SCOTUS vs POTUS

The Supreme Court of The United States is hearing arguments concerning the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The question in my mind is, why now? This year is a presidential election year. The GOP has already made the repeal of Obamacare as an issue to be settled in November. Now we have nine Justices stepping in to decide the issue before the electorate has a chance to express its opinion via the ballot box. What's the hurry? The key parts of the Affordable Care Act do not go into effect until 2014. I dare say that SCOTUS is mixing politics with constitutional law and in doing so is usurping our right to accept or reject the intent of the Affordable Care Act based on its merits. SCOTUS should have waited until someone was injured by the Affordable Care Act before acting on its constitutionality. To date, the only entity injured has been the GOP. The Supreme Court stole one election in 2000, are they poised to steal the 2012 election?

Pass The Etch A Sketch

Shake and Restart Politics

The political world has been ablaze with the gaffe made by a skilled politician and trusted advisor to Mitt Romney, Eric Fehrnstrom. Mr. Fehrnstrom's take on Romney's campaign positions was, “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.” Holy cow, Romney is a flip flopper! Hold your fire, Romney if nominated will do the right thing! Wow, a politician telling it as it is. My God, Romney is a ward healer after all. It was a terrible gaffe, but only because we can't handle the truth.

The name of the game in running for office is to be elected. If successful, there is always time to reinvent oneself and an Etch A Sketch can be helpful. There are many things I don't like about Romney (I am tempted to baptize him into another religion) but I can't crucify him for posing as a far right conservative if he is to get the Republican nomination. He needs those folks.

 The trick in determining who to vote for is to determine who has the most skill with an Etch A Sketch in sketching out a winning program for the people once he or she is elected. Now, if you believe that the latter is possible, I have a nice white house in Washington that you can have cheap. The fact of the matter is that we should only believe about ten percent of what a politician says on the campaign trail. Who we finally vote for is based on charisma and on how well he or she hides their real agenda. If you don't believe that, you can't handle the truth - at least in my opinion, which is subject to change. Pass the Etch A Sketch.

Trayvon Martin Did Not Deserve To Die

Thanks to Mike Lukovich

Trayvon Martin did not deserve to die! Four Chardon High School (OH) students did not deserve to die! These are recent events on a hit list that gets longer and longer.  Murder on the streets and in the halls of education is becoming symbolic of our right to bear arms. The NRA would have has believe that the right to bear arms is the foundation of this Republic and must be defended at all cost even if it means shattering our right of freedom from fear. The most devastating damage is the NRA's castration of our cowardly politicians. Trayvon Martin is dead. Will his death trigger an outcry for more responsible gun laws? An outcry perhaps , but action, no. After all it is an election year. The laws of the old Wild West will be coming to a street near you. May God have mercy on us.

It's Springtime - yea!

Hate to have my most recent post hanging out there as a rant. Need something more pleasant. I've got spring fever and this is the best I have to offer

Cage The Hawks

The following lines appeared in a NY Times article, Hawks Steering Debate on How to Take on Iran - “It’s not about Israel,” said Representative Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, the House majority leader and a key Congressional ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel" .   Netanyahu has allies in Congress?  Do these allies represent Israel as well as their constituents? Absurd! Cantor is not alone in wanting Obama to unleash another war in the Mideast. There is no way we should get entangled in yet another war.  Frankly, I doubt that we are prepared to win a war. If the Hawks have their way, we can kiss our standing as an economic powerhouse and a super power goodbye. If Obama doesn't cage the Hawks I'll be sorely disappointed, November election or not. If he does not accelerate an exit from Afghanistan, it will be a big mistake.

St. Paddy's Day- Rugare Style

If I haven't mentioned it before, the High Primal is 50 percent Irish. Since she's my better half, does that make me 25 percent Irish? Whatever the answer, it is fitting for the Rugare household to commemorate St. Patrick's Day with some sort of celebration.

As the luck of the Irish would have it, today should be a sunny and pleasant day. The parade in downtown Cleveland is supposed to be the longest ever with record number of spectators expected. The high primal and I are not much for parades. Standing around for a few hours raises hell with our bladders. The parade is out! How about dinner out? The Harry Buffalo restaurant nearby is open for action at 6 AM and promises a rollicking time. The problem with that is that the high primal and I are well past our drinking days. Besides I understand that Harry Buffalo is owned by an Arab - American. Do they really know how to throw a St. Paddy bash? There is always Mulligan's, not to far away. I'm sure that Mulligan's would do honor to St. Patrick's Day but  I must confess, I'm not in the mood to be around a bunch of overly festive Irishmen or Irish wannabes. As long as confessions are in order, I'm not a fan of corned beef and cabbage. I know that's not fair to the High Primal Colleen but there are alternatives.

