Ralph E. Stone
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Articles by Ralph E. Stone
January 27, 2012
January 30th marks the forty-fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Tet Offensive, a defining event in the Vietnam War. I was a U.S. Army Transportation officer stationed in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive.
General William Westmoreland commanded the U.S. military operations in the Vi...
January 07, 2012
January 11, 2012 marks the tenth anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay prison, an extrajudicial detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. After the Justice Department advised that the Guantanamo prison could be considered outside U.S. leg...
January 13, 2012
January 21st marks the second anniversary of the infamous January 21, 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case, where the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment prohibits government from placing limits on independent spending for political purposes by corporations and unions. I...
December 10, 2011
The death penalty should be abolished in the United States because life without parole is more humane, less discriminatory, and a less costly alternative – and it avoids the risk of executing an innocent person.
Thirty-four states impose the death penalty, including California and there are 41 Fe...
December 02, 2011
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is published by the American Psychiatric Association. The DSM provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders, which is used in the United States and to some extent internationally, by clinic...
November 18, 2011
On November 15, 2011, New York City Police evicted Occupy Wall Street (OWS) from lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. Later that same day, OWS obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) requiring that they immediately be allowed back into Zuccotti Park with their tents, tarps, and sleeping bags. Bu...
November 07, 2011
Maybe it is time for Americans to contact the members of the Super Committee to demand that its recommendations include raising taxes on the rich with that money to be used to provide relief for those Americans on the bottom of the economic pile, and no cuts in Medicare, Social Security, and other v...
November 14, 2011
I am an indifferent viewer of sports. If another activity such as a movie, a concert, the theater, or a social activity beckons, I choose that activity over watching a game. However, I am interested in how the 49ers, the Raiders, Stanford and Cal football did. I therefore read the sports section ...
November 02, 2011
President Obama announced that all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year. Was the "mission accomplished?" Did we win the war?
I for one applaud President Obama's announcement. As of October 31, 2011, 4,482 Americans have died. We cannot continue to waste any more A...
October 25, 2011
Co-Authered by Judi Iranyi
We just returned from a tour of Central Europe. We visited Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava, and Prague. On our drive from Warsaw to Krakow, we stopped at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, renamed Auschwitz when the town and the surrounding ...
August 31, 2011
Texas Governor Rick Perry, Representative Michele Bachmann, and Representative Ron Paul, three of the leading GOP presidential candidates, are unabashed Darwinian evolution and global warming deniers -- as is the Tea Party Movement. The GOP is in danger of being hi-jacked by these anti-science can...
August 23, 2011
As we all now know, the United States is in economic and political turmoil. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 9.5 percent in August, partly because of concern about the health of the U.S. and European economies. Some of the causes of our economic woes are well known: eight years of deregul...
August 17, 2011
In 1999, we visited Syria as well as Jordan, Israel, and Baalbeck in Lebanon. We arrived in Syria on the eve of the Israeli elections. The majority of Arabs and Israelis probably agreed that the prospects for peace in the region improved immeasurably with the election of Ehud Barak as Israel's pri...
July 31, 2011
While vacationing in Charleston, South Carolina earlier this year, the local media were full of editorials complaining about the April 20, 2011, complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board against Boeing Company , alleging that Boeing´s decision to assemble large commercial aircraft at a ...
July 12, 2011
The United States national debt exceeds $14.2 trillion and climbing. About 14 million Americans are unemployed. Public health, education, social services, and police and fire departments are facing cutbacks. Yet, the bill for U.S. participation in the NATO-led Libya mission is projected to reach ...
June 29, 2011
Despite the Department of Defense's (DoD) official prohibition on women in combat roles, 111 female soldiers have died in Iraq and 28 have died in Afghanistan. Sixty percent of these deaths were due to hostile acts.
About 200,000 women have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Women make up 14.6 p...
June 21, 2011
I first became aware of the problem of toxic drywall manufactured in China during my 2010 visit to New Orleans. Many homeowners rebuilt their homes after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, and Hurricane Rita in September 2005 using Chinese drywall. This drywall made occupants sick, corroded metal f...
