"Recovery"

Drunken man rescued from
icy river after jumping in
to chase one-legged goose.

Some, including President Obama, say that if we are patient enough we will experience a “recovery.” I take this to mean we will overcome some obstacle and go back to the way it was previously. This idea of (economic) recovery is based upon the idea that history repeats itself and that many times in the past the economy has slumped but then inevitably turned around (recovered). But what if there is not going to be a recovery? What if our unemployment rate is going to stay where it is no matter what Obama tries to do about it? I think there are reasons to believe this may well be what is going to happen. What if Stephen Pizzo (see his “Slouching Towards Austerity,” in today’s Smirking Chimp) is right (I suspect he is) when he says “the West’s one-time Horn of Plenty is now running on empty.” That is with centuries of “progress” with almost no competition for natural resources and markets, the West has lived a life of great affluence. But now, with serious competition from countries like China and India, resources becoming more and more scarce, this favored status is disappearing, we are, as he says, “Slouching Towards Austerity.”

That this is most probably true can be seen in the fact that most Americans have slowly (and sometimes not so slowly) seen their life-styles diminish. Wages have not kept up with inflation, more people are living in poverty, unemployment is rampant, the nation is deeply in debt, and recovery does not seem to be happening. Saying recovery is on the way but it just takes time may be just plain incorrect. This means, among other things, that Barack Obama is unfortunate enough to be President at a time when history is not repeating itself, recovery is not going to happen as predicted, and Obama is helpless to do anything about it. Arguments about who is chiefly responsible and why Obama isn’t doing anything about it become, if not meaningless, at least irrelevant.

Still another dimension of this problem can be seen in an explanation put forward about unemployment. Someone suggested that the reason there are so many unemployed people is simply because all the “good” and “necessary” people have jobs, the implication being there is clearly a large surplus of (useless) unnecessary workers. When you realize the number of unemployed actually exceeds the 9.6% official rate by quite a bit, it is obvious this is a much greater problem than we are being led to believe. You might also consider that Wall Street, and thus businesses and corporations, are making record profits even with this high rate of unemployment. This situation cannot be rectified in the U.S. because of the irrational and unfathomable, even virtually pathological fear of “socialism.” This is not to say socialism would be an easy solution, socialist nations in the West are no better, and perhaps worse off, than we are. This is perhaps not only because they are socialistic, but also because they allowed excessive immigration (and, of course have also experienced the disappearing fruits of colonialism and exploitation). Even so, it does appear to me that nations with the best likelihood of survival are those with forms of Democratic Socialism, nations which provide a basic safety net for all while at the same time allowing some to become more wealthy than others.

It is quite possibly the case there is no viable solution to inevitable austerity available (at least at the moment). The rapid growth of technology has made it possible that not as many workers are necessary to keep a nation in food and other necessities. Thus there is an unprecedented surplus of labor. In a capitalistic economy, where labor is viewed simply as another commodity, this surplus can simply be ignored and left to sicken, go hungry, and die in the vast slums surrounding all of our great cities, conveniently denying the fact there are living human beings involved, not merely commodities. This seems to be the current Republican plan for the future, shared, alas, by some Democrats as well.

It is possible to argue, as many do, that the basic problem is overpopulation. Perhaps it is in certain places, but more importantly, it is a result of our profligate waste of the earth’s resources and our inability or unwillingness to share. Both overpopulation and sharing are factors that could be controlled if the human species wished to control them. But we have no history of doing this and there seems to be little possibility for change in this regard. Indeed, it appears that more hostility and competition will be a more likely scenario.

I think an expectation for recovery, as we have thought of it in the past, is unrealistic, given the current conditions of this tiny and abused planet (and the irrationality and greed of the humans that inhabit it). Certainly there is not going to be a “full recovery,” although things may improve somewhat temporarily (a bit more socialism would help). The glory years of “the American Century” are over. Make your peace with austerity, but let’s make it austerity for all, not excepting those hoarding badly needed resources.

LKBIQ:
When commercial capital occupies a position of unquestioned ascendancy, it everywhere constitutes a system of plunder.
Karl Marx

TILT:
Help is not on the way.

The Incomprehensible

Korean “Happiness preacher”
and husband found dead
of joint suicides in motel room.

I hope it is clear to anyone who stumbles across this blog that I do not presume to speak for others of any kind, not the everyone of “everyone knows,” not the people of “the American people,” not the voters of “the voters say,” or even for the “left,” “progressives,” democrats, or whoever. I speak only for myself. I have been a lifelong Democrat, that is, until the past few years when things have become so awful I now consider myself a “democratic socialist.” That being said I will continue my ranting, raving, and frothing at the mouth.

It seems to me that in the past few years, and particularly in the past two years, at least, part of the American political scene has passed through three phases: the ridiculous, the idiotic, and now the incomprehensible. The first phase, when the Tea Party chose their candidates and upset the wishes of the more traditional Republican Party, I view as ridiculous, as the candidates were largely ridiculous. Take Palin, Angle, and O’Donnell as perhaps the best examples. None of these candidates can reasonably be considered prepared for holding high office in our nation. Neither Angle nor O’Donnell have had much of anything in the way of experience although they seem to have tried often for office and failed, Palin’s qualifications are not really much better, a failed governor of a small population state where many of the independent citizens don’t pay much attention to government in the first place. The idiotic phase began when these candidates began opening their mouths in public and on television, and idiocy poured forth like molten lava from an erupting volcano. This began at first with Sarah Palin who claimed to have foreign policy expertise because she could see Russia from her front porch, insisted there were going to be “death panels,” and continued to grow worse and worse the more she spoke. This was mild, however, compared to the idiocy that has spewed forth from the likes of Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell: “we may have to resort to our 2nd amendment plan,” “scientists have created mice with fully developed human brains,” “I was never a witch,” “I am privy to secret information about the Chinese plan to take over America,” and so on. Many of these statements, made on video, are so idiotic they should have rendered the candidates complete laughingstocks.

This is where the incomprehensible phase kicks in. The polls suggest that all of these candidates may have a chance to win, a situation I find incomprehensible. Either there is something wrong with the polls, something wrong with voters in Nevada, Delaware, and the U.S. in general, or something wrong with me (perhaps all three are relevant). I have always believed the affairs of the U.S. Government were important, even in some cases vitally important, so how can candidates so ill-prepared and unsuited for office be doing so well? I confess I do not understand it. For me, even if I had inside information that Harry Reid was the devil himself, I would not be able to bring myself to vote for Sharron Angle. I feel exactly the same about O’Donnell and Palin. Add some already existing Congresspersons like Michele Backmann and reflect on what our country might be like when such persons are in positions of power and influence. I find this possibility frightening almost beyond belief.

Lest I be branded a sexist, let me be quick to point out that some of the male candidates are just as bad and perhaps in some cases even worse. Rand Paul, Joe Miller, Ken Buck, and Art Robinson are great examples, but there are others as well. These candidates are so extreme as to make you wonder about where they have actually spent their lives (like, maybe, on other planets). Most of these candidates, as those mentioned above, tend to believe abortion should not be allowed, even in cases of rape and incest. They apparently also believe that if you are careless enough to forget to pay a special $75 fee, you deserve to have your house burned to the ground while the Fire Departments just stands by to observe. Similarly, they believe the minimum wage is unconstitutional, Gay marriage is an abomination, the rich should get even more tax breaks, the poor and unemployed are just lazy, Social Security should be privatized, and on and on. And there are plenty of already elected male Congresspersons who are so ridiculous they should never have been elected in the first place, Jim DeMint, Louie Gohmert, James Inhofe, Tom Coburn come easily to mind, but there are others as well.

LKBIQ:
The essence of American journalism is vulgarity divested of truth.
Sir Winston Churchill

TILT:
Chief Joseph’s Indian name can be translated as “Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain.”

Stupid Questions

Florida man, 87, shoots
84 year-old girlfriend he
suspected of cheating.

What is this penchant people have for asking really stupid questions? Once, for example, a woman I knew was in a drug store looking at sun glasses. You know, looking at one of those revolving stands that display sun glasses. She was crouched down as near the floor as possible looking intently at pairs of sun glasses. A clerk approached and asked her, “You interested in sun glasses? She replied, without hesitation, “No, I just come in here for the exercise.” We encounter these kinds of really stupid questions on an almost daily basis. Upon entering a store that only sells shoes you might well be asked, “Interested in shoes.” Or, when standing at a bus stop waiting patiently you are asked, “Waiting for the bus?” Once I entered a cutlery store where the only things sold were knives. I was asked, “You want a knife?” And so it goes. It is not always easy to reply to stupid questions, sometimes they are so stupid you are left speechless with wonder. A really good reply is hard to come by, as in the well-known tale of a man who asked a stranger, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall,” and received an immediate response, “Practice, man, practice.” Or another wonderful example, as when someone was asked “Does the cross town trolley pass by this way,” and received “Do dah,” as an answer, but enough of this.

