sparrow chat

It’s always been a policy at Sparrow Chat to answer individual comments, where time allows. With regard to the comments relating to the post below, I would like to take this opportunity, on the main page, to whole-heartedly (no pun intended) thank all of you who have left comments, and those who have emailed, sympathizing with our recent troubles and wishing me well for the future.

I am now fully recovered and feel in the best of health, indeed ten years younger than the old bugger who had begun to puff and blow each time he got out of his chair, less than one week ago. Such crises are a warning, however, and while I lived an active life until 2002, when I moved to America, I have slowly drifted into a more sedentary lifestyle, spending far too much time in front of the computer, and too little outside in the real world.

For me, it’s not easy living in Illinois, with its hot, humid summers and man-eating mosquitoes, quickly followed by the searing cold of mid-western winters. I once kept fit by climbing Welsh mountains and hiking trails, but there are no mountains in Illinois, and the only trails are through miles of cornfields and traveled by farm machinery.

In three years, we will move to either Maine or Upper Michigan, where the winters may be hard but the scenery wonderful, and the summers gentle. Until then, I must do whatever I can to stay fit and healthy.

This means there must be some minor changes at Sparrow Chat. Much as I enjoy commenting on your comments, I have decided that in future I will only do so when the content warrants it. After all, my greatest pleasure is reading them. Similarly, I endeavor to comment on many of the posts you write, even if only to add my own support for a view or observation. In future I will only comment when I feel I have something pertinent to add.

All writers appreciate feedback, and comments help provide that, but one of the best blogs on the internet, in my opinion, receives hardly any comments at all and yet must be read widely. I’m referring, of course, to the excellent “Vineyard Views” of one of my earliest blogging pals, Al DeVito.

Hopefully, by denying myself these simple pleasures I will leave time to keep fit and still write Sparrow Chat fairly regularly. One thing I can promise all my blogging friends out there, I’ll still be reading. So if you don’t hear from me quite so regularly, don’t assume I’m no longer perusing your pages.

Remember, you can’t escape me, I have your site feeds!

Once again, thank you all.

Filed under: Good friends

Posted under Sparrow Chat

With the possible exception of the cemetery, almost any place would be a welcome escape if it prevented the viewing – the humiliation – of the United State’s three presidential candidates, as portrayed on a popular wrestling program last Monday evening.^[1]

Presumably, there must be many Americans who find this kind of thing amusing, enlightening, perhaps even an aid to resolution for those last-minute undecideds?

Frankly, to this more-conservative liberal, it sets the seal on how low America has allowed itself to sink, while still screaming from the rooftops of its ‘superlative’ world status.

I was spared all this hype, apart from a brief few moments caught on a recording of last night’s Daily Show, because I was in the hospital. Not wishing to bore with minute detail, but suffice to say I arrived at the ER with chest pains and within twenty-four hours my coronary artery was being fitted with a stent, following diagnosis of a 99% blockage.

It happens to thousands of people every week. There’s nothing unusual about it. Frankly, though, it gave me cause to speculate. You see, I’ve always kept reasonably fit; lived an outdoor lifestyle, never allowed my body an excess of things not good for it. Rarely has alcohol been abused, usually sticking to the occasional glass or two of red wine, even less frequent measure of good Scotch whisky. I don’t smoke. There is no whisper of genetic heart defect within my ancestry. In fact, most doctors would agree I was the most unlikely candidate for coronary artery disease.

I even, meticulously, swallowed a low-dose aspirin daily – just to err on the side of caution.

Consequently, when even the slightest exertion brought on a stinging pain behind the breastbone, I wrestled with it; told myself it could only be due to that one problem from which my body has ever suffered: esophageal acid reflux.

I was fortunate; a caring wife, insisting she drive me to the ER, “NOW!” cheated the Grim Reaper as cardiologists rapidly diagnosed a condition they colloquially refer to as the “Widow-Maker”. I was weeks, possibly only days away from a massive, and likely fatal, heart-attack.