Alternative number one and the winner - STAY HOME and savor our version of a St. Patrick's Day menu. The menu will feature O'Reuben hot sandwiches. O'Reubens are the epitome of diversity - Jewish rye bread, Irish corned beef, German sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing. We both can tolerate O'Reubens. The best part of the menu will be dessert, featuring Irish Coffee made with Irish Mist and Italian espresso ( had to get the Italian in there someplace). The High Primal has a very sweet tooth. To satisfy her craving for something sweet there will be me - only kidding. A few dark chocolate shamrock mints will do the trick. Later in the evening I'm sure we'll be indulging in a couple of good old American Tums.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Et tu, Karzai

It's a bit of a stretch but Leon Panetta must be feeling that the curse of the Ides of March has descended upon him as he tries to calm the Afghans. The benefactors of billions of dollars in U.S. aide are turning on their "patsy". The message is clear - here's your hat, what's your hurry but keep the money flowing into our bank accounts. President Karzai with his flowing robes is leading the attack. It's easy for me to say but the message to Karzai should be: et tu, Karzai, go to hell!

Beware The Drones of March

Senators at work

The Ides of March, March 15th for those not acquainted with Latin, is almost upon us. At one time it was a day to be avoided by all tax evaders. Mercifully, nowadays those considering telling the IRS to go fly a kite have another thirty days to reconsider.

 Some sports addicts look forward to the Ides as a date to prepare for March Madness wherein teams consisting of five giants, run back and forth on a wooden floor, tossing a large ball to one another until one decides to place it into a net which resembles a basket - aka Basketball.

 The March Madness phenomenon is a urologist's dream. A Cleveland Clinic doctor reports that the number of men scheduling vasectomies jumps by 50 percent around the Ides of March. These crafty gents figure that watching a little basketball while recovering is almost as good as sex.

Starting on the 15^th of March,  baseball players in sunny Florida or Arizona who don’t quite measure up to big league tobacco chewing techniques will find themselves honing their skills on the farm.

The Ides of March is also celebrated by would be conspirators. It has its origins to a day in 44 BC when Julius Caesar was murdered by a group of Senators led by Marcus Brutus. Caesar had made the mistake of declaring himself dictator for life ( in Roman days the Senate actually took their job seriously). His second mistake was to pooh-pooh the admonition of a soothsayer who in no uncertain terms advised him to “beware the Ides of March‘. Contrary to popular belief , Julius Caesar was not exactly a genius, he needed more than a verbal admonition. A poor review of the theater performance he planned to attend, would have kept him away from the scene of the crime. As it was, this dictator for life got stuck like a pig. In his dying moments all that he could utter was , “Et tu Brute” ( for the uneducated the words translate into ‘And you, Brutus’). As far as I know he never got an answer from Brutus who was miffed at being called a brute.

If one has read the preceding words carefully, he - or she for that matter- might conclude that the original Ides of March was a Roman Spring. A dictator was eliminated and an empire gained the freedom to destroy itself. Our modern day Arab Springs don’t measure up to this mother of all Springs although the after effects bear some resemblance.

In keeping with the theme of this post, my advice to Syria’s President and dictator for life, Bashar Assad, is not to accept any theater invitations for March 15^th . He should also keep his eyes peeled on the sky. Beware the Drones of March!

The Devil Made Them Do It

Being a creature of habit, I must have my morning newspaper and a cup of Folgers’s ( Melita and 8 O’clock are also acceptable) black coffee every morning. Like most red blooded Americans or if you prefer 99percenters, the paper of choice is the local rag - in my case The Plain Dealer. I understand that blue blooded Americans, better known as 1percenters, prefer The Wall Street Journal along with their Starbucks Cappuccino. Before the reader dismisses this missile as another class warfare rant, please be advised that the opening was what my Italian ancestors referred to as a “botta” or a slam couched in some civil words. Now that the “botta” is out of the way, let me get to the purpose of this post.

As I took my second sip of 99percenter coffee and flipped the pages of the paper over to the “Opinion” page ( I used the plural of page even though the number of flips involved in today’s shrinking newspapers are minimal - another “botta”!) my eyes wandered to the bottom of the page. Staring at me were the words “Justice Must Come Down On The Saints”.