I was prompted to think of this when reading that Sarah Palin’s husband, Todd, berated her candidate for Senate from Alaska for refusing to say Silly Sarah was qualified for the Presidency. That is, when asked, Miller refused to give a straightforward answer. Now this strikes me as an example of a truly stupid question. Two years ago Palin was widely regarded as unsuited to be the Vice-Presidential candidate, and for good reason, as she demonstrated repeatedly her empty-headedness with a vengeance. In the two years since then she has given speeches in which she has demonstrated over and over again how little she knows and how ignorant she really is. So why would anyone ask if she is qualified to be President. When even one of those she is responsible for sponsoring refused to answer it is pretty obvious what an honest answer would have to be. I think it is fair to say that the overwhelming majority of American voters know full well she is completely unqualified. You cannot, as the saying goes, “Make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” But wonder of wonders, there actually are people who believe she would make a good President. I guess these are the same people who ask stupid questions on a daily basis, like, Do you believe President Obama is really a Kenyan Muslim secretly trying to insert Shari’a law into the U.S., or is he a communist, socialist, fascist, or perhaps a secret Zoroastrian?

I find what is currently going on in American politics to be virtually unbelievable, with a number of candidates with little or no experience, insanely absurd views of what should be done, being supported by tons of corporate money donated to them by corporations who don’t care who they are as long as they are anti-Obama. Even foreign corporations and companies are donating huge amounts of money to defeat Obama in an unprecedented and illegal manner. Illegality, hypocrisy, theft, dishonesty, deceit, immorality, you name it and it seems to be okay these days. Even blatant war crimes go unpunished. We even have some candidates at the moment whose only claim to high office is that they have fortunes so bloated they can afford to buy a seat in government at whatever the cost. Most of them will probably (at least hopefully) fail, but the very fact they believe high office can legitimately be purchased is a step so far backwards in time as to be pathetic. That, I fear, is precisely what our political system has become…pathetic.

LKBIQ:
They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program.
George W. Bush

TILT:
Kinkajous can live to be 23 years old in captivity.

Basic Confusion?

Drunken brawl breaks out
when one woman blocks
the view of a male stripper.

There seems to be substantial confusion in our country over such basic things as common sense, morality, legality, and the ordinary functions of government. I believe this is at least partly what is responsible for our accelerating decline. Let’s take a simple example to begin with, the burning down of a house in Tennessee. You probably all know the story. A family either forgot or for some other reason failed to pay a special $75 dollar fee that would have protected them from fire. Their house caught fire, the fire department was called, but because they hadn’t paid the fee, simply stood by and watched the house burn to the ground. This has outraged some people, but has been defended by others as “what they get for not paying the special fee” (it’s their own fault). Forget for the moment that the homeowner and even his neighbor offered to pay whatever it would cost if they would spray water and keep the fire from further damage. One might think that anyone, even a stranger passing by, when seeing a house on fire would feel some moral obligation to do something to help. Certainly you would not expect a fire department to refuse to help put out a fire of any kind, whether a special fee had been paid or not. This homeowner already paid his taxes, money that is supposed to be used for government protection, so why was he expected to pay additional money? Presumably, I guess, because taxes in this community are not sufficient to cover expenses. But why are they not sufficient? Is it not the responsibility of government to impose taxes for the purpose of preventing fires, crime, and so on. This seems to be a kind of mini-privatization problem.

So what is the purpose of privatization? I guess the argument has to do with the belief that private industry can do things better and more efficiently than government. I believe this is a very questionable belief, given false credence by Ronald Reagan and other nincompoops. We have many governmental programs that function very well (or would if properly funded): the Post Office, Veterans Health, Public Education, Medicare, Medicaid, Highway construction, and so on. There is, alas, little agreement on this question. Some seem to believe government should have virtually no power over individuals, others believe in a strong central government that acts in the best interest of the citizens. After more than 300 years of our democracy there seems to be little agreement on the legitimate functions of government. Some seem to believe that taxes themselves are intrinsically wrong, that people should not have to pay them. But what, then, for things like fire departments, police, highways, schools, and etc.? Obviously in a large and complex society like ours, without some government control there would be chaos, nothing would work very well and the populace would suffer.

In our contemporary society this problem is confounded by the ridiculous idea of a “free-market economy.” That is, the market operating freely will bring about desirable results for most everything. If everything were just privatized, and business and the markets were allowed to function freely we would be living in paradise. It seems to me there is by now quite enough proof that this is completely nonsensical. There have been in recent years attempts to privatize most everything: energy, schools, fire departments, prisons, agriculture, transportation, and even in extreme cases, such basic necessities as water. And government has been denied even basic regulatory functions. You understand, I hope, where this has led us. I repeat once again, there are some things that are far too important to be privatized. All our basic necessities must be seen in this way. Private enterprise does not operate with the public good in mind, but, rather, only for profit. It is perfectly obvious that privatizing schools is going (in general) to lead to more shoddy education, private prisons are going to lead to less care, less food, and inevitably an increase in the prison population. Even our food supply has been corrupted by huge private companies operating solely for profit. We know what the privatization of energy has done in California. It should not be difficult to know what basic facts of human life should be protected.

There is another area in which I think governments have failed. I receive pleas very often to save the children, help the homeless, save the whales, save the apes, save the puffins, save the Polar Bears, and on and on. Now I am very sympathetic to all of these causes, and I sincerely believe they should all be protected, and I feel guilty if I do not contribute. But should this not be the responsibility of governments? Should not, over time, our governments, supposedly acting in our best interests, have seen to it that species did not disappear, there should be no homeless, no unemployed, nothing that is currently believed to be a serious problem. Do these problems not result from just plain neglect? These problems seem to me to be the result of our failure to agree on just what the responsibilities of government, at least our own government, should be? Doesn’t it seem reasonable that in over 300 years of our history we should have come to some agreement over just what government should and should not be expected to do. I personally believe that all governments have failed miserably when it comes to protecting their citizens, the environment, and all the wonderful creatures that exist on our little planet. At the moment I see little hope for any meaningful change. I think there is most probably a serious flaw in the human character that simply does not allow us to do the right thing, or perhaps even to know what the right thing is. We can’t even agree on whether or not human life is truly precious.

LKBIQ:
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
H. L. Mencken

TILT:
The age of the earth has been determined to be 4.54 billion years.

Are We Serious?

Assaulted in SUV, she
grabs his knife and pants
and flees the scene.

Thank you for the wonderful and appropriate poem, Consolation, it was much appreciated.

Is this a serious nation or not when it comes to government? I think perhaps it once was, but looking on the contemporary scene in American politics I confess to having serious doubts. I have no idea what the solution might be but I am pretty sure the current practices have reduced our national politics to the same level as electing the President of the eighth grade. I guess the problem is that anyone can run for high public office no matter how ridiculously ill-qualified they might be. The cases of Senatorial candidates Sharon Angle, in Nevada, and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware are the best cases in point. Neither of these women have any genuine qualifications for office whatsoever. At best they are fast talking phonies and at worst, raving lunatics. Yet they are actually running for Senatorial seats in our highest echelons of government. This is absurd. There are other candidates, mostly, if not all Republicans, that are equally unsuited for office (perhaps not quite as badly unsuited as Angle and O’Donnell).

What I find more disturbing even than our current crop of Senate and House candidates, is the situation when it comes to Presidential aspirations. Here in America it seems that anyone and everyone can run for the highest office in the land (also probably the world). All you have to do to be a candidate for President, I gather, is simply announce that you are a candidate, or want to be. There are no prerequisites, no qualifications and experience necessary. While it is true that most of these self-proclaimed candidates never get anywhere, the line between a respectable, legitimate candidate, and a nonsensical one is not completely clear. I saw somewhere today, for example, that there are memos in existence that suggest Sarah Palin is actually going to run for President. I don’t know if this is true but it easily could be. Sarah Palin is not qualified to be President of the United States, or even to presume to such office. Being a failed half-term governor of a small population state is simply not sufficient experience for the most powerful position in the world (to say nothing of the fact she is apparently as ignorant as a cedar post). But if Palin is unqualified, what about some of the others who are aspiring to run, like Newt Gingrich, for example, the world’s greatest hypocrite, already driven from Congress for blatant violations of the rules, a pompous ass who pretends to be a great intellectual leader of the Republican Party. While it is true he has at least some high-level political experience, his obvious, blatant, dishonest, opportunistic, hypocritical and self-serving pontifications should easily disqualify him from office. Then there are a number of what might at best be considered “third-stringers” who have expressed Presidential aspirations: Eric Cantor, Bobby Jindal, Haley Barber, Mike Huckabee, and others, not Tea Party types, but not much to brag about either. Even those Republican candidates that might be accepted as serious are not without serious flaws, take Mitt Romney (the lying Mormon, and Jeb Bush (of the Bush mafia) as examples. It is a mystery to me who the Republican candidate for President in 2012 might be but certainly none of the above would seem entirely suitable. But what bothers me about this is not that these particular candidates are so inappropriate, but that it seems to indicate a lack of seriousness when it comes to electing our officials. This is perhaps because whoever is President serves only at the will of corporate interests so it really doesn’t matter much anymore who the President is, being mostly just a figurehead (George W. Bush would seem to be a good example). I see that the guy who wanders around New York strumming his guitar and singing in his underwear has expressed an interest in running for President. Don’t laugh, he might win.

