BUZZURRO

I have been hearing a lot about global warming since our recent blizzard in New Mexico. Just today I went to the store to hear “This snow is caused by global warming, I’ll tell ya. Bush should have signed the Kyoto Accord, the stupid &^%$#*!”
Well, first of all, in our town we received 30 inches of snow. There is ice and snow all over and the temperature is below freezing. Global WARMING isn’t exactly the words that comes to my mind. How about climate change? I’ve heard that phrase used a lot too, although since in the area frequently the temperatures drop to below freezing and it snows and there is ice there is not really a CHANGE going on. Well, whatever term is correct, I know what those people were referring to.. A large ice shelf in the Arctic has broken off. The oceans are warming and cold water animals are facing a crisis. The earth temperatures are warming. The climate is changing. I believe that. However, the earth’s climate has been changing since the earth was formed.
Does anybody remember hearing about the Ice Age? I remember reading that before temperatures started dropping and ice started forming, all the lands of Greenland were fertile and used for farming. Now a great block of ice covers most of the interior.
When the dinosaurs lived it was warmer, more lush in a tropical way, and even the continents were even attached, not that that last point has anything to do with the weather, it just shows the earth has always been changing.
As anyone living in Southern Utah and vicinity knows, it used to be a lush area. There were lakes and trees and grass and numerous animals to eat them. Then due to climate change or global warming, it got hotter. The lakes dried up. The trees and grass died and the animals went elsewhere.
These happened before the first factory was even built. a Kyoto accord would have changed nothing then, and according to me won’t change anything now. As for Bush being a stupid &^%$#*, that may or may not be true, but global warming certainly has nothing to do with it.
I think it’s rather arrogant of humans to think that their actions can make or break anything in this world. It sounds almost like in the days before Copernicus when people thought that the sun and other planets rotated around Earth because… well because they were human beings, supreme in every matter. as if God, physics and nature have nothing to do with anything.
Global warming or climate changes as been going on for years, years before the arrival of man, during the arrival of early man, the evolvement into current man, and probably will after the demise of man. The belief that we, as humans, can change the course of events is to me, wrong.

Ruben Cantu was 17 in 1984 when he was charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of a man during an attempted robbery in San Antonio. The victim was shot nine times with a rifle before the gunman unloaded more rounds into the only eyewitness.
The eyewitness, Juan Moreno, told the Chronicle that it wasn’t Cantu who shot him. Moreno said he identified Cantu as the killer during his 1985 trial because he felt pressured and was afraid of authorities.
Cantu was executed at age 26. He had long professed his innocence.

If a person is put in jail for a long time, and years later if new evidence appears to prove him innocent the state can simply open the jail doors, perhaps pay the person some compensation money for being locked up for a part of his/her and let them go.

If a person is executed however, and years later if new evidence appears they are dead. There is nothing to be done to bring him/her back to life.

There are certain times when I do think the death penalty is just. If there is overwhelming DNA evidence, or if the crime is caught on camera, or maybe a credible confession…

A few weeks ago I tried to explain to somebody why I prefer to pay a tip in a restaurant because it leads to better service.
The server wants as big a tip as possible so will often go out of his/her way to give good service.
They responded of course that the system in Italy of paying all the waiters and waitresses more so the clients do not have to leave a tip is better.
Since in all restaurants you have to pay a cover charge (usually 1 to 2 Euros) and a 10 percent service charge it amounts to paying the same money for eating a meal at a restaurant anyway, I didn’t argue wholeheartedly. Maybe I should have.

Yesterday Buzzurro and I went to a restaurant/pizzeria. I should have known something was wrong, by the lack of other customers in this restaurant, but, well, we eat dinner early in Italy (7:45pm) so it’s not uncommon to find only 1 or 2 other patrons in restaurants.
We went to a large restaurant with beautiful artwork on the walls and 2 floors. 3 waitresses were gossiping amongst themselves in the corner on the first floor..
” The customers will surely come later.” I thought to myself.
The waitress sat us at a table on the second floor. Then she went back to talk to her friends.
We decided what we wanted to eat right away, and signalled that we wanted to order. All to no avail. Nobody came up to take our order, so Buzzurro went down the stairs to where the waitress were all congregating and talking to each other and said:
“We are ready to order now.”
Our waitress gave him a dirty look as if to say “Don’t interupt my conversation !” But went to our table anyway and took our order.
10 minutes later she brought us our food. She slammed it on the table and stormed away.

Excuse me for ruining your day, lady, by making you work, but YOU are getting paid and WE are paying.

