homework!
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/world/europe/turkish-court-hands-down-sentences-in-coup-plot.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

On Behalf of those of Us Who Were in Counter-Terrorism,   I  Would like to dedicate this “Oldie But Goodie” 1964 Hit:

SILENCE IS GOLDEN to Senators Saxby Chambliss [R-Georgia]; Richard J. Durbin [D-Illinois]; Vice Pres. Joseph Biden; Rep. Peter T. King [R-NY] and Sec State John Kerry/State Dept.

By now,  you have learned one simple principle from me: “Terrorism is the creation of fear.”
It’s a tactic used to paralyze an opponent through words,  actions, or  implications.

  What is not—is  a group of ‘nervous nellies’ shooting off their collective mouths about impending ‘terrorist attacks’ all over the North Africa,  Middle East and especially America.

  In the case of the aforementioned legislators with special recognition of the most absurd co-conspiratorial nonsense ever pronounced by a Georgian legislator since the Civil War is Senator Saxby Chambliss’ in depth description of ‘chatter‘ heard at the NSA electronic surveillance just like the Pre-9/11 ‘chatter’ by ‘presumed terrorists’….hmmm.

Without the aid of any terrorist group,  including the ones that USG created like Al Qaeda, and many other erstwhile ‘allies cum enemies’,  Chambliss,  King,  Biden and the State Dept EFFECTIVELY CREATED A SCENARIO OF FEAR AND PARANOIA unjustified by any SPECIFICALLY ACQUIRED INTELLIGENCE.

  All the intel was vague and ambiguous.   But Sec State Kerry,  who has not yet learned how to be an effective leader or manager,  [after decades on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee] PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED THE CLOSING OF 22 US EMBASSIES AND CONSULATES.

  More valuable information was delivered in that inane PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT than was provided in the Benghazi Cover-Up.

  Now any so-called ‘terrorist’,  ‘rogue operator’,  ‘criminal group’ can TITRATE the PROPER AMOUNT OF FEAR –JUST ON THE INTERNET in order to shut down our embassies and ‘cause a mini-panic’ in the US.

  Stupidity and ignorance are no excuses for what had transpired.

  Once again,   the Obama Administration demonstrated a lack of sophistication and knowledge about how to manage a simple trail of ‘ambiguous SIGINT, ELINT’ ==INTELLIGENCE.

This administration,  as well as others over the past three decades,  have spent obscene amounts of billions of dollars of our tax money and gave Top Secret Security clearances to over 1 million Contractors [just for counter –terrorism].   I would suggest that the most basic of lessons:  KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!!!!!

  In other words,  in the absence of knowledge or counter-terrorism experience which is clearly event in throughout this administration---- I caution to remember that “SILENCE IS GOLDEN!!”

So that you don’t do more harm than you have already done,  creating unnecessary fear,  concern and paranoia about an event that will not take place---and BTW –what is an American Citizen supposed to do if there were to be ‘a Terrorist Attack’?

  Buy ‘Duct Tape’ a la Governor Tom Ridge’s famous advice after 9/11?
 

“SILENCE IS GOLDEN” was one of those Frank Valli & Four Seasons Hit Song in 1964 [written by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crew] which pretty much explains what the future strategy should be for this NEOPHYTE GROUP OF  POLITICIANS  WHO HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN CREATE UNNECESSARY CONCERNS FOR AMERICA AND INDIRECTLY ASSIST EVERY POTENTIAL TERRORIST GROUP IN THE WORLD BY THEIR “CHATTER” ABOUT NSA “CHATTER”.

Here are some  appropriate words of the song:
“A TALKIN’ IS CHEAP;  PEOPLE FOLLOW LIKE SHEEP. 

EVEN THOUGH THERE IS NOWHERE TO GO…”

  As for me,  the words describe my attitude to this dangerous ineptitude:

"How many times did the Americans [ I changed the lyric from ‘she’ ] fall for this line?" 

"Should I tell the the Americans or should I keep COOL?"