It happens to thousands of people every week. I’ve known friends die from it, so suddenly they’re there one moment, gone the next.

I was fortunate. Had I listened solely to my own irresponsible, “That can’t ever happen to me,” I may not be writing these words now.

The truth is it can happen to anyone, however fit, however healthy their lifestyle, however free of heart disease their family tree.

If in doubt, get checked out. It’s a corny slogan, but it’s a damn sight more corny to die when you don’t have to.

You can do as I did, and Obama, Clinton, and McCain: hang about stupidly wrestling, or you can behave as the good US president would, by making when necessary a firm, positive, and right decision.

^{[1] “A Smackdown Among Presidential Candidates?” YouTube.}

Filed under: On the ropes

Posted under Sparrow Chat

It could be suggested that the US media is nothing more than a pig trough, or possibly the heap of dung that surrounds one, but to do so would insult the hogs. Pigs have better manners, and a cleaner aspect than the miry, preening, egocentric, swamp rats that infest the public face of American television news these days.

One can only wonder where these mealy-mouthed, insipid, individuals were educated. Surely not in America’s colleges? After all, the American president attended one of those…..

To even suggest Wednesday night’s fiasco, dis-organized by the ABC network, was a “political debate”, would be enough to send any normal, mature, individual into a paroxysm of hysterical laughter.

Is this the esteem with which the US media holds its audience? We may have felt more intellectually stimulated had they screened two hours of the TeleTubbies.

The media regards it audience as big kids, whose only desire is to sit back and enjoy the back-biting and shallow name calling that kids like to do. And, maybe they’re right. After all, according to ABC:

“……it was the most-watched debate of the 2008 cycle, with 10.7 million people watching. ‘For the 8-10 p.m. time period, this marks ABC’s best total viewing audience since 11/28/07, its largest adult 18-49 rating since 2/27/08, and its best adult 25-54 rating since 1/9/08.’”^[1]

Not to be outdone, a bimbo make-up queen of MSNBC stuck her nose out the swamp and attempted to turn an obviously innocent scratch of Obama’s cheek, while he was addressing a rally in Pennsylvania, into some great ‘finger’ insult to Hillary Clinton.

One can only wonder where this country is headed when supposedly responsible media anchors behave in so sick and immature a manner.

Not by any stretch of the imagination, Miss Vacuous Mind, despite much obvious manipulation and editing of the video in a vain attempt to make an innocuous movement appear suspect.

In truth, it’s not the politicians who have used this campaign as a lesson in just how low it’s possible to sink. The media have done the job with no help from them.

Given that the US media is run by those with a vested interest in keeping ordinary folks from learning of, or even showing interest in, the real matters of political importance in this country, it’s little wonder those before the cameras excel at inanity and a serious lack of professionalism.

No doubt, it’s in their job description.

On a final, more positive note, one journalist who rarely disappoints, and whose professionalism shines out as a beacon in the blackness, held a superbly informative interview this week with Leila Fadel, the Baghdad Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers.

At the tender age of twenty-six, Ms Fadel is as far above the US media’s general standard of journalism, as Heaven is above the Earth. If you want to know the true situation in Iraq, rather than the distorted, blatant propaganda generally aired, be sure to watch Bill Moyer’s Journal.^[2]

Leila Fadel also has a blog called simply, “Baghdad”, and her staff in Iraq write the blog, “Inside Iraq”. Links to both can be found in the “Blog Nest” of Sparrow Chat’s sidebar.

Of course, you could always watch the Fox News Channel, but only if truth is secondary to biased sensationalism in your sad and wasted life.

^{[1] “How Much Did You Loathe ABC’s Debate Coverage?” San Francisco Chronicle, April 18th, 2008.}

^{[2] “Leila Fadel Interview”, Bill Moyer’s Journal, April 18th, 2008}

Filed under: Media manure

Posted under Sparrow Chat

There are probably far worse situations than sitting stark naked on the toilet just at the moment the earth decides to move, but if so I have yet to encounter them. Some may say that, given the likely bodily reaction to being suddenly shaken out of one’s wits by an earthquake, it’s probably the best place to be, but being a man not given to nervous colonic convulsions, I would have to disagree.

