DotDotDash: I [Heart] Art Edition

Just for your FYI.

Billy Joe Shaw , a member of LA CAN , who had made criminal threats against me for exposing his selling pornography and knives near School on Wheels pled guilty to a felony charge of making criminal threats to me and was sentenced to time served and a protective order to stay away from me.

One in four veterans ends up homeless? I find this assertion self-serving and highly dubious. I’d love to see empirical data which it is based upon.

A quick perusal of the web tells me there are 23.5 million veterans in the U.S. and about 750,000 people classified as homeless.

How does this square with the assertion of Anita Nelson that “one-in-four men and women who have served our country and now find themselves without house or home”? Something seems screwy.

Do you guys simply pass along information without any rudimentary fact-checking? I know you’re not journalists so their is no professional obligation to do this. But, what about your credibility?

I find this intellectual sloppiness disturbing. It is a pretty elementary fact. I’m skeptical that Ms. Nelson will clarify the issue. It is not in her self-interest to do so.

Intellectual sloppiness seems to be stock-in-trade for those the homelessness business. I’m disappointed but not surprised the esteemed Ms. Perry has signed on to another dubious downtown project. Of course, I’m sure it makes her feel morally virtuous, which is the whole point of these pointless homeless initiatives. Why you dignify the effort is puzzling.

For those of you in search of a new watering hole while out and about for the Artwalk, tonight is the opening of Tranquility Base restaurant/lounge at 8th and Grand. I think it’s only a couple blocks from an Artwalk Dash stop (if memory serves, there’s a stop at 9th and Olive). I’m not sure how late it’s open though.

David, I would hazard that members of IVAW would advise you to back off. As a 38 year member of VVAW I can say that YOU are being egg-headed. Postwar time for vets of both the s.e. Asia and Mideast calamities have been and are marked by suicide as well. This fact is well documented. The demographic east of Spring Street changed radically during the 1970s. Wino Heaven became Hell on Asphalt.

Tell me: how do you know whereof you speak? Have you read Herr’s Dispatches or Dahr Jamail’s Beyond The Green Zone? The violence, the insanity and the boredom in the jungles of Vietnam resulted in so much addiction. And that was before the CIA turned Central America and South Central into a cash cow.

Finally, do you yourself know the disconnect of ‘coming home’? If not, give me/us all a break.

Juan, I’m so glad you chimed in. You illustrate my point perfectly.

First off, why would I give a damn about the views anyone associated with the IVAW and their Jihadi paymasters? My daughter doesn’t need to be circumsized, thank-you.

As for being “egg-headed”, whatever that means, I’ll take that as a compliment coming from a guy like you with so much blood on your hands. One of the gentlemen I work with was personally affected by your handiwork. Half his family was massacred by your friends in Hanoi before they were able to flee for their lives from Vietnam. Good work, vato.

War is hell? Gee, thanks for letting us know. It is a well documented fact that war exacts a terrible emotional toll on soldiers. The U.S. military has been researching the phenomenon heavily since World War One. They have a vested institutional interest to understand how to minimize it. I am eternally grateful for the sacrifices of all who have served in the U.S. military, particularly those who have suffered through combat. I don’t pity them and see them as victims, as you do.

Your implication that the recent phenomenon of homelessness is a direct result of the Vietnam war is facile to say the least.

Given your easygoing relationship with mathematics, I’d love to see the data you cite about suicide rates. I’m not going to take at face value the self-interested assertions of media elites and their ilk like the VVAW. The pyscho-veteran myth is so useful to them.

I hate to break it to you, but your storyline of the ‘calamity’ in the Middle East war isn’t accurate. Of course, if you read the New York Times and watch CBS News, I can understand how you’d get that impression. You seem to be unaware that U.S. troops are invincible in combat. The Sunnis and al-Queda gave up attacking our troops and resorted to roadside IED’s. You seem to be unaware of the unprecedented low casualty rates for our troops. You seem to unaware of the recent military revolution brought about by precision munitions. Ask the Iraqis who are the good guys.

Finally, there’s your lament about I don’t understand how terrible it was to ‘come home’ from Vietnam. Remember, guys like me honor your service. We weren’t spitting on you. That was your elite media friends and their assorted radical allies. What puzzles me about your story is that after enduring their abuse you turn around and join their cause? (I think this is called the Stockholm Syndrome.) Seems like a strange way to honor your fallen comrades. If you were a pimply kid, yeah, I’d give you a break. But, are you telling me you’re still hanging around Skid Row after almost 40 years and you’re still crying into your beer? Please. Buck up, old man. Lenin had an expression for people like you – “useful idiots”.

Now, Eric you’re probably thinking, “There goes Kennedy again!” But, I go to this great length because Juanito illustrates my original point. He and his ilk represent a pretty sick agenda. They hide their sick agenda behind a veneer of good intentions and sloppy thinking. Yes, rational thought and empirical data are very important. Eric, do you understand who you are carrying water for? Yeah, it is your blog and you’re pretty much free to do what you want with it. But, a lot of times I think you’re just trying too hard to be even-handed and people like Anita Nelson walk all over you because of it.

Uh, I’m voting for Obama…

Man you ought to see my bookshelves, read my journal of that one year and then go talk to Ms. Fonda, ask her about the night that I chased her through Westwood Village. She thought otherwise; I just wanted to thank her.

Otherwise, you contradict yourself so grotesquely that it is way beyond spending more time in response. Make a donation somewhere in memory of my boyhood bud Norb, destroyed by that war, or high school friends Anderson and Downs - both killed in action, or Jim Crandell - killed in I-Corps on November 22nd of 1968, Mr. Kennedy. Register your presence with The Null and Void Trust Company and may the Bodhisattva of Tradgedy sit on your face forever.

Alright Juan, so I thought about your comments. They still seem perfectly incoherent. Remember, this all started because I challenged Anita’s assertion of a fact which was central to her ‘good works’. You graciously came to her defence. However, you didn’t argue the facts. You attempted to intimidate me telling me your friends would be upset with my question. Essentially, your case boils down to that you had a bad emotional experience in life. And becasue of that, nobody can challenge you. Unfortunately, that’s not a rational arguement.

You certainly can formulate your opinions however you see fit. But, as the basis for formulating public policy, incoherent emotion is a very poor foundation. That you’ve thrown in your lot with the enemies of western civilization suggests you don’t think much of rational debate any ways.

I have no idea why you invoke Obama. I’d point out he’s one of those guys who thinks you and your buddies are war criminals or dupes. And he’s your man? Talk about incoherence.

As for your personal pain, we are not shaped by our wounds, but how we heal. Good luck.