This is supposed to be the most powerful nation in the world, our President is supposed to be the single most powerful figure in the world, our Congress is supposed to be equal in importance, and yet we have an electoral system that allows even lunatics for compete for office (and sometimes win, witness some of our leaders who have already been elected and seem to have no sense of responsibility whatsover!). We seem to be no more serious about our government than we are about who leads the local cub scout troupes or the local knitting club. While nations in Europe and Asia have been moving ahead in technology and science we have been falling further and further behind as seen in comparisons now with other nations in education, math, science, and so on. In fact we are slowly being seduced into a nation of wage slaves, in debt to the “company store,” via credit cards, phony loans, and questionable laws that always favor corporate interests over those of ordinary citizens. We are seeing right now the results of the fixed Supreme Court’s ruling that corporations can make unlimited monetary donations to political interests they favor, a situation if not quickly corrected (somehow), means we will never be free of our corporate masters, “another day older and deeper in debt.”

LKBIQ:
The state is nothing but an instrument of oppression of one class by another--no less so in a democratic republic than in a monarchy.
Friedrich Engels

TILT:
The U.S. Military is dropping mice laced with Tylenol by helicopter on Guam in an attempt to control the invasive brown snakes.

Requiem for a Generation

My first and best friend, whom I have known for all 81 years of our lives, has been struck down with a stroke, brain tumor, and second stroke. He is currently installed in a special intensive care hospital that I am certain will be his penultimate resting place. I am horrified and upset by this unexpected event as he was expected to live at least four or five years longer, or so he recently informed me. We were small children and played together almost daily, went through 12 years of school together, shared all the adventures of adolescence together: fishing, hunting, hiking, working, girls, everything. We parted as he joined the army and I went off to college, but always kept in touch and in recent years have been close friends once again. When you lose someone like that, with whom you were so close and shared so much, it is like losing part of yourself. He was such a good man, married to the same woman for over 50 years, a father and grandfather, honest, hard-working, and kind. I cannot remember him ever saying a bad word about anyone, he never fought with anyone but was brave and strong, never cheated, and so far as I know never did an unkind act of any kind. I know one is supposed to speak highly of the dead, or not at all, but in this case the praise is entirely warranted. I sincerely wish I could say the same things about myself. Of course I will miss him and my life will not be the same.


Thinking now of those of my generation that were important parts of my life, a few are still alive and doing well, considering their ages and health. Of my High School graduation class of (wow) 37, I know that at least seven or eight are still alive. But so many others have gone, a good friend and college roommate dead by his own hand, another dead from the booze, one crippled with terrible Parkinson’s, another totally incapacitated by strokes, another with Alzheimer’s, my son’s Godmother dead from cancer, his Godfather rendered helpless from strokes, and others gone from cancer and heart disease, one or two others just mysteriously disappeared completely, two widowers absolutely miserable and lost without their wives, all of these gone or going on their individual Journeys to the West, carrying their memories and secrets and experiences with them. It is not a pretty picture, but one that I’m sure is typical of those fortunate enough to have lived into their eighties or nineties.

Of course people strive to avoid their inevitable fate, to live as long as possible, “rage, rage, against the dying of the light,” and the ideas of death and dying are not pleasant, but then, who would want to live forever? Death, after all, is not more unnatural than life, in fact is part of life. Is it not comforting to know that after years of toil, strife, anxiety, fear, and seemingly endless challenges to overcome, there is going to be an end, a finish, a completion, a time of complete and blissful peace? Do we not, when our time is near, wish it to come quickly, mercifully, and without undue complications and suffering? No one wishes to die prematurely, slowly and painfully, but does there not come a time when one wishes, even looks forward, to the end? Life can be pleasant, it is true, a wonderful gift from the Great Mystery, something to be treasured and treated with respect, but it is also hard, fraught with the demons and mysterious evils, frustrations and triumphs, victories and defeats, the very things make it what it is. Is not its peaceful end perhaps the greatest experience and triumph of all, the moment that brings the most revealing epiphany?

How appropriate,
when the Great Mystery calls,
to leave in autumn.

Morialekafa

I Don't Believe It

Drunk driver crashes into house
wearing t-shirt that says,
“I have a drinking problem.”

Many pundits and others are predicting a huge Republican victory in November. For some it seems to be a foregone conclusion that Republicans will take over the House of Representatives, and there is hope even for the Senate. Even those who don’t necessarily believe this is a sure thing believe there is a good possibility it will happen. I don’t believe it. My political predictions have not been very accurate in the past, and of course I could be wrong, but I just plain cannot believe this will happen.

If it were the case that the Republican Party was truly and clearly split into two parts, the minority part being the Tea Party and the majority being more or less reasonable people, I might believe otherwise. But the split that is widely cited does not seem to be at all clear, moderate Republicans (if they still exist) are not disowning or disavowing the Tea Party candidates. Indeed, the Republican Party is in most cases actively supporting this rather lunatic fringe, the line between the Tea Party people and others in the Republican Party is not at all clear anymore. And if you consider what the Republicans say they will do once they get in office you can only conclude that it is equally as radical (and insanely undesirable) as anything proposed by the Tea Party. I will not list these goals here but you know they have to do with privatizing Social Security, giving huge tax breaks to the wealthy, and turning over Roe vs Wade, if they could, along with other equally deleterious aims. This is why I cannot believe they will win much of anything next month. My reasoning is simple. In spite of my dim view of the American voting public, in spite of my usual cynicism, in spite of what so many others are predicting, I absolutely cannot bring myself to believe that a majority of the American voting public could possibly be stupid enough to allow this to happen. So, if I prove to be wrong, let it be for a good reason. These various Republican candidates, along with the stated goals of the Republican Party, should they win, are so extreme, so “far out,” so potentially destructive, so (in my opinion) insane, I can’t believe they can produce a victory.

I seriously believe we should establish at least some minimum prerequisites for running for high-level political positions, especially for Senators and President. There should be some way of screening out candidates who are clearly not qualified or suitable for office, the O’Donnell’s and Angle’s, for example. Not only that, I would go farther and suggest that if a candidate somehow slips through the vetting process and actually gets elected, and then proves to be some kind of obstructionist nincompoop, there should be an easier way to get rid of them. I should think that the control of our country is too important to be put in the hands of know-nothings who seem to be ignorant of even the most basic facts of human, social, and cultural life in the 21st century, individuals too ignorant even to understand the importance of the science and scientific research that underlies our current existence. Even individuals who prove through their tenure in office they put personal and party interests ahead of the welfare of citizens should be removed (actually, they sometimes are, but only when their criminality becomes truly extreme). Our current political system is already probably too corrupt to be changed, when you have people who are elected mostly on the basis merely of becoming shills for corporations and big business, you don’t have to be much concerned if they know anything or not, you just have to be confident they do not have the public interest in mind.

Speaking of tenure, I am motivated to comment. In recent years there have been cases where established professors have been forced to defend their actions or behavior or lose their tenure. At the moment it appears the Governor of New Jersey is threatening the tenure system of teachers, wanting to fire those that might be regarded as incompetent. I believe there is a lot of misunderstanding about tenure. As I understand it, having been a University Professor for quite a long time, the tenure system was not designed to give permanence of employment to teachers just because of longevity. The basic importance of tenure has to do with the guarantee of free speech. That is, professors should not be fired because they hold certain political beliefs, or are somehow out of the mainstream of political opinion. Over the years this seems to have become more or less forgotten or neglected, in favor of arguments over competence or ability when teaching. It should not be too difficult to examine individual cases and determine if the motivation for stripping away tenure is political as opposed to incompetence. There have always been means available to get rid of incompetent teachers, but somehow this has been made more and more difficult and has not been widely employed. If we are to become more serious about our educational system, especially in improving it, this is obviously going to become an even more important issue. To just do away with tenure entirely would be a terrible mistake.

LKBIQ:
Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.
Clarence Darrow

TILT:
Evidence for human activity having to do with the production of salt dates back at least to 6050 B.C.

Insanity or Treason?

“But the brilliance, the versatility of madness is akin to the resourcefulness of water seeping through, over and around a dike.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald

I am a great admirer of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and I believe he may well be one of the finest American prose stylists ever. I am not necessarily a huge fan of the content of his short stories or novels, at least not reading or re-reading them now in the 21st century. I do not, for example, think The Great Gatsby is the greatest American novel although it certainly was a great one. But all that aside, I love the above quotation and I believe it offers a great insight into the mechanics of insanity. It is open to a number of different interpretations, all of which I believe are helpful when it comes to questions of life and madness. For example, one thing it suggests to me is that insanity may well be an attempt to get around problems one encounters in life. This is sort of like insanity as problem solving, like trying to get around a problem, or a kind of wall encountered in your life so threatening as to have no other solution. Insanity, in this view, is a solution, a method of coping that, while extreme, makes sense, at least to the person having to employ it. No doubt Fitzgerald was led to this analogy by the madness of Zelda and the difficulties involved in such a situation.

At the moment I think it offers at least a bit of an insight into the current behavior of the Republicans, including the Tea Party branch. Confronted with the reality of the complete failure of their ideology: free-market capitalism, trickle-down economics, drown government in the bathtub, anti-union, outsource jobs, protect the wealthy and corporations, social Darwinism, cut-taxes solutions for everything, and to hell with the poor and the middle-class, what else can they do except turn to insane babbling about the current administration? Thus we now get accusations that President Obama is not a legitimate President because he was not born in the U.S. (which he was), he is a Muslim (which he is not), he’s a socialist, communist, fascist, (that he is not), he wants to take away our guns (which he doesn’t), he is secretly trying to bring in shari’a law, he is a racist that hates white people, he’s weak on national defense, afraid of the Generals, doesn’t know what he’s doing, and the whole dismal situation we are currently in is his fault. Of course the latest claim, coming from no less that the absolutely worst person in the world, Glenn Beck, that our President, the President of the United States of America no less, is “evil.”