"And if I tried I know that ‘this Administration’[ changed from “she’] WILL SAY I LIED [ my emphasis];"

"Mind your BUSINESS,  DON’T HURT THE AMERICANS,  YOU FOOLS!!!!"

"Silence is GOLDEN

But my eyes still see

Silence is golden, Golden 

But my eyes still see…"

The FOUR SEASONS and then the Tremeloes sang about our future (posted youtube video earlier).   But how innocent we were back then in 1964,  when we were just being lied to about a  NON WAR in a country Sixteen Thousand Miles away-VIETNAM!!!

“Oh, don’t it HURT DEEP INSIDE WHEN OUR GOVT LIES

To SEE OUR GOVT DO SOMETHING TO US [that we don’t deserve];

Oh, don’t it pain to see AMERICANS CRY?

Oh, ESPECIALLY WHEN SOMEONE IS OUR GOVERNMENTS!!!”

  

So, for want of a better advice to those who thing they rule us with ignorance, arrogance and ineptitude:
  I repeat the refrain,

“SILENCE IS GOLDEN,  But my eyes still see

Silence is golden, golden, 

But my eyes still see.”

IMAGINE---my dear readers,  a great country like ours,  without an INEPT FEDERAL GOVT BEREFT OF ARROGANCE,  IGNORANCE and INCOMPETENCY!!

Now, that’s my kind of country!!!

Now back to an old, old goodie:

“But my eyes, have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.."

The Truth Is Marching On!!!
Glory,  Glory,  Hallelujah!!!! 

You get the rest…..

soundtrack for my upcoming post....Tremeloes oldie but goodie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n03g8nsaBro

Some homework, be posting in a bit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/world/us-extends-closing-of-some-diplomatic-posts.html?_r=0

“The Three Amigos”:  Anthony Weiner,  Bob Filner,  Eliot Spitzer:  Three Jewish Schmucks in Search of Political Legitimacy in The Democratic Party!!

As most of you know by now,  I was born a Jew [actually a Cuban Jew which makes me, a “Juban”;  circumcised as a Jew;  had a lavish Bar-Mitzvah; and now,  I am a ‘cardiac Jew’— a Jew at heart.]

  What relevance is this fact to this blog?

  Well,  it’s an interesting question,  if I may say so myself. 

The recent sexual harassment scandals a la Bob Filner [Jewish Mayor of San Diego];  then Eliot Spitzer [Jewish ex-Governor of NY State] paid off to a prostitute by wire transfer [also a  member of Emperor’s Elite VIP] ; and Anthony Weiner—well you know by now ‘compulsive sexting’—intrigued me to find points of commonality among the three men CAUGHT PUBLICLY  in some sort of sexual transgression.

  First they are all men in the middle ages.   Secondly, they are all Democrats.   Thirdly,  they are all Jewish males.

  Now, why does the fact that they are all Jewish males interest a psychiatrist who treated many a politician?
  Like most ethnic/religious groups who are in the minority,  Jews tend to play “Jewish Geography”.

  That is an informal game where one Jew whispers to another Jew that “I think that he or she is Jewish". 

Usually,  we tend to attribute being Jewish to some movie star or politician whom,  we can all agree that we can ADMIRE.

  Clearly by attributing our own ethnic attributes to a distinguished individual for whatever accomplishment they may have made that tends to relieve our inherent sense of inferiority to the fact that the person whom we admire has ‘OUR ATTRIBUTES” which makes him/her a model for all to admire.   Of course,  implicitly that means that as a fact that person happens to be Jewish; therefore,  it implies that everyone should admire Jews.

OK! Follow me so far? 

  For example, “Jewish Geography”  goes like this.

  Supreme Court Justices Frankfurter and Brandeis were brilliant,  Harvard-trained intellectuals; so perforce,  the must be “Jewish”.

  Clearly,  Clarence Thomas, also a Supreme Court Justice,  who happens to be black, is not Jewish.

  But, we don’t really stigmatize anyone on race—NOT REALLY. Think of Sammy Davis Jr; Lenny Kravitz;  Drake; Rashida Jones; Skyne, et. al.

