Semantic Memory

“What we have here is a failure to communicate” said the captain to Cool Hand Luke.

El Presidente and his bandoleros are annoyed at everyone who is misinterpreting his mantra “Stay the course”. Apparently, “Stay the course” does not necessarily mean, well, “Stay the course”. According to El Presidente it means “Keep doing what you are doing. Don’t do what you are doing if it is not working – change!”, in other words, it means “Stay the course” or Change – take your pick. El Presidente is showing his flexibility and adaptability when it comes to his policies in Iraq, why can’t people see that?

“A dunk in the water is a dunk in the water” said El Presidente front man when asked about the remarks made by El Presidente’s second in command, El Diablo. In a radio interview, Scott Hennen of WDAY in Fargo, N.D., asked El Diablo on Tuesday, "Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?”. Without hesitation El Diablo responded: "Well, it's a no-brainer for me". So why are the detractors of El Presidente, El Diablo, and his bandoleros up in arms? El Diablo didn’t mean torture waterboarding techniques, Ay! Dios Santos Perdonanos! – we don’t torture. El Diablo was referring to clean fun games such as bobbing for apples, and a friendly dunking game at the local pool with your friends – in this case the enemy combatants and their interrogators.

Maybe what we have here is an impaired semantic memory.

The Blame Game and the Enabler

Well, it is going to be a very difficult day for me today; my wife had to go to work very early and did not have time to prepare coffee and breakfast for me this morning. I hate days that start this way, usually it leads to not having lunch because my wife have to work during those hours so she does not have time to come home and prepare me something to eat. No doubt dinner will be delayed too, I am sure she will be coming home tired and would want to rest before cleaning last night dishes and preparing a nice dinner, but I suppose being patient with her is the least that I could do. I better call her before I forget and ask her to stop by the fish market, I feel like eating lobster, and the wine store, I don’t think the bottle I just opened is going to last all day.

It is not my fault that I am so lazy. I was abused when I was a child and an alcoholic all my life. I remember seeing my mother’s breast before I was one year old. I went swimming naked at a water-hole in my grand-fathers ranch with my older brothers, cousins, and uncles and I am sure I must have seen my father naked otherwise how could I be abused? The local priest, father Avila, patted my head and hugged my shoulders when he came to visit our family home, little did I know that he was sexually abusing me when he did that. Of course, by the time I reached the age of 7, all that abuse led me into drinking beer during school recess. I became popular with my teachers, when I reached the fifth grade we were polishing a fifth of tequila on Friday after school at Mrs. Villa’s home – she was a lonely old widow but a very good teacher on matters not usually part of the school curriculum.

But now I am in the process of recovery. I have realized my state of laziness was not caused by me but by forces outside my control. I have asked my friends and family for understanding, to forgive me if I don’t get up when I ask them to do something for me – pass me a beer and chips, the TV-guide, etc. I have found the Lord our Creator and speak with him on a daily basis. He is showing me the way of redemption, all I have to do is ask him for forgiveness before I die so I don’t have to do it every Sunday like most of my Christian friends do. I have a cousin that is born-again Christian and constantly preaches the rapture and how the Lord will take the chosen ones and leave the others behind, so I asked the Lord about it. “Trust me” He said “I will be taking you with me soon enough and leave your young cousin and a lot of other people behind”. With that I feel at peace.