS, damn it! Screw the concept of "acceptable losses"! Hizbollah (correct spelling) MUST stop their attacks, yes. But Israel MUST find a way of dealing with this problem which doesn't KILL KIDS EACH TIME THEY ATTACK (Funny, no one has mentioned this about Palestine, by the way. Guess we're used to it.  Maybe Israel was counting on this apathy for their Lebanon operation too?). I'm very much afraid that today's horrible massacre will only motivate more crazy Hizbollah members to take revenge in an equally horrible way. And round and round we go.

Israel's president Olmert wants "just 10 more days" to "put things in order". Jeez. I'm getting shivvers from memories of VietNam catch-phrases.. Anybody else reading this (who is old enough to remember) know what I mean? Bet you a nickel that "ten days" will drag out to ten months, if Bush doesn't use his wild card as Israel's billion-a-year big brother.

Time to mount up, peeples. Don't let this go on for ten more days. Our inaction is just as immoral as the massacre. Get the word out, please, today. INUNDATE Congress and White House with emails, of course. But PLEASE, spread the word actively and try to get at least a couple of friends to act too... and ask them to do the same. Then you can feel like you've really done something this year.

To the friend I have reading this whose parents were in the death camps, I repeat: I am a friend of Israel, and you know that very well. But I also repeat: Israel has absolutely NO right to massacre all the innocents and kids among Hizbollah. If you want to email me about it seperately, I'll be glad to discuss it with you, but I warn you, I won't put up with anymore hypocrisy (the Israeli Army is going to investigate itself), santimonious "how dare you's" , cynicism ("they bombed themselves" or "yes,
Israel bombed those women and kids, but they were actually victims of Hizbollah") or "me, me, me" selfishness. When Israel can start crying foul when OTHER genocides occur (complete silence during Cambodia, Rwanda, et al), they'll make up for the some of the credibilty they've lost in these unreasonable attacks. Time to cut the shit.

To my other friends, your comments are equally welcome.

Sincerely yours,
Christopher N.

Well said. And sadly, the killing only continues. The grieving only swells. The defense companies get richer. And the USA has agreed to a 'rush' sale of bombs for Israel.

Hug your children. Kiss your spouse or partner and tell them that you love them. Try once each day to take a peaceful approach when you might be tempted to curse someone (even if silently; thoughts matter). It's time for any step we can take to increase the love in the world.

Goodbye Dad.

Sometime during the night, my dad died.

The pic here was taken several years ago (5 or more, I think). But it's one of the very few that I have that shows all of my brothers and me and our dad (from the left, that's my younger brother Mike, older brother Pat, my dad, me, and oldest Bob). I've also got 2 younger sisters, but didn't know how they'd feel about having their pics posted. The brothers can deal with it :) ...so right now there's a real odd blend of emotions inside. My mom died over 20 years ago, and the grandparents had all died some years before that. It's always a time of forced reflection when friend or family pass on. I've been doing my share of crying today - partly from thinking back on being little, when my dad was around, and we would all often play together. He did truly enjoy spending time with his kids. And some of the grieving is from thinking of the choices he made that tore the family apart - that devastated my mom - and that leave me in large part looking at his life as one of huge potential ...with so much unrealized.

My dad was a great 'people person'. He spent most of his life as a newspaper advertising exec. He had a very keen sense of humor. I do think I got some of my ample BS and the sense of humor from him. Since our family name is 'Little' (my wife and I combined letters from our names and I changed mine to Litton when we got married), we always referred to our bad puns as 'Little Humor'. Dad had a zest for life, loving to travel, play tennis, be on in or near the water, get together with friends and family. He moved to Florida after leaving a newspaper job in Washington state. Shirley and I first saw Florida when we came down to visit my dad and his wife after my mom had died.