  You get the idea, by now.

 

What happens when someone like the famous, or infamous,  Harrison Ford, the brilliant actor is not 100 Per Cent Kosher?

  Then we take him at his own word:
“When I am a man,  I am Irish; when, I am an actor, I am Jewish.”

Half a loaf is better than no loaf? Right?

  Then what happens, when THREE WHITE JEWISH “SCHMUCKS” come along, and in FULL PUBLIC VIEW--- DECIDE TO SELF –DESTRUCT BY EXPOSING THEM SELVES TO PUBLIC RIDICULE FOR OBVIOUS, WELL -DOCUMENTED SEXUAL TRANSGRESSIONS?

Normally, as a board-certified psychiatrist,  I should invoked the  American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-V.   But, quite frankly,  I have more faith in our American Movie Culture to describe what “PUTZIM” or “Schmucks” these three Jewish white men are!

Sidebar: For those not versed in the esoteric but vibrant language, Yiddish, a “Schmuck’ can be considered a ‘real Putz’ .

In fact,  both "Putz" and "Schmuck" are interchangeable for  the word: “PENIS”.   However,  the real connotation of ‘Schmuck’ and “Putz’ is really bad.   It means ‘jerk’ , ‘obnoxious’, ‘disgusting’, etc.    BTW,  the plural of ‘Putz’ is “PUTZIM” and the plural of “Schmuck’ is “Schmucks”.   SIMPLE!!!!

Aren't these words better than sexual addiction and malignant narcissism?

  So , along come these “THREE AMIGOS”,    just like the John Landis 1986 film with Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Shore of the same name.

In this film the three misfits try to recoup their reputation in a mistaken identity case.

  Unfortunately,  Weiner,  Filner,  Spitzer have the common antecedents which may have contributed to their particular sense of “UNIQUENESS” IMPERVIOUS-- TO CRITICAL THINKING; COMMON SENSE;  SOCIETAL NORMS, OR “WASP” DECORUM! 

[1] We, Jews, are the “CHOSEN PEOPLE”! 

By whom and for what are the key questions.   Really, who needs to BE CHOSEN?

[2] Our MOTHERS reaffirmed that WE JEWISH BOYS WERE “GENIUSES”, “SPECIAL”, “ IMPORTANT”.

Does anyone remember the book Generation Of Vipers by Phillip Wylie,  a brilliant,  vitriolic attack on American “motherhood’ and culture. 

[3] No one woman can satisfy their sense of ‘entitlement’;  ‘childishness’; ‘immaturity’; ‘restlessness;’ and ‘ inherent depression’.   The last one is the KEY,  folks.   But no more psychobabble.  

[4] “Look at me, ma!” the boys screams as he climbs up the tree just before the inevitable fall that lands him in the hospital.

[5] Then my favorite movie scene to describe the THREE AMIGOS “SELF –DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES” comes in the last scene of Raoul Walsh’s classical 1949 black-noir gangster film with James Cagney,  Virginia Mayo,  Edmund O’Brien called,  “WHITE HEAT” where Cagney is on top of a burning gas tank screaming out to his mother as he is in the process of self-immolating:
 “Made it , ma! I am on TOP OF THE WORLD”.   Last Scene: FLAMES  ENRAPTURE ALL !!!

The film was a metaphor for the inevitable self –destruction of American greed,  narcissism and decadent ‘gangster/political culture’.

  To end this blog,  I would like to thank the following NON-JEWISH SEXUAL TRANSGRESSORS who have offered this desolate blogger some hope,  that political scandals are not PART OF THE TALMUDIC CULTURE:

Thank you!

Newt Gingrich-ex GOP , Congressman. 

Thank you!!

Chuck Robb—ex-Senator.

Many Thanks!!! to Ex-Governor of South Carolina:

Mark Sanford

And of course, it goes without saying,  we of all faiths,  have none other than EX PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON !!!
FOR SALVAGING US All FROM PAROCHIAL,  MINORITY CONCERNS and FEARS. 