June 06, 2011
Palestine is between the proverbial rock and hard place. Israel has no interest in good faith, meaningful peace negotiations and continues to build settlements, slowly squeezing the Palestinians into smaller and smaller space. At partition in 1947, the Jews were allotted 55 percent of Palestine. ...
June 02, 2011
Last month, we spent an enjoyable, informative week-long visit to Charleston, South Carolina. We had no idea that Charleston was observing the Civil War Sesquicentennial (150 years) until after our arrival. As a result, we were able to brush up on our Civil War history. That is, mostly from a sou...
April 14, 2011
On April 7, 2010, President Barack Obama marked the 17th anniversary of the "unimaginable slaughter" of Rwanda's 1994 genocide, saying it reminded the world of its duties to civilians in places like Libya. President Obama made no effort to dispel the myth used by Rwanda President Paul Kagame about ...
March 09, 2011
Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives are trying to terminate funds for foreclosure-prevention programs that help families fend off foreclosure and trying to strip the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of its funding before it even opens its doors.
The Home Affordable Modifi...
February 15, 2011
Last October, a Kampala, Uganda tabloid newspaper ran a diatribe identifying 100 individuals it described as "Uganda's top homos." The article was accompanied by a front-page picture of David Kato, the most outspoken gay rights advocate in Uganda, saying "Hang Them." On January 26, 2011, David Ka...
February 11, 2011
The Super Bowl is over. Or the "stupid bowl" as my wife calls it. Now, the National Football League (NFL) should address the safety of football and the exaggerated claims for equipment designed to protect players from injury. Not only are pro-football injuries and concussions at a nine-year high,...
January 20, 2011
Like a bad penny, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier arrived in Haiti on January 16, 2011. No one seems to know why Baby Doc returned and what effect, if any, his return will have on the country.
Let's look back a bit at Haiti's tragic history. We cannot just blame last year's earthquake, the subs...
January 13, 2011
By now everyone knows that gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, 22, shot U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D. AZ) as she met with constituents outside a grocery store, killing Arizona´s chief federal judge John M. Roll, and five others including a five-year old, and leaving Ms. Giffords fighting for he...
January 10, 2011
Commenting on the $28 billion budget gap, Governor Jerry Brown stated that "everything should be on the table." Later Governor Brown met with county officials to discuss shifting responsibility for state-run programs to the local level. This, of course, will require providing sufficient revenue to...
January 03, 2011
I am not here to bash Facebook. (Did I hear Mark Zuckerberg´s sigh of relief?) However, I do want to sound a note of caution to present and future Facebook users.
I have a Facebook account. I only include publicly available information such as, for example, my American Chronicle articles. E...
December 21, 2010
On November 15, 1988, the State of Palestine was unilaterally declared in Algiers when the Palestinian Liberation Organization´s National Council adopted the Palestinian Declaration of Independence. The independent State of Palestine is widely recognized by over 100 United Nations member count...
December 16, 2010
Last year, my wife and I visited the Republic of Ireland. While the Irish newspapers hinted at economic difficulties, tourists and probably most Irish citizens still saw Ireland as the Celtic Tiger. Perhaps it was mass Irish denial. While I am not an economic expert, I offer my brief layman´s commen...
November 22, 2010
The danger to our planet from global warming is real, but unfortunately the global warming deniers in the new Congress will prevail.
November 09, 2010
The off-again, on-again Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have stalled again. During the lull between negotiations, Israel continues settlement construction in the Palestinian territories and east Jerusalem, lands the Palestinians claim for a future state. Clearly, Israel has no intention of ...
October 31, 2010
On our recent trip to Copenhagen, we visited the National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst) for the first public showing of Bob Dylan's "The Brazil Series," 40 acrylic paintings and eight drawings he created during the period 2009-10. Yes, the Dylan of "Blowin' in the Wind," " Mr. Ta...
October 17, 2010
In an Oct. 1, statement, the U.S. government acknowledged that between 1946 and 1948, U.S. Public Health Service physicians deliberately infected at least 696 Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea without their knowledge or consent to study the effect of venereal disease. Secretary of State Hilla...
October 14, 2010
On October 12, 2010, Judge Virginia A. Phillips of the Federal District Court for the Central District of California issued a nationwide injunction banning enforcement of "don´t ask, don´t tell" (DADT), the law that prohibits openly gay men and women from serving in the military. Thus, the court in...