The earthquake that hit Illinois in the early hours of Friday morning (4.37am, to be precise) was not actually the one responsible for me leaping off the loo and into my trousers faster than an Aussie with a Great Red-Back Spider lunging at his privates. It was a more minor after-shock that caused that pandemonium.

The real quake occurred long before, while everyone – including the Adam’s household – was still abed.

J C Penney has a lot to answer, not least of all, for importing their bedroom furniture from China. When my wife and I considered it was time for a new bed we decided to go big, but not too expensive, so ordered the J C Penney Chinese mammoth king-size. It wasn’t until I was laboriously fastening the darned thing together that I realized it really wasn’t all that well made. The bolts were undersized, the headboard attachments flimsy, and however tight the screws and bolts were ratcheted, it squeaked and rattled at every bodily movement.

Jacking the top end up by six inches, as per my reflux-specialist’s advice, just made matters infinitely worse.

It took a year or so, but we eventually adjusted to the odd squeal and groan, never quite managed to incorporate the earplug insertions into sexual foreplay, but accepted our bed’s occasional, gentle, vociferations as part and parcel of normal domestic life.

Until, that is, around 4.37am this Friday morning.

To be awoken from deep slumber by a cacophonous rattling, banging, and squealing, coupled with the vibratory effect of a hundred jack hammers simultaneously concussing concrete inside one’s bedroom in the early hours, is hardly conducive to greeting the dawn with a gratified smile and cheery, “Good morning, you wonderful world.”

Miracles occur in the unlikeliest circumstances, however, and our Chinese bed did survive intact, which is less than can be said for our tattered nerves. In twenty seconds it was all over. The bed reverted to relative silence, until prodded into an occasional groan or squeak by the shifting of its occupying bodies. Peace reigned once more in the Adam’s household.

The last time I encountered such a geological shuffle was back in the early eighties, on the edge of a small lake near Wolverhampton, a town situated in the English Midlands. I was fishing one early morning with a mate, who occupied a peg some fifty or so yards further up the bank. We had both tackled up, cast our lines, and settled back into our folding chairs to await the first bite of the morning, when I shot upright as something grasped my chair and shook it violently. Assuming my friend had sneaked up and played a prank I spun around, only to find no-one there and my pal still sitting in his chair, though staring at me in a similarly perplexed manner.

Had we not been so engrossed in mutual accusation, we would have noticed the water’s agitation, like a garden butt when suddenly impacted by a heavy wheelbarrow.

On that occasion, there were no after-shocks. Earthquakes are not a feature of English rural life and this one was the subject of public house conversations for years to come.

Consequently, after experiencing Friday’s nocturnal tremblings, it never occurred that more might follow, so after returning to slumber for a few hours, I rose and retired to the bathroom for early morning ablutions.

Bill Bryson is one of my all-time favorite writers, and a well-thumbed copy of his “Short History of Nearly Everything” sits atop the bathroom cabinet shelf for those times of dalliance while nature takes its daily course. I was plumb in the middle of the chapter dealing with super-volcanoes and the likelihood of Yellowstone Park erupting with the force of a trillion billion megatons, when history decided to repeat itself. Only this time, it wasn’t my fold-up fishing chair that shook violently, but the bathroom toilet bowl on which my buttocks casually rested.

Imagination can be a wonderful thing. Without it writers, painters, and other artists would have a hard time making a living. But sadly, it has its negative side. This Friday morning it was the thought of rushing, stark naked, out of a collapsing building and into a street already occupied by neighbors, all fully dressed and well amused by my lack of attire, that burned its fanciful image steadfastly onto my mind’s eye.

It was only a mere 5.2 on the Richter scale, and it occurred some three miles under the earth’s surface, but that’s quite sufficient for this English Illinoian.

According to Bill Bryson, the San Francisco “Big-One” is now well overdue. If our little Illinois 5.2 is anything to go by, Californians might well consider the expediency of fitting seat belts to their toilet bowls.

