TERM LIMITS A FAILURE!

The elections are coming up in November and I have a few words to say about TERM LIMITS. We here in Michigan, as voters in other states also did, voted to term limit our state politicians – what a mistake that was!

I am trying to remember the reasons we did that and I cannot remember. I think many voters were tired of career politicians or did not trust them or wanted regular Joes to have a chance at state office. Whatever the reasons, things got worst.

We still have career politicians because, I am convinced, it is a special kind of breed that is drawn to political office – any political office. What is happening is that once a politician is term limited, he runs for a different office and keeps doing this until he or she retires? So what you get is a politician that has no idea what he is doing since he never really learns the job before he has to move on – dumb?

So the real power in state government is in the staff members that the politician relies on to tell him what to do.

I say repeal the stupid law. Admit it was a mistake and go back to the old ways; we can always vote them out if we don’t like them.

Some are suggesting a part-time legislature. Here the politician would have to hold down a regular job and play legislator part-time. I am not sure that would really work since then the politician would do both jobs half-assed.


Janusz

THE BIBLE FIRES FEMALE TEACHER!

The headline read “Church Fires Teacher for Being Female”. It was about a member of the First Baptist Church in Watertown, N.Y. who was 85 years old, a member of the church for 60 years and a Sunday school teacher there for 54 years.

The Rev. Timothy LaBouf, who looked like a young twit on T.V. said that he takes the Bible literally and in the Pauline Epistle (Timothy 1) women are forbidden to teach men, therefore he fired her.

Here again I have to comment about taking the Bible literally, in this case the New Testament and especially the writings of Paul.

First and foremost, most if not all, historians consider the Epistle to Timothy as well as the other “pastoral” Epistles as NOT having been written by Paul.

The Epistles basically instruct a community how to structure and run a church and how to behave, etc. Since women were an integral part of early Christianity and many rose to positions of leadership (bishops), a male backlash was inevitable.

The Epistle of Timothy was written by just such a male that did not want competition from females. He used Paul’s name to add legitimacy to the Epistle. Early Christians could not tell that it was not Paul’s letter and included it in the canon of the Bible (became part of the Bible/New Testament).

People that don’t know the history of the Bible; who wrote it and why, like the twit Rev. LaBouf, can needlessly cause harm and create discord because of their ignorance.

I think the media and the general public’s adverse reaction to this senseless act of making an old lady that has devoted her life to this church, feel like a second-class human being because she is female, will expose the literal reading of the Bible as absurd. He also did not act too Christ-like, did he?

Janusz

BUSH'S SPYING UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

Detroit Circuit Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor declared Bush’s spying program unconstitutional. According to her, the law is very clear, you need a warrant to wiretap – he does not have any warrants – ergo – illegal – simple as that!

Wow! Did the people on the Right scream; she endangers our security, she works for Al Qaeda, she is a flaming liberal aiming to destroy America, how can we protect ourselves from terrorists if we can’t spy………………………………………………….

Before you get bent out of shape consider a few things. There is a special court that handles warrants for wiretapping; you can have a warrant in no time IF you apply for one.

If Bush’s program is breaking an existing law, how in the hell is a sitting judge suppose to declare it legal?

Bush is a proven liar; how can we trust him to do anything without supervision?

We all agree that spying on potential terrorists is essential to our safety but Americans are not willing to give him carte blanch – he will abuse his powers like he has before.

Congress can authorize a special law allowing Bush to bypass the standard law because of terrorist threats in this country BUT Congress has to monitor his actions – again – because he is NOT trustworthy.

Janusz

THE UAW NEEDS TO GO AWAY!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

To: The Detroit Free Press
Re: “Ford buyout plan chills UAW locals”, Aug. 23

The Ford buyout plan for its hourly workers is a good deal for the company and the workers opting to accept the plan but leaders of UAW locals are opposed to the plan, “Ford buyout plan chills UAW locals”, Aug. 23.

It appears that even though the buyout plan is great for UAW members, it’s really all about the UAW and its leaders; they fear extinction and want the leaving workers replaced.

With the U.S. auto industry in a fight for its very life, the UAW, realizing that they are part of the problem, should allow its members to leave while the leaving is good and have the last member leaving, just turn off the lights.


Janusz M. Szyszko

VOUCHERS ARE FOR WHOM?

Sunday, August 13, 2006

To:     The Canton Observer
Re:     “Resistance to school vouchers serves politics, not children”, Aug. 12



Paul M. Seibol’s piece “Resistance to school vouchers serves politics, not children”, Aug. 12, does not cover any new ground but continues to obscure the obvious; vouchers are nothing more than tax dollars for religious schools.