I was startled. What in hell or better yet heaven had the Saints done? Was my patron saint Anthony involved. Had someone discovered that some saints were pedophiles? More to the point, what business did we have administering justice outside the boundaries of the United States. It didn’t work in Iraq and surely not in Afghanistan. There was only one way to find out - read the damn article.

What a relief! The Plain Dealer had excerpted an editorial which appeared in the Dallas Morning News. Texas, where  humans are executed like they were cattle, was calling for justice to come down on , not the heavenly saints, but New Orleans Saint football players.

After decades of violent football, someone went public with the news that the New Orleans Saints ran a bounty program from 2009 to 2011. The nerve of those Saints. They actually played football with the intent of hurting opposing players. No wonder that the Dallas Morning News was demanding justice. Everyone knows that the Dallas Cowboys play football as it should be played - beat the shit out of opposing players ( another “botta”).

It looks like the Saints got caught doing what everyone has been doing in the NFL for decades. Still, justice must be done. I suggest that the NFL require New Orleans to drop the name Saints and replace it with Devils. After all the devil made them do it. If harsher judgment is warranted, then the Saints should be required to play a football game without their protecting pads, in the Coliseum, against the Lions.

As for football, I would not buy stock in any NFL football team. The NFL has a death wish and they will not be satisfied until football goes the way of gladiator games. And that’s my “botta of the day”.

Out Damn Spot!

The High Primal is renowned in our family as an expert spot remover. She has gained this reputation in spite of failing Chemistry in high school ( I understand that the instructor relented at the last minute and gave her credit for at least taking the exam). Nonetheless, she is fearsome when it comes to removing spots from clothing, rugs and walls. Our laundry room would put a DuPont chemical lab to shame.  The High Primal will also spend hours and tons of money trying to remove age spots. Unfortunately the age spot removal comes under the category of looking for the fountain of youth.

Marge The Spot Remover has an occasional failure. Nothing serious, only a hole in an expensive tie or shirt. To be fair, her successes far outnumber her failures.

Case in point, we have one of those damn ceramic  cook tops on our range. These cook tops are allergic to spills and frequently cry for remedial action. Cleaning the stove top is my job. After all I aced Chemistry both in high school and college. I've been successful in my cleaning efforts until recently when I tackled a spot on one burner that was 'plug ugly' ( an expression the High Primal's mother used). It actually resembled an age spot. No, I did not decide to use the High Primal's age spot remover. I wanted that spot off the burner permanently. After a half hour of intense scrubbing and using three different brands of stove top cleaners, the damn spot was still there. I swear it now resembled a smile. I could not put up with such insolence. I told the High primal that I did the best I could and that whatever she spilled on the cook top was there to stay like her age spots. Rush Limbaugh could not have come up with a worse put down.

This morning, Marge The Spot Remover smugly informed me that the age spot on the stove cook top was gone. Some dishwahing detergent, a little hot water and a little soaking  had wiped the smile off the spot. The damn spot was gone! Hail Marge The Spot remover! 

The moral of this story is that if you want a spot removal job done properly, don't call Tony The Blogger.

About Tolerance

My favorite Buddha quote is , “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world.” Obviously that world can take many forms depending on musings during any moment of life.

The description of this blog implies an emphasis on musing. The implication is that I sneak off to a quiet room, sit on the floor , cross my legs, clasp my hands and reflect or meditate in silence on some subject. The fact of the matter is that my musing involves little meditation. My thoughts are very random and may or may not involve the necessary research to qualify them as thoughts to be heeded. As our President is prone to say, having said that, my musing does involve some degree of meditation if I limit its definition to ’thinking’.

I am not a Buddhist . His sayings however, do get my little grey cells going ( as the high primal says, "Tony's blogging is good for his grey cells no matter how little they are. "). This is not to say that the sayings of Jesus Christ invoke any less thinking or for that matter the sayings of Mohamed. Unfortunately the sayings of Jesus and Mohamed get tainted by attempts to justify various brands of religion and their agenda. Many Popes, Bishops, Rabbis, Ayatollahs and Evangelists have seen fit to anoint religions with what amounts to a political agenda. Buddhism on the other hand is more closely associated with a way of life.

Back to musings. My musing led me to the five principles of Buddhism called Panchsheel:

1. Do not to take life
2. Do not to steal
3. Do not to lie
4. Do not to consume liquor or other intoxicants
5. Do not to commit adultery

To my relief four of the five principles are found in The Ten Commandments. The one missing has to do with booze (we tried to get this principle in with Prohibition but that turned out to be a disaster). Four out five isn’t bad.