If these accusations are not crazy enough, Republican proposals for what we should do are equally insane: do away with social security, Medicare, the recent health care laws, the Department of Education, unemployment benefits, freeze government spending, extend tax cuts for the two percent wealthiest people in the U.S., do away with abortion even in cases of rape and incest, attack Iran, engage in endless “wars,” stuff the military/industrial/political complex with more military junk they can ever use, retain don’t ask, don’t tell, oppose Gay marriage, fear Muslims and terrorist attacks, and, above all, keep insisting there is no global warming and, in spite of the facts, insist the U.S. constitution calls for a Christian nation. Oh, most importantly of all, insist that 700 billion in tax breaks for the filthy rich really doesn’t matter to the economy, doesn’t have to be paid for, and is absolutely necessary, whereas extending unemployment benefits is too expensive. Now it is doubtless true that not all Republicans believe all of these things, but it is equally true that many do believe many of them, and it is similarly true that in many cases, even though the Republican Party knows something is nonsensical they still support it (as in the case of the candidacy of Christine O’Donnell, for example). They decided immediately upon Obama’s election they would be the party of “no,” and have stuck religiously to that pledge, thus effectively keeping anything constructive from happening. Now, once again, they are threatening to shut the government down completely. Is this not an attempt to seep, under, around and over the dismal reality they themselves created? For this they expect to be rewarded by being returned to power?

I can think of no other explanation for this behavior than as a form of collective insanity. There are two possibilities here, (1) either they believe in this ridiculous nonsense, in which case they are literally insane, or (2) they know it is mostly all bullshit, in which case they are a treasonous bunch of bastards that think more of their own interests and party than our country. Take your pick.

Furkan Dogan

Montana man gets two weeks
jail time every Christmas for five years,
“to keep him out of trouble.”

You may or may not have heard that Israeli commandos brutally slaughtered a helpless American citizen during the attempt that was made by Turkish ships to stop the blockade of Gaza. Furkan Dogan, a 19 year-old American citizen of Turkish descent was shot at least twice in the head from close range as he was lying helpless on the deck. Why is this not reported with outrage on the part of the U.S.? Why, because it was done by Israelis, our best buddies in the Middle East, buddies that have killed American previously and spied on us for years. It seems there is nothing Israelis can do, no matter how unbelievably awful or horrifying, that the U.S. refuses to accept. As far as peace between Israel and the Palestinians goes, forget about it. Palestinians have said they will not continue negotiations unless Israel freezes the settlements. Israel has refused. What more do you need to know? The Palestinians may decide to continue anyway, as they obviously have no choice if they are serious about wanting peace, but it is perfectly clear the Israelis do not want peace, do not want a Palestinian state, and, indeed, according to the PM “There will never be peace until the Palestinians are expelled.” Now that is a real framework for a serious peace! What if the Palestinians say there will never be peace as long as Israel exists? No, that would be grounds for further genocide. I have to say it again, I do not believe the Israelis are serious about making peace, I do not believe they want to give up even an inch of the land or a gallon of water they have already stolen from the Palestinians, I do not believe they are negotiating in good faith, and, as the U.S. is so clearly on their side, and they have such overwhelming superiority and command of the situation because of our one-sided commitment, there will never be peace. The U.S. could change this, but of course we won’t, and things will muddle on until some future date when perhaps a miracle will occur.

The hypocrisy of the United States is so obvious, so blatant, so excruciatingly awful, it might well be considered the eighth wonder of the world. Eight Iranians are now being put on a blacklist (I guess some kind of financial blacklist) because they engaged in torture and other illegalities during the recent upheavals in Iran. Those Iranians! How awful! They tortured people and did other bad things! They must be punished! But not so for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the rest of our own torturers and war criminals. They just blissfully live out their wealthy comfortable lives with apparently no fear of being held to even minimal standards of accountability. I must have some serious misunderstanding of American law and the Constitution because I thought war criminals must be held accountable. I guess that means only non-American war criminals.

Back to Christine O’Donnell and the Republicans for a moment: not only has Ms. Airhead claimed masturbation is a form of adultery, that evolution is a myth, that mice have been created with fully functioning human brains, and she is guilty of the criminal use of her campaign funds, it now turns out she has lied about her education. These are facts. There is also a rumor (I think it may be just a rumor) that she was once caught cheating in school. A real winner, this O’Donnell, who remains an official candidate of the Republican Party that is supporting her in spite of her obvious, shall we way, shortcomings.. Just imagine the important contributions she could make to our Senate, already choked with enough morons to keep anything positive from ever happening (at least as long as we have a Black Democratic President threatening to take away their license to steal). Having now voted against the middle class at every opportunity, voted against extending unemployment benefits, against a plan to keep jobs in America, having announced they will try to repeal the recent health care provisions, as well as privatizing Social Security, VA Hospitals, and most everything else, and having voted “no” for anything proposed by President Obama (even things they once proposed themselves), plus having brought about the worst recession since the 1930’s, and having no articulate plan of their own for the future, they believe they should be returned to power. You know what is truly “sick” about this? They could possibly win.

LKBIQ:
The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.
H. L. Mencken

TILT:
The closest relative to the giraffe is the okapi.

Democracy Run Amok

UK site for new homes rejected
for fears that cats would
eat dormice in nearby woods.

If you are paying attention at all you will know that in Delaware the Republican candidate for the Senate is a person who says masturbation is adultery, evolution is a myth, scientists are producing mice with fully functioning human brains, she once dabbled in witchcraft, and God created the universe and everything in it in six days. This is a woman who has apparently never held a permanent job, has never been elected to any significant office, has apparently spent most of her life trying to get on camera, and has no qualifications whatsoever to become a United States Senator. She is, in fact, little more than a bad joke, even less qualified for any office than Palin is qualified for the Presidency. It would, I believe, be an incredible waste of time to even bothering questioning her about her beliefs although it might be fun. For example, one might ask her if unmarried individuals masturbate are they committing adultery or only married people? Similarly, she claimed at age 31 she was still chaste. Is she still chaste at 41? Or you might ask her to produce some evidence that evolution is a myth, or that mice have human brains, and so on. But I digress.

Consider there is a similarly ignorant candidate for the Senate in Nevada, another one in Alaska, still another in Colorado, and still others. Granted that Congressional positions are probably the only jobs for which no qualifications are required, this does seem to me irresponsible. I like to think that Congressional offices should be held by qualified individuals who have at least some history of accomplishment, some relevant experience, at least some appreciation of the importance of the offices they are seeking. Apparently nowadays this is not necessary, anyone, no matter how bizarre their beliefs, how limited their experience, how ignorant they may be, can manage to become candidates for important public offices. This is bad enough to begin with, but consider that most of these so-called “Tea party” candidates are now officially accepted and supported by the Republican Party. As these strange Tea Party people seem to be taking over the Republican Party I guess they have little choice but to endorse them (any old port in a storm) but I believe to put forward and support such candidates is absolutely unconscionable and even subversive. The position of Senator would seem to be one of the single most important positions in government, indeed, in the entire world. Senators have enormous power to influence not only U.S. policy but also International affairs. To fill such positions of power and influence with a number of know-nothing nobodies seems to me to be completely irresponsible, in fact, foolish beyond belief.

Of course we know by now that there has become a complete separation of office holders in the U.S. from the people they are supposed to represent. One might conclude that as this is true it probably doesn’t matter much who holds office as they will merely do the bidding of the corporate masters that actually control things (including our so-called and pretend democracy). But this is not supposed to be the way democracy works. This indicates to me an abdication of responsibility on the part of government. Elected officials should be responsible to the voters (citizens) who elect them, but they no longer are. I suggest what makes this far worse than it might otherwise be is the fact that we pretend to be “the leader of the free world,” the world’s policemen, the beacon on the hill, the greatest country on earth, and so on. If this is what we profess to believe does that not indicate a sense of responsibility for the rest of the world? Does power now come with no responsibility? What do you think other nations must think when we elect our most powerful officials from the ranks of ignorant know-nothings. Does anyone seriously believe that Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell, Sharon Angle, and others of that ilk should be in charge of the domestic and international affairs of the U.S.? If so I fear they are as demented as the candidates themselves. These particular candidates are apparently too ignorant to even understand they are too ignorant to even presume to seek high office. Most of the world found it impossible to believe we were stupid enough to elect George W. Bush, what must they be thinking now? We are acting like a bunch of adolescents, which we are when compared with other nations, and our irresponsibility when it comes to our supposed position in the world seems remarkably like the ordinary adolescent irresponsibility of childhood. Is it any wonder we are falling behind so rapidly, becoming a third world nation? I guess you could argue that it is not democracy that has run amok, but the corporations and the wealthy that have subverted it, but that would not have happened had our democracy not allowed this to happen in the first place.

LKBIQ:
We've gotten to the point where everybody's got a right and nobody's got a responsibility.
Newton Minow

TILT:
Bedbugs are capable of feeding unnoticed by their hosts.

A Somewhat Different World

Samoan Ministers claim
climate change in Samoa
is caused by homosexuals.