Janusz M. Szyszko

SCHOOL VOUCHERS AGAIN?

Here in Michigan, the prospect of electing a very conservative Republican governor this November has resurrected the SCHOOL VOUCHER question. A school voucher proposal on the 2000 ballot was soundly defeated in Michigan but it appears the religious zealots will try to cram it down our throats again.

If you are surprised that I say “religious zealots” are behind this, don’t be; we are after all talking about RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS and not PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

In 2000, the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit spent millions in trying to get the Voucher initiative passed. They saw it as a savior for their failing parochial school system. I saw it as another way to introduce religion into our educational system.

I will admit that our schools in Michigan and probably around the country need some fixing. In Detroit, the schools are pitiful and parents deserve better for their children. But it is those same parents that keep electing incompetent school boards and administrators – yes it is a race thing also. My suggestion for Detroit schools is for the state to take over their administration and let some professionals finally whip the schools into shape.

As for competition making schools try harder to attract students – I am all for it but within the public school system. Actually, this type of competition exists already. The problem is transportation which limits options for some parents.

So for me VOUCHERS mean RELIGION and therefore UNACEPTABLE.

I am a product of Catholic education so I know what I am talking about.

Janusz

CRAZY IRAN - BOOM!!!

This is a follow-up to a previous blog where I scared my wife by opining that nuclear bombs may be ultimately needed to make this world safe for ourselves and our kids.

Bernard Lewis, a very old but very smart professor and expert on the Middle East and Islam in particular, has published a piece in the Wall Street Journal called “August 22” in which he talks about Iran and the bomb.

He talks about the Cold War between the USSR and US and what prevented us from blowing each other up in smithereens; it was MAD or “Mutual Assured Destruction”. Our missiles were pre-programmed to respond to any nuclear attack and so were the Soviet missiles. In this way no one would win and everybody would die.

Bernard Lewis points out why MAD would not work with a nuclear Iran – we are talking about Iran and Israel.

If Iran sent over nuclear bombs to eliminate Israel off the map, Israel would almost certainly respond by eliminating Iran and all who reside there. Iran would also kill many Muslims with its nuclear strike, but they don’t care about that and about being killed themselves.

You see, the Iranian Muslims also believe in the “end time”, apocalypse, Armageddon and all that jazz. They think the time is now. If they destroy the Jews and in so doing destroy themselves, they will have completed the prophecy. The dead Jews will be sent to hell and all the dead Muslims will be sent to heaven. I am not kidding here – they are serious.

Professor Lewis does not recommend obliterating Iran right now, before they get the bomb like I probably would. He suggests contacting all the “sane” Muslims in the world, to join forces and prevent Iran from getting the bomb or at least changing their leadership to people that are normal.

Just some food for thought!

Janusz

LIEBERMAN AND POLITICAL GAMES!

Many Republican pundits are calling the defeat of Democratic Senator Lieberman of Connecticut by Democratic challenger Ned Lamont as damaging for the Democrats.

Joe Lieberman lost because he supported the invasion of Iraq and continues to support the war there. This is a seemingly intelligent Democrat that obviously has to know that Bush lied his ass off to legitimize his invasion of Iraq.

Lieberman also has to know that the war in Iraq has sucked up our resources and taken our focus AWAY from the war on terror and therefore has hugely endangered every American. Yes, Bush’s blunder has made all of us less safe as witnessed by the plot in London to blow up transatlantic flights.

Now if Lieberman knew all of this as any “sane” person would, he could not in all conscience support the war on Iraq. The fact that he does must mean he is crazy, wants to be a Republican, wants Bush to appoint him King of some country, thinks he is protecting Israel by his stance, etc.

He deserved to be defeated in the primary because he does not represent his constituents.

The Republicans are happy because they feel that the rabid anti-war stance of the Democrats will, in the end, bite them in the ass. You see the Republicans are planning to confuse the war in Iraq with the war on terror. So, if you are anti-war then you are blocking the Bush administration from fighting world terror or as we now call it – ISLAMIC FACISM.

The Republicans can do this confusion thing – they are good at it and we know that the American people are gullible as hell – 50% of them still believe Saddam HAD weapons of mass destruction and therefore Bush did not lie – figure that one out!

Anyway, the Democrats ARE stupid enough to fall for this Republican trap; they will not differentiate their anti-war feelings from those that push for more force in dealing with the war on terror. And more force we will definitely need.

