Pipelinestan?

Unidentified man in monkey suit
arrested in Perth for dancing
and hugging shoppers in mall.

Should Afghanistan be more properly regarded as Pipelinestan? I can see no other reason for our continued presence in that rugged and inhospitable country, whose inhabitants do not want us there. Is someone still dreaming (the probably impossible dream) of building a pipeline across Afghanistan, subverting the Russians, and delivering oil directly to Pakistan? Why else would we be there? The Taliban were not originally the reason and are not even now any threat to the U.S. (except in their own country while we occupy it). Al Quaida does not really need an entire country as a base of operations, they can and do operate out of hotel rooms all over the world. And please don’t try to tell me we are there for humanitarian reasons, to free women, build schools, stop the poppy cultivation and so on. If that is what we were to do we would surely have done a lot more of it by now. Besides, we do not interfere in other countries for humanitarian reasons no matter what the MSM or others try to tell you. Whatever our reason for this nonsensical Afghanistan misadventure, you can be sure it is for our perceived self-interest. But what is that self-interest if it is not a pipedream (I mean pipeline)?

There is perhaps one other possible reason although I think it may be questionable. It is necessary for us to have an ongoing “war” to support our obscene military/industrial/political complex. Thus we can say we are there to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, but this is but a feeble excuse to continue our warlike economy. It could be that bin Laden is the crucial linchpin of the whole enterprise. The Pakistanis won’t capture or kill him because we would stop giving their military vast amounts of money, an income they surely do not want to give up. And we do not want to kill or capture him because we would then have even less reason to be in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden was a CIA asset during the Russian war in Afghanistan. It seems possible to me that he still is such an asset. But if he is no longer a CIA asset, he is an asset nonetheless because we need him so desperately. I find it virtually impossible to believe that in eight years the (mighty and most sophisticated) U.S. Military, plus the Pakistan Military, could not have found and captured or killed bin Laden, wherever he is. I’m not certain I even believe he is in either Pakistan or Afghanistan. He could be in Paris or Istanbul or even Rome or Cairo for all anyone seems to know for certain. He easily could be in Yemen or Somali for that matter.

That slimy little cockroach, Glenn Beck, is back on Fox News after his “vacation.” Fox is not going to fire him in spite of the fact that he has lost a majority of sponsors. It is said that Fox will keep him on and eat the lost revenue because he is so valuable for stirring up the public, promoting assassinations, revolutions, and chaos in general, and thus keeping our government from functioning properly enough to challenge the corporations, bring about health care reform, and so on. If this is true, is it not clear by now that Fox News is not truly offering news, but is, in fact, a subversive organization promoting the downfall of our government? I know we are supposed to have freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and all that, but Fox News does not really constitute a “News” network, and also functionally just repeatedly yells “fire” in a crowded theater. As a subversive organization Fox News should be shut down, and Glenn Beck should be tarred and feathered and run out of town.

Do Republicans really believe the things they say, or are they just stupid or ignorant (stupidity and ignorance are not one and the same). They seem to say things without engaging their brains. For example, how can one say something like, “I’m totally opposed to government run health care, but don’t touch my medicare?” Or “I’m opposed to a public option (which is designed to offer choice) because Republicans want choice?” Or remember when Sarah Palin railed against funding fruit fly research for being so stupid, when in fact it was doing precisely the kind of research necessary for the very problems she professed to be interested in, or when Bobby Jindall made fun of funds for volcano research a week or so before another volcanic eruption. The most recent examples of Republican idiocy (or ignorance, or stupidity, or carelessness) can be seen in the case of an audience member proclaiming he was proud to be a right-wing terrorist, and the Congressman saying, “Now there’s a real American.” Still another example, a Kansas Congresswoman saying the Republicans were looking for a “white hope.” Even ignoring for the moment Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck calling Obama a racist, or questioning his birth, and other such extremisms, it is difficult to figure out if they say these things out of ignorance, just plain stupidity, Freudian slips of the tongue, or if they really mean them. They seem to be willing to say anything at all, no matter how far-fetched. What they say reveals far more about themselves than it does about anyone else. The best example, probably, is the recent statement by one of these cretins that Ted Kennedy was “garbage.” If that doesn’t reveal more about the speaker than anyone else I would be amazed. The best I can think of these obvious misstatements and lies is that they represent the last gasps of a dying party.

LKBIQ:
I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.
Edith Sitwell

TILT:
The largest Giant Pacific Octopus ever caught weighed approximately 600 pounds.