The Ten Commandments are embraced by Jews and Christians. ( Islam also embraces some of these principles but the little reading I have done about Islam leaves me very confused about its evolvement , the role of violence and its true mission. I need more of an understanding of the laws of Islam.)

Adhering to Panchsheel or the Ten Commandments should be the formula for a wonderful way of life in our world. So why is our world so troubled? Because like so many ideals we give the words of the Prophet, the Messiah, the Buddha lip service. Lip service gives Jews a license to kill Muslims, an excuse for Muslims to kill Jews. Lip service gave us The Holocaust. Lip service gives us racial intolerance. Lip service makes Christian killing Muslims and Muslims killing Christians tolerable. Intolerance, tolerable? Perhaps that is the key. I’m tempted to say that tolerance for one another does not come through loudly enough as the true word of God whether we are referencing the principles of Buddha, the Ten Commandments or the tenants of Islam..

Hidden in the words of Panchsheel and The Ten Commandments is a plea to love they neighbor as thyself . My take on that is that we should at least tolerate each other. We should worship or not worship as we choose but not impose upon others our beliefs which in the final analysis are more the makings of man rather than some supreme being.

This is as far as I can go with my limited knowledge. My 'meditation' leaves me with a gut feeling about the central importance of tolerance in the societies of the world. My musings do not obligate me to lay down a blueprint for world peace - a wish for tolerance in all walks of life will have to suffice. Buddha may have had the blueprint for accomplishing this when he said:

Pay no attention to the faults of others,
things done or left undone by others.
Consider only what by oneself is done or left undone.

Now how do I keep from relegating these musings to lip service? Must meditate on that.

33 days to go

Cactus League play starts today.  Opening day is down to 33 days. It will be nice to look forward to some baseball and put aside , at least temporarily, school massacres, Middle East chaos and inane political campaigning.

As for the Indians, the pre-season chatter has them being a serious contender for the AL Central title. I'll believe it when I see it - right now it's like predicting Ron Paul being the Republican nominee for President. Miracles do happen - in baseball not politics - but right now I'll settle for the Indians playing competitive basebll. After all, basball is a competition - right?

I understand that Chief Wahoo has not reported to camp yet. That could be a good sign. Has he been retired? I doubt that Indians' management has the guts to do the right thing.

 Last word on the Chief was that he was in the Dominican Republic trying to assist right handed pitcher Roberto Hernandez, aka Fausto Cormona, with his stolen identity problems. Dominican authorities found some irregularities with the Chief's Visa and are detaining him until his application for a MasterCard is approved. If I were the Chief, I'd stay in the Caribbean - he's earned a rest.

The Indians will also be missing Grady Sizemore for at least eight weeks. More surgery for Grady. The guy has been snake bit lately. At the rate he's going, he'll be a cinch to make the Hall of Fame - the Sports Medicine Hall of Fame.

Chief Wahoo or not, Fausto or not, Sizemore or not, win or lose, it should be fun watching the Indians this year. Playoffs? No predictions until September.

BREAKING NEWS: MLB has just announced that the 2012 playoffs will be expanded to include a second wild card in each league. The Indians have reserved that spot.

Buddha and Politics



Politicians would do well to heed the words of Buddha:

• Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or evil.
• The tongue like a sharp knife...Kills without drawing blood.
• Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present.
• It is better to travel well than to arrive.
• Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

Buddha Is Back

The Great Buddha of Kamakura

Back in 1958, I had the good fortune to make a business trip to Japan. Of course, a little sight seeing had to be part of the trip. I have never forgotten my visit to Kamakura, where on the grounds of the Kotokuin Temple I stood in awe before The Great Buddha. The bronze statue of Amida Buddha is 13.35 meters tall. The picture with this post does not do justice to The Great Buddha but I’ve included it for sentimental reasons. It is mine as amateurish as it is.

Many years ago I had a Buddha statue in my home. Several moves took a toll on Buddha and he departed our household. I don't know where he is now, but I  suspect  that he found Nibbana.


 On a visit to the chiropractor’s office recently I noticed that his waiting room had a number of Buddha figurines. Nostalgia took over and I decided that Buddha had to grace my home again. After searching for awhile I came across a statue to my liking and it now graces the mantel of my fireplace where it catches the rays of the afternoon sun. Buddha is back!

The Small Buddha of Aberdeen

So what's all this preoccupation with Buddha? In the words of today's youngsters - he's cool! I have also discovered that Buddha is a political strategist. But that is material for another post.

 In the meantime the following is worth meditating upon:

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them?