Well, I have returned from three of the most pleasant days I have had in a long time. I deliberately avoided watching any news whatsoever. I cannot tell you how pleasant it was to be completely free of hate, greed, lying, hypocrisy, infotainment, and just plain stupidity and ignorance, if even for a short time. As I have no idea of what went on in the last three days (although I am certain it was just more of the same) I have nothing to comment. Let me instead tell you about our journey to a different world.

We went to Seattle ostensibly to take in the annual Seattle Library Book sale. For reasons I will not bother to explain we missed the Friday night part where the best books are found. But we did attend on Saturday, when the public is allowed in free, and we did actually still accumulate books for Arabella Books (our online book business). What truly impressed me, however, were the hundreds of people who were there buying books. I assume that people who took the trouble to be there to buy books (many of them with their children in tow) must also be those interested in reading. I have been told that perhaps fewer than 10% of the American population are still serious readers so I was impressed by the turnout and encouraged for the future of reading (at least for another generation).

But books aside, a trip to Seattle, for those of us in the hinterlands, is an experience worth having, if only once or twice a year. It is like being in another world entirely. I lived in Seattle for several years, but that was back in the 1950’s and 60’s, and I assure you it is not the same as it was then. Even though Seattle was a fairly large city in the 1950’s it still had a kind of small town ambience that was quite pleasant. You could still get around easily and it only took a few minutes to be out of the city and in the country. Now, however, with the new freeway system, the large increase in population, the increased traffic, and so on, the ambience has changed dramatically.

Seattle is now crowded, much more than it was. I wanted to take a walk from our hotel to the Pike Place Market, approximately 10 to 12 blocks. It was quite an experience. First, as I looked ahead there were so many people in what appeared to be a crowd I thought there must be some special event going on, a political rally or something like that. But when I reached the spot it was nothing but ordinary pedestrian traffic, hundreds, if not thousands of people, crowded cheek to jowl, ventral to ventral, ventral to dorsal, shoulder to shoulder, back to back, face to face, so tightly crowed together you could barely walk (it was an unusually beautiful sunny day). We walked as a huge wave towards the market, which was so unbelievably crowded you were hard-pressed even to purchase anything (although my wife somehow managed to buy some lovely chanterelle mushrooms, my favorite of the mushroom family). If you wish to visit downtown Seattle these days it is best to go on foot as parking is virtually impossible and, if found at all, so expensive as to be virtually prohibitive.

Also of interest to me, coming from Hicksville, on my walk I passed at least two individuals talking to themselves, or possibly the nearest wall, there were street musicians of various kinds, one playing a set of miniature trap drums, another some strange Asian instrument, still others rapping and playing horns or singing. The Hare Krishnas were there, chanting and playing their little cymbals and beating drums, and beggars just shaking cups asking for change. Particularly depressing, I thought were two or three big, healthy, Black men with shoe-shine kits trying to make a few dollars. I was also astonished to find that English now sounds almost like a foreign language, what with such a huge variety of Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thais, as well as Middle Easterners of all kinds, and a large mix of Europeans. I am not at all opposed to immigrants or ethnics but I confess to being surprised by their overwhelming presence.

As the Pike Place Market, now world famous and always crowded, was impossible to enjoy, I waited to go to Uwa Jimaya, a wonderful Asian market not far from Pike Street. I like it even better than Pike Place as it has everything you could possibly imagine in the way of food, and many of things you would never find in Pike Place (and quite likely anywhere else). Like the Pike Place it has all kinds of fresh seafood, and a large assortment of unusual frozen fish not available elsewhere (even Pike Place). It also features, in addition to the usual meats you would find most anywhere, such delicacies as pig’s tails, ears, tongues, snouts, pig and calves’ feet, duck gizzards, goat meat, and even milkfish bellies. I love it. I had my heart set on buying some fresh sea bass, that they often have, but, alas, not this time. You can find fresh red snapper, oysters, clams, octopus, squid, of course salmon, sablefish (aka black cod), and more. I settled for some lovely fresh Puget Sound Mussels that I kept on ice until we returned home, whereupon I cooked them in something I can only describe as “Morialekafa’s Everything but the Kitchen Sink Mussels.” They were delicious. I truly miss the seafood in Seattle and Santa Monica, but I don’t miss the crowds, the noise, the traffic, the hustle and bustle of the city, and the seemingly never ending sirens. Here where we live, if you happen to wake in the night you might hear a romantic freight train whistle way off in the distance, just enough to remind you there is a world out there somewhere.

LKBIQ:

The world is so constructed, that if you wish to enjoy its pleasures, you must also endure its pains. Whether you like it or not, you cannot have one without the other.

Swami Brahnmananda

TILT:

Only one species of dormouse is native to Britain.

What's a Guy to Do?

Yoshifumi Takabe, 30, still living
with mother, burns down house
when she throws out his toys.

Note: Morialekafa is going away for three days to fraternize “Among the Gently Mad” (Nicholas A. Basbanes, Henry Holt and Co., 2002). That is, we’re going to the annual Seattle Library Book Sale, a two day event that requires a bit of effort and probably won’t be conducive to blogging until Sunday or Monday. In the meanwhile, at least try to be of good cheer, not so easy these days.

So what is a guy to do? Take the case of our current President, Barack Obama. Here is a White/Black man who is considered Black (black blood is so much more powerful than white blood that even a single drop converts a White man into Black, but excuse the digression). Where was I, oh, yeah, a Black/White man who is said to be, depending upon the speaker, or particular point of view, a Black socialist, fascist, communist, foreign-born, Atheist, Muslim, American, Christian, citizen, who secretly hates Whites, favors big banks and corporations, hasn’t done enough for Blacks, wants to take away everyone’s guns and give them universal health care, is an anti-war warmonger, a constitutional scholar who doesn’t understand the constitution, a pro-Gay rights believer who is opposed to Gay marriage, a non-partisan partisan, a terrorist appeasing wimp who has escalated our “wars,” and who, by way of some sophisticated confidence scheme, apparently hatched when he was born in Hawaii, and who we know very little about, inappropriately, illegally, and unconstitutionally became President of the United States. Ignore for the moment the fact that most of those who are so describing him have absolutely no idea what the hell they are talking about, it seems to me you have to admit these disparate views of him make it hard for him to govern. His supposed failure also seems to have something to do with the fact that he has not proven to be from the planet Krypton, has not walked on water, cannot leap tall buildings at a single bound, and is completely unable to work miracles. I suspect, however, it has much more to do with the Republican obsession with destroying him and blocking everything he has tried to do, along with the mostly unstated but underlying unpleasant racist attitude against him simply because he is Black.

Although there are policies Obama is continuing that I am passionately opposed to, such as the “war” in Afghanistan, his support for Israel and nuclear power, his failure to close Gitmo, and the continued use of rendition and torture (if, indeed, it is continuing), and most of all his failure to investigate Bush/Cheney war crimes, I still have to support him if for no other reason than because the alternative is completely unacceptable and even unthinkable. Of course there is a serious problem in our country now when it comes to believing anything at all, the Bush/Cheney administration made pathological incessant lying into such a normal part of government all credibility has been called into question. I know with some confidence that the Afghan “war” is continuing, and I’m reasonably certain that Obama will do nothing about the Bush/Cheney war crimes, but whether Obama is still allowing torture or not, or how strongly he supports Israel and nuclear energy I do not really know. Mostly I seem to go on living on hope, hope that under no circumstances will I ever see Sarah Palin or Christine O’Donnell or other Tea Partyers ever attain positions of power or influence, hope that Newt Gingrich will no longer be featured on the “news,” hope we might someday experience real news again, hope that we will avoid any terrorist attacks, further “wars,” and so on. You know, “the audacity of hope.”

LKBIQ:
“For books are more than just books. They are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives.”
Amy Lowell

TILT:
Bi Sheng, a Chinese inventor, created moveable type of earthenware circa 1045.

In Defense of Airheads

British Ferry Captain hires foreign
workers because British workers
are “quite fat and covered with tattoos.”

What does it take nowadays to be unqualified for public office? Let us take the case of Christine O’Donnell for an example. Here is a woman who has apparently never had a permanent job, has made her career (such as it is) promoting abstinence and anti-abortion nonsense, along with other rather extreme far right issues. She claims to have “dabbled in witchcraft,” an issue dismissed by many with the disclaimer, “she was only in High School and kids in High School do lots of stupid thing” (personally I find this kind of reasonable). However, she also has said that masturbation is the equivalent of adultery, a claim I find not only extreme but rather absurd. She has said she has now “matured,” but as far as I know no one has asked her if she now thinks masturbation is okay. Apparently her statement that she has matured is sufficient to dismiss this rather absurd claim. She has also said that scientists have cross-bred or otherwise modified monkeys so they have fully human brains, a claim so hare-brained one wonders if she actually has one. But no less a critic than Bill Maher has suggested, “she must have read the report wrong.” He likes her but of course does not want to see her in the Senate. O’Donnell has also claimed she would never lie, even to protect Anne Frank from the Nazis, as God would intervene to do something or other to resolve this dilemma (as far as I know this has left everyone so speechless no one has pursued it). She now stands accused of illegally using campaign funds for her own personal needs, such as paying her rent, buying gasoline, and etc. Naturally she denies any wrongdoing but I’m pretty sure there is genuine evidence to prove otherwise. In short, this woman is a certified “Airhead,” with no qualifications for office whatsoever. But no doubt some will keep making excuses for her, and this is not keeping her from continuing and, what is worse, being supported by the Republican Party. Someone once observed that running for Congress was the one job that required no qualifications whatsoever. He/she was right.