Thank you again,  Slick Willy!!! Once again,  you saved the day!!
Or at least this blogger----for now!!!! 

  

oldie but goodie, a good read for those who want to understand why we Americans are like we are...
http://www.amazon.com/Generation-Vipers-Philip-Wylie/dp/1564781461

Generation of Vipers by Phillip Wylie

America!  Please Listen to your Military General Martin J. Dempsey,  Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff:  Don’t Go To War In Syria!!

In a military/civilian career spanning four decades,   I have learned one very important lesson from Senior Military Staff in five administrations:  Don’t go to war  if you don’t have to because if you go to war,  it will be very costly and the outcome will be at best uncertain.    If we do go to war,  don’t hamper the US military capacity in combat  if we want to be victorious. 

  On July 23, 2013,  the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff,  Army General Martin J. Dempsey,  informed the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee,  Carl Levin [D-Michigan],  that in effect it will be very costly in terms of dollars and human lives for the US military to intervene in the Syrian Civil War.

This is a very simple but exceedingly important statement of fact by a man professionally trained in the Art of War.

  More importantly,  President Obama has chosen wisely  to limited covert CIA supplies to the so-called ’Syrian Free Army’  ….no thanks to unnecessary pressures from Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham to go to war!

I might add that as much as I have criticized the DCI,  John Brennan,  in the past for his untoward activities regarding covert activities,  I do applaud the fact that he is now at home,  where he belongs at the CIA.   Consequently,   I know that Brennan and the CIA have the necessary experience to ‘vet’ whatever ‘free fighters’ they deem ‘worthy’ to acquire light weapons from the USG.

In reality,   all the parties concerned in this conflict including:  Turkey,  Russia,  Saudi Arabia, UAE and others know fully well that whatever shipment of weapons that are ‘donated’ to the Free Syrian Fighters will eventually end up on the black market or in Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army.

There are very few civil wars in the Middle East that do not involve a conundrum of conflicting interests where eventually your enemy becomes the best buyer of your weapons that your enemy will use against you later on.

  Paradoxical?  Perhaps!  But very true.

  Throughout the entire civil war in Lebanon in the 1970’s-80’s  the Phalangists were selling weapons to Fatah and vice versa all day long.   Then they or whomever bought the new weapons,  would use them against their enemy later in the day.   Then the next day,  this infernal cycle of death would continue…. on for years.   Finally,  all parties stopped fighting for one simple reason—both parties were EXHAUSTED. 

In effect,  what had happened in the Lebanese Civil War,  as in many other wars,   is that the end game usually results in a stalemate where hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians die needlessly and billions of dollars go into the military/industrial profit machine.    And parties actually engaged in the fighting are too exhausted—both mentally and physically—to continue.

  I reiterated the simple point that the Syrian Conflict—be it called a Civil War or a Humanitarian Disaster—Is both unfortunate and containable.   But the United States of America does not belong in that conflict in any way shape or form.

  Obama had been misled in the past and unfortunately made a public statement to the effect that “President Bashar Assad had to go!”

  That intemperate pronouncement is not worth spending any more American lives or for that matter anyone elses’ lives.   Simple fact:  American citizens and legislators have a choice- Either we can enter the war or stay out!!
  General Dempsey effectively gamed out the scenario in response to Senator’s McCain and Graham request for a full military scenario.

  Gen. Dempsey,  unlike Generals Maxwell Taylor and Westmoreland during the Vietnam War,   has made completely clear to everyone concerned that placing America boots on the ground or initiating a ‘no fly zone’ strategy is prohibitively costly in terms of $$$,  lives and time.  

  Do the right thing,  please listen to a COURAGEOUS MILITARY GENERAL and his knowledgable  PENTAGON STAFF [ARMY, NAVY, MARINE, AIR FORCE, SOCOM}---- and don’t enter the Syrian Conflict- either on the ground, or in the air, or on the seas!!!

Praemonitus Praemunitus!
Forewarned, Forearmed!!!