Waterboarding

Is torture.

Torture is illegal - against international and national law. It's a preferred torture because until an autopsy, there generally is no physical evidence of torture when it's used.

The reason President Bush's new Attorney General candidate is already compromised is because the CIA (cough/sneeze- used waterboarding) "may" have waterboarded suspects they captured.

If the AG declares to congress that he finds waterboarding against the law is that he would find that he might have to take legal action against CIA employees who are identified as using it under orders. That would put the administration and individual CIA agents in for legal action against them if the AG believes they've broken the law on two levels: 1) issuing the order, 2) carrying out an order that is illegal. The Nuremberg Trials declared that soldiers do not have to obey an illegal order.

Much as the Bush administration claims torture is helpful to flipping suspects, and anyone in the adminstration who disagrees with them is fired.

Here are the facts:

1) Torturing enemy combatants only makes them hate the US even more because they believe we're such hypocrites - claiming to be this positive, peace-loving, humane nation when we are allowed to use torture.

2) Think of how patriotic you would feel resisting torture to turn on your country. Senator (R-AZ) John McClain knows how that feeling all too well. Torture inspires a patriotic courage because it makes the enemy feel inhumane, less than human. So when you're tortured you do talk. But you lie. You buy yourself more time before you have to deal with that pain again. The time it takes them to figure out you've lied. You tell them anything in order to get them to stop. You confess. Tell them anything they want to know - in the way they want to hear it, which in most cases is not true.

3) Torturing the enemy gives them the excuse they need to torture US soldiers. Soldiers are put at extraordinary risk when they hear of the CIA or others torturing suspects. If the suspects are killed during torture, somehow the word gets out and the enemy does all it can to make the lives of US soldiers a painful, horrific hell. If you don't already know, I'm a US Air Force veteran.

4) Those outside the US claiming they know we use waterboarding give the US no credibility in its insistence that human rights be a negotiating issue.

These are just a few reasons torture only backfires, especially when it's given to people who already think we are the embodiment of Satan.

Stephanie Miller's father, William Miller who ran as Barry Goldwater's vice presidential running mate in 1964, was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, that put notorious Nazi's on trial for crimes against humanity. Stephanie reports her father told her he got more information out of his adversaries playing chess with them than others did torturing them to get information.

Believe me, I used to think that torture was the only way to get violent people to talk, but found out to my shock that in fact the less violence used on violent people, the more apt they are to flip and give accurate information. It just requires more ingenuity, relationship skills and understanding the enemy. If you have those elements, getting correct information can be much faster than getting bogus info, then taking a bunch of time and costing lives in the process, only to find out they lied.

Talk about propaganda - during the "cold war" between the US and Soviet Union? The Soviets were told - and they believed it - that we Americans were *cannibals.* That we would kill, cook and eat them if we won the cold war.

Imagine what the folks fighting us in the Middle East are told about us - and how their animosity only elevates every time an instance like Abu Ghraib takes place. Only in this case instead of being rumors that could be denied by the Bush administration, we actually saw photographic and heard audible evidence of the US torturing and abusing prisoners - who were not even identified as insurgents.

An increasingly insular world?

Oh. My. Goodness.

For a screenplay I'm writing, one of the characters listens to a PLD (personal listening device - in his case iPod), so I got myself a refurbished iPod on ebay, and my world. Is. Rocked.

As much as I love music and to listen to Stephanie Miller's podcasts (I'm at boot camp while she's on these days), I am totally ensconced in my private cocoon of music and merriment.

It has been a pain in the derriere getting all the iTunes software and programming set up, switching the music format from Windows music player (some songs do not reformat from WMP to iTunes, sadly) and trying to keep the iPod from downloading a bazillion episodes of the "Stephcast" with the wrong episode dates, and directing them to the wrong category ("album") so I'd recommend you drop by your local Apple store *first,* before tackling this on your own if you are even slightly computer challenged.

I'm going there this weekend to get the quirks out of my new PLD BFF.

Of course Apple folks want us sad little PC users to switch over to the hip, kewl, wow! and now! MAC anyway, so I think they make it just frustrating enough to consider it.