It is one thing to try to defend an Airhead like O’Donnell, but quite another to defend many of them already in the Congress. Today the Senate filibustered the entire Defense Bill for no reason other than to postpone the inevitable acceptance of doing away with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a useless and failed policy that began under the Clinton Administration. Everyone knows, including those who voted to filibuster, this is inevitably going to pass. There is no good reason for this particular filibuster. Their arguments for it were pathetic. The military needs more time to study it is absolute nonsense. They need time to implement it, equally nonsensical. What are they going to do, build separate showers, toilets, and living quarters? The issue has been studied to death. Every major military in the world already allows Gays to serve actively in their respective services. Gays have served since time immemorial in the U.S. forces, many of them highly decorated and highly acclaimed by their peers. This was a shameful performance, and no one was more shameful than John McCain who insisted, in spite of the facts, that searching for Gays in the military was not a policy. One could argue that McCain was right in the sense that this was not a formal policy in the military, but demonstrably has been “the policy,” and McCain has been personally informed of this. I attribute his resistance either to stubbornness or senility. No defense bill like this has ever before been filibustered. Republicans now are so obsessed with destroying Obama they are willing to sacrifice the military and even the nation. In spite of Obama’s election, large numbers of American are not comfortable with a Black President and determined to see him fail. Their racism drips like pus from a gangrenous sore in spite of their euphemisms and not so artful dodges. I said from the beginning that Obama’s election would represent the “fifth great blow to the Western-European ego,” an attack on the most basic paradigm of Western-European thought, and so it is proving to be.

A large Democratic voter turnout could put an end to this ultra-right wing idiocy for a long time. But as Obama has not proven his ability to walk on water or otherwise work miracles it might not come about. This is called ,I believe, “cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

On Tom Dispatch.com today, as featured on Buzzflash, is an article that predicts the end of the American empire, and, by implication, of the American dream. Similarly, one young man was also heard today asking President Obama if the American dream was over for him. There appears to be a strong notion on the part of many Americans that it is. With the end of our empire, the end of the American dream, will come an inevitable decline in our standard of living. Tom Dispatch suggest this is not all bad, as our troops will come home, we will pay more attention to our crumbling infrastructure, education, and so on. The American century, so-called, is coming to an end, and with it the American dream. It also means an end to our traditional way of life, based as it has been, on exploiting the earth’s resources shamefully and exploiting other countries for their resources. I guess we might sum this up as “Stealing less but enjoying it more.”

LKBIQ:
The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
Sir Winston Churchill
TILT:
There are at least 372 species of parrots.

Machinery of Life

The Machinery of Life

An interesting aspect of culture (in the anthropological sense, that is), is the fact that we are so largely unconscious of it and seldom reflect long or deeply upon what we are doing. We live our day-to-day lives pretty much oblivious of what we are doing and what it might be doing to us. Consider, if you will, the machinery that regulates our lives from morning to night, and think of our awesome dependence upon that machinery.

Although I doubt that any statistics exist to bear me out, I’m personally convinced that the machine that starts our day, the alarm clock, must surely shorten the lives of those unfortunate enough to have to depend on it for any ext ended period of time. What a shock to the system, that awful din that startles one from a blissful sleep into anxious activity, anticipating assignments, assignations, and other assorted events, often with artful anonymous dodgers one is unlikely to ever see again. This first traumatic event simply begins a series of encounters between men and machines not only unprecedented in human affairs, but also downright mind-boggling (as we say these days).

Next, depending upon your personal habits, comes the electric toothbrush and razor (although all toothbrushes and razors, no matter how simple, are machines of sorts), followed by the shower (also a mechanical gadget). I am ignoring light switches as there are far too many of them to worry about (but if they don’t work you have to pay attention to them). After your ablutions you are faced with the refrigerator, toaster, stove, perhaps an electric can opener and juicer. And, of course, while you are consuming your breakfast you are most probably either listening to the radio or watching TV to catch the latest news.

Outside the home one is still totally at the mercy of these creations of human ingenuity, these mute and not so mute machines that guide and control our almost every movement. The garage door opener, without which one would (ugh) be forced to manually operate. And of course, next comes that most marvelous machine of all Los Angelenos, and, indeed, most of the civilized world by now, the automobile. You had better hope it starts and doesn’t have a flat or some other ailment. Wonderful invention that it is, it appears to offer us greater independence than ever before – and perhaps it does, but not when it exists in proximity to the machines that regulate it, those tall three-eyed sentinels that stand strategically at every corner or hang from above to tell you and your automobile, as well as pedestrians, just what is what. Heaven forbid that you should let your poor human judgment allow you to violate their better judgment – big brother will be watching on his or her faster and better equipped machine.

If, as is usual, you successfully negotiate these benevolent artificial watchdogs, you may well confront still another example of the genre that will allow you to park, but only after extorting some form of payment either on the spot or later. But assuming that the code on your plastic parking card is correct, and further assuming the machinery that raises and lowers the barrier up and down is not malfunctioning, you arrive at last at your place of business. Not quite, of course, there is still the elevator. Elevators, at least some of them of my acquaintance, appear to have independent minds. They come and go as they wish, not as I always like them to do. But not to worry, one typically does get to the office (I have decided to omit locks and keys as well as light switches, this is not meant to denigrate their importance, lest I offend one or another of them and it refuses to cooperate with me anymore).

There is probably no place in the ”modern world” where one is more at the mercy of machines than at the office. From the water cooler and the coffee maker right through the telephone and the computer your life is either well-organized and efficient or so disrupted as to leave you either apoplectic or speechless, to say nothing of helpless. Can there be any more frustrating phrase than “the computers are down again?” This is particularly maddening in banks. I have skipped over a whole host of “middle range” or semi-archaic items such as filing cabinets (do the drawers on your always work) desks, typewriters (remember them), cardex files, and even the more mundane necessities such as toilets, sinks, towel dispensers and the like, life can become pretty miserable when they don’t cooperate.

Then at last, when the clock on the wall or the watch on your wrist, or a bell or whistle, tells you it is time to leave you start going through the whole process in reverse (with perhaps a short relaxing stop for a double scotch or martini). The final ironic act being – you guessed it -- having to set the friendly little round face of that very machine that started you on your day. Who says we are not creatures of free-will and determination, rugged individualists?

Note: I wrote this when I still lived in Los Angeles. I am happy to report that things here in North Idaho are somewhat better, but even though we are born free we remain everywhere in chains. A few years ago we acquired our first stoplight. Sigh!

The Prohibition Hangover - book

The Prohibition Hangover Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet, by Garrett Peck (Rutgers University Press, 2009)


This is a truly interesting and worthwhile book for someone with an interest in the topic of alcohol in America, but for me, as a casual reader, it offers much more in the way of detail than I could easily assimilate. It certainly does trace the history of drinking in America from the beginning to the contemporary scene.

The major thrust of this work has to do with our continued ambivalence about alcohol and its effects. Even though Prohibition occurred and failed, as a society we have still not completely resolved this ambivalence, there are still groups of various kinds that attempt to regulate or prohibit alcohol use even though it is now well established as a normal behavior pattern for at least two-thirds of our population. This can be seen, for example, in the national stipulation that one must be twenty-one years of age to drink (a ruling brought about by pressure from several different temperance groups) even though you can be called upon as cannon fodder at eighteen.

The author reviews the different styles of drinking over time, the types of alcohol consumed, and brief histories of the development of whiskey, the beer and wine industries, the creation of cocktails, the changes in fashion from one type of drink to another at various times, and links these patterns to larger events of the time, immigration, the depression, and so on. It is all quite fascinating but not exactly what nowadays would be described as a quick “read” (I despise this current practice of converting verbs to nouns).

In colonial times the favorite drinks were rum and (hard) apple cider. After the revolution, Congress levied heavy taxes on imported molasses, the result being a switch to cheaper locally made whiskey made from corn. Cheap corn whiskey led the nation on a drinking binge that resulted in Prohibition for a time. Beer was of little importance at all until the great German immigrations of the 1840’s and the end of Prohibition. Although wine had been made early by people like George Washington, it only became of real importance with the immigration of Italians that began arriving in the 1880’s. It was not until the relative affluence of the 1950’s that distilled spirits and cocktails became fashionable.

Peck discusses all of these trends in some detail, including the processes involved in the making of these various alcoholic beverages. He explains the differences between different types of beer, bourbon, scotch, Irish, and other forms of whiskey, different wine varietals, and cites more mixed drinks and cocktails than you might have imagined existed. It is a pretty thorough and thoughtful job.

He also compares the positions of the three largest religious groups on the question of alcohol use: the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the United Methodist Church. I did not realize that wine was so fundamental to communion that it was allowed even during Prohibition, whereas some other faiths quickly substituted grape juice (that was more or less invented for just that purpose).There is also some discussion of the health effects of drinking, as well as the numerous groups who still advocate, if not outright Prohibition, at least certain restrictions on drinking. These people have been termed neoprohibitionists or even neo-puritans, and have gained strength since the 1980’s mostly as proponents against the social costs of alcohol. MADD is perhaps one of the best examples of this approach as they have never opposed drinking as such, but only that people should not drink and drive.