The Republicans will also use the Patriot Act and the Democrats battle against domestic spying provisions of the Act to show Americans that without spying, the London plotters would not have been apprehended. So the Democrats would endanger the American public by not granting Bush dictatorial powers to spy on us. Are you starting to see the strategy here? Obviously the London plotters were caught because of the superior skills of the British police and not because of anything the Americans did.

Hint: The Democrats have to come out strongly that they will prosecute the war on terror (Islamic Fascism) with all their might and they will use the resources being squandered on Iraq to do it with – at least our soldiers will be fighting and dieing to protect us and the world instead of wasting their time and lives in Iraq.

Janusz

PRIORITY: WAR ON TERRORISM

Saturday, August 12, 2006

To: The Detroit Free Press
Re: “What they’re Saying / Terror Threat”, Aug. 11


Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid hit the nail on the head when he called on the Bush administration to quit wasting our resources on Iraq and start using them to protect Americans at home and abroad, “What they’re saying / Terror Threat”, Aug. 11.

It is time to stop playing politics by confusing the invasion of Iraq with the war on terrorism. President Bush should admit his blunder and get on with the job at hand.


Janusz M. Szyszko

HOFFA NEEDS TO GET REAL!

Saturday, August 12, 2006

To: The Detroit News
Re: “Kroger must keep jobs in Metro Detroit”, Aug. 11.

James P. Hoffa is calling for us not to shop at Kroger to force them to stop shipping warehouse jobs from Livonia to Ohio, “Kroger must keep jobs in Metro Detroit”, Aug. 11.

Hoffa believes that the old blackmailing tactics still work. He must also believe that Communism was a successful economic philosophy. He needs a dose of reality to see that without healthy companies there will be no jobs at all.


Janusz M Szyszko

HEALTHCARE AND CONGRESS

Saturday, August 12, 2006

To: The Detroit News
Re: “Wagoner: Feds must do more”, Aug. 11.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner is correct in asking Congress to do more to ease the healthcare crisis in this country, “Wagoner: Feds must do more”, Aug. 11. Both Michigan Senators had that opportunity when a bill aimed at allowing a myriad of health insurance policies to be offered in the country was introduced in Congress. These policies would enable the uninsured to purchase insurance they could afford thus limiting the drain that the uninsured are having on our healthcare system. Our Senators chose to keep the status quo, protect current insurers and allow the healthcare crisis to continue.


Janusz M Szyszko

Hey, I became a grandfather (Dziadek in Polish) for the first time on Monday, 7th of August. It was quite a process - glad it's over. Now the fun begins.

Could not help but think about the world BEN has been born into. Can we make the world saner for him or will it be up to his generation to tackle the world's problems and finally bring peace among humans.

Right now he is concentrating on eating, shitting and sleeping. Let him enjoy this simplicity of life while he can.

Janusz

CANADIAN UNION CAN LUMP IT!

Saturday, August 12, 2006

To: The Detroit Free Press
Re: “CAW lobbies GM, Ford for new models”, Aug.12.

I had to smile when I read “CAW lobbies GM, Ford for new models”, Aug. 12. Is this the same Buzz Hargrove of the Canadian Auto Worker’s Union that would not budge an inch in contract talks with auto makers and now he is asking, begging the auto companies to invest in their Canadian plants? Mr. Hargrove, you made your bed and now you must sleep in it.


Janusz M. Szyszko

EVANGELICAL REVOLUTION?

So you thought I forgot about religion – no way, everything is really about religion these days so you cannot escape it.

Couple of interesting, lengthy articles in our local paper as well as the New York Times, may indicate a certain trend in the Christian camp, specifically in the so called “evangelical” camp, if there is such a camp.

One was titled “Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock”. That was about the Rev. Gregory Boyd, a charismatic preacher from Minnesota with a huge flock.

His point is that in recent times, conservative Christianity has been tied to Bush and the Republican Party and to American Nationalism – and that is not proper and maybe down right wrong.

He laments the fact that every time you say evangelical Christian, people right away say aha the crazy religious Right. All they care about is bashing gays, reversing Roe vs. Wade, throwing out activist judges and above all supporting THE WAR because that’s what JESUS would do.

He thinks that people have turned politics and patriotism into IDOLATRY.

He is scared America is becoming a THEOCRACY – read Taliban.

Many of his congregants asked “why can’t we be the power, after all Jesus is behind us” – typical theocratic thinking – we are right and therefore we deserve to make the laws. Do you see any danger in this type of thinking?

Rev. Boyd’s message is that all people are inherently good and lead good lives, not only Christians. So if Christians want to reach out to others, they can do it without a gun in their hands.