The sound quality is amazing. Fantastic. A friend is wiring his new house so that he can plug his iPod into his sound system and all the house speakers will play his favorite songfest programmed in it.

I have 237 songs programmed, an audio Sherlock Holmes book and some Stephcasts which fills about half of my little 2G memory. I'm as happy as a little canary who didn't pass the physical qualifying me to work in the coal mines.

But.

Here's the but.

I'm so thrilled listening to my music, it's difficult to interrupt my ecstasy. I'm reluctant to listen to people or the news or --

I play it while I'm driving - which I realize is not a good idea because I can't hear anything else in or outside the car - unlike the old Walkman, whose padded earphones allowed other noises to be heard. [Edited to note: um, good thinking, CP. I discovered listening to PLD's while driving is .. how do you say .. illegal.]

And of course it means I'm not listening to any radio stations. Surely *they* are not becoming obsolete?

Speaking of which, podding reminds me of when I worked in radio. I was news director and morning anchor at four different popular stations in the Seattle area. Music stations. Pop, rock, alternative songs. Which we'd crank up to decibels that made our sound proof rooms shudder. Our bodies were imbued with the music.

When we didn't do it to the room, we'd crank up the music in our professional mega-headphones, drilling our eardrums with MUSIC!

Because of my news work, I had to limit my exposure to these experiences, my hearing remains quite remarkable. My hearing becomes near dog-sensitive when I lie still - when I get a massage, the soothing music volume is too low for the masseuse to hear, but it's just right for me.

Unfortunately, I knew a lot of disc jockeys and musicians whose hearing was so severely harmed by doing this, they literally became either near-deaf or actually lost all their hearing.

Because of their hearing loss, they couldn't crank the music up loudly enough in their hot massive headphones to hear what they were playing, but we could hear the music pouring out of their sound-proof headgear across the room.

Maybe they just felt sound vibrations like Beethoven did when he went deaf.

My heart ached for them. Imaging loving music so much you want to work with it all the time. And these men and women knew music. And artists. And musical history. And instruments.

Then being cut off from that beloved sound except in memory, and ultimately from their jobs -- they kept screaming into the microphone because they couldn't hear themselves speak.

I find myself cranking my iPod as high as the "good old days," then remembering the folks who lost their hearing because they cranked, and try to keep blasting to a minimum.

Then I think of all the kids I see wearing iPods everywhere and wonder what their worlds are like. Are they cranking? Are they they happy in their insular pod worlds?

They're insulated by their music - not all sorts of music, but just the stuff they like. It's called "narrow-casting," contrasting with the idea of "broad-casting" all sorts of things to general audiences.

I'm fortunate because, as Phoebe Snow sang, "There ain't no music I can't use." I listen to *everything.* I enjoy every musical genre except songs with misogynist and homophobic lyrics.
That's good because as a film director I need to have an extremely expansive awareness and understanding of music, because each film has it's own musical character.

I'm currently working on a screenplay to be made that involves Chinese characters, so knowledge of a wide range of international music is crucial.

And I shuffle.

That means my music is scrambled up when it plays so I don't only listen to one artist forever unless I want to repeat the piece a bazillion times, which I'm also known to do.

As I say, when I'm podding, I am happy to have no human interaction except that of the singers or musicians or audio book or a radio show played at a time I can listen. That's my little pod world, and it pleases me.

I can see that limiting my pod time is in my future because I could have these little ear pieces stuck in my canals all the time, singing along, dancing like a crazy woman and be happy as a little clam escaping chowder duty.

Yes, I know the pods also download TV shows and youTube and all, but heaven help me if I got distracted with that. I am, however, going to buy episodes of 30 Rock on iTunes.

Essential emotional nutrients!

The World Health Organization should add two elements to our minimum emotional/nutritional daily requirements (MDR's):

Vitamins N (urture) and A (ffection).

Affection and nurturing help our bodies produce endorphins.

Those are peptides that help us feel better, recover more completely and faster from whatever might be ailing us (physical and emotional) and give us a sense of well-being.

