Semi-good things?

Texas woman unsatisfied
with husband’s performance
in bed, stabs him with scissors.

Is it possible that at least semi-good things may be happening, maybe, possibly, perhaps. There are, for example, hints there may be talks leading up to an agreement with the Taliban that might allow for beginning to withdraw some of our troops. At least that is what Karzai is supposed to be bringing up with President Obama. If this is true, and if something actually worked out, perhaps we could cease being involved in a totally unnecessary and fruitless “war” in that beleaguered country and stop stubbornly trying to do something everyone knows is impossible (“win,” that is).

Equally important, perhaps even more important, it was reported today the Palestinians are prepared to begin (indirect) peace talks with Israel. I cannot understand how this could be unless there is some kind of agreement, however temporary, that Israel will stop their illegal building in Jerusalem (I have seen conflicting reports on this). Maybe it was Obama’s threat to turn the situation over to an international commission if there was no movement on the peace process before Fall. I hope it is the case that Obama and George Mitchell are doing better work than is being reported. While I regard this is a positive sign I don’t really believe anything will ultimately come of it because I don’t believe the Israelis want peace. They prefer the status quo that allows them to believe in their innate superiority and defines the Palestinians as inferior creatures who, as only good for wage slavery or death, do not deserve equality of any kind. That the world, and especially the U.S., has put up with this for so many years, will surely go down in human history as one of its most shameful periods.

And speaking of doing the impossible it appears that a great many people, perhaps even a majority of people, do not believe sanctions against Iran will work, or at least not the sanctions that will be employed, as many think the world is not prepared to employ sanctions strong enough to make much difference. The view that sanctions won’t work doesn’t seem to keep Obama and Congress from insisting on them. So, as in the case of Afghanistan, we will just keep butting our heads against the wall trying to do the impossible. As near as I can tell the idea of sanctioning Iran has to do with our fantasy they are doing something wrong. There is no evidence this is true, but as the Israelis keep insisting it is, it’s just like Goebbels said, tell a lie long enough and people will come to believe it. I simply do not understand this hatred of Iran, (although I certainly understand why they might well hate us). There is a commercial by some veterans group for renewable energy that I am all in favor of, but one of the lines in the commercial is that Iran is “peddling hate.” It appears to me this is the opposite of what is happening, and what is happening is the same kind of bullying that is going on among our young people, someone (Iran) has been singled out and all the bullies have joined in to make their lives miserable (except the Russians and the Chinese who are much more realistic about this than others). In any case, sanctions won’t work, but that won’t keep us from imposing them anyway. We never seem to learn.

The disastrous oil leak in the bottom of the Gulf continues. The attempt to semi-cap it with a Rube Goldberg contraption failed. As I understand it, it failed because the water at that depth is just too cold and kept the jury-rigged device from working properly. Why did all the hot-shot engineers and deep-water drillers not know this? I suspect it’s because in fact they don’t know what they are doing drilling at that depth and without the proper safety devices. This is an accident that should never have happened because they should not have been allowed to drill that deep in the first place. They lied about the state of their technology and expertise and now we will all have to pay the price for their unfettered greed. BP should not have suggested such a job, the drilling company should never have agreed to try it, and the government never should have allowed it, and certainly not when they did not have the proper shut-off machinery (thanks apparently to Dick the Slimy). Someone suggested that all BP assets in the U.S. should be impounded and the Executives should be put on trial and probably jailed. I agree. But as Bush/Cheney committed far more egregious crimes of torture and murder and have not been held accountable I don’t suppose the BP people will be either. Our new laws seem to say that when corporations fail they should not be accountable and the taxpayers should pay for their greedy mistakes.

And finally, maybe, just maybe, we may be turning the corner on the problem of unemployment, but there is a long way to go.

LKBIQ:
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
Ambrose Bierce

TILT:
Cooking bacon in the oven is far superior to frying it.