The other guy is the Rev. Rob Bell that has 11,000 as his congregation in Grandville, Michigan. His message is to get back to Jesus and what he was all about. He says “What got Jesus angry were poverty, institutional racism and religious people who were indifferent to suffering people”. What got Jesus even angrier were “religious people going around proclaiming who was in and who was out of God’s kingdom” – remind you of anyone?

I am heartened by this trend. Jesus has been kidnapped by certain Christians and used and abused for their purposes which had nothing to do with Him and His message. It is always the same no matter what century you live in; people use religion to control other people. America was founded as a country that would NOT allow that behavior.

But unless ministers like the ones I mentioned above, start standing up for their faith and religion, the country will become another theocracy of well meaning but crazy Taliban type people who feel God is only on their side.

Janusz

SO IT'S CIVIL WAR AFTER ALL

I have predicted a civil war in Iraq a long time ago. All signs pointed to one as inevitable.

President Bush thought he could make a nice democracy out of the country and everyone would live happily ever after and the rest of the Middle East countries would be so impressed that they too would want to be democratic. That is the thinking of a dumb three year old.

No use crying over spilt milk, lets get to the task at hand.

To stop the killing before no one is left alive in Iraq, we need to split the country into three parts; Kurdistan, Sunni and Shiite-stan. The three groups should never have been grouped in the first place. The British just decided to form a country without first doing their homework.

The only thing that needs to be done after splitting them up is to guarantee that the oil revenues are split evenly according to the population. In this way, the whole question of who gets the oil is removed from the table. The United Nations would have to oversee this but now that we know some members of the UN are crooks, maybe a different third party organization would be better.

Split into three, the groups can begin to form a permanent country without slaughtering each other.

So you think they are barbarians for butchering each other's neighbors in this fashion? How about the Serbs. How about the Christians in Northern Ireland. How about the Tutsis in Africa. Are we really that inhumane to each other? Are we really just animals? You tell me - it sure looks like that to me.

Janusz

MEL GIBSON DEFENDED!

I was waiting for the furor to die down over Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade during his DUI arrest because I knew his defenders and like thinkers would soon emerge.

To be perfectly clear, I realize that often, anyone criticizing Israel is called an anti-Semite, just like anyone criticizing African-Americans is called a racist. It is a convenient tool used by some to silence their critics. Many critics will withhold their criticism in fear of being labeled an anti-Semite or a racist. It is up to us to differentiate between the two.

For example, you can be totally against Israel's actions in the current Lebanon crisis without being an anti-Semite. But Mel Gibson's tirade and his history, label him a plain ole bigot.

To be specific, no one called Mel an anti-Semite; he issued a number of apologies on his own saying that he is NOT an anti-Semite. He did not defend what he said as anti-Israel criticism, he just said that the devil rum made his say those things that he said were anti-Semitic. The more he apologized, the more it became clear that he was apologizing for the person within. The person raised by his ultra Catholic, anti-Semitic father, who he loves so dearly.

In today's Detroit Free Press, a letter writer said that Mel apologized but who will apologized for the movie "Last Temptation of Christ", the photo of the crucifix in urine submitted as an object d'art, the Virgin Mary picture smeared with cow dung displayed at a NYC museum, the movie "DaVinci Code" and all the other terrible things done against the Catholics and their beliefs.

The letter writer obviously feels Mel's bigotry is justified in light of the anti-Christian / catholic attitude of our society?

Another letter writer blames Hollywood (obviously, famously controlled by the Jews) as getting back at Mel for his movie "The Passion of Christ". How is Hollywood getting back at Mel - by arresting him for driving drunk?

As you can see, this whole matter is very confusing but revealing. It reveals that people still hold their deep prejudices and are really bigots even though on the outside, they act oh so politically correct.

I will have more to say about the Jewish question. The bigotry has existed for hundreds of years and is alive and well today and the reasons are exactly the same - nothing has changed.

Janusz

WILL CASTRO FINALLY CROAK?

Fidel Castro took over Cuba from the Spanish dictator Baptista in 1959.

He has ruled Cuba with an iron, Communist hand since then. His people are impoverished and drive 1950's era autos - they still run.

He is nearly 80 and in ill health. He recently named his brother Raul as interim el presidente. Fidel expects to be back but I kind of doubt it.

The fact that we as the most powerful country in the world, have not been able to get rid of Castro and his regime is sad and very pitiful. I cannot blame Bush because many, many presidents failed to depose him; hell, they couldn't even assassinate him.

I have always maintained that we could have saved the Cubans through smart economics and NOT the totally stupid and ineffective EMBARGO.