Making certain we have ample doses of both daily assists us feel good about ourselves, creating a much more positive attitude, helping us feel more open to accept other solutions, which adds up to being capable of taking on whatever life hands us.

In addition to tons o' hugs from people I see daily - including clients; I get puppy and kitty snuggles and kisses galore (the latter a little sand-paperish); scalp massages, air waves, manicures and pedicures from my favorite students at the nearby Gene Juarez Academy of Cosmetology; facials and skin work from my friend Kelli; massages; and frequent social visits to Kelli and her four month old baby Brock - who is very much a kissyface boy.

I love great conversation with friends and people I know who are exceptionally smart, accomplished or insightful.

I'm lucky because I work out of my home studio, so my pets are around me all the time. The folks I coach tend to fall in love with them as well. When little Oscar passed away recently, friends and those I coach who created a separate relationship with him over the months and years came to say good-bye.

I also like to be affectionate with people by sharing hugs, making appropriate physical contact or showing my fondness in other ways - like telling people for whom I care that I care about them or love them or that they are important to me.

I like to express appreciation to friends and others who do things for me; I like to write messages of thanks and make other small gestures that essentially say thanks for being you.

I tell my pets, "You know why I love you? Just because you're you." Come to think of it, I tell the kids I know and work with the same thing. Oh, yeah - and the adults.

I take classes to nurture my craft and mind: writing, poetry, drawing. I read, watch documentaries, research, investigate, attend presentations, surf the net and whatever else strikes my fancy to learn. I'm taking my first online class about Writing Romantic Screenplays next month.

I meditate, read spiritual works, write all sorts of things for myself and others, play piano, sing, play guitar and entertain anyone who will watch/listen, view and create art, attend concerts and listen to every type of music to nurture my soul.

Come to think of it, perhaps the most nurturing thing we can do for ourselves is laugh. Laughter kicks in torrents of endorphins more quickly than any other means of feeling good. Fortunately, I spend a lot of my day laughing with the folks I coach, the pets are a great source of laughter and I prescribe TV shows for myself like The Office, 30 Rock, Scrubs, Desperate Housewives and Looney Tunes cartoons, as well as listen to Stephanie Miller for a hearty ha-ha.

I love to walk, hike, now bike, work out at the gym, and have started to actually work in my yard to nurture myself and my environment physically. Before this year, God was my gardener. Now .. I'm learning how to care for and enhance the beauty of the rather wild wooded area in which I live. That's also a spiritual experience, come to think of it.

Yep, vitamins Affection and Nurture=endorphin production, and part of my MDR's.

She's the antidote for morning misery!

Personally, I like awakening with a smile - then feeling good about the day ahead.

My two Pomeranians, Mistletoe and JR, and my kitten - Allie Cat - make awakening with a smile happen. Each weighs about five pounds and pounce all over the bed, my head, and smother me with little kisses.

I like to think it's because they're as crazy in love with me as I am with them - but I have a feeling breakfast is the real reason for all that affection.

Feeling good about the day ahead happens because I love my work and life - and I listen to Stephanie Miller's hysterically funny radio program between 6-9am (PDT) Monday thru Friday.

Even "night people" convert, learning to get up early so they don't miss the show.

There have been listener complaints of hot coffee, tea, yogurt and cereal milk snarffed through noses because they could not stifle their laughter; drivers are warned to pay extra special attention to stay on the road because hilarity does reign - and a punch line is thrown when you least expect it. Pow!

Adult diapers are also recommended for anyone commuting a long distance because it is pee-your-pants funny.

The program is billed as a show to help us "Take Back America!"

"Steph" works with two other hosting partners-in-crime:

Jim Ward, whom she calls a "voice diety," because he is indeed a god in the world of mastering vocal modulation. Jim can create and re-create voices of everyone known and unknown, as well as any accent from any nation - again, known and unknown.

And executive producer "boy toy" Chris LaVoie, so named because he's cute and youthful.

The program is impeccably produced - I have worked in morning drive time radio as a news personality and this show has to be the envy of any team working in radio. Tight, terrific music, and laser sharp timing.