Filed under: Shake, rattle, and roll

Posted under Sparrow Chat

Most will remember the incident in March 2007, when fifteen UK Marines were seized by Iranian forces from, so we were told, Iraqi territorial waters.^[1]

This now turns out not to be the case. The particular stretch of water where this incident occurred has been in contention for over four hundred years. The United States, along with its puppy, Britain, decided to make up their own territorial boundary following the invasion of Iraq, but failed to inform the Iranians.

Consequently, the Iranians considered the British boats to be trespassing in Iranian waters. They have always maintained that to be the case – rightly, it now appears.

Defense secretary, Des Browne, repeatedly told the British Parliament Iran had snatched the fifteen from Iraqi waters.

Under the British Freedom of Information Act, the Times newspaper gained access to official documents relating to the incident, finally exposing the lies and deception to public scrutiny.^[2]

Once again we have an example of the depths to which both US and UK governments are prepared to sink in order to manipulate the minds of their respective electorates. American politicians have been blatant of late in their publicly propagandist attitudes towards Iran, for no other purpose than keeping the US populace onside should suitable opportunity arise to manufacture cause for war with that nation.

Gordon Brown and his parliamentary minions display somewhat more subtlety, but are unflinching in their demands for stiffer sanctions – because Iran dares to do exactly what Britain and the US have been doing for years, enriching uranium.

If any good can ever come from the debacle that passes for US/UK military intervention in Iraq, it can only be in the exposé of lies, disinformation, and deceit that continue to pour unchecked from the mouths of political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.

Is it not time the British and American public stopped to consider the consequences of voting into office these devotees of closed and dishonest government?

^{[1] “Iranians seize 15 UK Marines in Gulf”, Times Online, March 23rd, 2007}

^{[2] Times Online, April 17th, 2008}

Filed under: Political bullshit

Posted under Sparrow Chat

The major problem with America today is its militarism. No-one stops to ask why the Pentagon needs to spend four hundred billion dollars a year, when other nation’s defense budgets are only a fraction of that amount.

Of course, we all know the reason. The US struggles to maintain its superpower status, still viewing China and Russia as major threats, and India waiting in the wings.

Americans, in the main, are happy to support such crazy and expensive ideals. They’ve grown up being top dog of the pack and any possibility of relegation is anathema to them. Unfortunately, this attitude may feed the greedy arms dealers and weapons researchers, but produces that age-old problem of being unable to see the forest for the trees.

American’s are barraged by the threats from without, yet no-one defines the reality of this supposed menace. Fashion is important. Today, Iran (military budget around $6 billion, or 1.5% of America’s) is the most glamorous model on the catwalk of threats. Yesterday, it was North Korea (also around $6 billion)

Just who is America’s enemy today? In real terms there’s only one, and it’s not a nation but an extremist ideal. The terrorists who make up al Qaeda and other extreme Islamic factions around the world, spend only a few million dollars a year on their military budget. Russia’s is only a fraction (18.00%) of America’s, and China’s is even less.

So where do all these American dollars go?

Once the maintenance of the armed forces is paid for, most go on research and development of new, and usually not needed, weaponry and equipment.

Take a look at this BBC Website page. It illustrates just one of many Pentagon research projects, this one costing millions and millions of dollars and unlikely to be available for at least eight years, if at all (large numbers of these experimental projects are shelved after years of work and expense). The ‘robot suit’ is hoped to make soldiers in the field stronger and able to lift great weights with ease. It mimics Hollywood’s fictitious characters like Robocop, Universal Soldier, and Iron Man.

Will it help in the fight against terrorism? Hardly.

The macho Hollywood image is a symbol of America, but at what price? U.S. society is gradually crumbling from lack of services, poor schooling, prohibitively expensive healthcare, scarce jobs, lack of care for the old and infirm.

All so the little boys at the Pentagon can play their expensive games and have the biggest and the best toys in the world.

Filed under: Alms or arms?

Posted under Sparrow Chat