Opuscula Thoughts on December 25

CALL ME A “SCROOGE” OR the Grinch, but December 25 is depressing.
The tv “news” shows clips of needy people receiving hot meals.

That’s a good thing, but the meals only are handed out two or three days a year (Thanksgiving, December 25, and maybe, Easter).

What will the needy eat the remaining 363 days? Dumpster^™ delight?

Homeless person searching for food in Dumpster^™ (http://tinyurl.com/y9t9v586)

I also see, thanks to the “boob tube,” commercials begging for money to aid wounded veterans.

Wounded Warriors, Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and at least one other, all beg for financial help. “Only $19 a month.”

I don’t begrudge the organizations’ appeal and I applaud their efforts on behalf of veterans.

But I am ashamed that we — as a nation — fail to provide our veterans with the physical and mental care they deserve; after all, they were wounded in defense of our freedoms, and many were “volunteered” (drafted) so their wounds are all the more grievous.

I shouldn’t be surprised. We celebrate Memorial Day at the race track or the beach; paper poppies have all but disappeared.

Appeals from other groups, such as St. Jude Hospital,the Shriners’ hospitals for kids, and Ronald McDonald houses I consider are reasonable. The U.S. lacks social medicine or national health care.

But is national health care so good? I have lived where there IS “national health care” and I know there are gaping holes in it; I also know there are frequent appeals to donate money so a patient can go elsewhere for treatment unavailable under the health care system.

I watch as this aid group or that appeals for my limited dollars to support medical care for children in this or that country, while children in America lack sufficient food, clothing, and medical care.

A famous Jewish doctor-philosopher said, essentially, that charity begins at home. Take care of your family, then your community, then your country, and if anything is left, “the world.” I agree with that — let us succor America’s needy first, and then care for “the world.”

Finally, December 25 reminds me that it is the alleged birthday of a god. (Most agree that Jesus was born sometime OTHER THAN December 25. The date is close to the Winter Solstice when the days begin to lengthen and the frightened masses had hope spring would return.)

Millions of people have been slaughtered or enslaved in Jesus’ name. He was supposed to be a god of love; instead we have pogroms, inquisitions, holocausts. His followers make no distinction among non-believers; if you don’t believe, you stand a very good chance of being killed or, at worst, being discriminated against. It’s not “just” Jews. The crusades, while they managed to murder a number of Jews on the way to the Holy Land, were aimed at the Muslims who held Jerusalem — a town, by the way, with “peace” (salem) in its name. Consider genocide around the world. Wikipedia has a chart (http://tinyurl.com/nt96bjw), and United to End Genocide (http://tinyurl.com/njtw4bw) lists slaughters since 1915, when the Turks rounded up, deported, and executed Armenians.

The least that can happen to someone who refuses to Jesus as a god is that the person will be condemned to eternal damnation.

And you thought Islam invented “death to infidels.” Death to non-believers predates even Mohamed.

This morning — again thanks to the tv in the kitchen — I learned that the leader of the Catholic church called his followers to share their wealth with the less fortunate. This from a man whose “corporate” property makes him one of the wealthiest people alive. I would dare to suggest that rather than ask his followers to share their wealth, he should set an example by opening the church’s coffers to feed, house, and medicate and educate the poor.

December 25th ranks slightly lower than Thanksgiving. At least on Thanksgiving most Americans (and Canadians on their day) make an effort to put aside religious, if not political, differences. There are those, such as my daughter and a few “religious” leaders, who — for different reasons: my daughter because of the mistreatment of Indians, a/k/a “native Americans,” and the “religious” few who object to any holiday that is not their holiday — refuse to celebrate the day — albeit some acknowledge it by outward manifestations (mac & cheese in lieu of turkey).

As I age — not gracefully but inexorably — I notice less and less religious connection to December 25 and more and more the Hallmark^™ connection. I’m not sure if that is good or bad.

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Comments on December 25

Tell me about War Crimes

 

There is a lot of talk lately about war crimes.

Mostly the talk is about war crimes allegedly committed by Israel in its aggression against Hamas.

As if war crimes were something new.

Certainly the United States never would commit war crimes. Nor would its loyal ally and former master, England. Or Russia, now or in the guise of the "Soviet Union."

The list can go on and on and on; hardly any nation is exempt.

How about the Federal's Gen. Sherman and his march across Georgia; his "scorched earth" policy. It might not have been a "war crime" then, but it would be now.

How about Germany. Slaughtering civilians - Romas, Jews, Communists, mentally disabled, homosexuals - that's counted as a "war crime."

Likewise bombing civilians in England; London was a prime target of the nazi's V-bombs; fortunately they were about as accurate as a Hamas rocket fired into Israel.

The U.S. and England retaliated and fire bombed the German city of Dresden. There are reports of mothers with babes in arms incinerated by the ally's bombs.

What Japan did to Koreans is not for "G-rated" blogs; but perhaps what the U.S. did to the civilians of Nagasaki and Hiroshima is likewise not stuff for a "G-rated" blog. War crimes?

Is it a "war crime" to bomb civilians?

If it is, then Hamas is guilty of war crimes.

Is it a "war crime" to deliberately put non-combatants into harms way?

If it is, then Hamas is guilty of war crimes.

Is it a "war crime" when civilians and traditionally non-military targets collateral damage when the aggressor places his weapons in highly populated areas and in hospitals and schools?

If it is, then Hamas is guilty of war crimes.

Is it a "war crime" when non-combatants are executed by beheadings broadcast for all the world to see?

If it is, then Muslims are guilty of war crimes.

Is it a "war crime" for military (e.g., the U.S. cavalry) and para-military (e.g., Cossacks) to attack villages and slaughter all the inhabitants simply "because." (Lest anyone forget, America's horse soldiers wiped out some 300 Sioux at Wounded Knee.)

Now reconsider Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

The U.S. dropped leaflets telling Japan that in "n" days a horrible weapon would descend upon it. Having warned the nation and having given it a chance to surrender and end the war in the Pacific, the Japanese government refused to end the war.

So who committed the "war crimes" that incinerated Nagasaki and Hiroshima?

Consider Israel and Gaza.

Israel is famous for calling non-combatants and warning them of an impending attack.

It drops leaflets.

It drops warning bombs.

If Hamas keeps the non-combatants in their homes and these people are injured or killed, who is guilty of "war crimes?"

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt KNEW about the nazi's death camps. Despite people begging him to bomb the railroads taking people to the mostly-in-Poland death camps, FDR refused. Like Hitler, FDR would not "waste" resources on saving those headed to their deaths. (Hitler refused to relinquish his resources to the war effort, preferring to make his land "Jew free.") Was FDR guilty of "war crimes?" Was Hitler? Certainly the latter is a "no brainer."

If Israel would burn Gaza to the ground, a la Dresden, THEN Israel would commit a "war crime."

If Israel destroyed schools and hospitals not used as weapons depots or as launch sites for Hamas rockets and mortars, THEN Israel could commit a "war crime."

Given the number of pubic facilities - including the "neutral" UN buildings where Hamas weaponry has been discovered, and often admitted by Hamas or the UN - Israel MUST be given the benefit of the doubt; it's targeting enemy materials and launch sites, NOT public building per se. The "war crimes" lie at Hamas' feet, not Israel's.

Collateral damage happens, but it IS "collateral." Unlike Israel, Hamas fires its weapons at civilian targets in Israel. That is a war crime.

As much as Hamas, the PA, and their sponsor, Iran, might want to haul Israel before a world court for "war crimes," they cannot because they - Hamas, the PA, and Iran - have bloody hands from committing war crimes against others and their own.