When we were done with our meal the same thing happened to us. Nobody was in sight and we wanted our bill so we could pay and leave.
Finally Buzzurro went down the stairs and saw our waitress talking to the other waitresses, who hadn’t moved from the spot either. He asked for our bill.
Our waitress replied without interest “Yeah, OK” But 15 minutes later when she still didn’t arrive at our table we just got up and went to the cash register, where there was somebody.
We repeated our order. Paid. And Left. The whole time of course our waitress was still in the corner with the others talking.
Now I understand why there were hardly any customers in the restaurant. The food was OK, but the service stinks. Who wants to pay for that ?
Under a tipping system our waitress would have received a very small tip, and she would have wisened up fast and changed her behavior if only to get bigger tips.
Under the non-tipping system that they have here she was paid the same whether she was nice or not.
There was no incentive to be nice or friendly at all and as you know from reading the many posts on this blog, being nice and friendly is not a natural trait of North/Central Italy.

I read the news, I can see that the large majority of terrorists and suicide bombers are Muslim. This does not mean, however, that many Muslims are terrorists, suicide bombers or even support those 2 groups of people.
Several politicians bend over backwards to point out the difference betweens regular Muslims and Islamofascist Muslims, several bloggers bend over backwards to do so too but some don’t. This disturbs me.
When I was younger I had an Egyptian friend. Her father was a very religious man. He loved to read the Koran and had many religious books.
He told me many times that the Iranian takeover of the US embassy was against Islam. He was opposed to the regime there.
He told me that suicide and suicide bombing is forbidden in Islam, the moreso if it takes out innocent lives.
He told me that the wearing of the hijab by women should be optional.
He told me that women should be able to drive and to vote and was by no means a fan of Saudi Arabia.
He said that men have no right to abuse women, physically or mentally.
I went to their mosque several times,and while I did put on a hijab when I was there it must have been obvious that I had never been in a mosque before. Nobody there said anything negative to me.
I never had any problems with her friends or family, and many of them too were religious.
Even her uncle, who was a captain in the army in Gaza, and not pro-Israel was very nice to me.
Whenever I read/hear about Islam being a S***** religion I think of them, and cringe.

Alikum wa Salaam

Buzzurro and I were talking today about the political beliefs of our mutual friends.

I said “Gianni is a Communist. I guess he is against Israel, huh ?”

And Buzzurro answered “I don’t know. I asked him once if he believes that Israel has the right to exist and he responded “It’s there”.

That to me is the solution right there to the Palestinian /Israeli problem. “It is there”. 100 percent of Palestinians don’t have to turn into Israeli lovers, or visa versa, but they need to know that the other side exists and is not going away. A little Realpolitik please ! There should be a 2 state solution because that’s what is living on that piece of land now. 2 kinds people who each want their own state. Neither is going away.

The Palestinians need to stop demanding their one Palestinian state solution as THE solution. Israel is not going anywhere. They need to come to the realization that instead of sacrificing their children as suicide bombers and firing rockets which only bring Israeli retaliation, that it is better to suck it up, work on their internal problems or other matters and just accept that Israel occupies a space on the map. They don’t have to be friends, just neighbors. After all, not all borders between 2 different states are friendly. Just look at the Turks and Greeks on Cyprus.

I am a registered member of the Democratic party. Why? Because I agree with their party platform that abortion should be a woman’s choice. I think there should be stem cell research. I support gun control. I am opposed to the death penalty. Not exactly Republican material. I was initially against the Iraqi war. I was quite content with my decision to be a Democrat, but somewhere along the line I became discontented.

The Democratic Party that I joined was about politics. Now it seems they are more more about blaming Bush for everything that they consider wrong. They don’t waste their time studying facts. The majority of the Democratic Party supports Cindy Sheehan. While I initially pitied her because of her loss, I am now convinced that she is shamefacedly using her son’s death to convey all her lunatic issues to the public. After all, he was not ‘a little boy’ He was an adult. He made his decision to join the military. He volunteered This fact seems to slip by her and slip by her democratic supporters.

I agree now that Coalition forces should remain in Iraq. If they just pick up and leave Iraq like the Democratic party wants, what will fill the vacuum left? More terrorists and fanatics who want to impose Sharia law on the whole world? I am afraid to find out.

Al Sharpton screams George Bush hates black people. That is ludicrous! Yet most Democrats either agree or are silent if they don’t. They blame George Bush 100 percent because the Katrina aftermath rescue has been slow, yet there were photos published all over the internet (including this blog) about how the Mayor, a black Democrat, did not evacuate those who were too poor or frail to do it on their own. I read today on CNN how a representive from Louisiana refused the intial Red Cross help because of ‘logistic problems’, yet I don’t remember reading in any newspapers that there were ‘logistical problems’ so they couldn’t move their camera trucks in to film a story.

While there have always been ‘Hanoi Jane’ Fonda type idiots in the Democratic party, they were always the fringe, not the main contingent.
Times have changed. The fanatical left wingers rule. Reality doesn’t matter any more.
I live abroad and don’t vote in local elections, but in 2008 I cannot, with any bit of conscience, vote Democrat. Is there such a thing as a moderate Republican ?