Politics, gossip, show biz, politicians, pop culture, electioneering, government, foreign and domestic affairs (in the political and sexual sense), war, peace, religion, family and every other topic that is supposed to be off-limits at a civil dinner are all fodder for this trio.

While the program's point of view is generally progressive (left of center), Stephanie is the daughter of former Republican U.S. Representative William Miller, Barry Goldwater's running mate in the 1964 Presidential election.

She believes that her father and Goldwater - considered the most solid conservatives in their heyday - would not recognize the Republican party or politics of today. She tells stories of Goldwater and her father working closely with their Democrat friends "across the aisle" - that there was not the extreme division of parties there is today.

Fortunately, all three condemn passing on unconfirmed, eyebrow-raising gossip!

Many's the time the boys have chastised Stephanie for mentioning the idle, nonsensical, unproved rumor that President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice are an "item!" I can assure you that I, too, firmly disapprove of passing on such ridiculous tales - and it's good that she says that she has heard Rice and Bush are hooking up - then discounts the story as no more than gossip, rumor and innuendo!

And I certainly won't pass on any more fabrications about Rice and Bush liaisoning...

Thanks to the internet and podcasts, Stephanie, Jim and Chris have fans all over the world.

Unlike other politically-oriented shows, the three have outspoken disagreements! Each has a specific talent and unique point of view - there are no "yes men" or women here. But there is a lot of accurate, serious information you cannot not hear anywhere else, as well as just plain silliness.

Stephanie also loves and adopts huge dogs, and is a supporter of Gentle Giants Rescue. Run by Burt Ward, who starred as Robin "The Boy Wonder" in the 1960's TV series Batman, and his wife, Tracy Posner Ward, Gentle Giants rescues and places extra large dog breeds in healthy adoptive homes.

The Stephanie Miller show has become so popular, top political and entertainment personalities have called in to speak with her about significant subjects.

And she has received death threats for being so humorously outspoken.

She acknowledges that growing up she was not particularly attractive. In fact, she was well known for her shaggy unibrow. Apparently a pneumatic drill was needed to get rid of the excess above-her-nose hair.

As a child she was a big fan of Woody Allen's films. Her celebrity family met him when she was six. When she shook his hand, he only stared and said, "Sorry, kid. Not interested."

She openly admits that, as a lonely, childless, heterosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that ..) spinster, she enjoys the occasional box of wine with her TV dinner as she sits and drinks alone in the shadows, watching Wheel. Of. Fortune, surrounded by her drooling megahounds.

She is also credited for turning all but one of the men she has dated gay. And he has since become a woman. Several gay organizations have given her "You See? It Isn't Us" awards for being a one-woman recruiting phenomenon, finally putting to rest the old myth that they are out to sign anyone up.

Seeing how attractive and, frankly, hot she actually is, few people believe her - but that's her story and she sticks with it.

Some folks on the far right wing of American religious-political ideology have accused Stephanie of broadcasting "hate speech," but I haven't heard it.

A woman of faith and (reasonable except when it comes at the expense of a really good joke) conscience, she loves people who do what she calls "The Lord's Work." That is, folks who help other people and animals and try to do the right thing for our country and work for restoring democracy in the US - regardless of where party lines fall.

Stephanie, Jim and Chris have agonized over what they consider the needless loss of life from the incursion of Iraq by President Bush and the outright lies told repeatedly by members of his administration, which they have continued to spread - even after the truth has exposed them to be lies.

The trio has also kicked the tires of liberal politicians if they deserve it, as well as given props and kudos to Republicans who have committed positive, constructive acts in government, their personal lives or the world!

I guess an open mind and sense of humor are prerequisites to get the biggest bang for your listening buck, and there are occasions when Stephanie, like all comedians, goes one toke over the line. But the gruesome twosome at her sides are right there to point, disapprove, hoot, chastise and ridicule her - just as any good friend would! ;-)

So, Stephanie - thanks for all the great information, insights and laughs!

And most of all, for not singing.