Probably the most interesting part of this book, for me at least, is the author’s discussion of teen-age drinking and the problem with the twenty-one year old legal age restriction. It seems quite clear that trying to keep teens from drinking is no more successful than Prohibition was, and perhaps is even less successful, as it seems to have become part of ordinary teen-age rebellion and leads to binge drinking and other forms of alcohol abuse. In countries like France and Italy where wine drinking is part of growing up and children are taught to drink, when and how, this is not such a problem.

In any case, Peck’s review of drinking laws in different states, the control of alcohol, hours of operation, locations where one can purchase alcohol, how alcohol can be transported, how it can be served, the various attitudes toward it on the part of different groups, and so on make it clear that the elimination of Prohibition has not settled our problems with this ancient, virtually ubiquitous beverage.

Fear (and Loathing)

When teased about
smelly feet, she stabs
teaser in the back.

I am not one of those who has been driven by (false) fears into believing that Iraq was a threat, Iran is a threat, or Muslims are about to take over the world, nor I have worried needlessly about “Death Panels,” the threat of Gay marriage, or (gasp) the horrors of socialism. I have not been fearful of terrorists either, assuming I would have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than being harmed by a terrorist. Neither am I afraid we are being led by an anti-colonial Luo tribesman who is also a secret Muslim fascist, socialist, communist, creature from outer space. Until now I believe I have not been fearful at all.

Now, for the first time, I am beginning to experience real genuine palpable fear. This is a result of the recently concluded primary season where so many so-called Tea Party candidates won nominations. I find this shocking and fearful for a variety of reasons, the main one being my belief that most of these candidates are either religious lunatics or persons so incredibly ignorant and full of hate they might do anything to further their delusions of grandeur. Just who, for example, is Sarah Palin to presume to perhaps run for the Presidency of our nation? She was already found completely inappropriate as a Vice-Presidential candidate, too incompetent to ever be President, has demonstrated no particular growth since then, and just keeps on babbling about things she knows virtually nothing about: economics, foreign policy, health care, science, and so on. She has no qualifications for the Presidency and yet she has managed to gather a rather large following and has influence with many people. Now we have a sort of clone in Christine O’Donnell, a woman even less qualified for office than Palin, whose views are so extreme even Karl Rove described her as loony (but apparently not loony enough to keep the Republicans from supporting her). Each of these recent Tea Party winners has one or more beliefs and/or intentions that are diametrically opposed to the best interest of our citizens and our nation, and often at odds with even common sense or reason.

My fear, then, is that these holier-than-thou, racist, know-nothing, religious, backward-looking freaks may actually win and thus be able to influence the direction of our country. I cannot conceive of a worse future. We have enough of these morons in Congress already. It is not only their particular beliefs, which I believe are completely misguided, that bother me, nor is it that they individually exist, it is the fact they do not exist in a vacuum that is so terrifying. They have followers, ignorant people like themselves who apparently hold similar views and support and make their candidacies possible. That is what is so frightening (and almost impossible for me to believe). What this indicates to me is that here in the United States, supposedly the greatest and most powerful country on earth, a country that is not shy about boasting about its superiority, and tries to export it at the point of a gun to others, has such large number of people who are appallingly ignorant and who take pride in their ignorance. This is, after all, the 21st century. Anyone who believes in creationism, the literal truth of the Christian bible, the earth is only 6000 years old, dinosaurs and humans existed contemporaneously, Blacks or browns or others are inherently inferior to whites, Muslims are about to take over our country and should not be allowed to enter our hallowed ground, who refuse to accept scientific evidence about the state of the world, and so on, are simply not fit to hold important public offices. These are people who want to have leaders who are just as misinformed and ignorant as they are, someone they can have a beer with, that, in short, value ignorance over knowledge. This is not a formula for the modern world or for good government. If these people should become a majority and take over our country we will inexorably be led to disaster if not worse. I am for the first time seriously fearful for the future. I don’t know why, I am much too old to be concerned about the future. I don’t even buy green bananas.

LKBIQ:
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.

Ernest Benn

TILT:
New World coral snakes possess the most powerful venom of all New World snakes.

It's Not the End...

Drunken Florida husband
threatens suicide, wife gives
him a gun and he does it.

Well, you can’t see the end of the world from here, but you can certainly predict it. If Democrats (however chaotic, misguided, and wrong-headed about many things) do not get serious about the coming elections, it appears we will be on the way to the end. And I fear we may have reached that tipping point where American voters have become so uninformed, lazy, and ignorant they may just stand by idly and let the new Republican Party win. It is not too hard to imagine what will happen over time if we allow the most ignorant, hateful, greedy, racist elements of our society to take over. With the Tea Party calling the shots we would most likely be doomed.

First of all, they deny global warming, probably the greatest threat to life on the planet ever. They are unwilling to follow the advice of the huge preponderance of scientists who are warning us daily about the consequences of global warming and the urgency to do something about it. It is difficult to imagine stupidity greater than this. Then there is the issue of tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy. A decision to allow these to continue is, as Bernie Sanders has said, the dumbest thing we could do. They will also rescind the health care legislation putting millions more Americans with no health care unless they are wealthy. They would quite likely attempt to do away with the Department of Education. This might not matter too much except that it represents their attitude towards education in general (it is in the best interests of corporate America and the Republicans to keep us as dumb as possible). They would almost surely try to do away with Roe vs Wade, thus driving millions of women into the alleys once again with coat hangers and such. The separation of church and state, as designed by our constitution, would fall by the wayside, creationism would replace evolution in our biology and other classes, turning the clock back at least to the early 19th century. Huge numbers of immigrants would be deported, Muslims would probably be denied entrance into the U.S. and mosques would disappear (no doubt along with every other religious institution outside of Christianity, preferably fundamental Christianity. Hundreds of thousands of otherwise decent hard-working Americans would continue to languish in prison because of minor marijuana violations. There would certainly be no Gay marriages and, indeed, there would be renewed useless attempts to “cure” homosexuality. Stem cell research would not doubt cease. We would continue our insane pursuit of endless “wars,” attempting to impose our way of life on the rest of the world, while at the same time greedily stealing their resources to maintain our self-elevated position at the top of creation. Banks and Insurance companies, along with the Health Industries would continue to rip us off shamelessly, more things would become privatized (water?) and so on. Perhaps not so likely, but not necessarily beyond the pale for these people, masturbation would be made illegal and the Missionary position would become mandatory. Birth control devices would not be allowed and abstinence only would be the only sex education permitted. Abortion would not be permitted even in cases of rape or incest. Think what a glorious world it would be if all these Tea Party beliefs would come to pass.

While it is true that not all of these things would necessarily be realized, many of them doubtless would. But what the bottom line here is, the most ignorant elements of our culture would be empowered to take over our country. If this happens we will be paying the price for our all-around neglect of the most important aspects of our lives, a neglect helped along by our materialistic, free-market, corporate and consumer-driven greed, by our unwillingness to spend any effort to educate ourselves and participate in our own democracy. All of our worst behaviors are now catching up with us and the price is going to be most unpleasant. It may not be too late to restore at least some semblance of common sense and sanity into our body politic. I wonder if Stewart and Colbert are up to the task, they seem to be the only ones much interested in the problem. The Republican Party has decided to support Christine O’Donnell, you can’t fall any lower than that.

LKBIQ:
Against logic there is no armor like ignorance.
Laurence J. Peter

TILT:
There are training schools for training pig-tailed macaques to harvest coconuts (which are not nuts).

"Winners"

Enraged when his wife fails
cook his eggs properly, Kentuckian
shoots five people and himself.

The winners sit and smile and tell jokes, the losers say, “Deal the goddamn cards.” The primary game is now over, the deck is being shuffled for the major events. A brief view of the big tea party winners is probably in order. Let’s start with one of the best, Rand Paul. He has already indicated that he thinks private businesses, like restaurants, for example, should be able to discriminate if they wish. He thinks the civil rights bill went too far. He has also said that child labor is probably okay because, “In poor families the children have to pitch in,” and also apparently tends to believe mine owners are often innocent because, “sometimes mines just collapse.” More importantly he believes that “concentrations of corporate power can’t get too great,” and “capitalism is freedom.” He wants to give tax breaks to the obscenely wealthy, and, although he is an ardent fiscal conservative, he admits he doesn’t know how to pay for it. In other words, like his father, he would turn the clock back quite a long way.

Joe Miller of Alaska seems to believe that unemployment benefits are unconstitutional and should not be allowed. He also wants to phase out Social Security and privatize it, as well as rescind the health care legislation. He is joined in this by Marco Rubio of Florida, said to be a “Tea Party darling,” who firmly believes in the institution of free enterprise (the free market economy that has recently failed). And, although from a Cuban immigrant family thinks that amnesty won’t work. I don’t know much about Mike Lee of Utah other than that he is supported by the National Rifle Association and is another Tea Party candidate. Ken Buck of the neighboring state of Colorado believes that Social Security is a “horrible policy,” abortion should be banned even in cases of rape or incest, the 14th amendment should be changed so that the children of illegal immigrants cannot be citizens, and there should be a closer relationship between church and state. Do not forget Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, wealthy, self-financed candidate who also wants to repeal the health care bill, privatize Social Security, and is ardently pro-life. These winners, with their modestly loony ideas pale into insignificance when contrasted with the completely loony Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell.