My dad, like most folks, was not perfect. I remember being in the early grades of school, and my folks seemed happy ...although periodically when walking past their room in the morning, I'd see a note on the vanity that he'd left for my mom during the night ...saying that he'd gone out for a drive. That's what he'd do when they'd fight. I'm guessing he'd gather his things for work and go out driving for a while until it was time for work. By the time I was past the first few grades, he had other relationships going. I remember my mom crying. A lot. My mom was the first of 3 wives, and the deception and selfishness that my siblings and I eventually recognized in my dad was hard for all of us to take.

He and his 3rd wife had split up several years ago, so his last few years were spent living with one of my brothers, scraping by on about $900 each month of Social Security. He enjoyed life a little TOO much ...never putting away anything for retirement. Over the years I'd caught him in too many lies, and hurting too many people to be able to have much respect for him. I last spoke with him about a month ago. We got along OK, but (along with at least one or two siblings) I'd finally realized that there was no point hoping for him to change. All we really wanted was honesty. He did honestly love us all and I know he was proud of his kids and grandkids and wanted only the best for us all.

In addition to the humor and some social skills (ok, some would differ on the terminology ;-) ...my dad was indirectly responsible for me being determined that when I got married, it would be a lasting relationship. I vowed to myself that I would never cause someone else the pain and anguish and loneliness that my mom suffered.

*sigh*

So later this week, I'll head back up to Washington. A brother from North Dakota will be coming over. The six siblings will all be together again for the first time in a few years ...to say goodbye to our dad, to reminisce about our times together ...to laugh together and to grieve together.

Life and love can sure be messy.

Bye-bye Kenny Boy

Back in the late summer/early autumn of 2001, I became but one among thousands of former Enron employees. We may never know just how many of the executives were guilty of intentionally duping so many fellow human beings... obliterating the life savings of so many good people, trashing the energy market in California and elsewhere, and so many other greedy acts -- all to improve their own personal bottom line. I learned after the fact that some folks thought I'd joined Enron with the expectation of getting rich. The truth is that I joined Enron because I thought I'd get to work with the integration of SAP and Lotus Notes (I never did work with SAP), and the net effect on my paycheck when I joined the company was that I could not afford to participate in the 401(k). It's a bit funny that there were those who thought I was making a move out of greed, when the reality was a net decrease in my take-home when I started my new position ...and it is ironic that not being able to particpate in the 401(k) may have saved me from making the mistake that so many had made of sinking all of their retirement into Enron stock. So often what seems like a negative, ends up being a blessing. I was among the lucky ones. I worked with very talented and dedicated individuals, learned a heck of a lot, and was fortunate enough to not lose my retirement savings when I was laid off (we'd rolled my earlier 401(k) funds into a separate IRA fund).

But many folks did lose everything when the company collapsed. And definitely there was evil done by some of the execs. So this evening I put on one of my Enron shirts, and hoisted a brew (with fellow Drinking Liberally colleagues Ben W and Mike R) to Kenny Boy (Ken Lay) and the rest of the Enron royalty. It is not to me to judge who was guilty of what, nor what punishment may be appropriate for the guilty. But here's to the hope that karma is real, that good results in a multiplication of that good, and that evil results in lessons learned and the effecting of real and positive change, be it now or in a future existence. Cheers.

Managing cholesterol with Niacin

I've had borderline high cholesterol for years. But after moving to Florida in January of 2004, I'd been so busy getting things going with a new job, new house, new life for our family, that I'd pretty much stopped exercising. Well, 2 months ago I tested around 300 for total cholesterol, 39 for HDL, over 400 for triglycerides. I started on Zocor (40mg/day, but have stopped that). I'm now taking niacin, but the main thing I'm doing is plenty of exercise. As of last week, the total cholesterol is around 200, but more importantly the HDL is up to 52 (so far), the triglycerides are 160, and I'm feeling more fit. I usually put personal stuff on this site and mainly tech stuff on my other blog. But since I know a lot of geeks that need to get healthier, I've posted more details about the cholesterol stuff over at joelitton.net.