Islamic Justice Rivals The Inquistion

Salman Rushide's "The Satanic Verses" earn him a fatwa known in the wild west as "kill on sight". The Danish newspaper, The Jyllands-Posten, publishes some cartoons depicting Mohamed and all hell breaks loose in Islamic communities. A teenage Saudi girl is raped fourteen times and sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail. The latest, a British teacher in Sudan is convicted of insulting Islam after her class named a teddy bear Mohamed. She's sentenced to 15 days in jail and lucky for her she is to be deported after serving her sentence. This evidently does not satisfy bloodthirsty Muslims who take to the streets demanding her death. Christians and Jews in their historic past have stained their religions with bloodthirsty justice so Islam is not alone in calling for torture and death in the name of a God. It is troublesome that clerics of all shades who rise to positions of power impose forms of justice which make their religion a tool of Satan.

Feeding The War God

As the Taliban threatens Kabul, NATO is pleading for more troops. When will we learn that if you are going to play War you need a lot of fodder!

Pessimism And Hope

According to a Reuters/Zogby poll released today, Americans are entering the holiday season in a dark mood, with economic worries, security fears and a lack of confidence in government. No one bothered to ask me but I fully concur. The sub prime mortgage fiasco, the falling dollar, the Iraq quagmire, the saber rattling over Iran’s nuclear activities, Putin giving us the finger, Chavez giving us the finger, Ahmadinejad giving us the finger, the rising cost of healthcare, the Middle East tinder box - where does it all stop! Like most Americans my pessimism is growing. The White House is focused - focused on pursuing the Iraq War and engaging Iran in some sort of confrontation. The Congress is not focused. There are no leaders in Congress gifted with the art of persuasion and compromise, aka bipartisanship. We need change in our government . We need a visionary in the White House. Will a leader emerge capable of igniting hope that the decline of The United States of America can be halted? I think so ! He is already making his voice heard.

Barry Bonds And Steroids

The indictment today of Barry Bonds which alleges he lied to a Grand Jury about using steroids and obstructed justice represents a black day for baseball and its fans. He is innocent until proven guilty but the mere fact that baseball's greatest slugger will in all probability be tried puts a stain on his accomplishments. Baseball owners and the players union ( Baseball And Steroids) have a lot of explaining to do as to why the baseball diamond has become a playground for drug users. This indictment coming in the midst of end of season individual awards diminishes those accomplishments. Selig may spin that effective drug use penalties are in place but the proof is in the pudding. Where is the Mitchell report?

As Time Goes By

You must remember this

A pain is still a pain, a sigh is just a sigh.

And aging will apply

As time goes by.

And when two seniors woo

They still say, "I love you."

On that you can rely

No matter what the future brings

As time goes by.

Hairdos and clothing

Slightly out of date.

Hearts full of love

Yet so much to hate.

Woman needs man

And man must have his mate

That no one can deny.

It's still the same old story
Keep from looking hoary

Aging needs a bye.
The world will question aging As time goes by.
Oh yes, the world will always question aging As time goes by.

( apologies to " As Time Goes By " composer and lyricist Herman Hupfeld )

Is there a way out of the Iraq quagmire?

The impasse between the Democrats and Bush over the Iraq War is frustrating. Little progress on ending the war has been made. In fact we are being primed to accept a long term presence in Iraq. Even the specter of war with Iran has been raised. Is there a way out of the Iraq quagmire? I came upon an excerpt from Thoreau’s essay “On Civil Disobedience” which has some relevance to the Iraq War.

“Paying taxes is one way in which otherwise well-meaning people collaborate in injustice. People who proclaim that the war in Mexico is wrong and that it is wrong to enforce slavery contradict themselves if they fund both things by paying taxes. The same people who applaud soldiers for refusing to fight an unjust war are not themselves willing to refuse to fund the government that started the war.”

The action he proposed is more extreme than I would advocate. As far as Iraq is concerned I would take his words and modify them as follows:

Our representatives in Congress who proclaim that the war in Iraq is wrong and must be brought to an end, must resolve that if the Administration refuses to heed the will of the people , they have no other alternative but to stop funding the war.

What's In A Name ?

Italian surnames can be glamorous such as deLaurentiis which evokes visions of a good movie followed by a delicious dinner garnished with Petrosino - parsley. They can be colorful such as Verdi - green, Bianchi - white, and Russo - red or Nero - black. An ancestors trade can be found in the surname of Ferraro for blacksmith, the equivalent of Smith but much more romantic, Barbieri - barber or Martelli - carpenter. That person strutting around like a rooster could very well be named Gallo and the left handed pitcher the Indians covet is probably named Mancino.

Days of the week give birth to names such as Martini, Tuesday, and Sabatino, Saturday. LaVecchia - the old one, can only claim respect. A lesson in Italy’s geography is provided by Calabrese, Salerno, Romano, Napilitano, Lombardi, Siciliano and Genovese. Italian surnames can evoke emotions: Pace,- peace, Sforza - fierce, Amato - loved. Howard Hawk visting Italy could very well have gone by Howard Falcone.

One of my favorite surnames is Passalaqua, pass water. I’m sure this was reserved for persons having an overactive bladder. Would any self respecting urologist bear the name Passalaqua? Another favorite of mine for somewhat obvious reasons is Mastrantonio - Mister Tony.