Angle of Nevada has said we should do away with the Department of Education (she’s a former teacher) and get out of the United Nations, and that’s just for starters. She, too, like all of the above, would phase out Social Security and Medicare. In addition, she believes there are “enemies” in our Congress, the press should only ask her questions she wants to answer, and has suggested that if Republicans can’t get their way through the ballot they should turn to their 2nd amendment solution (guns, that is). She thinks abortion should not be allowed, even in cases of rape or incest, because she’s a Christian and knows that God has plans for all things. She seems singularly over-obsessed with Harry Reid and has also said she is “For a government of my God, by my God, and for My God.” She is such a strong candidate she beat out a rival who suggested paying your doctor with chickens, and has probably insured a win against all odds by Harry Reid.

By far the most scintillating, dynamic, Tea Party candidate of all (at least at the moment) is Christine O’Donnell of Delaware (said now to be another Sarah Palin) who, in spite of little experience to speak of, upset a strong favorite Republican candidate with a long and proven track record of service for the people of Delaware. The MSM has gone absolutely bonkers over this exciting news. Perhaps O’Donnell’s greatest claim to fame is her anti-masturbation plank. She thinks masturbation is “adultery” and should not be engaged in (a peculiarly interesting philosophical idea probably far too sophisticated for the average mind to grasp). Of course she is against most everything else the above are against and in addition thinks women should not be allowed in military training (or I guess the military in general) as they will decrease the efficiency of our troops. I think the main reason we should think of supporting her is that she never lies, ever. She reported once that even if the Nazis came to her door and asked her if she was hiding a Jew, and even if she was hiding a Jew, she would not lie (like Angle, she believes God would somehow intervene with a solution). Now you have to admit that is a truly commendable virtue, but I believe she will soon have to abandon it entirely if she thinks she has a future in politics. But wait! There’s more. She believes there is more evidence for creationism than there is for evolution and that God created everything in six days. She thinks scientists are conducting cross-species experiments in which mice can develop human brains, condoms cause aids, and she that Bill Clinton might well have had something to do with the “murder” of Vince Foster. She is, indeed, a real winner. Republicans have announced they will support her.

Turning from the Senatorial scene for the moment, and last but not least to this new crop of Republican candidates, consider for a moment Carl Poladino, a filthy rich, filthy fellow trying to buy the office of New York Governor. He says he is angry and against big government (he made most of his fortune renting buildings to the government). Paladino is a blatant racist who sends out racist messages to his followers. He is also into hard-core pornography involving naked women and bestiality. He recently produced a picture of President Obama dressed as a pimp, accompanied by Michelle dressed as a prostitute. Real class, huh? He apparently believes that a majority of New Yorkers share these interests as he says he doesn’t want anyone who doesn’t watch similar stuff to vote for him. Oh well, I guess Governor of New York isn’t much of a position anyway.

So there they are, the big winners of Tuesday, and a truly fine lot they are. I’m sure that if they win they will join Senators DeMint and Inhofe to greatly improve our nation. Many think they can’t win in November. Not Jim DeMint(ed) who says they will. So let the game begin. Oh, I forgot to mention economics. Guess what, they are all for cutting taxes, especially for the richest people of all. They also all deny global warming.

LKBIQ:
When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
Mark Twain

TILT:
Southern wolves have brains 5 to 10% smaller than northern wolves.

Newt

North Dakota “free thinker” wearing
only thong, pasties, and whipped cream,
cited for indecent exposure in Walgreens.


Those of you who have been reading Morialekafa for some time may remember when I suggested we create a new word to describe the machinations of Karl Rove:

roviate v. to smear, slime, malign, denigrate, and attempt to destroy an opponent through the use of innuendo, rumor, slander, outright lies and any other despicable means available.

This is a word that has not caught on or been used much by others but I still think it is quite useful. I think we may well need another new word:

gingrich n. An utterly ridiculous statement or phrase uttered to make the speaker appear wise or intellectual.

Newt Gingrich is known for saying things that sometimes make sense and sometimes do not. Sometimes he seems to say something stupid mostly for the shock value. For example, when asked “what should we do about the homeless,” he answered, "Give the park police more ammo."

At other times he makes comments so outrageously wrong as to be just downright silly:

“The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument.”

Often he says things that are so obvious as to be not worth saying:

"National security really matters because if you lose the country everything else is gone."

Sometimes you can only wonder if he is actually serious:

“If the Soviet empire still existed, I'd be terrified. The fact is, we can afford a fairly ignorant presidency now.”

He is not adverse to coming out with bald-faced falsehoods and ridiculous inanities:

“All free people stand on Reagan's shoulders. His principled policies proved that free markets create wealth, that the rule of law sustains freedom, and that all people everywhere deserve the right to dream, to pursue their dreams, and to govern themselves.”

At times his pronouncements involve dubious religious claims:

“The U.S. was founded by a group of political leaders who signed a document which says, “We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.” That means that all of your political rights come from God and you then loan some of your power to the State which is why the Constitution begins, “We, the People of the United States.”

At times he can be downright mean, as when speaking of his first wife:

“She isn’t young enough or pretty enough to be the President’s wife.”

More often than not his statements are transparently political with no basis in fact whatsoever:

"The President of the United States, the most radical president in American history, has now thrown down the gauntlet to the American people," Gingrich said. "He has said 'I run a machine, I own Washington and there is nothing you can do about it.' Thats where we are."

In order to understand the nature of a true “gingrich” it is necessary to understand Newt’s grandiose idea of himself. For example:

“I think I am a transformational figure. I think I am trying to effect a change so large that the people who would be hurt by the change, the liberal machine, have a natural reaction…I think because I’m so systematically purposeful about changing our world…I’m a much tougher partisan than they’ve (the Democrats) seen…much more intense, much more persistent, much more willing to take risks to get it done.”

Perhaps this makes it more clear and obvious:

“I’m not a natural leader. I’m too intellectual; I’m too abstract; and I think too much.”

He also is reported to have said to one of his three wives, “It doesn’t matter what I do, it only matters what I say.”

Gingrich prides himself on being intellectual, and many in his party regard him as the party intellectual. This is a persona he works very hard at portraying, and he does it in part by relying on what I am calling “gingriches.” Consider the following two most recent examples:

I think he (Obama) worked very hard at being a person who is normal, reasonable, moderate, bipartisan, transparent, accommodating — none of which was true,” Gingrich continues. “In the Alinksy tradition, he was being the person he needed to be in order to achieve the position he needed to achieve . . . He was authentically dishonest.” It would be most interesting to see Gingrich try to defend this rather outrageous claim.

“What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?” Gingrich told the conservative web site National Review Online, responding to a column in Forbes by noted conservative writer Dinesh D’Souza.

Neither of these statements make any sense whatsoever, but they do give the impression that Gingrich knows something his less intellectual followers do not. Most of those who listen to Gingrich probably have no idea who Saul Alinsky was or what he did. Like Obama, Alinsky was a community organizer for the poor in Chicago and elsewhere. He was not dishonest, authentically or otherwise, but was, in fact perfectly honest about what he was doing. He, like Obama, was accused of being a socialist, but, like Obama, he was neither a socialist nor a communist. This does not keep Gingrich from trying to make an insidious comparison that is entirely false. Alinsky was regarded as an organizational genius, was very successful in organizing and helping the poor, and thus gained the hatred of Republicans who despised him (nothing makes Republicans hate you more than if you are trying to help the poor). There is no such thing as “the Alinsky tradition,” a concept made up entirely by Gingrich to give the impression to his followers that he is an intellectual with a profound knowledge of history. This is a classic “gingrich.”

The statement about “Kenyan anti-colonial behavior” is a better case in point as it has nothing whatsoever to do with anything other than his pretending to be a knowledgeable intellectual (although in this case it allows him to make a subtle suggestion that Obama may be a Kenyan). Gingrich apparently took his cue from Dinesh D’Souza, one of the most extreme ultra-rightists writing (how he gets published at all is a mystery to me) who thinks Obama received his “anti-colonial” world view from his father who was an anti-colonial. First of all, given the terrible atrocities the British inflicted on the Kenyans one would have to be an absolute sadist not to have been an anti-colonial. Indeed, most of the thinking world is now anti-colonial and there is nothing about this that sets Obama apart from most anyone else, and certainly nothing that makes him “incomprehensible.” But again, Gingrich knows his audience most probably knows nothing about the history of colonialism or about Kenya, and thus he can pretend to know something about history that his supporters do not, and impress them with his “sophisticated intellectualism.”

Newt Gingrich is not only the world’s greatest hypocrite, he is also one of the biggest frauds in existence (far worse even than Giuliani, that takes some real effort). As a professional phony he will do and say anything to further his own agenda. While he may know something of history it doesn't matter because he commonly distorts it shamefully. Why he appears so regularly on TV and is regarded as some kind of pundit I cannot explain, but then, I cannot explain Sarah Palin either.

LKBIQ:
I tried to resist his overtures, but he plied me with symphonies, quartettes, chamber music, and cantatas.
S.J. Perelman

TILT:
An adult dragonfly can propel itself in six directions: up, down, forward, backward, and side to side.