Shower Point

You're a dirty, dirty man
You and that other woman, you're two of a kind
But you forgot one thing baby when you were doing me wrong
That I'm a good house keeper
I'm gonna take my broom and sweep
All of the dirt out in the street
--Dirty Man, Laura Lee

Don't need a man to treat me mean
I need a man to help me clean
Someone who's heaven sent
Someone to help pay rent
Someone to share dreams and wishes
Someone to help me do the dishes
--Housework, B-52's

Are you is a quandary over laundry?
Is your residence teaming with pestilence?
Frau Klaus cleans your house . . . with discipline
--Used Condoms in the Trash,
Farces Wanna Mo

Cleanliness is next to Godliness
_________________

One of the luxuries of America -- Ranger's America -- has always been hot water and hot showers. This became his passion after being overseas for two years: Enjoying hot water (literal, not figurative.)

Fast-forward to 2011, and America is the sole Superpower, which should imply it is the leader of the First world. With that charge comes the responsibility to be exemplary in the basics of a civilized life. Sanitation would seem to fall in that category and yet . . . there is no hot water in our state-run Rest Stops (those which have not been shuttered) or in our state buildings.

Call us idealistic, but being a Superpower means being able to properly wash and rinse our hands after a toilet stop. In addition to no hot hater, the limited-use water faucets have such poor water pressure it is questionable if germs are flushed from our hands when we do bother to brave the icy water.

When confronting cold water in the bathrooms of a local restaurant, the manger said the health code was that hot water must emerge after 30 seconds of running the faucet. Who waits 30 seconds, and why the waste of water?

We have the greatest Defense (Offense?) budget in the world and on the State level we can afford to give tax breaks to corporations, yet ignore the first responsibility of a social order -- to keep clean.

Ironically, while contemplating this Ranger met an Assistant General Counsel for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration who expressed that not only do the toilets in her State building have no hot water but the soap dispensers are often empty as they are only filled weekly. This is the AHCA for a key state in the world's only Superpower.

To borrow from Mr. Coleridge, Water, water, everywhere / nor any adequate to kill germs. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states: "It is well-documented that one of the most important measures for preventing the spread of pathogens is effective hand washing." Hot water is necessary to remove the surface oils which retain dirt and bacteria and viruses.

Implication of cold water taps? We don't know: Hand washing is only a token gesture? It is a cabal to keep the health care industry packed with individuals sick with E. coli infection? Those sanitary hand wipes that Monk uses and waterless alcohol gel hand cleansers will be a hot new commodity (and investment)? But ... what if they are manufactured in China, and the alcohol content is below 60% -- not sufficient to kill germs?

So you get ill, and hope your bacterial strain is not resistant to the effects of the prescribed antibiotic. Lest you get caught in the maws of the health care behemoth.

All for the lack of a little hot water.

This Nearly Was Mine

United We Stand, Alex Lilly

Like an actor on a movie screen,

living out someone else's dream.
Living out a total misconception,
reality, a false perception.
--Cliches of the World, the Kinks

Now, now I'm alone, still dreaming of paradise,
Still saying that paradise once nearly was mine
--This Nearly Was Mine, South Pacific
__________

Before turning off the Charlie Rose Show featuring the chameleon Wesley Clark recently, Clark got in the requisite, "We're the most powerful nation on earth" schtick.

In that belief, Clark mirrors the attitude of many. But the U.S. is only the most powerful country willing to attack other nations without provocation. This proclivity, however, does not make us the sole world superpower.

Ranger has a few questions:

[1] Where would the oil come from to lubricate a full-scale war?

[2] Where would the personnel come from to fill these services?

[3] Where would a world conflict army train?

[4] What industrial base would support a large-scale war?

[5] From where would the money come?

[6] Has Wesley Clark noticed that the U.S. military is stretched to the breaking point fighting opponents often killed or captured wearing shower shoes?

[7] What if India and/or China united versus the U.S.?

[8] What if Russia attacked the U.S.?

[9] What if China attacked the U.S.?

[10] Any combination of the above.


A realistic assessment of U.S. capabilities is sorely needed. As it stand, we are glutted with too many cliches.