October 03, 2010
In an audacious display of hypocrisy, President Obama signed an executive order on September 28, 2010, imposing financial sanctions against eight Iranian officials for "serious and sustained human rights abuse" violations committed in the year since Iran's disputed presidential election. The order ...
September 25, 2010
Iraq war was and is a hoax on the American people and the world. We deserve an acknowledgment of wrongdoing so we can move on.
September 23, 2010
On September 9, 2010, a gas pipeline segment exploded in San Bruno, California, killing seven, injuring many others, destroying 53 homes, and damaging at least 120 others. On September 20th, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) released a list of its top 100 "projects," or aging pipelines, in need of repl...
August 30, 2010
General Dallaire was head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Rwanda during the Rwanda Genocide where about 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered. Most of those killed were members of the Tutsi ethnic group. He set forth his experience in "Shake Hands With the Devil," which largely supports Rwanda Presi...
August 24, 2010
Controversy over building a Muslim cultural center near Ground Zero is really about racism and bigotry.
August 21, 2010
Privatization of the Social Security program (Program) raised its ugly head again. The annual report of the trustees of Social Security (Report) states that, because of high unemployment, the Program will pay out more this year than it collects in payroll revenues. If the current rate continues, th...
August 20, 2010
Between 2.3 to 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness and it is estimated that the recession will force another 1.5 million more people into homelessness. The 2010 Update of "Without Housing - Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures" by the Western Regio...
August 10, 2010
On our Iran Air flight from Frankfurt to Tehran, each of the stewardesses wore a "hiyab." When we entered Iran's airspace, an announcement over the intercom told the women to put on their hiyab or a head scarf. My wife, as did the other women on the flight, obliged by putting scarves on their head...
July 28, 2010
On July 27, California Watch reported that Senator Wannabe Carly Fiorina accepted $25,000 in donations from Murray Energy Corporation of Cleveland, a major coal producer, whose CEO Robert Murray called global warming "hysterical global goofiness." Murray has an economic interest in the global warmi...
July 16, 2010
Introduction
On July 13, 2010, the Obama administration unveiled a new national HIV and AIDS strategy, which sets a goal of reducing new infections by 25 percent over the next five years. See The strategy also calls for a renewed focus on increasing access to care, with the goal of getting tre...
July 12, 2010
There is increasing evidence that United States physicians, psychologists, nurses, and medics have been complicit in torture and other illegal procedures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo. They violated one of the principal precepts of medical ethics: "First, do no harm." Government physicians...
July 02, 2010
Science has shown increased risk of brain tumors from use of cell phones and the public must be informed."
June 11, 2010
It's time for President Obama to stand up to Big Energy and get to work on climate change. He has to to get angry, to act, not just react. Already his critics are attempting to paint the BP oil spill as his Hurricane Katrina. Obama should take the initiative and use the oil spill as an opportuni...
June 06, 2010
Last week the Assembly narrowly passed AB1934, which would repeal repeal California's open-carry gun law. California law now allows adults who are not prohibited by law to visibly carry an unloaded gun in public places, excluding school zones, government buildings, state and national parks and secu...
June 01, 2010
The MV Rachel Corrie is one of the ships in the international aid Gaza Freedom Flotilla that was attacked by Israeli naval forces on
May 31, 2010. Remember Rachel Corrie, the 22-year old peace activist from Washington State, who attempted to stop a bulldozer operated by the Israeli military from...
May 28, 2010
The week of June 1, 2010, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act (H.R. 4645) will be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture,. This bill restores the right of Americans to travel to Cuba and lifts restrictions on agricultural sales to Cuba. It was int...
May 27, 2010
It is about time for an immediate repeal of the 1993 "don't ask, don't tell" policy for homosexuals in the military. I only wish President Obama had fulfilled his campaign pledge by repealing the policy by executive order. And I don't understand why the current proposal for repeal will go into eff...
May 25, 2010
Recently, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder floated proposals to carve out an exception to the Miranda rule and delay "probable cause" hearings beyond 48-hours for terrorist suspects. The proposals come in the wake of the arrest of Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in a failed attempt to detonate a car b...