Allow the people to get rich and they will overthrow any dictator. Look at Eastern Europe. Look at China. Once people smell money and success, there is no going back BUT the brains in Washington could not and cannot see that simple logic.

An embargo hurt only the common Cuban people, Castro and his pals do OK.

It is a shame that Cubans have had to suffer for so long because we were too stupid to do anything - we had our egos stuck firmly up our asses.

Hope they have a revolution and string those Commies up by their balls - have to have some revenge for all those years of suffering and then watch the fun begin. CUBA LIBRE!!!

Janusz

WHAT TO DO IN THE MIDDLE EAST!

Guess I should say something about the situation in the Middle East. The situation has caused some pretty heated discussions in my household.

The images of innocent civilians, especially children, being blown to bits is not pleasant to view. Also, remembering that Lebanon in general and Beirut in particular were totally destroyed some years ago and then totally rebuilt into a new and thriving community and now TOTALLY DESTROYED AGAIN is a little hard to take.

To understand the situation you really have to know the history of this conflict but that would take volumes to bring everyone here up to date and we know how Americans hate to read about history. So we have to talk about the here and now BUT you still NEED to know WHY!

Lebanon is divided into Muslim, Christians and Druze. After Israel became a nation, they kicked out the Palestinians and about 300,000 of them headed for Southern Lebanon, where many still remain including Hezbollah. The country went through a devastating CIVIL WAR from 1975-1990 which left it in total ruin.

Syria brought its troops into Lebanon in 1976 and basically ruled the country until just recently, when they were kicked out – things were starting to finally look good for Lebanon until now.

Hezbollah, just like Hamas, have only one mission in life; to destroy Israel and take the land back. They are not interested in stabilizing the lives of their citizens and creating a new national and political entity.

For this reason, Hezbollah invaded Israel and kidnapped some of its soldiers. The last time they did this, Israel agreed to release many Hezbollah prisoners to get the bodies of their soldiers back – NOT THIS TIME – they blew the living shit out of the country and are continuing to do so as we speak.

Why? Israel realizes that Hezbollah is not going away and will not stop attacking Israel – so, the only thing to do is to wipe them out. Why destroy Lebanon? - Because Lebanon allows Hezbollah to live and grow in Lebanon and allows them to continue to attack Israel. Why does Lebanon do that? Lebanon is divided itself and is not strong enough to kick Hezbollah out of Lebanon PLUS Hezbollah is supported by SYRIA and IRAN.

You notice Hezbollah was VERY prepared for this conflict.

Totally confused? – So is everybody else!

We need to get a couple of things straight before we can formulate ways of fixing this thing.

1. This conflict has been going on for thousands of years ever since Abraham came on down from the land of UR (Mesopotamia).


2. The Jews have only one goal; survive against all odds – they are a small country.


3. The Palestinians (Hezbollah and Hamas) have only one goal: wipe out Israel and reclaim their ancestral land.


4. Hezbollah is Shiite and Hamas is Sunni; both groups are Muslims but REALLY hate each other.


5. Syria is Sunni, Iran is Shiite.


6. The insurgency in Iraq is led by the Sunnis against the majority Shiites.

Are you starting to get some kind of picture here – yes? – It’s hopeless?

1. Get U.N. or NATO peace keeping forces into Southern Lebanon with permission to shoot?


2. Disarm Hezbollah by force.


3. Strengthen the Lebanese army so they can be a force to be reckoned with.


4. Offer Sunni Syria so much economic aid (Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc.) that they will quit being such aggressive assholes.


5. Isolate IRAN.


6. Divide IRAQ into Kurdistan, Sunni and Shiite parts. Let them be independent. Put NATO there to guarantee peace. Disarm all religious militias.


7. Force Hamas to disarm and form an independent Palestine out of the West Bank and Gaza. Have the U.N. be the internal police force until they are capable of showing they can handle things.


8. Iran, at this point, would have to acquiesce to the demands of the rest of the world and quit building an atom bomb.


9. Use the peaceful ARAB nations to make this thing happen – it is in their best interest!

Too complicated? Well, you have to start somewhere and if you have the big picture in mind, it may happen.

The problem with the current US strategy of doing nothing and hoping Israel will wipe out Hezbollah is that it will NOT happen – it has not in thousands of years – remember?

The US should take some decisive steps into herding everyone in the right direction and realizing that they will not go quietly or without a fight. I am not sure the current administration is capable of handling this situation but something must be done or this shit will keep happening and more and more innocent people will suffer and die and BLAME EVERYTHING ON THE UNITED STATES and we will have millions of these people willing to die blowing us up!

More later…

Janusz