But what about Rugare? It turns out that as far as Italian surnames are concerned it must rank among the blandest. Rugare is the verb meaning to wrinkle. Not colorful, informative or picturesque. The closest it comes to generating any emotion is in an expression used when someone gives annoyance - “non rugare”. I guess that’s what was happening when someone would refer to me as Rugare.

Rugare was a concoction of Ellis Island - the original spelling of the family name was Rugari which it turns out was just as bland. Rugari is a medicinal plant , probably very effective in curing a pain in the ass which I know some of my relatives suffered from.

A Google search of rugare yields countless results having an African connection. Rugare is a suburb of Harare the capital of Zimbabwe and Rugari is a location in Rwanda. Now that raises some interesting questions.

If I were looking for something glamorous in my genealogy I would seize upon the surname Versace. (Gianni Versace was a fashion designer and occasional photographer from Calabria, in southern Italy. He is most well known for starting the famous Versace clothing line. He was born to a family who owned a tailoring store in Reggio, Calabria.)

Maria Sophia Versace was my grandmother. She immigrated from Sinopoli, Reggio Calabria. Sinopoli was a small peasant village - hardly the scene for a tailoring store. Did some of her family migrate to the more urban city of Reggio? More questions and no answers.

What’s in a name? In the end its what you make of your life and how people remember Rugare - hopefully not with annoyance.

Memorabilia, Junk And eBay

Over the course of years one is bound to accumulate a number of boxes which have been lovingly labeled memorabilia . If one lives long enough and does not succumb to dementia, he begins to question whether or not items are really memorabilia if they have been relegated to a box securely taped and stored in the garage. He may also shockingly conclude that his heirs will classify much of his memorabilia as junk. Ultimately greed steps in and he starts to wonder what his memorabilia or junk might be worth to someone else. The problem then becomes to distinguish between memorabilia, things that are remarkable and worthy of remembrance and junk, something worth little or nothing?

Fortunately these days we have something called eBay. eBay beckons all to search their attic, closets or garage and turn items gathering dust into cash. A survey of what was listed on eBay revealed that a number of articles similar to my “memorabilia” were up for auction. That solved the problem of how to label my stuff so carefully stored in my garage. My stuff was neither memorabilia nor junk, it was “saleable”!

In order to turn my saleable stuff into cash I had to become a member of eBay. This required setting up an ID. Establishing an unique ID is no easy task. I quickly found out that my choice of “mystuff” was not available. Wanting to keep things simple I quickly claimed “mystuff101”. A password was also required which gave me a secure feeling, no one could access my saleable stuff without my password. I chose …….. I then found that I would have to set up another account called PayPal so that I could facilitate the sale of my stuff and get the hundreds of dollars which I was sure were forthcoming deposited to my checking account. True to its name PayPal also facilitated the cost of doing business with eBay. All that was left was to list some of my stuff.

Surely my collection of vintage slide rules would be gobbled up. ( By the way I learned that attaching “vintage” to an article would enhance its chances of showing up in a search). How about that vintage Sony pocket transistor radio which I received as a gift from Sony in 1958 --- a sure seller. Of course my vintage Jim Beam Norman Rockwell bicentennial decanters would create heavy bidding. And that Emerson vintage bakelite table radio --- its not very often something like that comes on the market. Getting a good price for a vintage Sony Walkman would be a slam dunk. Everyone is anxious to get their hands on vintage action figures , so out of the storage box leaped Action Jackson and his friend. Quite a collection of saleable stuff to get started with.

My almost vintage digital camera ( by today’s standards) did its job photographing my stuff for the listing process and I came up with some descriptions which would command attention and wild bidding. My stuff was on eBay! All I had to do was watch the bidding over a period of seven days and then get my stuff ready to ship to the lucky high bidder.

Lo and behold Action Jackson and friend attracted bidders the first day and at the end of the auction he went for $22.50 plus shipping. I must confess I was sorry to see him go but I was satisfied that he was going to good home. Who knows, within two months he might even fetch $50 for his new owner. ( I will not be among the bidders.)

What of the other vintage articles which I was sure were worth more than Action Jackson. Nary a bid. Not even a question. No one was interested in my stuff. Something worth little or nothing is by definition junk. My stuff was not saleable , it was junk! Wait, eBay offers a second chance. For a minimal fee I re-listed some of the more saleable articles. Another seven days and embarrassingly not a single bid. What went wrong? A more thorough search on eBay for similar items revealed that yes they were listed, but the “listees” were not faring much better than I was. My stuff was truly junk. The real winner was eBay with their listing fee which PayPal expeditiously transferred to eBay from my bank account. I guess that is how PayPal got its name ----- pay pal!
I had other “maybe saleable stuff” I could list but the “maybe” part turned me off. Perhaps my best bet would be to go through my stuff and get rid of the junk after applying stringent rules concerning the definition of memorabilia - things that are remarkable and worthy of remembrance, with the emphasis on remembrance. My eBay experience worked like an enema! I got all the junk out of my system and am now left with one box of memorabilia. The latter will bear scrutiny from time to time - a mild laxative should get rid of any remaining questionable memorabilia. In the meantime I’ll confine my eBay activities to truly saleable items like this vintage computer or my made in the U.S.A vintage coat sweater - a real rarity. Oh no! Not again! Just close the account!