May 25, 2010
The $11.1 Water Bond Proposition now on the November ballot would pay for the overhaul of California's aging and overburdened water system. If passed by the voters, the bond will ultimately cost taxpayers $22 billion when interest is included. Putting aside the merits or demerits of the bond measu...
April 30, 2010
RACIAL PROFILING
AND ARIZONA´S IMMIGRATION LAW
"Driving while Black." "Walking while Black." These are phrases in the contemporary vernacular for racial profiling, which is defined as the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely t...
April 24, 2010
My wife and I just returned from a visit to New Orleans. While there, we toured some of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, and Hurricane Rita in September 2005. Rose Scott was our personable and knowledgeable guide for the tours. Rose, born and raised in New Orleans, is a ...
April 08, 2010
Last November, 1,000 stolen e-mails from one of the world´s leading climate research centers in Britain seemed to challenge the scientific consensus that global warming is happening and that it is induced by human activity. The e-mails appeared to show researchers scolding skeptics of global ...
March 29, 2010
In 2007 and 2008, my wife and I traveled to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela -- where Simón Bolivar is revered as a national hero, the country's liberator from Spain. We were, therefore, cautioned never to show disrespect for Bolivar. Hugo Rafael Chávez Frias, the current president of Venezuel...
March 26, 2010
I recently saw "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," based on Swedish mystery writer Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. The other two books are "The Girl Who Played with Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest." The movie and the book introduce Lisbeth Salander, played by Swedish actress N...
March 22, 2010
Fasten your safety belts. It's budget time again in Sacramento. Prepare for a repeat of last year's contentious budget battle. California is still one of only three states – Arkansas and Rhode Island are the others – to require a supermajority to adopt a budget. And it still takes a two-thirds s...
March 14, 2010
In President Obama´s June 2009 Cairo Islam speech, he called for a Palestinian state and a freeze on Israeli settlements. The Obama administration seemed to be announcing a neutral U.S. policy in all things Middle East or at least a less pro-Israel approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...
February 17, 2010
I enjoy a good mystery, but I was hesitant at first to pick up a Dick Francis mystery. After all, I don't know or care anything about horse racing. But on one of my travels, I was stuck for some reading material and picked up an abandoned copy of a Dick Francis novel. I was hooked. Although the ...
January 25, 2010
On January 10, the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission invalidated the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, a federal law which prohibits corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures for speech that is an "electioneer...
January 11, 2010
By proclamation, President Obama proclaimed January 2010 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Across the country, anti-trafficking organizations are hosting activities, from film screenings to training on community response efforts.
In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to ...
December 24, 2009
What happened to the "Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009"? Did it fall through the cracks along with the public option? Because there is unlikely to be a public option in the forthcoming healthcare legislation, Congress must repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act antitrust exemp...
December 09, 2009
President Obama recently announced that he is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan bringing the total number of U.S. troops to about 100,000. Although, he stated that the U.S. would begin drawing down troops in July 2011, Defense Secretary Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were qui...
December 02, 2009
A secretive, privately-funded group known as "The Family" or "The Fellowship," one of the most powerful, well-connected Christian fundamentalist movements in the United States, has used its influence and funds through the Family´s African outreach programs to support a proposed Ugandan law tha...
November 30, 2009
There is a secretive group known as "The Fellowship," or "The Family," one of the most powerful, well-connected Christian fundamentalist movements in the United States. The Fellowship´s membership includes congressmen, corporate leaders, generals and foreign heads of state.
The Fellowship ...
November 18, 2009
The Stupak-Pitts Amendment to the health care bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives prohibits the use of Federal funds "to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion" except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of...
November 15, 2009
Now is the time for a long overdue debate on our current Israeli foreign policy. The fallout from Israel´s 2006 war with Lenbanon and its 2009 invasion of the Gaza strip has made many Americans view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a new light. Before, it was David (Israel) versus Goliath (the A...
November 05, 2009
Recently, Senate majority leader Harry Reid indicated that health care reform might not be passed this year. Why? Because he may not have the votes in the Senate to pass the legislation and, if such legislation were passed, it might not survive a Republican filibuster.
Many have criticized Reid...
October 20, 2009
On our recent trip to the Republic of Ireland we stopped in the town of Tipperary where the 15-century Blarney Castle -- and the Blarney stone --are located. Supposedly, anyone who kisses the Blarney stone will get the gift of blarney or gab. According to Gerry O'Brien, our Irish guide, who, by th...
October 03, 2009
I learned about a new low in corporate greed from Michael Moore's latest documentary "Capitalism: A Love Story," which, by the way, I highly recommend. It is called "dead peasant" insurance. Companies take out secret insurance policies on their employees and name themselves as beneficiaries. A...
September 29, 2009
Former president Jimmy Carter, who has monitored elections around the world, recently commented: "Hamid Karzai has stolen the recent [Afghan] election." Because of widespread fraud allegations, an election recount is presently being conducted in Afghanistan. At a minimum, President Obama should no...
September 22, 2009
Eid is one of the most important Muslim festivals. Eid marks the end of the fasting of Ramadan. This year Muslims celebrated Eid A-Fitr on September 21st.
ABOUT EID
Coming with the new moon, the festival marks the end of 'Ramadan' - a month when Muslims fast throughout the day and eat onl...
September 15, 2009
September 16th marks the 199 year anniversary of the events and people that eventually resulted in Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821. Last year, my wife and I visited the cities of Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and Querétaro. Each city had an individual who sparked the independence str...
August 21, 2009
An important objective of meaningful health care reform is cost control. President Obama's sweetheart deal with the drug companies and the dropping of a public option to provide meaningful competition to for-profit health insurance companies will not provide needed cost control. Given the way heal...
August 15, 2009
MoveOn´s Real Voices for Change campaign put together this list of health care reform lies that are spreading via anonymous
e-mail chains. And remember when Sarah Palin bizarrely said that President Obama was going to set up a "death panel," whatever that is. Here is MoveOn´s list of lies and thei...
August 07, 2009
Unfortunately, health care in the United States is a privilege, not a right. Opponents of health care insurance reform prefer the status quo. That is, obscene profits for the health insurance industry while consumers pay more for less coverage. Our present health care system is riddled with ineff...
July 28, 2009
As the dust settles over another budget battle, we should expect some action to eliminate or at least ameliorate future budget battles. This should include changing the two-thirds rule to pass a budget and amending Proposition 13. California cannot continue to engage in battles each budget season....
June 30, 2009
What is the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan war so far and what are the California tradeoffs? As of June 30, 2009, in Iraq 4,321 Americans have died as have from 92,435 to 100,911 civilians and another 2 million civilians have been displaced. In Afghanistan, 709 Americans have died and, although a...
June 18, 2009
After the dust has settled, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will again be the president of of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Why and how was he reelected president? Because he was approved once again by Iran's Guardian Council as a candidate for the nation's highest office. The Council consists of six Islamic...
June 10, 2009
Remember Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign promises during the 2003 recall election? While campaigning, Schwarzenegger hammered Davis over the budget. He promised to rein in state spending and repeatedly criticized Governor Gray Davis and Democratic legislators as "overspending addicts." He further l...
June 07, 2009
On June 5, 2009, President Obama announced a new strategy to fight the Mexican drug cartels. This is not just foreign aid; it is a recognition that Mexico's war on drugs has also become a homeland security problem. U.S. law enforcement officials have identified at least 230 U.S. cities, including ...
June 05, 2009
According to a June 3, 2009, Associated Press-GfK survey, 52 percent of Americans say torture is justified in some cases to thwart terrorists attacks. More than two-thirds of Republicans say torture can be justified compared with just over a third of Democrats. This poll comes on the heels of former...
June 03, 2009
Much of the reportage on the ongoing conflict in Gaza gives the reader the impression that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a relatively recent event. What is sometimes lost in such coverage is the deep background. Of course, Hamas has much to answer for, but the present conflict is but the lates...
June 02, 2009
No one disagrees that we are in a severe recession. The more affluent among us will be inconvenienced at best, but I fear that in the stampede to balance the budget, California will eliminate or reduce many of the public assistance programs serving as social safety nets for children, the poor, and ...
June 02, 2009
The first act of Maurice Funes, the newly elected president of El Salvador, was to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba. Now the United States is the last country in the Western Hemisphere with no formal relations with Cuba. Is it not time for the U.S. and Cuba to mend fences? For a start, the ...